Anyone who has worked retail has encountered the creepy older guy who works in their store and will probably stay there until the day he dies. On Chuck, that creepy older guy is Jeff, who is played brilliantly by Scott Krinsky, a standup comic and character actor who had a reoccurring role on Josh Schwartz previous hit show, The O.C. We recently talked to Krinsky about his role on Chuck, the writers’ strike and how to deal with hecklers.

We know you are you originally from the Washington, D.C. area. What was it like growing up there and where do you call home now?

I call Los Angeles home. I grew up there basically until I moved out here in my early 20s, so this is basically my home base now. And most of my family has moved out of Maryland, my parents live down in Florida now and I have family in New York, so I don’t get back to Maryland that often.

How exactly did you get into acting, and when did you decide this is what you wanted to do for a living?

When I was younger, it was always what I dreamed of doing, you know, watching TV shows as a kid. It was always my passion. I didn’t know that I would actually pursue it, but in high school and middle school I was always the class clown, so I think naturally I wanted to perform. And I did perform a lot as a kid, but I got in trouble for it. Got sent to the principal’s office a lot. I used to have periods even as far back as elementary school where I was always kind of acting up – I would have to bring notes home to my parents every day.

So I think it was like a natural instinct of mine to perform and have fun. As I got older, in college, I kind of decided on what do I really, really want to do with my life and I decided that doing something behind a desk was not going to be fulfilling to me and this was sort of a make or break in my early 20s where I just decided to go for it.

How tough is it to break into the business? How many auditions did you go to before you landed a role?

The first few years I came out to Los Angeles – what you hear from a lot from people of my category, I mean I couldn’t get arrested. I don’t want to sound cliché, but I really felt like I was doing everything. I feel like the first two years are an adjustment, you’re sort of getting used to a new place, you’re meeting new people, the scenery was a lot different on the West Coast, but soon enough I got really serious studying and trying to contact agents, trying to get seen and just could not get anything to happen.

But as the years went on too, as I was studying a lot too and meeting with people, a lot of them would tell me, “You’re a real character actor, that’s your type. You just have to be patient, when you get into your 30s, that’s when you’re going to work.” And, sure enough, those people, almost all of them were correct. It was a matter of just being patient, I guess. So many people set a deadline of 30, when they come out here young, as this milestone age where you have to achieve certain things. And, I guess some of the people too, if it’s their true passion, they just really hang in there. I just try to keep believing in myself and trust what so many people have told me and sure enough, things did start to fall in place.

On television, you have played roles such as Blurry Man, Grocery Bagger and Potential Buyer. When you play unnamed characters, do you find yourself coming up with a name and a background story for them?

I think the more specific that you can be coming to any character, whether it’s the smallest part, I think it helps. And I think the more specific you can be, the more prepared you show up, the more professional you appear to everyone around you. Doing those small roles, I was so happy in those early days just to be working or doing anything that I wanted to be there and take everything in and know that one day there’s going to be a bigger role. So I think the more you condition yourself to prepare for the small roles helps you when you get an opportunity to do a lot more.

You had a reoccurring role playing Darryl on The O.C. How did you land that role and what was it like working on the popular teen drama?

That came about from auditioning. It was just another audition and actually that role was meant to be one episode. It was a Thanksgiving episode of The O.C. at the Cohen family house and I just went in there and auditioned and got the job. Then, surprisingly enough, maybe like two weeks later, they called me up to let me know they were going to be using me again.

Were they just really impressed with you and wanted to bring you back or did they decide that there was more to do with the character?

I think that Josh Schwartz apparently took a liking to the character and he thought that I was funny and thought that the character could have some interesting moments with the other characters, I guess and decided to keep having him pop up in their lives over the next few episodes. That’s what I heard from some of the people on the cast. The show was a soap opera, but it had a lot of campy humor in it too. So I think this was a character that could help provide some humor.

Did your work on The O.C. lead to you being cast as on Chuck?

Yeah. I guess you know Josh Schwartz is one of the creators of Chuck and that was a dream come true. I got a call from my agent. It’s funny enough that Josh was offering me the role, it was the same casting director too, and they were offering me the role of Jeff on Chuck.

Did you have to come in and read for the role?

I did end up having to go in and read, just for the approval of the network and studio people. I think that as long as I didn’t fall on my face or something – it was like, “We want to see this guy again on camera.” So I was still like a little nervous. I was like, “Oh my god, I hope I don’t ruin this.” When I got the role, I had seen the breakdowns for a lot of the pilots and it’s funny enough, I had seen this role and I thought, “God, you know, I’ve worked with Josh and this role seems kind of right for me, I hope I can come in and read for it.” Then when I got the call that they were offering it to me, I was really, really elated.

What was the original breakdown for the character?

He was just a little creepy, a little inappropriate with the customers. A little bit on the creepy side. You know, kind of the lifer older guy at work. He’s kind of worked there the longest and he’s probably going to continue to work there long after the other characters. For them, it’s probably a stepping stone or sort of where they’re at in their lives, but for Jeff, this is it. But even when we shot the pilot, this role, it said, “May recur.” Again, I had no idea I would be in every episode.

Do you have any experience working in a retail outlet that you were able to use when preparing for this role?

Well, I had waited tables for many years, so I definitely had the experience of working at restaurants and working at places for a long time and sort of feeling sometimes a little older. Coming to a place where you’re the younger guy, then also feeling later on that you’re kind of like the older guy. And all the different things that come up putting all these different personalities into that kind of work environment. There’s a lot of immature sides of you that come out in those jobs because they’re there to pay the bills.

Many people really enjoyed Jeff’s role on the Thanksgiving episode of Chuck, but we were wondering if you have a favorite episode so far? If so, why is it your favorite?

I really liked that episode because of the physical comedy involved in it. I think that would be my favorite, where he gets the box dropped on his head and then the megaphone that Morgan’s talking out of comes flying into his face. I really liked doing the physical comedy, that was the first time that we’d had an opportunity to do anything like that and I hear that there could be more of that in the future.

Have the writers given you any indication that we might be seeing more screen time for Jeff in future episodes?

Yeah, there’s the likelihood that the Nerd Herd is going to be further explored. They’ve kind of told us ideas and that they have the seasons sort of outlined. But, of course with the strike, we’re all sort of in a holding pattern right now.

What is it like finding yourself in that holding pattern? Are you trying to find other things to fill your time?

Well, there’s not a whole lot of work going on right now. I do stand-up comedy, so I’m kind of keeping busy, focusing on just being out there, performing and writing. But there’s not, as far as acting, there’s not a lot going on.

