Here is a brand new promo called “More Unexpected”

Photos after the jump!

In Kaylie world, Austin confronts her about her eating. He doesn’t want her competing at Worlds in her condition. He asked how she fooled her parents and Sasha. She said she’s the only reason her family is staying together. I loved this justification. To Kaylie, what she’s doing makes sense. Anything she can do to retain her championship status will keep her family together. Of course this is entirely untrue but Kaylie’s in too deep to believe anything different. Austin even intervenes to the point where he talks to Kaylie’s parents, but they don’t believe her. She asks why he cares, and he admits that he wants to figure her out because he might fall in love with her. Kaylie’s dad kicks him out. Bad mistake Alex Cruz! Listen to wise Austin Tucker!

And even though Sasha can’t coach The Rock gymnasts anymore, he wants to continue with Payson’s training. Payson’s dad is none too pleased with this however. Summer wants to petition the National Committee to let Sasha coach. Summer tells Sasha she loves him, and he says I love you back. There’s some awesome make out action! And whew boy Sasha shirtless! Sasha stops them from going any further because he doesn’t want her to sacrifice her values. Next thing you know, Summer is praying in church. Steve comes in to pray behind her, and Summer takes this as a message of who to love. I have no problem with Candace Cameron Bure’s faith being written into her character. But I did think the whole praying in church thing was a little heavy handed. However, it was quickly redeemed when Steve Tanner came in crying. Summer tells Steve he needs to tell Lauren about her mom, after Lauren has said she’s glad her mom is dead. I like Summer and Sasha together much more than I like Summer and Steve together. I also don’t like that Lauren has basically manipulated this relationship back into place, so I hope Summer is able to come to her senses. We shall see!

Meanwhile, Damon and a coworker are at an exotic dancers club, and Chloe is bartending there. Awkward! Chloe tells Damon that Emily is in big trouble. Someone had to tell Damon! Damon and Emily talk and reconcile a bit. Damon offers to call his stepdad (who he hasn’t spoken to in years) to help change the court date, because he’s a lawyer. This is my reaction to Damon’s stepdad: OMG HIS STEPDAD IS THE DAD FROM BOY MEETS WORLD! Holy crap! Ahem. He gets her court date moved. But all is not fine in the Kmetko world, because the judge called Ellen Beals to verify Emily’s spot on the national team. She tells her Emily needs to know the consequences of her actions. Can’t they pull a High School Musical and make it to both the tryouts and the court date??

Payson and her dad finally have a good talk. She explains how Sasha made her feel, and how he never gave up on her. Her dad pays for a gym for Sasha and Payson to train in. He even thanks Sasha. Whew some tears coming already! After a particularly great floor routine, Sasha asks Payson if she’s ready to meet her destiny right then. This is going to be good.

World trials begin! I absolutely love when the girls are in a big competition. It makes for some great drama, even greater gymnastics and super high intensity. Emily is up on beam first. She messes up, Ellen Beals told her that she knows about her legal problems. Come on , Em, don’t let the bitch get in your way! Kaylie is on uneven bars next. She falls on her mount. Austin says she’s weak because she starved herself. Ellen Beals is happy that the committee won’t have to deal with Belov nonsense anymore, and then in walks Bela Karolyi, his dad!! AMAZING!! I LOVE IT! Seriously, I love this cameo so much and I hope he comes back again maybe in an Olympics or World Championships context. Dmitry Belov! He tells Ellen Beals to get lost! He gives The Rock girls an amazing pep talk. My goodness, I love him! I love how the girls are smiling so much and can’t hold in their giggles. This must have been an amazingly fun scene to shoot. My love for him is unmatched. Next thing we know, Sasha is marching Payson into the World Trials. Dmitry (aka Bela) puts on her floor music and she does her routine! Sneak attack by the Belovs!

It looks to me like Ayla did a lot of these dance moves herself. She looks fantastic in her new artistic gymnast role, and very graceful. She finishes her routine and everybody applauds wildly.  Her dad is in tears! Her teammates are hugging her. Payson doesn’t want Sasha to leave, and she stands up for him.  All of The Rock girls come to Sasha’s defense. The Committee shuts down Ellen Beals’ objections and decide to let him stay and coach his gymnasts through the competition.

Lauren is next on the uneven bars and she is hesitating because she’s crying about her mom. Steve  finally admits the truth to Lauren. He gives her a picture of her and her mom when she was a baby that she left for her. Lauren decides to compete for her, and she does a kick ass bar routine. I was even rooting for her even though she has been nothing but a bitch. Aaand I’m crying again. One thing this episode really did was give Lauren some redeeming qualities. Granted, I cannot forgive her for all her past transgressions and I hope she makes it up to her teammates but I was actually hoping she would make the world team.

Kaylie is next up on beam. Something tells me this won’t end well. She passes out and Austin catches her. She is rushed off to the hospital. Something had to happen like this for her to realize just how serious her condition was. I’m glad it wasn’t a career threatening injury, because I love Kaylie. However, I hope that after this she will be open to help and rehabilitation — both mentally and physically.

Emily is next on the vault, and Damon stops the police at the door. Damon convinced them to wait until after her vault. He gives Emily a fantastic pep talk and calls her a mustang. She sticks her vault landing! Go Em! Everyone is hugging each other. Emily gets carted off in hand cuffs. Damon tells her he loves her. I’m sure this will all get sorted out, but it was so heartbreaking to see Emily get taken off to jail.

It’s finally big announcement time!  The second position is left open for Kaylie after she is medically examined. Third place goes to Lauren Tanner. Fifth spot goes to Emily Kmetko. Sixth spot is Payson Keeler! Yay! Sasha isn’t there to celebrate, and sadly neither is Emily. What would I have to do to get my hands on one of their USA World Team jackets?

The episode ends with Kaylie in the hospital, and Austin is by her side. Emily is in jail. Summer is eating dinner with Lauren and Steve. Sasha wrote Payson a long letter, and he seems to be getting out of town, as he drives away with his trailer. Whoa! Shocking! I know that Sasha is a big fan favorite, so I’m pretty confident this isn’t the last we’ve seen of him. But where is he going? Is he still in love with Summer? And most importantly, will his dad — Bela Karolyi — be back? What a cliffhanger to end with!

I adored this finale. All of The Rock gymnasts made the World Championship team, pending Kaylie’s medical exam. Payson proved herself to be a champion once again. Emily proved the she is worth being noticed. And Lauren, well, Lauren will always be Lauren. Making her nice would greatly detract from how her character has been set up thus far. Here’s what I’d like to see in season 2: More competitions. I love when the girls are in the gym. It’s fun to see their home lives and social lives as well but I think the best episodes are competition or training centric. More Austin Tucker. I loved the addition of this character. He clearly served a purpose in regards to Kaylie but besides that, it was nice to see that he wasn’t at all like the image he projects. Less Ellen Beals. I’m fairly confident Ellen Beals will be overshadowed by the rest of the National Committee in season 2 given the fact that they shut her down in the finale. MJ back. Remember her? She’s now a series regular on White Collar, but I would love to see her back for an episode or two. Another rival to The Rock girls. Kellie Parker didn’t qualify for the World Championships team because she suffered an ankle injury in the France meet. I’d love to see someone else pop up as a rival besides Jenji Cho.

