TVGuide.com: So you're a star of TV's most-watched — what's the qualifier again? — ad-supported cable drama telecast ever?Jon Tenney: "Ad-supported, original scripted cable show"... that begins with C-L-O or something. [Laughs]
TVGuide.com: Seriously, though, congrats on that!Tenney: Thanks! James Duff, the creator, has got a great home, and the whole team was there watching the premiere. The executive producer was like, "We'll get the call early in the morning," so they let us all know as soon as they heard. Everybody was very happy. We're all proud of the show, so it's nice that people actually watch it. [Laughs]
TVGuide.com: And there you are at the end of the opening credits — "and Jon Tenney."Tenney: G.W. Bailey (Provenza) gives me such s--- about that! The joke is that if we go another season, I want it to be "for Jon Tenney." Or G.W.'s like, "in spite of Jon Tenney."
TVGuide.com: I'm admittedly new to The Closer this season and don't know the entire backstory, so why is it that Fritz puts up with this beautiful but quirky gal?Tenney: I think Fritz loves her. On a very simple level, he just loves her. I sort of did my own little "psychological profile" of what he finds attractive and challenging and all that, but the bottom line is he genuinely loves and respects her. What's interesting about the relationship is that on one level, Kyra grounds the thing, but we all have our piece of the puzzle to fill in. I see my piece as the one that allows you to see Brenda in her personal life and in an area of her life in which she is struggling, as opposed to being as surefooted as she is in the professional world. Professionally, even if you ruffle feathers or piss people off or whatever, you can always fall back on, "Hey, I got the job done. I was right." But that's beside the point in a personal relationship. It's interesting to be that piece of the puzzle.
TVGuide.com: In this week's episode, there's this mini-squabble about Brenda's mother (guest star Frances Sternhagen) coming to town, and Brenda wanting to pretend that Fritz didn't just move in with her.Tenney: We always try to find the humor in things, but to me and to Fritz, that action is representative of a hesitation on her part that can go much deeper. And that affects him. That tension, that conflict, is something that we can extend over the course of many episodes.
TVGuide.com: Are these two kids going to be able to work out the cohabitation thing?Tenney: That's the question. Are they going to be able to work it out? What's it going to bring up? There's the thing with the mom and... I don't want to get ahead of where we go, but just when things seem to be OK, another hurdle gets thrown in their path.
TVGuide.com: J.K. Simmons (Brenda's ex-lover, Chief Pope) is great and all, but you do have the better hair.Tenney: [Laughs] J.K.'s always saying that — "So is she going to go with the bald guy or the hair guy?" But then again, J.K.'s got that whole "powerful boss man" thing going on, and they've had a history.
TVGuide.com: All I see is Peter Parker's editor-in-chief.Tenney: That's right! J.K.'s terrific. I've known him for years from the theater, so it's always "old home week" with him.
TVGuide.com: Do we ever see Fritz "in action" as an FBI agent?Tenney: Last year there was an episode where he and Brenda worked a case together, but I've primarily functioned more on the personal front than the professional front. In the first episode of this season, they're talking about moving in and they wrote into the scene that he's up for a position in Behavioral Sciences. A lot of people may not know that Behavioral Sciences in the FBI is a major deal — that's like Jodie Foster's character in Silence of the Lambs — so to say, "I'm not going to do that because I'm going to commit to this relationship" was significant.
TVGuide.com: Thanks for pointing that out.Tenney: That's important to me, the actor playing it, but to the show's credit a lot of times big, significant exposition points will be laid out almost tangentially. There's a [Season 1] scene I always talk about where Brenda and some of the others are giving a lot of plot exposition, but the way it is shot, it's all about, "Is she going to pick up a donut or not?" What we're trying to do with the show is to always make it character-driven.
TVGuide.com: What would people be surprised to know about you, and about Kyra?Tenney: They would be surprised to know that I'm a very good cook. As for Kyra....
TVGuide.com: She's got a hot little body under those frumpy floral dresses?Tenney: [Laughs] I don't think that comes as any surprise — she's a beautiful woman inside and out, no question. No, people who see her doing this very brusque character may be surprised to know that she is probably one of the most generous and lovely actors I've ever worked with.
