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How Vanessa Hudgens keeps a straight face on the set of the NBC comedy

TRAINING DAYCBS gets into ‘Training’ with Oscar-winning police drama’s series spinoff

BLACK SAILS How Luke Arnold faced a lifelong fear

Katie Leclerc finds it ‘hard’ to say

goodbye to ‘Switched

at Birth’

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What’s HOT this

Week!

20-21 Theatrical Review, and Our top DVD releases

22-23 Our top suggested programs to watch this week!

FOOD7 Buddy Valastro of ‘Bakers vs. Fakers’ reveals his tells

19 Kalani Brown, Baylor’s emerging center

16 Lily Tomlin feels big-time love from the Screen Actors Guild

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STAFF PICK

When superheroes and supervillains fight, damage occurs and it’s up to the good people at Wayne Security to protect the general public from it in the tongue-in-cheek comedy “Powerless.” George Dickie speaks with series star Vanessa Hudgens about her character, a recent business school grad trying to motivate her new colleagues, and how she keeps a straight face amid all the silliness.

12-13 The police drama that won Denzel Washington his second Oscar gets a series spinoff as Bill Paxton plays a rogue cop with a concerned new partner (Justin Cornwell) in CBS’ version of “Training Day,” premiering Thursday. Stars and producers of the show tell Jay Bobbin about translating the theme to weekly television.

14-15 Filming four seasons of “Black Sails” was a growth experience for the character of Long John Silver and the actor who plays him, Luke Arnold. The Australian actor tells George Dickie about it.

17 It’s the beginning of the end for “Switched at Birth,” as the Freeform drama series starts its fifth and final season Tuesday. Co-star Katie Leclerc talks with Jay Bobbin about what the show has meant to her professionally and personally, encompassing the significance her character has had to the deaf community.

Here’s where you can find us

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IN EVERY ISSUE

CONTRIBUTING STaffManaging Editor: Michelle Wilson

Writers: Jay Bobbin, George Dickie, John Crook, Dan LaddMagazine Design: Nicolle Burton

Quality: Chris Browne

4 Why ‘CBS This Morning’ co-anchor Norah O’Donnell is pro-bacon

5 Mandy Patinkin still ‘couldn’t ask for more’ in ‘Homeland’ Season 6

6 How doing ‘SIX’ changed Walton Goggins’ world view

8 iPod helps ‘The 100’ actor Richard Harmon get into character9 Home improvement expert and TV host Danny Lipford

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the boss at Wayne Security and is met with a couple of characters that don’t really love working and she’s just trying to inspire them to change the world. And they’re dragging their feet the entire time.”

Emily’s primary responsibility is overseeing the creation of products that protect the general public from superhero/supervillain activity in Charm City, among them a device called “the rumbrella.”

“It protects people from rubble,” Hudgens says with a laugh, “because one of the main (hazards) in Charm City is falling rubble. So it’s something that everyone definitely needs. (The writers) come up with a bunch of really funny, interesting products that they feel will make a difference. ... Some of the stuff they come up with, I’m cracking up every single time I read a new script. I mean, the writers are just killing it. It’s so funny because its just like so left of center. Like they’re really doing stuff that I would never think of.”

Hudgens also calls Tudyk a “comedic genius,” and counts herself lucky to be working in an environment where she’s laughing all day, though she strives to keep a straight face during takes.

“It’s one of my strong suits, I think,” she says. “... I’m pretty good at keeping a straight face because there’s stuff that Alan comes up with sometimes and just says that I have to keep a straight face for. It’s just so ridiculous that at times I applaud myself for not cracking up because he’s just too funny. I’ll be standing next to the cameramen and I’ll see the cameramen are cracking up during the take. It’s hysterical.”

Editor's choice

Protecting the public from superhero damage in NBC’s ‘Powerless’

BY GEORGE DICKIEIn the world of DC Comics, superheroes duke it out with supervillains in a battle to protect humanity from the forces of evil. But what happens with all the collateral damage that results?

The good people at Wayne Security are there to help.

In “Powerless,” a satirical half-hour comedy series premiering Thursday, Feb. 2, on NBC, it falls to this subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises to create products that make innocent bystanders feel a little safer. It is here that recent business school grad Emily Locke (Vanessa Hudgens, “High School Musical,” “Spring Breakers”) begins her first day as director of research and development, full of big ideas and confidence, which of course runs counter to the agendas of her well-entrenched new co-workers.

Chief among them is her boss, Van Wayne (Alan Tudyk, “42,” “Death at a Funeral”), a spoiled rich kid who’s never had to work hard a day in his life and thus has difficulty relating to the rank-and-file employees beneath him. There are also cynical co-workers and underlings (Danny Pudi, Ron Funches, Christina Kirk) she must motivate if she is to lead them to their full potential and prove that you don’t have to have superpowers to be a hero.

“She is extremely positive and just wants everyone to do their best,” Hudgens explains. “And she becomes

Midseason series

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GEORGE DICKIE’S Q&A

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oF ‘CBS ThIS MornInG’ weeKdAyS

CELEBRITY

Your husband is a restaurateur. Are all his restaurants in Washington, D.C.?Yeah, so my husband is Chef Geoff and we met our freshman year at Georgetown University, so we have been together for 25 years.

How many restaurants does he have?He has four restaurants in Washington, D.C.; they’re all Chef Geoff ... . He was a theology major at Georgetown; I was a philosophy major and look where we are.

