5.2.06 - Don't miss Justin Long in a new series of Mac ads by Apple Computers.

4.24.06 - From TVGuide.com: Danny DeVito, Dylan Walsh (Nip/Tuck) and Justin Long are teaming up in the indie comedy "One Part Sugar."

3.24.06 - CBS has signed Tom Cavanagh for the lead role in its comedy pilot My Ex Life.

Josh Randall by Monty Brinton/CBS

by Matt Webb Mitovich

It was a tall order — literally — finding the right man to play opposite statuesque Jenna Elfman on CBS' Courting Alex, which makes its Wednesday-time-slot debut tonight at 8:30 pm/ET. In the end the sitcom opted to pair Josh Randall, the man formerly known as Ed's Dr. Mike, with the woman formerly known as Dharma. Here, Randall speaks with TVGuide.com about his alter ego's certain swagger and weighs in on how Alex avoided the grim fates suffered by Emily, Jake and that familiar Monkey.

TVGuide.com: Jenna is 5'10" and you're over 6 feet tall. I have to think that Courting Alex's casting office looked like basketball tryouts.
Josh Randall: [Laughs] You know, I happened to come in at a time when there wasn't anybody else waiting, but I imagine that was part of the criteria — you had to have some height.

TVGuide.com: In what ways are you and your Courting Alex character, blue-collar Scott, the same? In what ways are you different?
Randall: I had a sort of similar route in life in that I have tried different things and tried not to lock myself into one particular path, and that's kind of the route he has taken, having worked in the corporate world and then as a firefighter in Montana, and now has come back to run his grandfather's bar. He and I are both open to what life brings you.

TVGuide.com: Are you as much a jeans-and-T-shirt kind of guy?
Randall: Not to the degree that he is. [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: I like the certain "swagger" they've given Scott. For example, he knew from the get-go that Alex wanted him but she just wouldn't come out and say it.
Randall: The character had to have a certain degree of confidence to be able to match up to Jenna, who is so confident and smart and beautiful. He had to have some moxie to make their relationship work. But there is a fine line between having that and being cocky or arrogant, and I've been trying to find the balance there.

TVGuide.com: Seeing what happened to Heather Graham's (Emily's Reasons Why Not) and Tom Cavanagh's (Love Monkey) own mid-season series about the dating life, were you worried about what this TV season might have in store for Courting Alex?
Randall: Tom [the star of Ed] is a great friend of mine and I was sorry that his show wasn't given more of a shot, and Heather Graham's show, I was really surprised to see them take something off the air after one episode, but....

TVGuide.com: I mean, it's Heather Graham, for chrissake.
Randall: Yeah, it's Heather Graham, exactly. However, those shows were different in trying to kind of mine new territory in ways that we are not. As big a [film] star as Heather Graham is, Jenna has a built-in TV audience, which I think was to our advantage. As is having [sitcom vet] Dabney Coleman [playing Alex's father] — all he has to do is walk onto the set to get laughs.

TVGuide.com: How did you react to the time-slot change?
Randall: I wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first, but I'm convinced, as many people are, that it's for the best and that it's a vote of confidence from CBS that they believe the show is working well enough on its own, that it no longer needs the swanky [Monday] time slot to get its audience. They must believe that we, along with Out of Practice (airing at 8 pm), can resurrect the Wednesday-night comedy lineup for CBS.

TVGuide.com: Speaking of Wednesdays... dude, you totally got your neck snapped as one of the tailies on Lost!
Randall: Yes! It's still sore.

TVGuide.com: You had to be stoked to dip your toe into that phenomenon, if only for just for a few minutes.
Randall: Yeah, it was great. I don't actually watch a whole lot of TV, but that's a show that I do try to catch, so it was really cool to be a part of it. In addition to being such a good show, it's a great atmosphere in which to work. It's [filmed in] Hawaii and the cast and crew are all easy and fun people. It's funny, when I went away to do Lost, it was a little while before we started Courting Alex, and I got a call at the end of my stay on Lost from [executive producer] Rob Hanning saying, "Where are you?! We need you back. We're about to start!" And then we just jumped into it, and we've been working steadily [ever] since.

3.13.06 - Kristin at E!Online is reporting that it looks like Tom Cavanagh's show Love Monkey is realy over. However, at least Cavanagh's Scrubs episode will air soon!

