Television

Up until recently, Joseph R. Gannascoli played mob captain Vito Spatafore on The Sopranos. Then he got whacked. Before that, Gannascoli's character was "outed," having been spotted dancing in leather chaps at a gay bar. Now he moves on to his writing career: His new crime novel, A Meal to Die For, is about a mobster and gourmet chef who has been summoned to prepare a feast for a boss who is about to be sent to jail.

The popular NBC White House drama The West Wing wraps up seven years on the air on Sunday night with a final episode. Our TV critic has a retrospective of the series, and we feature previous interviews with some of the actors.

The late actor John Spencer was best known for his character Leo McGarry, the president's chief of staff, on The West Wing. Spencer's and McGarry's lives ran parallel: Both were recovering alcoholics and both had driven personalities. McGarry suffered a heart attack on the show, and Spencer died of a heart attack. Spencer was previously a regular on "L.A. Law" and began his career on "The Patty Duke Show." This interview originally aired on April 5, 2000.

Bill Carter reports on the television industry for The New York Times and has written about TV for almost 30 years. His new book is called Desperate Networks and it has a mouthful of a subtitle: Starring Katie Couric, Les Moonves, Simon Cowell, Dan Rather, Jeff Zucker, Teri Hatcher, Conan O'Brien, Donald Trump and a Host of Other Movers and Shakers Who Changed the Face of Prime-Time TV.

Critic David Bianculli reviews three DVD box sets from different eras of television: Mr. Peepers, which starred Wally Cox as a high school science teacher, ran on NBC from 1952-1956; interviews from The Merv Griffin Show(1965-1986); and the fifth season package of HBO's Six Feet Under, which completed its run last year.

Director Paul Weitz's new film, American Dreamz, satirizes American Idol and stars Dennis Quaid as a dimwitted U.S. president who goes on the show in an effort to save his falling approval ratings. Weitz's other films include American Pie and About a Boy.

British actress Helen Mirren, perhaps best known for her long-running role as Det. Supt. Jane Tennison on TV's Prime Suspect, has had two quite closely related roles recently. She plays Elizabeth I in a new HBO four-part miniseries premiering April 22; then she appears as Elizabeth II in The Queen, a film from Stephen Frears.

After seven years on TV, NBC's White House drama The West Wing comes to an end next month. Our television critic says he doesn’t want to wait until then to discuss the show, because lately it’s simply been too good to ignore.

Come up with a list of the dream writing jobs in comedy and at least three of them are likely to come up on one man's resume: Ben Karlin is executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and co-executive producer of The Colbert Report, both on the cable channel Comedy Central. Before that, Karlin was editor of the satirical weekly newspaper The Onion.

If a child's parents are of two races — particularly if the mother is a former Black Panther member and the father is white — growing up can be a unique experience. Writer Angela Nissel mines those experiences in her memoir, Mixed. Nissel is a writer and consulting producer for the NBC TV show Scrubs.

Actor Andre Braugher stars in the new series Thief, which debuts at 10 p.m. Tuesday on FX. Braugher plays Nick Atwater, leader of a small gang of thieves. Braugher is best known for his work on the TV series Homicide: Life on the Streets.

The latest project from playwright David Mamet teams him up with Sean Ryan, who created the FX series The Shield. The pair's new show is The Unit, about a covert military unit.

The new season of The Sopranos opens on Sunday, bringing the world of Tony and Carmela, Christopher and Paulie Walnuts back to dens around the country. The show's last previous episode aired in the summer of 2004.

The director James Burrows is being honored this week with a career tribute at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. Burrows made his name with classic TV sitcoms including The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show. After helping to create Cheers, Burrows directed episodes of many other hit sitcoms, including Night Court, Frasier, Friends and Will and Grace.

A new sitcom premieres on ABC Tuesday that blends scripted stories with improv. Sons and Daughters was created by Fred Goss and Nick Holly; its executive producers include Lorne Michaels, of Saturday Night Live fame.

Actress S. Epatha Merkerson just won the triple crown of television honors: an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actor's Guild award. To many Law and Order viewers, Merkerson will always be Lt. Anita Van Buren.

It's mid-season in the world of television, and that means some are being cancelled -- or simply phased out.

The idea that priests, like all men, are not perfect might seem like a tame one. But NBC's effort to translate the premise into a TV series has brought protests that the show is anti-Christian. Jack Kenny is the creator and executive producer of The Book of Daniel.

The actor died on Dec. 16, 2005, at age 58. We replay an interview from April 2000. Spencer is best known for his character Leo McGarry, the president's chief of staff, on the popular NBC series The West Wing.

The new TV version of Once Upon a Mattress, which will be broadcast Sunday night on ABC, features the return of Carol Burnett.