Does this qualify you as a foodie?Absolutely. We love food.

Do you cook?I do. I do cook. I make my own homemade spaghetti sauce, which the kids like, and I make banana bread, lasagna. Kind of like some basics. You know, Geoff does most of the cooking but I have a couple of faithfuls that I can bang out. ...If you look at my husband’s social media accounts, we are into bacon. So we’re very pro-bacon. In fact, my husband’s license plate is BACON. He’s working on a book about bacon, so you’ll see ... if we’re in the car, people will be behind us like taking pictures of the license plate.

So he’s known in D.C. as the guy with the BACON license plate?Exactly, yeah, and he’s done a bacon bar inside his restaurant, and his Instagram is really good. ... My husband is a chef and a restaurateur. I mean, he went to the Culinary Institute of America and was the valedictorian there after Georgetown. So he’s a trained chef. But he has several hundred employees so he runs the business; he’s not cooking in the kitchen.But the other thing is he watches our show every morning and he’s as well read if not more than me sometimes, so it’s great to have somebody who’s just as interested in my business. And he and Gayle (King) email back and forth with each other and he and Charlie (Rose) email back and forth with each other (laughs). It’s so funny. So we’re all really close.

NoRAh o’DoNNeLL

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MandyPatinkinWhat has kept you involved in “Homeland”?I knew that one couldn’t ask for more. I was a bit drop-jawed when I read the pilot. And we did the first season, and each script came along, and I just could not believe it. As I turned every page, it just got more and more extraordinary. And it’s been an absolute privilege to be a part of a piece with a company of people (who) are able to reflect and comment on the world we’re living in, in a fictional way.I don’t see the real world being able to have a lot of progress, in terms of fixing things very well. But within a drama and a fictional state, the possibility exists to create ideas of the way to address certain situations that might be able to be improved, or give hope or optimism toward.

Have you derived personal benefits from staying with the series?It ignites my life on almost every level, including the success of the show giving us all such a profile – the likes of which I personally have never had before – that allows me the privilege to do what I’ve always loved to do. I have now had more opportunity to do some human-rights work because of the privilege of this platform, to be able to be the voice for so many people who have no voice.That’s just some of the gifts, aside from loving the part and the character itself, and learning from him and wanting to be more like him. And I’m hoping that Mandy learns to be more and more like (the character) Saul, because I like Saul better than I like Mandy.

How do you see the relationship between Saul and Claire Danes’ character Carrie now?There has been a split that they’ve been working on repairing over the course of the last couple of seasons, to varying degrees of success. And I think that Saul has really committed himself even more fully to the agency (the CIA), and Carrie rejects some fundamental principles of it, so that’s very difficult to reconcile.

JAY BOBBIN’S Q&A

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of ‘Homeland’ Sunday on Showtime

CELEBRITY

GEORGE DICKIE’S Q&A

Your role of Navy SEAL Team 6 leader Richard “Rip” Taggart on History’s “SIX” looks like it took a physical toll on you. Did it?Yeah, universally I think for all of the actors and the extras and the crew and the directors ... I think all of these people say that it was a real test or measure for your mental stability. What’s being asked of you on any given day was extraordinary and it pales in comparison to what people are actually going through. I mean, we’re actors and we get to have cappuccinos in the morning. But to be in a physical configuration where you have no freedom of movement for the better part of 15 hours a day and people are hitting on you, it’s tough, man. You know, you just want to lash out but you can’t. And I have an active imagination so I’m able to at least find my own truth or the truth for Rip kind of in that way. But people have suffered this throughout history and it’s tough to watch but there is a real morality to this tale and it’s paying real honor to the people that have crossed that rubicon in a real significant way.

Did you have to come down from this character?I didn’t get a chance, man, because the day that we wrapped ... it was like two o’clock in the morning and I got on a plane to go to New York to do a movie seven hours later about schizophrenia (laughs). So it was really kind of going from a physical incarceration into a mental incarceration, so I think on the other side of that, I took some time off. I took like four months off to really just kind of process both of these experiences back to back and just kind of see it for what it was. ... Not put it behind you as much as, ‘Well, how does it affect your life going forward? How do you see the world now?’ Because it’s different.

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CELEBRITY

WALTON GOGGINS

of ‘SIX’ Wednesday on

History

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GEORGE DICKIE’S WHAT'S FOR DINNER

When was your last vacation, where and why?

“Actually, it was over the new year. We went to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), me and my family.”

What book are you currently reading?

“Right now, I’m not much of a book guy. I’m not going to lie. So nothing comes to mind right now when it comes to a book.”

What did you have for dinner last night?

“My wife made fresh tomato sauce, you know from the tomato; put them through the mill, with linguine. It was so good. Sunday gravy. She also made eggplant parm. She also made meatballs, brasciola – that stuff was in there as well. Typical Sunday Italian dinner.”

What is your next project?

“I’ve got lots of different projects. From a baking standpoint, I opened a bakery this week in Bethlehem, Pa. This year I’ll probably open seven or eight bakeries all over the country and the world. And our goals for ‘Bakers vs. Fakers’ and ‘Cooks vs. Cons’ is to hopefully do a lot of them. ... We have another 40 episodes of ‘Cake Boss’ to film this year. We’ve got two restaurants open; plan on opening one or two more this year. So we just keep ourselves busy.”