Overall, this season (or half season) has been incredible. The show built on the momentum of the first season, and made Kaylie an interesting focal point. However, they were able to focus on Kaylie while still giving plenty of attention to the other gymnasts. I am so glad Payson is back in competition mode. I feel like we may see more from her sister as an elite in season 2. “At The Edge of the Worlds” was full of excitement and I loved every minute. It was action packed, and contained make outs, falls, and some fantastic routines. Make It Or Break It has proven itself as a drama about more than just gymnastics. The characters are interesting, and go on journeys that we as non elite athletes couldn’t begin to understand. The show takes us into a completely different world week after week, and that is a sign of a truly fantastic television show. I cannot wait for more!

You and Joey have been friends for quite some time and you appeared onscreen before.  How do you guys continue to maintain the chemistry between each other? 
Joey and I have a great relationship.  We’ve known each other, like you said, for a really long time and we grew up in a very similar sort of environment, working since we were four years old, and we have very strong mothers that have helped us facilitate our careers, we dragged them along through our careers.  We both wanted to do this and be in show biz and our moms came with us, came along for the ride. We have a very strong relationship with our siblings and now we have great marriages and children, but we both have this incredible work ethic that I think comes from when we were younger just knowing that we wanted to be in the business and instead of shooting for the stars, instead of just like “I want to be famous, I want to be rich,” like a lot of I think kids do these days, we were more “I want to work.  I want longevity.  I want to do this.” So it was very much a, I think we both have this work ethic where we feel so blessed to have work and we love making people laugh and we just have this great timing.  I think our personalities in one way are really similar and in another way are totally opposite, and it just works for us. 

The two of you have young kids, so what’s it like playing the “parent” or older adult to teenagers or young adults?
It’s funny, because they’re not our children and we’re kind of all of a sudden thrown into parenthood and we don’t know the right thing to do and we’re floundering around trying to find the right answers for these teenagers and trying to do right by them, and we constantly have to check each other and say, you know, that’s not a good parent thing to say. It happens in almost every episode now where we just have to say that’s not something that a parent would say, so it’s different.  Being the parent of teenagers we don’t have to have all the answers because they’re not our kids, so that’s what lends the comedy is that we’re fish out of water, we’re just totally trying to find our way through raising these teenagers.

So what is it about Melissa and Joey that made you want to come back to doing a series?
It was a long road for me.   When I finished SabrinaI spent the next year pretty much just planning a wedding and getting married and getting settled into married life.  And then I actually did a pilot for FOX for a comedy.  I’d actually done a play here in L.A., and the pilot was a workshop and it was supposed to be for FOX and we were supposed to be doing these plays to see if they would be good pilot presentations. And I kept telling my friend who wrote it, “I love this play.  I’ll do the play but I’m not going to do the series.”  But then when the series got picked up and the pilot I couldn’t help myself, I loved the role so much and I decided to do this one pilot.  And that didn’t go, which was very heartbreaking for me, but it turns out I was pregnant anyway.  So I spent the next year just having a baby and getting used to being a mommy. And then the first thing I did the day my baby turned one I went off to Calgary and did a TV movie with Mario Lopez for ABC Family.  And I enjoyed it so much just being a mom and being able to be funny and have a great time and work with some fabulous people; I worked with Markie Post on it and just some amazing TV comedy actors that made it so nice to go back to work.  There’s a shorthand between people in television, and especially people in sitcoms, that’s so nice that you just fit and you know how to make it work and it’s fun to go to work every day when you have people that are so professional like that and it made me go, you know what, maybe I really want to be doing sitcoms since I had all these little brush-ins with it again. I thought I was against it.  I thought I wanted to do episodic because it seemed like the only thing missing from my career was a movie element, a feature film element, and I realized a lot of people that do episodics get that chance and a lot of people that do comedy don’t and I thought I wanted to go that route.  But after guest starring on a few dramas I was like, this is not fun.  This isn’t fun to me. So I realized that if I was going to have kids and have a career that the best possible job I could have again would be to go back to sitcoms.  With working with Joey in Atlanta on My Fake Fiancé, I realized that we had something really special, we had a lot in common, we’ve known each other forever, we had this great onscreen chemistry and that we should try to make a go of this.  ABC Family agreed and we’re all happy. 

Speaking of being a mom, how do you balance your life as a mom and your life as an actress on a series?
It’s really difficult.  Right now I flew in last night from the East Coast, kissed my babies goodbye and came to work 3,000 miles away.  It’s quite a commute.  I haven’t quite figured it out yet.  The hard part for me right now is the distance.  If they were here with me, which they were all summer – this is the first time I’ve been without them – if they were here with me right now it would be fine.  It would be like anyone else going off to work and coming home. I have these later mornings, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are later mornings so I’d get breakfast with them, and then Monday and Tuesday I’d get to come home a little early so I’d always have dinner with them, except Friday nights when we’re shooting the show live, that’s the late night.  But it’s a great schedule and I live a block away from the studio so I ride my bike to work, they’d ride to meet me for lunch, then I’d ride and meet them for dinner, and if we had a chance we’d go to ice cream if it’s early enough when I get done with work, or that kind of thing. So it’s really lovely and a great little schedule to be able to work and play with them, but right now I’m trying to work it out because they’re about to start school, they’re both in pre-school, which I think is really important for them.  We’ve moved them around our whole lives.  We travel a lot, we have family all over the country, and I’m always working all over. This is the first time in seven years I’ve had a job in Los Angeles, and of course I just moved to the East Coast last year.  I moved to the East Coast last August, I think it was August 1^st, and starting August 20^th I was in rehearsals for Dancing With The Stars, and by September I was here in L.A. until December.  Then I got to go home in January and through June I pretty much was in Connecticut and then now I’m here for pretty much the remainder of this year and we’ll see what happens after that. So it’s kind of crazy and I’m working it out.  Our schedules are all over the place so it’s day by day, week by week we figure out where we’re going to be and then day by day we figure out what we’re going to do and when I’m going to see them and when they’re going to see me.  So it’s a challenge, but I think that’s what everyone has to deal with, anyone that’s a working mother or father has to deal with that and that’s what we’re dealing with right now.

You’ve been working and in the public eye, like you said, since you were four.  I was wondering what, if anything, would you have done differently if you could go back and re-do it?
To be honest, I wouldn’t change anything because I like where I’m at right now.  I love the balance I have between work and family and I busted my butt when I was a single lady, when I was doing Sabrina, when I was doing Clarissa – on Clarissa I worked really hard between school and work.  And on Sabrina I worked really hard between work and for the first time in my life having a real social life, having real friends and having that experience, but also I was shooting movies on the weekends and at nights, and I didn’t sleep.  There was one day I worked 51 hours straight.  There was one point where I was doing Drive Me Crazy and I worked 54 days straight without a day off, and this was at the age of 22, 23.  We were shooting the movie in Utah and I was shooting Sabrina here, plus we were doing the animated series as well, so it was an absolutely crazy schedule. So I’ve really enjoyed the last few years of having a little time to myself, but the only thing I would change would probably be some auditions and things like that, some projects I refused to do.  There was a phase where, well, I guess the country’s still going through it, but this horror phase came around and I didn’t want to be a part of it.  I got asked to be in every big movie that was coming out and I just didn’t want to be a part of the horror thing and that’s unfortunately what everyone my age was doing. I guess if I could go back maybe I would give that a shot and do one or two of those horror movies because then maybe I would have a little bit of an easier shot of doing the features I want to do.  But that’s the only thing.  I don’t really regret that, because I made a very strong decision that I did not want to be in a horror film.

