Back on July 11th, I and other online media outlets got a chance to ask questions of Holly Hunter about the upcoming second season of Saving Grace on TNT. I’ve been putting off transcribing the call, because it takes forever without the proper equipment. Two hours to turn a 21-minute phone recording into what you can now read below is not the way I would like to spend my time. But, it was Holly Hunter, so as with the Kyra Sedgwick interview, I took the time to do it, at least I got it done before the season was over. Also, transcripts are now being provided by TNT, so hopefully this will be the last transcribing I will have to do for a while.

I asked about what got her interested in doing a television show and about practical jokes and the fun they have on set.

Holly Hunter Interview - Saving Grace on TNT

Question: Do you feel like you character has changed at all since Earl has came into the picture and do you feel like his presence is effectively saving Grace?

Holly Hunter: I think you know, Earl’s presence is, I think he wants to give Grace peace. Uh, uh, I think you know that he feels some of the things she struggles with, he wishes she wouldn’t. I think, in the season Grace, Earl finds out a lot about her, you know. I think he, he’s a very close observer of her this season and kind of intimate with her really. Um, and that is, uh, revelatory to both him and her. I mean, they get to know each other better as human being and you know, um, entity, whatever Earl is. He says he’s an angel. Okay. Um, but I think they get to have more understanding about who the other is and I think uh, there are many things that he grows to admire about her, as this season progresses.

Question: I wanted to ask if, kind of going off that question. Will we see any changes in Grace now, between last season and this season?

Hunter: I think she changes all the time actually. I think that there’s give and take inside her. There’s always movement. She’s very kinetic and I think she’s also kinetic in a psychological way. Um, I mean, I would doubt, you know, I think that you know the way that she handles her nephew, for example, is something that changes very suddenly. You know, what she is honest with him about and what she withholds from him. Um, uh, but I think that there’s some distance that Grace covers towards, um, becoming closer with her family.

Question: What are some of your favorite things about playing this character?

Hunter: Uh, you know, I think, you know, probably the most thrilling thing about her, about how alive she is. You know, she’s truly, she’s truly alive in a way so many people are asleep, um, for long periods of time in their days and their lives. I think Grace spends an extraordinary amount of her time, really awake to possibilities and awake to a real true curiosity about why people do what they do. And, I think you know, she also is a real tester of what people are capable of and what she herself is capable of. This is one of the things that I believe attracts her about crime and attracts her about her job is she wants to understand why these people do what they do. And, she has (((inaudible))) and could imagine doing those things herself. You know, the things that the criminal mind is capable of thinking of. Uh, and that’s all so very interesting to her.

Question: I was wondering, uh, how much, uh, did the success of Kyra Sedgwick and The Closer have on you deciding to take on a television show yourself?

Hunter: Well, I think you know, what preceded that was the success of The Shield and Rescue Me and The Sopranos. Uh, I think really started the wild, wild west in cable. Uh, FX and HBO kind of started this new idea, which was real character driven drama. And, and, real drama that’s absolutely 100% fueled by character. And, a character who does uh, anti-heroic things, not a character who’s quirky, but a character who straddles um, you know, two worlds and one world being highly charged with questionable thoughts and behavior, such as Dennis Leary and Tony Soprano and Vic Mackey do. I mean, those characters live in a more similar vein to how Grace lives, except that Grace is a woman. And, I think that uh, you know that’s where cable has really kind of taken off. It’s given women opportunities to play, you know, highly controversial, uh, characters. Women who are doing things that maybe they wouldn’t have been able to do on television 10 years ago. Like, you know, uh, Weeds on Showtime or Glenn Close in Damages or Mini Driver in The Riches. Women who are doing, you know, who are living lives of real deep grayness

Question: I was just wondering with Grace, if you felt that she has, now that you’ve got a first season under your belt with her, taught you anything or that you learned something from her?

Hunter: I would love to be as alive as she is, you know. I mean, that’s a difficult thing to do. You know, like right now I’m definitely not as alive as Grace, cause I just spent a night working till six this morning being (inaudible), so it’s like Holly’s dragging. Oh man. Um, but, you know I, I think her generosity. I think so often Grace doesn’t think of herself. She so often doesn’t. She so often is thinking about how can I make this better, for this person in the way that she is capable of. In the way that she knows how and her skills are different from other people’s skills and her instincts for how to solve problems are different from other people. But, I think there’s something incredibly generous, incredibly pure about her intent. What her intentions are. I think are really beautiful.