As a lifelong baker and owner-operator of a chain of family bakeries, Buddy Valastro would seem ideally suited to distinguish the home bakers from the pros as host of Food Network’s new Wednesday competition series “Bakers vs. Fakers.”

But not always.

“You’d be shocked at what the home baker could do from a baking standpoint or a cake decorating standpoint,” the 39-year-old New Jersey native says. “I look for the little telltale signs of like the way they hold a piping bag, the way they hold a spatula, the way they cut a piece of cake or their knife skills and stuff like that.

“But I’ll tell you, man, throughout this competition I’ve been fooled plenty of times, where you think, ‘Uh-oh, they would never do that as a professional or a professional baker.’ But then you’d see them come up with something ingenious that’s such a professional move. So it’s pretty. I’ve been tricked too many times.”

Similar to “Cooks vs. Cons” (which like “Fakers” is produced by Valastro and Cakehouse Media), the new hourlong series features a mix of four pros and amateurs laboring to come up with delectable desserts to impress a rotating panel of judges, which include Nancy Fuller, Alex Guarnaschelli, Daphne Oz, Damaris Phillips, Lorraine Pascale and Zac Young, through two rounds of challenges. If the winner is a pro, they win $10,000; if it’s an amateur, the prize is $15,000.

Naturally in any competition series, pressure plays a role and mistakes are made. But, says Valastro, they were made by both groups and there were some that were very common.

“I think sometimes just being overambitious,” he says. “Like we did a cheesecake challenge one time and just baking a cheesecake in 45 minutes by itself is a lot, you know, rather than doing an individual ramekin versus a whole seven-inch cheesecake. Just from baking times, things like that were telltale signs for me.”

aMateurS chal lenge the pros in Food Network’s ‘Bakers vs. Fakers’

Pictured: Buddy Valastro

TASTY

GEORGE DICKIE’S CELEBRITY SCOOP

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ricHard Harmon

Every actor has their own method of getting into a character. Some disappear into their trailer for hours, others put themselves through mental and emotional calisthenics and still others take their cues strictly from what’s on the page.

For Richard Harmon, who plays John Murphy on “The 100” – which opens its fourth season Wednesday, Feb. 1, on The CW – inspiration comes from his iPod Nano and the playlists he makes for the characters he plays.

“It’s kind of a mix of songs I think the character would listen to and some of it is just kind of songs that me as Richard, I love,” the 25-year-old Canadian actor explains. “And it’s whatever I need to get into the zone that I need to get in for Murphy. So sometimes there are songs that I don’t even like as Richard but are songs that I think would get me into a place that Murphy would be in.”

Such as?

“One of my favorites for Murphy would actually be Nina Simone’s ‘Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,”’ he says. “(That) has been kind of like my theme song for Murphy for the last couple of years.”

Over four seasons, Murphy’s playlist has grown to more than 300 songs, many of which one wouldn’t expect a man Murphy’s/Harmon’s age would listen to, songs such as Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man.”

CELEBRITY

Checking in with

“It’s kind of a lot of sad songs,” Harmon says. “I was showing it to one of our writers one time and they found there was a lot more sad songs than Murphy would usually have but that’s just kind of what I listen to. So like some Bon Iver, a lot of Bob Dylan. You know, some Rolling Stones. I guess it’s kind of a big smorgasbord of songs.”

Family ties: Hails from show business stock: father Allan is a director and mom Cynde is a producer; sister Jessica is an actress

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CELEBRITYCELEBRITY PROFILE

dannyLiPford- His interest in home improvement began at just 9 years old when he bought his first electric jigsaw from a mail-order company.

- He moved to Mobile in 1975 to attend the University of South Alabama but his side job as a handyman turned into a full-time passion. In 1978, at age 21, he started his remodeling business, Lipford Construction, which soon became one of the most respected remodeling companies in the southeast and continues to operate successfully today.

- His television journey began in 1988 when he was asked to host a small, live cable show in Mobile called “Remodeling Today” which grew throughout the region until it was nationally syndicated in 1998 and became “Today’s Homeowner With Danny Lipford.”

- The Today’s Homeowner brand continued to expand, adding the nationally syndicated Today’s Homeowner radio show; a

full-service video production firm, 3 Echoes Productions; TodaysHomeowner.com; and the newest edition – décor and lifestyle blog, Checking In With Chelsea.

- Backed by his 37-year remodeling career, he served as the home improvement expert for CBS’s “The Early Show” and The Weather Channel for more than a decade. His extensive hands-on experience and understanding of the industry make him the go-to source for all things having to do with the home – from advice on simple repairs, to complete remodels, to helping homeowners prepare their homes for extreme weather and seasons.

- He has made more than 160 national television appearances, most recently on “FOX & Friends” and Fox Business Channel.

- He was a longtime contributor to Better Homes & Gardens magazine and is an expert source for hundreds of other popular magazines and websites each year.

- He and his wife Sharon have three daughters, affectionately referred to as the “3 Echoes.” He enjoys traveling, spending time outdoors, fishing, golf, working on his river cabin and scuba diving, but nothing compares to spending time with his family.

Danny Lipford is a home improvement expert, contractor and host of the

nationally syndicated “Today’s Homeowner With Danny Lipford.”

