The Treatment

Shaun of the Dead started as a satire of zombie films but shifted into making points about friendship and loss.  Hot Fuzz parodies the 80's action film and Bruckheimer excess.  British director and co-writer Edgar Wright (UK TV series Spaced, 'fake' trailer segment in Grindhouse) discusses the weight of comedy - or laughs it off.

Wry, thoughtful, but not detached, David Duchovny (House of D, Trust the Man, Bones) ironic yet emotional approach to acting gave The X-Files a center and also grounds his satiric new film, The TV set.

From Little Man Tate to Out of Sight, screenwriter Scott Frank (Get Shorty, Minority Report) has written scripts about emotional honesty in intense situations.  His first film as director, The Lookout, continues in that vein.

Composer John Frizzell's score have covered a wide and deep expanse, from the excentricity of Office Space to the large-scale registers of Alien Resurrection.  He talks about The Reaping, and bringing the music in his head to the movies.

Since creating El Mariachi, writer, director, cinematographer and composer Robert Rodriguez has done it his way with Spy Kids, Sin City and, his newest, Planet Terror. It's part of the Grindhouse double feature which he'll unspool for us.

Writer-director Quentin Tarantino works when he wants to on what he wants. Reserve Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, the Kill Bill films and, now, his newest part of a double bill, Death Proof.

Chris Rock's first film as actor and director, Head of State, was a comedy about a black presidential candidate.  His newest, I Think I Love My Wife, is, for him, even more political, a romantic comedy about the black middle class.  He'll see if he can get your vote.

Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy (American Hollow) has melded her curiosity to subjects of social injustice.  Her new documentary, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, took on different shadings as she learned.

The TV series Lost has changed television.  But has it lost its way? We ask executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

In 1975, a comedy series connected to the politics and pop culture of young people, NBC's Saturday Night Live debuted.  Its first season is now on DVD.  Anne Beatts, one of a handful of women writers on the original Saturday Night Live, drops in to talk about being a pioneer among a group of pioneers.