INFORMATION PLEASE
Will Chicago Fire be coming back for another season? Or was that the series finale we saw, and it’s now moving over to Chicago PD? Rose Adami, Red Deer, Alta. Chicago PD, starring Jason Beghe, Jon Seda, Jesse Lee Soffer and LaRoyce Hawkins in the roles they originated on Chicago Fire, is a spinoff of, not a replacement for Fire, which, as you’ve probably discovered by now, is still going strong. NBC pre- empted it several weeks running for holiday programming and the season finale of The Voice, but it returned with new episodes last month. How many years has It’s a Wonderful Life been an annual Christmas Eve television tradition? Mary Stark Though it had been around on TV before, the Frank Capra- directed 1946 classic really took off as a home- screen staple in the late 1970s and early 1980s, after the basic copyright on the film had been accidentally allowed to lapse. Many outlets then latched onto it, and particularly with the growth of cable, you usually could find some channel starting it every hour on the hour from Christmas Eve well into Christmas Day. That changed in the mid- 1990s, when Republic Pictures claimed it was the owner of the story ( Philip Van Doren Stern’s The Greatest Gift) on which the rights to any film version — in other words, It’s a Wonderful Life — was based. The claim was supported legally, and a deal was made with NBC to become the exclusive television presenter of the movie, which it continues to be twice annually during the end- of- year holidays. I thought one of the best shows on TV last year was The Bridge. Is it coming back? Alice Lee It is. FX has picked up the mystery series starring Diane Kruger and Demian Bichir for a second round, slated to begin in the summer as Season 1 did. There will be a change behind the scenes for the sophomore turn, since Meredith Stiehm — an executive producer and developer of the show, along with Elwood Reid — has left to return to the staff of Showtime’s Homeland. However, Reid still will be present and in charge.