Question: The difference in the workload of doing a feature film or TV film with the series, having done a year of the series. Are you easing into it a little more or is it just as hard? How do you compare the two?

Hunter: I think it’s really difficult and it’s really a high. You know, uh, you feel the wind blowing in your hair when you do a series, you know in the best of times. That’s how it feels, like wow we are taking a ride. Um, and other times, it’s just trying to catch up. But, I’ll tell you, you know, this work is really fulfilling. It’s very fulfilling and it’s really kind of, it’s great for me as an actor, you know, as an actress, to get to adapt and be flexible, you know, to be, you’re demanded to be very flexible and very adaptable and to be very much a problem solver on a set like this. And, you know, I kind of used the skills that I’ve developed over these years doing feature films, um, and it just kind of accelerated them, to, to, to make this series. Um, and like I said, you know it’s both exhilarating and somewhat frustrating.

Question: Did you talk to any friends that made the transition into TV before doing this character, playing Grace?

Hunter: I called Dillon McDermott who’d done The Practice, you know, and I called Dillon because he’s a buddy and because I so respect him, uh, and also because he had done a David E. Kelley series. That’s very particular, because, you know, basically I was asking him something I’d never asked an actor before, which was, how do you memorize all those lines? You know, and suddenly that was a very pertinent question, for the first time in my career. Was, with David E. Kelley the actors never stop talking, I mean, it’s just incredibly sophisticated and fast paced dialogue. And, I just asked him, you know, what gives? How do you do this every week? Because that had never been a concern of mine, um, on a, you know, I’ll memorize the entire script before I start shooting a feature, um, it’s no big deal. Or, or a play. But, you know Dillon just said look, you know, it’s a scary ride when you first get on and you’re going to be able to do it and, you know, your memory is going to become a really well used muscle. Very early on and, you know, it’s not going to fail you the way that you’re afraid of. And, you know, he’s right, he was right. Uh, it is, it’s, it has fear inside it thought all the time. The idea of memorizing a script, you know, for two days, having only two days to memorize it and then just shoot it. It’s a, it’s dicey. That’s the technique I’ve ended up using. I just take two days and memorize half the script one day, half the script the next and then just start shooting.

Question: One of thing I noticed in many of your features is, uh, how much location can almost be a character. Whether it’s Arizona in Raising Arizona or the beach in Piano and how much Oklahoma City is really a part of this show. And what your thoughts are on the importance of a locale to enhance the story?

Hunter: Oh, just a great question. Such a great question, I mean, I just saw, you know, a movie called The Gunfighter the other night with Gregory Peck, um, and you know it was just amazing to see that movie, because the locations are so exotic. I mean, they shot that western in someplace where they normally don’t shoot westerns. Sometimes it looked like they were on the Sahara desert. I’m not sure if they were in the States. They probably were, but I was just reminded how potent location can be and how, you know unfortunately, with television, you know, you’re shooting the vast majority of television in Los Angeles and we are no exception. Um, we try to make LA as, as you know, Oklahoma like as we can, but the fact is that we are in LA. Um, and you know, money is always, money is always tight. It’s a gigantic fantasy of ours to be able to shoot in Oklahoma City. It would change everything. It would change everything. You know, but at the same time, you know the brilliance of Los Angeles is the depth of the talent here. I mean, the talent pool in LA just doesn’t stop, from, you know, set decorators to extras to day players to you know, everyone knows how it goes. The whole city knows. And, this is the privilege of being here, is this is what this town is built around and that’s a pleasure, uh, to be here for that. On the other hand, then you have the look and the feel and the look of the people and the behavior of the people in a completely different part of the country.

Question: I’m a fellow Georgia girl, so I wanted to ask you if you ever get back to Atlanta and if there’s any places you try and stop by when you’re in town?

Hunter: Wow, I mean the Fox Theater and The Pleasant Peasant right next door to the Fox, I always loved to go there. I mean, I try to hook up with a tour of the Fox, uh, not long ago and I’m just dying to do it. I didn’t get to it. I went to the aquarium instead, which was outrageous, just outrageous. Um, and I loved to go to, I loved to go to the Fox, which is just one of the great theaters in the world, I think. And, then go to The Peasant, uh, which is right next-door. And, I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts downtown, because that’s like, I don’t know, but I think it might be the second one in the United States and I just remember going to it as a tiny child. It’s a place that I feel I always have to go back to when I go, when I go home about twice a year.

