Question: I would like ...

Question: I would like information about a TV series named Bagdad Caf&#233. I don't remember any particulars at all. — Joe K., Haverhill Mass.

Televisionary: The CBS series, based on the thoroughly wonderful 1987 indie hit movie, starred Whoopi Goldberg and All in the Family's Jean Stapleton in the roles created on the big screen by CCH Pounder (The Shield) and German actress Marianne Sagebrecht.

The set-up was pretty much the same as it was in the film: Stapleton's Jasmine was abandoned by her husband after their car broke down in the Mojave Desert and she ended up at the offbeat Bagdad Caf&#233, which Goldberg's Brenda owned. She settled into an Odd Couple-like relationship with Brenda and became a part of the misfit community peopled by, among others, Cleavon Little, Scott Lawrence and Monica Calhoun, who also appeared in the big-screen version.

Unfortunately, the show didn't recreate the magic or charm of the movie. It debuted in March 1990 and was off the air in November.

It's worth noting, though, that there is a real Bagdad Caf&#233 (BagdadCafeUSA.com) in the middle of the Mojave, between L.A. and Las Vegas. Just off the famous Route 66 in tiny Newberry Springs, Cal., it's kept aloft, business-wise, by the film's many international fans, who travel to the U.S. to see where their beloved movie was shot.