Veteran comic actor Paul Reiser returns both to weekly television and to NBC in his new sitcom, The Paul Reiser Show, which is a semi-autobiographical look at his own life.  Paul Reiser plays Paul Reiser, an actor who hasn't appeared regularly on television in several years.  While he is enjoying his home life with his wife and kids, he also spends a lot of time with his group of guy friends – all of whom seem to be made up from the fathers of his kids' friends or the husbands of his wife's friends.  The series follows Paul and his comrades as they search for the next big thing in their lives.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO PAUL REISER OF THE PAUL REISER SHOW:  

USTH: Glad to see you back on television. Your new series is a single camera filmed show. How is that different for you since a lot of your experiences have been in three camera with a studio audience? How has it been acclimating yourself to the new format?

PAUL REISER: The irony is I always wanted to do single camera even when we did Mad About You. I originally pitched it as a single camera, which they didn't do back then and it has come into play. As fun as it was to have a live audience, I never really felt that comfortable with it. I love it when I do stand-up – it's great to have an audience – but I always felt that when doing a show, it kind of distracted me a bit and this feels just perfect and right and it has a much more real-life quality, which is what the show is really about.

I mean hopefully people recognize it and they go, "Oh, okay that really feels real, these are real people." I'm playing myself, and it's obviously accelerated a bit and it's because it's a comedy, but that part of it feels right, and it looks exactly like the show that I wanted to make so I'm very pleased with it.

USTH: You have a very eclectic cast there. When I saw that Omid Djalili would be part of the cast, I assumed he would be playing a Middle Eastern character. Are you using that as story material – I guess your character is Jewish, and his character might not be Jewish – is that part of the story material or are the differing backgrounds just presented matter-of-factly as "We're just a bunch of different people who happen to hang out together"?

PAUL REISER: Well, it's more that. It's more the latter, and it's really based on my group of [real-life] friends, and one of the premises of the show is sort of that when you're a father of kids – I find most guys have backed me up on this – that you realize your friends are not people of your own choosing – that your friends are all fathers of your kids' friends or husbands of your wife's friends.

And in my case this has certainly been true. And I have this world of friends that I look around and go, "How did I get these people"? Omid's character, Habib, is based on a couple of friends of mine who are Persian, and one of the things that makes me really thrilled about the show is the sort of diversity of the characters. They all have such comedic styles, and Omid is hugely powerfully funny, and he's a huge comic in the UK and I'm hoping this show reintroduces him. He was on Whoopi's show ten years ago [Whoopi, which aired in the 2003-2004 television season], but I hope America gets to see him every week because he's just absurdly funny.

And Andy Daly, who is a totally different look and based on another friend of mine who looks like him, has a huge following in the comedy community, and he's really a clever, inventive comic and has really sly timing.

And Duane Martin who is a whole other feel and not known as a comic, but is just really also in his own way very funny and such a delightful screen presence.

And Ben Shenkman who has this very New York acerbic – his own cerebral tone, and Amy Landecker has her own comedy style.

So there's such a nice, eclectic group of performers, and there are no cheap jokes. There are no jokes at the expense of anybody being Persian. I think it certainly adds a color to the show, but these are guys who are just friends.

USTH: You mentioned Amy Landecker. Can you talk a little bit about the balance of the show's stories between you and your guy friends and your character and his home life with his wife? Is it going to be more with you and the guy friends and maybe just a little bit of Amy, or will it be more evenly balanced?

PAUL REISER: Yes, I think it has become that. One of the things that's really fun about this is this show to me is everything that Mad About You had and then so much more. I mean at the heart of it, it's really based on my life and my life starts with my family and that is the priority, so it always comes down to – and for all these guys in the show – it comes down to, "Well here's what's going on in the home and here's what's going on with my wife and my kids."

But you rarely see the kids in the show. They inform the show and you're doing things and you're running around doing stuff for your kids, but you're not going to see them much by design. And Amy – there's a lot of great stories of husband and wife stuff, but they really serve to ground the other stories.

I think the kick-off for all the stories is about the guys, and that's an element we didn't have in Mad About You that is so fun to explore, and it was not really part of my life 15 years ago, and now it is, and now I have this group of guy friends that you suddenly find yourself driving to Disneyland with these two guys for three hours so, okay, this is my life now.

