Angela Bassett arrives in NBC's ER next season. She confessed that she loves reality shows and watches "whatever is on." The mother of 2-year-old twins, she's careful about their viewing habits. "We turn on National Geographic [Channel] and watch the animals. We’ll just stay with that, for now.”

Joshua Jackson (at left), 30, former heartthrob of Dawson's Creek, stars in the new J.J. Abrams show Fringe on Fox. He says,"It’s wildly different. I was 19 when I started, 18 when I started the (Dawson's) pilot.  I was a baby, still learning... This time I come back to the set five days away from 30, having done a show for six years. I have much different expectations." He says now "I know who I am. I’m much more confident as a man, I’ve gone through things and I know the things I like and don’t like. I’ll fight for things that are right, I’m much more willing to fight for those things.”

Elizabeth Reaser stars in a new CBS show, The Ex-List, but she was nominated for an Emmy last year when she played an amnesia patient on Grey’s Anatomy. Did the Emmy nod help her career? “Things definitely changed but not a huge amount. I think there’s this idea that suddenly you’re going to wake up and have offers... I’m always out there pounding the pavement. I don’t think its gets any easier.” Reaser told Gayle that as a youngster, “I was obsessed with as much TV as I was allowed to watch. The Cosby Show, Square Pegs, T.J. Hooker, Dynasty. I was probably not supposed to be watching (Dynasty) but I had an older sister.”

J. August Richards stars in Raising the Bar, a new drama coming to TNT. He has worked with some of the best directors in TV — Joss Whedon (Angel), Dick Wolf (Conviction) and now Steven Bochco and says they let their actors "do your thing. They trust their instinct and trust the people they hire." Richards went to USC and talked about whether actors need to go to college: “The beauty of this business is that it takes all kinds, no two people’s roads are going to be the same. Somebody can get off a bus today or tomorrow and have a very successful career. For me, it was necessary to go to college. I always knew I didn’t want to play characters who were in my realm of experience. College offered me more of a world view... historical views... these are things you have to know to play these characters in the present day. It’s important to expand my education.”

Jennie Garth (at right), returns to television on familiar turf, with 90210 coming on the CW. She was in the original Beverly Hills 90210 and talked about how her views have changed in the intervening years. “I have no aspirations to be a big movie star," she said. "I used to want to be a director. I’m completely overextended raising three little girls. I realize that is by far the most important job I have. It takes all of me.” And she says the original show took all of her, too.  “I grew up in a warehouse in Van Nuys (where it was shot). I didn’t graduate from high school or college. That show was my life. I had boyfriends, breakups; success, failures; marriage, the end of the marriage, new marriage, a baby. It’s a major part of who I am.”

Niecy Nash will be on Do Not Disturb, a new Fox comedy, with Jerry O’Connell. "He’s the worst person I ever met," she kidded. "Just kidding. I love Jerry O’Connell. We went on a double date with him and his wife (Rebecca Romijn). We had so much fun. It was if we had known each others for years." She said her favorite career moment was, "When I booked a role on (The) Bernie Mac (Show) as his sister. I had an audition and Bernie was the one who walked onto the lot afterwards to say congratulations. He came and told me himself. He told me to ‘Do whatever it is you do and I will follow you. I got mine and I want you to get yours.’ He was so gracious, gracious (and) humble.”

(Bassett photo © Carrie Viturino, via about.com; Jackson photo by Ben Mark Holzberg/FOX; Garth photo via askmen.com)