HOLLYWOOD Q&A

Q: Is “Tacoma FD” coming back? If so, when?

A: The good news is that the fictional firefighters of Tacoma, Washington, will stay in business for at least another year as “Tacoma FD” has been renewed for a fourth season. The bad news is — perhaps not surprisingly — that the gang aren’t big planners, so there’s no word yet on a premiere date.

In their defense, it might be a little too early to expect one — the third season only finished airing in December. If that’s an indication (and it probably is), the next season won’t air until the fall.

At any rate, it’s not up to the show’s creators, Kevin Heffernan and Steve Lemme (both of 2001’s “Super Troopers” fame), who also star as Chief Terry McConky and Capt. Eddie Penisi, to decide. The network, truTV, sets the schedule, and it is apparently not willing to look that far ahead yet, regardless of how excited it is about its flagship scripted show.

In an interview with Deadline, network general manager Brett Weitz said he renewed the show because it’s a “perfect” expression of truTV’s brand, which is “really about joking, surprising people, being there for a good laugh, a good time.”

It’s also a pretty good expression of the Broken Lizard brand. Heffernan and Lemme are founding members of that comedy troupe, so if you really can’t wait for more, you could consider some of its other productions.

Start with the aforementioned “Super Troopers” (2001), a cult classic, before going deeper with subsequent films such as 2006’s “Beerfest” or 2009’s “The Slammin’ Salmon” (this one’s a workplace comedy like “Tacoma FD,” so it might be a better bet).

Q: Has Marilyn Milian done any actual acting, beyond her position on “The People’s Court?”

A: A little, but she’s been an extreme victim of typecasting.

Marilyn Milian, the longestserving judge in the long-running court show, joined “The People’s Court” in 2001.

The following year, perhaps to promote the news that she’d stepped into the big gown, she took her first of two acting roles, as a judge in “As the World Turns.” Later, in 2007, she played to her strengths again, playing Judge Alvarez in two episodes of “George Lopez.”

To Milian’s credit, it’s a role she knows well. Like previous “People’s Court” judges, Milian was a real, off-screen judge prior to playing one on TV. (Though the cases she tries are real, what viewers of “The People’s Court” see is actually an arbitration proceeding rather than a legal trial.)

While a bit of a reluctant celebrity at the beginning, showbiz eventually won her over: “I never, ever thought I’d be doing this when I first started out,” she told the New York Post in 2005, “but I really love it.”

Q: Is it true they’re doing a new film series out of the Parker novels?

A: Yes, and that “they” are Robert Downey Jr. and Shane Black, the people behind “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” (2005), a cinematic love letter to just those sorts of books.

Parker, the single-named, violent-but-capable professional thief, was created by legendary pulp author Donald E. Westlake (though he wrote them under the pseudonym Richard Stark). The books have been turned into films numerous times, with Parker being played by superstars such as Lee Marvin (in 1967’s “Point Blank”), Mel Gibson (in 1999’s “Payback”) and, most recently, Jason Statham (in 2013’s aptly named “Parker”).

This time, megastar Downey is taking a turn as the character in a new series of films being written and directed by Black, to be released on the Amazon Prime streaming service. The first installment is titled “Play Dirty,” but that’s about all we know at the moment.

Westlake wrote 24 Parker novels, none of which was named “Play Dirty.” It’s unclear whether Black will be adapting one of the novels under this new title, mashing a few of them together or dropping the character into a brand-new story.

It’s also unclear when curious fans will find out, as no release date has been set yet.

We can give Black and Downey a little bit of trust, though. Their previous noirstyle story, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” showed that they know their way around the genre.

That film built its whole plot around what could go wrong when the fantasy of pulp crime novels like Westlake’s meet modern-day reality. It told the story of a New York City thief who reluctantly teams up with a Hollywood detective to solve a murder tied somehow to the film adaptation of an old crime novel.

Have a question? Email us at questions@tvtabloid.com. Please include your name and town. Personal replies will not be provided.

The cast of “Tacoma FD”