Question: I was wondering, um, how much of a back story were you given for Grace when the series began and um, how much did you kind of create of her as you were going on?

Hunter: Well, you know the script came to me completely whole, I mean, the “Pilot” came to me fully written, we didn’t change a word of it. Nancy Miller, who is the creator of the show and the executive producer and is you know, the main fuel for the fire, you know, such a gifted writer. She, uh, provided me with a lot of back-story of the Oklahoma City bombing. She was raised in Oklahoma City. Uh, so you know, she is my main source of information and inspiration.

Question: What are some other shows you like to watch when you have downtime to watch TV?

Hunter: The Sopranos, The Shield, Weeds, uh you know, I think Rescue Me has just been kind of an amazing thing and uh, Mad Men. The Wire is kind of incredible. The Wire is amazing.

Question: I was wondering, the show deals with so many um, serious topics and stuff like that, I was wondering if you could sort of talk on the other side, if there are any funny stories or practical joking that goes on, on the set?

Hunter: Oh my god. Like, well the practical jokes really, really are extensive this year and they’re all on screen. So, I’m not going to bust any of them out. They’re pretty good and extremely elaborate. And, and there’s a lot of them.

Question: Holly, what you’re most looking forward to for this second season, overall on the show or maybe just for Grace?

Hunter: Well, you know it’s always interesting to see where the writers take me and then I just go. But, you know this season the scripts have been, you know, extraordinary, really extraordinary. We’re just getting ready to start shooting our eighth script and it’s wow, what a, what a great thing to have experienced each one of these stories. You know, this is a more complex, uh, ride that Grace takes. It’s a very, very sophisticated show in some ways and I think it kind of found itself over the first season. Because, it’s complex in character and in plot and in you know, how Grace connects with her personal world and how she connects with her professional world. Um, and so, I think we’ve struck that balance right away in this season and last season we found that balance, as the stories went on. So, that’s been really exciting to be part of that, uh, really being able to take the show to another level.

Saving Grace plays tonight on TNT after a new episode of The Closer.

A couple of weeks back I had the opportunity along with a few other online media outlets to ask questions of Steven Bochco, the guy behind previous hits like NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues and Doogie Howser, M.D., about his new show coming to TNT, Raising the Bar. It stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar (NYPD Blue), Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), and Gloria Reuben (ER) and is produced by Bochco.

Below you will find the entire transcript, minus the hellos, thank yous, moderator intros and such. I was actually first up, so the first two questions are mine. I had one further question, but we ran out of time before I could ask it. Yet, the final questioner ended up asking pretty much the same question I was going to ask, so it worked out really well.

Steven Bochco Interview - Executive Producer of Raising the Bar on TNT

Question: You’ve been a part of lots of TV shows over the years. I was wondering what it is for you that keeps bringing you back to cop shows and courtroom drama.

Steven Bochco: Well, for me, cop shows and legal dramas are sort of opposite ends of the same pole. They’re all about the criminal justice system and I think that’s a fascinating mirror of society.

The laws that we pass, the laws that we enforce, the way in which changing social values impact on the way law is interpreted. Those are really, really interesting elements to storytelling. And of course, any time you’re in a court room or in a police drama, the stakes are very high for people. Their very lives are – the family impacted by what happens in those courtrooms or in those police stations. So any time you’re telling stories where the human stakes are high, you have an opportunity to really tell complex character-driven stories. So, just as a writer, that’s the kind of stuff that’s always appealed to me.

Q: OK, and could you talk a little bit about the development process of Raising the Bar and how the show came about?

Bochco: Sure. I co-created it with a fellow named David Feige. And David was a public defender in the Bronx for 12 or 15 years. And he wrote a book, for some reason I’m just blank on the title of the book, but it doesn’t matter. There was some interest in it being developed as a TV series. It’s called Indefensible. And David got a hold of me through some mutual friends because he felt that if his book was going to be turned into a television show, he wanted to get involved with me. And I read the book, and it’s a terrific book, very interesting and very entertaining. But I told him that I didn’t want to do a series about public defenders for a variety of reasons.