“I think the sort of ‘in’ that the audience has with me is (that) I represent the more ‘everyman’ character for them. Even though I am a genius within the world, I’m also one that doesn’t want to leave or go anywhere, and is suddenly thrust on these amazing, epic adventures that he never even expected or wanted to be a part of.”- Malcolm Barrett of “Timeless” on NBC

CELEBRITY

BUZZ“It just feels like a family. I grew up watching the Thursday-night comedy pack on NBC, and to be living through something like that now with these sexy dramas, it feels like lightning in a bottle. And it’s because of our beautiful fans. Everybody shows up.”-Bellamy Young of “Scandal” on ABC, about being part of the network’s Thursday “TGIT” lineup

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WHAT THE CELEBRITIES HAVE TO SAY!

“I’m awfully judgmental of their parents. So once I find out that their parents are nice and don’t have any sort of hidden agenda with wanting their children to act, then I’m better. But I’m just protective of them.” Neil Patrick Harris of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” on Netflix, on working with child actors

January 29 - February 4, 2017 YOUR TV LINK Courtesy of Gracenote Page 11

CELEBRITY

Ever wonder what the Celebs DVR?

“‘Taxi’ is my favorite TV show of all time. It was just the best ensemble ever. It made you laugh and made you cry, and there was great writing on that show. And I always have ‘Survivor’ on. Without Jeff Probst, the show doesn’t work; he’s kind of underrated, and with the psychology behind people trying to trick each other, the show fascinates me.” -“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on NBC

STAR Watch

“There’s a lot of shows that we like to sort of binge watch … . (My wife) did ‘The Night Of,’ which I saw the last episode of it completely by chance. I was flipping

through the channels and I saw it and I thought, ‘Well, this is really interesting.’ So I wound up seeing the last

episode and now I’ve got to go back and watch the beginning of it. Last season, we did ‘Mr. Robot.’ We have

some English shows that we really like. In fact, ‘The Fall’ with Gillian Anderson ... . There’s some really good shows from over there. Not that there isn’t a lot of good

shows here but those we don’t really need to record. We can just get them off of Netflix.”

-David Morse of “Outsiders” on WGN America

“When I’m working I don’t really watch a lot of television because I don’t want too many stories in my head other than, like, the novel that I’m reading and I try to limit it to two. But over the last few months, I’ve watched ‘Atlanta’ and I finally caught up on the O.J. documentary and watched ‘Search Party.’” -Walton Goggins of “Outsiders” on WGN

“I record ‘Atlanta’ and ‘black-ish’ now. I do ‘Saturday Night Live,’ ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ and ‘60 Minutes.’ Those are the ones that are like constantly in my queue. And I’m a big sports fan, so football, like ‘The Football Life,’ where they talk about all the football greats. You know, George Halas and Knute Rockne and Vince Lombardi, Bill Walsh. I like hearing about the old-school sports stars, legends.” - Russell Hornsby of “Grimm” on NBC

‘Taxi’ and

‘Survivor’

‘Mr. Robot’ and

‘The Fall’

‘Atlanta’ and

‘black-ish’

‘Atlanta’ and

‘Search Party’

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Continued on next page

BY JAY BOBBINJust because a television series arrives years after the movie it was spun off from, don’t count it out early.

Fox’s take on “Lethal Weapon” stands as evidence for that argument this season, and another example may be at hand. The police drama “Training Day” – which earned Denzel Washington his second Oscar for his portrayal of a rogue detective – gets weekly treatment starting Thursday, Feb. 2, on CBS. The new version reboots the premise of the 2001 film in several ways, including setting the show 15 years after the movie (whose director, Antoine Fuqua, returns as an executive producer) and switching the ethnicities of the leading characters.

Bill Paxton (“Big Love,” “Titanic”) stars as Frank Rourke, a seemingly untouchable veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Investigative Section who unapologetically does things his own way ... not unlike Washington’s Alonzo Harris. Justin Cornwell assumes Ethan Hawke’s earlier character slot as Kyle Craig, the new partner who finds himself facing frequent ethical challenges from the way Rourke does business, while also trying to get to the bottom of his fellow-cop father’s murder.

“The movie is its own thing,” maintains Paxton, “this iconic, classic crime story. The movie is where Alonzo is buried, so we sort of consider that sacred ground in some ways. We give Alonzo and Jake (the Hawke

It’s ‘Training Day’ again as CBS series reboots Oscar-winning movie

Midseason series

premiere

Pictured: Justin Cornwel

January 29 - February 4, 2017 YOUR TV LINK Courtesy of Gracenote Page 13

character) respectful distance in our show. I really liked what (writer-producer) Noah Hawley did with ‘Fargo,’ how that show exists in the same universe as the film, but (mostly), the two stories don’t really brush against each other. We’ve kind of done that.”

Crime-procedural veteran Jerry Bruckheimer (“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Without a Trace”) also is a “Training Day” executive producer along with relative television newcomer Fuqua, who reasons that “you get to explore a little further than you can in a movie, about what’s too far and what’s not too far when it comes to doing the right thing for people who can’t help themselves.”

Also playing “Training Day” detectives are Katrina Law (“Arrow”), whose Rebecca Lee has a very personal reason to be in Rourke’s debt, and Drew Van Acker (“Pretty Little Liars”). Lex Scott Davis appears as Craig’s history-teacher wife, and after her extended guest run on CBS’ “Hawaii Five-0,” Julie Benz appears as a madam who has both personal and professional agreements with Rourke.