2.23.06 - People magazine reports that Tom Cavanagh and his wife, Marueen, welcomed their first child, Alice Ann, on February 10th.

2.22.06 - While it looks like Tom Cavanagh's new show, Love Monkey, is probably gone for good, this has at least freed up Cavanagh to reprise his role as J.D.'s older brother, Dan, on Scrubs. Cavanagh returned to the set last week. In his episode, which is slated to air in April, Dan comes to town to avoid a job interview his mother has set up for him.

2.9.06 - Variety reports that CBS has shelved Tom Cavanagh's Love Monkey after just three airings as part of a Tuesday-lineup shuffle. Taking over the 10 pm/ET slot is The Amazing Race (which premieres Feb. 28).

1.30.06 - TV Guide gives Cheers to Josh Randall for scoring love-interest roles on a pair of sitcoms, Scrubs and Courting Alex. The Ed vet romanced Scrubs doc Sarah Chalke—at least until he shared a fantasy so perverse she couldn't even discuss it. Now he's wooing Jenna Elfman's titular lawyer a a motorcycle-riding bar owner on Alex. Plus, Randall played a doomed castaway on Lost earlier this season. He's come a long way from Stuckeyville.

1.15.06 - Zap2It.com: 'Love Monkey' Is Music to Cavanagh's Ears Viewers may argue about what the title really means, but one thing about "Love Monkey" is crystal clear: This new CBS comedy-drama, which premieres Tuesday, Jan. 17, is a blast of fresh air, particularly for anyone getting a little weary of the network's usual all-crime, all-the-time lineup. More...

12.7.05 - Michael Ausiello of TV Guide Online mentioned that Julie Bowen was spotted on the set of Lost this week.

12.5.05 - Ed creators Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman are creating a new show about a group of guys who plan to rob a celebrity. Burnett and Beckerman originally titled their script "I Want to Rob Jeff Goldblum." They were apparently unable to convince Goldblum to take part in the show, however, so another celeb will become the target. Grounded for Life star Donal Logue is signed to star.

11.28.05 - Tom Cavanagh's new CBS show, Love Monkey, will premiere on Tuesday, January 17th at 9pm ET.

11.16.05 - From Kristin at E!Online: While there are no plans for Julie Bowen to appear on Lost again anytime soon (she is busy with Boston Legal), Josh Randall will be in this week's episode as someone named "Nathan," likely one of the folks from the tail-end of the plane that didn't make it.

8.17.05 - Michael Ausiello of TV Guide reports that Julie Bowen flew to Hawaii last week to shoot another episode of Lost.

8.10.05 - CBS has greenlit the midseason dramedy Love Monkey, which centers around a group of thirtysomething friends played by Tom Cavanagh, Jason Priestley and Larenz Tate.

7.27.05 - Julie Bowen will not only continue to appear in the occasional episode of Lost, but she has been cast in ABC's Boston Legal.

4.8.05 - The ABC pilot that cast Julie Bowen has been named Love Life. The show is set in Philadelphia and follows the lives of two groups of friends, all in their 30's, who become friends. Filling out the cast are Henry Simmons, Tom Everett Scott, Michael Landes, Alan Tudyk, Lucy Davis, and Sophina Brown.

3.21.05 - Julie Bowen will be on The Ellen Degeneres Show on Tuesday, March 22nd.

2.26.05 - Julie Bowen has been added to the cast of ABC's untitle ensemble comedy project from Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfton and produced by Touchstone TV. Other new cast members include Alan Tudyk and Michael Landes. The premise is a group of single thirtysomethings, all living in Philadelphia.

2.11.05 - CBS cast-contingent pilot project Love Monkey (Paramount Network TV/Sony Pictures TV) has cast Tom Cavanagh, thereby removing the contingency. Love Monkey is about four single guys in the dating/relationship process, all chronicled by a music producer - Cavanagh.

11.7.04 - The November 7th issue of TV Guide gives Cheers to Tom Cavanagh for reprising his big-brother act with Zach Braff on Scrubs. The actors not only look like siblings but also share a familiar chemistry. Best known as Ed's fresh-scrubbed title character, Cavanagh shows off his range as drunken layabout Dan Dorian. Now that Ed's gone, here's hoping Cavanagh checks into Scrubs more often.

10.13.04 - Josh Randall will guest star on Joey the night of Thursday, October 14th.