And so, the stories almost always come from the guys, or they start with the wife perhaps but they filter into, "Okay, now I'm off and running with these other guys." And these guys are such strong performers, we thought, "When are we going to get stories with just them?" And we thought probably not 'til season 2 or 3, but we found even in the first six-seven episodes, we were able to cut away to two of the guys, and it was great. It's really an ensemble show in every sense of the word.

USTH: As far as television producing is concerned, did you learn anything from your Mad About You experience that's informing your decision-making process now?

PAUL REISER: Absolutely, yes, seven years of Mad About You, I learned what worked for me, and I learned what works and what doesn't work, and going into this, I just knew I wanted to make it a certain style, and I wanted – sometimes just the way you structure the workday. I mean, I knew I wanted this to be surrounded by friends and I have. I called friends that are directors.

Helen Hunt was the first director I called, and Daniel Stern is an old friend and Brian Gordon, and it's just a very sane – at this point you know you want to do your work but you want to get home. I think gone are the days where people say let's hang out until 3 in the morning and eat Chinese food and never see our families.

I think people want to get home and have a life as well as do a show, so it's really been run very efficiently, and that was very much by design.

USTH: Our thanks to Paul Reiser for speaking with us today.  The Paul Reiser Show premieres Thursday, April 14 on NBC.

With much fanfare, the latest addition to the hugely successful Law & Order franchise was announced for the Fall 2010 television schedule.  Law & Order: Los Angeles would, for the first time, take the action of the series out of New York and start ripping stories from the California headlines.  The series, airing on Wednesdays after Law & Order: Special Victims Unit had performed moderately well, but was still noticeably losing viewers from its lead in.  A retooling was deemed in order, and in January, three cast members – Skeet Ulrich, Regina Hall, and Megan Boone – were let go from the series. 

The changes did not stop there.  Alfred Molina and Terrence Howard, who each had previously appeared on alternate weeks in the second half "Order" segment, were bumped up to weekly appearances with Molina's character, Ricardo Morales, deciding to leave the DA's office and go back on the street as a senior detective.  Joining Terrence Howard's character, Joe Dekker, in the prosecutor's chair will be Alana de la Garza, reviving her Law & Order character of Connie Rubirosa, who had moved from New York to Los Angeles to care for her ailing mother.

When Law & Order: Los Angeles last aired on December 1, 2010, only eight of the filmed episodes were broadcast.  When the series returns on April 11, 2011, the remaining episodes with the original cast will be skipped over and the series will pick up with the episode in which Skeet Ulrich's character, Detective Rex Winters, makes his exit.  After the retooled episodes have aired, the series plans to circle back around and broadcast the remaining Skeet Ulrich episodes.

Law & Order: Los Angeles is scheduled to run all the way through June 27 to finish up its first season.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO DICK WOLF, ALFRED MOLINA, & ALANA DE LA GARZA OF LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES:

USTH: Obviously, the big news is that there's been sort of a cast shakeup – three cast members have departed, and we have Alana de la Garza back from the "mothership" Law & Order series.  What was the decision-making process that went into that? And how do you think this new cast configuration will benefit the show going forward?

DICK WOLF: The history of the show was rather strange. I think that I was one of the more surprised people on the planet when the mothership Law & Order did not come back.

It was sort of in everybody's plans that that was going to continue. There had been a different schedule laid out with Los Angeles coming on after a sort of final group of episodes from the mothership. When that didn't happen, we were in a very much breakneck race to get on the fall schedule in time.

We had not shot a pilot – this was basically a transition at 60 miles an hour. And some things get to go through their growing pains on screen, which is never the first choice of the people making these shows. I would have liked to have had more time at the front end to sort of explore some different options.

When we had the situation with Fred [Alfred Molina] and Terrence [Howard] – that I had two of the best actors in America who were only getting used 50% of the time – that showed up pretty early in the season. And it was time to – we were given the opportunity to retool.

And for that I'm very, very grateful to Bob Greenblatt because he came in, we had a very honest conversation – I think the second, third day he was there – that he had some problems with the show. And he specifically had some problems in the front half – that he just didn't think it was clicking the way it should.

