Day: December 31, 2020

Bialik detoured into stardom (again)

In the new comedy “Call Me Kat,” life has taken a detour.
Kat didn’t expect to be the owner of a cat cafe. No one does.
But Mayim Bialik, who stars, understands the neat randomness of life. She is, after all, a neuroscientist who returned to acting, almost by accident.
“I was running out of health insurance,” Bialik (shown here with co-star Cheyenne Jackson) told the Television Critics Association. “I went back to acting so I could literally just get enough for insurance to cover my toddler and my infant.” Then she overachieved: She did nine seasons on “The Big Bang Theory,” which became TV’s most-watched comedy. Now she stars in “Kat,” produced by her “Big Bang” husband, Jim Parsons. Read more…

Best-bets for Jan. 2: big bowls, big movies

1) Orange Bowl, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN. The Texas A&M (shown here) players fumed when they were passed over for the four national-championship slots; ranked No. 5, they face North Carolina (No. 24). That ends an ESPN triple-header, with the Gator Bowl (North Carolina State and Kentucky) at noon and the Fiesta Bowl (Oregon and Iowa State) at 4 p.m. Also, ABC has the Outback Bowl (Mississippi and Indiana) at 12:30. Read more…

Week’s top-10 for Jan. 4: New shows, new bachelor, old games

1) “Mr. Mayor” debut, 8 and 8:30 p.m. Thursday, NBC. Neil (Ted Danson, shown here) looks like a mayor; he’s tall and silver-haired. But when it comes to government, he has no experience or goals; he ran to impress his teen daughter, who remains unimpressed. This is a slickly written comedy from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, the “30 Rock” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” duo. The first episode is good, the second is big, broad and very funny; both get strong support from Holly Hunter and Bobby Moynihan. Read more…