9.27.04 - TV Guide Online: Late Late Show Hires Temp

The years have been good to Michael Ian Black. By just happily existing during the '70s, '80s and '90s, the actor/comedian did enough research to provide VH1's popular I Love The... specials with some of its funniest observations and spot-on comments. But since VH1 has momentarily run out of decades, the former bowling-alley manager on NBC's Ed is keeping busy with a pilot for Comedy Central (with two of his comic cohorts from The State). Tonight and tomorrow night, he'll also be sitting in The Late Late Show's guest-host chair.

TV Guide Online: Have you ever done any interviewing or guest-hosting stuff?
Michael Ian Black: I did. When Stuck on You came out, I interviewed Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Cher and the Farrelly brothers for a special on Comedy Central. And I learned that, in person, Matt Damon is actually gorgeous. Incidentally, so is Cher. The woman is stunning, to the point where, I mean, I was having fantasies about doing Cher while interviewing her.

TVGO: How's your wife?
Black: [Laughs] How's my wife? She's good. I have two kids, none of them by Cher. Older boy, younger girl.

TVGO: Amy Brenneman is one of your guests. Are you a big Judging Amy fan?
Black: No, I've never seen the show. [Laughs]

TVGO: Do you plan to get an episode in beforehand?
Black: Ehh... We'll see. I don't know. [Mock indignant] I mean, how much preparation can I possibly be expected to do?! I'm a busy, busy man. I'm only going to have so much time in Los Angeles when I'm out there. I mean, I think Amy Brenneman is lovely and I'm looking forward to speaking with her. Doesn't mean I have to see her work.

TVGO: Also, Jason Ritter from Joan of Arcadia is another one of your guests. Have you seen that show?
Black: No. I've heard it's good. I don't watch a lot of popular television. I'm a parent, [so] generally, I watch animated children's programming and Blue's Clues. If you're gonna have Joe from Blue's Clues on, we can talk for hours. This is gonna make me look real good. "Do you watch Judging Amy?" "Noooo." "Joan of Arcadia?" "Noooo." I'm gonna make a prediction right now: The interviews are going to be very good — not from my end, but they're going to be very good.

TVGO: You're arguably more well-known now for being in the VH1 specials than anything else.
Black: Well, you'll get no disagreement that if people know me from anything these days, it's from VH1. Ironically, I get recognized for being on Kids in the Hall more than I get recognized for being on Ed, and the fact is I was never on Kids in the Hall. On an almost daily basis, somebody comes up to me and says, "Hey, weren't you on Kids in the Hall?" I say, "No," and then they say, "Shut up! Yes, you were... You d---."

TVGO: At least you've got the recognition for VH1.
Black: It's kind of good to be known, almost regardless of what you're known for. Paris Hilton is case in point of this. She did nothing except release a sex video and now she's "Paris Hilton" in capital letters. So, the point being, look for my sex video coming out any day now.

TVGO: I may not.
Black: It's really hot.

TVGO: So... Before you go, since we'll have to wait until 2010 for VH1 specials about this decade, can we get a sample of your take on current pop-culture stuff? Reality TV, for instance?
Black: It's unbelievable to me that people are seeking out ways to humiliate themselves on television. Honestly, I don't understand how they think it is going to improve their lives to be known as the guy who ate the horse's ass on Fear Factor. I really don't. You know, I think if you're in line for a promotion at work and it's you and the other guy, if I'm the boss, I'm probably going to pick the guy who didn't eat the horse's ass.

9.24.04 - The team of Rob Burnett/Jon Beckerman and NBC Universal Television/Worldwide Pants are developing a sitcom pilot and have cast Chazz Palminteri in the starring role - a father returns to rekindle or in fact create a relationship with his son, whom he left shortly after his birth.

8.23.04 - Tom Cavanagh will reprise his role as J.D.'s brother in two episodes of Scrubs this October.

8.17.04 - Tom Cavanagh, 35, married Sports Illustrated photo editor Maureen Grise July 31st in Nantucket, Massachusetts. It is the first marriage for both.

7.29.04 - Tom Cavanagh has signed on to headline ABC Family's holiday-themed movie "Snow."

3.8.04 - Julie Bowen has been cast in a new NBC pilot for next season, which further proves that Ed will never return. Bowen will join Saturday Night Live alum Ana Gasteyer as the spoiled daughter of a deceased mogul fighting his wife (Gasteyer) for control of his business.