It wasn't a question of, "Do this, do that." We had a very open discussion and he was, frankly, very supportive of the idea of having Fred and Terrence in every episode. And it sort of evolved into that. And obviously when Fred went back to the street, we wanted an additional presence to bolster Terrence in the back half.

And Alana [de la Garza] was somebody who very quickly came to mind. I think that she was well-loved by the mothership audience. Everybody who has worked with her is crazy about her. And the opportunity to put her in, we felt, was too good to pass up.

And as I said, it was definitely evolutionary, but it was rather revolutionary to change clothes on screen – or just off-screen. Never done that before but I think that, frankly the proof is in the pudding.

For those of you who've seen these first two episodes, I think that they're both better than anything we did in the first 13. Sorry we didn't come out in our terpsichorean finest at the beginning, but you know it's one of those things that we were given the chance.

If I had my choice, I'd almost call it Law & Order: Los Angeles 2.0 – that this is a real major change. And the rhythm of the show is different. I think the rhythm of the show is better. It's a pretty world class group of actors across the board. I mean, I've known most these people for an extended period of time and seen them do great work over a large number of years.

So as I said, it's you pays your money, take your chances. This is a bigger risk than any show that I can remember in recent history taking. But, I think all I can say is, if given the same set of circumstances, I would unhesitantly do it again with the talent involved.

USTH: Alfred, you're obviously transitioning from the "Order" part of the show to the "Law" part of the show. How has that been for you? I guess you're doing more location work now, and it's really a different side of your character.

ALFRED MOLINA: I'm enjoying it very much. It makes complete sense. It would have been very odd if it had been a completely different character. But it's someone who [is] going back to his original place, as it were. The transitional episode makes that clear that he was basically going back to where he feels he's most effective.

But the interesting thing, from a creative point of view, is that he goes back with all the knowledge and all the experience and all the insight and wisdom, hopefully – that he's gained as a prosecutor – going back to his original job as a detective. So, there's lots of room for the writers, lots of room for all the creative team to really explore that.

I think it adds up. When you have characters that reveal themselves to have many folds and crevices and creases that's where all the interesting stuff happens. And there's plenty there.

DICK WOLF: And I have to say that, because I can unabashedly beat Alfred's drum, that the interrogation scene in the second episode with the Secret Service agent is one of those wonderful scenes that you would have a hard time accepting if you were just dealing with a guy who had been a cop for the last 25 years.

It was so intellectually elevated the way Fred conducted it that it utilized the best of both a really good cop and the knowledge of how to deal with somebody at this level that he has obviously gained in the Prosecutor's office.

So that one scene – when I saw that, that was really worth a fist pump because it showed that it was sort of additive – that the experience that was in his backstory really came home to roost.

I'll give you one insight that, when I called Fred I said, "Look, I've got a proposition for you." And he was very surprised but very supportive because it was organic. It was something that came out of a situation that sort of made the decision rational – which you're always worried if an audience is going to accept that.

When I told him this backstory I said, "Look, I don't know if you knew this, but before you became a prosecutor you had been a cop for 12 to 15 years, and you were actually a pretty senior detective."

And Fred said, "Oh, that's marvelous. I'll be able to use that so fruitfully in my backstory." I said, "Well, how about front story? Because that's what we're..." He went, "Oh, my. What a surprising idea."

But luckily, he embraced it, and I think it was really, really, as I said, additive to the power of the show.

USTH: Alana, I'm just curious about the process about how you were invited back to join the Law & Order family. As Dick mentioned, you came from the mothership. How were you invited back to participate in this new Law & Order show, and how have you been enjoying it so far?

ALANA DE LA GARZA: Well, first of all I've been loving every second of it. It's very much like moving into a brand new home and somebody already put everything away for you. You know what I mean? It's so comfortable, but completely new and fresh and fun – I think genuinely fun.

And to be cast in such a fun, exciting way, kind of a last minute, "Hey, what do you think of this?" And of course I jumped at the opportunity to work with such incredible actors, but also a team that I love and that I know. And so for me it's just been fantastic.

And truly just came about with an email that said, "Hey, don't do anything rash and move on to anything. We're trying to resurrect Connie." And the next day they made an offer, which I was thrilled about.

USTH: And going into this new show, I guess your character had some prior relationship with Terrence Howard's character. Can you just talk a little bit about the different sides of Connie that we're going to be seeing with you in this new show?

