INFORMATION PLEASE
Julia Louis- Dreyfus: New series is Veep.
Whatever happened to The New Adventures of Old Christine? It was one of the funniest shows on TV, and now there seem to be only reruns. Joanne Teraguchi
While Julia Louis- Dreyfus won an Emmy Award for her delightfully quirky performance in the title role, her sitcom suffered through a roller- coaster ride in the ratings as CBS moved it around the schedule. The network cancelled the show at the end of its fifth season, back in May 2010. Happily, Louis- Dreyfus returns to TV this spring in the new HBO comedy series Veep, in which she stars as the vice- president of the United States.
I’m a big fan of the 1960s series
Batman starring Adam West. Will it be coming out on DVD any time soon? Mario Lowe,
A few years ago, Warner Home Video made preliminary plans to bring the show to home video in conjunction with the theatrical release of one of the current Batman movies ... until Fox Home Entertainment ( which holds the rights) said in effect, “Hold it. That’s ours.” There have been all sorts of rumours over the years regarding the reason for the holdup, and if those get resolved, you’ll surely hear about it, since a DVD release of the Batman series will be a major media event.
I would like to know why TV programs are starting to have a black stripe on the top and bottom. I have a large- screen TV and end up not using its full potential. Herman Mcclure
It’s called “letterboxing,” and while not all networks do it with all programming, it’s become a fairly common thing in recent years. It’s meant to give more of a movie- like dimension to shows, and if you watch a channel such as Turner Classic Movies, you’ll note that it also presents many of its attractions in that format. Most televisions today allow you to select the ratio of the image on your screen, so you can “zoom” it to fill the available area, though you’ll lose some of the picture on the left and right sides. If you use a cable box, many of those also have such an option.