On ABC's recently premiered In Case of Emergency (Wednesdays at 9:30 pm/ET), David Arquette stars as Jason, a corporate whiz freshly felled by scandal, and now leaning on a group of similarly shamed high-school classmates (played by Greg Germann, Jonathan Silverman and Kelly Hu). TVGuide.com spoke with Arquette about his and wife/Dirt-headliner Courteney Cox's new bids at small-screen success.

TVGuide.com: For a guy who was about to kill himself, In Case of Emergency's Jason has this fun swagger, especially when flirting with Lori Loughlin's character.David Arquette: Yeah! Up until this time in Jason's life, it's all come pretty easily, but now he's facing an Enron type of scandal.... He still has that swagger, but life starts becoming a little more difficult for him.

TVGuide.com: Maybe he figures, "I've got nothing to lose at this bleak point, so I may as well go for it with the engaged lady doctor."Arquette: Exactly. There is that element of him, like, refiguring out his life, as are the rest of the characters, which is fun. This guy has been successful and rich, and now he finds himself as a volunteer nurse. Eventually, he also loses his apartment and his car and has to start over again.

TVGuide.com: Since a lot of people may associate you with the Scream trilogy's Dewey, are you glad to bring them this slightly less inept would-be Romeo?Arquette: [Laughs] Yeah. I loved playing Dewey — that was a fun character, and the fact that I got to meet my wife [on the Scream set] was a huge bonus. But yeah, [on Emergency] I get to do a lot of slapstick, a lot of over-the-top, crazy physical comedy, which I love. From Lucille Ball to [Three's Company's] Jack Tripper, it's always fun to see that kind of stuff.

TVGuide.com: There's a nice familiar chemistry among the men on the cast. Have you worked with any of them before?Arquette: I haven't, no, but we clicked immediately. I find them both to be really hilarious people, so I had a blast working with them.

TVGuide.com: Are you still in touch with anybody from your own high school?Arquette: I went to high school with a lot of my good buddies, so yeah, I see them often. It's cool, because they keep you down-to-earth, you can't get away with a lot....

TVGuide.com: Right, if you try to pull any "Hollywood hotshot" stuff, they'll call you on it. Arquette: No, that doesn't fly at all.

TVGuide.com: You and Courteney also have Dirt on the air right now....Arquette: Right, that's on FX Tuesday nights, and we're really excited about it. What goes on with her character and the show in general in the weeks to come is really compelling and scandalous, crazy stuff. I'm excited to see how people feel about that, especially what sort of buzz it gets on the Internet.

TVGuide.com: Any side bets regarding whose acting vehicle does better?Arquette: [Laughs] No, no, not at all.... One thing you can't be, as far as internally with your family and friends, is competitive. There's so much competition in this business anyway, you [have to] root for each other doing well.

TVGuide.com: Feature-wise, do you have anything coming up?Arquette: The Tripper, which I directed and wrote and all my friends are in, is going to be in theaters April 20. At least that's a date I'm pushing for, 4/20 [aka National Pot Smokers Day], because the film takes place in a sort of [Grateful] Dead show-like concert, and there are a lot of drug elements to it.

TVGuide.com: Which past project of yours got the shortest shrift?Arquette: Well, there's one movie called Dream with the Fishes that was close to my heart, and based on a true story. It was a great independent film, and a wonderful guy named Finn Taylor directed it. And I got to work with a kid named Brad Hunt, who became one of my close friends. Also, The Grey Zone....

TVGuide.com: That was Tim Blake Nelson's, right?Arquette: Yeah, he directed and wrote it. It's this really dark look at the Holocaust, where some Jews were considered Sondercommandos — they kind of fooled other Jews into the gas chambers, essentially, in exchange for living a few more months. They ended up staging a revolt that saved some people.

TVGuide.com: As an actor, do you have a preference between drama and comedy?Arquette: It's always really fun to do comedy, because hopefully, if the people you're working with are cool, you get to laugh and cut up. That's really my favorite part of the business, when a bunch of fun people have a good time. It always translates onto the screen.