But, of course, as an actor I’m in total support of the writers because we’re going to be facing the same battle that they’re facing right now. So I want the writers to get everything that they want.

Why do you think the two sides have been unable to work out a deal?

The whole business model is changing. People are going to be watching TV, everything is going to be delivered though your computer. Even if you watch it through your TV, it’s going to be coming through your computer. It’s the future at stake.

If Chuck‘s playing 20 years from now, as you watch Nickelodeon or TV Land and you see shows like The Brady Bunch, and whole new audiences are discovering them and people want to be able to get paid for their work down the road and even now, in the present, but definitely down the road. It will be so easy to access any kind of entertainment from any era in 15 – 20 years, or even farther after that. They just want to make sure that they’re compensated for it.

You mentioned that you also do stand-up comedy. Which do you think is the harder medium?

They’re so different. I guess stand-up is a little scarier. They are both sort of challenging in their own way, but I guess there is such an immediacy to stand-up that you’re right there with a live audience and they’re hanging by your every word and of course they want to laugh and be entertained. I try not to look at things as scaring me as much as I’m excited by the challenge and I try not to feel like I’m nervous, but it’s more of like an anxious energy.

Have you had any rough stand-up experiences with hecklers or anything like that?

Definitely I’ve had some hecklers. My comedy’s a little more on the dry, observational side, so it’s not like an angry ranting kind of comedy, so I guess I don’t provoke that kind of heckling as much as other comics might. It’s definitely uncomfortable. But I feel like the comic seems to always win because he’s on stage, so even if it’s just with silence, the comedian always seems to win and the heckler looks like an idiot.

People aren’t there to hear the heckler, which is another advantage for the comedian.

The heckler is ruining the show for everyone else. People are there to listen to the comedian and if someone keeps heckling, then it ruins the flow of the show. The best thing is just to tell a heckler to come on stage and if he gets on stage, then he’ll really embarrass himself usually.

Though there is that one chance in a million that he could get on stage and do a killer set.

I haven’t seen it yet.

According to your bio, you interned and briefly worked for CNN. What exactly did that job entail and what did you learn during your time there?

In college, I was a journalism major. I worked there during the time when the Berlin Wall was coming down, so it was really exciting. I worked for their show called The Capital Gang, a show that is was similar to in format was The McLaughlin Group. It was really exciting to be working there and I kind of helped the producer producing the show and researching whatever was in the news that day, reading all the papers. And I got to meet a lot of senators and Washington elite. I used to have to go down to the main lobby and escort them up.

And I also got to go with reporters to the Capital, to the White House, and help them write stories, which is sort of how you would learn. They would let you take a crack at a story and then they’d kind of proof it. So it was really exciting being a part of that whole live TV experience. And also, with everything that was going on with the Berlin Wall in Europe. It was really an exciting time because there was so much news breaking all the time. It kind of reminded me of the movie Broadcast News.

What made you decide to leave CNN?

That was during that period that I had taken classes in college in acting and it had always sort of been a dream in the back of my mind to pursue it and during college and after college, I was just at that point where I decided – I realized I was in a job where, if I stayed there, I could do really well and this would be my life, but at the same time, it just kept coming back to me – what do I really, really want to do? And I thought, “If I don’t go do it now, then I’ll just keep getting more settled in to where I’m at right now and I might not really ever go pursue those dreams.” So I decided to go pack up the car and I drove out west.

It was a little scary at the time, but at the same time it was exciting. Plus, I’d always loved California and watching all the TV shows as a kid, so many shows were set in California and Los Angeles. And I liked the warm weather. I just had this thing in me and I was just like let’s go for it.

What goals do you have set for yourself? Where would you like to see your career go?

I hope that I’ll be working on Chuck for the next few years. I’d love to start working on some bigger feature films. Some of my dream people to work with would be like Woody Allen, Wes Anderson or Christopher Guest. I’m a big fan of all three of them. So I would love hopefully with the success of Chuck, to sort of be able to have those opportunities come up.

What do you do to unwind when you are not working?

I paint and I do yoga. I like to cook.

What would you do for a living if you never got into acting? Would you have stuck with the journalism?

I think if I hadn’t pursued acting, what I actually would have done is become a chef. Even when I was out here having some tough times and I had already kind of explored the journalism a little bit, I loved to cook. There was a period for six months I went to a small little culinary school and started taking up a baking program for pastries and baking.

And right when I finished that, I started working a little bit part-time for some chefs, sort of assisting them in catering and some different jobs that they had. It was kind of interesting because right at about that time is when I started getting a lot more acting work. But I probably would have, if I didn’t act and if I sort of lost my drive for it, that’s the only thing I would probably want to do.

What is the best dish you can make?

I think I can make a mean chocolate cake. I’m a chocaholic.

Tell us something most people don’t know about you.

In contrast to all of the roles I have played, like a homeless guy I’ve played a few times, I’m actually a very neat person. I’m kind of a neat freak.

Interviewed by Joel Murphy, December 2007. For more information on Scott Krinsky, visit his MySpace profile.

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Joel Murphy

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a little obsessive when it comes to Batman movies.

On June 23, 1989, my parents took me and my brother to the premiere of Batman starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. I had been a fan of the Batman comic books, but seeing my favorite superhero on screen was a dream come true. I absolutely loved the movie. It was everything I could have hoped for – the action scenes were well-done, the performances were dead on and the Batmobile looked really cool.

I have seen every single Batman movie on opening night. The first date I ever went on was when I was in fifth grade – I took Katie Brown to see the premiere of Batman Returns (we had Chick-fil-a for dinner before the movie and my parents and brother were there the whole time – it was quite romantic). I made my dad take me to see Batman & Robin on opening night, even though it was our first night in Iowa for a family reunion and we had flown in, so we didn’t even have a car to get around town. I even went to see the animated Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and the god-awful Halle Berry Catwoman movie on their opening nights.

As a kid, I loved the first two live-action Batman films completely. As I’ve rewatched them now that I’m older, there are certain things I don’t like about them (the fact that the bad guys are killed, giving the villains different backstories than they had in the comics, nerdy things like that), but I think Batman especially holds up well and is still my favorite live-action Batman film.

Of course, once Joel Schumacher took over, things went downhill quickly. Nipples on the Batsuit and a campy, Adam West feel to the movies made Batman Forever and Batman & Robin terrible. And, my poor dad, who was nice enough to spend the first night of our Iowa trip watching Batman & Robin with me, had to listen to me bitch and moan for hours about how terrible Alicia Silverstone was and how the movie completely ruined Bane, one of the best villains in the comic books.