I had done a show that was not dissimilar some years ago called Philly with Kim Delany about a criminal defense attorney. But in our conversations back and forth, he was so passionate about his work and the court system that I said well, If you want to start from scratch and develop a show that’s not exclusively about public defenders but is about the entire criminal justice system, with a point of view that it’s an essentially busted system, that its flaws sort of profoundly subvert what the system in theory is supposed to do, then I’m interested. And so that’s where we started and I was very fortunate to gain the interest of Michael Wright at TNT and they bought it and then we just went from there.

Question: I saw the pilot and I enjoyed it. Given all that you know and all that you’ve learned about the justice system and how it works and how it doesn’t work, are you a cynic or might you still choose to have at least a little faith in the system.

Bochco: Well they say a cynic is a betrayed idealist. I think I have a high level of idealism in me as well. I’m not that cynical about it. I think that the system, as flawed as it is, gets it right more often than it gets it wrong.

Q: Like in the pilot, the right thing happens, maybe not necessarily for the right reasons but it still happens.

Bochco: Exactly. And that was a carefully constructed story to convey that notion that when you have people on both sides who are really dedicated to the system and trying to get it right, that one way or another more often than not it’ll work. And sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes there are very sad terrible injustices that get committed.

But by the same token, very often, no matter how passionately you advocate on a client’s behalf, they did the crime. And they’re going to get convicted and that’s a right outcome, too. And I think that’s a point of view that we want to represent as strongly as we represent the defense point of view.

Q: Mark-Paul is very impressive in the premiere. What do you think of him as an actor and as a person?

Bochco: I love him and I don’t say that loosely. I really adore this guy. Such a special guy. When we worked together on NYPD Blue for, I think it was five years. I really came to have enormous regard for him personally as well as artistically. He’s passionate about the work. He really invests himself in the work, and yet he’s not a prima donna, he’s just a wonderful person to work with. You just couldn’t have a better guy on your team.

Q: And last for me, and then I’ll let some other people talk. Given all the work that you’ve done as a writer and as producer over the years, I don’t think you have anything left to prove to anyone. What drives you?

Bochco: Well, I still love telling these kinds of stories. And what’s interesting about it, is that if you do a cop show or a legal drama roughly every generation, every 10 to 15 years, something like that, those – the criminal justice system is a reflection of the society that it serves. And as social morals, social values shift with the passage of time, those shifts are reflected in the way the system works.

And so you can take a story that you told in 1983 on Hill Street Blues, and when you tell that story in 1995, it’s a different story because it’s in a different generation. And then if you take that story of – one of the stories we did on Raising the Bar this season was the inside-out version of a story that we did on NYPD Blue, 15 years ago.

But what we did, instead of telling that story from the point of view of a cop who was prosecuting a guy who committed a terrible crime, we told that story, not exactly, but a similar story, but we told it from the point of view from the lawyer charged with the responsibility of defending him. And because of the shift in the point of view, it’s a completely different story. So that’s fun for me. And as long as I have a high level of enthusiasm of doing this work , that I still have, and if there’s somebody willing to let me do it, I’m showing up to my desk every day.

Question: So you’re talking a lot about these social and moral shifts, and obviously in television we’ve seen a lot of that happen over the past few years. I’m wondering if your decisions to go the cable route gives you more freedom and how much of the FCC’s developments over the past few years contributed to that.

Bochco: Well I think there’s somewhat more freedom in cable, and certainly a ton more freedom if you’re talking about HBO or Showtime because those are not advertiser-driven services. But for me, the issue, or the appeal of cable over broadcast these days is less about FCC stuff as it is just about pure content stuff.

It seems to me that there’s been a real shift in broadcast television away from the kinds of shows that I like to do. And so for me to continue to do these kinds of shows that are not fantastical, they’re not about superheroes or vampires or guys that live 800 years, or whatever. Which is fine, they’re entertaining, they do well.

I’ve got no problem with that. But it’s just not what I do. And so as a practical matter, for me to still do the kinds of things I like to do, it requires that I do that stuff in the cable world, which, by the way, I’m happy to do because it’s a very, very respectful environment from a creative point of view. Nobody’s looking over your shoulder, nobody’s micromanaging you. Everyone is so respectful of what we do. And in return it generates a lot of respect that we have for them.

Q: And what do you think about the state of broadcast TV? Could you still do something on broadcast TV right now?