TVGuide.com: Who's funnier back at home, you or Courteney?Arquette: Court's pretty funny. I mean, her sense of humor is great. We just went on vacation, and we were laughing the whole time!

For the scoop on more new shows, pick up the "2007 Preview" issue of TV Guide, now on newsstands.

Normally, we don't even bother to interview the cast-offs from the first few episodes of reality shows — after just an episode or two, we don't know enough about them to care, really. Not so with the first pair eliminated from Season 3 of the CW's Beauty and the Geek (Wednesdays at 8 pm/ET), 24-year-old med student Sanjay (last name withheld) and 26-year-old model Tori Elmore. The two clashed early on, when Sanjay accused Tori of not studying enough; then she tearfully complained that he was unsupportive after she flubbed her interview with Freakonomics author Stephen Dubner. It's a good thing TVGuide.com interviewed them separately, 'cause there are two sides to this failed fairy tale.

First, Sanjay's story:

TVGuide.com: Why did you want to do Beauty and the Geek?Sanjay: I thought it would be a good learning experience to try to work on myself socially. I haven't had a girlfriend, really. I had this idea that I'd go there and come back completely made over.

TVGuide.com: Had you seen the show before?Sanjay: I'd heard about it, but I'd never watched it. It was actually my boss, Dr. Levi at UCLA, who said I'd be perfect for the show. I sent in the application to the second season and made the final casting call, but I didn't make the show. Then they called me back for the third season.

TVGuide.com: Do you think of yourself as being a geek?Sanjay: I think geek is the new cool. I'm a big rap fan, and I heard this Jay-Z song: He said 30 is the new 20, and I thought it was hilarious.

TVGuide.com: You listen to hip-hop, and you really didn't know what "booty" was until the show?Sanjay: No, I didn't! I always get confused on the drug references. I don't go out a lot, I don't go to a lot of clubs. The group of gentlemen I hang out with don't use that term. The only hip-hop term I'm familiar with is "bling-bling."

TVGuide.com: Did you and Tori consider taking the $20,000 they offered at the start of the show to anyone who wanted to leave? They didn't show you two discussing it. Sanjay: They didn't show us because as soon as Tori and I both got into the room, we were like, "We're not gonna take the money." There was no question.

TVGuide.com: What happened when it came time to study for the challenges? Did Tori not study at all?Sanjay: I just felt like she went to sleep really early, while all the other beauties were studying. I don't think she put in as much effort as everyone else. I was really disappointed she wasn't playing the "game" like everyone else was. A lot of the other beauties were networking with each other, and she was sort of isolated off in a corner. I wanted to make an alliance with a team.

TVGuide.com: Did you try to help her study?Sanjay: I offered to help her that night, and I offered to help her in the morning. I think she was just very passive-aggressive the whole time.

TVGuide.com: What's your interpretation of what made Tori so upset after her challenge?Sanjay: They did a good job of showing on TV why she was so mad: She felt like I didn't support her. [But] the person who won it, Sheree, she was up virtually all night, and she read [the test material], so she deserved to win. I wouldn't have been mad at Tori at all if she'd put a little bit of effort into it.

TVGuide.com: But as a teammate, maybe she just needed you to be understanding.Sanjay: Yeah, I guess I could have been a little bit more understanding, but I was just frustrated. Looking back, I probably should have tried to console her a little bit. This is all new to me. I don't really know how to interact with women; that's one of the reasons I got on the show.

TVGuide.com: Did you get a chance to practice your stand-up routine on Tori or anyone else?Sanjay: I practiced my jokes with Piao, one of the geeks. We both laughed at each other's jokes. With Tori directly, I don't believe I practiced the jokes.

TVGuide.com: In interviews on the show, you were very funny. What went wrong on stage?Sanjay: I think it was the crowd. They gave us these handouts to learn how to be a comedian, and one of the things it said was to pick a style and stick with it. So my style was going to be "dirty." I don't think the crowd appreciated that at all.