ALANA DE LA GARZA: To be honest, I don't know what their backstory is, if they have just met...

DICK WOLF: No, there was no real connection between them. She came out...

ALANA DE LA GARZA: Right.

DICK WOLF: Connie came out to Los Angeles, basically to take care of her mother and left the New York DA's office. But we didn't have – I shouldn't speak for René [Balcer, creator of Law & Order: Los Angeles], but I haven't seen anything that indicates a previous kind of working relationship with the two of them.

ALANA DE LA GARZA: Right. And you know, the fun thing I always say about Connie is that she's kind of sassy and smart and quick, and will apologize later and will go head to head with anybody and question them in that sense.

And with [Terrence Howard's character] Joe Dekker, she does the exact same thing – behind closed doors will question and discuss. But then in the end, that's her partner and team and they're out for justice.

USTH: Thanks for clearing that up and providing your insights into how Connie fits in to the show.  Our thanks to Dick Wolf, Alfred Molina, and Alana de la Garza for speaking with us today.

Law & Order: LA returns to television on Monday, April 11 at 9pm on NBC for a two-hour kickoff.  In following weeks, it airs each Monday at 10pm after The Event.

Premiering in April, Tori Spelling begins a second reality series set to run for eight episodes on Oxygen.  This series, Tori & Dean: sTORIbook Weddings spotlights a new couple each week as they prepare for their wedding – with Tori Spelling and her husband Dean McDermott along for the ride to use their party planning skills to give each couple their dream wedding while staying on budget, avoiding mishaps, and keeping the couples' families from taking over.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO TORI SPELLING & DEAN McDERMOTT OF TORI & DEAN: sTORIbook WEDDINGS:

USTH: Can you tell us how the series came to be? Who came up with the concept, and how did things come together?

TORI SPELLING: Kind of out our lifestyle because we love to throw parties and basically love any excuse to throw a party. We've thrown many for our children, and a few friends had asked us to throw their wedding.

Started getting into weddings and then in actuality I said to Dean I wanted to start a party planning business. I wanted to do this as a hobby. And then we partnered with Oxygen and decided to do it on TV for eight lucky couples.

USTH: How did you guys find the eight couples that this series profiles?

TORI SPELLING: Couples would send in videos and we collectively looked through – gosh, hundreds of videos, and that's where we chose our eight couples from.

USTH: What do you think are some of the key ingredients to a successful wedding?

TORI SPELLING: I'm all about the details. I'm a very detailed-oriented person, and personally I think details are the key to every wedding. Weddings sometimes can be beautiful, but cookie cutter. So, I want ours to look anything but that.

USTH: Were there any times when there were any different points of view between you and the brides and if so, how did you resolve things?

TORI SPELLING: Well, I go by the motto that the bride is always right. It's her wedding.

DEAN McDERMOTT: But she's very influential.

So, I always listen to my brides, and I can just lean them towards – you know, I'll take what their input is and give them the chic version, I think.

USTH: From the brides' and grooms' perspectives, were there any commonalities among the eight couples in things they were concerned about or anxious about as their wedding day approached ?

DEAN McDERMOTT: I think there is a lot of worry that goes on [about whether] things will be delivered on time and [whether] they'll get all the things that they want, the colors they want, the theme they want. I think that's just a given for any couple.

USTH: Among the eight grooms that you were shepherding through the process, were there any commonalities among them?

DEAN McDERMOTT: Well, guys – the commonality with all the grooms was music and food. Those were their key concerns.

USTH: Tori, what did you notice about the eight brides? Were there any commonalities among them and things they would ask you or things they were concerned about?

TORI SPELLING: The thing that I found was that the brides were being influenced by family and friends a lot. And they all were trying to figure out how to have their dreams.

So, if that was a vision of what they wanted for their wedding, but they didn't know quite how to manage their family and their bridesmaids because everyone wanted what they wanted.

That was a very common thing that the families would really want to interfere into the wedding.

USTH: I assume all eight episodes have been filmed already. Do you think if this series is successful that you'd want to continue a second season of this series?

TORI SPELLING: Definitely. I had a great time. It's probably the hardest we've ever worked and you know, it's someone's big day. You can only get one chance at it.

