Tony Randall

Question: When I was a kid, back in the 1960s, I tuned in to a black-and-white movie on the late, late show. The title was something like the "Seven Faces (or something) of Jonathan Drake"; I remember the "Jonathan Drake" part pretty clearly, but not the rest of the title. I've never been able to locate it, nor have I seen it since. Do you know the name of the movie or anything about it?

Answer: The problem is that your memory has conflated two titles: 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964), an offbeat horror-fantasy set in the Old West and starring Tony Randall as a mysterious Asian magician, and The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959), which is set in the Amazon and involves shrunken heads and black magic. Although you say it's the latter part of the title you're sure o read more

Question: It seems like every other movie I see advertised is based on a TV show, like The Dukes of Hazzard. But what about the other way around? I know there was a series based on My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but what other TV series have been based on a movie, and were any of them good?

Answer: There have been a handful of top-notch TV shows based on movies. The flop Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) was revived as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003); Robert Altman's acerbic M*A*S*H* (1970) became the long-running M*A*S*H (1972-1983); Neil Simon read more

Question: Hi there, Televisionary! Say, what can you tell me about Tony Randall's short-lived Love, Sidney? All I really remember is the opening theme.

Answer: Short-lived it was, Sidney. However, while your TV counterpart, artist Sidney Shorr (The Odd Couple's Randall) enjoyed his own show from October 1981 to August 1983, that's a relatively long time compared with the truly here-and-gone life spans of modern shows, which aren't given much time to make a mark at all.

The setup of the show was that Sidney had befriended a single, pregnant young actress (Swoosie Kurtz years before and had talked her out of having an abortion. When the series began, Kurtz's character, Laurie, showed up with daughter Patti (Kaleena Kiff) in hand to live with him. Alan read more