A sad start to the day with the news that hip hop artist and actor Heavy D has died at the age of 44. He was rushed to a Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles Tuesday after collapsing outside his Beverly Hills home.

No cause of death has been released, but police are not treating his death as suspicious. There have been several reports that he may have been suffering from pneumonia. According to TMZ.com Heavy D collapsed with breathing difficulties following a shopping trip. His neighbor Adam Mills found him leaning against a railing, clearly in distress, saying "I can't breathe, I can't breathe."

Only a few hours before his death the Jamaica-born rapper, who grew up in New York, Tweeted a tribute to the late boxing great Joe Frazier -- "SMOKIN JOE FRAZIER..RIP.. truly one of the best heavyweight champs that ever lived.. GODS SPEED,MR FRAZIER!" -- and sent his fans a typically positive message: "BE INSPIRED!"

One of the most fun things of any press tour is getting to sit down with Chi McBride and just talk, about anything. Politics, baseball, cigars... when you're talking to Chi, the conversation can go just about anywhere.

The drawback to seeing McBride on so many tours is that he's always there with a new show to promote. Because he's able to handle drama and comedy with equal ease, he's cast in a lot of pilots. The problem is, most of the resulting shows rarely last more than a couple of years. In the last six years, since his four-season run on 'Boston Public' ended, we've seen McBride in 'Killer Instinct,' 'The Nine' and 'Pushing Daisies.' Now he's co-starring with Mark Valley and Jackie Earle Haley in the FOX popcorn-action series 'Human Target.'

I sat with McBride as he held court at FOX's all-star party in Pasadena last month. As he puffed away on an Opus X -- he offered me one and I very reluctantly declined -- we talked about which of his roles he misses the most, and how he does his running scenes on 'Target.' Let's just say he doesn't waste too much film on those.

Beverly Hills, 90210 ... 21 Jump Street ... The Facts of Life ... see where they rank on our list.

The bad news? Summer's almost over and it's nearly time for school again.

The good news? We've got just the thing to ease you into back-to-school mode: Our countdown of TV's 21 best school shows ever.

So sharpen your No. 2 pencil and dive in to see which series just make the grade and which ones are at the top of the class.

(S04E20) "Shirley, it was good that we oppose." - Carl Sack leaving himself wide open.

Shatner and Spader's celebratory dance upon learning they were accepted into the Coast Guard may have been the best acting I have seen out of the two of them all season.

When I read the synopsis of the season finale I really didn't know what to think. At first glance, of course, the idea of one city seceding from the United States seems ridiculous. However, this being Boston Legal I knew there had to be more to it.

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Susan recently emailed us at TV Squad to ask: What happened to Tamyra Gray? Did she have any hits? I thought that she would do well. I remembered her being in a few shows on TV. Thanks, just curious. That would be one Idol, that I'd like to see come back to guest star and sing.

Well, Susan, funny you ask. It was just announced last week that Tamyra Gray will be hitting the Broadway stage once again. She is set to join the cast of Rent in the role of Mimi Marquez. Tamyra will be with the show from May 29 to November 25. Tamyra made her Broadway debut in November 2004 in the Bollywood-inspired musical, Bombay Dreams.

It's always terrible when someone dies, of course, but we're used to writing "at 75" or "at 83." Now twice in the past two weeks we've had to write up the obit of a celeb 20 or under (Daniel Smith was the first).

Pablo Santos, the star of the short-lived WB series Greetings From Tucson (which was actually pretty good) died in Mexico yesterday when the small plane he was flying in crashed on approach to the runway. The crash is being investigated.

Besides the WB sitcom, Santos had roles in Alias, The Shield, Law and Order: SVU, The Proud Family, Boston Public, and others. He had two movies this year, Gettin' Some Jail Time and the TV movie Walkout. (Santos is on the far right in the picture.)

The Daily Show's Ed Helms has signed on to join the cast of The Office! For ten episodes, Helms will play one of the Dunder-Mifflin employees. Before Steve Carell left TDS a few years ago, the two of them worked together as correspondents, I'm really looking forward to seeing them onscreen together once more. However, I hope this new role doesn't mean that Ed's going to leave TDS... I don't think I'm ready to let another oldie go.

Rashida Jones (Boston Public) has also signed on to play an employee and Chip Esten (Whose Line Is It Anyway?) will be returning as his Josh Porter character from the Valentine's Day episode.

Well, not the real Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager, because that would be just silly. I mean, do you know the financial costs of traveling back in time from the 24th century? They're astronomical! Plus, if she manipulates the time stream we could all be living under the iron thumb of . . . gulp . . . Canada!

No, I'm talking about Jeri Ryan, who appeared as Seven of Nine, and recently worked with David E. Kelley, creator of ABC's Boston Legal, on the FOX series Boston Public. Ryan will be appearing in the two-hour season finale of Boston Legal that will air on May 16th. She will appear as host of a fictional reality series who is charged with attempted murder after shooting at a member of the paparazzi that was stalking her.