Original Air Date: March 14, 2008

On the second episode of this unfunny sitcom from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, the main character, SARAH TOMPKINS, lives in an entirely different place than in the preceding pilot episode — and there’s zero explanation why. Before, she lived in a brownstone or house, a fact that was apparent in the pilot’s very first scene, when she opened the front door next to her living room for a neighborhood boy who lived across the street. The street and nearby homes were even partially visible through the door.

Now, Sarah lives in a huge co-op apartment that only an independently wealthy book editor could afford. She gives an unimpressed COCO the grand tour, blabbering the entire time, until their father RONALD shows up unexpectedly and both sister grow anxious — Sarah because she knows her dad hasn’t seen Coco in a while, and Coco because she thinks his arrival indicates a set-up intervention, an event that has happened before apparently.

Ron comes in with the couch he found on the street in the pilot episode, which he’s reupholstered especially for Sarah since her ex took their old couch with him when he left. Ron doesn’t notice Coco during his long monologue about the piece of furniture. Sarah has to point her younger sister out, and even then, it’s no big deal to their father.

Coco soon wonders why their mother TALIA hasn’t come in, and Sarah reveals she won’t unless she’s invited. (And, yes, the similarity to a vampire is duly noted.) Talia arrives after Sarah goes down to the car to get her, and the two sisters reveal the baby development to their parents next.

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Original Air Date: March 14, 2008

SARAH TOMPKINS, a successful children’s book editor in her late 30s, just broke up with her boyfriend of ten years named Matt. Although they were together for a decade, they never got married or had children. As a result, Sarah’s father is gravely concerned that if she waits much longer, she’ll never have kids because she’ll be too old.

Despite her anal-retentiveness and dedication to her career, Sarah is ready to have a child, and she pursues getting pregnant with a sperm donor. Her doctor informs her that she won’t be able to conceive, however, because she has a condition called Asherman’s Syndrome that causes scarring on the uterus. It’s possible to correct the problem surgically sometimes, but not in Sarah’s case.

Sarah’s first reaction to the news is disbelief. So, she tells her doctor a childhood story about how she wanted to be a cheerleader, which required doing cartwheels. She couldn’t, though, and she forced herself to stay outside one day until she learned how to do them perfectly in both directions. Unimpressed, the doctor suggests she consider adoption. But, Sarah is against that option because she doesn’t even like strangers using her bathroom.

Sarah takes the adoption literature the doctor offers anyway, and we next see her frazzled after having dinner with MARCUS, her “no drama, no emotions, just sex” man-friend. Marcus notices that Sarah’s been out of it all evening, but since they don’t discuss anything significant, all she does is bawl and talk nonsense.

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As savvy fans of science-fiction TV already know, ten members from the cast of Sci Fi Channel’s stellar series Battlestar Galactica read the popular Top Ten list on the most recent Late Show with David Letterman.

The fourth and regrettably final season of the Peabody-winning space drama takes off on April 4, preceded on March 28 by two back-to-back half-hour specials. Fittingly, the theme of last night’s very entertaining segment was the Top Ten Reasons to Watch the New Season of Battlestar Galactica.

All of the cast members did a fine job delivering their lines, of course. The absolute best reasons to tune in to BSG’s fourth season were presented by the ladies, however. And, if you watch the show, that the women rock is not surprising in the least.

My personal favorite three picks from the Top Ten are:

• 3. Lucy Lawless (Cylon D’Anna Biers): You’ll find out what’s in the hatch and who gets off the island — Crap, wrong show
  [Lost, anyone? — Top Ten #9]
• 2. Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin): I take on the most challenging task of my political career — doing a lame top ten list on a third-rate talk show
  [That isn't really a reason to watch BSG specifically, but it's still funny — Top Ten #2]
• 1. Katee Sackhoff (Captain Kara “Starbuck” Thrace): We engage in a life-and-death battle against evil robots … you know, same shit as last year
  [Tell me about it; but, at least this shit is captivating — Top Ten #3]

I’ve included a clip of the entire Late Show segment after the jump. And, as a bonus for comedy fans who love Battlestar, too, there’s also the eight-minute What the Frak Is Going On?! recap video that summarizes everything you need to know from the first three seasons of the series in video format. Enjoy!

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It’s highly possible that Charlie’s Angels, Kill Bill, and Ally McBeal star Lucy Liu won’t return to television on ABC’s underwhelming rich-chicks-with-problems series Cashmere Mafia, which many people, including me, believe will/should be canceled.

Fortunately, the beautiful actress has other things to keep her busy, though. As a Global Ambassador for UNICEF (the United Nations Children’s Fund), Liu was all over ABC Wednesday morning, appearing on both The Martha Stewart Show and The View.

The main focus of her visits was to help promote her latest humanitarian efforts regarding today’s World Water Day 2008. The annual one-day initiative, first observed in 1993, emerged from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, and this year’s theme is sanitation.

I learned a while ago that Martha Stewart’s show isn’t a good source of brief video clips since the household wiz has guests tackling all sorts of homemaking activities that take forever to finish. Consequently, the interview excerpted after the jump comes from The View, where Liu explains how participating restaurants will play a crucial role in today’s objectives.

Instead of automatically offering water free of charge with meals, some eating establishments will ask diners to donate $1. According to Liu, that tiny amount is enough to provide forty children in Africa and other deprived regions with clean water for an entire day. So, if you eat out today, remember to determine if your chosen eatery is involved with this very worthy cause.

Now on to the clip and Liu…

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The next two new episodes of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne are called “Can I Get a Witness?” and “Commencement Day.”