Bochco: I suppose, I mean I could. If somebody was interested in something that I wanted to do, was passionate about doing. It just doesn’t seem these days – I mean it’s not – if somebody from a network came to me and said we’d love to do a show with you and let’s talk about something you’re passionate about, I would have that conversation in a minute. I just don’t’ think generally speaking these days, that the kind of programming that broadcast networks are interested in is the kind of stuff I do.

Question: Over the years, it’s such a stellar resume of shows that you’ve created.

Bochco: You haven’t seen some of my stinkers.

Q: Well the ones that stand out, and even some of the ones that don’t, but the unifying thread amongst all of them is this cast that goes three, four, five major characters deep, that each character could almost have their own show. When you set out to create a new show, is that something as a benchmark for yourself, to meet the demand of a cast of a show of yours?

Bochco: Well, the kinds of shows that t I’m attracted to generally have a large population If you’re doing a show about the criminal justice system, you’re looking at prosecutors and public defenders and judges and legal secretaries. I mean, there’s a world there. And so what you try to do is you populate the world, is to get very specific about who these people are. And how do you service – from a storytelling point of view, how do you service their needs in a medium that really confines you to about 43 minutes of storytelling.

And to the extent that necessity is the mother of invention, you figure out ways to arc stories over multiple episodes so that you can tell complex stories about secondary characters. And when you start thinking of telling your stories that way, you wind up giving everybody in the mix meaningful story time. And it’s sort of something that evolved over the years, and because I feel like I know how to do that, I’m never intimidated by the size of the cast. In Raising the Bar, I think we have nine regulars.

Q: And that’s what struck me about Raising the Bar, was the cast is that deep. And I would also still think it would lend itself to being able to create compelling drama over that magic number, 100 episodes …

Bochco: You’re right. Obviously, when you have a significant ensemble it just gives you so many storytelling opportunities. We did – we had a slightly shorter order, this year, this first season. We only made 10 of them. And I feel like we could have made 20 more, or 10 more without breathing that hard because they’re all such good characters and they all have such specific lives. I feel like we haven’t even begun to sort of touch on any of those stories as we can. So in success, if we’re lucky enough to have some success with this show, I think that we’ll be able to really sustain ourselves for a good long time.

Q: It’s just so rich. And lastly, to ask because I may be one in a million, but I enjoyed Cop Rock. And frankly, I don’t’ know if it scared you away or anything, but any desire before you pull a curtain on your career to revisit the musical genre?

Bochco: I don’t think so. And certainly that’s not because that show failed. I mean, I’ve had shows that failed, I’ve had cop shows that have failed, I’ve had legal shows that have failed. You dust yourself off and you keep going. I’m not sure that in the context of a drama you can – I’m just not sure that works. I loved doing it. I had one of the best times, actually, that I’ve ever had doing the show because it was so challenging to sort of marry the storytelling to the music. And just the production challenge of figuring out how to do it on a television budget was really fun and interesting.

But I think fundamentally, there was some level of embarrassment with the audience. They just didn’t want to look at it. It made them uncomfortable in some kind of primal way. It’s like when your stupid uncle Louie gets drunk at thanksgiving and decides to belt out (U Beldie) or something. I ‘m just not sure it works. I don’t know that I want to go down that road again.

Question: Steven. Thanks for answering all our questions today. Thanks for also filling us in on your move to cable and what it means to you.

Perhaps you could let us know what you find inspiring currently, in terms of programming out there, if it’s a particular person, or show, or space.

Bochco: Well, what I’m sort of inspired by, generally, is how diverse the cable universe is in terms of the kind of shows that are out there. Everything from Nip/Tuck, or Damages, or Closer or Mad Men. Obviously, shows like The Sopranos, and Larry David’s show, Curb Your Enthusiasm. I mean, you’re looking at such a rich tapestry of stuff. It’s enormously encouraging. For everybody who says broadcast television is really the pits and whatever, it’s – it does what it does, and cable does what it does, and HBO and Showtime does what it does.

And when you lump it all in there, there’s this incredible menu of stuff to pick and choose from to the point where it’s – I mean if you’re a really ((inaudible)) television watcher, you’re going to have a hard time watching everything that’s worth looking it. There’s just so many good things out there. It’s not so much that I think less people are watching television. It’s that they’re watching in so many different venues that the gross numbers tend to go down.

Q: And they have things like Hulu and those other places to watch programming again that maybe isn’t being counted.

Bochco: Sure, absolutely.

