Bill Paxton remembered
The sudden death of Bill Paxton, 61, star of “Training Day” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14), puts mere entertainment in rather sobering perspective.
Paxton projected a solid “everyman” quality that served him well as the beleaguered polygamous patriarch in HBO’s “Big Love.” His sunny can-do American optimism grounded his performance as a storm-chaser in “Twister” and as an astronaut in “Apollo 13.” I’m not sure that he was well-cast as a rogue cop in “Training Day,” or well-served by some of the preposterous dialogue he had to deliver. At the time this column was filed, the fate of that series had not yet been determined or announced. An order of 13 episodes has been completed and, as of tonight, five have aired to relatively low ratings, so it’s doubtful it will continue.
This has been a difficult season for CBS, having lost “NCIS: Los Angeles” regular Miguel Ferrer on Jan. 19. Paxton joins a small but memorable list of principal series stars who died while their show was still in production. They include Larry Hagman, who was 16 episodes into the revival of “Dallas” when he died. Jerry Orbach was starring in the “Law & Order” spinoff “Trial by Jury” when he died. “Glee” had to write the sudden death of its character Finn into the storyline after the passing of young star Cory Monteith, just as “The West Wing” had to explain the absence of the character Leo McGarry, played by John Spencer, who died of a sudden heart attack in 2005 at age 58. John Ritter died in 2003 shortly after shooting a scene for the second season of the comedy “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.”
TONIGHT’S HIGHLIGHTS
› The top 18 battle it out on “MasterChef Junior” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG).
› Blind auditions continue on “The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
› An accident excites the media on “Chicago Med” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
› “My Kitchen Rules” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14) concludes.
Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin.tvguy@gmail.com.