It’s no lie: Meryl Streep has a TV past
Q: It’s good to see Meryl Streep in the new season of “Big Little Lies.” Has she done television before? – Heather McCoy, Providence, R.I.
A: She’s done a modest amount of it, but one home-screen role was quite significant in helping her launch her career. She played Inga Helms Weiss – and won an Emmy for the part – in the much-acclaimed 1978 miniseries “Holocaust,” and that wasn’t her only such award, since she earned another Emmy more than 25 years later for playing multiple roles in the HBO version of the play “Angels in America.” Early on, Streep also did the TV movie “The Deadliest Season” and a couple of PBS “Great Performances” productions, and after winning her first Oscar (for “Kramer vs. Kramer”), she returned to television for the Lewis Carroll-inspired “Alice at the Palace.” It was quite a coup for ABC to land her for the 1997 drama movie “... First Do No Harm,” and she has contributed voices to “The Simpsons” and “King of the Hill.” She joined the star-laden cast of the 2003 documentary “Freedom: A History of Us,” and she guest-starred in several episodes of Lisa Kudrow’s “Web Therapy.”
Q: Please settle a bet. How long has “Ellen’s Game of Games” been on? – Kara Wells, via e-mail
A: The NBC program officially started at the very beginning of 2018, but it might seem like it’s been on longer because a number of the games it encompasses originally were played on DeGeneres’ syndicated weekday talk show. “Game of Games” has been a considerable hit for the network, confirmed by the fact that it’s now heading toward its third season.