2009 Winter TCA

The non-spinoff spinoff of The Office finally has itself a possible title — Public Service — and a very funny pilot script that I got a chance to read back at the TCA press tour. It also has an up-and-coming costar in Aziz Ansari, who's been popping up everywhere from Flight of the Conchords to Scrubs to his MTV sketch show, Human Giant. He was the first person to join the series before writers Greg Daniels and Michael Schur even had a concept locked down, and at TCA, we chatted about the leap of faith it took him to join and about his character, a local government networker named Tom. Read on for highlights:

You were a part of the show really early. How did you first get involved?
When I got on board it was before they really had a concept or anything nailed down, and it was really like, "Do you want to do a show with Mike and Greg, a documentary-type show?" And I was like, "Yeah, that would be my dream job."

Were you a fan of The Office?
The Office is probably my favorite comedy on TV, and as soon as I heard they were doing another show, I was like, "Oh my God, I'd love to be a part of that." I met with them pretty early on and I told them that, flat-out . . . A month or so later, they're like, "Yeah, we want you to do it with us." They still didn't have anything as far as their concept, but I was super excited. Then after a few months I found out Amy was doing it, and then I was like, "Oh, that's great — it'll be awesome."

Since you were involved so early, did you get to be involved in creating your character?
They kind of wrote it toward my strengths and attitudes that they'd seen me play. Since they knew they were writing it for me, I know that helped a ton.

What is it that you like about the mockumentary style?
It's just a fun format to do comedy in. The interviews and stuff like that — it's a great format for improvising. Even in Human Giant, we would do sketches or profile pieces that were kind of like little mockumentaries, and it was just a really fun format for performers and people who like to improvise especially.

To find out the future for Ansari on Scrubs and Human Giant, just read more

One of the more surprisingly funny panels at TCA this month was for Showtime's Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Well, anytime you get a room full of critics talking about dominatrix training and "modesty sacks," it's got to be a pretty good time.

The show's star, Billie Piper, let us in on some of the upcoming stories for the show, how playing a call girl has changed perceptions of her, and whether the US or UK was more prudish about the show. Read on for highlights:

• Playing Belle means men are terrified of her: "Men don't come anywhere near me anymore," Piper said. "They seem so threatened by me now. They also just stare for ages, like I'm going to do something wild and raunchy. And, you know, much to their disappointment, it never really happens."
• She was never really worried that playing a prostitute would harm her image: "I really, really liked the early drafts of the script. I liked the idea," she said. "I didn't really think about it too much. I think my family and friends were quite concerned about my mental state and well-being when I was making the show, but they got over it pretty quickly."
• But it sure surprised London: "People were really shocked when Billie took the role in the UK," said producer Rebecca De Souza. "Her perception at home was very much as a kind of girl-next-door darling, the nation's darling. So to take a role like this was really quite extraordinary, very, very bold."

To find out what's coming up for both Hannah and Belle and find out how to see the season two premiere even if you don't have Showtime, just read more

Depending on your attitude, Rosemarie DeWitt either has great luck or terrible luck with on-screen sisters. She recently starred as Rachel opposite Anne Hathaway's Kym in Rachel Getting Married, and now she's the foil to Toni Collette's Tara in United States of Tara, which just premiered to strong ratings. At TCA, I chatted with DeWitt about her film families, how she got the Tara gig, and how much Rachel was like a real wedding. Here are highlights:

How did you get the role of Charmaine?
It was just like a straightforward, old-school audition that I had. I read the script, I thought it was fantastic, and when I auditioned for it I think the part of the sister was a guest star. So it wasn't a super high-pressure situation . . . I auditioned where Spielberg and Dreamworks is all set up, and I remember thinking, "I just want to work here."

When did you find out that you were getting the upgrade to a regular character? Did that give you a chance to get more into playing Charmaine?
It was over the Summer where they invited me back, and we spoke and they said, "We're going to change Charmaine a little bit." TV I feel like you have to play — in most ways I'm nothing like Charmaine, but you have to play it a little closer to yourself, because they do change things at the 11th hour, and if you were doing some crazy character with a hunchback and now you're running a marathon — I don't know, you just have to be able to do it, basically. So they made her a little bit more quote-unquote normal. I was happy that there was a lot more love between Tara and Charmaine. She's an outsider but it would have really been hard to be like Anne Hathaway and I are in Rachel.

