Hollywood Q&A

Q: Why did they kill off Diane on “NCIS”? She, Gibbs and Fornell have been my favorites.

A: There are always real-world and story-related reasons for these sorts of decisions, and we can never know for sure which was really the deciding factor. But in this case, it seems more likely Diane died for the story.

When a character is written off, the real-world reasons are always harder to get at — as with romantic breakups, everyone will say it was their idea.

Melinda McGraw, who played Diane Sterling in six episodes across five seasons of “NCIS,” has had a number of larger roles since her character was killed off in 2015. That suggests she was at least all right with the idea of leaving — she had her eyes on bigger things, including leading roles on Cinemax’s “Outcast,” ABC’s “The Crossing,” and, most recently, the CBS All Access crime series “Interrogation.”

However, she appeared pretty infrequently on “NCIS,” so it’s not like her show obligations would have gotten in the way of those other plans anyway. That suggests the writers wanted her death to further the plot.

It certainly did that — she was killed at the midpoint of Season 12, and it raised the stakes for both Gibbs (Mark Harmon, “Chicago Hope”) and Fornell (“Joe Spano, “NYPD Blue”) — both of whom were Diane’s exes — in their hunt for the mad international mercenary, Sergei Mishnev (Alex Veadov, “Svetlana”).

Q: Is comedian Tina Fey related to the disturbed gentleman riding in her car in those Allstate Insurance commercials?

A: Theirs is a professional relationship, but it’s an ongoing one. Technically, the “disturbed gentleman” is the star of those ads — Tina Fey was just doing a guest turn. That means it’s a reversal of their previous arrangement. What makes these ads fun — aside from the mere presence of the delightful Fey — is the fact that they’re a reunion of Fey and an old TV boyfriend. The actual star of the ads is Dean Winters, who played Fey’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Dennis on all seven seasons of her smash-hit sitcom “30 Rock.”

As important as the Dennis character was on that show, Winters is probably now known better for this long-running series of Allstate ads. He’s been doing these for even longer than he did “30 Rock” — his Allstate ads have been running for more than a decade.

The concept of the ad spots is that Winters plays the personification of a range of different hazards — his character even has a (suitable) name: Mayhem.

In the spots featuring Fey, he’s a St. Bernard dog with “poor impulse control,” running amok in the car while Fey is driving. In another, he plays her mother-inlaw, whose aggravating criticisms distract her from the road.

Q: Was “Kojak” based on anything?

A: “Kojak” was based on a couple of things, actually.

Most directly, it was a continuation of the popular and awardwinning telefilm “The MarcusNelson Murders,” which aired in 1973 on CBS. That film introduced audiences to Detective Theo Kojak, an honest cop who suspects some of his fellow detectives of framing a young black man for murder. The film, in particular the character, was a hit, and so later that year CBS premiered the “Kojak” series.

However, before either the show or the movie was the book, though it had a different title and a complete absence of Kojak. “Justice in the Back Room” was a non-fiction book by Selwyn Raab that alleged police brutality and the forcing of false confessions by the New York Police Department. The telefilm tackles the same issues, but hands the crusading work to a hero cop instead of a tenacious journalist.

The book is worth looking up if you’re a fan of the show — it was nominated for a prestigious Edgar Award in 1968 for best true crime book of the year. Raab has also written other books, mostly focusing on the mafia in America.

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