You mentioned the plays, you’ve done the television and the films, you’ve done all of this in your professional life, what was the most difficult of all of those and what was the most fun?
You know I would have to say Clarissa Explains It Allwas very interesting to me because I loved the role.  I loved the people I was working with.  I thought she was so cool.  I got to do such great things on that.  I learned so much about – I learned how to direct on that show and how to run a lighting board and how to operate a camera.  I was very interested in all of that behind the scenes stuff, but also having a great time just playing that character.  I knew I had something really juicy and fun to play. But it was really, really, really hard.  I was in Orlando away from my family as a teenager.  My mom and my sisters would come down when they could, but my mom had four other kids to take care of and my dad was very hard working, he’s a lobsterman, so there was a lot of time away from my family and stuff like that.  I kept getting sick a lot.  I think it was from being on stage.  I was never in the sun. We worked six days a week, school was on Sundays, we did school Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then we shot the show on Thursday and Friday, and really long hours, like 15, 18 hour days, and that included school for me, and once the SATs started and college applications then it was like forget it. My days were just packed.  I didn’t have any friends my own age.  Everyone on the show was a lot older than me, which was great because I absolutely adored them and loved them and it showed me that high school pettiness was just that.  I was at that age where I realized that kids can be cruel and being around adults was really nice because they were really great to me and I could be anyone I wanted and as long as I was good to them they liked me.  It wasn’t like it mattered to them what I was wearing or who I was hanging out with or that kind of thing, it wasn’t like who are you, are you a cool person and we’ll hang out with you. So I learned that great lesson but at the same time I didn’t have anyone my own age, so for years any time I got around someone my own age I kind of didn’t know how to handle it.  And any time a girl came on the show, like I think Joanna Garcia was in an episode or two and a few actresses came on that were on the show and I was so desperate for a girlfriend that I was like, do you want to have a sleepover, do you want to come over and watch 90210 and eat cookie dough? It was like, I was so desperate to find a girlfriend down there.  But I did make some great friends out of it and actually the reason we moved to Connecticut is because of two people that worked on the show, they live in Connecticut and they’re my first son’s godparents.  She did wardrobe on Clarissa and he was the executive producer’s assistant, and they’ve been my closest friends my whole life.  They’re older than me, but now it doesn’t matter.  And then it didn’t really matter either, but when I was around kids my own age it was scary to me.  It gave me a little panic attack.

Were you involved in choosing the writers?
Yes.  My mother, that was a big thing; my mother is executive producer along with me and Joey, and we did Sabrinaalso with our company Hartbreak Films.  And that was her big thing on Sabrina was picking the writers and she’s involved with the casting and the editing and the wardrobe and everything like that.  But yes, in the beginning of the show the big thing was can we find the right writers for this.  And ABC Family knew they wanted to do a show about a nanny and we knew that Joey and I were going to be doing this, so Joey and I were very particular about what kind of characters we wanted to play, especially if we were going to have to do the show with the concept that ABC Family had, that we wanted the writing to be a certain way. So we sat down and met with a few writers, and Kendall and Young were the two that ABC Family liked the best.  My mother liked them; my mother was feeling really confident about them.  I sat down with them and told them what I wanted from the character and Joey did the same, and when we got the pages my mother would actually call me and say, oh, you should see these pages.  It’s coming together really well. We were just happy that these smart, funny guys stepped in, and they’re really great with my voice.  From day one they just have my voice stuck in their head.  I don’t know how they do it, but they’ve managed to write perfectly for me the last nine episodes.  And we now have a writers’ room full of great people.  One person, if you heard me earlier I said that I did a pilot called Dirtbagsfor FOX and the creator of that show is actually writing now on Melissa and Joey, so we were able to bring him over here, and he’s hilarious and he knows my voice so well.  He’s been a friend of mine since college and written a pilot for me before. So it’s great.  It’s nice to have a writers’ room in there where you feel safe, you know that they know you, they know what you’re capable of, and the more we work together the more they see that I’m comfortable with physical comedy.  They’re now making me very Lucy-esque, they’re adding a lot more of that silliness for me. 

With you and Joey being executive producers, does that make it more challenging with more work to do or easier by having more control?
A little bit of both.  Sometimes we have to troubleshoot.  We had some problems in the beginning with some crew members quitting for whatever reason and we had a whole department kind of fall out and we had to troubleshoot that as an executive producer, but also because I had hired them but then they decided not to be there anymore, and we’ve had a little bit of that going on. We’re just trying to find our rhythm here.  But a lot of the time, we had one episode so far out of our eight that we’ve shot that was not up to par, not so great, and Joey and I would rehearse it and we’d go to them and we’d sit down with them and say, you know, it’s not working out, you guys.  You’ve got to come see this.  We dragged them down to the set and they’d watch us do a few scenes and then they’d go try to fix them and we’d try to tell them how we think they could fix it, so it’s great to be able to have that sort of, that we go to them and they actually listen. Because I’ve had it before where I go to them and I’m like what about …, and they’re like yes, yes, yes.  So it’s really nice to be able to not just be an actor for hire, to actually have a little say in who surrounds you too.  When you’ve been in the business 30 years you kind of want, you know, I have certain hair and makeup people or wardrobe people or crew members, script supervisors, that stuff’s really important to me.  And the fact that I actually get to hire the crew and just surround myself with people that I trust and love just makes it nice to go to work.

After only a couple of episodes it seems like Joey is starting to grow on you.  So what can you tell us about what we have to look forward to in upcoming episodes?
It only gets better.  From what you saw in the pilot and the first episode it really only gets better.  The writers have done an amazing job of finding our voices and finding where this show lives.  We’ve had some great guest stars that you’ll see in the next few weeks that have been on tons of sitcoms and they’ve given us such great compliments by being on the set and telling us, and of course Joey and I know this just from past experience, that when you’re on a show like this it’s about the middle of the second season that everything starts to click.  Even if you watch early episodes of Friends, any of those shows, they struggle to figure out where these characters live, who are they, what’s this going to be like. And we’ve been really, really blessed that we have writers and Joey and I have a chemistry where we’ve found that halfway through the first season already –we’re not even halfway, we’re like halfway through the first chunk of the season, so it’s really only a quarter of the way through, but we’ve found this great chemistry and we’ve figured out where these characters live and where the show lives. And as you watch it grow, like the next few episodes you’ll really see us find our groove and a little bit of our rhythm and it only gets better because they banter off each other so well and it gets funnier.  The first two were setting up so much stuff that it was hard to just go for it, but now we can just go for it.  So I think it’s going to get better.  I think you guys will enjoy it more as it goes on.

How is working on Melissa and Joey a different experience than the other shows that you’ve worked on and why?
Well, Clarissa was honestly just so much work and I never got to leave the set except for Saturdays, when I was just so tired I stayed in bed.  Because of school and because of how many monologues I had to memorize and the amount of workload I had on that show it was humongous, so that was a lot of pressure, even though it was a lot of fun. Then Sabrina was great, but I was a single woman and I didn’t have a family to rush home to, so afterwards the whole crew we’d be like want to go shoot some pool?  Want to go bowling?  Literally for the first two years we went bowling every Friday and after that we just had to go shoot pool, and who wants to go to the gym at 4:00 in the morning before we go to work, and who wants to go to lunch, and we’d have book club meetings, once a month we’d have pizza out by my trailer, we carved pumpkins for Halloween, every weekend I just never left those peoples’ sides.  They were my dearest friends.  And we had such an amazing crew.  The whole crew was together for seven years, very few people left the show, and if they did they came back. So we were really lucky.  We traveled all over the world together, the crew, we did Sabrina movies.  We went to Australia together.  We all shot an episode in Florida, and ABC flew us all to Florida.  We went to Italy together.  We went to Canada together.  We went to Mexico together.  We went everywhere together and had a blast.  I was single and it was fine, and now it’s been a little tricky the first few weeks of this show trying to, like I was trying to get that back. I tried to surround myself with the people that I loved from Sabrina and really kind of get that back where I had such a blast at work.  And I am having a great time at work and we have a great crew around us, but I realize that now that I have a husband and boys it’s not the same.  I have to do my work and I have to go home. So it’s been tricky for me to balance that a little bit, to just get it in my head that it’s not the same as Sabrina.  This is a different segment of my life and I have to figure out what this is for me, and that lunchtimes are going to be spent with my little – even though I’m exhausted and I want to just chill at lunch and have a conversation with an adult, I am going to chase around my kids and play with them because that’s the only time I’m going to get that afternoon.  So I’ve been trying to learn that kind of thing.  So they’re all very different, but this one Joey and I are on the same page where we want to work, we want to make work fun, and that we want to go home to our families. 