Question: I wanted to ask you a little bit, you’ve obviously done mostly kind of, legal, cop, courtroom related stuff. But you’ve also gone into the medical field a little bit and I was talking to Gloria Reuben yesterday about this. I was wondering what it is about those two in particular and how they’re similar and different.

Bochco: Well if I could be completely candid here, I’m not as attracted to medical dramas as I am to the legal dramas. I didn’t enjoy doing that as much as these shows which I keep coming back to because I think that just for me, they’re richer. There’s more and varied storytelling that I can access than in a medical drama.

That said, I really loved what I always thought was a somewhat underrated show that I did, called Doogie Howser, with Neil Patrick Harris. But that was less a medical show, and more a show about a fish out of water, if you know. A prodigy and what it’s like to grow up being a prodigy in a world where everybody looks at you like you’re a freak. So I really loved doing that show.

Q: Cool. And actually, since you mentioned Neil. You know he and Mark-Paul have sort of been able to successfully evolve from the child TV star, Teen TV star to adulthood. Are there any sort of similarities you’ve seen in the way they handle things that maybe made them sort of more capable of handling that transition or anything like that?

Bochco: Well you know what’s interesting is that both those actors are amongst the most professional I’ve ever worked with in terms of just their work ethic and they’re behavior. And I think it’s because they had so much early success that it kind of just came with their territory. It’s not like they struggled and struggled and struggled and struggled and by the time they got successful they had so much angst and so many resentments that they misbehave and act out. I mean, these guys, since they were kids they’ve just shown up and done their jobs. They’re both wonderful, bright, and wonderfully committed workers.

Question: I wanted to know particularly about anything about Raising the Bar. How much will the episodes focus on a particular case versus the character stories and their character development? It seemed in the pilot anyway that it’s somewhat focused on the characters, and so I wondered if that’s going to continue throughout the series.

Bochco: We’ve made 10 episodes and your job is always tough because it’s sort of being asked to review a book based on reading one chapter, which is hard. But I think over the course of our 10 episodes, there’s a really good mix of caseload and personal stuff. What I’ve always tried to do in these shows is to make the cases as much about the lawyers as about the defendant so that you put the lawyer or lawyers into sort of complicated damned if you do, damned if you don’t situations. So that compelling aspects of the story aren’t just, gee, the defendant going to be found guilty or innocent.

So we put a lot of time and effort into the cases. As the shows evolved, we’re doing two and sometimes three cases in every episode. So there’s a lot of good courtroom legal stuff. And I hope that people over the course of the show will become connected to the characters.

Q: And it’s kind of surprising because you ((inaudible)) sort of been working on the show. And I know that every show must have unexpected. The things that you don’t quite plan on that sort of turn things in a different direction or enlighten you as to maybe things you weren’t anticipating including in the show.

Bochco: Well you know that happens a lot. And it’s a function of chemistry. When you do a pilot for television series, it’s a little bit like a shotgun marriage. You’re sort of imposing elements on each other under the gun, if you will. And then what happens as you begin to see how your actors interact with each other, what kind of chemistry there is between certain actors and other actors, and when you see that stuff, sometimes it’s revelatory. Like, oh my gosh, there’s something to really write to that I hadn’t anticipated in the pilot.

This cast, in particular, they’re are wonderful, gifted group of people and it’s been so much fun sort of discovering who they are, who their characters are, because no matter what you give them to do, they just embrace it so heartily. There are some complicated characters in these things. Secrets that they have, ((inaudible)) and they have ambitions. And because they’re young, the lawyers are young, they’re still in their formative years in terms of character. Who they are today isn’t necessarily who they’ll be in five years or eight years or 10 years. So capturing that complexity in that time in their lives is really, it’s wonderful. Particularly with a group of actor who just seem to sparkle with each other, so I think we’re really blessed with the group.

Raising the Bar premieres on Labor Day, Monday, September 1st after a new episode of The Closer. Look for an interview with Mark-Paul Gosselaar next Monday.

TV Talk Radio had a special Sunday edition today. I was on with Amrie from Seat42f and host Shaun OMac. As the name of the show implies, we talked about TV. More specifically, we talked about what we’ve been watching and what’s coming up.

We covered Michael Shanks’ (Stargate SG-1) guest starring stint on Burn Notice, tonight’s season finale of In Plain Sight, and Kevin Sorbo (Hercules) and the James Bond-esque fun they had on The Middleman, among others.

