Dr. Bill Hoffman leads group therapy of offbeat individuals, but his outsize ego might keep him from being an effective therapist. Michael is a Wall Street type having an affair with Darlene; Jonathan is a closeted married man.
Dr. Bill Hoffman leads group therapy of offbeat individuals, but his outsize ego might keep him from being an effective therapist. Michael is a Wall Street type having an affair with Darlene; Jonathan is a closeted married man.
Fresh off another so-so ratings performance, ABC has pulled next week's episode of Help Me Help You, Variety reports, suggesting that Ted Danson's latest laffer is beyond treatment. In its place, the network on Dec. 19 will serve up The Nine a double helping of Big Day.
Some people are the talk of the town, but Mary Alice Young truly is the talk of Desperate Housewives' Wisteria Lane, narrating, as she has since Day 1, the goings-on of the twisty little berg. This week, though, Brenda Strong is a disembodied voice no more, filling the (literally) tall order of playing Ted Danson's new love interest on ABC's Help Me Help You (Tuesdays at 9:30 pm/ET). TVGuide.com spoke with the Housewives star. TVGuide.com: It's fun to talk to you....Brenda Strong: Aww. It's so funny, because usually when I do radio shows they're so happy to hear my voice. TV
Question: I love Help Me Help You. It's hilarious. How is it doing in the ratings?Answer: For lack of a better word, it needs help. I know this because exec producer Ali Rushfield e-mailed me on Monday to let me know that, after being off the air for three weeks, the show is on "life support" and in desperate need of some AA love. It's a funny little program (at least it was the one time I accidentally stumbled on it while channel surfing), so you guys should give it a test run next Tuesday at 9:30 pm, before it's too late. If it helps (there's that word again), Desperate Housewives' Brenda Strong guest-stars as a woman Bill has a crush on but is too afraid to ask out.
The Hollywood trades are reporting this morning that additional script orders have been awarded to ABC's The Nine, Men in Trees and Help Me Help You (four each), as well as NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (for three). Traditionally, such script orders are a decent precursor to a full-season pickup, though it must be noted that the "vote of confidence" didn’t work out particularly well for last season's Threshold, E-Ring or Out of Practice. In related news, NBC has ordered an extra, 25th episode of ER for this season, while ABC has snipped its order for the mid-season series Traveler from 13 episodes to eight.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Kaley Cuoco and Caroline Rhea have been cast in Fat Like Me, a Lifetime movie based on the true story of a teen who, as part of a news exposé on obesity, goes undercover at a high school wearing plaid a fat suit. Rhea plays Cuoco's mom.... As reported in Tuesday's NCIS Feature, Once and Again alum Susanna Thompson's first airdate as Gibbs' new love interest has been pushed back to Nov. 7.... Political wavemaker Arianna Huffington wants your vote on which zinger ABC should use when she guests on Help Me Help You later this season. Go here to review the options.
To hear ABC's press site tell it, Help Me Help You's Inger — one of the new TV season's breakout characters — is "a 25-year-old, self-made millionaire who totally lacks social skills and hasn't had a real date in over six years." So you can understand why she's in desperate need of therapy from Ted Danson's shrink character. To get inside the socially inept software developer's head, TVGuide.com Q&A'd her portrayer, Suzy Nakamura, who let slip that tonight at 8:30 pm/ET, Miss Inger just might be getting lucky (for an instant, at least). Plus, Suzy's surprising connection to Heroes' Hiro! TVGuide.com: What are you up to this fine day?Suzy Nakamura: I moved some furniture last night. I went to trapeze class with [Help M
Opening the night with 15.4 million viewers and surging to 20.4 mil by the end of its 90-minute run, Dancing with the Stars was Tuesday's big winner yet again, with House (14.2 million) and NCIS (13.8 mil) placing second and third in the 8 pm hour. The Season 7 premiere of Gilmore Girls, averaging 4.55 million viewers, came in last but gave the CW its best non-Top Model audience to date, was third in women ages 18-34, and actually edged out a Heroes encore in the hour's back half.At 9 the also-rans were The Unit (holding steady with a hair over 12 million), Law & Order: CI (10.45 mil) and Standoff (up a tick with 8.1 mil), while ABC's Help Me Help You, despite the help of its lead-in, was sampled by just 11.9 mil.Law & Order: SVU and its 14.3 million viewers took the 10 o'clock title, followed by a horse race between Boston Legal (9.95 mil) and Smith (averaging 9.55 mil, yet losing nearly a mil in its second half).
Yeah, yeah, Angel Cohn, among others, beat me to blogging about our favorite new fall shows. But out of fairness to ABC, I was waiting on the screeners for Brothers & Sisters and Men in Trees, among others. Which new series most impresses me? Is it Friday Night Lights, Six Degrees or Men in Trees? Here's how my assorted expectations met reality:SundayBrothers & Sisters, ABC: Expectations were modest, as a stellar cast (Calista Flockhart, Sally Field, Rachel Griffiths, Ron Rifkin, to name but a few) was balanced out by foreboding backstage buzz and shuffles. The pilot starts off slow (the first 20 minutes felt like an eternity), but by the end I was pulled in. The show is just a wee heavy-handed with the constant references to Calista's character being this Ann Coulter-type talking head. We. Get. It.The Game, CW: This one (as well as ABC's Knights of Prosperity) I have yet to watch, sorry. I never watched UPN's Girlfriends, so perhaps I'm afraid I'd be helplessly adrift with ...