Ariana DeBose had a Choice reaction
Q: On the recent Critics’ Choice Awards, was Ariana DeBose truly as upset as she looked that she was referred to as one of several actors who thought they were singers? – Julie Hart, via e-mail
A: In a later social-media post, she said that she didn’t find that comment embedded in a presenter’s introduction — which also referenced Jack Black and Ryan Gosling the same way — very amusing. That’s quite understandable, given DeBose’s considerable stage work in musicals (including “Hamilton” and “Summer:
The Donna Summer Musical’’), and certainly her Oscar-winning performance as Anita in the Steven Spielberg-directed 2021 version of “West Side Story.” Frankly, anyone who has seen DeBose’s hosting stints on the Tony Awards, or her work on Apple TV+’s “Schmigadoon!,” would be hard-pressed to deny her musical abilities, so we were as confounded by the Critics’ Choice Awards remark as she was. We have every confidence she’ll get the last laugh with some future project, and very likely more than one, with reviews at that time sure to reference and dismiss that Critics’ Choice jab at that time.
Q: I enjoy watching repeats of “Mannix.” Did Mike Connors do another series before that? – Jim Battle, Sacramento, Calif.
A: He did. After making a number of movie and television appearances throughout the 1950s — including in the 1956 epic “The Ten Commandments,” which billed the former basketball player by his nickname, “Touch” Connors — he starred in the 1959-60 show “Tightrope!,” a CBS offering as “Mannix” was. He played an undercover cop whose specialty was assimilating himself into criminal operations.
“Tightrope!” lasted only one season, then Connors went back to a steady mix of TV and movie work until the private-detective saga “Mannix” began in 1967. That series lasted eight seasons, with the Lucille Ball-run Desilu studio producing it originally. Connors did his own stunt work on the show, some of which was shown famously in the opening credits — and that wasn’t without its perils right from the start, since he reportedly broke his wrist and dislocated his shoulder while making the first episode. Connors also had a later series, “Today’s FBI,” on the 1981-82 ABC schedule. He played the leader of the series’ investigative team, with one of his agents portrayed by Carol Potter, later the “mom” of twins Brandon and Brenda Walsh in “Beverly Hills, 90210.”
Q: I have a copy of the TV-movie “Us” with Michael Landon, and I was informed that a complete season of it was made but has never been aired. I am wondering why this first and only first season has sat on the network’s shelf for all these years. — Joseph Brill, via e-mail
A: Very simply, you were misinformed. Only that pilot episode for “Us” was made, since Landon’s cancer was diagnosed soon after that was filmed and precluded him from doing the full series. He died at the start of July 1991, and CBS aired the “Us” pilot the following September in tribute to him. Also in the cast was Barney Martin, who played Liza Minnelli’s father in the 1981 movie “Arthur,” and later would appear as Jerry’s dad in “Seinfeld.”
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