Fall Preview

A Jewish guide to what's new on TV.

GERRI MILLER
Special to the Jewish News

Los Angeles
, or Mandy Patinkin (Chicago
Hope, Dead Like Me), return-
ing to television in Criminal
Minds as the leader of a team of FBI
criminal profilers is a fantasy fulfilled.
"It's not often that at 53 years old you
get to be an action hero. I get to save
the good guy and get the bad guy. I
get to be a Jewish Superman," enthus-
How I Met Your Mother
es Patinkin, who enjoys puzzling out
8:30 p.m. Mondays, CBS
the kind of mysteries his character
premieres Sept. 19
Jason Gideon has to solve.
Criminal Minds debuts Sept. 22,
Two of the five cast members, Josh
Radnor and Jason Segel, are members
airing at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on CBS.
of the tribe in this ensemble comedy
While "there's nothing specifically
Jewish about"
set in New York
Gideon, who
.
(') City.
coincidentally
Radnor plays
shares the name
Ted, whose older
of the younger of
; self (voiced by
Patinkin's two
0 Bob Sagat) tells
sons, the
his story to his
Chicago-born
teenage kids in
actor puts his
2030. "He's
Jewish sensibili-
optimistic, he's
ties into all his
romantic, he's
"How I Met Your Mother"• Josh Radnor,
characters.
loyal to his
center, Jason Segel, right, with Neil
"Inigo Montoya
friends. He's not
was an Orthodox Patrick Harris, Cobie Smulders and
cynical about
Alyson Hannigan
Jew," he laughs,
love, which I
referring to the
think is really
Princess Bride character whose lines
great," observes Radnor.
The actor appeared on Broadway in
fans quote back to him to this day.
The Graduate with Kathleen Turner
Patinkin was open to a new series
and Alicia Silverstone and in the short-
commitment now that his sons are 23
lived series The Court with Sally Field.
and 19, and says that he knew it was
beshert the moment he met producer
In Columbus, Ohio, Radnor grew
up in a Conservative Jewish family, the
Mark Gordon.
middle of three children and only son
He feels up to
of a lawyer and schoolteacher/student
the long but
advisor.
never boring
"I went to Hebrew day school, had a
days on the set,
bar mitzvah — got on the chair and
now healthy
did it all," says Radnor, who doesn't
after surviving
attend services in Los Angeles but still
prostate cancer.
feels connected to his Jewish roots.
"My health
He got his start in acting when a
couldn't be bet-
classmate dragged him to a tryout for
§ ter. I just did a
a production of Oklahoma! Convinced
300-mile bike
he could do better than any of the
ride in Israel
Mandy Patinkin
male auditioners, he got one of the
with my son
leads and "kept acting. It made me
Isaac, from
feel rooted to something great."
Jerusalem to Eilat with the Arava
He went on to win the Paul
Institute for Environmental Studies,"

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9/ 8
2005

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he says . 'And I did another [100
miles last weekend] with Hazon," an
environmental organization based in
New York, where he lives.
Patinkin recently finished an inde-
pendent feature called Choking Man,
in which he plays the owner of a
Greek diner where the main character
works. He also continues to sing,
though he has postponed touring in
order to focus on Criminal Minds. "I'll
do some concerts on weekends next
year," he says. "One job at a time."

Newman Award from the drama
Related
department at Kenyon College in
9 p.m. Wednesdays, The WB,
Gambier, Ohio.
premieres Oct. 5
Jason Segel is remembered as a
After a couple of failed sitcoms and
teenage slacker in Freaks and Geeks,
movies like Mean Girls , where she
but has graduated to the more adult
played the misfit sidekick, Lizzy
role of the newly engaged Marshall, "a
Caplan is relishing her role as one of
guy who's infatuated
four sisters in this
with the woman he
New York-set
loves."
dramedy.
The 6'4" Los
"I almost never
Angeles native grew
get to play the one
up playing basketball
who has the good
and idolizing comics
clothes and lots of
like Jackie Mason,
boyfriends and is
Lenny Bruce and
I,: crazy and wild,"
Albert Brooks. "I was
° says Caplan, who
brought up Jewish
portrays a single
and bar mitzvahed,
"Related": Lizzy Caplan, left, with celebrity event
but I'm not so obser-
planner.
Jennifer Esposito , Laura
vant," says Segel. • "I'm Breckenridge an d Kele Sanchez
The Los Angeles
actually studying reli-
native, who has
gion right now, find-
two independent
ing out how people worship through-
films in the can — Love is the Drug
out the world."
and Crashing— got interested in act-
ing at 15 and got her start in small
Out of Practice
roles on television. She was raised in a
9:30 p.m. Mondays , CBS
Reform Jewish home, was bat mitzvah,
premieres Sept. 19
and now attends services only on the
"This is a family like anybody
High Holy Days. "Once I have a fami-
else's. There is dysfunctional in every
ly, I'll be back into it," she figures.
family I know," says Henry Winkler,
though the Barnes clan, all doctors
Just Legal
except a counselor son played by
9 p.m. Mondays, The WB,
Chris Gorham, may be a bit more
premieres Sept. 19
dysfunctional
"He's a guy who stands by his prin-
than most.
ciples regardless of whether it's con-
However, the
venient or not." That's how Jay
gastroenterologist Baruchel describes Skip Ross, Don
t patriarch, who's
Johnson's young legal partner in Just
dating his much
Legal. He's gotten juicy roles of late,
§ younger recep-
having recently been seen as the untal-
tionist, "loves
ented but earnest boxier wannabe in
his children no
Million Dollar
matter what, no
Baby.
matter who
"I'm a half-
they
are
or
Jewish
kid
Henry Winkler
what they've
from
become and he defends them against
Montreal. I
his wife," played by Stockard
have nothing
Channing.
in common
Is this a Jewish family? "It might be,
with a Texas
but it's not overt," says the former
farm boy and
Fonz, a children's book author whose
it was great to
Jay Baruchel and
ninth book in his Hank Zipzer series
have the
will be published Sept. 27. "There are
chance to play Don Johnson
now over a million sold," he states
something
proudly.
other than a version of myself."
Baruchel was raised with both his

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