Talking TV With CBS Stars

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

July 29, 1998 / 8:51 AM EDT / CBS

Every July, CBS throws a big bash for the new fall programs, and CBS 'This Morning' Contributor Eleanor Mondale was on hand to interview the stars.

"Everywhere you look," says Mondale, "cameras are catching the excitement of stars meeting and greeting, old faces and new friends."

But, although it looks like a party, it is actually hard work. During the press tour, about 200 television critics assemble to look over the new shows to be served up on CBS. So it's a time for stars to schmooze, sparkle, and talk TV.

Fran Drescher stars in the returning CBS sitcom The Nanny. Last season ended with the marriage of the nanny to her boss. How does Drescher think the nanny's new marital status will affect the program?

"[My character] remains a fish out of water, even more so now," Drescher tells Mondale. "Like the first time they have sex in the bedroom, and he shushes her because she makes too much noise, and the kids are down the hallway. So that's a whole problem."

Johnson and Marin(CBS)

Don Johnson and Cheech Marin are returning in the detective series Nash Bridges, and Mondale asked them what they like best about working together.

Replies Johnson: "Seeing him [Marin] and laughing in the morning [and] for about 14 hours a day." Marin chimes in, "Every day!

Still praising Marin, Johnson says, "I show up wanting to eat 16 penny nails, and he turns them into rice pudding."

The CBS lineup will feature seven new shows, including Martial Law starring Sammo Hung. Also, Faith Ford (formerly of Murphy Brown) returns in a comedy series, Maggie Winters.

Faith Ford(CBS)

Ford stars as Maggie, a woman who was voted "most likely to succeed" in high school, but winds up returning to her hometown years later. Ford says that, although some people might take that as indication of failure, "I like to look at it as, she's starting over."

Brian Benben stars in The Brian Benben Show, about a TV news team. "I understand the pressure of being an actor, and I know what that is like," he tells Mondale. "When you see it in another arena - like the news - I think I'd go insane. I would crack like an egg in a minute and a half."

Ken Olin is part of an ensemble cast in L.A. Doctors, a new program about a team of physicians determined to treat both the sickness and the soul. "I never played a doctor before," sys Olin, who adds that he prepared for his role by spending "a lot of time with doctors.

Ted Danson will also join the healing profession, playing a doctor in the new series Becker.

Also on tap is a romantic drama series, To Have and To Hold, starring Moira Kelly. And Dennis Farina stars in Buddy Faro, a program with an offbeat premise. He plays a private eye who resurfaces more than 20 years after disappearing.

Reported by Eleanor Mondale