Emmy-nominated actress Amy Poehler talks to Ari Shapiro about her role as an aspiring local politician on the NBC comedy Parks And Recreation.

A few hours after the Senate reached a deal on potatoes in schools, comedian Stephen Colbert took to the airwaves to display what sounded like some long-repressed middle school angst over being separated from his beloved 'tots.'

MacFarlane is best known for creating the animated TV shows Family Guy, American Dad! and The Cleveland Show. But he's also a singer whose new album features songs from the Great American Songbook.

Actor Ted Danson has been captivating audiences for over 20 years. This fall, the actor appears in two TV series, playing an aging hotshot in need of a little spice on the HBO series Bored To Death and a forensic analyst on the CBS series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Actor Alan Cumming got his start with a breakout performance in a 1993 revival of Cabaret. Now he plays pithy and practical political consultant Eli Gold on CBS' The Good Wife. Cumming joins NPR's Neal Conan to discuss his various roles, both on-screen and on-stage.

On Network TV, there are 27 new shows and nearly all of the main leads are white actors. There is one role on television where minority characters may be on the rise: Black Best Friend. TV critic Eric Deggans says these characters need to be upgraded to well-rounded co-star.