On Monday, February 7, we spoke to Rosie O'Donnell who is promoting her upcoming appearance on Who Do You Think You Are?, a television series that traces the ancestry of a different celebrity guest each episode.  The series is executive produced by Lisa Kudrow, whom fans will remember for her role on the long-running sitcom, Friends.  Who Do You Think You Are? is adapted from the BBC series of the same name, and the American version has recently returned to the airwaves for a second season, which will consist of eight episodes.  The full list of guests to be profiled this season are: Vanessa WIlliams, Tim McGraw, Rosie O'Donnell, Steve Buscemi, Kim Cattrall, Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Lionel Richie.

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO ROSIE O'DONNELL:

USTH: Before we talk about your episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, I'm curious about whether any of your children have been bitten by the acting bug, and if so, what advice would you give them?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: None of my kids have been bitten by the acting bug. Although, I tried to be a stage mother and force them; it didn't work. None of them are really into it.

USTH: Regarding the research that was done into your ancestry for Who Do You Think You Are?,do you feel that you learned all that you needed to about your mother's family, or are there any more unanswered questions that you will be researching on your own?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: I would like to know more about who [my mother] was as an adult woman. We found out a lot about her childhood. I think research-wise we've done everything that we could.

But, I've been lately trying to find people who knew her, who went to school with her, who knew her in college or in secretarial school, and try to find out who she was as a grown woman. That's just for my own kind of personal journey of meeting and introducing myself to the woman that my mother was, instead of the child version of the mommy.

And as far as the show goes, I think that they uncovered every stone. You know, there was nothing left to find out, and it is a show about ancestors, so we went back. I did find out stuff about my grandfather, who I never knew, and didn't anything about his family, and so it was pretty surprising stuff that I found out.

But as far as my mother goes, [I want] to find out more about her as a person. I don't think it's necessarily ancestral research. It's more going to find her friends, and seeing if they'll have lunch with me.

USTH: You've always put yourself out there as a fan of celebrities and TV and movies.  So, I'm curious to know, which celebrity would you be interested to see profiled on Who Do You Think You Are? and why?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: I'd say Natasha Lyonne. I got to know her about two years ago doing Love, Loss, and What I Wore, Nora Ephron's Broadway show. I really did not know anything about her. I had not seen any of her movies, [but] since getting to know her, I find her to be one of the smartest women I've ever met. She's only 31 years old.

She has an amazing story about her grandparents being in the Holocaust and what that was like for them. Her grandmother and her sister both survived Auschwitz – her grandmother and her grandmother's sister. And so, Natasha was raised by a child of a Holocaust survivor and the ramifications of that. And I think it's a pretty fascinating story and I would love to be able to see her tale told on that show.

USTH: You've always said that you stepped away from acting because you wanted to raise your kids properly and spend a lot of time with them. But now that your kids are older, do you envision yourself getting back into the acting business full-time whether it be a weekly sitcom or doing more movies? Are there any acting projects coming up from you in the near future that we should know about?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: Well, I would love to, but acting roles for women who are 50 and older are hard to come by, and they're hard to come by for Kathy Bates and Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon. So, I don't have any illusions about the desire for me to run back and get these huge parts that are simply waiting. There really aren't any parts like that.

It will be much more single topic oriented. So, I don't know. I think that when I get to be in my 60's there will probably be a lot of roles for me as the grandmother or older mother of the Geraldine Page kind of Trip to Bountiful sort of roles. And that's what I think I'm waiting for.

So until then, if they need me for anything they'll call. I'm there, but if not, I'm going to be doing TV for the Oprah Winfrey Network.

USTH: Our thanks to Rosie O'Donnell for speaking with us today.  Who Do You Think You Are? airs Friday nights at 8pm Eastern on NBC, and Ms. O'Donnell's episode will air February 18, 2011.

