Television

Comedian and actor Garry Shandling stars in HBO's television parody, "The Larry Sanders Show." It features Shandling as a veteran talk-show host. His guests have included Mimi Rogers and Robin Williams, playing themselves. Starting December 7, "The Larry Sanders Show" will compete with late-night talk-shows by presenting a different episode each night for ten days.

O'Hara is one of the co-founders of the comedy series, "SCTV," and started her acting career with Toronto's Second City comedy troupe. She's best known for her role as the distraught mom in "Home Alone." There's now a sequel, "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York," in which O'Hara reprises her roles as the mother.

Reiser was a stand-up comedian for years and was in the sit-com "My Two Dads." He's the creator and co-star of a new show, "Mad About You," a Seinfeldesque comedy on NBC, about a married couple. Helen Hunt plays Reiser's wife.

The comedian plays the sensitive twelve-stepper Stuart Smalley on "Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley" -- a Saturday Night Live skit based on Franken's own experience with a 12-step group. Franken is a co-producer of SNL and works on the cable network "Comedy Central," where he anchored the Democratic and Republican Conventions for "Indecision '92." He has a new book (written by Stuart Smalley) called "I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me."

Actor Rocky Carrol, who plays Joey Emerson on the popular sitcom, talks about the show's recent change to a live broadcast format. He says it works because Carroll and his costars have ample experience in theater.

English actress Helen Mirren. She stars in "Prime Suspect," a three-part thriller premiering this week on public television's "Mystery" series. Mirren has preformed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the films "The Comfort of Strangers," "Age of Consent," "The Long Good Friday," and "Excalibur."

Stiller is the son of the comedy team of Jerry Stiller & Anne Meara. He's acted in the Lincoln Center's revival of "House of Blue Leaves," and appeared in the films, "Fresh Horses," "Stella," and "Empire of the Son." He's got a new comedy show "The Ben Stiller Show," which grew out of his work as a writer-performer with "Saturday Night Live."

Alderman's new book is about mostly conservative pundits -- the likes of George Will, Sam Donaldson, and William Safire -- who appear on TV and write newspaper columns, affecting political discourse in this country. Alterman's new book is called "Sound and Fury: The Washington Punditocracy and the Collapse of American Politics."

Both writers have been with the show since it went on the air. They're part of the "Harvard Mafia," comedy writers from Harvard who have influenced the comedy business from "Saturday Night Live" to "The Muppet Show."

Actor Miguel Ferrer. He played the caustic FBI pathologist Albert in "Twin Peaks." And was a bad executive in the film "Robocop." For a short while he had his own TV show, "Broken Badges," which followed his work on "Twin Peaks." Now he's starring in David Lynch's new sitcom, "On the Air." Ferrer is the son of singer Rosemary Clooney, and actor Jose Ferrer.