TVGuide.com: If not "surprised," they may like to be reassured that she's that way. I can see some people thinking, "Whoa, this is Kevin Bacon's wife?! She's a ball-breaker."Tenney: It's a testament to her smarts as an actress that she can create this character that is so prickly and does so many questionable things, and yet you love watching her. I don't think we'd get those numbers if people didn't want to watch her.
TVGuide.com: Lastly, I want to talk about your role in Albert Brooks' Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, a recent film that perhaps didn't get its due.Tenney: No, it didn't. I was really proud of that and I think Albert was pretty brave with it. He had an amazing conceit for the film and he was operating from no blueprint — there hasn't been a movie like that, about that.
TVGuide.com: And what fun for you to play the State Department straight man to him.Tenney: I had been a huge fan of Albert's, and he's everything I had hoped he would be — funny, smart, neurotic.... I did that during hiatus, as well as Showtime's Masters of Horror. Joe Dante, who is very politically active, directed this no-holds-barred satire on the war in Iraq, where dead soldiers come back as zombies not to terrorize people, but to vote. At first they are embraced by the religious right and then they are disenfranchised by the religious right, and it's all under the guise of this grade-B zombie movie. It was really fun to do something that was political, in whatever way, in this day and age.

TV Guide: Are you only visiting us because TV Guide has an office in Radnor, Pennsylvania?Josh Radnor: You do? You do....
TV Guide: Maybe your family founded it?Radnor: I wonder.... You guys have been so nice to our show. Thank you, on behalf of everyone. Really.
TV Guide: Are you OK with the fact that you didn't make our "TV's Sexiest Men" issue?Radnor: I just said that outside! [Pretending to flip through TV Guide] "This must be where my profile is...."
TV Guide: What's your favorite thing to do in New York City?Radnor: Well, I'm living in the West Village, which is my favorite area, like, in the world, so I'm just "exploring."
TV Guide: How do you like life in New York versus L.A.?Radnor: I actually love L.A. — I proudly say that after getting over my embarrassment in saying that. [Laughs] I haven't been back here in a while, and I forgot that a great part of New York is, like, turning a corner and seeing someone you haven't seen in years and saying, "Let's get a drink, right now." In L.A. you have to, like, plan it out. "I can see you at the end of the month for an hour."
TV Guide: Back in L.A., are you still mooching off your friend's cable?Radnor: Oh, you mean going across the street? I kind of stopped watching TV entirely — sorry, everyone! [Laughs] I've been so busy.... I like watching The Office. My friend Mindy [Kaling] writes for it, and she is the funniest.
TV Guide: What's happening on How I Met Your Mother next season?Radnor: Is that what this is about, getting plot points? [Laughs] I have no idea. I had dinner with [series creator] Carter [Bays] and I was trying to get info from him, but... they don't know.
TV Guide: Is there any buzz about how much time will have elapsed? Will the summer have passed?Radnor: Yeah, I think it will be like three months later — unless they show [Ted and Marshall] coming in from the rain for like a moment, after getting drenched. But I don't know how long Ms. Scherbatsky and I are going to go. That might not last as long as Ted would hope. I feel like he was more in love with the chase of it all.
TV Guide: Besides, for all he and Robin know, the sex could be really bad.Radnor: No, that, I hear, is going to be fantastic. Seriously. They might keep us kind of "enjoying each other" without totally being together. [Laughs]
TV Guide: Has your own dating life perked up, as hoped?Radnor: It's not bad.... [Smiles]
TV Guide: Do you like how the show gets some things right about NYC, and some things not so right? The New Year's Eve episode had some glitches....Radnor: Yeah, that was like, "Don't pull the thread, don't pull the thread." There were so many logic problems with the limo episode. Like, how did we get to all these parties? Where did Marshall appear from? That was the hardest episode we filmed. We were in a broken-apart limo for three days, and we were all getting sick. It ruined limos for us, which is such a sad story. [Laughs]
TV Guide: What are you doing on your hiatus?Radnor: Jason Segel got a house in Hawaii on the North Shore for a month, so I went and visited him for a week. Alyson [Hannigan] and [husband] Alexis [Denisof, aka Sandy Rivers] went to visit him, and then Cobie [Smulders] came when I was there.... I went to Coachella [Music Festival in Indio, Calif.], which was amazing.... I went to my 10-year college reunion, in Kenyon, Ohio. I was scared, but it wasn't that weird. People were really happy for me.
