‘Shooter’ ended early after its star was injured
You have questions. I have some answers.
Q: USA’s “Shooter” ended rather weirdly. I don’t recall there being any mention of this being the season finale. There seemed to be no resolution of this season’s plot line. Was this the end of the “Shooter” series? Can you clarify?
A: The second season ended, though not quite in the fashion that was once planned. Meant to run 10 episodes, the season was trimmed to eight after the show’s star, Ryan Phillippe, broke his leg during a family trip. According to Deadline.com, he said the break was bad enough to require surgery. “Shooter” was working on its ninth episode of the season, Deadline said, but decided to shut down production and end with the eighth episode. Deadline’s sources said there was a story point in the episode that worked as a season finale, although you clearly felt differently. We don’t know yet if the show will be back for a third season.
While it sounds as if Phillippe was too badly injured to keep going in an action-thriller, some shows adjust to their stars’ offcamera mishaps. Tim Daly, who plays Henry McCord on “Madam Secretary,” broke his right ankle and left knee in a skiing accident during the third season. The show added an injury to Henry in an episode to explain his limited mobility.
Q: Now that Jerry Lewis has died, will the unreleased movie “The Day the Clown Cried” (1972) ever be released on DVD?
A: “The Day the Clown Cried” is the major mystery in Lewis’ filmography, a film that no more than a handful of people claim to have seen, and which Lewis kept locked away for decades before his death Aug. 20 at 91. The story of a clown who leads children into gas chambers in a death camp during the Holocaust, it was plagued by money problems, feuding between director-star Lewis and other participants, and Lewis’ dissatisfaction with the work itself, which was never completed. “I was embarrassed,” he said in 2013. “I was ashamed of the work. And I was grateful I had the power to contain it all and never let anybody see it.” Of course, that has all made some folks more eager to see the film, luring them to YouTube, for example, to look at bits of “Clown” found in a German documentary. But there is an outside chance that audiences will see the film one day. When the Library of Congress acquired Lewis’ collection of his films and other memorabilia in 2015, it included “The Day the Clown Cried.” But the deal held back that film from the public for 10 years. We’ll see what happens around 2025.
Q: I was working outside the U.S. when “Mork and Mindy” was televised, and I was only able to see the show when I visited the U.S. for a week or two each year. Since then, I have never seen or heard of any way to watch the show. Is it available anywhere?
A: The comedy starring
Robin Williams and Pam Dawber is being replayed on Antenna TV, one of several vintage-program services offered as extra product by some TV stations or on cable. You can find out more about it, including where it might be available in your area, at antennatv.tv. The complete series has also been released on DVD.
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