Fuqua says that in casting Paxton and Cornwell as the “Training Day” leads, “We didn’t talk about it like, ‘Let’s make (one character) white and make (the other) black.’ It wasn’t a racial conversation. It was like, ‘Who are the best actors for it?’ And then, when we found out Bill had interest, it was like, ‘That’s a good idea. Switch it and do that.’ It came out of that first. It was all about who was the right actor who had that weight, like a Denzel, for TV.”

Being that actor in the case of “Training Day,” Paxton is pleased the television incarnation “seemed to know what animal it was right out of the gate. I thought, ‘Wow, this thing really has a great confidence in its execution and the characters,’ and it kind of just takes off. It’s just zero to 60 right away, and you are holding on for the ride.”

STORY

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Pictured: Bill Paxton

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Listen to Luke Arnold talk about his four seasons as Long John Silver on Starz’s “Black Sails” and one gets the feeling this is a guy who has evolved right along with his character.

And he didn’t even have to lose a leg to do it.

As the fourth and final season of the pirate saga gets going Sunday, Jan. 29, the British Navy has retreated and the West Indies is a war zone. Woodes Rogers (Luke Roberts), with the help of Eleanor Guthrie (Hannah New), transforms Nassau into a fortress while Captain Flint (Toby Stephens) brings together a massive fleet hoping to strike the final blow against civilization. On the island an insurgency builds, fueled by the legend of its exiled leader, Silver. But as Flint, Silver and their allies soon learn, the closer civilization gets to defeat the harder it fights back and all pirates are in mortal danger.

“John Silver is a very long way from where he was in Season 1,” Arnold explains. “Not only has he proved the kind of leader that he can be to the other people in his crew and himself, also unbeknownst to him Billy Bones (Tom Hopper) is building the notoriety of his name back in Nassau. So when we come back to Season 4, he’s approaching the moment where Long John Silver really comes to fruition. They’re

Continued on next page

‘Black Sails’ an experience in growth for

character and actor

premiering its fourth and final season sunday on starz.

BY GEORGE DICKIE

Pictured: Luke Arnold

Returning show

premiere

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taking the battle back to Nassau, they’re trying to take back their home and begin this revolution – you know, the pirates and the marooned banding together to fight for the new world. And Long John Silver has become, symbolically and for real, the head of this new army.

“So it’s a very different play,” he continues. “From the guy who was always out for himself and really wasn’t going to be part of anything, not only has he joined up with a lot of allies when he originally had none, he is probably the most crucial member of his army at this point. And his relationships both with Flint, Billy, Madi (Zethu Dlomo) – once again for a guy who started the show – I think he knew that relationships are what can compromise you. ... There was a freedom in not being tied to anyone else. Now his relationship here with Billy and Madi and Flint, is very strong and probably the biggest elements that come into play for him across the board this season.”For the actor, Season 4 also provided an opportunity to conquer a lifelong fear when a ship-sinking sequence in

the opening episode required him to swim underwater for an extended period.

“I had an absolute phobia of doing any underwater stuff,” the 33-year-old Australian admits. “... Like I had turned down acting jobs if there was going to be underwater stuff. That was where my mind-set was before. But ‘Black Sails’ paid for me to get my scuba certificate and I started doing the training. And then when we got into it, we have such an amazing stunt team and underwater team that it ended up being such a joy.”

“There’s nothing scary about being underwater now that I’ve got my own goggles and air tank,” he continues. “After shooting that stuff, nothing scares me now.”

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Pictured: Luke Arnold

BY JAY BOBBINLily Tomlin has gotten a lot of mileage out of a lot of projects, and she’s getting another major accolade because of them.

The veteran comedy star has received the Kennedy Center Honors, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, two Peabody Awards, seven Emmy Awards, six American Comedy Awards, a Grammy and a Television Critics Association Lifetime Achievement Award among other salutes … and she’s not done yet. Currently teamed with Jane Fonda in the Netflix series “Grace and Frankie,” Tomlin becomes the latest owner of a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award when that organization presents its 23rd annual honors Sunday, Jan. 29, on both TBS and TNT.

In a rare circumstance, Tomlin also is in the running for a competitive SAG Award this year for her “Grace and Frankie” work. That’s only happened once before – in 2005, when James Garner was given the Lifetime Achievement tribute at the same ceremony in which he was up for his performance in the movie “The Notebook.”

Tomlin’s fans undoubtedly have their own favorite highlights of her work that justify her being feted in such a spotlight by the Screen Actors Guild. Here are several of our choices, likely to be showcased in clips that evening.

“Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” (1969-73, NBC): Well, of course, though Tomlin came into the fast-paced sketch-comedy series in Season 3, she became one of its signature players thanks to such characters as telephone operator Ernestine (“One ringy-dingy … ”) and young Edith Ann.

“Nashville” (1975): Tomlin established her range fairly early with her acclaimed portrayal of gospel singer Linnea Reese in director Robert Altman’s sprawling drama about the country-music capital.

“The Late Show” (1977): Tomlin and Art Carney make an unlikely but highly enjoyable pair in writer-director Robert Benton’s appreciably low-key mystery homage.

“9 to 5” (1980): Along with Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton, Tomlin played a maligned secretary who showed the boss (Dabney Coleman) it wasn’t wise to mess with her.