3.3.04 - From Roush Riff in the February 28th issue of TV Guide: Way to go, Ed. When NBC's charming romantic comedy quietly took its (almost certainly) final bow earlier this month with a happy ending in a jubilant bowling-alley wedding for Ed and Carol, it was all somewhat lost amid the hoopla of the countdowns for higher-profile series finales. This was a bittersweet finish, with Ed's fourth season trimmed by several episodes, resulting in an early exit. But at least the show's loyal fans got the emotional climax they'd long awaited, as Ed kissed his bride and toasted friends and family in Stuckyville, an oasis of quirky enjoyment that will be missed.

2.20.04 - Fervent Ed fans took out a full-page ad in today's Variety begging NBC to renew the show for a fifth season. "This was above and beyond," says exec producer Rob Burnett of the $5,000 gesture. "We were touched that people would actually spend their own money for something like this." NBC recently told TV Guide Online that Ed's Feb. 6 season finale was likely the show's swan song.

2.6.04 - Matt Roush's Dispatch: Few things are as bittersweet as saying goodbye to a series you're not ready to let get away. But rare is the situation when a show is cut short and yet allowed to end on a satisfying note.

Such is the case with Ed, which ends its fourth and presumably final season tonight (Friday, Feb. 6) with a joyous wedding celebration for Ed and Carol (the ever-delightful Tom Cavanagh and Julie Bowen). If you don't choke up at Ed's final toast to his beloved friends and family, all gathered at (where else) Stuckey Bowl, as the camera pans over the tearful faces of characters we've come to know and love, then you probably haven't been watching.

Your loss.

Ed's executive producer and cocreator Rob Burnett phoned me earlier this week and sounded satisfied with this episode, even though it came upon us much too soon (NBC reduced the number of episodes this season to 17). "We feel like we got closure," he said. His main regret: That NBC never gave Ed a chance at a 10 pm time slot, where he believes it could have flourished into an adult hit like CBS' Northern Exposure (the show it most often resembles in its generosity of spirit towards the quirky folks who inhabit the offbeat world of Stuckeyville). Burnett feels, and I agree, that many of the people who would flock to a sophisticated and witty hour-long comedy generally aren't watching TV at 8 pm many nights.

So I was genuinely surprised when NBC renewed Ed for this fourth season, and I've long considered these final episodes something of a gift. Watching the last few weeks, as NBC trumpeted the "final" episodes in its promos, has been painful for sure, but also pleasurable. Ed epitomizes the "sleeper" hit, a show whose high-income demographics NBC regularly trumpeted even when the overall ratings slumped. So what if it wasn't a monster hit? Ed wouldn't have known what to do with hype if it had received any.

It goes into my TV scrapbook as one of the sweetest, most unassuming charmers to grace the small screen. That Ed survived at all in this current climate of bottom-feeding reality TV and grim formula crime fare is something to be celebrated.

Long live Stuckeyville �— in our memories, at the very least.

Julie Bowen and Tom Cavanagh by Craig Blankenhorn/NBC

The NBC promos have not been subtle. "On the final episode of Ed, it's the moment you've waited four years for. America's favorite love story ends with a wedding finale." (Those nuptials are tonight at 9 pm/ET, by the way.) That seems pretty clear cut, and yet, there's been no official cancellation of the show. So on this last day of filming at Ed's Stuckeybowl set in New Jersey, it's a bittersweet moment. "I think we look at this as a series finale," says exec producer Rob Burnett. "The story began with Ed coming back to Stuckeyville and asking out this girl who didn't know him and today we're filming their wedding. It feels to me, and to all of us, this is the end of the story."

To say that there have been a few obstacle-filled chapters along the way would be an understatement. For Carol (Julie Bowen), it began with an arrogant boyfriend, continued with a supremely cocky fiance and briefly detoured for a sad-sack — but very persistent — school accountant. Not to be outdone, Ed (Tom Cavanagh) traveled a winding romantic road that included some speed bumps named Bonnie, Frankie, Liz and Kelly Ripa.

What could have been a one-note series about Ed and Carol's roller-coaster relationship instead became a pleasantly surreal world populated by very patient best friends, eclectic bowling alley staffers and a few spastic high school students. "The cast is very strong and when you have that, you're already 80 yards down the field," says Burnett. "A lot of times we'll write something and you audition people and you're, like, 'Oh, my God, this isn't funny.' And then suddenly you get the right person in there and it's great."