You said that you had a lot of input into what the writers would create, but what made you decide or what made the writers decide to make Mel a local politician?
You know I’m really not sure about the local politician thing.  There were a few ideas that were thrown around about what she could be, but they were pretty clear that this is what they thought would work best for the character.  My thing with her was not so much what she did or that kind of thing, it was that I didn’t want to be the straight man anymore.  I didn’t want to be the one trying to fix everything.  I wanted to be a little bit of a loose cannon; a little silly. She’s self-centered and she’s domestically challenged.  And for the first time in my life to play a silly girl, but not that she’s dumb or ridiculous, but that she’s a little over the top, a little dramatic, whether it’s good or bad she’s got high emotions, but that I can also play all those levels on a real note that people can relate to my character no matter what crazy situation I’m in.  So I had to play that balance, but the writers were great about making me crazy Aunt Mel.  I get to be funny Aunt Mel.  For the first time, all these years I’ve played children that were very adult-like and now I’m finally getting to play an adult that’s very child-like, so it’s really fun. 

You directed episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and you’re producing and you’re acting, so what do you like the best of the business?
I like to mix it up.  Producing just goes hand-in-hand, for me at least, whether I’m acting or I’m directing, so that’s great.  But if I’m doing one or the other producing is also in there.  Directing for me is a really great creative outlet.  Your brain, it’s so amazing to be able to use your brain in that way and you imagine something visually when you read, like when you read the script or when you read a book you picture something in your head and it’s amazing as a director to make that come alive.  Sometimes you amaze yourself too with the way it actually comes out, you’re like, that’s not what I meant but that was great.  I love that.  I love the visual part of directing. With acting I love just making people laugh and being silly, and there’s nothing better than when we’re rehearsing and the crew can’t stop giggling because of something I’m doing.  Like there’s an episode coming up where we did a Dancing With The Starsepisode, and everybody, we just couldn’t keep it together because there was such ridiculous stuff happening that was so funny, that no matter how many times they saw it they still laughed.  So that to me is such a rewarding feeling, but directing to me is so much more creative.

Over your career you’ve gone from playing a precocious tween and a well-intentioned teen with a unique gift and a smartass cat to a former party girl who goes back to the family business, which is politics, and becomes a single mom by proxy.  How did the role evolve? Where did the party girl thing come from?
That was something I really wanted to do because of this great pilot that I did, Dirtbags, for FOX a while back.  I got to play this really wacky girl and I really wanted to do that again.  I love the way that felt.  I wanted to show that I could be the lead but not the one that fixes everything, not the one that’s always in control, not always doing the right thing but still likeable.  So that was the writers’ way of coming up with what I wanted to play, and that was just that I did not want to play a character that was so put together, that everything was perfect.  I think that’s more Judith Light on Who’s the Boss or that kind of thing, or Sabrina.  Sabrina was like that. I just wanted to play someone that was just silly, that was very much like Lucy or Phoebe on Friends or that kind of thing, something a little more kooky crazy.  And the former wild child thing just played into that so well that here she is, she’s a girl who likes her drink and likes her dating life, likes her single life, but here she’s now an aunt raising her niece and nephew and she has to kind of get it together but she doesn’t really know exactly how to do that.  So I just thought that was such a fun element to it. And I don’t think it ended up in the pilot, but there is a copy of me on the cover of Maxim that says, “The Bad Girls of D.C.” and they used my actual Maxim magazine cover and doctored it up.  Maxim gave us the okay to do it and we doctored it up to say “The Bad Girls of D.C.” so it looks like I was actually on Maxim when I was 16 in the show, so it was fun to do stuff like that.  And it was great to play off of, because it just gives me another element to play when I’m doing this character. 

Aunt Mel having been a real party person, no matter how much the kids misbehave, Aunt Mel was there, partying, first and to a greater degree, so there must be some interesting plot elements that revolve around that.
There is, and tomorrow night you’ll see.  In the 8/24 episode is Mel is dating a bad boy and so is Lennox and she’s trying to convince her that bad boys aren’t the way to go, but meanwhile she’s dating a bad boy too and she gets caught and there’s that fun element.  I think there will be times when Lennox and I are both sneaking in the house at 3:00 a.m. running into each other in the hallway and saying “Sh, don’t tell Joe,” that kind of thing.  I told the writers recently I want to do an episode where I take Lennox to a karaoke bar and I take her out and it’s maybe inappropriate but we’re just having fun and it’s like bonding time. So I think she just does these inappropriate things because of her past, but she’s also trying to teach the kids based on what she went through and what she’s trying to fight now with her reputation that this isn’t necessarily the way to go; always wear a pair of underwear when you get out of a limo and keep it together and get good grades.  It’s funny, there’s a little reference to it at least once in every show so it’s fun, we get to play a lot of that and we love coming up with it too.  If it’s there, if it’s not there we love coming up with these moments that just show a little bit of Mel’s background. 

Melissa and Joey is being compared a lot to a ’90s sitcom.  I was wondering how you felt about this comparison and if this is anything that you guys considered going into the series.
It’s a little frustrating when people compare the show, but then again that’s the way you describe things, so we totally get it.  In the beginning we didn’t have any thoughts of any shows going into it.  We were just creating our own.  It was just the elements of a nanny show, a man that was going to come in and help run the house, that my character was going to be kooky crazy and need some help, that it was not going to be our own kids, that was a big thing, it wasn’t going to be our kids it was going to be someone else’s kids that we’re raising, that they’re going to be teenagers.  At first I thought that they should be younger, but then the network wanted them to be teenagers. Then once we had the show put together, we got the first script and we were working on the pilot then we sort of went, okay, how do you describe the show?  And to me one of the first things that popped in my head was Old Christine, that my character was a little bit like Old Christine, like Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character in Old Christine, and I loved that because I think she’s fabulous.  I think that that show is so funny.  My first thought was that about my character, and then when I started to think about how to describe the show to other people of course Who’s The Boss popped into my head and I went, oh, Who’s The Boss, interesting. But that’s not how we designed the show at all.  Actually before anything started we talked about how Joey and I, we wanted the relationship to be very much like Moonlighting, and it actually started with Moonlighting, truth be told, if anything.  Honestly, the Who’s The Boss reference kind of came in after we were done with the pilot and we were like what is this like, and then we went oh, this is like – so that’s where it all came about.  Look, they all had great long lives on television and if we’re half that lucky we’ll feel really blessed.  But it’s funny because I don’t think it is Who’s The Boss, and Joey definitely doesn’t either.  I think they’re really different shows.  I think the only similarity is the setup, that a man comes in to domestically run the house while the woman’s working.  But in their cases they each had kids and it was very different.  I think it’s more centered around the kids in that show.  I feel a lot more was centered around them, the kids getting in trouble and doing stuff than we have going on right now. And we might get there, but right now it’s a lot more about Joey and I and how we handle the situation, whether it’s living with each other or whether it’s the kids.  I think it’s really different.  But it’s not terrible to be compared to anything.  Of course people want to hear stuff like that because hey, look, Who’s The Boss was a huge success, so we have no problem being compared to something like that.

