Question: Why are you finding it so hard to answer my question? Maybe you don't find it entertaining enough for your column. Well, maybe you will find this e-mail more interesting. I mean, how much time does it take to answer a simple question like what the hell happened to Veronica's Closet? Please try to be a little more helpful in the future!!!!!!!!!! Thank you. — TooKrazee2
Televisionary: It's been cancelled!!!!!!!!!!
Happy?
You're welcome.
Now quit cursing, ya Krazee.
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Question: On what NBC program did Corbin Bernsen play a lawyer?
Televisionary: Former soap actor (Ryan's Hope) Bernsen played womanizing attorney Arnie Becker on Steven Bochco's groundbreaking L.A. Law, which practiced on NBC from October 1986 to May 1994. He's had TV work since and a string of movie roles, but it's likely he'll be best remembered for the time put in on that long-running series.
I use groundbreaking as a backhanded compliment, really. With Law, Bochco fine-tuned the multithread, hour-long dramatic formula he helped pioneer with the critically acclaimed but ratings-starved Hill Street Blues to create a bona fide hit in Law. His secret? More soap opera elements, more glitz and prettier faces (all of which were easier to introduce using the slick legal profession instead of the gritty precinct of Hill Street, though he later pulled it off in the cop world, too, on NYPD Blue).
To the show's cr
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Question: Is there any truth to the rumor of the possible cancellation of The Pretender? If so, I am outraged and need to express my feelings on this, so who and where do I write to express my disappointment? The Pretender was one of the best shows ever on NBC... well, besides Homicide. NBC has lost a longtime viewer and I will never watch NBC again until they correct this mishap. Thank you. — Neisha
Televisionary: Your hunger-strike notion is indeed noble, Neisha, but are you really prepared to deny yourself Saved by the Bell: The New Class, when your abstinence will no doubt go unnoticed?
Yes, The Pretender will pretend on NBC no more. But the Net rumor mill is already a-buzz with the notion that TNT, which begins running first-cycle cable reruns of The Pretender in September, may be thinking about picking up rights to new episodes of the show.
Now, let me stress that such online tales are often way
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Question: Your recent answer about China Beach's beautiful Dana Delany reminded me that the last time I saw her was (sans clothes) in East of Eden. What happened to her since then? Did the nude scene hurt her career? Thanks.
Televisionary: Assuming you mean Exit to Eden (similar titles make the mix-up an easy one, though it's the first time I realized it's easy to confuse works by John Steinbeck and Anne Rice), I'd argue that nudity had nothing to do with her career.
More likely if any harm was done ? and it's tough to say since Delany's had steady, albeit sub-A (no pun intended), work since that picture ? it was due to Eden's box-office fizzle rather than too much flesh on her part. I don't know whose idea it was to take a Rice throwaway mainstream, but the concept is so awful in principle it seems unfair to blame the lousy performance on Delany alone. After all, it also st
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Question: How can I purchase the soundtrack to NBC's The '70s miniseries? I would very much like to buy it!!! Thanks. ? Gina
Televisionary: Alright, Gina. Normally I'd consider it well beneath this site to shill directly for NBC (unless, of course, they pay handsomely).
But just between you, me and my loyal legions of readers (and those who click around just to send me hate mail), you can buy The '70s soundtrack along with several types of T-shirts on NBC's site.
(A side note to the network suits: Take care of me come the holidays, know what I mean? Don't worry about appearing above-board ? this is special text that only you can see.)
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Question: What is the name of the title song for the WB series Charmed, and who performs it?
Televisionary: That's a version of The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?" performed by Love Spit Love. You can get a longer version of it on the soundtrack from that other pretty-witch property, The Craft.
Normally I'd go on a rant about how much better the original song is (and it is better), especially since I usually hate remakes that add little or nothing to the real thing. However, I cut Love Spit Love front man Richard Butler some slack due to his '80s Psychedelic Furs pedigree.
Try as I might to be a purist, I have to admit I don't mind the Charmed take. But there's no question it lacks the righteous angst and misery of the Morrissey delivery.
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Question: Can you tell me when the original miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man aired on TV? Was it in 1976 and on consecutive nights? If so, what were the dates the episodes were on? Thank you.
Televisionary: ABC's 12-hour landmark miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man, based on the 1970 epic Irwin Shaw tome of the same title, ran Mondays from Feb. 1 to March 15, 1976. And looking back, it's rather strange that it's not widely remembered as the milestone that it was.
The production, which told the tale of brothers Rudy and Tom Jordache (Peter Strauss and a much less craggy Nick Nolte) was one of the first miniseries to hit U.S. airwaves. With its blockbuster ratings (second-highest of the season), its critical raves and 20 Emmy nominations, it pretty much established the form ? then lost its place in the cultural memory as Roots came along and usurped it in most American minds as the first miniseries.
That's a shame, really, since
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Question: Question: What was the name of the show that had Andy Devine on it reading stories? There was a mischievous frog on it who caused Andy grief.
Televisionary: You're not kidding. Can you believe poor Andy had to appear on a children's show and say, "Plunk your magic twanger, Froggy!" without losing it?
Now, allow me a moment to continue the Buffett riff (perhaps even beating it into the turf) and point out that the singer references Devine in "Pencil Thin Mustache."
Moving on, the show you seek is Andy's Gang, a version of a New York kids' confection that ran from 1955-60 and had national exposure on NBC during the '57-58 season. Originally a radio property called Smilin' Ed McConnell and His Buster Brown Gang (yes, smudging the line between children's content and ads predates The Transformers), the show first moved to TV with the smilin' Mr. McConnell as host.
Devine took over in '55 after McConnell died, leading a cast of char
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Question: In an older Jimmy Buffett song there is a line that goes something like, "Gardner McKay, take us on the leaky Tiki with you." I believe this comes from a television program in the 1950s. Can you help? — Taylor E. Mack
Televisionary: Sure thing, Taylor. But just for the uninitiated, the song to which you refer is "We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About" and it's from Buffett's 1983 album, One Particular Harbor.
The Parrot Head king refers to ABC's Adventures in Paradise, which ran from 1959-62 and starred actor McKay as the rugged Adam Troy, captain of the South Pacific-wandering vessel Tiki.
The series's tropical settings (the Fox backlot, mostly) and exotic young women are a perfect fit for the Buffett oeuvre, but were less of a match made in heaven for author James Michener (Tales of the South Pacific, Hawaii and too many other works to mention), who created the series but reportedl
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Question: What was the show called that aired in the late '80s and the early '90s and featured a foreigner named Balki and his American friend? They lived in the same apartment and I think the name had "Brothers" in it.
Televisionary: That would be the mediocre-at-best Perfect Strangers, which ran on ABC from March of 1986 to August of '93. I'd call it a comedy, but that wouldn't be fair to shows that actually make one laugh.
The show revolved around two completely different cousins trying to carve out a happy life for themselves in Chicago despite the fact that they were, well, just completely different. The odd-couple roomates (say, that's never been done!) were Larry (Mark Linn-Baker), the uptight one, and Balki (Bronson Pinchot), the funny-talking shepherd guy from a tiny country whose literal interpretations of American customs and sayings often provided comic perspective on society's habits and standards (say, that's never been done!).
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