NYC 22

CBS, Sundays, 10 p.m. ET/PT | 2½ stars

DRAMA

This Harlem-set cop show was created by novelist Richard Price (Clockers) and lists Robert De Niro as an executive producer, so you expect something with jolting urban grit. Instead it's a well-done, somewhat sleepy ensemble drama about newbies on patrol. While any show with Adam Goldberg and Leelee Sobieski in the cast has some rich opportunities, I wish Maria Bello could be resurrected from Prime Suspect, cockamamy fedora and all, to put a distinct stamp on this still unformed group.

The L.A. Complex

CW, Tuesdays, 9 p.m. ET/PT | 1 star

DRAMA

This blah drama about kids living in an L.A. apartment complex while hustling for big breaks is a Canadian import. That explains why many of the wannabes hail from the land that brought us Sandra Oh and Mike Myers, although I don't see their like here. Then again, the crises-auditions, rejections-aren't delivered with any novel detail, so it probably wouldn't matter if everyone were Estonian. It's Melrose Place in Esperanto.

My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding

TLC, April 29, 10 p.m. ET/PT | 3 stars

REALITY

TLC, having brought us the British My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, now examines the courtship and wedding rituals of American gypsy communities-in particular the Romnichal, who came from England in the 1800s. The show is gentle, winning and sympathetic. A designer describes the girls as wanting "the biggest dress they can get with the most bling," but the gowns can't be faulted for tackiness. They're practically the only romantic bloom allowed in a culture that discourages young women from kissing boys-but marries them off in a hurry.

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Farewell to Desperate Housewives
ABC's deliciously dirty soap ends May 13

When Housewives premiered Oct. 3, 2004, there was nothing else like it. At a time when camp was becoming mainstream and TV was moving into more complicated storytelling, here was a Sunday-night soap-the women of Wisteria Lane and their juicy secrets-with reams of plot and a winking strain of retro comedy. Housewives was shot on the old Universal lot (home to Leave It to Beaver), and its title suggested a movie in which Bette Davis firebombs a rival's garden party. Yet the show was performed at a briskly modern pace by an excellent cast, and the surface cheer had a way of vanishing in a blink: It was narrated by a dead woman, a suicide named Mary Alice, and punctuated by murders, hit-and-runs and more suicides. Just weeks ago, a mob hit took out tough but kind Mike Delfino (James Denton). This was the striking thing about Housewives: When someone died, it registered as a real loss. In fact, the soap never quite recovered from 2009's fatal electrocution of local vamp Nicollette Sheridan. By then, the show was a catchphrase. Bravo had launched its Real Housewives franchise, whose women are actually more desperate (if thoughtful as lawn gnomes). So, yes, I'll miss Wisteria Lane. Is there a garage sale?

4 stars

Tom's Picks
YOU'VE GOTTA SEE THIS ...

TWO AND A HALF MEN

And one strange ghost. Kathy Bates plays the spirit of the now-deceased Charlie, up from hell. CBS, April 30.

AMERICAN IDOL

The night leaves us with the final four from a season that has boasted real talent. FOX, May 3.

REVENGE Madeleine Stowe's son is out of the slammer, but her finances are being investigated. The poor thing is one hot mess. ABC, May 2.

Lena Dunham's Big Moment
GIRLS GONE WILD!

YOUR CHARACTER HANNAH'S PARENTS HAVE CUT HER OFF FINANCIALLY. AND YOURS?

My parents [artist Laurie Simmons and painter Carroll Dunham] were always supportive. They were never like, "Take our money and have fun!" but they let me live with them.

DO YOU LIVE AT HOME?

I finally moved out! Now I'm in Brooklyn, which is close enough that I can still go home when I want dinner.

THE SHOW IS PRETTY RISQUE. WHO DO YOU WATCH IT WITH?

My dog Dean. He is pretty unimpressed.

EVER GET EMBARRASSED DOING THE SEX SCENES?

I'd be more embarrassed to force someone else to act out the sex scenes I write. They're cringey.

THE CAST ALL LOOK LIKE HEALTHY, NORMAL GIRLS. DON'T TELL US EVERYONE'S GOING TO GET A TRAINER NOW!

There's no premium on being thin or not. I started spinning earlier this year and my butt looks different now. But I would never show a different-looking butt onscreen and not call it out.

IS IT STRANGE TO SUDDENLY BE FAMOUS?