When Batman Begins came out in 2005, I was ecstatic. My beloved caped crusader was in dire need of a reset and Christopher Nolan seemed like a good man for the job. I was already a big fan of his films Memento and Insomnia and was looking forward to his take on Batman. Overall, I was really happy with Batman Begins. I thought the direction Nolan decided to take the movie in was the right one and I loved Christian Bale as Batman.

That being said, there were things that bothered me about the film. For one, I think the first hour of the film drags (as much as I love Batman, watching how he became Batman just didn’t turn out to be all that compelling). I also think the Katie Holmes love plot was a complete waste of time. And, worst of all, I think the fight scenes are terrible. I hate the quick cut, shaky camera style action scenes where you can never tell what’s going on. I want to see someone get punched in the face, not a close-up of a fist, then a cut to a guy unconscious on the ground.

Things bothered me about the film, but they weren’t unforgivable. Overall, I really did like Nolan’s version of Batman and hoped that he would continue to build a franchise.

So, when the trailer for The Dark Knight hit the Internet this week (you can see it here), I was cautiously optimistic. I was skeptical about the casting of Heath Ledger as The Joker, but I was more than willing to give him and this movie a chance.

From the very first line, I loved the trailer. It was about the time that The Joker fired a rocket launcher that I got goosebumps on my arm. When Christian Bale said, “Then you’re going to love me,” I officially decided that this is going to be the greatest movie in the history of cinema. Honestly, I think if Nolan just showed that trailer over and over again for two hours straight, I’d leave the movie theater happy this summer.

I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve watched the trailer two dozen times at this point. I love Heath Ledger’s version of The Joker. Plus, my biggest problems with the first Nolan film all seem to be ironed out – Katie Holmes has been replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who I actually like and respect as an actress; Batman’s backstory has already been covered in the last movie, so this film’s opening shouldn’t drag and best of all, from all accounts, Nolan has learned his lesson and the fight scenes in this movie aren’t of the quick cut, shaky camera variety.

I really want to love a Batman movie again. I may be a bitter, jaded man, but there is still a part of me that wants to feel just like that eight-year-old boy who was seeing his hero on the screen for the first time.

As always, I will be there on opening night with high hopes and high expectations. With any luck, I will leave the film as happy as I was after seeing Batman for the first time. But, even if the film fails to live up to my (admittedly high) standards, I will be taking my girlfriend with me, so hopefully at the very least I will get more action that night than I did from Katie Brown.

Random Thought of the Week:
All I want for Christmas is for this writers’ strike to end (and a copy Rock Band for my Xbox 360).

Joel Murphy is the creator of HoboTrashcan, which is probably why he has his own column. He loves pugs, hates Jimmy Fallon and has an irrational fear of robots. You can contact him at murphyslaw@hobotrashcan.com.

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As one half of the legendary Cheech and Chong comedy duo, Tommy Chong’s name is synonymous with weed. Years after parting ways with his comedic partner, Chong still embodies the spirit of the hippie generation and has been unapologetic and vocal about his beliefs. We recently talked to Chong about politics, the chances of a Cheech and Chong reunion and the mandatory talk all parents must have with their kids about drugs.

Where are you originally from and where do you call home now?

Las Angeles, California – Pacific Palisades. I’m originally from Calgary, Canada.

Obviously, you are best known for the Cheech and Chong comedy act. What is it like when you look back on that period of your life and how often do you watch your old movies and albums?

I sign a lot of them, but I don’t watch them. I haven’t for a long time. Basically, my wife and I do standup and I still allude to that time period and I’m still very much involved in the legalization of pot, so I’m still the old hippie. I’m not a young hippie anymore, I’m an old hippie.

What do you think it is about your movies that makes them so iconic? Why do you think Cheech and Chong films are so beloved even after all of these years?

They were really the first reality show, you know what I mean? We weren’t playing characters or doing some historical thing or some murder thing – it was a day in the life of a couple of guys in America that were caught up in an interesting time. We came around in an era when LSD was legal and pot was really demonized in some areas. We were the blossoming of a whole culture. I think Woodstock was really the official kickoff of that whole culture.

Do you have a favorite moment or scene from your time in Cheech and Chong?

Yeah, back in the day, there was a play called The Age of Aquarius. That play, if you remember it at all, it crossed all color lines – blacks, whites, women. And that’s really what hippies represented, we represented humanity without any race or creed or financial – like rich or poor, you know. They were all together at Woodstock. And that’s really what we personified.

There have been rumors of a Cheech and Chong reunion. Have you been in talks with Cheech Marin about reuniting and what are the chances of it actually happening?

We’ve been off and on since 2002 actually. I think it was 2001–2002, my daughters tried to get Cheech and I to do another movie together and that process lasted for almost five years. And then, the movie company we were going to do it with didn’t like the script, so they bought out of it, they didn’t want to do it. Since then, I wrote a script. But Cheech and I don’t really get along anymore because he wants to change his image and I want to further it.

So do you think there is any chance a reunion will happen or have you given up on it at this point?

I’m never giving up on it because my door’s always open. I’m a hippie. I’m ready to party anytime.

So has Cheech given up marijuana?

He hasn’t, he went over to the rich side of life. He hangs with the billionaires and George Lopez and he’s really become a Chicano activist and spokesman. And his view is that the character he played was detrimental to the Chicano community in as much as it was like a lowrider – the lowest common denominator of the Mexican culture. I never changed my views. Cheech has evolved into like a rich guy. I was rich – my movies, I was a rich kid that wanted to smoke dope and play music. I’m exactly the same way.

As you mentioned, you and your wife Shelby tour around the country doing a live show. What can fans in attendance expect to see at these shows?

It’s like a little hippie vaudeville, really. My wife is becoming a very powerful force in the women’s comedic area because for some reason women have sort of stopped being shown in comedy clubs and that. She’s one of the few that is still struggling with it.

So she comes on first and she does a lot of women’s humor. Then she brings me out and I do a lot of hippie smoking dope humor and then we work together. It’s a throwback to the old vaudeville era where you had an act and you performed your act and that’s what people come to see and that’s what we do.

At some point in their lives, most parents sit their kids down and talk to them about drugs. Did you have a conversation about drugs with your kids and, if so, how did it go?

Well, that’s very interesting. I’ve had two sets of families. I had my older daughters, Rae Dawn Chong, who is a very famous movie actress, and Robbi Chong, who is also another famous television actress. I was a very friendly father – if they wanted to get high, they could smoke with their dad. My one daughter used to just ask me for joints and I’d give them to her and then she’d sell them to her friends at school. “Hey, do you want to buy a Tommy Chong joint?” Her friends were people like the Chili Peppers. I was very free with the kids, my older daughters.