TV Guide: And didn't Neil Patrick Harris book a play?Radnor: Yeah, he did All My Sons at the Geffen [Playhouse in L.A.], and it was great. He and I did a play together, like, two months before we got cast [on Mother]. When I heard he got cast, I called him — "Are you kidding me? We're in the same pilot?!"
TV Guide: What has been your favorite episode, moment, saying or "thing"?Radnor: We just recorded [Season 1] DVD commentary, and I was shocked at how well the pilot held up. It was really good. I think the club episode is really funny — from top to bottom, it just works. People really like "The Slutty Pumpkin," and I know it's this whole Charlie Brown thing, but I was really confused by it. For three years, he goes to the roof, wearing the same costume, waiting for this one girl? But it turned out great. And in "Mary the Paralegal," there was some stuff I couldn't believe they let us do. That line where she says, "Talk about anal!" — I was like, "Are they going to let us do this?" They said, "That's why we're shooting it in one tracking shot, so they can't cut it." And I liked the last two episodes, including the one where [Lily] runs away and I have to go pick her up.
TV Guide: Lily and Marshall have to get back together... right?Radnor: I don't know. I think they're going to have some fun with the fact that Marshall hasn't been on a date since he was, like, 17!
TV Guide: So have they completely dropped Ted's grown kids from each episode's opening?Radnor: I think the boy was aging very aggressively. [Laughs]
TV Guide: Admit it — you started dating Lyndsy Fonseca, your "daughter," and it got kind of "icky."Radnor: Lyndsy got a pilot, actually. She's very sweet.
TV Guide: Have you met... Bob Saget?Radnor: Yes, and he is so funny. And filthy. A filthy man. At the network run-through, one of the stand-ins reads all the voice-over stuff, and one time we were in the middle of a scene and we heard Saget's voice. He was visiting the set, and suddenly his voice was there. We were like, "Ahhhh!"

TVGuide.com: What sort of research did you do into the real Sylvia?Mercedes Ruehl: I didn't meet the real Sylvia until midway through shooting, but the woman who wrote the screenplay, Shelley Evans, and I had many long conferences about the research that she had done with Sylvia. Through that, I understood a lot of the backstory the family had gone through.
TVGuide.com: As an actress, was not meeting Sylvia right away a pro or a con?Ruehl: It was a good judgment call on the part of the producers to ask me to wait until halfway through, because the actual screenplay, as is almost always the case, creates a character who has a dimension of the real person, but there is then a whole other area of a fictive character, and the first thing you have to be true to as an actor is what's on the page. It might have been a confusion of the issue to meet the real Sylvia, who is an extraordinary woman but somewhat different from the person I play.
TVGuide.com: Was being a mother yourself an essential quality to bring to the role?Ruehl: You know, I've seen great actresses who have never had children portray mothers with such passion and skill that you would never know. But in my own particular case, there was something that happened when I became a mother. Whenever in the news I saw an example of a child being abused or mistreated, my response went from being appalled to being physically revolted. It's unendurable in a new way, because you are now personally aware of the tender relationship between a parent and a child, and the infinite vulnerability of children. That was an enormous basis in creating Sylvia's dilemma. Also, I had read a book called She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders, written by a professor who had gone through transgender surgery, but it took this person well into his thirties to come to terms with the absolute necessity of having to do it. From his earliest years, it had grown more and more unendurable until finally he faced this horrible choice between decimating the life he knew and his family, and living forever in the hell of this "prison cell." This is not something you choose, and it's not a sexual-orientation problem. It's a problem of identity. Identity, pure and simple. I got that, and J.D. really got it. He was extraordinary to work with.
TVGuide.com: How does it make a veteran like yourself feel to see such raw talent in a young actor?Ruehl: I saw that J.D. was a skillful actor, but I thought, "Is he going to have the stuff?" And with the first take on the first really emotional scene that we had, I saw that he was ready to explode with what was required. I went, "Bingo. He's going to go there" — and he did. That made my work much more exciting.