There's the right person and there's also, arguably, the right time for a series to bring down the curtain. "It's been a terrific run," NBC president Jeff Zucker tells TV Guide Online, "but the odds are this is its final season." Zucker also confirmed that the actors have been told they have permission to look for pilots. Nevertheless, he does add that "we're going to leave ourselves a little flexibility for when we put the schedule together in May."

Sidestepping the uncertainties of network programming, Cavanagh has taken a more reflective outlook. "When you're fortunate enough to be given something so great," he says, "part of the moral contract is you gotta treat it with respect. I think that means not overstaying your welcome, and I don't believe that we have. If this is the time to call it, certainly, I think everybody can be very happy and proud about what they've done here."

Daryl "Chill" Mitchell courtesy NBC

It's the last day of filming for Ed's fourth season and Daryl "Chill" Mitchell is needed on lane 11 at Stuckeybowl. He wheels over to be at costar Tom Cavanagh's side as his eponymous character, Ed Stevens, exchanges vows with the now-attainable Carol Vessey (Julie Bowen). While the show's deliriously happy couple are starting a new life together, Mitchell, who joined the offbeat NBC drama just a year and a half ago, realizes that this is probably a series — not season — finale.

Mitchell has been at this juncture before with The John Larroquette Show and Veronica's Closet, but this time it's different. His role as Eli Cartwright Goggins III was his first gig since the November 2001 motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed. "[You] fall in love with cast members," says the Bronx-born actor, "and when the show ends it hurts so bad. So I said to myself, I ain't doing that no more. But then you get to the point where you gotta physically depend on people. I've flipped this chair over on this set, scared these people to death so many times, but they pick me up. You develop a sense of commitment."

Back in 2002, the former member of rap group Groove B. Chill was more concerned about supporting his own Atlanta-based family, wife Carol and three kids. It was hard enough, he says, being a minority when looking for roles, never mind the added wrinkle of a wheelchair. Luckily, thanks to his Hollywood connections, Mitchell landed a meeting with Ed creators Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman, who offered him a part that very day. The only one happier than Mitchell was his mother. "I had Rob and Jon call her," he says, "They was, like, 'We just wanna let you know that your son has been cast on our TV show.' My mother's like, 'Thank you, Jehovah!' I can still hear her say it to this day."

At first it appeared that he was there to ease out Phil ( Michael Ian Black), Stuckeybowl's previous top manager, but ironically Eli's formidable presence had the opposite effect. "His arrival was actually a great blessing for my character," notes Black, who had worked with his new costar in regional theater in the mid-'90s, "because it allowed the writers to show Phil as vulnerable in a way that he hadn't been before."

But Phil's vulnerability was nothing compared to the way Mitchell has exposed the more sensitive aspects of disability. Last season's inspired episode in which we saw a time-lapse sequence of the considerable efforts it takes for Eli (and Daryl) to get dressed each day was surpassed only by last month's groundbreaking — and candid — story line that led to Eli having sex with his girlfriend ( Marcy Harriell) for the first time since a similar accident.

Mitchell's costars, however, are hesitant to fall into the "Isn't he so brave" trap when discussing the actor. "I wish there was a way I could say something that wouldn't lean toward cliche and hyperbole," says Cavanagh. "It's a somewhat disheartening experience because every time I talk about Chill, I never feel like I've done him justice. This guy is amazing. He truly is."

With Ed likely having bowled its last game, Mitchell is prepared for his next act, whether it's another show with Burnett and Beckerman or going back to producing music (he hopes to develop some rap and R&B acts). Nevertheless, on this big day, his thoughts are of his fellow Stuckeyville residents. "They literally saved my life," he says, "because without this show, I don't know where I would be in my mind. If this hadn't have come along at the time that it did, there's no telling where I would be. This show proved to me that I could still do what I love to do."

2.4.04 - NBC has been touting Friday's wedding-themed Ed as the show's "final" episode -- and for once it seems the Peacock's promo department is telling it like it is. "It's been a terrific run, but the odds are this is its final season," NBC entertainment president Jeff Zucker tells TV Guide Online. Although Zucker adds there's a small chance the 4-year-old dramedy could return next season -- "We're going to leave ourselves a little flexibility for when we put the schedule together in May" -- he confirms that the show's actors have been given the green light to pursue other work. Translation: Fork. Stick. Done.

