After seven critically acclaimed seasons, FX's The Shield (Tuesday, Nov. 25, 10 pm/ET) will finally close up "the Barn" for good with "Family Meeting," a blockbuster, 90-minute series finale that creator Shawn Ryan promises won't be in the ambiguous style of the Sopranos' fade to black. "The story makes sense," says Ryan. "Vic will pay a price -- some will think it's too high, and some will think it's too low." Read on to see how it could end...
Stella Wingfield, Lynette's deadbeat mom, lives to harass another day, it seems. Polly Bergen will reprise her guest-starring gig on Desperate Housewives for "at least two more episodes," sources close to the show tell TVGuide.com. What brings her back? Read on to find out...
Joining NBC's successful Thursday-night comedy block isn't easy for any new show, but Kath & Kim (8:30 pm/ET) has had a particularly tough go at it in a year when all of NBC's comedies (including 30 Rock, The Office and My Name Is Earl) have posted decreased ratings. But with a full-season vote of confidence from the network, Kath & Kim is forging ahead with, among other storylines, wedding plans. Join us for a little girl talk with executive producer Michelle Nader and stars Molly Shannon and Selma Blair, who tell us how they interpreted the Australian original, their own celebrity crushes and what it takes to be considered a "good eater" on camera.
It's a big week for Fred Willard. Not only does he play a central role in Wednesday's episode of Pushing Daisies (8 pm/ET, ABC), he also popped by CBS' Worst Week on Monday to play Sam's dad, and he'll appear on Larry the Cable Guy's Star-Studded Christmas Extravaganza Friday night (9 pm/ET, CMT).
Kath & Kim & Maya? On the heels of her well-received turn as a lounge-singing Michelle Obama on Saturday Night Live ("Solid... solid as Barack!"), Maya Rudolph will guest-star on an upcoming episode of the NBC sitcom Kath & Kim, alongside fellow SNL alum Molly Shannon, according to executive producer Michelle Nader. Rudolph plays a spiritual guide who helps Phil (John Michael Higgins) lose weight, and then becomes a bit of a "girl crush" to Shannon's Kath. See which big-name diva may be hanging with the ladies after the jump...
NBC announced Thursday that Pamela Anderson will make a cameo appearance as herself on an upcoming episode of Kath & Kim. Who better to personify the celebrity culture in which the show's mother-and-daughter protagonists so actively participate? More Pam after the jump...
In last season's finale of The Office (Thursdays, 9 pm/ET, NBC), not only did Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey) accept a marriage proposal from dimbulb rageoholic Andy Bernard (Ed Helms), she also got caught in flagrante delicto with Dwight by Phyllis. This season, with Angela and Andy's wedding plans under way (see their hilarious wedding website here), Angela's passions remain divided. Will she make it to the altar, and who will be at her side? Kinsey and Helms talked to us about all the wedding and pregnancy rumors, how fun it is to have a meltdown on TV and how the wrapping-paper section of Kinsey's closet helps her get into character.
Thursday marks the return of Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards) to ER (10 pm/ET, NBC), which raises at least one tricky question. Like: Didn't that character die? Don't worry, Greene isn't returning spectrally to haunt his former workplace. Rather, the episode is a flashback to approximately six years ago, when Angela Bassett's Dr. Cate Banfield, County General's current chief resident, first came to the ER — as the mother of one of Dr. Greene's patients. For Edwards, not only did he agree with the producers' creative vision for Greene's return during ER's 15th and final season, it gave him an opportunity to spotlight his philanthropy with Shoe4Africa, a nonprofit organization that uses sports, specifically sneakers, to promote health and disease prevention in Africa. Edwards took some time to talk to us about donning Greene's scrubs again, reuniting with his former castmates and whether he sees another TV series in his future.
Fringe returned Tuesday with an all-new episode, and guess what? We still have a lot of burning questions about Olivia & Co. So we got on the phone with executive producer Jeff Pinkner, who gave us answers that were at times illuminating, frustrating, humorous and, of course, confusing. In the second of two parts (see the first part here), Pinkner holds forth on Peter Bishop's parentage, Walter's reliability and the real Massive Dynamic.
In his first television appearance since conceding the election to President-elect Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain spent Veteran's Day with Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, alternating in tone between his characteristic, self-deprecating one-liners and a more reverent seriousness. Read on to see what he said about Gov. Palin and the press...
Fringe returns Tuesday with an all-new episode (9 pm/ET, Fox), and guess what? We still have a lot of burning questions about Olivia & Co. for executive producer Jeff Pinkner, so many that we had to split them into two stories. In this first part, he answers our questions about The Observer, Astrid Farnsworth and William Bell. The conversation is, of course, illuminating, frustrating, humorous and confusing. Get the scoop after the jump
On Thursday's jam-packed episode of Ugly Betty (8 pm/ET, ABC), Betty's neighbor and new crush, Jesse, will dedicate a love song to her. It's called "Snowy Day," and it was written by Val Emmich, the actor who plays Jesse, who is also a musician. Read on to see how he got the gig, and if his song helps him get the girl...
