HOLLYWOOD Q&A

Q: Why can’t I find “Walker, Texas Ranger” reruns anymore? It’s my favorite show.

A: This is a good-news/badnews situation, but it boils down to this: Be patient.

“Walker, Texas Ranger” was once a syndication powerhouse, airing reruns on multiple networks — as unavoidable on the dial as justice in Cordell Walker’s Dallas. And though he may be a little bit scarce right now, there’s reason to believe you’ll be seeing a lot of Walker again soon. In fact, you’ll probably be seeing two of him.

The CW network is rebooting the show with a new actor — “Supernatural” star Jared Padalecki. That show has been delayed, like everything else, by the coronavirus, but will eventually get on the air to inspire a whole new generation of “Walker” fans.

And the nice thing about reboots is they tend to generate new interest in the original. As has been seen with reboots of shows such as “Will & Grace” and “Roseanne,” new versions of the show led to new rerun deals for the originals.

Now for some (potentially) bad news. Those new deals tend to be for online streaming — there have been some purchases for broadcast as well, but for the most part the deals are being made by the Amazon Primes and Netflixes of the new TV world. If you were hoping specifically for traditional-TV reruns, the chances aren’t quite as good.

Q: It seems that a lot of young Disney actors turned into pop stars. Even before Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez, it was Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake. Are they given music lessons or something?

A: Yes, the young stars who start out in the Disney family are given music lessons, but only to build on what they already bring to the table. The real reason the Disney machine cranks out so many pop stars is because the kids who appear on Disney shows are chosen for their raw talent.

Disney isn’t just grabbing cute kids, putting them on TV and hoping for the best. The stars of its various tween-centric shows, most notably the various “Mickey Mouse Club” shows that have aired over the years, are chosen via a continent-wide talent search. Whatever Disney’s branding says, this is more about science than magic.

To get back to your question, once they’ve gone through all that trouble to select talented kids, they aren’t going to leave the rest to chance, either. Nikki DeLoach, a former “All-New Mickey Mouse Club” star who worked alongside breakouts such as Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, said working on the show was “like going to a graduate school for the arts at a really young age.”

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