TVSquad

Jean Smart is one of TV's most popular and prodigious actresses. Capable of doing comedy and drama equally well, it seems that not a season passes without Jean making her mark. This past year, she was wonderful as Christina Applegate's mother on Samantha Who?

The two-time Emmy winner (for guesting on Frasier), is likely to win an Emmy nomination, which I discussed with her recently. But what about her other TV work. Here's some thoughts about 24, Designing Women and other TV memories. And find out what she thinks is the best show ever on television!

Allison Waldman: What are your memories from playing Charlene Frazier on Designing Women?

Jean Smart: There are so many. Of course, meeting my husband (Richard Gilliland). I met him on the fifth episode and we hadn't even been on the air yet. I remember the chemistry that we all had together, which was so much fun. When my character got married on the show, I found out I was pregnant, so I got it in just under the wire. Charlene was a good Baptist girl, she couldn't be pregnant without being married.

While critics -- and TV Squad commenters -- may be wondering if Jack Bauer's time has run out as ratings for 24 have dropped this season, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh defended one of his favorite shows saying that 24 has not jumped the shark.

Noting that the show's creators are friends of his who have been swamped with work, including other projects, Limbaugh told a caller who asked if 24's salad days were behind it, that he expects next season will be thrilling. "They're going to be back next year with an entirely different concept about this in a whole lot of different ways," Limbaugh said.

Acknowledging complaints from many fans (I'm raising my hand here) that Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart were wasted this season as the Logans were only given but fleeting screen time, Limbaugh urged fans, ". . . [D]on't give up on it."

[via TV Tattle]

It has been five long hours since viewers last saw 24's disgraced President Charles Logan being whisked into an ambulance after his ex-wife Martha stabbed him.

The reappearance of the Logans was a high point of the current, uneven season of 24, as fans and critics seem to adore the duo. So why has there been a news blackout when it comes to the condition of the man who, in the show's 11th hour, was quoting the Psalm of David about redemption and deliverance from evil?

Don't know. But TV Guide's Michael Ausiello, quoting a 24 source, says the former president will not be heard from again this season. "It appears Logan is going the way of those Russian mobsters on The Sopranos," he wrote. If he's correct, then this is a damned shame. Why bring Logan back with such fanfare and promise, only to see him go out in a hail of stabbings with a kiwi knife?

TV Guide critic Matt Roush said he's been receiving a lot of complaints from fans of 24 wondering what in the heck has happened to their favorite drama this season.

Between wasting the fabulously compelling return of the Logans -- Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart -- and the recently cutback on the number of scenes containing the fair-haired American hero Jack Bauer, Roush said he must concur with many fans' assessment that, 16 hours into this season, it's not looking too good.

What does 24 need to do in the remaining eight hours left in season six to redeem itself? Roush says, "A change of scenery, a change of personnel, something, anything to rouse 24 from the dead-end torpor it has found itself in this season."

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent 24 episode*

Jean Smart's Martha Logan was given the best lines during the 13th hour of 24's sixth season. In fact, the former first lady's character may have been given some of the most campy, over-the-top bits of dialog from all five-and-a-half seasons of 24.

While some viewers -- okay, at least me -- are hoping that Martha Logan will stick around, her lines, which were delivered with gusto, are a big reason why Martha's a much more compelling character than, say, Marilyn Bauer, Josh Bauer, Graem "Plastic Wrap" Bauer, Milo Pressman and Sandra Palmer.

Here are five choice Martha lines from the latest episode:

(S06E13) *Warning, spoilers ahead from the new episode*

What do you get when you mix together the following ingredients:

A blended shirt that doesn't wrinkle, a mysterious Denver connection, raspberries and kiwi from Mel's, a bungalow, a mental institution, Russian carnage, getting "stirred up" and Ricky Schroder?

A heck of a good 24 episode . . . though I must admit to laughing at scenes where the show's creators likely weren't going for guffaws. But when you bring back three old characters and put them in an awkward (Man was it awkward!) love triangle and sprinkle in some potential world destruction via nuclear bombs, you gotta chuckle, at least a little bit.