You can listen with the player above, download it from BlogTalkRadio or find it on iTunes .

News & Notes

On cable tonight, A&E has the second season finale of The Two Coreys, BBC America has the two-hour series premiere of Skins, Comedy Central has a Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget special, G4 has the second season finale of Code Monkeys, Lifetime Movie Network has the TV movie premiere of Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story, Oxygen has the sixth season finale of Snapped, Sci Fi has the TV movie premiere of Black Swarm, Spike has the miniseries premiere of Kung Fu Killer, and USA has the first season finale of In Plain Sight.

I will be on a special Sunday edition of TV Talk with Shaun OMac today. You can listen live at 3:00 p.m. PT. I will be on about 3:20 p.m. PT. I will also post the player here when it becomes available. Or, you can download the show later at iTunes .

Prime Picks

The Simpsons (FOX): Repeat. Marge is reminiscing about her college years, in “That ’90s Show” from this past season.
Aliens in America (The CW): Repeat. Raja starts smoking and it gets others smoking again and then they all have to try and quit, in “Purple Heart.”

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX): Repeat. Sarah is still worried about the capabilities of Andy’s computer and Agent Ellison finds some evidence where a Terminator fight took place, in “Queen’s Gambit.”

Desperate Housewives (ABC): Repeat. Bree and Katherine may be starting a business together and Mike finds out the truth behind his accident, in “Hello, Little Girl” from this past season.

Solid Selections

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC): Repeat. A family in New Hampshire that lost their house in a flood gets a new one from the team.

Million Dollar Password (CBS): Repeat. Steve Schirripa (The Sopranos) was one of the celebrity participants.

Cold Case (CBS): Repeat. The team enters the world of cheerleading when a case gets reopened after new direction is found as part of an art exhibit, in “A Dollar, a Dream” from season four.

Cable Choices

Food Network Challenge (Food Network): New. It’s an “Ice Cream Clash.” Four chefs compete to make the best ice cream. Plays again later.

Iron Chef America (Food Network): New. It’s a special “Brain Freeze Battle” between Iron Chef Bobby Flay and chef Jose Garces. Plays again later.

Mad Men (AMC): New. Peggy’s family is hosting a lunch for the new priest at church. Don and Betty have a nice weekend. Plays twice and again later.

Other Options

• Army Wives (Lifetime): New. It’s all about “Mothers & Wives” tonight. Last week’s episode, “Duplicity,” replays right before. Both episodes play again later.
• Generation Kill (HBO): New. Part six of seven. First Recon is trying to help civilians that are fleeing Baghdad. Runs 75 minutes. Plays again later.
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (USA): New. Logan is reopening a 16 year old case and it turns into his last. Chris Noth leaves the Law & Order franchise for the second time tonight. Plays again tomorrow morning after Olympic coverage.
• Little Girl Lost: The Delimar Vera Story (Lifetime Movie Network): TV Movie Premiere. Read a synopsis and my short review. Plays again later.
• In Plain Sight (USA): Season Finale. I smell a cliffhanger coming, as Mary has to figure out how to save her sister and herself from the FBI hot to get someone for the death of two of their agents. Stan and Marshall try and get Spanky to talk about who was really behind the drugs. Plays again tomorrow morning after Olympic coverage. USA has picked the show up for a second season.
• Skins (BBC America): Series Premiere. Watch a couple videos and read more about the show. Plays again later.

Sports Notes

• ABC has Little League World Series action.
• ESPN has NASCAR racing with the Sprint Cup: 3M Performance 400 and later Sunday Night Baseball with the Philadelphia Phillies at the San Diego Padres.
• ESPN2 has Little League World Series action.
• NBC along with other various NBC Universal owned cable outlets will have Olympic coverage. Checkout NBCOlympics.com for listings of what events are playing when and where over the next eight days.
• NFL Network has preseason football action with the New England Patriots at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
• TBS has MLB action with the Milwaukee Brewers at the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Late Night

• Breaking Bad (AMC): Repeat. Episode four “Cancer Man” replays. Episode five plays next week.

TV Marathons

Discovery Channel has 11 episodes of MythBusters.
MTV has five episode of Randy Jackson Presents: America’s Best Dance Crew followed by 11 hours of The Hills programming.
Oxygen has 26 episodes of Snapped.
TLC has seven episodes of What Not to Wear.
USA has 10 episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent including tonight’s new episode.