You have questions. I have some answers.
Q: Last year I watched a show about a wormhole that suddenly appeared in downtown Los Angeles. Several people fell through and found themselves in another dimension. It ended abruptly. I cannot remember the name of that show. Can you help me?
A: That sounds like “La Brea,” the NBC drama in which people fell through a sinkhole into “a mysterious and dangerous primeval land.” The network has ordered a second season to premiere this fall. One place you can catch up with the 10 episodes in the first season is on Peacock.
Q: Recently I watched a Sundance Now series called “Ten Percent” featuring Dominic West in an episode. Could this be an older, English version of the French series “Call My Agent”? If so, could you tell me what year West appeared in it originally?
A: You are correct about the similarity of the two series, but the sequence is different. “Ten Percent” is a new series and an English-language adaptation of “Call My Agent!” That French series about talent agents premiered in 2015 and has found a wide audience through Netflix. Variety reported a while back that there are numerous adaptations done or in the works in different countries, including Turkey, India, Canada, South Korea and the Philippines.
Q: Whatever happened with Season 2 of CBS’s “Blood and Treasure”? COVID delayed filming but there has been no mention since of whether that was ever completed or was it scrapped totally?
A: The drama will begin a second season on July 17, but TVLine has reported that it will be on streamer Paramount+ instead of the CBS broadcast network. (And yes, I can hear your howls about another show shifting to streaming.) Since the first season ended almost three years ago, you may want to catch up on the older episodes — on Paramount+.
Q: I remember a black-and-white movie from the '60s or '70s that I enjoyed so much I’d like to get it somewhere. It had a professor experimenting with some liquids and saw that a baseball with some of the liquid on it would roll around baffles in his tray. He tried to get the ball to hit them, and it wouldn’t. I have forgotten a lot of the story, but he became a pitcher. I pray you can name this movie and where I might see or purchase it.
A: It sure sounds as if you saw “It Happens Every Spring,” a 1949 comedy starring Ray Milland as a professor who accidentally creates a substance that repels wood — so that balls with it cannot be hit by baseball batters. While that sounds whimsical, the American Film Institute catalog notes that: “The studio encountered major problems with representatives of professional baseball. Despite the studio's numerous pleas, Commissioner Albert B. ‘Happy’ Chandler, would not grant permission to use actual team names in the film as it was ‘the story of a cheat.’” Still, the movie does show up on TV from time to time, is rentable digitally via Prime Video and Vudu, and has been released on DVD.
Q: I was watching “Beach Blanket Bingo” and noticed Michael Nader, later on “Dynasty.” I believe he is the son of the actor George Nader. Are these charming actors still with us?
A: Leading man and novelist George Nader died in 2002 at the age of 80. Veteran actor Michael Nader, who was George’s nephew, passed away in 2021; he was 76.
UPDATE: Back in May I noted that Showtime had canceled “American Rust” after one season amid some unenthusiastic reactions to the show. Well, streaming service Amazon Freevee (formerly known as IMDb TV) was more enthused. It has ordered a second season with Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney back as the stars. Production will start later this year. And Daniels said in a statement that this is a show “built for streaming.”
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