Television Q&A

Television Q&A

By Rich Heldenfels

Q. Will the “Christmas at Downton Abbey Special” being shown on ITV in the U.K. on Christmas Day make its way across the Atlantic? There was a similar show last year, too, I was told, which I don’t believe graced our shores. Based on the show’s immense popularity, it would be a boon for PBS, and boost their ratings enormously.

A. When “Downton” airs overseas, it presents a season of telecasts and then another, chronologically sequenced episode labeled a Christmas special. In the U.S., a complete season consists of the regular episodes with the Christmas telecast as season finale.

In other words, what is airing on Christmas Day on British broadcaster ITV will air as the fifth-season finale on PBS Masterpiece here. Those PBS showings begin Jan. 4 and continue through the Christmas-tied telecast March 1, a total of nine episodes. In addition, the DVD and Blu-ray release of the fifth season, which will be released Jan. 27, includes all nine; moreover, they are in the original ITV form, which has been edited at times for U.S. broadcast.

Q. Could you please bring me up to date about “Too Cute,” an Animal Planet show that was a pleasure to watch on Saturday nights. I’m 82 and just recently adopted a kitten and loved this program. Is it on hiatus? What happened?

A. The series is on a break, but it is expected back. Animal Planet is even airing a “Too Cute” special with old and new material from 7 to 11 p.m. Christmas Eve. Anticipate, according to Animal Planet, “prancing baby goats to kittens climbing Christmas trees and puppies dashing though the snow.” It even has the hashtag #Merrycuteness. And it’s part of Animal Planet’s two-week “Holiday Best Fest” of special presentations of favorite programs.

Q. Will “The Divide” return next season?

A. Not at this writing. WE tv, which aired the first season of the legal drama, decided not to pick it up for a second.

Q. Is it true that Werner Klemperer, who played Colonel Klink on “Hogan’s Heroes,” was rejected as a grand marshal for the Rose Parade because he played a German, despite the fact that he fought for the Allies in World War II?

A. Not exactly. First of all, it wasn’t the Rose Parade but the Thanksgiving Fairy Tale Parade in Portland, Ore. In 1967, Klemperer, then co-starring in the CBS prisoner-of-war comedy, was to lead the parade. But a group called the Ex-Prisoner of War Association of Portland objected, and Klemperer withdrew. He said he was saddened by the controversy, since he was a World War II veteran and had fled Nazi Germany with his family as a teenager.

Klemperer was sensitive to the way his character was portrayed, reportedly saying. “I had one qualification when I took the job: If they ever wrote a segment whereby Colonel Klink would come out the hero, I would leave the show.”

Q. I have been following the reruns of “Rawhide.” I wonder if Gil Favor, played by Eric Fleming, was in any other movie or TV show.

A. From what I can find, trail boss Gil Favor was a character only on the long-running TV Western. As for Fleming, before “Rawhide,” he had acted in movies and television, including the film “Queen of Outer Space.” After he left “Rawhide,” he appeared in the Doris Day movie “The Glass Bottom Boat” and was set to star in a production called “High Jungle.” While working on that film in Peru in 1966, he fell from a boat and drowned. He was 41.

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