It was interesting to hear Diablo Cody say that Charmaine is looking for attention.
She's got a lot of issues. It's funny, because she's really awesome, and she just, I think, doesn't like herself that much. The vitamin sales, I think, are a little bit of a self-help program in and of themselves, and she's got some body issues, and issues with men, so there's just so many places to go with her and so many women in my own life to observe and draw from.

To hear more about Charmaine and Tara's relationship and how it differs from Rachel and Kym's, read more

In Lie to Me, the new Fox drama premiering tonight, Brendan Hines plays Eli, a researcher who always says anything that's on his mind. In the first couple of episodes, Hines's character often made me chuckle, so at Fox's all-star party at TCA, I caught up with him to ask about the show, his character, and whether he's now self-conscious about lying. Here are highlights:

Tell me about your character. He has this radical honesty thing going on.
I have it going on in spades. My character is brutally honest at all times. Not only does he tell a truth when he's asked a question, but he'll always just spit out what's on his mind no matter what. To me, that's fascinating. I love it when characters in TV or movies get put in incredibly awkward situations, and my character does — quite a bit — get put in those situations.

It seems like that would happen a lot if you were a person who just spit out whatever was on your mind.
It does, and I didn't even realize this until we started shooting the show, but I've known people like this for years. Maybe they haven't taken this sort of pledge where they're like, "Oh, I'm going to be honest at all times," but they are the kind of people who will just always tell you what's on their minds and not spare anybody's feelings at all. Problem with those people, you don't want to be around them all that much, so it's a difficult thing for the writers to try to do, which is to stay true to this pledge that the guy has taken, yet still make him likable and accessible.

Has playing him made you more honest in your own life?
No, but I will tell you that I am much more conscious of the lies that I tell. I do sort of stand back and assess whether or not I had to tell that lie, because most of the ones that you tell, they're harmless, or you think they are. As far as my character is concerned, he thinks any lie whatsoever is a no-no.

To hear whether Hines has become a good lie-spotter and whether he'll be involved in any on-screen romances, just read more

Note: I was the representative Lost fan at the show's panel in LA at TCA. Here's a bit of what to look forward to at the beginning of this season.

The fifth season of Lost kicks off tonight with the first two episodes and while we were down at the TCAs in LA last week, we got to see the third one as well. The first two are good, don't get me wrong, but episode three had the whole room gasping. Full sections of my notes look a bit like, "OMG, this hurts my mind grapes." Needless to say, Lost fans should be super excited. All the promo photos emphasize the dual nature of this season — some will be in the outside world, as evidenced by the cityscape, and some will be back on the island.

While the cast of the show is still filming on location, executive producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof were there to tenderly step around reporters' questions without revealing too much of what's to come. The lunch panel was brought to us by Ajira Airways, though the exec producers were careful not to enlighten us with its meaning. If you want to see a few tidbits from the panel as well as a little of what to expect from the first three episodes just read more

One of the major issues facing Fox's entertainment president, Kevin Reilly, at TCA last week was the sorry state of Fox's comedy development. Reilly himself noted that Fox had made a lot of year-end lists — er, those would be the worst lists — with Do Not Disturb, one of the first Fall shows to get axed, and the network has no live-action comedy on its schedule to start '09.

So it's interesting that today, Fox has given the green light to four new comedy pilots (among seven total), including one produced by Ben Stiller. A quick rundown of the comedies:

• The Station — A Ben Stiller-produced show about a covert CIA operative embedded somewhere in South America who is ordered to install a new dictator.
• Walorsky — Think Paul Blart: Mall Cop, the series. The show's about "a lazy ex-cop-turned-security guard patrolling a mall in Buffalo, NY, who is forced to grudgingly step it up after he is assigned an idiot partner."
• Two Dollar Beer — This one's set in Detroit and centers on a blue-collar couple and their family and friends.
• Sons of Tucson — In this comedy, three rich brothers hire a hustler to act like their father while their actual father serves out a prison term for a white-collar crime. It's supposed to be taking a Slums of Beverly Hills-esque tone.

