Entertainment

/

ArcaMax

Television Q&A: Will 'The Chair' get tenure on Netflix?

Rich Heldenfels, Tribune News Service on

Published in Entertainment News

You have questions. I have some answers.

Q: Will the Netflix show “The Chair” with Sandra Oh return?

A: The comedy-drama about conflict in the English department at a fictional university had its moments. But they were not enough to get the show renewed after a single season.

Q: From time to time, I hear that “Longmire” is making a comeback. Any insight on that?

A: The drama series based on the novels by Craig Johnson had a six-season run starting on A&E and then on Netflix, but that ended in 2017. (You can still find the complete series on Netflix.) There has been talk of more here and there in the years since, especially about reunion movies, along with pleas for the show’s return. But so far, nothing. Robert Taylor, who starred in the series, did pop up in prime-time recently on “NCIS: Origins,” where he played Gibbs’ father Jackson.

Q: Do the winners of “Survivor” and “America’s Got Talent” receive the million dollars in a lump sum?

A: “Survivor” has a (taxable) lump-sum payment. “AGT” goes a different way, offering the million dollars as an annuity over 40 years ($25,000 per year before taxes) or take a lump sum consisting of the cash value of the annuity right now; reports have estimated that as about $300,000 before taxes.

 

Q: Sometime in the '80s (I think) I watched a science fiction series about an alien on another planet doing something bad, and the rulers of the planet sent him to Earth as a man for punishment and/or repentance. He also had with him some type of small, mechanical "orb-like" thing that would interact with him. I believe the idea of the show was that he had to do good deeds on Earth while in human form for his planet to allow him to come back. I have been searching for the name of this series for years. Can you help me please? I'd like to watch it again.

A: That was “Hard Time on Planet Earth,” which aired briefly on CBS in 1989. Martin Kove (from “Cagney & Lacey” and the “Karate Kid” movies) played the violent creature sent to Earth to learn better behavior. One writer said it was like “The Fugitive” “with a warped sense of humor.”

Q: I’m interested in the availability of “Men of a Certain Age,” with Ray Romano, Scott Bakula and Andre Braugher as friends with ups and downs in their lives.

A: The series, which had a two-season run in 2009-11, is available several ways. For example, Prime Video has it for a fee, there have been DVD releases, and it is streaming on Max.

UPDATE: A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that “Virgin River” will have a sixth season arriving on Dec. 19. And now there’s news of a seventh-season order. As Deadline.com reported, the seventh season makes the show “Netflix’s longest-running current original scripted series as well as the longest-running English-language drama series in the streamer’s history. Its seven-season run to date matches that of comedy ‘Grace and Frankie’ and comedy-drama ‘Orange is the New Black,’ which was designated as a comedy for its first couple of seasons before switching to drama consideration” for awards.

———


©2024 Tribune News Service. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus