Hollywood Q&A

Q: Where did Victor Garber get his start? Is he still acting?

A: It might not surprise you to learn that the urbane, charming Victor Garber got his start on the stage.

Before he became a hugely respected supporting star on film and TV, thanks to roles such as Jack Bristow on the early ‘00s spy series “Alias” and Ambassador Ken Taylor in “Argo” (2012), he was a theatrical guy in Canada. In fact, he started in a children’s acting troupe when he was just nine years old.

His first major screen role was actually a translation of one of his first big stage roles: He began playing Jesus in a Toronto production of the popular musical “Godspell” in 1972, alongside fellow Canadian acting greats Eugene Levy (“Schitt’s Creek”) and Andrea Martin (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” 2002). That production was filmed and released as a feature film in 1973. It was even nominated for a prestigious Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival.

His career basically followed this dual path afterward, and he’s been moonlighting on stage and screen ever since.

But his most recent gig also came with a pretty fun side story: He had a small supporting role in the recently released Apple TV+ miniseries “The Last Thing He Told Me,” which reunited him with Jennifer Garner, his on-screen daughter on “Alias.”

Q: What are those ball-shaped items they all wear as necklaces on “Naked and Afraid”?

A: Once you find out, it makes perfect sense. Those little hollowbead necklaces the contestants wear on “Naked and Afraid” contain microphones.

In normal circumstances, this task would be accomplished by a little clip mic attached to a collar or lapel. But the “naked” part of the show means the survivalists don’t have such things to attach to.

Indeed, the only thing they have is the one personal item each contestant is allowed to bring with them into the wild, which they carry in a burlap satchel.

But therein hides another production secret: The satchels also hold little transmitters and battery packs that the necklace mics need to work.

These are pretty clever workarounds to the tricky problem — a longstanding challenge of the reality-TV era — of making a show that records people who are supposedly alone.

Q: I feel like I remember a ‘50sstyle detective show with Josh Brolin, but it aired in the ‘80s. Did I dream that up? Why have I never seen it in reruns or ondemand anywhere?

A: You don’t see “Private Eye” anywhere now because it was a total flop then. It didn’t even get a full season when it first aired in 1986-1987.

If that surprises you, you aren’t alone. It was a surprise to a lot of people at the time, who expected it to be the next “Miami Vice,” literally and figuratively.

“Private Eye” was figuratively seen as the next “Miami Vice” — the smash-hit, mid-’80s TV series that became a wider cultural phenomenon, influencing fashion, music and more — because it was created by “Vice” co-creator Anthony Yerkovich.

“Private Eye” was also literally the next “Vice” because NBC chose to schedule it right after “Vice” on Friday nights.

When “Private Eye’s” weak ratings started coming in, people wondered if that was maybe the wrong move. The L.A. Times said at the time there was “speculation about TV audiences perhaps being burned out on high-style shows.”

“Private Eye” was also, unfortunately, hugely expensive to make — Yerkovich himself told the Times that it cost $1.25 million per episode.

And so the series, about a couple of 1950s Hollywood detectives played by former soap star Michael Woods (who was Dr. James Reardon on “Guiding Light”) and a pre-fame Josh Brolin (just off his debut role in 1985’s “The Goonies”), was cancelled.

And since no one bothers to make 13-episode shows from 40 years ago available today, this all adds up to “Private Eye” being a memorable show that has nonetheless been forgotten by the economics of TV.