MONDO EXTRAS

Like, interests? I don't have a ton of them. I'm not very good at a lot of things. I like to read quite a bit, and I've gotten into yoga in the last two or three years. I know I sound very Los Angeles when I say that, but when you're working on television, it's so stressful 24/7, and you have to find ways to sort of de-stress. Probably my favorite thing at the end of the day is just dinner with friends. I also watch a lot of TiVo, a lot of television. Days go by quick when you work however many hours.

So tell me about your favorite shows, and what shows have influenced you.

We'll do the ones that influenced me first, and then I'll tell you what I like now, and there will be no rhyme or reason. It's the weirdest list. The shows that influenced me: I really, really loved Northern Exposure, I loved L.A. Law when I was a kid, I loved Murphy Brown when I was a kid, I loved all the Norman Lear stuff -- All In the Family, Maude, and all that stuff. I liked Family Ties, I watched Dallas with my parents, and Dynasty...I grew up on all of that stuff.

Well, we're the same age, pretty much, so we grew up with all the same shows.

Yeah, I think we were like the first generation to be raised by television. So you felt like those characters were part of your family. When I got into college, it was Picket Fences, and then I moved out here and it was Ally McBeal, and The Practice, so those were kind of my shows of choice.

And then, definitely lately...it's all over the map. I'll watch everything from all the Sunday morning Meet the Press and George Stephanopoulos, and Charlie Rose all week, and I also love, like, Laguna Beach. Battlestar Galactica I think is the best-written show on television right now -- they do more in an hour on that show than most shows that get more acclaim do in three or four episodes. They'll just jam-pack the story, and it's intelligent, it's entertaining, it's not afraid to be religious. I think a lot of shows right now are afraid to be spiritual or religious, so I've really kind of fallen in love with that. But I love Deadwood, too, and like everybody else, I dig The Sopranos. Let's see, what else? I do watch some reality, like I mentioned, Laguna Beach, and I just started watching The Hills -- those shows crack me up.