Multiple Emmy winner John Larroquette will return to NBC for a couple weeks this fall in a guest-starring stint on “Joey.”
The former “Night Court” star is set to play an award-winning, capital-A actor who co-stars with Joey (Matt LeBlanc) in a movie called “Captured” – a role that could be the former “Friend’s” big break in Los Angeles. The first of Larroquette’s two episodes is set to air Thursday, Sept. 29.
He’ll be doing double sitcom duty early this fall, in fact: He’s set to guest on Fox’s “Kitchen Confidential” on Oct. 3 as well.
‘Apprentice’ hopeful a former strip-tease dancer
In talking about his latest batch of “Apprentice” contestants, Donald Trump has mentioned that one of them is a former stripper whom he describes as “tough as nails.”
The “Apprentice” hopeful is Alla Wartenberg (nee Kosova), 31, who now owns a chain of day spas in Las Vegas. Prior to her current career, though, the native of Moldavia worked as a dancer at the Palomino Club in Las Vegas, where she went by the name “Ecstasy.”
TV Land to air ‘Pity the Fool’
“The A-Team” may or may not ever take its place in the pantheon of classic TV shows, although viewers of a certain age (that’d be about 28 to 36, men in particular) tend to remember it fondly.
One of the show’s stars, though, may soon make it onto classic-TV network TV Land. Mr. T has signed a deal to star in a pilot for the channel called “I Pity the Fool,” in which he’ll dole out advice and try to help people in difficult situations.
Lions Gate TV is producing the project.
It’s presumed that in the course of helping people get their lives right, no jibba jabba will be allowed.
“We are very excited to work with Mr. T and Lions Gate on “I Pity The Fool,”‘ says Sal Maniaci, head of development for TV Land. “By putting Mr. T in an unfamiliar environment, viewers will have the experience of seeing him back up his famous words and attitude with concrete actions.”
“I Pity the Fool” will find Mr. T acting as a “motivational guru” helping people improve their personal and professional lives. Mr. T will use his own varied life experience as basis for his strategy to help others.
The pilot is set to go into production in October. Stephen Belafonte (“Thank You for Smoking”), Ken Druckerman and Banks Tarver (“Growing Up Gotti”) will serve as executive producers.
It was there, according to court documents, that she met a California man named Robert Acremant, who would spend up to $1,500 a night on private dances with her when he was in town and came to consider Wartenberg his “girlfriend.” She describes their relationship, however, as “pretty platonic”; she went to dinner with him a couple of times and gambled with him once, but they were never intimate.
Prosecutors allege that Acremant’s belief that Wartenberg was his girlfriend may have led to three killings. He was convicted of killing two Oregon women in 1995 in a robbery attempt gone wrong and of murdering a friend, Scott George, in California later that year. He was sentenced to die in both cases and is currently on death row in Oregon.
Wartenberg, now married with four kids, testified in the George case in 2002, describing her relationship with Acremant as friendly but little more than that. However, when he came to see her in December 1995, he became upset because “I never loved him” and drew a gun on her in her car. She testified that she told Acremant she did love him so that he would calm down, and that she didn’t report the incident to police because she “didn’t think he was capable of doing anything like that.”
Wartenberg isn’t the only “Apprentice” contestant this season with a racy past. One of the “Apprentice: Martha Stewart” hopefuls, Bethenny Frankel, had a brief acting career in the mid-1990s, playing a bisexual killer in an erotic thriller called “Hollywood Hills 90028.”
“WAR AT HOME’ FITS IN WITH FOX “TOONS
“The War at Home” stands out from the rest of the Fox Sunday lineup because it’s the only show that features live people on camera. In terms of ratings, though, the show’s premiere proved a fairly decent fit with its companions.
The sitcom, which stars Michael Rapaport and Anita Barone as parents engaged in battle with their teenage kids, brought in about 8.7 million viewers and a 4.2 rating among adults 18-49 Sunday, according to preliminary Nielsen numbers (final nationals will be available Tuesday). It helped F0x win the night in its target demographics of adults 18-34 and 18-49, even without a highly rated NFL overrun in the 7 p.m. hour.
The night also saw the return of animated stalwart “The Simpsons” and the season premieres of “Family Guy” and “American Dad.” The 17th-season premiere of “The Simpsons” drew 10.8 million viewers and a 5.2 rating among adults 18-49, both well above the show’s season averages from last year.
“The War at Home” managed to hold onto about 80 percent of both the total “Simpsons” audience and its 18-49 rating. That compares to only about 60 percent for “Arrested Development’s” season premiere last fall.
“Family Guy” built on “Home’s” performance at 9 p.m., drawing just over 9.2 million viewers and a 4.5 rating among adults 18-49. “American Dad” closed the night with 7.8 million viewers and a 3.8 adults 18-49 rating.
Comments are no longer available on this story