Airing Mondays on NBC is the new urban superhero drama, The Cape.  The titular character is in reality Vince Faraday (played by David Lyons), a police detective working in the crime-ridden and corrupt fictional locale of Palm City, CA.  When the new police chief is murdered by a criminal known only as "Chess," Faraday and his partner, Marty Voyt (Dorian Messick) investigate.  Unfortunately for Faraday, his partner is a dirty cop who delivers him right to Chess.  Chess turns out to be Peter Fleming (James Frain), a billionaire businessman and owner of a private security firm that is seeking to privatize Palm City's police force and public security operations for his own evil ends.  Chess frames Faraday for the murder of the police chief and after a chase by Fleming's security teams that is televised on the local news that ends in an explosion, Faraday is believed dead by everyone including his wife (Jennifer Ferrin) and young son (Ryan Wynott).

Of course, Faraday survived and is taken in by the so-called Carnival of Crime, a band of bank robbers operating as a traveling circus as a cover.  The leader of the circus, Max Malini (Keith David), provides Faraday with training and a special cape.  Faraday allows everyone to continue to think that he is dead so that he can fight Chess and clear his name without endangering his family.  Faraday decides to operate as a masked vigilante called The Cape, which is the name of his son's favorite comic book superhero.  Helping The Cape carry out his mission is Orwell (Summer Glau), an investigative blogger who has her own secret reasons for joining Faraday in his battle.

DAVID LYONS as Vince Faraday/The Cape [Photo Credit: NBC]

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO DAVID LYONS: 

USTH: What attracted you to this type of material in the first place? Are you a Sci-Fi or comic book fan at all?

DAVID LYONS: I wasn't a Sci-Fi comic book fan, and what attracted me to it was knowing that [while] it was a Sci-Fi comic book genre, at the heart of it was a very, very real family. And so the way I approached the script was the same way I approached the character – was not in terms of being a superhero. It was in terms of being a family man that's torn away from everything that he loves and he's using this last vestige of hope in order to get it all back.

So it's kind of been a really interesting and steep learning curve for me in terms of the genre of the world and the mythology of these worlds, but one which has been incredibly enjoyable and quite a huge eye-opener and quite a thrill.

USTH: What is it like for you to anchor a television show? Are you feeling any sort of pressure at all on a personal level?

DAVID LYONS: I think that, you know, you feel pressure regardless of what role you play. Just in terms of the fact that when you work on something and – like anyone whether it be a painter or a cook or – when you prepare something for other people to view, there is trepidation involved.

But what we've been doing is just focusing on the characters themselves [and] getting into the storyline so that that concept of leading a show, whatever, is not at the forefront of my mind, and I can't afford to let it be. It does start getting in the way of the work, and at the very end of everything, the work is what you're there for.

USTH: What's been the most fun aspect of working on this series?

DAVID LYONS: The cast – without a shadow of a doubt – the cast. We've assembled not only just the most fantastic bunch of actors right through every single role, they're also an incredibly fun, humble, awesome bunch to be around. So we've managed to create a really beautiful family environment that is a lot of fun to work in. And so coming to work creating this world, which is so rich and textured, it's only embellished by the fact that everyone around is having such a great time.

USTH: Thank you, David, for speaking with us today, and good luck in the future.

Disgraced police detective VINCE FARADAY becomes the  comic book character, The Cape [Photo Credit: NBC]

The Cape airs Monday nights at 9pm Eastern on NBC.

Recently, we spoke to actress Vanessa Minnillo, who will be doing a guest star appearance on the hit NBC series, 30 Rock.  Ms. Minnillo plays Carmen Chao, a highly competitive co-worker of Avery Jessup (returning guest star Elizabeth Banks) at MSNBC.

In the story, Liz (Tina Fey) fakes being pregnant in order to hide the fact that Avery is pregnant from Carmen, whom Avery considers a workplace rival.  This episode will air Thursday, February 3 on NBC.

We spoke to Ms. Minnillo about her guest spot, her acting aspirations for the future, and her relationship status with singer Nick Lachey.

(l-r) Vanessa Minnillo, Elizabeth Banks guest star on 30 ROCK [Photo Credit: Al Goldstein/NBC]

USTOWNHALL SPEAKS TO VANESSA MINNILLO: 

USTH: Going into this project – being a guest star on 30 Rock – were you nervous or did you have any anxiety about working with...