 I was actually just wondering what it’s like to film in front of a  live studio audience? 
It’s kind of crazy.  I did an episode of Just Shoot Me which I think was in front of an audience and then I did the pilot for FOX five years ago, and that was a little crazy for me.  My adrenaline was going so much in that pilot that I could not calm myself down.  I couldn’t slow down to actually enjoy the moment.  I was just so nervous.  But I had just come off stage, in April I did Love, Loss and What I Wore on Broadway, and I think that that helped me in this case to get in front of an audience, although Dancing With The Stars did too, having to dance in front of the audience. Then as soon as we were done with the finale of Dancing With The Stars I came to the Valley and shot the pilot the next week, so to have come from that kind of audience and that kind of pressure to this kind of situation, the very first scene of the pilot I screwed up my very first line.  I was so nervous that my heart was pounding and I couldn’t calm myself down. I just kept saying, “You don’t have to dance.  You just have to act.  You don’t have to dance.  You just have to act.”  And I couldn’t get myself to calm down and then I screwed up my first line and I was fine.  Then Joey screwed up his first line and he was fine.  And I was like, oh, that’s it?  Oh, I can totally mess up my lines and the audience doesn’t care.  They’re here with me. I started to talk to them and got more comfortable and now I get a little bit of a rush right before the show starts, but then I’m pretty good.  I’ve really warmed up to them and I know how to handle it now.  I know that they’re there for us and that they’re excited just to be in the audience no matter what we give them, no matter how many times we do a scene or whatnot, because sometimes I feel bad like oh, we’re boring them, they’ve seen the scene three or four times.  But then I’ve starting to get used to that and just go, all right, if they want to leave they can leave.  So it’s interesting.  And there are so many different terms and whatnot in working with an audience that I’m learning all these new phrases and terms in the industry that I’ve worked in for 30 years.  So it’s exciting.  It’s fun.

Why did you decide to keep the original names for your characters on the show?
That was an interesting decision.  The show was originally called Annie’s Manny, and Joey and I were both like that’s not going to fly.  We don’t like that.  Plus, I don’t think it would have worked anyway because of the show Handy Manny.  But when the pilot was being shot and we were tossing around ideas for the title Joey and I were trying to come up with something and we were like what about something like Melissa and Joey, and we said it sort of as a guideline.  What we really meant was a Dharma and Greg or a Will and Grace, that kind of thing, but we didn’t really pull out the names quickly enough so we just said what about Melissa and Joey and they went oh, we like that. And then about a week later we saw a lot of things that said Melissa and Joey, and we were like no, no, no we just meant like that, not that.  And they were like, no, it’s great.  It’s perfect.  And I guess the marketing team did a lot of research and it turns out it tested high and in today’s day when there are so many channels and shows to filter through, that it kind of cuts to the chase and people can find the show really easily, so in our day and age it just helps to find the show, to spot it quicker. 

Besides your current project, where do you see yourself going career-wise ten years from now?
I don’t know.  I’d love to do this show for a good five years or so.  I’d love to just really sink back into a nice sitcom and have a good long run and maybe in between dabble in some – I’d love to do an animated feature.  I would love to have my voice in an animated feature, especially now that I have kids, that would be really super cool.  Then I’d love to just be able to pick and choose some characters along the way and in the next ten years I would just really like to have that freedom in the business, I’d like to get the respect of Hollywood where I can pick and choose my characters a little, my roles a little bit more, and when a movie like The Help comes out that I can say I’d love to play a small character in that, or when Dragon Tattoo or one of these upcoming movies that I’ve read the books and I’m so into that I could actually be in some of these amazing projects.  I would love to be able to dabble in that a little bit.  But I don’t know, I could see myself doing the show for five years and then giving my husband a good long time to get his music career back on track too.  He’s right now writing 20 new songs and he just built a music studio in Connecticut and he’s going to be producing some albums and doing his own album as well, so I’d love to just do my work and go home to my kids and let him go do his work and we can just trade off. 

With Clarissa you had more of like an eclectic wardrobe and with Sabrina it was very teenager, and now with the character of Mel it’s the fitted dresses and the high heels.  What has been your favorite wardrobe?
This one for sure.  No, I can’t say that. Clarissa was pretty groovy too, but I felt a little embarrassed in Clarissa.  I knew that the people dressing me were really cool and I never had anything to say against what they put me in, but I was like, really, this is weird.  Okay.  It felt a little funny.  But I also got to be really comfortable and wearing combat boots and jeans and stuff like that, so that was fun. The beginning of Sabrina I dressed like a temp.  I had pantyhose on and suit jackets from BeBe.  It was kind of bizarre.  It wasn’t quite as funky as I wanted it to be.  I finally was able to loosen it up a little bit towards the end and find some more groovy stuff to wear.  But the beginning of it was so weird.  All the original stuff was really great, whenever we built a costume for Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, that stuff was all fun.  But this one is really fun because I get to be sexy and I get to be feminine but like in a classy way, but also a little sassy, so it’s been really fun for me.  I have a really hard time walking in high heels, so I’m fighting that. 

How did your past roles help you get to where you are now?
It’s interesting, it’s just been an evolution.  With Clarissa, she was very smart, sassy, kind of tomboy, she was the quintessential teen but at the same time she had a rebellious streak in her.  But it wasn’t a bad rebellious streak, it was more of a well calculated, educated rebellion.  She wanted to push the limits.  She had a crush on the school bully and stuff like that. Then with Sabrina, Sabrina was hard for me to play because while it was a high concept show and we had a lot of fun playing the magic element of it and the talking cat and all the other craziness that happened, the character itself was sort of whiny, a little unsure of herself, she was always looking to fit in, and didn’t want attention but she was the kind of girl that could get attention because of the witchcraft element.  She was always trying to lay low so it was interesting to play that because that’s so not like me. But Mel is like a totally different character than either of those two.  I feel like all three of my characters have been very different.  Each one of them is a little bit of me, but I would say Mel is much more like me now, and I think Clarissa was the same way.  When I was doing Clarissa I was very much like Clarissa.  Sabrina, I would say I was very different from Sabrina when I was playing that character. But now, I don’t know because I am raising children and I’m not always doing the right thing, my husband’s constantly having to say, “You don’t say that in front of kids.”  I’m like, “Oh, really?”  So stuff like that.  I love playing a little bit of a goofball and a little bit of the girl that won’t grow up, and that is very much me these days.   I very much like being in touch with my child-like side and just making people giggle even at the expense of tripping over something.  I feel like the older I’ve gotten the more immature I’ve grown, so the character is sort of like that to me.

 Do you have any plans to write or direct an episode of Melissa and Joey coming up in the future?
I do plan to direct one if we’re lucky enough to get to a second season.  Both Joey and I would love to direct.  And one of our executive producer writers is also a big time director and the network is very careful to give people only one job at a time, so we don’t want anyone unfocused in their main career line, and I agree with that.  I think it’s a great decision to bring in different directors and let us get our feet under us before we all go switching up jobs.

The Emmys are like the Superbowl for television fans. It’s a good thing I didn’t bet on it though, because I probably would have lost. In any case, the telecast was a pretty successful one. By far, my favorite part of the night was the opening number featuring Jimmy Fallon singing along with members of the casts of Glee, Lost, The Vampire Diaries, Mad Men and 30 Rock (and even a little Betty White!)