12.18.03 - Zap2It.com: Aiken Pops Up on 'Ed' - As tensions are revving up for the newest installment of FOX's "American Idol," the two finalists of last season's edition are beginning to spread their acting weeks. On the same day that UPN announced that winner Ruben Studdard was set to appear as himself on an episode of "One on One," NBC announced that "Ed" scored the series acting debut from runner-up Clay Aiken. Aiken will appear in a January episode of NBC's relationship dramedy. He'll play a singing star named Clay Aiken. Neither "Idol" finalists is ready to show off their Method acting chops just yet, apparently....

12.10.03 - TV Guide Online reports that Lea Thompson (Caroline in the City, "Back to the Future") has been cast in a three-episode story arc on Ed, set to air in January. For more information on her role, see the previews page.

11.26.03 - Ed will be moving into the Friday 9pm time slot for January and February, replacing Miss Match which will be going on hiatus to return in March. Donald Trump's new reality show, The Apprentice, will be airing in the Wednesday 8pm time slot.

11.8.03 - Roush Rave from the November 8th issue of TV Guide: After three years of keeping them apart, NBC's Ed has brought together the romantic comedy's core couple of Ed and Carol. The good news: This happy ending isn't the end of the story. So far in this delightful season, the pair has survived a period of adjustment that has seen them cope with the loss of the relationship's "new car smell," confront skeletons of past affairs and get their friends past the awkwardness of their now-public displays of affection. But the show's focus has always been braoder, to embrace all of Stuckeyville. There's more to love than just the lovers. On Ed, happiness makes the heart grow fonder.

11.3.03 - TV Barn: "Jackass" by Aaron Barnhart

This is turning out to be the week of insider payback jokes on our national airwaves. First came the insertion of Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales' name into an episode of "The O.C." Shales, who had panned the Fox teen drama in August and predicted its early demise, was referenced as an off-camera patient suffering from incontinence in the same hospital ward as one of the show's characters.

Now it seems a much older score was settled on this week's episode of "Ed." The scene in question features Rupert Jee, known to millions as the proprietor of the Hello Deli, just around the corner from the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, from his countless appearances on David Letterman's "Late Show."

Playing himself, Jee is approached by Carol (Julie Bowen), who wants an interview for "a piece on celebrity spotting in New York City." Jee turns her down cold, saying: "I'm sorry, I don't do press anymore. Back in '96 I got hosed by some jackass at the Observer." (The clip was replayed on Thursday's "Late Show.")

Just a line in a TV show – but as any regular viewer of "Ed" knows, this show takes its cultural references seriously. As Jee said his line, my ears perked up. Was that "jackass," in fact, yours truly, who in May of 1996 authored a 3,500-word indictment in the New York Observer all about the "Late Show" and its alarming decline in quality?...

10.31.03 - TV Guide Online: Creepers "Haunts" Ed Star

The original Jeepers Creepers freaked out a whole lotta people (us included), and none more so than Ed's Justin Long. But it wasn't what he saw while playing the creature feature's embattled protagonist that gave him nightmares, it was what we didn't see.

"The hardest scene for me to do in that movie," he tells TV Guide Online, "was the one right after I saw all that scary scary stuff [in the Creeper's stiffs-stuffed lair]. We all really wanted to make it authentic... to make that fear as real as possible. I didn't know how I was going to do it. It was the kind of experience that leaves a [gray] streak in your hair" — á la JoBeth Williams in Poltergeist.

Nonetheless, the junior achiever was determined to give himself a proper case of the heebie-jeebies. To that end, "I sat in a car for a good hour and a half," he recalls, "just thinking about the worst things imaginable, sobbing, snot running out of my nose, hyperventilating, thinking of family members dying in terrible ways.

"I don't recommend this for other actors!" he adds with a laugh. "It's just something I felt I had to do to get to that point [emotionally]."

Long pauses before continuing, the memory of what happened next as fresh in his mind now as if it happened yesterday. "Finally," he continues at last, "they were ready. I had a horrible migraine headache because I was just drained. The crew was being very respectful. They were even going to do my close-up [shot] first, so I could just let go a little bit. And then... "

He pauses again, perhaps reliving the dreadful moment. When he begins anew, there is a note of incredulity in his voice, of mock outrage. "Then," he says, "it started raining. I got really upset! [Getting that scene done] took well over two hours, and then it was cut out [of the picture], anyway!" Scary, indeed!

