Will ‘Mystery 101’ return or is it a cold case?
You have questions. I have some answers.
Q: I am a fan of “Mystery 101” on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and can’t seem to find out if they will be bringing the series back in 2023 as they left off with a teaser in the last show. Can you please find out if this series has been renewed?
A: The series of movies starring Jill Wagner, Kristoffer Polaha and Robin Thomas has had viewers on edge since late 2021 when the seventh movie aired — and none followed. Lee Goldberg, who co-created “101,” told me that the show’s huge fan base was “understandably frustrated” by the long delay. Unfortunately, the frustration is going to be deeper. In a Facebook comment, the network said, “We want to let you know that our talented sleuths have solved the last mystery and are off the case.”
It’s not the first time that cancellation left a TV show’s cliffhanger unresolved. But that doesn’t make it any easier to bear.
Q: I’m coming up on 90 years old and have forgotten the name of a “scary” movie my folks took me to when I was 6 or 7 years old in the late 1930s. It had Bob Hope in it, and I think that was the reason they took me — that or to get a few dinner plates they passed out back then to get people to go to the movies. I just can’t remember the name of it.
A: There were a couple of comedies-with-frights around that time in Bob Hope’s career: “The Cat and the Canary” in 1939 and “The Ghost Breakers” the following year, both starring Hope alongside Paulette Goddard. When we chatted, you confirmed that “Cat and the Canary” was the one you remembered. “The Movie Guide” calls it a “spooky comic romp” with Hope in one of his “wisecracking but spineless” roles.
As for those dinner plates, younger folks may not know that during the Depression, giveaways were one method for getting people into theaters. The International Museum of Dinnerware Design not long ago presented a special exhibition on “Dish Night at the Movies,” which pointed out that the dish giveaways were especially useful on theaters’ slow nights in the middle of the week. And customers could come back week after week to build up a dishware set.
Q: What happened to the second half of “Buried in Barstow” with Angie Harmon?
A: As I have mentioned before, the hit movie for Lifetime confused the heck out of people with a cliffhanger ending (we’re back to that) and a “to be continued” note. The plan at the time was to make several movies. But Harmon told Charlotte Magazine a couple of months back that A&E Networks (which includes Lifetime) has picked up the project “and we want to turn it into a series. Right now, we’re working out the script and series arc.” It’s also being shopped to Netflix, Hulu and Peacock, Harmon said. She noted proudly that the film brought unexpectedly large numbers of male viewers to Lifetime, a network more associated with women.