VANESSA MINNILLO: I was nervous...

USTH: ...the 30 Rock cast?

VANESSA MINNILLO: I can even cut you off at that, because this is a big deal for me. This is 30 Rock, NBC. It's Emmy Award winning, Golden Globe winning, and the cast alone is just – this is as good as it gets. This is A-List. These are A-List actors and comedians that I'm working with, so I was completely beside myself. I was so nervous that I was actually making myself sick just for the audition process.

And I was traveling, actually, the day that they were auditioning girls for the role of Carmen Chao, which is my character's name, and I couldn't make the audition. So, what I had to do was put myself on tape, which is even more nerve wracking because one of the things I love is being able to walk into a room and meet people, make eye contact, have a conversation with them, and then go into reading.

But this is just me putting myself on tape, sending it in directly to the people and the powers that be, and then they show Tina – she's the final yes or no – and I completely, to be honest, I made a fool of myself. But, I thought it was necessary for the character. I laid it all on the line. It took me, gosh, by the time I got to my friend's house to shoot it, it was already midnight.

I came back home at 1:30, and the car was picking us up for our flight at 5:00 am. I didn't sleep. I showed it to Nick [Lachey, Ms. Minnillo's fiancé] when he woke up, and I'm like, "What do you think?" And he said, "Wow. Like, you literally just put on the line." He said, "They're either going to think you're crazy and you're psycho, or that you're really a good actress."

And so, you'll see Carmen is a fun character to play. She's bananas. She's very confident. She's very honest. She's very outspoken. She's very out there. And so, I tried to let that come across on the tape and obviously I think it did, and they literally called me while I was in Cincinnati – for our engagement party, actually – and said, "You got the job." So, I left from Cincinnati to New York, shot it all in one day, and just had the most amazing time.

USTH: Does the storyline allow you to come back to make future appearances?

VANESSA MINNILLO: The storyline is – obviously, I don't want to give too much away – but yeah it does, and that's the beauty of 30 Rock. They said with everybody that they've had – it always leaves the door open for this big revolving door of fun guest star appearances. I guess recently they had somebody on there play an HR guy, and they loved him and had such a great time with him, and he was great that they brought him back already for a couple other episodes. So, I am putting all of my faith in the TV gods if they will let me come back. Trust me, I've begged and said as much as I could.

USTH: I can imagine. It is a great show, obviously, and it is a feather in your cap to be on it. Looking into the future, would you want to star in your own weekly series? Do you think you would like something like that – an ongoing weekly engagement?

VANESSA MINNILLO: Yeah, I think that would – that's like the dream job. For me, hosting was always fun and was something that I was able to do at – without sounding, I don't want to – some people find their niche. Like Nick is able to sing a capella in front of 50,000 people. I cannot do that, but I can host. I can get on a microphone, and I can be myself, and I can interview people, and I enjoy that.

Acting is fun because it lets you dive into other parts of your personality and in your brain and even in your psyche. It's almost therapeutic when you dive into characters. So, when I came to L.A., I actually have been doing some guest appearance roles, I've had a couple pilots that didn't go, but it's all good stuff.

People are out here for years at a time and never get one, so I have to count my blessings in that regard and hope this year is the year. It's already starting out with a bang with 30 Rock, so hopefully I can keep the momentum going.

Vanessa Minnillo on the set of 30 ROCK [Photo Credit: Al Goldstein/NBC]

USTH: Do you think that comedy is your strength, or would you like to try a drama?

VANESSA MINNILLO: I've always said comedy is exactly what I want to do. But interestingly enough, while I've been taking acting classes and coaching, my coach says that drama's probably more where I'll be comfortable because I have so much to pull from in every single one of the roles I had to be dramatic in. Like, I just got back from Hawaii Five-O. I have to cry. I was on CSI: New York, I had to cry. I was on Psych, I had to cry.

And so I'm like, "Wow, I guess there is a little dark Vanessa that's dying to come out and just express herself," you know? So, I'm open to any and all opportunities, not just limited to comedy, but that one for sure I feel the most comfortable in.