At TCA, Reilly said the Fox comedies of the future should be "something that is a little bit bold and it's got a point of view," a la Malcolm in the Middle or Arrested Development. So, do you think any of the comedies in this list fit that bill?

Photos courtesy of Fox and Source

The Winter TCA press tour is all over, and I'm back catching up on all the things I missed while I was camped out in Universal City. I got some great interviews and previews of some new TV shows that I'll be sharing soon, but for now, I wanted to wrap up some of the best, worst, and most awkward moments from my days in LA:

• Wittiest Line: Jimmy Fallon at the session for his new stint on Late Night, after being asked whether he'd still have time to do romantic comedies: "If you want to meet me at the Empire State Building after this, I'll tell you the truth."
• Best Comeback: Amy Poehler after being asked whether she often wakes up in the morning and thinks something along the lines of, "Tina Fey, I'll show her": "Yes. And then I turn around and I wake her up, and we have breakfast together."
• Oddest Wording: ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson calling Shonda Rhimes "one of the most, if not the most talented woman writer out there right now." Really? Woman writer? That prompted a lot of raised eyebrows.
• Most Honest Moment: Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly calling his former employer, NBC, "the crazy ex-wife I can't get away from."
• Best Answer to a Question That Didn't Actually Answer a Question: Joss Whedon describing his original, scrapped pilot for Dollhouse as "Balinese shadow puppet theater."

To hear about the most awkward moment, the idea with the most potential, and one seriously awful mustache, just read more

Monday night was already crowded on my DVR, but apparently it wasn't enough just to juggle Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, and Heroes — among others. Nope, tonight brings a new entry to the Monday night race, and it's a doozy: House.

On the bright side, the move to Mondays gets House out of the way of American Idol, which usually knocks it off the air for a while each Winter. But will fans follow?

If they do, it sounds like they have some meaty things awaiting in the second half of the season, including more of the budding potential romance between Foreman and Thirteen. "I'm wondering if part of [Foreman's] attraction to Thirteen is that his mother has Alzheimer's and there's nothing he can do about that," Omar Epps said last week at TCA. "He wants her to have what his mother doesn't." (Beyond any deep psychological explanations, there's another reason Epps enjoys that relationship: "It's great being in those scenes with Olivia [Wilde], because she's hot," he said.)

That relationship will continue growing on tonight's episode, which also finds Cuddy balancing the responsibilities of motherhood and work and House's team taking on a patient with chronic pain that resembles House's own symptoms. To watch a preview for January's episodes, just read more

The Arrested Development movie was a hot topic at this month's TCA press tour, but it wasn't the only TV-to-film adaptation on reporters' minds. When Rob Thomas turned up to talk about his forthcoming Cupid, he also entertained some questions about the future of Veronica Mars — and what he said was mostly good news for fans.

With Cupid's episode order cut from 13 to eight, Thomas said he now finds himself with "a couple months to write the Veronica Mars movie." But that doesn't get it onto screens: "Somebody else had to pay for it," he said. "[Executive producer] Joel Silver does have a certain pile of money that he can decide on and he called me asking if we — you know, can we do this now? So I know that Kristin [Bell] wants to do it. I want to do it. Joel wants to do it, and now I suddenly find myself with enough time to write that script."

As for what the project would entail, Thomas was pretty quiet about any plot details — but he did say the story wouldn't follow the Veronica-in-the-FBI path they'd explored for a possible season four. Instead, he said "it would open just days before her college graduation, so Veronica would be just at the end of her college career."

In addition to Kristen Bell, Thomas said, he's also talked to Jason Dohring and Enrico Colantoni about the film. A while back, the majority of you said you'd love to see a Veronica Mars movie, but are you still feeling that way almost two years after the end of the show?

Photo courtesy of The CW

Portia de Rossi stopped by the TCAs in LA this morning to talk about her upcoming new show Better Off Fred. While she of course fielded questions about the Arrested Development movie (more tidbits here), Portia also took a moment to talk about a new personal project. The glamorous actress is designing a line of vegan shoes! Unfortunately the company that Natalie Portman designed vegan shoes for ended up going under, but Portia seems determined to see this passion project through.

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