On “Can I Get a Witness?” at 10pm EST, Calvin somehow gets the idea that he needs witness protection, and Ella copes with potential cancer after a lump is found in her breast.

Then, on “Commencement Day” at 10:30pm, Calvin discovers that recent information indicating he’s about to graduate from college isn’t accurate. Unfortunately, he’s already told everyone about the grand occasion. Oops!

As usual, the new episodes follow two House of Payne repeats, August 2007’s “Teacher’s Pet” at 9pm and last September’s “Weeping May Endure for a Night” at 9:30pm.

Did you catch Judy Greer of ABC’s Miss/Guided on The View this morning? She came across as so genuinely nice, I’m looking forward to her new show even more than I was previously.

The actress — who has been in over 35 films and television shows, according to one co-host — discussed several interesting subjects. For anyone who’s familiar with her career, there’s the obvious fact that she often plays a supporting character, such as a best friend of the star in both 13 Going on 30 and 27 Dresses. Greer was also a ballet dancer for a long time, and terrible at it, she says.

The best part of the interview is when she talks about a very nice thing that Miss/Guided executive producer Ashton Kutcher did for her and her father. It made me and I’m sure just about everyone watching go, “Awww. Ain’t that sweeeet!” Greer really deserves this chance to shine in a leading role, so I hope the series becomes a winner for her.

Check out the Miss/Guided star’s appearance after the jump.

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Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe nominee Minnie Driver stopped by Ellen DeGeneres‘ show on Monday morning, a fitting time since the English star of The Riches is part Irish and yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day.

Of course, the actress’ recently confirmed pregnancy was a major topic of discussion, along with her black Labrador Buddy, which apparently isn’t too thrilled at the moment about her expanding belly.

The interview actually fit into one commercial-free segment. But, Driver, who freely admits she spends a lot of time upchucking these days, was nice enough to stick around for a game-show type feature afterwards.

Two audience members went head-to-head in a holiday-inspired, charades-style game called Off the Top o’ Me Head, and one won a TiVo while the other received — wait for it — a six-day trip to Dublin, Ireland.

Wow! How about that?! And just like all talk-show audience members, all she paid to get in for the show was nothing. Lucky lady…

Anyway, I’ve included clips of both segments after the jump.

The Riches airs Tuesdays on FX at 10pm EST.

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That Ashton Kutcher sure has turned out to be way more talented than anyone probably ever suspected back during his pretty-boy modeling days.

Following the actor’s mega success producing first Punk’d on MTV and then Beauty and the Geek on The CW (let’s just call last year’s NBC failure The Real Wedding Crashers a minor, forgivable glitch — everyone’s allowed to have one or two in their career), Kutcher returns to the tube tonight with his latest project, the ABC/Caroline Williams sitcom Miss/Guided, or Miss Guided, as the network is now spelling it.

The series stars Love Monkey and Arrested Development’s Judy Greer as high-school guidance counselor Becky Freeley, who we quickly learn had a horrible time of it as an insecure loser when she attended the very same high school she now works at.

So, what happens to poor newly confident Becky when the popular, beautiful, intelligent nemesis from her teenage years shows up as a colleague? Tune in to tonight’s “Homecoming” series premiere at 10:32pm EST to find out.

Advance word on the show indicates the time spent will be worth it. And, the fact that Todd Holland of The Larry Sanders Show, Wonderfalls, and Malcolm in the Middle comedy goodness is also involved on the directing and executive-producing fronts only reinforces that sentiment.

Starting March 20, ABC will air Miss/Guided in back-to-back episodes on Thursdays at 8pm and 8:30pm EST.

Basic cable’s FX has a penchant for creating original series with enough personality and drama to pack a huge punch. In other words, when you watch an episode of such shows, the events stick with you long after the last scene has faded from the TV screen.

Tonight at 10pm EST, one of those series will return for its abbreviated second season, thanks to you know what. I’m talking about the Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver dramedy The Riches, of course, which kicks things off with the premiere episode “The Last Temptation of Wayne.” Although patriarch Wayne will remain behind in Eden Falls, it looks like the rest of the thieving Malloys will begin traveling again. I feel for anyone who crosses them or their path.

To get everybody back up to speed and to provide a bit of insight into the series for both fans and newcomers, I’ve included a couple of behind-the-scenes featurettes after the jump. Take a look at what cast members have to say about the Malloys’ attempts to steal the American Dream and cope with the accompanying struggles. Nobody ever said getting your hands on an elusive goal that big would be easy…

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Ask anybody who watches The New Adventures of Old Christine and they’ll tell you point blank — one of the best things about the show is comic-actress Wanda Sykes, who plays the dysfunctional, calm, straight-talking yin to Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘ character’s dysfunctional, neurotic, blubbering yang. When you get these two women and their polar-opposite personalities together, it’s always funny.

One reason why Sykes rocks her role is because she’s long been recognized by her peers and anybody else with half a brain who’s seen her perform as one of the best standup comics in the business. That’s why when she makes the rounds on the talk shows, like she’s been doing this month, it’s always a good idea to stop and watch the resulting interviews.

I’ve got two ready for sampling right here, right now. They’re daytime and nighttime appearances, sort of like Barb and Old Christine’s contrary dispositions. The first interview is from the March 12th episode of daytime’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the second chat is from the March 6th installment of nighttime’s Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Since DeGeneres and Ferguson are both comic-actors with tons of sitcom experience themselves, their conversations with Sykes are even more of a treat. See what I’m talking about after the jump.

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