Same here. I met him in L.A. in January, and when I pitched the piece, he gave me his personal email and said, "Let's do it!" Couldn't have been nicer. The idea of the "curse" is funny, but the reality is that the guy came from nothing, honed his comedic and dramatic chops via a perpetual trial by fire, and, frankly,…

10 internet points for being the first person to post the Sports Night quote here, but one of my Facebook friends beat you to the punch by about five minutes, so he got 15. Sorry, that's just the way it goes.

There's no way Duff's going to have anything to do with Weiland in that band again.

I'd put more stock in this happening if he hadn't basically told me the same thing in 2009:

The best-known bit, though, was in regards to Frankie Howerd, not Mr. Cook, who is indeed pretty darn awesome.

Hey, the man's got kids. It could get back to him. You never know.

Is it wrong that all I do now when I look at the networks' new series is go, "Okay, that person would make for a good Random Roles, and so would that one and that one and that one"?

Fake TV LA. I've been to the set: it's in New Orleans. :-)

This one's for you, @avclub-97b2d5e5f92c333976018236d76658d9:disqus and @avclub-88c03b34bb3d00bab7dbe9fde05e020e:disqus :

Bless you for getting the reference. Shame she's locked up on Unforgettable for the moment… but, hey, maybe it'll get cancelled and free up her schedule!

He sells medical marijuana. She owns a chartered fishing boat. Together they take on the streets - and ports! - of San Francisco in High Seas. Tuesdays at 10, this fall, only on USA. Characters welcome.

I think she was in the original pilot, but she wasn't in the final version that I just watched…and, trust me, even with Sonya Walger around, I'd still notice Amy Acker.

She pounds on the drums. He shreds on the guitar. They're a married couple who play onstage the same way they play beneath the sheets - hard and fast but with finesse - and they won't stop 'til they've taken their tunes to the top of the charts. Rock Climbers, Thursdays at 9, this fall, only on USA. Characters…

I love these guys. But I've always been a sucker for piano pop.

Having never actually seen it, I concede that perhaps I classified it poorly. Still, when you're at a point when you have to admit that the title of your last film was Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence, you can see why he might've felt like temporary retirement wasn't the worst move in the world.

Thank you. And, as promised, the "charitable donation" has been placed in your Cayman Islands account.

The truth of the matter is that I made a judgement call not to ask him about those last three films he did before bailing out of the business, just because he'd been so open about how shitty things had gotten for him around that time. But because I didn't ask him about, that's why I at least included the YouTube links…

Jane Adams is a sweetheart, and I have thoroughly enjoyed the two conversations that I had with her during the run of Hung. Unfortunately, she positively freezes up if you ask her about anything other than her characters, which is kind of visible even in the interview I linked to above. This is kind of a roundabout…

@avclub-d7f43e1fb2d4977c86163d9b0cb07814:disqus - Rest easy: Robert Altman films are always solid Random Roles to ask about.

All right, stop twisting my arm, @avclub-920530cb8744c679e3a2ece84f1d5ce4:disqus , I'll see if I can get Paul Dooley for Random Roles!