TVGuide.com: Was it a similar vibe to when you played mom to Angelina Jolie in 1998's Gia?Ruehl: Oh, boy, that is an interesting and a good comparison, because she had decided to make the 100 percent commitment there. When you're working with that, you're working with the real thing.
TVGuide.com: What's the one thing you hope people watching A Girl Like Me come away with?Ruehl: If I had to put in one word: "tolerance." We live in a culture that is historically uneasy with the subject of sexuality, possibly coming out of our puritanical roots. Anybody whose sexuality is "outside the circle," people regard with suspicion. For instance, we still have a president trying to make a to-do out of same-sex marriages when we have so many much more pressing problems. Lifetime is getting braver. [That network's] programming reflects a perception that women are more sophisticated and more complex, and that's really good news.
TVGuide.com: Switching topics, might we see more of you on Entourage, as Vince's mother?Ruehl: I've been getting a lot of calls from friends saying, "They must put you on again!" You never know with television, but I'd love to go back. It was a lot of fun [appearing in the season opener], and it was interesting getting to know those fellows.
TVGuide.com: Were you a fan of the show before?Ruehl: Well, at that time [Sundays at 10 pm] I'm usually putting the 9-year-old to bed or collapsing from having done the same. But from the episodes I have seen, the writing and the acting are excellent.
TVGuide.com: Being also a Paul Reiser fan, I'm disappointed your sitcom pilot didn't get picked up for the fall.Ruehl: Yeah, we were all a bit bummed by that, but Paul is a man of infinite enterprise and imagination. He's going to come banging back into the ring by next season with something fabulous.
TVGuide.com: Think you got the role only because it was set in a car dealership, and your first name is....Ruehl: [Laughs] You know, I once leased a Mercedes because I got a good deal on it because of my first name.
TVGuide.com: I wonder if Portia de Rossi has the same luck. Are you up for a series-regular gig?Ruehl: Yes and no. On the one hand, it's not devoutly to be wished because I like to remain open to doing theater and other things. But on the other hand, it is devoutly to be wished if it could happen in New York City and I could stay close to my home and family. In this business, you never say no to anything.

TVGuide.com: Numbers always seems very intense, with a lot of locations and running around. Rob Morrow: Definitely, and I like that. We set the bar. I don't think the show was intended to be that, but we just got into the action side of it and decided to expand on it. The family scenes are great because they are almost like one-act plays, while the action scenes are just play. It's like being a kid playing cops and robbers.
TVGuide.com: With a bulletproof vest. Morrow: Totally! I love it. Half of the time when they say "Cut!" you just see me standing there with a big grin on my face.
TVGuide.com: Are there FBI people on set to help you? Morrow: Oh, yeah. We have great technical advisors from the FBI who are there any time we do anything procedural or action-wise. I went and did some training with them, which was really helpful.
TVGuide.com: Do you understand a word of the math jargon that comes out of costar David Krumholtz' mouth? Morrow: If you watch, in most of the scenes when they are talking about the math, you'll see me sitting there with kind of a quizzical look on my face saying, "Say that again?" "What was that?" "Put it in English." [Laughs] I kind of like physics and science, so I do know some of it, and some of the theories I've heard of, but I certainly don't know them well.
TVGuide.com: That's better than the average viewer.Morrow: It might be. It's funny, a lot of people come up to me and say things like, "We love the show! We have no idea what you are talking about, but we love it."
TVGuide.com: Do you think it is just the math that makes Numbers different from all of the other procedurals out there? Morrow: It's that and the family drama. I don't think any of them, except maybe Medium, really deal with a family dynamic. And we've only just skimmed the surface of where we hope to head with that. A lot of people tell me that their favorite scenes are the ones that end the show, with the family joking around or something. I think it puts it in perspective.
TVGuide.com: I especially enjoy the scenes between brothers Don and Charlie, who seem so comfortable together.Morrow: They are, and I love that. You know what is weird? I didn't know Krummy, as I call him, before, but I knew his work. So when I was deciding whether to do it, I was like, "OK, I'm doing it because I know he and I are going to groove." It is easy, and I'm always glad to come into a scene when it is just he and I because I know the egos aren't going to get in the way and we are going to have fun. He is kind of like the little brother I wish I had.