And then my three younger ones, the two boys and my daughter, they made their own choices. They didn’t have to sneak it around me, but I preferred they did. I told them, “I don’t care what you do, just don’t tell me.” So I was more of like a hands-off parent and it turned out really well because I believe in kids living their own life, right from the get go.

If they’ve got to come and ask me whether or not they should do pot, then my answer is no. Because if you have to ask somebody, then no. You only do pot when you want to do it so much that you’re going to sneak around and do it anyway. You’re not going to ask anybody, you know what I’m saying? So that was very easy. Of course, I’m a parent – the answer is no. But I don’t enforce anything and like I said, “I don’t care what you did …” And I know my older daughters, they had all sorts of adventures that they never told anybody about, like all kids do.

But the one thing that I did talk to them about is smoking cigarettes. That was my one thing that I said I don’t want them developing a cigarette habit. Now, I know that my one daughter, she was a ballet dancer, that she used to smoke but she never smoked in the house and she doesn’t smoke now. And I caught my one son smoking cigarettes and I marched his little butt home and told him, “I don’t want you smoking cigarettes. It’s as simple as that.” And I didn’t punish him or anything, I just told him, don’t do it. And he quit.

When Paris Hilton went to prison, you appeared on MSNBC defending the heiress. How exactly did you end up on as an on-air pundit and after your heated conversation with Contessa Brewer, do you think you will be invited back on MSNBC?

They actually thought, because I’d done time in jail, they thought I was going to bash Paris. In fact, what they did is they had me wait for a long enough time to me to kind of get pissed off because it seemed like they were jumping all over this girl for no reason compared to what other people had been doing, like the Bush administration.

To put a young person in jail because she was late for a court appearance to me is a little excessive. They were pandering to the press. And I saw that, so I called them on it. And I don’t care if I get invited back or not. I know one thing – that bit played all over the place. They loved it because Contessa didn’t know what to say. In fact, I said at the end, “You weren’t expecting that, were you?” She said, “No.”

That’s the media – they’re just talking heads. They’re puppets. And they just say whatever anybody writes. And I’m so sick of seeing Americans being manipulated by this administration and by this right-wing press that whenever I get a chance, I speak out.

If you were president for a day, after you legalized marijuana, what would be the second change you’d make to the country?

I would make all the fast food people liabel for their product. For instance, if people got fat and got diabetic, I would make the fast food companies pay for their medical expenses. That would be my healthcare program is that I would make people liable for their products, including gun manufactures. I’d make everybody liable for whatever they sell to people. In so many ways, all of these products that are so-called legal are killing millions of people daily.

And, just like the oil companies – I’d make the oil companies clean up the environment. They’ve got the money. And if their product is causing global warming and pollution, then I would give them the bill for the hurricanes and the clean up that happened. And I can say that because I know I’d never be elected president. But if you asked me my wish list, that’s exactly what I’d do.

Do you think pot will be legalized in your lifetime?

Yeah, the thing is, it’s legal now; you just have to be very smart with how you smoke it. You have to make sure you have a medical card and don’t be carrying a whole lot on you. Because really, right now it’s only illegal to have large amounts that you sell. Right now, it’s really a slap on the wrist, unless you’re a black guy or a Chicano and they want to put you in jail and they’ll think of a reason. But pot really is so legal now that you can get pot faster than you can get a pizza. I’ve ordered both and the pot always showed up first.

Do you think that society’s attitude toward pot is very different now than it was during the Cheech and Chong era?

Well, America got hijacked by the Bush administration. What happened over the last say eight years is America got complacent and lazy with Clinton. Clinton had everything going for him, the economy. And although we were being attacked by terrorists around the world, Clinton was responding properly and he wasn’t overreacting.

When the Bush administration hijacked the election, in other words, they really stole the election in Florida through the Supreme Court. And John Roberts, by the way, was sent by the administration to brief everybody on how to present the case to the Supreme Court because he had been a clerk for Chief Justice Rehnquist. It turned out that Florida had voted more votes for Gore than Bush, Gore really should have been the president, but the Republican party hijacked the presidency and then they hijacked it again with the second election. And as a result, America’s been thrown into this criminal case, where these criminals run rampant – the Blackwater people, the privatization of everything including prisons. The Republicans just went absolutely crazy with greed.

And what happens in this world, especially this universe is the universe is perfect and there’s such a thing called karma. For every action, there’s a reaction. For every evil deed, there’s a price to pay and we’re watching that come about now because there’s nothing to do but sit back and watch.

The world now, everybody is getting so enlightened. Like in the past eight years, just the Internet, cell phones and all this technology that’s come up, it’s forced the administration to come clean because if they lie, they get caught right away. And so, we’re watching a very interesting phenomenon right now.

The people really have taken over the government, in as much as YouTube, MySpace and the computer world. And this next election is going to be a revelation because again, everybody’s soul is bared. You can’t hide anymore. Bush and the boys can’t hide. And they’ll take their billions or trillions and go quietly into the sunset and they’ll be in court for the rest of their lives after that. It’s going to be fun.

With all of this information circulating now, why don’t you think we haven’t seen protests like there were during the 60s and 70s?

No, no, when I got busted, you see, they wanted protests. The administration, they’re geared for protests. In fact, they want protests so they can put their [riot control personnel] in there to make it look even worse, like they did in the ‘68 protest. That was the worst thing that happened. If you remember the ‘68 elected Nixon. So it’s the worst possible scenario for freedom and for people.

No, our approach is the proper one. And it’s funny because they forced us into this approach. That’s why marijuana or pot is so important to our culture because it forces us to sit back and do nothing and that’s what you have to do with this world. You acknowledge the creator when you sit back and admire his work rather than to jump in and try to fuck it up. You can’t fix the universe. You can only fix your own attitude toward the universe.

We realize it either accidentally or on purpose – pot is a peaceful, mellowing agent that’s useful for MS because the problem see with MS and Parkinson’s disease is that there’s too much stimulation going on in the body. That adrenaline – there’s too much of it in the body of the people who have this stuff, like Michael J. Fox. So, when you smoke pot, it lowers the dopamine levels and it lowers the excitement levels and that’s what the American people really, really need, especially the Republicans, you know?

The other thing I would do if I was elected president, I would put schools all over the country showing people how to smoke pot because so many people don’t know how to smoke pot.

Changing gears a bit, what comedians impress you? Who would you pay money to see?

Jim Carrey, probably to me, is one of the few guys who will make me laugh until I cry. Steve Martin is also in that category. When Steve is being funny, there is no one funnier than Steve.