10.15.03 - From TV Guide Online: Life After Love on Ed by Daniel R. Coleridge

At last! Ed and Carol are lovahs. But with their sexual tension broken, where does NBC's Ed (Wednesdays, 8 pm/ET) go from here? "If we were in other hands, I think it would be a dangerous situation," Tom Cavanagh tells TV Guide Online. "But our writers are so clever, they've taken that storyline and gone gangbusters.

"When they decided to have us move in together," TV's fave bowling-alley lawyer recalls, "the way they did it was to have us dress up as chin monkeys — you're upside down and your chin looks like a monkey — when I ask her to move in. Anyone who thinks of that won't do a typical television move-in situation. That makes us feel like we're in very good hands."

Cavanagh promises there'll still be "romantic tension and conflict, somehow" in Ed's upcoming stories. Asked for preview hints, he slyly evades the question by goofing on his comely costar, Julie Bowen, who plays Carol. "Julie gets undressed a lot," he cracks. "And if that isn't going to bring the viewers in, I don't know what will. When Julie takes her clothes off, everyone goes, 'Yay!' And then I start doing it, and it's, 'Whoa, we want to stay on the air!'"

"That is not true," Bowen says in Cavanagh's defense. "But there is a lot more of being horizontal. That much is true. That's definitely true — and that's not a bad thing!" — Additional reporting by Ileane Rudolph

9.10.03 - The ACLU of Southern California is auctioning off an autographed pilot script of Ed on eBay. The current bid, as of Wednesday late afternoon, is $100.

7.30.03 - The season premiere of Ed will air on Wednesday, September 24th.

6.4.03 - TV Guide Online: Ed Star Stinks Up Broadway - This summer, Tom Cavanagh, that cute bowling alley lawyer from NBC's Ed, leaves Stuckeyville to visit a dark, not-so-pleasant place called Urinetown. Before you pinch your nose in disgust, we're talking about a Tony-winning Broadway musical....

5.12.03 - Ed has offically been renewed by NBC for another season, and will be keeping its old Wednesday, 8pm time slot.

4.28.03 - Matt Roush from TV Guide: Two of NBC's finest series, the charming Ed and the gripping Boomtown, recently ended their seasons on creative highs: with Ed choosing true love Carol in an emotionally satisfying resolution, and with breakout Boomtown stars Neal McDonough and Donnie Wahlberg excelling in showcase episodes. So why are both shows still "on the bubble" for renewal? Ed performed surprisingly well on Fridays in its last weeks, and Boomtown, while hardly a hit, won a prestigious Peabody award and continues an NBC tradition of deeply personal crime drama that harks back to Hill Street Blues and Homicide: Life on the Street. What more do shows need to do to earn a network's support?

4.25.03 - Zap2It.com: 'Ed' Star Making Pilgrimage to Urinetown - While the future of Tom Cavanagh's "Ed" is still up in the air, if NBC executives want the actor back, they'll know where to find him. Cavanagh will be residing in the not-too-distant-future in a land of drought, poverty and heavily restricted urination. Starting on May 20, the actor will join the cast of Tony-winning musical "Urinetown...."

4.23.03 - Kristin at E!Online reports that Ed has a 70% chance of returning for a fourth season.

4.7.03 - Friday night was all about NBC, sweeping the night among A18-49 according to Nielsen Media Research's Fast Affiliate Ratings with a 4.3/13, ahead of ABC's 2.8/9, Fox, 2.3/7, CBS 1.8/6. NBC's second outing of its Most Talented Kid contest was on par with its premiere the week before, posting a 3.6/12, ahead of CBS' Star Search. At 9pm NBC's Ed aired in its new time period for the second week and showed improvement week to week - 3.7/11, +16% over last week. At 10pm, L&O: SVU delivered a solid 5.6/17.

4.4.03 - Don't miss Michael Ian Black on The Michael Essany Show, premiering on E! on Sunday at 10:30pm.

3.24.03 - Timothy Busfield has been cast in the NBC pilot Stuck in the Middle with You with Annie Potts. Busfield will play the father of a family desperately scrambling to stay in the middle class. The comedy is from Tim Doyle (Roseanne).

3.19.03 - Zap2It.com: 'Ed' Creators Take Upheaval in Stride - will-they-or-won't-they story has been at the center of NBC's dramedy "Ed" for nearly its entire three-season run. It looks like a similar plot is playing out behind the camera as well....