TVGuide.com: Are any of those scenes ad-libbed based on your friendship with him? Morrow: Yeah, we definitely ad-lib a fair amount.
TVGuide.com: Don seems very different from you on paper — he's single and alone, you are married and have a kid. Is it a weird juxtaposition going back and forth between real life and work? Morrow: It isn't weird, but it is interesting for me to think about. I'm definitely a family guy and I love being married and I love being a father and I'm not interested in putting my life at risk, but Don is a shadow side of me in certain regards. He is like the archetype hero, selfless, and he does what has to be done at the sacrifice of his own life. I grew up watching those kinds of characters in movies, so a part of me wishes I could be that. But the other side of it is the sacrifice and loneliness. Having read about and talked to a lot of people who do these kinds of jobs, I know that it is a huge burden. The idea of having a family is so frightening for them because they are never home. In a recent episode, Judd Hirsch is talking to me about relationships and says, "Why don't you ever have relationship that lasts?" I'm like, "You try coming home and when your wife asks, 'How was your day?' you say, 'Well, I saw a decapitated kid. How was yours?'" That burden to me is really interesting.
TVGuide.com: Don seems different from a lot of characters that you've played. Was that one of the reasons you took this role? Morrow: Definitely. Every time out — and I don't always necessarily succeed — I'm looking for something different. Especially when it comes to a series, I look to do something radically different.
TVGuide.com: It seems like the FBI is a big well for stories.Morrow: With crime dramas, it offers a lot of mileage. I had done a series right before this called Street Time, and that was a hard show. It had great potential but it was a hard show to "find the franchise," if you will, whereas Numbers was right out of the gate. We knew we could have a franchise as long as we could get the elements cohesive.
TVGuide.com: Having watched you on Northern Exposure, that was my initial reason for tuning in to Numbers. Do a lot of people still recognize you from that? Morrow: For sure. With DVDs, now, it is really on people's minds. I get recognized a lot for Numbers, but also a lot from Northern Exposure still.
TVGuide.com: Watching you play Fleischman, it would have seemed like you were a better fit for Numbers' Charlie. Morrow: I had the choice [of which role to take] and for that very reason I chose the other.
TVGuide.com: Emmy nods are coming out July 6. Are you nervous? Morrow: I don't know. Actors... when you do anything, you think and you hope and you think and you hope. I can't say I spend a lot of time thinking about it, but it is always nice and it is always flattering. Either way, I am good.
TVGuide.com: Numbers just won a Carl Sagan Award for public understanding of science. That sounds really cool. Morrow: One of the variables for me in deciding to do this show was that I love doing things that have the potential to edify. Not to be pedantic, because it is not an academic show at all. But kids come up to me and say they watch it, and their teachers tell them to watch it because of the math. The idea that it could be helpful... I love that.
TVGuide.com: Father's Day is this weekend. Got big plans? Morrow: My daughter, my wife and I are on vacation right now in this amazing place in the Bahamas. I don't know what they have planned, but I'm hoping to play golf. I played today, and I've confirmed my status as the worst to ever play the game.
TVGuide.com: Ever?!Morrow: Yeah. I've decided I really feel comfortable with that title because I think it gives me a little room to take the pressure off.
TVGuide.com: I've now got this vision of you, Judd and David all playing together.Morrow: It's funny. At the beginning of last season — and we're going to do it again this year — the whole cast and some of the producers went to Vegas for a "night of debauchery." The day after, Judd and I played, and Krummy came out way, way hung over. He left after like five holes.
TVGuide.com: Maybe you could get one of the math consultants to help you with the angles and such of golf.Morrow: Anything. I'll take anything! It is crazy how bad I am.
TVGuide.com: Any plans to come back to the theater? Morrow: God, I really need to do a play. I was offered a play on my break, but I couldn't make it work date-wise. I have this fantasy that I'll do Numbers for five, six, maybe seven years, and then I'll go back to New York and do five years' worth of plays. We'll see if that happens, but I'm hungry to do one. It has been a while.