I would pay money – you mean the local guys that are out there? I don’t know their names because I’m on the road the same time they are. So I hear a lot of good things about them. Chris Rock, David Chappelle. All those guys, they impress me. There’s so many. I like every comic, to tell you the truth. Because, it’s an honest way to make a living.

What does it take to be a successful stand-up comedian? And what words of advice would you have for someone thinking of giving it a shot?

It’s like being a movie actor or being a racecar driver. If you’re going to do it, nothing can stop you. But if you’re not going to make it, nothing can help you. So, a lot of people have tried it, but they’ve fallen because it’s not them. If it’s you, you’re going to do it regardless. You don’t listen to anybody and that’s the way it is.

The reason I did it is because I found out that I’m not that good of a guitar player because I wasn’t interested enough to really learn and go through all the stuff that guitar players have to go through. But comedy was so instant – when you get that laugh on stage, there’s a power surge that goes through you that’s unequal to anything. And when you die on stage, it’s the same thing. It’s a very honest way to make a living.

But my advice to anybody is don’t rush it. Just take your time. No matter how good you are, and this is, a lot of comics will tell you this; you can’t call yourself a comedian until you’ve been doing it on the road for at least 10 years. So it’s time and energy, that’s what it takes.

What do you think you would have ended up doing for a living if you never got into comedy?

Oh, probably working at Starbucks. (Laughs.) I have no education. I’m telling you. I dropped out of high school, I tried to get my high school diploma in jail and I failed algebra. I’m not very good in that area. And I’m not a good business man. I can sweep floors; I’m really good at that. That’s what I did when I was in jail. So if I wasn’t a comic, I’d probably be sweeping floors somewhere right now.

How often do you get recognized in public and how do these encounters with fans go?

Very sweet encounters. I’m approachable. First of all, the character I played Leo, he’s very approachable. I’ve never really been “the star,” you know – Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, so I’ve never had that burden of being the star. I’ve always been a half of a team – Cheech and Chong, Tommy and Shelby, City Works. I was always a member of a group.

And in that way, when they recognize you, that means that they sincerely see you for who you are and I love my encounters. And I get recognized probably every day.

Have you ever wished that you were the star?

No. I’ve always been the guy – I’m a director. I’m writing a book now about the Cheech and Chong story and I’ve realized that my natural thing would be to direct, I’m a pretty good director of Cheech and Chong, for sure, and I used to direct the band, when I had a band I was kind of the director. But I would take suggestion from everybody, I wasn’t a megalomaniac.

I’m like the guy on a basketball team that was like fourth string who became a coach because he sat on the bench throughout his whole career and he figured out the game from the bench. Pat Riley of the Lakers was like that. He was never a star but he was a good coach because he sat and watched the game, learned the game from watching it.

Do you see yourself doing more directing in the future?

Yeah, I write and direct my wife now. I’m watching her come up. She’s passed the 10-year mark and she’s really funny now. And it’s so exciting because I can write her things now that she will understand, you know? So I’m still directing, still writing and still having a good time.

Tell us something most people don’t know about you.

I think most people think I smoke more dope than I do.

How often do you do it?

Maybe once or twice a week. And that’s on a good week. I’ve gone years without pot. I’m not a pothead. I think that’s a big misconception because of the movies. I’ll go work out in a gym sooner than I’ll go smoke pot. That’s more important to me than smoking pot.

Interviewed by Joel Murphy, December 2007.

The surprise hit of the season has been Chuck, NBC’s comedy about an employee of an electronic store who unwittingly becomes a government spy. Chuck Bartowski gets his orders from General Beckman, a no-nonsense general calling the shots from our nation’s capital.

Beckman is played by Bonita Friedericy, a talented character actress who recently talked to us about sharing screen time with the Candyman, having a husband who excels at playing creepy guys and what it was like being in a Bobcat Goldthwait movie about bestiality.

Where are you originally from and where do you call home now?

That’s an interesting question. I’m originally from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginians are fiercely independent, shall we say? I actually even have, it looks like a little credit card that’s my birth certificate – you can carry it around with you wherever you go and it’s from the Commonwealth of Virginia. I was born in Charlottesville, Virginia.

We moved out here when I was five and I call Los Angeles home.

How exactly did you get into acting, and when did you decide this is what you wanted to do for a living?

Have I decided that yet?

Perhaps we are assuming too much –

(Laughs.) No. Let me think, I come from a kind of odd family where there were a lot of puppets and playacting that occurred. For some reason, we put on little plays when I was a little kid, which I think my brother wanted to do. And my brother, he was gay – he passed away – but he would always play like the witches and things like that. We would do like Hansel and Gretel and he’d play the witch and my sister would always play the princes and I had to play the little princesses. And everybody would yell at me because I would pick my nose and basically not behave because I didn’t understand what was going on.

And then, when I was 10 years old, my brother did the play Fiddler on the Roof at his high school and they needed a little girl, so he brought me with him and I did my first play. And I continued doing theatre from that moment on.

I think I decided I actually wanted to make a living at it about nine years ago. That’s when I started doing TV and film.

How tough was it to break into the business when you decided to pursue it nine years ago?

Well, it’s funny, I think because I started older, it’s hard when you are a middle-aged woman just because there aren’t a whole lot of parts out there. However, I was very determined and I was older because I started at about 36. Pretty quickly I was making more than I was making doing theatre, which isn’t saying much.

I still think I’m trying to break in to the business, I have to say. (Laughs.) It’s not easy.

You’ve had guest spots on a wide variety of popular television shows. Do you enjoy the variety of your work or is it tough to constantly be bouncing around to different sets?

You know, it’s interesting. For years, I was a substitute teacher because it would supplement my theatre earnings, and it kind of does remind me of being a sub. It is kind of funky to pop around because you don’t quite belong and your job really is to know your lines, not bother anyone and be fun to work with. I do like the variety, I have to say. I’m a character actor and I think being able to play a general one week and a horrible mother the next week and then a secretary on Drew Carey or something, that I really like a lot. I like the variety.

My husband is an actor, too and we talk about it sometimes because he’s been on a number of series. And I think the idea of being able to go to the same job and getting to work with actors that you get to see on a regular basis and writers and things like that and developing a character more deeply has its own merits too. I just sort of figure you do whatever comes your way.

So do you get treated pretty well when you show up to the different sets?

Like I said, it is kind of like substitute teaching and I think there’s probably nothing more painful than going from one East LA middle school classroom to a Central school and being faced with anywhere from 30 to 50 children per class who really don’t want you there.

So do you think it’s tougher to win over the classroom full of kids?

Who could potentially hurt you physically and also where you have no books because the teachers have locked everything to keep them from you because they don’t trust you.