Check out the video:

But now, onto the winners and my thoughts on them. My first thought is: Can’t they move the Miniseries category to the Creative Arts Emmys? That portion of the show dragged on and on and on. But I digress. Here are the winners:

OUTSTANDING COMEDY
Modern Family

You all know I was pulling for Glee. However, as many people have suggested, there needs to be a dramedy category. I think Glee belongs in comedy status, but something like Nurse Jackie really doesn’t. And think about Gilmore Girls — it didn’t really fit in any category either. However, despite the fact that I was ultimately rooting for Glee, Modern Family is absolutely brilliant and deserving of all the accolades it gets. It is smart and hilarious and in my mind, has reinvigorated and reinvented the half hour format just like The Office did almost 7 years ago.

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory)

Bazinga! First of all, someone besides Jon Cryer FINALLY won. Honestly, I was rooting for anyone but him. Jim Parsons is very deserving and I was happy he won.

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)

I adore Edie Falco. A lot. But Nurse Jackie isn’t so much a comedy. It has it’s funny moments, and I’m glad Edie Falco won, but I am surprised. I was rooting for Lea Michele. I would have been happy if Amy Poehler won. Edie Falco winning is just a bit of a mystery to me.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family)

I clapped out loud for Eric Stonestreet. His co-star, Jesse Tyler Ferguson was moved to tears. While I was hoping Chris Colfer might pull out a win, Eric Stonestreet is one of the most brilliant comedic actors on TV right now. His portrayal of Cam is often the subject of conversation in The TV Chick household and I am thrilled for Fizbo the Clown.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Jane Lynch (Glee)

Jane Lynch pretty much was a lock to win this award. Talk about a brilliant comedic performance, Jane Lynch is amazing. She made such a humble and sweet speech and I have the utmost respect for her.

OUTSTANDING DIRECTION IN A COMEDY
Ryan Murphy (Glee)

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A COMEDY
Christopher Lloyd and Stephen Levitan (Modern Family)

I was glad to see Glee and Modern Family split this category. Ryan Murphy, Christopher Lloyd and Steve Levitan are very deserving.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA
Mad Men

My thoughts: Blahhhh Mad Men AGAIN? I’ve caught only a couple episodes of Mad Men (shocker I know!) and I think it’s a fine show and all but I wish the Emmy voters had given the award to someone else. Lost or True Blood perhaps? I was disappointed.

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)

I believe this is the first time Kyra Sedgwick has won for The Closer. While I adore Julianna Margulies and thought she was a lock, Kyra Sedgwick is absolutely amazing as Brenda Lee Johnson. I loved her dress, too! You’ll get ‘em next year Julianna!

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)

I was hoping for maybe another winner, but Cranston is definitely deserving.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife)

So people were all abuzz on Twitter about how Archie Panjabi winning was a huge upset and surprise. Have you seen The Good Wife? With all due respect to Christine Baranski who is fabulous, she is onscreen for a total of maybe 8 minutes an episode. Archie Panjabi is absolutely one of the most underrated, shining stars of The Good Wife. I have thought so since day one. So in my mind, this isn’t a shock at all. Clearly, the Emmy voters are fans of The Good Wife too. A handful of new shows and first time nominees won awards and it’s about time. Archie Panjabi plays a kick-ass Kalinda and I’m so happy she won.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad)

Breaking Bad proves it’s a force to be reckoned with.

OUTSTANDING WRITING IN A DRAMA
Erin Levy and Matthew Weiner (Mad Men)

Blah. Mad Men. Blah.

OUTSTANDING DIRECTION IN A DRAMA
Steve Shill (Dexter)

Dexter takes home an award! Finally!

OUTSTANDING VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SERIES
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Again? Would have liked to see anything else win.

OUTSTANDING DIRECTION IN A VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SPECIAL
Bucky Gunts (The Winter Olympics)

Everyone loved Bucky Gunts’ name. It’s pretty fantastic, and so are The Olympics.

OUTSTANDING WRITING IN A VARIETY SHOW
Dave Boone and Paul Greenberg (The 2010 Tony Awards)

TV MOVIE
Temple Grandin (HBO)

Temple Grandin was truly a must see TV movie. I loved that the real Temple Grandin was at the Emmy awards smiling and waving. She was so adorable. Seriously, if you haven’t seen this movie, you really should.

MINISERIES
The Pacific (HBO)

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A TV MOVIE, MINISERIES OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Al Pacino (You Don’t Know Jack)

His speech was rather hilarious.

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A TV MOVIE, MINISERIES OR
DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Claire Danes (Temple Grandin)

OUTSTANDING DIRECTION IN A TV MOVIE, MINISERIES OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL
Mick Jackson (Temple Grandin)

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A SUPORTING ROLE IN A TV MOVIE, MINISERIES OR DRAMATIC SPECIAL
David Strathairn (Temple Grandin)

So there you have it. What were your thoughts? Who do you think got snubbed? Shocked by any particular wins? It was a pretty interesting night, with some surprises for sure. Modern Family was the big winner but Glee won a bunch too. I really thought Connie Britton would win for Friday Night Lights. I also thought Jimmy Fallon did a pretty good job as host minus his weird Elton John parody about the shows that we lost this year. I loved the Modern Family Gone Mad piece with George Clooney. Also, the In Memoriam section is always a tear inducer for me but Jewel’s song was rather bizarre. Was Sarah McLachlan too busy? Anyway, is it really another year until the next Emmy Awards?

OUTSTANDING DRAMA
Lost
Breaking Bad
Dexter
Mad Men
True Blood
The Good Wife

This is a very tough category. I want Lost to win. I think The Good Wife might win.

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)
Mariska Hargitay (Special Victims Unit)
Glenn Close (Damages)
Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)
January Jones (Mad Men)
Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights)

I think Julianna Margulies will win. I want her to win as well, but I love Kyra Sedgwick and Connie Britton.

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights)
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
Hugh Laurie (House M.D.)
Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
Matthew Fox (Lost)

I think Jon Hamm will probably win. I enjoy Jon Hamm, but I want Michael C. Hall to win.

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
John Slattery (Mad Men)
Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad)
Martin Short (Damages)
Terry O’ Quinn (Lost)
Michael Emerson (Lost)
Andre Braugher (Men of a Certain Age)

I think Michael Emerson will win, and I want him to win as well.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Sharon Gless (Burn Notice)
Christine Baranski (The Good Wife)
Christina Hendricks (Mad Men)
Rose Byrne (Damages)
Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife)
Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men)

I think Archie Panjabi will win, and I want her to win as well.

OUTSTANDING COMEDY
Glee
Modern Family
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Nurse Jackie
30 Rock
The Office
Curb Your Enthusiasm

I think and want Glee to win. However, Modern Family is incredibly brilliant and I would be happy if it won.

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Lea Michele (Glee)
Tina Fey (30 Rock)
Toni Collette (The United States of Tara)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine)
Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)
Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation)

I think Tina Fey will win (history tends to repeat itself). I want Lea Michele to win.

