Television Q&A
By RICH HELDENFELS
Q. What happened to the show “The Mentalist”? I have not seen any promos for the show. Have they discontinued making new episodes?
A. The promos have been popping up lately, since the show will be back for its final season beginning tonight.
Here is how the scheduling will work: “The Good Wife” will take a break, and “The Mentalist” will have its time slot for five weeks. “The Good Wife” then returns Jan. 4, and “The Mentalist” moves to Wednesdays as of Jan. 7. (It will take over the “Survivor” time slot while that is on its own break.) “The Mentalist” will continue on Wednesdays through Feb. 18, when its two-hour series finale will air.
Q. I was enjoying the TV show “When Calls the Heart” on Saturday nights on the Hallmark channel. Any idea what happened to it?
A. All 13 episodes from its first season have been televised. Hallmark has ordered a second season for telecast in 2015.
Q. At the introduction of Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show,” the Roots shout out a number (i.e. 154, 163). What is the purpose of this? It’s not the same number every night or not in a row like for every show (154, 155 and so on).
A. The called-out digits represent the episode number. I am not sure if you saw some episodes out of order — if, for example, a rerun was mixed in — or if the shouted number was unclear. But the several clips I checked had called-out numbers matching the episodes. Sometimes, though, you will hear the Roots mention a city after the number; in that case, the number also matches the city’s area code.
Q. What has happened that “Parenthood,” being so popular on TV, has ended filming?? It is one of the last good shows on TV.
A. The NBC drama has had a good run — the current season is its sixth — and very positive reviews. But it was far from one of the more popular shows on television. Indeed, when looking at stories written about it over the year, you’ll see it called a “perennial bubble show,” meaning it was always on the bubble when it came time to decide which shows would be picked up. With a large and reportedly expensive cast, it was in even more jeopardy, especially when NBC was getting more successful in other time slots. So we have come to its final, 13-episode season.
Q. Several years ago, we watched John Larroquette in a show called “McBride.” We really liked it and wondered what happen with the show and Larroquette.
A. “McBride” was part of a group of mystery movies that Hallmark rotated. It aired from 2005 to 2008. Larroquette has not lacked for work since that project ended, having since 2008 appeared on “Boston Legal,” “Deception,” “Almost Human” and other TV shows. He is also set to be part of “The Librarians,” which begins next Sunday on TNT. It’s derived from the series of “The Librarian” movies the network has aired.
MAILBAG UPDATE
I mentioned not long ago that “Mike & Molly” had been held back by CBS for use later in the season. Well, later is just about here. The network is dropping “The Millers” and putting “M&M” on Mondays as of this Monday. That night will have replays of four episodes followed by a “Scorpion” rerun. On Dec. 8, “Mike & Molly” begins new episodes in a lineup of “2 Broke Girls,” “M&M,” “Scorpion” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.”
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