Ah, Liz!

Some regular working actors or actresses just make ya feel good every time you see 'em in a teevee show or movie: Liz Torres is one of 'em for me.

It helps that she's close to me in age, of course, but as an actress, I've found the Divine Miz T. (got her start workin' the same club scene as Bette Midler – and even shared a young Barry Manilow as pianist) to be imminently watchable and appealing (first remember seeing her when she had the unenviable task of replacing a recently demised actress on the Cloris Leachman sitcom, Phyllis). So I was pleased this last weekend when I noticed Miz Torres (not to be confused with the dance club signer of the same name, incidentally) making a brief appearance on the most recent Hallmark Channel mystery movie, McBride: Anybody Here Murder Marty?, playing a temp secretary to John Larroquette's nice guy defense lawyer. (The actress was a part of the ensemble on his short-lived eponymous sitcom, too.) Along with the fact that the lady possesses a sharp stand-up's skill at delivering funny lines (one of her first big teevee gigs was doing stand-up for Johnny Carson), she's also an actress I'v watched grow well and truly fat over the years – from shapely young Latina comedienne to super-sized and smartly dressed BBW. She's the kind of full-bodied performer who can command the camera simply sitting behind a desk.

Like I say, it was great to see her on McBride (mediocre mystery; watchable characters), though whether she'll make this a recurring role remains to be seen. It's clear the woman's keeping busy. When I looked her up for this posting, I discovered she has a recurring part on The Gilmore Girls, a show that I've not yet seen, though it's now going into its fifth season – may need to check that series out . . .