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm)
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
Matthew Morrison (Glee)
Steve Carell (The Office)
Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory)
Tony Shalhoub (Monk)

This past season of The Office was pretty up and down, but I think Steve Carell to win. I would also be very happy if Matthew Morrison won.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Chris Colfer (Glee)
Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother)
Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family)
Jon Cryer (Two and A Half Men)
Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family)
Ty Burrell (Modern Family)

This is the toughest category EVER. Neil Patrick Harris already won an Emmy this time around (finally) so I’m inclined to say he won’t win. Generally, multiple nominees from the same show in the same category cancel each other out. Can they give the Emmy to Chris Colfer and Eric Stonestreet and Ty Burrell? Because that’s my hope. But I think Chris Colfer will edge them out, and he is very deserving.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Jane Lynch (Glee)
Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live)
Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)
Julie Bowen (Modern Family)
Sofia Vergara (Modern Family)
Holland Taylor (Two and A Half Men)

I think Julie Bowen will win, and I want her or Sofia Vergara to take the statue home.

OUTSTANDING VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SERIES
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Real Time With Bill Maher
Saturday Night Live
The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien

It could go to Conan, but I would guess The Daily Show will win.

What are your thoughts? Who do you want to win? Comment away!

And in the aftermath of the big kiss from last week’s episode, Payson confides in her mom and tells her about her “former” crush on Sasha. But in the gym, Payson awkwardly ignores Sasha. When she is practicing her routine, Sasha hesitates before he touches her, causing Payson to storm out. Sasha tells her about his relationship with his coach and if he was a girl, he would have kissed her too. Their relationship is very close and intense and at times confusing, but he doesn’t want her progress to be hindered by what happened. Sasha seriously gives the best pep talks. I need him around!

Lauren’s storyline in this episode is probably the most interesting. On the outside, she is this huge bitch who likes to take everyone down. On the inside, she is hurting and vulnerable. It takes a great actress to play Lauren, and Cassie Scerbo really shined in this episode.  At the beginning of the episode, her dad won’t let her out of his sight. Lauren gets to to the gym early, and looks at the video that taped Payson’s practice. Of course, she sees Payson and Sasha kiss. Naturally, she’s going to do bad things with this DVD. Ugh, Lauren. Later in the episode, unbeknownst to Lauren, her mom shows up on Steve’s doorstep. WHOA! Crazyness. I did not see this coming. She wrote a note to Lauren, and wants to see her daughter. Steve is pissed at her, for good reason. She says she’s been sober for 2 years. He reminds her of the restraining order, and calls her a pathetic, weak woman. He reminds her that she can see Lauren in 2 years when she’s 18. He doesn’t buy her sincerity, and she tells him he’ll regret it. I loved finally meeting Laurens’ mother. Steve had every right to not trust her given her previous actions but I still felt very bad for her. Lauren needs a mother figure in her life and Steve can’t give that to her. Lauren is still trying to get her dad back with Summer (because of that need) and she asks Summer to go to dinner with her and her dad. Summer explains to her that she’s seeing someone else. Upon being pushed, Summer admits it’s Sasha who she is dating. Summer is very supportive of Lauren, but can’t be her mother.She storms out of their conversation (a lot of storming out happens in this episode!), and little does she know, her mom is watching from her car, out of sight. Both of them are crying. Aw, MIOBI, way to make me cry! Lauren has pushed away her friends and teammates by sabotaging them around every corner but she doesn’t just do these things for kicks. She’s not a bully to just be a bully. If she was, her character wouldn’t be believable. She’s longing for friends and a mom, yet the only thing she has control over is her own actions. So of course, true to Lauren form, she sends a picture of the Payson/Sasha kiss to Ellen Beals. Just when I thought she couldn’t get any worse!! Would we have expected anything different from her at this point though? What she doesn’t understand is this won’t win back Summer.

Meanwhile, Kaylie continues to struggle with her eating disorder. She proves she will go to any length to prevent people from knowing, although more people seem to be catching on. Kaylie’s mom brings her food, but she throws the food away behind her back. In the gym, Kaylie is doing great gymnastics but is out of breath and weak. Sasha tells her she is overdoing it. Sasha comes to Kaylie’s house out of concern for her weight. She gets on the scale and weighs in at 106, right in her target range. But of course, she was wearing 10 pounds worth of weights on her thighs. Kaylie, don’t do this!  That night, when she’s tucking Kaylie in, Ronnie discovers her thrown out food. As Kaylie delves deeper into a dangerous lifestyle, I am glad to see more people suspicious of her behavior. I hope Ronnie has the courage to speak up and help her daughter. I’d also be fine if Austin Tucker had to help her.

However, one of the biggest stories of the episode is about the election for Parents’ Board President. At election night, Steve makes his speech and compares Sasha to a fuhrer. Classy, Steve, very classy. Kim makes her speech, where she comes across genuine and that she cares about the girls. Alex Cruz endorses her, so does Chloe Kmetko and Ronnie Cruz. But it doesn’t look good for Kim Keeler, when Ellen Beals interrupts the meeting to say that Sasha has engaged in something disturbing. Ellen shows the picture of Payson and Sasha kissing to the whole meeting. Whew boy. This is huge. It puts Payson and Sasha’s career in jeopardy and it takes things completely out of context. Kim tries to explain that picture is not the whole truth, and that it was an innocent crush. Ellen Beals proceeds to make a speech about Kim not deserving to be Parents’ Board President because she turned a blind eye to what happened. Steve says they need to elect someone to take care of these matters.

Of course, Steve Tanner wins the election. UGH! Lauren and her dad are celebrating his victory, and he asks her to a father/daughter dinner. When Lauren goes to get ready, he gets a call about her mom. Lauren comes out for dinner all dressed up, and Steve has to break the news that her mom died in a car accident. She said she feels nothing because her mom never loved her and didn’t want to see her. Steve isn’t going to confess that she tried to visit Lauren. But obviously, this will come out at some point. Steve better redeem himself somehow. I understand that he doesn’t want to hurt his daughter , but Lauren deserves to know that her mom loved her and cared about her even if she screwed up. It will be interesting to see how Lauren handles all of this. It obviously will impact her gymnastics and her relationships.

Next week is the finale (so sad!) and I’m sure a lot of things will come to light: Lauren’s scheming, Sasha’s shaky status at The Rock, Emily’s arrest, and most importantly, Kaylie’s eating disorder. Bela Karolyi guest stars (as Sasha’s dad!) which is sure to be fantastic. He is a gymnastics icon and is also quite hilarious so I can’t wait. The last finale ended on the big Payson cliffhanger and if I had to guess, I would say that this cliffhanger is going to be about Kaylie. Will she get injured? Will she be hospitalized? Will Summer and Sasha’s relationship be taken to the next level? Will Payson be punished because of her innocent kiss? I hate that I have to wait a week to find out. Holly Sorensen (the creator) posted on Twitter that next week’s episode is even more intense than the past couple of episodes. How much more amazingly intense can it get? I can’t wait!

Make It Or Break It airs Tuesday nights at 9 pm on ABC Family.

White Collar continues to be amazing in its sophomore season. The Neal/Peter relationship is developing and twisting in new ways every week, and I love it. I also adore Marsha Thomason and Willie Garson, so I’m very happy to see them both take on bigger roles. Two weeks ago, we were introduced to Sara Ellis, an insurance broker who goes head to head with Neal. I recently had the chance to visit the set of White Collar, where Hilarie Burton (who plays Sara Ellis) talked to us about her new role, life after One Tree Hill and working with Matt Bomer, who she quite aptly dubbed one of the seven wonders of the world.

What is your role [like] in these episodes?
I am playing the part of Sara Ellis.  She works for an insurance company, she recovers stolen goods, basically white collar crimes.  So if somebody steals a really expensive car, she’s the repo man.  So it’s fun to play someone with an edge, someone that’s a tough girl but also is very bejeweled [laughs].  So it’s a different kind of character for me, I’m having a really good time with it. 

