Hollywood Q&A

Q: On the Season 39 finale of “Survivor,” they seemed to be showing clips from the upcoming 40th season. How is that possible? A: It’s a sort of open secret with reality shows like “Survivor” that the seasons are — and indeed have to be — taped ahead of time. That’s one of the things that make the live reunion episodes so special. People can argue about just how real these reality shows are, but there’s no denying that the footage they record needs to be edited. That alone introduces a time lag. Add that to the fact that the show airs weekly but the contestants don’t get to rest during the intervening six days, and you start to realize how far we’re getting from real time. Seasons are typically recorded months in advance. The episode you refer to in your question, which aired on Dec. 18, was the final episode of a season that was recorded the previous March. But the finales are usually followed by reunion specials, also hosted by Jeff Probst, of course, and those are actually not recorded in advance. The episode you watched was literally recorded that day (they’re often live, but this one was prerecorded). That’s what makes it a “reunion” — the season’s contestants actually hadn’t been together in the jungle for months. Being recorded that day meant the reunion episode was able to show real footage of the upcoming season, which debuted just a few weeks later. That’s because, like all other seasons, Season 40 was recorded months ahead of its premiere. Of course, no one knows all this better than the contestants of Season 40, who are all past winners of the show, including “Boston Rob” Mariano and Sandra Diaz-Twine, who also appeared on Season 39 as mentors. Q: While “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” have video releases, “Captain Kangaroo” now seems forgotten as vintage children’s programming. Is there any chance of an eventual “Captain Kangaroo” DVD release? A: The chance of a DVD release of “Captain Kangaroo” seems slim at this point. But the problem has as much to do with the status of DVDs as it does with that of the show. A few years ago, before online streaming services caught on, it seemed as if every show ever made was getting either a DVD box set or a best-of collection. Or almost every one, anyway. This included, of course, “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which got numerous releases while “Captain Kangaroo” got zero. There are a few possible reasons for this, but the most likely one is demand. The fact is that “Captain Kangaroo” hasn’t sustained its popularity as well as those others. (This isn’t exactly scientific proof, but the most popular “Captain Kangaroo” clip on YouTube has 1.55 million views. The most popular “Sesame Street” clip has 1.3 billion.) This wasn’t always the case. Back in the ‘80s, when the show was fresher on people’s minds (“Captain Kangaroo” aired from 1955 to 1984, with a revival that lasted into the ‘90s), it got a VHS release, but good luck finding that — or a VHS player — today. Returning to the more recent past, if DVD box sets had remained as popular as they were in the ‘90s and early ‘00s, it’s almost certain someone would have eventually gotten around to releasing “Captain Kangaroo.” But that need for content has moved away from the disc business and towards the digital business. Your best chance for finding the show now is checking streaming services. As I said, YouTube at least has small clips available. I should also note that interest in the show has cropped up again in a surprising place — the mind of action star Mark Wahlberg (“Spenser Confidential,” 2020). He said in a 2018 interview with Ellen DeGeneres that he was planning a revival of the show for a new generation of kids, however so far nothing’s materialized.