USTH: On a personal note, I'm not really up on the latest celebrity gossip, but have you and Nick set a specific wedding date yet?

VANESSA MINNILLO: No, we haven't.

USTH: Is there any indication of when you would do that, or is that sort of under wraps right now?

VANESSA MINNILLO: No, it's just we're enjoying being engaged. Everyone rushes to the next step, and I like this step, you know? It's fun, and I'm in love, and we're happy. So when it comes, and it happens organically, I will be welcoming it with open arms.

USTH: When did you and Nick first meet?

VANESSA MINNILLO: We actually met at a pageant, believe it or not. We were both judging Miss Teen USA.  This is in 2003, maybe.  He was judging. I was judging. I was Miss Teen USA 1998, so they brought me back to judge and he was, you know, Nick Lachey and 98 Degrees, and his album and had a solo album coming out, so he was a judge as well. And that's where met as friends and obviously through MTV had kept in touch whenever he came to New York to do TRL [Total Request Live]. It was like I just saw an old family member, "Hey, what's going on? How's it going?" So, I had known him for a minute.

USTH: Vanessa, thank you for speaking with us today, and good luck to you and Nick in the future.

Ms. Minnillo's episode of 30 Rock airs Thursday, February 3, 2011, 10pm Eastern on NBC.

On Wednesday, January 19, 2011, we had a very special edition of our interview series, USTownhall RealStories.  We had the pleasure of having a one-on-one in-depth chat with legendary television producer/writer/director, Kenneth Johnson.  Fans of classic television, particularly in the scifi genre, will no doubt know his many influential works.  Mr. Johnson first made a splash on television after some years in Hollywood for his creation of Jaime Sommers, the Bionic Woman in a special two-part episode of The Six Million Dollar Man on ABC that shot the series to the top of the ratings where it remained for its next two seasons.  The fan reaction to Jaime and to the performance of actress Lindsay Wagner was so strong that, although the character was killed off at the end of the story, the network ordered that she be brought back for a return appearance.  Subsequently, the character was spun off into her own series that catapulted Lindsay Wagner to international superstardom.

Mr. Johnson was also responsible for bringing the long-running Marvel Comics superhero strip, The Incredible Hulk to the small screen for CBS.  This series ran for five successful seasons and remains probably the most widely-known and well-liked version of the Hulk.  Mr. Johnson's trademark in his writing is to incorporate the human element into his stories and put it front and center.  This certainly was true with Bill Bixby's melancholy performance as the tormented Dr. Banner that allowed the series to be taken seriously by adults rather than dismissed as a kids' show.

One of Mr. Johnson's biggest ratings successes was the television miniseries, V, which was broadcast on NBC in 1983.  This four hour event was followed the next season by another miniseries and, finally, a weekly series.  However, Johnson left the franchise during the production of the second miniseries, V: The Final Battle.  Imagery from the original V miniseries, which included gigantic spaceships hovering over major cities across the globe was paid homage to in the feature film, Independence Day.

Mr. Johnson has done numerous other television and feature film projects including Alien Nation, Short Circuit 2, and Steel.

Mr. Johnson spends an eventful hour with us to talk about all of that and more in this exclusive interview.  He relives the full behind-the-scenes stories of some of his more memorable television moments, and reveals some information that hasn't been as widely discussed and may just surprise you.

How did Mr. Johnson feel when Warner Bros. tried to take his "Created by" credit off the new V series currently airing on ABC?  Which other actresses were considered for the part of the Bionic Woman that eventually went to Lindsay Wagner?  Was Lee Majors' then-wife, Farrah Fawcett, ever a contender for Jaime Sommers?  Given Bill Bixby's background in comedy as the star of My Favorite Martian, what made Johnson decide that Bixby was the right person to play Dr. Banner in his adaptation of the Incredible Hulk?  What did Johnson say when he met Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, the men behind the blockbuster film, Independence Day?

The answers to those and other questions await in what promises to be a most memorable interview that no fan of classic television or scifi would want to miss!