What’s it like for you post One Tree Hill?
You know, you never think there’s going to be a post One Tree Hill when you leave One Tree Hill.  It’s this vortex and it’s such a great place to grow up and to hone your craft.  We learned a lot on that show because we had lots of different directors and just because the show was on the air for so long, we ran the gamut.  I mean we did comedic stuff and super dramatic stuff and action, you know, anything that you can think of we did on that show.  I’ve been shot, I’ve been dumped, my mothers have died, all sorts of stuff.  So it’s really fun entering this grown-up very sophisticated clever realm. It’s a really fun transition for me.  And it’s a fun evolution for me as a person and as a character.

Is this a Thomas Crown Affair type of thing you’re going to be doing with Sara and Neal?
Kind of, yeah.  You know, I’ve been having a lot of fun with the character, this is a very stylized show which is different for me.  I’m, you know, I walked in to my first fitting and was terrified because this is a very high-end character.  And I’m the girl that’s been living in North Carolina for the last how ever many years.  And, you know, I think the last time someone asked me, “What are you wearing?” I said something ridiculous like, “Hot Topic” or “Capezio.”  So I’ve called the wardrobe department on this show my fairy godmothers, my fashion fairy godmothers, because I’m learning quite a bit and it’s fun, you know, it’s something that’s very different from me in my person life.  And it definitely helps me get into character to put on the suit, put on the little dress, very little dress, and have to go into this very serious woman’s position in life.

Do you get to keep the outfits?
God I wish, right.  I don’t know, I’ll see who I can finagle at the end of this shebang and see what I can get out of the deal.

Now Neal and Sara have a past, what’s that about?
You know they have a—I don’t know how much I’m allowed to give away. I’m not going to give anything away.  But it seems that Neal has a past with everybody and I feel very fortunate to be one of the woman that he has crossed paths with, whether that’s in a good way or a bad way.  Yeah, I mean he certainly has made his mark on the city of Manhattan.  And, yeah, I think we come in with a little bit of a history and add some layers to when our characters see each other again.

Has she ever crossed paths with Burke or any of the others?
Oh, I’m sure.  Yeah I mean, she works in white collar crime the same as they do, she’s just the woman that goes out and retrieves items and makes a little bit of money off of that.  So it might be hard for the boys to handle the fact that they do what she does except she’s making loads of money doing it.

Do you know if this guest spot will result in future appearances?
Well, I certainly hope so, I have a wild crush on the two of those boys.  I have never walked into a situation and felt such warmth and generosity as I have the first day I walked on the set with them.  They are such a team and they’re so positive with one another and they’re such good leaders on set, they keep the whole crew in good spirits all day.  And these guys are learning nine pages of dialog every single night, showing up at work acting like it’s old hat, “Oh yeah, no big deal.”  And changing stuff on the fly and they’re just so professional and great.  I have to tell you after my first week of shooting with them, it was a Friday night and it was the last scene up and I shot with Tim.  And at the end of work Tim was like, “Alright let’s give it up for Hilarie, her first week here.”  And I got, like, choked up [laughs] “What the hell was this?”  And they’re so sincere in their generosity and their kindness, and so I’d stay forever man.

Did you watch the first season before you came and appeared on the show?
Of White Collar?  Oh certainly. In fact, the only episode I haven’t seen is the finale.  Because you know when you love something like a book or a television show, you want to stretch it out.  So you get through the first three quarters really, really, really fast, and then you hit that last little bit and you’re like, “I don’t want it to end.”  So, I’ve been waiting on it and, you know, it’s such a quick, fast paced clever show.  And I’ve always been addicted to the, I guess the procedural shows you know, I love Criminal Minds and all the Law and Orders.  And I went to Fordham up here at Lincoln Center and, you know, was focusing on psychological forensics.  I was taking, you know, my psychology courses and my criminology courses and I was going to catch some killers.  And then [laughs] I started working at MTV which was a total, total wrong turn that turned out to be the best thing ever for me because it opened up a lot of doors.

Could you have ever predicted a year and change ago –that, you know, you’d been a mom now and be doing six episodes on one of the hottest shows on TV?
You know, I took a lot of risks, and not as of just in the last year but my life has always been kind of risky.  I was the only kid from my high school that came up to school in New York City.  You know, and I’ve always had a really supportive family that made me feel comfortable leaving my comfort zones.  And so in leaving my comfort zones in my life, I found great rewards.  So, you know, where I’m at right now in my life—I don’t want to be, you know, braggy about it but I’m really happy.  So all the people that have been supportive of that I’m appreciative.  So there [laughs].

Were you nervous at all coming into this set, I mean they did a season already?
Oh yeah, well because they’re so damn smart, they’re so talented and they’re so smart.  And I was wildly intimidated, because the first day I had a very action heavy scene and it was just right out of the gates, “Yeah, yeah go do that four page scene real fast little girl.”  And the boys are just, you know, my thing is I always want to be the least talented person in the room, because it means that I’m going to learn something and other people are going to make me look better then I am.  And I feel like that’s the situation I’m in here, you know, I’m surrounded by people who are amazing.  Whether it’s the DP, the camera department, you know the wardrobe department, the actors. Marsha and Sharif are awesome, and everyone’s just kind on top of that.  So, yeah, I mean I was definitely intimidated but that faded very quickly, because everyone’s wonderful.  And that’s not just me kissing ass either, you know, I mean I’ve always been pretty blunt about what I think [laughs].  So I mean, they really are. It’s baffling how good these people are.

Are there going to be some romantic sparks between Sara and –?
And Neal?  Well God I hope so, that’s a good looking man [laughs].  I mean, I think anybody regardless of gender, race, creed, wherever you’re from, can admit that he is probably one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  That man is beautiful and charming, so I wouldn’t be opposed to that, that’s ridiculous.

You get all the best looking guys…
Yeah, I don’t know I won the lottery at some point.  Yeah I mean, I get these tall dashing good looking men so, you know, yeah I want to keep working [laughs].  My track record so far is pretty good, so I’d like to see where it takes me.

Now you were talking about Sara being a professional, is she as smart and fast paced as everyone else on the show?
That’s, you know, that was when I was intimidated, am I going to be able to keep up with these guys because they are sharp. And the dialog that’s been written for this character is very different from anything I’ve ever done, and I’m having a lot of fun playing that brisk character.  You know, she’s a little frigid, she’s tough, she’s not going to cry, she’s not going to moan, she’s not going to want anybody, you know.  It’s so far from what I was on One Tree Hill that I’m nervous about how people will receive it, but God I’m having a great time doing it.

Was your nervousness kind of [gone] by the time you got to see your wardrobe, because all of a sudden you knew your character?
Listen, I knew the character, but normally the characters that I’ve played I’ve had a reference point.  I’ve had another female in my life that I could draw from and say, “Okay that’s who I’m going for.”  With this it was much harder, and the person that I think I’m basing the character on, the person that keeps coming to me is Katharine Hepburn in Philadelphia Story, who is that statue.  You know, in fact one of the boys says to her in that movie they’re like, “You’re beautiful, you’re a statue, you have no heart, no feeling.”  You know they give her this speech. It’s her father that gives her that speech.  And, you know, it really affects her, and I think that’s where Sara is right now, she’s just got this pose this statuesque pose and she’s not going to break it.  And I think if anybody can break it, it’s probably Neal Caffrey.

In anticipation for tonight’s big episode, here are a couple of great preview clips. Not too spoiler-y, don’t worry!

Pam questions Eric:

Jessica confronts Arlene:

Be sure to tune in tonight at 9 pm to HBO for “I Smell A Rat”