*Warning, spoilers ahead*

While a great deal of media attention is focused on the first appearance of Ricky Schroder as CTU agent Mike Doyle on tonight's episode of 24, here are three reasons why the reappearance of the Logans (and Aaron too) can provide a much needed jump-start to reinvigorate season six:

1. Jean Smart. As First Lady Martha Logan last season, she vacillated between being weepy and drugged up, to being fearless. The unsung hero of season five -- who gathered evidence to implicate her treasonous husband, President Charles Logan, even bedding him to keep his suspions at bay -- Martha Logan is, in short, a fantastic character. Smart didn't get nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for nothin'.

The Chicago Tribune's TV critic Maureen Ryan thinks that the sudden appearance of Gregory Itzin, reprising his role as the corrupt and evil former President Charles Logan on 24, is a rare shining moment in a rather lackluster season, the first hour hours notwithstanding.

". . . [I]t's as though the writers are flailing and scraping and doing all they can to come up with compelling stuff, but unfortunately they're only partially successful at best," Ryan said, as she sliced and diced Jack Bauer's sixth day, including calling the idea of having the late President David Palmer's brother Wayne become president " a big mistake."

Want to know why some of the bad guys in 24 are painted in shades of gray? (Think former President Charles Logan. The Day 6 version. The one who quotes the Bible in the bathroom.)

Want to know how long it takes to write one of these action-packed episodes?

Curious as to 24 staffers' thoughts on the controversies sparked by the show's graphic scenes?

TV Week has been posting a series of interviews with 24 producers and writers as part of their 24 "Backlot Talk" series. You can either download the audio of the interview or read the transcript. The site also has a place for readers to submit questions that could be posed to 24 creators in future interviews.

Yup. That's right.

The psalm that the assassination- and nerve gas-plotting former president was reciting aloud last night when he was alone in his bathroom, Psalm 40, is called "a Psalm of David," according to Bartleby.com.

Coincidence? Is it mere chance that former President Charles Logan -- who conspired to have David Palmer killed -- was quoting from a psalm that includes the name David, just before he left for the Russian consulate to supposedly gather intel about the whereabouts of three suitcase nukes? At the same time David's brother's assassination plot was being carried out?

Gregory Itzin, who plays President Logan on 24, wanted the character to be a hero and a good guy. Producers even asked him what he would like to see happen to the character and he told them. But then they, um, didn't listen to him.

He even admits, in this TV Guide interview, to being "devastated" and "depressed" by the plot twist. There's also a phone number on the set where fans can actually call and perhaps talk to cast members (I know, you 24 fans probably already know about the phone, but still, the number is 310-597-3781).

I tried. I really did. I wanted to be one of the cool kids and watch 24, but I can't handle it. Over the summer, my husband and I rented season one of 24 and we suffered through every episode. The show is chock full of obvious stall tactics. Does anybody else notice these? They come in the form of long, drawn-out, repetitive conversations and of unimportant sub-plots. For example, the current season began with various versions of the same conversation between President Logan and his wife about her apparent craziness and her insistence that she's not nutso. Do people in the real world actually have the same conversation over and over again within one hour? I don't think so. And, during season one, the whole storyline about President Palmer's son's involvement in a crime was a total time suck (and, of course, the infamous Kim vs. the cougar incident in season two). While most shows also use sub-plots as fillers (i.e., Lost uses flashbacks), it is most obvious to me on 24 because, quite frankly, who cares about any of the other crap that doesn't involve Jack Bauer?

By popular demand? I don't think so. Jack Bauer's daughter, Kim, returns to 24 tonight. First of all, she's going to be surprised to find out that her dad is alive. Then how will she react? Will she want her old job back at CTU? Who knows what storyline awaits Kim this season. She's already been tormented by a cougar and held hostage by a psycho in an underground bunker. I'm guessing she had a baby since Jack "died". Why not?