It actually prepared me very well to go from set to set. It depends on the set, I have to say. If you’re on a show that’s not doing very well it can be really intimidating. Years ago, I worked on Payne, which was a John Larroquette show. It was Faulty Towers, they were trying a remake of it and it wasn’t doing very well and it was really terrifying because nobody was happy and if you crossed your eyes the wrong way, you got the feeling you’d be fired. So stuff like that, it’s not so good. But ones where the show is doing really well – and I have to say, Chuck is just a wonderful set and a lot of that is because of Zachary Levi, he’s a really nice guy and he’s very fun to be with.

Speaking of Chuck, you play General Beckman on the show.

General Chuckles Beckman. (Laughs)

How was the character explained to you initially and will we be seeing more of General Beckman in future episodes besides just your cameos on the television screen at the Buy More?

You mean the Charlie of Charlie’s Angels? You know, I really don’t know what they have in mind with that, quite frankly. I’m sort of curious myself. I mean, every so often I run into a writer and they were pitching around at one point having Beckman getting married and having an assassination attempt on her and there’s been murmurings of back stories and things like that and I have to say, it’s developing a little bit. So I’m kind of curious because there’s this whole storyline now that they’re rebuilding the computer that got blown up that Chuck represents now and the basic riff is that as soon as the new computer is up and running, she’s going to have the Adam Baldwin character do Chuck in.

We don’t think Chuck will die though. It wouldn’t be very good for the show.

Hey, it’s going to be called Beckman after that. (Laughs.)

So it will just be a spin-off about the adventures of General Beckman?

Well, I think so. Don’t you think? You can just have like a blog with her where she just comes up on the screen for the entire hour.

And Tony Todd could be your wacky sidekick.

Particularly since he’s 6’5″ and I’m 5’3″, which is frankly why he’s always leaning on my desk because they can’t fit us in the same frame. I’m usually sitting on five cushions. I think they conceived Beckman as being a little bit bigger than I am because we try different things, we try to have me walking around my chair and stuff like that, but the chair’s twice my size, so I always end up sitting in it. It’s kind of funny.

And I love Tony Todd, but I think it’s hysterical – when I stand next to him, I come up to his waist. You know, he actually is the Candyman. People come up to him constantly when we’re working and get this “in awe” expression and say, “Oh my God, you’re the Candyman,” which I’ve never seen, but I guess you say his name three times in the mirror and he comes and gets you.

So even though it’s a small part right now, do you enjoy playing General Beckman?

I actually really like this part a lot. I like the fact that she sort of has a weird wryness to her. I really do call her Chuckles Beckman because her response to just about everything is to not register it and then shoot some mortars out there.

And frankly, I just want to stay in the show. Because, I don’t know if you realize this – I don’t think anyone knows this, I’m not the original Beckman. In the pilot, that’s another woman. They don’t show a whole lot of her, but we kind of look similar and actually I was at the premiere screening of it at McG’s and a number of people came up and said they liked my work and I kind of said, “Nope, wasn’t me.”

What I think is kind of interesting is the gal who was in the pilot, her name is Wendy Makkena, she actually – I played my husband’s wife on the show The Nine, he left me after several episodes and in the unaired episodes, he started dating and the woman he started dating on the show is Wendy Makkena. It was actually down to the two of us for Beckman and they couldn’t make up their minds and eventually went with Wendy and then, I don’t know what happened but after the pilot, they called me up and had me come.

So is that your way of getting her back for stealing your husband away?

I think so. (Laughs.) Actually John loves her. I’ve never met her, but he liked working with her very much. So I was just minding my Ps and Qs for a couple episodes just to make sure I would keep coming back.

You mentioned your husband John Billingsley, who is known for playing Dr. Phlox on Enterprise, and we know you even appeared on an episode of the show. What was it like working with him on that show and what sort of encounters does he have with Star Trek fans?

That’s so much a part of our life. We really enjoy it. Star Trek fans are actually some of the nicest, kindest people you’ll ever meet. It’s a part of why they’re attracted to Star Trek. I don’t know if you realize what goes on, I guess particularly in the original Star Trek – you had Uhura, a black woman with a major role, you had George Takei and you had Chekov. I think with all of the different aliens and things like that, this whole idea of acceptance and to be different is acceptable and it’s the kind of world we’re striving to have – that speaks very loudly to a lot of Star Trek fans. They’re very kind people and very accepting people and we love going to the conventions and getting to talk to them. My husband is a very, very nice man and he’s very, very generous.

That being said, working with him, we just like scream at each other, hit each other, throw tantrums, basically work out all of our marital problems on the set – no, actually we really like working with each other. We also did a terrible Christmas movie, the 12 Dogs of Christmas together.

We would also just like to say that your husband plays a creepy guy very well.

Doesn’t he? Did you see Cold Case? I loved him. It sort of bothered me, but in a really good way. I’m his biggest fan, by the way.

But I was sitting next to him when we were watching and it was like I didn’t want to be sitting next to him. He’s kind of sexy creepy too, I think. We joke about the fact that he’s played quite a few serial killers, child molesters – there’s an old NYPD Blue that he did where he is a child molester and god, it’s just so frightening, it’s just so good.

“You were a really good child molester” has got to be a weird compliment to give to your husband.

Yeah, it is, but what are you going to do?

How often do the two of you get recognized in public?

He does. Me no. It’s funny because he has different groups of people who recognize him for different work and you can usually figure out which are the Star Trek fans because I see them glancing at him from the side and they just sort of stand there transfixed. And I’ll go, “Yeah, it is.” He also has a lot of fans because he was in the Denzel Washington movie Out of Time. Me, I am not usually recognized. I’m perfectly happy not getting recognized, quite frankly. When I was younger, people used to think I was Carol Kane, and that was kind of interesting.

That’s got to be bizarre to be mistakenly recognized as someone else.

What’s kind of bizarre that I’ve noticed is people don’t know what I’ve been on and it happens with John sometimes too. The people will come up to me and say, “God, I feel like I know you” or “Where did we meet?”

It’s that funny thing where you kind of eventually go, “Well, maybe from a TV show.”

And they’ll go, “Oh, oh yeah, that’s right.”

But it’s kind of funny at first when people just sort of feel like they know you and you don’t want to go, “No, not really, from TV,” so you kind of pretend like, “Well, where did you grow up?”

You were in Sleeping Dogs Lie, which Bobcat Goldthwait wrote and directed. What can you tell us about this film and what was it like working with Bob Goldthwait?

It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done, I have to say. You know, he’s actually not like his persona that he puts out there at all. He’s a really, really shy, very sweet, very quiet man.