“All of Me” (1984): Fabulous teamwork by Tomlin and Steve Martin, who consolidate their characters in one “body,” makes this comedy -- about a wealthy, ill woman

whose spirit is transferred mystically into her lawyer -- a great deal of fun.

“The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe” (1985): Continuing to defy simple definition of her talent, Tomlin took theater audiences (and, in the 1991 screen version, moviegoers) through a vast array of characters and situations in the stage show written by her spouse, Jane Wagner.

“The Magic School Bus” (1994-97, PBS): Tomlin endeared herself to younger fans as this animated show’s voice of Ms. Frizzle, a very colorful elementary-school teacher.

“Murphy Brown” (1997-98, CBS): After the title journalist’s (Candice Bergen) executive producer left, the replacement was Tomlin’s Kay-Carter Shepley, experienced in making game shows … but a newcomer to news.

“The West Wing” (2002-06, NBC): After the death of President Josiah Bartlet’s (Martin Sheen, now a “Grace and Frankie” star along with Tomlin) executive secretary, White House alum Deborah Fiderer (Tomlin) was hired as the successor, despite her decidedly bumpy first meeting with Bartlet.

“Grace and Frankie” (2015-present, Netflix): With her SAG nomination as one testament, Tomlin remains “on game” in her current series role as one of two women (with Fonda as the other) left by their husbands for each other.

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STORY

Screen Actors Guild gives Lily Tomlin a big career salute

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CAST IN A MOTION PICTURE

“Captain Fantastic”“Fences”

“Hidden Figures”“Manchester by the Sea”

“Moonlight”

MALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”

Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge”Ryan Gosling, “La La Land”

Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”

Denzel Washington, “Fences”

FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Amy Adams, “Arrival”Emily Blunt, “The Girl on the Train”

Natalie Portman, “Jackie”Emma Stone, “La La Land”

Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins”

ENSEMBLE IN A DRAMA SERIES

“The Crown”“Downton Abbey”

“Game of Thrones”“Stranger Things”

“Westworld”

ENSEMBLE IN A COMEDY SERIES

“The Big Bang Theory”“blackish”

“Modern Family”“Orange Is the New Black”

“Veep”

AWARDS

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY

Casey Affleck

Amy Adams

https://yourtvlink.com/cast-your-vote-23rd-annual-screen-actors-guild-awards VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE HERE!

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BY JAY BOBBIN“Switched at Birth” is not leaving quietly.

Following ABC Family’s transformation into Freeform, one of the network’s signature dramas begins its fifth and final season Tuesday, Jan. 31 – and the last round starts with an eventful hour, written by series creator Lizzy Weiss. Though switched-at-birth teens Bay and Daphne (Vanessa Marano, Katie Leclerc) have extended the China trip they began when Season 4 ended 15 months ago, they’re drawn back home to Kansas by troubling news. Trying to resume their usual lives proves challenging, with Daphne struggling to fit back into the college scene, and Bay’s adoptive parents (Lea Thompson, D.W. Moffett) experiencing marital stress.

“I feel like the girls matured a lot in China,” the pleasant Leclerc reflects. “That adventure took them places emotionally that they didn’t expect to go to, and they have to come back suddenly. It’s not like they completed everything they wanted to do while they were in China, and I think that speaks to their true nature. At the end of the day, your family is the most important thing in your life.”

The “Switched at Birth” cast (also including Constance Marie, Lucas Grabeel and Sean Berdy) and crew learned the fifth season would be the last when they were just over halfway into filming it.

“It was hard,” Leclerc admits of getting that news. “I think it really shows how much of a family we became off-screen. They brought us up to ‘the principal’s office’ when all four of the girls were there – Lea, Constance, Vanessa and me

‘Switched at Birth’

takes Katie Leclerc and its other stars to the finish line

– and they conferenced in D.W. and Lucas, so we knew it was something big. They said, ‘We’re telling you a half-hour before we tell the media,’ so everybody found out on the same day. We went to tell the crew, and they said that as soon as they saw my face, they knew.”

Leclerc already has filmed another series, the romantic drama “Confess,” for the streaming service go90. For her, one of the most significant aspects of “Switched at Birth” has been the education it has offered on American Sign Language through a number of characters including her own, since Daphne is deaf. (Leclerc has Meniere’s disease, the symptoms of which include hearing loss.)

“I think people are still curious about things they don’t understand,” Leclerc reasons. “American Sign Language is the third most common language in the United States, but if you don’t know someone who’s deaf, you have no reason to know or use it. I can’t tell you how many people come up to me and say, ‘I learned sign language because of Daphne,’ and it warms my heart. I definitely feel like we’ve exposed this beautiful culture ... and that’s what it is. It’s not a language, it’s a culture.”

The finale of “Switched at Birth’s” 10-episode closing season will be a 90-minute story, and Leclerc says “Freeform did us right” by ordering a wrap-up of that length. “The journey will continue, and you know the characters will continue to grow, but the finale is really connected to everything within the family. If I’m a fan of the show, it is absolutely the finale I would want.”

Returning show

premiere

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BY DAN LADDIn women’s college basketball it often seems like there’s U-Conn, and then there’s everyone else. Tell that to Kalani Brown and the Baylor Lady Bears who have been hanging around the No. 2 ranking for most of the 2016-17 season. Brown and the Lady Bears host the Oklahoma Sooners Sunday, Jan. 29 on ESPN2.