Every wedding was on a budget. Even though they looked like these huge weddings, we had a very tight budget. And a lot of stuff was very do-it-yourself, and we would make everything to save on the budget.

We worked 24 hours a day, but it was great. It was so fulfilling at the end of the day when you married the couples off to see how happy they are, and there is nothing more rewarding.

USTH: Was there anything surprising or unexpected that you encountered in taking these brides on the journey to their wedding days?

TORI SPELLING: I didn't expect how attached I would get to them. I kind of thought, "Okay great, I'm going to be coming in doing their wedding and then moving on to another couple."

But it didn't pan out that way. We would come in, and we would spend so much time with them.

And my big thing is I like to really spend time with them and get to know them so I can personalize things in their wedding that they'd be like, "Oh, I didn't even remember I told you that was my favorite thing, and I would have it there at their wedding. Things like that.

So that's important to me. So I would get really attached so I would get really involved in their lives and friends with all these couples.

So at the end of the day it was hard kind of moving on from them to a new couple.

USTH: Between this series and your other reality series and your busy life in general, how do you balance everything that you do and make it work?

TORI SPELLING: If you're doing all the things you love, then you can make everything work. Because everything kind of falls into the same role.

Everything we do involves stuff together, stuff with families. If it's planning, if it's decorating, if it's parties, weddings, books, it's all about things that we love.

DEAN McDERMOTT: If you need something done, give it to a busy person. And that's how we kind of look at things.

USTH: Do either of you have any acting projects coming up that you want to talk about?

DEAN McDERMOTT: Yes, I did a movie for Christmas. It's sort of the sequel to Trainspotting. It's about personal goals and the changing of drugs – it was heroin in Trainspotting, and this one is ecstasy. It's going to be in the Toronto Film Festival.

USTH: Congratulations on that, and thanks to Tori Spelling and her husband Dean McDermott for speaking with us.  Tori & Dean: sTORIbook Weddings premieres Wednesday, April 6 on Oxygen.

The 11th series of The Apprentice began on Sunday March 6, and it's back to pitting celebrities against each other as they fight to win money for their respective charities.  The women's team took an early lead by winning the first task, but in the boardroom segment at the close of the episode, the cracks in the team's unity were already beginning to show.  The women lost the next three tasks in a row, and Lisa Rinna, Niki Taylor, and Dionne Warwick were sent packing.  A few days after Ms. Taylor's exit episode aired, she spoke with us about her time on The Celebrity Apprentice and about her teammates.  Ms. Taylor was fired by Donald Trump when her team ASAP lost in the task of creating a display for a camping equipment company.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO NIKI TAYLOR OF THE CELEBRITY APPRENTICE:

USTH: You talked about how proud you were of your team and how you really thought they all did a good job, but when you went into the boardroom and Donald asked you, you did express some doubt and some uncertainty as to whether your team won or not.

So exactly why were you unsure in that moment of walking into the boardroom?

NIKI TAYLOR: I was unsure because after we got back to our boardroom, I heard – I overheard that John Rich had come up with a jingle, and I saw that they had a whole bunch of green and trees and hedges and beautiful turf all laid down and I'm like, "Oh, my goodness, that's what I've been wanting." That's what I wanted.

So, it's hard to go up against a guy who's an amazing person, who can come up with a good jingle, and the green – I think was just really eye-popping. So, I was a little unsure. I didn't know what the guys were doing. I didn't go over the guys' side.

But we did amazing on the brand messaging, and I thought the experience was great. I think the CEO made a wrong decision letting the guys win.

USTH: Who surprised you the most on the women's team, and who surprised you the most on the men's team?

NIKI TAYLOR: NeNe Leakes, who was such an amazing person. She went above and beyond every time I asked her to do something. She was just fantastic with me when at first I was a little scared meeting her just because of all the stuff I heard about [The Real] Housewives of Atlanta. But she was amazing and super, super great with me.

And on the guys' side, I don't know. I really haven't thought about the guy side. I know John's going to be amazing.

USTH: What did you learn about yourself from this experience?

NIKI TAYLOR: Myself? I need to speak up a little more. Maybe take somebody aside if they have a question or definitely speak up more.

USTH: Thanks to Niki Taylor for speaking with us.  The Celebrity Apprentice airs Sunday nights at 9pm Eastern.