I played the mother and I actually ended up wrestling another woman in my underwear for Elvis’ delectation at the end of the movie, which I’m very proud of.

What is the movie about?

Bestiality. It’s about a girl who has sort of a strange experience with her dog when she’s bored one day in college in her dorm. And then you flash forward to about five years later when she’s in love with a guy and he wants to get married to her and he wants them to have no secrets between the two of them and her having to deal with this because it was just a stupid thing that she did.

It’s funny because people get freaked out by the first three seconds of the movie or 20 seconds of the movie are the flashback with her dog and they don’t show anything, but you get the point. And people get completely nonplussed and shocked, but actually the rest of the movie is about her dealing with it and it’s screamingly funny and it’s really touching. And I was just so happy to be in a movie about bestiality.

I was also in Fart: The Movie. Bobcat told me one of the reasons why they cast me in Sleeping Dogs Lie was because they noticed I’d been in Fart: The Movie and that made him really happy. It’s all interconnected.

You were the first recipient of the Natalie Schafer Award for Comedy Acting. Please tell us about the award and what it meant to win it.

There were a total of 10 of us. The last recipient was Kirsten Vangsness, who is Garcia, she’s the techno gal with the glasses on Cold Case, she’s a friend of mine.

Natalie Schafer, that’s Lovey Howell from Gilligan’s Island. She was a character actress and she created this award before she died. It was in her will that a lump sum of money would go to emerging comic character actresses to help them with their careers and every year there would be a different recipient. They ran out of money after 10 years.

Yes, but it’s interesting – Natalie Schafer had a lover who was 20 years her junior. She died when she was like 90, and he was the one to make sure how the award was transferred and given and all of that stuff. It was interesting talking to him.

So how were you selected to win this award?

It’s the LA Drama Critics Circle critics. There were like 10 of them or 12 of them – they were the ones who were given the task of deciding who receives the award. I guess, there was a very lovely gentleman named Tom McCulloh, who has since passed on, who is a critic, who saw me when I was 18 years old in a play I had done with my college professor and his wife at a small theatre, and he had always been a champion of mine.

So I think he nominated me and I had just done a lot of theatre for years and so they all put their heads together and had decided that I had earned that award. And they gave it to me at the LA Drama Critics Circle awards. They gave me a big check, which was really helpful. That was one of the things that enabled me to think about taking a dive and to try to make a career in TV and film. It was enough of a chunk of money that I thought, “I can stop teaching part-time and just try and hang in there and get TV work.”

One of the things I did – I didn’t know how you got TV and film work. I hadn’t had an agent before. I’m really lame; I’m actually like a big chicken. I didn’t know how you did any of these things. I used to call my sister on the phone every day because she’s really smart and we’d try to figure out how you get ahead in TV and film. And she said, “There’s got to be a way to meet casting directors.” And a friend of mine told me about casting workshops. So I took about 400 of those, I think, over the course of two or three years and I did showcases and stuff like that just to meet people. And I needed to kind of have a little stake money there to be able to do that.

So do you have any advice for aspiring actors?

Yeah, John and I, if anyone ever wants to sit down over coffee and ask us, which they do quite a bit, because John did pretty much the same thing. He came down like 12 years ago from Seattle. He was a theatre actor up there and he started a theatre company called Bookends, which is what brought Cider House Rules down to that area. But, when he came down here, he was trying to figure out what to do to and he did pretty much what I did. We both just started taking these casting workshops and meeting casting directors and talking to them and seeing them again and making sure you do really good work.

And, I don’t think people do them anymore, but for a while, the acting showcases were pretty big. I did one in particular where I thought it was a pretty good showcase and picked out scenes that were really good for me and tried to get really strong partners and then I could invite all of the casting directors that I met to come see me in those and then I could use all of those contacts to talk an agent into taking me on. And then I could go back and tell the agent, “Look, I met so and so, I think there’s a part in such and such, could you try to get me in?” And sort of tried to make a triangle working there.

Then, never be scared to leave an agent or a manager. When I first started, everyone told me you weren’t supposed to change agents, like you’d never get another one or you’d get a bad reputation, and it’s so not true. It was very hard for me at first, but I think I’ve had three managers and four agents and it’s only gotten better each time that I’ve changed.

What goals do you have set for yourself? Where would you like to see your career go?

Don’t we all want to be Meryl Streep? She’s so good. Or Philip Seymour Hoffman? He’s so good. You know, it’s funny – one of the goals I had set for myself was to be able to make a living at this and that I have achieved. It’s funny, I was talking to an actress that lives down the street from me – I didn’t realize she was an actress and she didn’t realize I was an actress, she was walking her dog and I was walking around.

We started talking and she was saying, “Oh my god, I create projects for myself, I’m producing a movie that I wrote. You’ve got to just think of the parts you want to play” and stuff like that. I did when I was younger, I don’t so much anymore. My goals kind of extend more I think to being involved in projects that are entertaining to people and it’s not necessarily what I’m doing – it’s not about me, it’s just that the project is working for people.

It’s really hard with TV and theatre and film to know what kind of difference it’s making, particularly in the world right now. You’re not being a doctor, you’re not a nurse. You’re there to either help people escape for a while or to inform them or to make them feel not so alone, things like that. And that is very important to me, so being involved in something that serves that purpose makes me happy and is a goal.

I also – I’m feeling lazy, but I like directing theatre and I haven’t done that in a while. I do want to direct a piece in the next few years; I just have to find a piece I want to work on.

What do you do to unwind when you are not working?

That’s an interesting question. I play with my husband. We go doodle around, we go on trips. I like to read. Actually, a friend of mine is training to become a Pilates instructor, so she talked me into being her guinea pig because I actually used to dance when I was younger and Pilates uses a lot of that. So she can try things out on me and even if I don’t know what I’m doing, I can tell her what works and doesn’t work. And actually, I’m getting really interested in it. Pilates is great. Joseph Pilates was a very smart man.

What would you do for a living if you never got into acting?

That’s an interesting question too. I have a feeling the answer’s supposed to be, “Oh, acting is the only thing I could do.” It’s probably the only thing that saved me as a human being, was acting, because I got to play all of these different parts I couldn’t in my own personal life. But I probably would be either a nurse or a teacher, although I was a really bad middle school teacher – because I was teaching full-time while doing theatre.

I would do theatre at night and teach during the day and I taught every subject under the sun although I was completely improperly credentialed for any of it because this is LA. My sister mentioned to me at one point that she really wouldn’t want me teaching any of my nephews.