TVGuide.com: Any chance you'll be back in the Numbers' director seat next season? Morrow: Yeah, I'll do one a year. I loved it, but it is completely and utterly consuming for five weeks.
TVGuide.com: Is there any chance for a little love for Don? Morrow: I think there is a chance for a lot with Michelle Nolden, who played my wife on Street Time, and appeared in two episodes this year.
TVGuide.com: She's the lawyer, Robin Brooks?Morrow: Yes. I think the plan is to explore that a little, among other ideas. We definitely will go into more depth in Don's personal life. There is a lot more going on there that just hasn't made it in.

TV Guide: You filmed the past two seasons of Dead Zone in Vancouver a year ago. Any hints about what's in store for your character, Johnny, this season? Anthony Michael Hall: He's just finished tracking down Sean Patrick Flanery [who plays corrupt congressman Greg Stillson] for four years.... I can't remember!
TV Guide: Why don't you try channeling Johnny's psychic abilities?Hall: [Laughs] I don't want to give it away, but the focus has to do with Rachel, the dead sister of Sarah Wynter's character, Rebecca. She's tracking down Stillson, until she finds out that he's responsible for Rachel's murder. There's also an agent who works for Stillson [who is] tracking me down.
TV Guide: Was it tough taping two seasons back-to-back? Hall: I looked at it like a marathon. I was building my own production company while I was doing a 60-minute show every seven days. The directors shift every week. The guest stars change every week. People either agree to get along, or they don't. When they don't, it gets reduced to high school.
TV Guide: Speaking of high school, your breakout film role was in Sixteen Candles and then you starred in The Breakfast Club. Ever watch when they're on TV? Hall: Absolutely! For a normal person, the equivalent would be a yearbook that sits on a shelf in your mom's house. This is a yearbook that came to life.
TV Guide: Do you still talk to members of the Brat Pack? Hall: Definitely. Judd [Nelson] and I reconnected. I just sent him my script for this movie I'm directing called Life After Death in Las Vegas — there's a bunch of people chasing an inheritance that they're all screwed out of by Wayne Newton.
TV Guide: You also had a Breakfast Club reunion with Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy at the MTV Movie Awards last year, right?Hall: It was like This Is Your Life. This is bizarre. We're in the front row, and Molly is on my left, Ally's on my right. They're both holding my hand because they're nervous and excited. Molly is like, "I want to talk first!" Ally goes, "No, I want to say something and scratch my hair like in the movie with the dandruff." Then Molly goes, "I just had a baby. I'm afraid my t--s are going to fall out." I go, "That's exactly what you have to say!" She did, and they cut it out. It was so awesome, and they cut it out. There was white light and 2,000 people. It was surreal.
TV Guide: Speaking of surreal, you play a psychic in The Dead Zone. Ever been to see one yourself? Hall: I met with John Edward a couple of years back. We became friends. I met with Char Margolis, and that was amazing. She knew too many people's names in my life! She spoke to some of the transitions that I'm making.
TV Guide: Like what? Hall: Just going out on my own and seeking other opportunities outside of the entertainment business. She was right about some of that. Of course, I was always interested in all of that psychic stuff. So I guess my propensity for it contributed to my readiness to play that part. That's something John Edward said, too.
TV Guide: Are you sad to say goodbye to Johnny? Hall: It's been interesting to grow into the character. It's what I refer to as Young Leading Man School. I wanted to show leadership on the set, be an active producer. It was an amazing challenge. [Since sitting down for this interview, Hall revealed in a TVGuide.com podcast that this may not necessarily be Dead Zone's final season, that talks are ongoing and he's open to another round.]
TV Guide: So, at 38, do you feel like you've finally ditched your Sixteen Candles Farmer Ted character and escaped Jake Ryan's shadow? Hall: [Laughs] Everybody wants to know about Jake! You know what's funny? Twenty years later, I have girls come up to me like, "Oh, my God! Do you know how to get a hold of Michael Schoeffling?" When we did Sixteen Candles, he taught me how to put pomade in my hair. He had that thing down, right? I heard he married a model and they moved to Pennsylvania and he makes furniture. I love the guy.