Like any team, Baylor’s goal is to get back to the Final Four after three straight seasons of bowing out in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Women’s Tournament. They haven’t made the Final Four since the 2011-12 season when they went 40-0 and won their second national championship. Last season they entered the tournament with just one loss, but went down to Oregon State in the Elite Eight. That was Brown’s freshman year, and now the sophomore center is establishing her presence on the court.

Brown is the daughter of NBA journeyman P.J. Brown who spent 15 seasons in the league, winning a championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008. Kalani was a standout in high school and was a top recruit as a center when she signed with Baylor and played in every regular-season game her freshman year. She finished last season averaging 9.3 points per game, a statistic she’s improved on this year, as she is closer to 14. She’s also among the NCAA leaders in field-goal percentage.

As Baylor contends for yet another Big 12 championship and eyes this year’s NCAA tournament, they’ll look for more from Brown, who intends to make a career out of basketball.

SPORTS

KALANI BRowN LeADING BAYLoR’S LADY BeARS

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The father who can’t stand his daughter’s boyfriend: It’s one of the tried-and-true tropes of comedy, and every time it’s brought out again, its relative success is a matter of how good the performers are and how funny the jokes are.

“Why Him?” is lucky to have Bryan Cranston on board as the disgruntled dad. It’s the sort of part he knows well, since before his hugely acclaimed television work on “Breaking Bad,” he was the father on “Malcolm in the Middle.” The new movie sort of fuses those two roles for him, but as the saying goes, the boyfriend is lucky Cranston doesn’t go all Walter White on him.

The beau is played by James Franco as a profane, self-involved young billionaire who offends the hard-working but only moderately successful Cranston character on just about every level. You just know these two will clash at frequent turns, and you can pretty much predict those, though it’s still somewhat worthwhile to watch the smart and entertaining Cranston in play.

This is an actor who knows how to avoid cliches, even when the material is steering him toward a head-on collision with them. If there’s any reason to be thankful for “Why Him?” – and we’re not saying that reason

ultimately should make you thankful for this film – it’s him.

On the flip side of that coin, Franco gets to buy into cliches as much as he wants with his character, and he generally does. Candid and crass, with equally gauche fixings placed all around his California mansion, he’s pretty much the nightmare vision of what any father wants to see his daughter with ... huge bank account notwithstanding.

However, two more bonuses of “Why Him?” are the main women on hand. The ever-enjoyable Megan Mullally appears as Cranston’s wife, dialing down her quirkiness just a touch but still keeping of her unquenchable personality present. And as the daughter in question, Zoey Deutch (daughter of actress Lea Thompson and “Pretty in Pink” director Howard Deutch) is as charming and as immune to the rich beau’s flaws as she needs to be.

Bryan Cranston is such a fine talent, it’s painful to dismiss anything he does, but the bigger and sadly obvious question about “Why Him?” is just: Why?

JAY BOBBIN'S THEATRICAL MOVIE REVIEW

‘whY hIm?’ is a good question for Bryan Cranston to ask

MOVIES

Our Take

Pictured: Bryan Cranston (left) and James Franco

“GRAVES: SEASON 1” (Feb. 7): Nick Nolte stars in the Epix series as a former U.S. president who seeks renewed glory long after the end of his White House tenure. (Not rated: AS, P)

“GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER: 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION” (Feb. 7): Katharine Hepburn won her second Oscar, opposite Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier, in the comedy-drama. (Not rated: AS, P)

“KING KONG: ULTIMATE EDITION” (Feb. 7): Director Peter Jackson’s retelling of the saga gets an upgrade that includes a half-hour of deleted scenes; Adrien Brody and Naomi Watts star. (PG-13 and unrated versions: P, V)

“LOVING” (Feb. 7): An interracial couple’s (Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton) case to protect their civil rights eventually reaches the Supreme Court. (PG-13: AS, P)

“TROLLS” (Feb. 7): Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake and Zooey Deschanel are in the voice cast of this animated comedy-fantasy. (PG: AS)

“THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN” (Feb. 14): Teen friends (Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson) have a parting of the ways when one learns the other has been dating her brother. (R: AS, P)

UPCOMING DVD RELEASES

JAY BOBBIN'S DVD DIGEST

top PickDVD

Pictured: Nick Nolte

Pictured: Tyler Perry

“BOO! A MADEA HALLOWEEN”As any mention of the name Madea should indicate, Tyler Perry strikes again in this comedy as his famously feisty female alter ego tries to ward off evil spirits while minding teenager Tiffany (Diamond White) and other youths during a seasonal trick-or-treat party. The humor – and it’s considerable – lies in watching the sassy Madea go up against supernatural creatures, and even if you might bet on the ghosts and goblins winning in other circumstances, think twice about that in this case. “Madea”-series regular Cassi Davis and Bella Thorne (“Shake It Up!”) also appear. ››› (Also on Blu-ray and On Demand)

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Family Viewing RatingsAS Adult situations P Profanity V Violence N Nudity GV Graphic Violence

MOVIES

SUNDAY, JANUARY 297 pm on ABCMiss UniverseCarried live in many parts of North America, this special from the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines, finds nearly 90 women from around the globe representing their home countries in the 65th edition of this beauty pageant. Steve Harvey returns as host, after making dubious history last year by announcing the wrong winner (Miss Colombia), then stopping her victory walk to remove her sash and crown and pass it to the correct honoree, Miss Philippines. Ashley Graham provides backstage commentary. NEW