I thought about that for a while and I thought, “You know, that’s probably really true. I should either just go back to school and become a full-time teacher or totally make my living as an actor.” And obviously I was too lazy to go back to school, so I took the road of less resistance. But I think teachers are fabulous.

But I think I would probably be a nurse. Actually, my mom and I, we call each other the young junior medics because we can diagnose on a dime, I actually do read the Health section of the newspaper.

Tell us something most people don’t know about you.

I noticed that’s what you ask people in your interviews. Well, nobody knows anything about me. I don’t know. Probably that I’m part Indonesian. I don’t know if that matters, but I always think it’s kind of interesting. I don’t have a fake leg or a glass eye. I think most people realize I’m not 21 years old.

Interviewed by Joel Murphy, December 2007.

Similar Posts:

• One on One with Mark Christopher Lawrence
• One on One with Scott Krinsky
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• Outside of the In-Crowd – Chuck me
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Joel Murphy

With apologies to Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington, I have some exciting news to report to all of you – I have a new man-crush and his Noah Bennet. Well technically, the guy’s name is Jack Coleman, but he plays Noah Bennet on the NBC show Heroes.

I came late to the party on Heroes. My work schedule last year had me working late on Monday nights, so even though my brother raved about the show, I was never really able to check it out (this was before I had a DVR). Before the start of season two, my girlfriend and I caught up on season one of the show and both became instantly hooked. I haven’t missed an episode since.

Like everyone else, I am a big fan of Hiro (oh, and I also really loved his dad, who was played by George Takei), but this season Bennet has been my favorite part of the show. As I’ve mentioned countless times in previous columns, I am a huge fan of Batman and to me, Bennet is the Batman of this show. While all of the characters around him have amazing superpowers, he relies on his training and intellect to guide him. Plus, he operates in shades of gray and is willing to execute vigilante justice in order to do what he feels is right. (If we could get him into the Batsuit, he’d be perfect).

My favorite scene of this season is in “Cautionary Tales,” when Mohinder pulls a gun on Bennet, but thanks to a diversion created by West, Bennet is able to grab the gun out of Mohinder’s frail hands. Bennet knocks Mohinder to the ground and aims the gun at him shouting, “You lie to me; betray me; come after my daughter – how did you think it was going to end?” If West hadn’t been stading there, Bennet would have killed Mohinder right then (which would have saved Bennet a bullet in the eye later in the episode).

While Hiro, Bennet and Sylar (who made the season finale by having a fantastic annoyed look on his face when Maya finally wised up and confronted him) continue to make the show fantastic, there are a few things about Heroes that keep it from being a truly great show. So, while we wait for the cheap bastards who run the television studios to end this writers’ strike so that we can get new episodes of Heroes, here are five problems with the show that I would like to see resolved in “Volume Three: Villains”:

1. Learn when to kill off characters. This is something that great shows like The Wire and Lost know how to do. I like the Nathan Petrelli character and was happy to have him around this season, but it would have been more emotionally resonant to have him die at the end of the first season. After only looking out for himself and his political campaign for the whole season, Nathan was willing to sacrifice himself to save Peter and New York City. Having him die a martyr would have given him a noble and powerful sendoff. Instead, he spent most of the beginning of season two plodding around with nothing to do, looking mopey and sporting a very fake-looking beard.

DL also should have died in the season one finale. Having him miraculously survive his gunshot wound only to be killed protecting Nikki made his death seem flat and pointless.

The story should dictate when characters die. I worry that the writers of Heroes are afraid of upsetting fans and they will continue to be afraid to kill off characters, which will hurt the show in the long run. I also think that introducing the idea that Claire and Adam’s blood can bring people back to life could ultimately end up hurting the show as well. Anytime a character is killed, they could instantly be brought back to life – which ruins the suspense of the show. If no one ever really dies, there is never any suspense. (That being said, I was glad they brought Bennet back – both because of my aforementioned man-crush and because I still think they can get a lot of use out of his character.)

2. Peter is too powerful. As I mentioned above, I always loved Batman because he was a real person without any powers. On the flip side of that, I was never a fan of Superman because he seemed way too powerful. Vulnerability is interesting, ultimate power isn’t. Peter is basically unstoppable at this point – he has absorbed everyone else’s powers and is apparently better at using the powers than the people he gets them from are (which became evident when he was able to resist Parkman’s attempt to control his mind even though Parkman had recently mastered this ability and Peter rarely, if ever, uses his mind control power). Even Superman had Kryptonite, Peter seems to have no weakness, except …
…

3. Peter is a moron. Trusting Adam, who you barely know, even after Hiro and Parkman, two people you trust and who have no reason to lie to you, is just plain stupid. Plus, you can read people’s minds, so why didn’t you read Adam’s mind or Hiro’s and figure out which one of them is lying. Maybe that is why Peter is constantly taking his shirt off – I think that the tight shirts he wears constrict the blood flow to his brain and cause him to not think clearly.

4. Stop with the love stories. Love stories in action-packed shows always seem tacked on, but in Heroes they are especially painful. I could go the rest of my life without ever seeing Claire and West having a romantic date on top of the Hollywood sign ever again.

5. Kill Mohinder. I absolutely hate his character. He constantly switches sides and flip flops his beliefs based on whatever suits him at any given moment, but manages to walk around with a smug sense of superiority. Plus, he continues to try to be a bad ass, which always fails miserably. However, I get the impression that we are supposed to like his character. If he was supposed to be a villain on the show, it would all make sense, but he does the voiceovers and has always been portrayed as one of the protagonists, which baffles me.The only saving grace for his character would be if they were willing to go all out with the homoerotic undertones that exist between him and Parkman, who live together and are raising a child together. I’d love to find out which one of the two of them wears the pants (or the “World’s Greatest Dad” apron) in the relationship.

With any luck, this extended break caused by the writers’ strike will give Tim Kring and company a chance to recharge their batteries and fix some of the problems with the show. Kring himself admitted that there were problems this season and seems intent on fixing them, which is definitely a good sign.

But, even if they can’t fix all of these problems, as long as Noah Bennet and his dreamy horn-rimmed glasses are on the screen, I’ll be watching. Without pants.

Random Thought of the Week:
Keifer Sutherland has begun serving a 48-day prison sentence for his September DUI arrest. I can’t wait to see how Chloe busts him out of jail. I also can’t wait to see if he is sporting the same mountain man beard Jack Bauer had after getting out of the Chinese prison at the beginning of last season.

Joel Murphy is the creator of HoboTrashcan, which is probably why he has his own column. He loves pugs, hates Jimmy Fallon and has an irrational fear of robots. You can contact him at murphyslaw@hobotrashcan.com.

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