You're probably more familiar with the works of author Michael Crichton, who died on Tuesday, than you think you are. In addition to earning a reputation as one of his generation's most successful science fiction thriller novelists, he also left behind a legacy of sharp action screenplays and at least one blockbuster TV show. Let's take a look of the highlights:
After 19 years, how do you keep a TV show fresh? For Dick Wolf, executive producer of Law & Order (Wednesday, Nov. 5. 10 pm/ET, NBC), the season starts with a fortuitously, albeit coincidentally timed episode about a stockbroker who gets beaten to death. The circumstances surrounding the murder - street-fighting, a YouTube surrogate, a Gangs of New York reference - thrust DA Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Executive ADA Michael Cutter (Linus Roache) into a heated stand-off about, among other things, the definition of the word terrorism, believe it or not. Read on to find about the ever-more-youthful cast, which series vets might return to the show, and why it's always a good idea to hire obsessive-compulsives.
This week's firing of two Heroes producers shows that NBC and fans agree: The show is struggling. Viewers have suffered through Parkman in Africa, the Shanti virus, and those pesky twins. We love Heroes, and want it to succeed, but it's become too complicated and lost some of the narrative sophistication that hooked us in the first place. Series creator Tim Kring has been charged with stepping in and simplifying the show. Here's our take on how he should do it. Share your own ideas in the comments below.
Herewith, a condensed version of Fox's November sweeps calendar. See what's coming up on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Prison Break, House, Bones and, yes, 24.
With only four episodes left of the first season of True Blood (Sundays, 9 pm/ET, HBO; a marathon of Episodes 1 through 8 will air Halloween night), we still aren't even close to solving the show's central mystery: Who's killing all of Bon Temps' ladies? True, Alan Ball's vampire drama (HBO has already green-lit a second season, by the way) is more elaborate romantic fantasy than hard-boiled detective show, but we thought there'd be more clues at this point. All three victims — Maude Pickens, Dawn and Gran — had vampire sympathies, sexual or otherwise. But we can't necessarily assume that the killer has fangs — or an anti-vampire prejudice, for that matter. (Also: We know a bunch of you have read the books, and thus might already have the answer, but please don't suck the life out of it for the rest of us. THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE ZONE.) So let's look at the likely suspects:
Who knew that one of our most impassioned political orators would come from daytime TV? Love her or hate her (see comments section below), Elisabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of Barbara Walters' The View (ABC, check local listings), has used her daily airtime to speak at length about her support of Sen. John McCain for president. Her politico-wonk-talk has been so prevalent, it even started several rumors that she might ditch Walters & Co. for a job at the Fox News Channel. (Not true, she says.) At various times, her verbal sparring with left-leaning co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar is seen as either patriotic and righteous or defensive and self-righteous. In the spirit of free speech, though, we present a timeline of Hasselbeck's own campaign for... what, exactly? Have Hasselbeck's opinions influenced your vote? Or do you think public figures should keep their political beliefs to themselves? Read the timeline after the jump and then let your voice be heard in the comments section below.
The season premiere of Law & Order: Criminal Intent has been pushed back to early 2009, just days before it was scheduled to begin its eighth-season run on USA. Will Jeff Goldblum still be clocking in when the new season begins? Read on to find out...
"Little fazes Charlie Crews," says Damian Lewis of the Zen-stabilized, wrongly jailed homicide detective he plays on NBC's Life. Oh yeah? How about an earthquake? We'll find out Friday, Oct. 24 (10 pm/ET) when Crews & Co. deal with a crime wave in the aftermath of said tremor in "Did You Feel That?", an episode that includes a combination jailbreak and armored-car heist by a familiar bad guy. On July 29, life imitated Life, as there was an actual earthquake in Los Angeles. After the jump, Lewis tells TVGuide.com his quake story, and then details some other shocking things that will shake out this season.
Remember on 30 Rock when Alec Baldwin and Will Arnett had a "talking-like-this" contest? See what feat of masculine bravado Baldwin has up his sleeve now... after the jump.
When Jasika Nicole auditioned for J.J. Abrams' Fringe (Tuesdays, 9 pm/ET, Fox), she was told it was for a sci-fi series that incorporated humor. As FBI Special Agent Astrid Farnsworth, though, Nicole isn't exactly given a lot of the punchlines, saddled as she is with doing a lot of the heavy lifting in the laboratory of mad scientist Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble). With a background in music theater and a talent for drawing (check out her work, including an autobiographical comic, on her website), Jasika (it's pronounced Jah-SEEK-uh) talks to us about working with John Noble, why Astrid returned to the lab and her theory about the identity of the elusive William Bell.