MONDAY, JANUARY 3010 pm on HBOBecoming Warren BuffettIn a world wherein many of the filthy rich behave abominably, legendary investor Warren Buffet is an anomaly. At 86, he remains actively engaged with his firm, the fourth largest company in the world. What really sets him apart, however, is Buffet’s sense of integrity and avid interest in the world around him, qualities that have led him to become one of the most open-hearted philanthropists in the world. PREMIERE

TUESDAY, JANUARY 318 pm on FreeformThe FostersThe story picks up in the show’s midseason premiere, which finds Jesus (Noah Centineo) sustaining a knockout during a fight with Nick (Louis Hunter) over Mariana (Cierra Ramirez), so he gets rushed to the hospital, where he soon is fighting for his life as his condition deteriorates. As Mariana is racked with guilt over her role in this situation, Callie (Maia Mitchell) finds herself in a dangerous situation after she goes for a ride with Troy (guest star Levi Fiehler) in the new “Insult to Injury.” WINTER PREMIERE

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FAVORITE SHOWS

“Trumped: Inside the Greatest Political Upset of All Time”

Steve harvey hosts Miss UniverseJudd hirsch stars in

“Superior donuts”noah Centineo stars in “The Fosters”

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18 pm on FoxShowtime at the ApolloFrom the classic and storied performance venue, Steve Harvey hosts a new reboot of the classic talent showcase featuring Chaka Khan, T.I. with Meek Mill, Quavo and RaRa, Mike Epps and comic Gabriel Iglesias. The one-hour special also includes a talent competition for up-and-coming artists, an extension of the Apollo’s fabled Amateur Night, which began 82 years ago. NEW

9 pm on BETMadibaEmmy winner and former Oscar nominee Laurence Fishburne stars as Nelson Mandela in this new three-part, six-hour miniseries, which airs weekly through Feb. 15. Filmed entirely in South Africa, the production follows Mandela’s life and career as he struggles tirelessly to bring down apartheid and secure freedom for his people. The large cast also includes Orlando Jones (“Sleepy Hollow”), David Harewood (“The Night Manager”) and Michael Nyqvist (“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”). SERIES PREMIERE

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28:30 pm on CBSSuperior DonutsEmmy-winning sitcom veteran Judd Hirsch (“Taxi”) returns to primetime network TV in this new adaptation of a play by Tracy Letts (“August: Osage County”), which premieres here tonight before moving into its regular time period next Monday. The actor stars as Arthur, the cranky owner of a small Chicago donut shop he doesn’t want to update (translation: Do not ask Arthur for cronuts!). The excellent ensemble cast also includes Katey Sagal (“Sons of Anarchy”), David Koechner (“Anchorman”) and Maz Jobrani (“Better Off Ted”). SERIES PREMIERE

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 39 pm on ShowtimeTrumped: Inside the Greatest Political Upset of All TimeWell, we probably can forget that famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” photo from the mid-20th century. Confounding both pollsters and pundits, a polarizing reality TV star defied all the odds to become the 45th president of the United States. Fresh from its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, this documentary from the team behind “The Circus” examines how this stunning upset came to be. PREMIERE

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 410 pm on Destination AmericaKilling BigfootUnlike other, more benign ‘squatch hunters, Bobby Hamilton, Jim Lansdale and their team – the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Resarch Organization (GCBRO) – have an unusually basic strategy to help Deep South residents who claim to be terrorized by Bigfoot: Kill one of the big, elusive beasts. In the season premiere, three GCBRO representatives make their case at Oklahoma’s Honobia Bigfoot Conference, where they get some serious pushback from angry attendees who want Bigfoot left in peace, not pieces. SERIES PREMIERE

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FAVORITE SHOWS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 29Mariah’s World (E!, 9 pm) SEASON FINALEThe Real Mad Men of Advertising (Smithsonian Channel, 9 pm) SEASON FINALEXtreme Waterparks (Travel Channel, 9 pm) SEASON FINALEConviction (ABC, 10 pm) SEASON FINALEThe Affair (Showtime, 10 pm) SEASON FINALE

MONDAY, JANUARY 30Gotham (Fox, 8 pm) WINTER FINALEAmerican Pickers (History, 9 pm) SEASON FINALELucifer (Fox, 9:01 pm) WINTER FINALEThe Odd Couple (CBS, 9:30 pm) SEASON FINALE

TUESDAY, JANUARY 31Teen Wolf (MTV, 9 pm) WINTER FINALE

Friday Night Tykes: Steel Country (Esquire, 10 pm) SEASON PREMIEREHack My Life (truTV, 10 pm) SEASON PREMIERE

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1The 100 (THE CW, 9 pm) SEASON PREMIEREVikings (History, 9 pm) SEASON FINALEThe Expanse (Syfy, 10 pm) SEASON PREMIEREThe Carbonaro Effect (truTV, 10 pm) SEASON PREMIERE

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2Hell’s Kitchen (Fox, 8 pm) SEASON FINALENightwatch (A&E Network, 10 pm) SEASON FINALE

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW, 9 pm) SEASON FINALE

MORE DON’T MISS PREMIERES AND FINALES