Tom Cavanagh (Love Monkey, Ed) has landed a lead role in the CBS comedy pilot My Ex-Life.... Jeri Ryan will play the boss of James Woods' prosecutor in CBS' Shark.... Illeana Douglas is one of Heather Locklear's gal pals in the ABC comedy Women of a Certain Age.... 24 alum Xander Berkeley has joined ABC's Women in Law.
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Josh Randall, Courting Alex
It was a tall order — literally — finding the right man to play opposite statuesque Jenna Elfman on CBS' Courting Alex, which makes its Wednesday-time-slot debut tonight at 8:30 pm/ET. In the end the sitcom opted to pair Josh Randall, the man formerly known as Ed's Dr. Mike, with the woman formerly known as Dharma. Here, Randall speaks with TVGuide.com about his alter ego's certain swagger and weighs in on how Alex avoided the grim fates suffered by Emily, Jake and that familiar Monkey.
TVGuide.com: Jenna is 5'10" and you're over 6 feet tall. I have to think that Courting Alex's casting office looked like basketball tryouts.Josh Randall: [Laughs] You know, I happened to come in at a
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Question: Is it just me or are TV critics taking schadenfreude in seeing NBC's slipups and misses for the past few seasons, especially now, during the Olympics, and with Joey's dismal ratings. While it's true that success does breed some sort of contempt from advocates of rival networks, TV critics should always have an objective approach. However, highlighting and then further underlining NBC's failures borders on playground teasing.
Answer: Maybe it looks like critics are kicking a network when it's down, but really, NBC has been a juicy target ever since it fouled its airwaves with Fear Factor, failed repeatedly to find an adequate comedy to replace Friends (most notoriously with the ill-fated Joey), cloned Law & Order to the point of absurdity, failed to adequately promote and protect gems like Ed and American Dreams through their multiseason (and still too brief) runs — again, the list goes on. And lately, with the The Book of Daniel debacle, the twice-a-week Apprentice disaster
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Skating with CelebritiesIt's the first elimination round. One team skates off the rink forever, without the benefit of America's votes. (Take that, Dancing with the Stars!) New technical requirement: synchronized footwork. Theme: the '70s.
Kristy and Lloyd: I love how they keep calling her a "movie actress." Don't know why, I just get a kick out of it. This week, Buffy is resurrected in the eyes of the judges. The pair connects. They wear cool headbands (not!). They get the highest score for the evening: 50.7.Dave and Nancy: I'm not sure, but if you clocked them, I believe they may have performed the slowest spins in recorded history. A definite letdown from last week. Score: 47.4.Bruce and Tai: These Olympians were idolized in the '70s. Sir CrankyPants says they're not as fit as they were back
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Skating with CelebritiesIt's the first elimination round. One team skates off the rink forever, without the benefit of America's votes. (Take that, Dancing with the Stars!) New technical requirement: synchronized footwork. Theme: the '70s.
Kristy and Lloyd: I love how they keep calling her a "movie actress." Don't know why, I just get a kick out of it. This week, Buffy is resurrected in the eyes of the judges. The pair connects. They wear cool headbands (not!). They get the highest score for the evening: 50.7.Dave and Nancy: I'm not sure, but if you clocked them, I believe they may have performed the slowest spins in recorded history. A definite letdown from last week. Score: 47.4.Bruce and Tai: These Olympians were idolized in the '70s. Sir CrankyPants says they're not as fit as they were back
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Courting AlexWelcome back to prime-time television, Jenna Elfman! Oh, how I've missed her adorable wackiness. For weeks now I've been reading that her new show wasn't worth watching, and I was a bit skeptical going into it, thinking it couldn't get any better than Dharma and Greg, but I have to admit I really enjoyed it. Elfman is hilarious as Alex, a workaholic whose idea of intimacy is sleeping with her cell phone. No wonder she's still single in the big city. OK, it does sound like the premise of so many other failed shows out there (RIP, Emily's Reasons Why Not) but watching Alex take that leap of faith onto the motorcycle during the final moments had me wanting more. Maybe it was more of Josh Randall I was wanting. The former Ed sta
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Larenz Tate, Love Monkey
In CBS' recently premiered Love Monkey (Tuesdays at 10 pm/ET), Ed alum Tom Cavanagh is flanked by a trio of buds, including Jason Priestley's dad-to-be, Mike, and Christopher Wiehl's onetime baseball stud, Jake. Rounding out the close-knit quartet is Shooter, played by Larenz Tate, with whom TVGuide.com went one-on-one in this Q&A.
TVGuide.com: Some have likened Love Monkey to Sex and the City, but with guys and music. In that scheme of things, who is Shooter — Samantha?Larenz Tate: Yeah, that's what everyone is saying. Our show clearly stands on its own, but if I had to compare, he'd be the
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American IdolAnother season of American Idol begins with double the twin action. Does anyone agree that two sets of male twins plus the small-town Barrettsmith sisters might be overkill in the family-drama department? It smells a touch gimmicky, but at least all the siblings can back it up with their voices. So can single-named diva Mandisa and Gina, the tongue-pierced, fishnet-wearing dental assistant who managed a decent Celine Dion vocal. But really, we don't tune in to see the true talents this early in the season. There will be plenty of time to see how they fare. No, the premiere episode is all about the truculent train wrecks, and Chicago was full of 'em. Here's a hint for future Idol wannabes: When the judges r
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American IdolAnother season of American Idol begins with double the twin action. Does anyone agree that two sets of male twins plus the small-town Barrettsmith sisters might be overkill in the family-drama department? It smells a touch gimmicky, but at least all the siblings can back it up with their voices. So can single-named diva Mandisa and Gina, the tongue-pierced, fishnet-wearing dental assistant who managed a decent Celine Dion vocal. But really, we don't tune in to see the true talents this early in the season. There will be plenty of time to see how they fare. No, the premiere episode is all about the truculent train wrecks, and Chicago was full of 'em. Here's a hint for future Idol wannabes: When the judges r
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Reports of the death of the TV sitcom were, thankfully, premature. New critical hits like My Name Is Earl, Everybody Hates Chris and the steadily improving The Office have set a high bar for the new and returning comedies that entered the fray this month. Just getting Scrubs back on the air after an inexcusable fall hiatus is reason enough to celebrate, while some of the newbies hope to fill the romantic-comedy void left by Sex and the City and Friends. Here’s my quick take on the mid-season comedy crop. (I dismissed NBC’s generic buddy romp Four Kings in an earlier column.)
ScrubsTuesdays, 9 pm/ET, NBCHeard it before? Thankfully, yes. The antics are as fresh as ever now that this endearingly irreverent medical comedy has returned — finally — with back-to-back episodes of bawdy slapstick and barbed verbal w
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