TVGuide.com: Though you were only there for a week, did you learn anything valuable?Sanjay: One thing was not to tuck my shirt in anymore. Jennylee told me that. And I got a pair of contacts, but I still prefer to wear my glasses.

TVGuide.com: Are you prepared to have people recognize you on the street and on campus?Sanjay: It's very weird. Today, I went to the mall with my friend, and a couple of people came up to me and recognized me. What I've enjoyed most about this whole thing is that I think I've got a stalker on MySpace. There's some girl who keeps messaging me. I think it's pretty cool. I've never had this much attention in my life!

And now for Tori's interpretation:

TVGuide.com: Why did you decide to do the show?Tori: I wanted to maybe check out another side of what life is like, where someone is just into books and wanting to learn, just to see what I had been missing out on, like politics and all that stuff. I am a very intelligent woman, but I feel like the show portrayed me as really dumb. I did fine in school — As, Bs and Cs, nothing lower than that — and went to college. I just focused my energy and time into my looks and what I like, because I do well at what I like.

TVGuide.com: Did you know that you would have to do so much studying?Tori: I didn't know what to expect. It's funny, because they showed on TV that I just went to sleep, but I studied, and they could have given me the benefit of the doubt. But I choked in elimination; that happens in real life.

TVGuide.com: OK, so when is the next presidential election?Tori: Oh, in '08. That's the thing — I freaked out. I had all these people watching me in the room, and I'm thinking of the governor! There was a lot of stuff going on in the house.

TVGuide.com: Had you read Freakonomics before your challenge?Tori: I'm sure I read more than a few pages. So much was going on in the house, though. One of the girls, Cecille, after the first challenge, came up to me and was like, "Tori, don't worry. Whatever happens, I won't put you in elimination." Come to find out, I was put in elimination by her.

TVGuide.com: Why do you think they wanted to eliminate you?Tori: The girls didn't really communicate with me that much. I would go into a room where there were two or three other girls in there, and I would be there for a couple of minutes and then they'd walk out on me. I felt left out. I played chess a couple of times with the guys. The person I got along with and talked to the most was the cook and caterer, Belle. She was a sweetheart.

TVGuide.com: It seems as though pressure from the cameras and the other girls did you in.Tori: Yeah, and a lot of it was edited — especially the teleprompter [during the Freakonomics interview]. I read that three times, and they showed me just staring at it. On [the message boards at] CWTV.com, they got people talking like, "Tori's illiterate!" They're talking so bad about me, it's just horrible! You don't know a thing about me for real! If you knew my life and where I come from, you'd think that I was the coolest chick on the planet. For people to say that I'm unintelligent, that's ridiculous.

TVGuide.com: Did you get along with Sanjay?Tori: Sanjay made me feel really bad, and that's one thing you don't want to do with me. They didn't show the part when he said, "You're not smart. I'm smart, and I know what it takes to get there." He was being mean to me.

TVGuide.com: Why didn't you consider taking the money to leave?Tori: Why would you try to buy me out? If I don't win the money, I'm OK. I wanted that experience more than anything, and they took it right from me. I probably needed that experience more than any other girl in there, and instead of them acting like ho's, I could have been in there representing myself well, trying to get myself together and trying to get that experience.

TVGuide.com: Is there anything you would have done differently?Tori: Picking my geek. I picked Sanjay because he is a basketball fan. He loves the Clippers, and I love the Lakers. I thought we could probably get along, talk about basketball, have a good time... no. Not at all.

TVGuide.com: Did you come away from this having learned something?Tori: I learned that you really can't trust anybody. Cecille came up to me right after the challenge and said, "I won't put you in elimination, don't worry about anything." But they don't care about nobody. They're looking out for their own good. I just don't know how people can be like that. I never did anything wrong to her.

TVGuide.com: Are you going to keep watching?Tori: Um... if the Lord allows me to, I will watch it. If my TV works — I don't have cable — and if I'm not working, I'll watch it.

