Fall TV Blog

Making a relationship work is tough, especially if your girlfriend doesn’t remember you. Barry Watson, who plays Todd the ex-boyfriend of lovable amnesiac Samantha (Christina Applegate) on ABC’s Samantha Who?, knows this all too well. With the sitcom (finally) returning April 11, the actor talked with PEOPLE about a possible Samantha Who?/Lost crossover, taking part in a primetime threesome and what he did during the writers’ strike. —Jonathan Stern

The show left off with Todd dating another girl while living with Samantha. How is this going to play out?
It’s going to be a big threesome…first time on television. It’s going to be amazing. No, Todd has issues with women. He probably wanted to break up with Samantha for two years before he did it. Now he’s got another crazy [girl]. We’ll see how long it takes to get rid of her and get some feelings for Sam again.

Kiele Sanchez, who played Nikki Fernandez on Lost, is your new girlfriend. Any clues about the survivors of Oceanic flight 815?
I don’t think there’s going to be anything like that…a Lost/Samanatha Who? crossover would be fun though.
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She’s the perfect blend of selfish snark and maternal concern. Yes, Jean Smart’s hilarious antics on Samantha Who? make it a real pleasure to tune
in. Remember last week when we discovered Regina (Jean Smart) was a
co-conspirator with her daughter, Samantha, (Christina Applegate) in keeping a crashed car from Dad? (They sunk it in a lake!) Or on Monday’s show, how
funny was it when Regina showed up to help Sam recover from a broken heart—after she set her up with the guy? Sure, it’s tough to pick, but here are the three reasons we love Jean Smart:
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Turns out Samantha is (was) even more twisted than we thought—making this episode possibly the funniest yet. Seeing her past self get caught using a wheelchair to have front-row seats at a Blackkawks game had us choking on Coke and in awe of her audacity. It also had us going through the TiVo in our head, remembering other despicable characters you can’t help but love to laugh with. Like …

• The Devil (Ray Wise), on Reaper. Every time he sends a shopping cart offscreen to run into a car, you just want to pinch his cheeks.
• Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), on How I Met Your Mother. The guy hits the gym to sweeten up the “fat” ones so they’ll date him when they get hot.
• Jack (Alec Baldwin), on 30 Rock. He’s “The Man” who shows his No. 2, Liz Lemon, the adorable YouTube video of a baby panda sneezing, then asks her to fire 10 percent of their workforce.

So, which awful TV character makes you laugh the most?

Photo: MITCH HADDAD/ABC

It’s only episode 4, but already these four women are making up the oddest and funniest ensemble in a new sitcom this season. It’s got meddling mom Regina (Jean Smart), the sweetly creepy childhood friend Dena (Melissa McCarthy), the social-climbing and alcohol-imbibing best friend Andrea (Jennifer Esposito) and, of course, the adorable yet horrible amnesiac herself, Samantha (Christina Applegate)—with all sorts of wrong coming out of each of their mouths. But this week, mom was the car accident you couldn’t help staring at.
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We know Samantha’s parents have it (TMI in the shower last week!), and that best friend Andrea (Jennifer Esposito) knows where to find it (watch the clip for her pointers), but tonight the amnesiac Sam (Christina Applegate) wants to know: What’s sex like? We suspect that her old self wouldn’t be asking this—and a dominatrix suit might be hanging in the back of her closet, to ex-boyfriend Todd’s surprise, of course. But it does have us thinking about Samantha’s lovelife; she basically has a clean slate, a luxury most people never get back. So, what should Samantha do? Date with abandon? Woo back supercute Todd—and actually remember what it’s like to kiss him? Tell us!

On ABC’s new sitcom Samantha Who?, Christina Applegate’s character Samantha Newly wakes up with amnesia after being hit by a car. The result? A hilarious search about getting in touch with her new self after learning she was someone with no redeeming qualities before her accident. Hear what she—and costar Jean Smart (who plays Samantha’s mom)—have to say about why split identity can be funny.

Premieres: Monday, 9:30 p.m. ET.