COMEDY
Actors playing actors—HBO obviously likes the concept. Unscripted (about struggling actors) failed to catch on early this year, but Entourage (about a rising young star and his hangers-on) starts its second season June 5 at 9 p.m. ET. Immediately following is the premiere of Friends alum Lisa Kudrow's new vehicle, in which she portrays a faded series star from the '90s trying to rejuvenate her career by taking on the stock role of the middle-aged landlady in a brainless sitcom that focuses on sexy young singles.
I was all set to decry HBO's showbiz obsession and suggest that Kudrow try a series about a soccer mom/insurance adjuster. Then I saw this show and came away impressed by its mordant humor and bitter truth. Kudrow's Valerie Cherish is a desperate character, so eager to reclaim her fame that she's taping a reality show about her comeback bid even as she endures the indignity of playing Aunt Sassy in the pilot for Room and Bored. The sitcom's writers (Lance Barber and Robert Bagnell) scarcely conceal their contempt for her, while the reality show's director (Laura Silverman) pushes her to register enthusiasm for the project. Valerie's businessman husband (Damian Young) drifts through her life with a patronizing air, like a Shakespearean actor slumming in sitcom land. All the while, Valerie asks for respect based on her past Hollywood status, only to be reminded that yesterday's "It girl" is today's marked-down nostalgia item. The Comeback is funny, especially when it skewers the tasteless and false in reality TV. But we sympathize with Valerie as a woman who wants to be heard, even if she has nothing important to say.
TNT (Fridays, 8 p.m. ET)
WESTERN
"Wagon wheels, wagon wheels/Keep on a-turnin', wagon wheels..." That old song moseyed through my mind during the early installments of this six-week series. The 12-hour epic concerns a family of Virginia wheelwrights whose restless younger members head west, and it keeps on a-turnin' at a pace some will find awfully slow. But executive producer Steven Spielberg and his filmmaking team deliver some memorable moments along the trail.
The drama has trouble gaining traction in the June 10 premiere because the focus shifts back and forth between the aptly named Wheeler clan and the Lakota tribe, trying to keep tradition alive as white settlers encroach on their Plains homeland. But Into the West moves more assuredly once Jacob (Matthew Settle), the first of the Wheeler pioneers, marries a Lakota beauty called Thunder Heart Woman (Tonantzin Carmelo) and they join a California-bound wagon train with Jacob's brother Jethro (Skeet Ulrich) and cousin Naomi (Keri Russell). Ulrich is particularly effective as a decent man driven to the moral depths by a bad case of gold fever.
ABC (Mondays, 8 p.m. ET)
REALITY
A scholarly reality show? Now that's something different-or so you would think.
Ten highly qualified high school seniors with financial needs compete for a college scholarship valued at $240,000. The series sounds worthier than, say, The Bachelor, but it's loaded with genre trappings. The contestants share a house, of course, and the June 6 premiere stresses personality conflict and sexual chemistry. (Alyssa can't stand cocky Davis, though he gives Liz a thrill. And Max digs both Alyssa and Melissa.) In a tame imitation of a Survivor challenge, the students form two teams and run around the University of Southern California campus solving brainteasers. There's a three-person "scholarship committee" in lieu of American Idol's Randy, Paula and Simon, and the opener ends with a brief literature quiz that carries a $50,000 prize. Who needs the SAT, much less The Scholar? Just put the kids on Jeopardy!
Tony Awards (CBS, June 5, 8 p.m. ET) Hugh Jackman plays host for Broadway's biggest night, and nominated actors include Christina Applegate, Laura Linney and Alan Alda.
Six Feet Under (HBO, June 6, 9 p.m. ET) Ruth (Frances Conroy) dreads her husband's return from the hospital as the funeral-home series begins its fifth and final season.
Primetime Live (ABC, June 7, 10 p.m. ET) Diane Sawyer talks with Brad Pitt and reports on his tour of Africa, where he saw the impact of AIDS and poverty. Oh, and the topic of his love life may come up.
The Inside (FOX, June 8, 9 p.m. ET) An FBI profiler is brutally murdered by a serial killer in the opening episode of a crime drama from the producers of 24.
MTV Movie Awards (MTV, June 9, 8:30 p.m. ET) Host Jimmy Fallon keeps the excitement at a fever pitch for presenters Tom Cruise and Hilary Swank and performers Mariah Carey and Eminem.
Kyra Sedgwick: She spent most of the past decade raising her son Travis, 15, and daughter Sosie Ruth, 13 (Dad is actor Kevin Bacon). Now Kyra Sedgwick is back in the spotlight playing a cop in the new drama The Closer, premiering June 13 on TNT.
ON GOING BACK TO WORK My manager kept calling me about this project. I said, 'Don't send it, I'm not going to do it.' But after I read the script I got a good feeling. Then I thought, "I can't do this. What about the kids?" Kevin said, "I'll stay home with them. You should go for it." I was really grateful for that because it meant him not taking a job for 4½ months.
ON KEVIN'S SUPPORTING ROLE We read each other's work and talk about why we like it and why we don't. I sit down with him and say, "There's something wrong with this scene. How can we make it better?" He'll give me ideas.
ON PLAYING A T0UGH COP We live in a male-dominated world. I can remember being 16 on a soap opera and the director called me "honey," and I turned and said, "Don't call me 'honey.'" He was like, "Whoa." But he never called me honey again.
- Contributors:
- Terry Kelleher,
- Laura J. Downey.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