Reality-TV fans can find scoop on such shows as American Idol, I Love New York and The Amazing Race: All-Stars in the the "2007 Preview" issue of TV Guide.

Daytime drama star turned soap-opera journo turned Dancing with the Stars alum Lisa Rinna is continuing her fancy footwork, juggling a new reality competition — Oxygen's Tease, which she hosts (premiering tonight at 9 pm/ET) — with DWTS' ongoing cross-country tour. TVGuide.com grabbed a few minutes with the fabulously coiffed brunette to comb through her many projects, which include a long-awaited date on Broadway.

TVGuide.com: What title do you think your husband, Harry [Hamlin], would be OK with me using for this Q&A? Can I do "Lisa Rinna Is a Big Tease?"Lisa Rinna: [Laughs] I love it. Do it. He'd probably agree with you!

TVGuide.com: I understand that I've caught you at the beginning of the whirlwind Dancing with the Stars tour.Rinna: You did — the very beginning of the whirlwind. We've done two shows, and I'm sitting here in Seattle looking out at the rain.

TVGuide.com: How has the reception been so far?Rinna: It's been great. I think we have a hit on our hands! People love it, and it's selling out....

TVGuide.com: Are you maintaining your Dancing with the Stars form there?Rinna: Are you kidding? That's why I did the tour, so I could maintain my figure. It gets you in real good shape, this dancing.

TVGuide.com: So I watched Tease, a rough cut at least.... It's kind of fun, because of the sort of personalities you get. These competing hairstylists are full of drama, inherently, so there is a lot of smack-talking and stuff.Rinna: Yeah, that's for sure! [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: When I first reported on the series and the players vying for some "coveted Silver Scissors" awards, I made fun of Oxygen for not having a proper budget.Rinna: Well, you should!

TVGuide.com: Is there more to the Silver Scissors? An impressive retail value, perhaps?Rinna: No, there's not. I think it really is sort of like the Dancing with the Stars trophy, that's all I can relate it to. It's ugly, it's silver, and that's all you get. You're vying for the title of "the great one," the winner. And that is a human motivator, obviously.

TVGuide.com: I found it cute how [in-house stylist/Survivor alum] Coby does a bit on crediting you, Lisa Rinna, with creating the "Lisa Rinna hairstyle, "which is apparently superpopular with people going into salons.Rinna: Well, it is, I do know that. And that is one of the reasons I decided to do Tease. I thought, "Why am I going to host this show? What connection do I have to this?" And the connection I did have was my hairstyle. People stop me on a daily basis and ask me where I got my hair cut, and this has gone on for eight years. They say, "I've been to my hairdresser, and he can't get it right, can I just take a picture of you right now?" I thought, "OK, I have a connection to hair, I can host his show." Otherwise, it's like, "Why is Lisa Rinna hosting this?" And probably many people will say that anyway! [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: What's next for you? Are you and Harry still doing Chicago after the tour?Rinna: We are; we're doing Broadway's Chicago this summer. Isn't that cool?

TVGuide.com: Are you nervous? Excited? Nervous-excited?Rinna: You know, I worked really, really hard to lobby for it, because I'm not the choice on the tip of everybody's tongue. I actually first auditioned for it about eight years ago, and I wasn't up to snuff. I couldn't dance. Sandahl Bergman was in L.A., she took me through like a three-hour audition, and I couldn't cut it. I figured I can't do Bob Fosse, which is really hard, so I moved on. But once I did Dancing with the Stars, I figured, "Hey, I think I have learned a bit," so I called my agent and said, "This is a list of things I want to do, and on the top is Chicago. Make it happen." They looked at me like I was out of my mind, and then called the casting people, who were like, "You're crazy because we saw her eight years ago and she sucked." Long story short, what finally happened was they changed casting people, and the new person called my publicist and said, "Do you think Lisa Rinna would ever be interested in doing Chicago?"

TVGuide.com: My, how the tables have turned....Rinna: Isn't that so interesting? They made me come to New York and audition, and I did the whole thing — performing in front of the producer — and I got it. It's proof to never give up in life.