Well, now there are text messages you get from boys who ignored you before and are suddenly interested. It's so corny.

Just Be Yourself—on Tv!
James Van Der Beek is just the latest, but maybe cleverest, star to mock his image.

JAMES VAN DER BEEK

DON'T TRUST THE B----IN APARTMENT 23

The ex-Dawson's Creek star parodies his image as an aging, now off-his-game heartthrob in the new ABC comedy hit.

MICHAEL J. FOX

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM

Larry David accuses Michael J. Fox (one very game actor) of passing off annoying behavior as symptoms of Parkinson's disease.

OPRAH WINFREY

30 ROCK

Oprah plays the ideal Oprah-the girlfriend you tell everything-but she turns out to be a figment of Tina Fey's drugged imagination.

KATE WINSLET

EXTRAS

Prophetic gag: She plays a nun in a Holocaust film as a ploy to snag an Oscar. Three years later she really won-for a Holocaust film.

MATT LEBLANC

EPISODES

Friends' Joey made a terrific comeback in the role of Matt LeBlanc, a shrewd, not brilliant sitcom star seeking a comeback.

In Defense Of...
SMASH

Heading toward its May 14 season finale, NBC's once-golden drama about the staging of a Broadway show is no smash. Ratings are meh, and critics who initially loved it now hurl cabbages. But Smash still deserves a chance. Starring Katharine McPhee as the understudy in a musical about Marilyn Monroe, it has a sweet, corny earnestness I like a lot. What's lacking is the brash fun you'd get playing up the flip sides of showbiz: collaborative gushing vs. competitive ruthlessness. (Instead, the chief weasel here is a gofer.) And no more musical numbers about Method acting! That came close to "Springtime for Marilyn."

3 stars

Scandal's Kerry Washington
A CRISIS SITUATION

ARE YOU A SCANDALOUS PERSON?

I don't think so, but my mom, who desperately didn't want me to be an actor, thinks that's being pretty scandalous.

WHAT DID SHE WANT YOU TO BE INSTEAD?

A lawyer or a psychiatrist. She used to say things like, "Well, closing arguments are monologues," and "Psychiatrists try to figure out the way other people think too!"

YOU PLAY AN ACE CRISIS MANAGER. WHAT'S YOUR TRICK FOR STAYING SCANDAL-FREE IN REAL LIFE?

I don't know. And people ask me all the time about scandals and what I think should happen, but I have no clue. I'm not at all a crisis management person. But my privacy is very important to me, for sure.

YOU'RE FILMING THE NEXT QUENTIN TARANTINO FILM, DJANGO UNCHAINED. DID HE GIVE YOU A LOT OF BAD WORDS TO SAY?

No, actually. [laughs] It could not be any more different. I go from playing arguably one of the most powerful women in the world to a slave in the 1800s who is not even considered a human being. It's a little bit of a head trip.

Lunch with ...
BETTY WHITE

The Place: Pacific Dining Car, Santa Monica

The Date: March 9, 12:45 p.m.

The Menu: Cheeseburger, French fries, chocolate soufflé

Two hit TV comedies-and a steady diet of burgers-fuel her appetite for success

Betty White knows what's funny-and what's tasty. Several times a week, she visits her favorite eatery, Santa Monica's Pacific Dining Car, and orders her usual: "A hamburger, lettuce and tomato only, on a bun," says the actress, whose near-daily hankering for "burgers, hot dogs and shoestring fries" often alarms her costars on the hit TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland. "The girls always tell me, 'Betty, you should have a salad!' I say, 'Who's 90 sitting at this table?' They can't argue with that."

Especially because after eight decades in the business, the TV icon (thanks to hit sitcoms like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls) is more successful than ever. In addition to Cleveland, currently in its third season, she hosts Betty White's Off Their Rockers, the NBC reality series featuring senior citizens playing pranks, which "gives the older folk a chance to get the laugh once in a while," she says. Her unexpected popularity surge, sparked by her performance in the 2009 Sandra Bullock romantic comedy The Proposal, is "indecent!" says White. "I know how lucky I am to have this kind of a life. I'm blessed with good health and good energy; that's the bottom line." The self-described "crossword puzzle addict" jokes that she stays in shape thanks to "a very bad memory and a two-story house. It works beautifully!"

Despite turning 90 in January, White still has no plans to embrace the dreaded R-word: "People say, 'Have you ever thought of retiring?' Well, they're trying to talk me off the air-and they can't!"