TVGuide.com: And the husband doing the show with you, that's icing on the cake?Rinna: Yeah, the husband kind of got off easy. I signed to do it, and when he did Dancing with the Stars, they were like, "Wouldn't it be nice to have you and Harry do it?" It all worked out really well.

TVGuide.com: But do Lisa Rinna hair and Bob Fosse "jazz hands" mix?Rinna: Oh, I think they do. They will now, don't you think?

TVGuide.com: Didn't I report a few months ago that Playboy had come knocking on your door again?Rinna: Yeah.... It's so funny because we said no at the time, and just yesterday my makeup artist came up to me and said, "You know, you might want to rethink Playboy." [Laughs] Because my body's kind of in pretty good shape right now. So, I don't know. Maybe. We'll see!

Reality-TV fans can find scoop on such shows as American Idol, I Love New York and The Amazing Race: All-Stars in the the "2007 Preview" issue of TV Guide.

CBS’ new reality series Armed & Famous, premiering tonight (at 8 pm/ET) and airing a second episode tomorrow, trains such celebrities as Jack Osbourne, La Toya Jackson and — naturally — CHiPs’ Erik Estrada to be real-life cops serving and protecting the people of Muncie, Ind. We talked to Estrada about upholding the law.

TV Guide: Why’d you do this?Erik Estrada: It helped fulfill my childhood dream. From the age of 7 to 17, I wanted to be a New York City cop, but I got bit by the acting bug. Then CHiPs came along, and I got to be known around the world as a cop on a bike with tight pants... and big white teeth. [Laughs]

TV Guide: What's it like when you show up on a call?Estrada: Right away, they want an autograph — and I’m happy to oblige — but I have to do my job first. I’m doing a lot of Dr. Phil work out here, especially with young moms who have three kids and are still on crack. What’s that about?

TV Guide: As part of the training, you get Tasered. How’d that feel?Estrada: It sucked! You don’t ever want to get Tasered. Ever. Just stick your finger in an outlet. Oh, my god.

TV Guide: Who’s your partner on the show?Estrada: They gave me a veteran officer named Jamie Brown. I call us “Ponch and Judy.” [Laughs] She’s absolutely gorgeous! We patrol the streets from 6 am to about 3 in the morning. She’s always on my case, testing me on my codes and signals. But I make her blush.

TV Guide: You became a sex symbol because of CHiPs....Estrada: That’s because I designed my own outfit. [Laughs] Women like men in uniform. The flashiness of the motorcycle — it’s attractive. And being Puerto Rican helps. [Laughs]

TV Guide: That uniform was the template for the Village People guy.Estrada: [Laughs] Yeah, I know! I don’t have a problem with that. I met them when we were filming CHiPs.

TV Guide: They’re making a movie version of CHiPs.Estrada: Yes, they are! And I think Wilmer Valderrama [as Ponch] is going to be terrific.

TV Guide: Did they ask you to cameo?Estrada: There was talk about this or that, but it’s not a big deal if I’m in it or not, because I’m the original. Though wouldn’t it be cool if I was his father? Ponch Sr. passing the torch to Ponch Jr.!

TV Guide: How much progress do you think TV has made in the ethnic-blind casting of Hispanics?Estrada: I think it’s come a long way. I was able to break the mold in a network show, as far as a Hispanic in a law-enforcement capacity. [Now] Jimmy Smits has come in as a cop [on NYPD Blue], Eddie Olmos as a captain [on Miami Vice] and Hector Elizondo as director of a hospital [Chicago Hope]. We've made some strides.

TV Guide: So, if I'm ever in Muncie and you pull me over, will you give me a break?Estrada: Most likely. But it would depend on your attitude toward the uniform. If you show me respect, I will respect you.

Reality-TV fans can find scoop on such shows as American Idol, I Love New York and The Amazing Race: All-Stars in the "2007 Preview" issue of TV Guide, now on newsstands.