‘The Leftovers' will return
for abbreviated final season
You have questions. I have some answers.
?
A: Yes, for a bit. The series will return for its third and final season of eight episodes in April. HBO's announcement said nothing about the plot in the mystery-laden series, but it did confirm that the cast will include Justin Theroux, Carrie Coon, Amy Brenneman, Kevin Carroll, Christopher Eccleston, Scott Glenn, Lindsay Duncan, Regina King, Jovan Adepo, Janel Moloney, Margaret Qualley, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Liv Tyler and Chris Zylka.
?
A: It will. CBS picked up a second season of the series, but has not yet announced a return date.
?
A: The series was “The Torkelsons,” which aired on NBC in 1991-1992 and again in 1993 with a changed premise and name, “Almost Home.” (Although it wasn't exactly what you described, we were able to verify this after you looked at videos posted on YouTube.) Olivia Burnette was Dorothy Jane Torkelson, teen daughter of Millicent (Connie Ray). “Grace Under Fire,” by the way, aired from 1993 to 1998.
?
A: Not to be confused with a web series of the same name, the 1975 drama “Beacon Hill” was indeed, as “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows” says, hoping to capitalize on the success of “Upstairs, Downstairs.” It accordingly features tales of a Boston family and their household staff in the 1920s. Despite a cast that included Edward Herrmann and Nancy Marchand, it failed to hold an audience and lasted only 13 episodes. I do not know of an authorized DVD release.
?
A: Well, a lot of the time, the news makes us sick. More seriously, there are a lot of drug ads on all of TV — 80 per hour by one estimate — and in 2015, the American Medical Association called for a ban on such commercials because “growing proliferation of ads is driving demand for expensive treatments despite the clinical effectiveness of less costly alternatives.”
On the other hand, health economist Austin Frakt wrote in the New York Times that ads not only help sell the promoted product but have side benefits. They can boost sales of other drugs dealing with the same condition and encourage visits to doctors to discuss medication. “For stigmatized conditions, like depression and other mental illnesses, drug ads may serve to normalize them, encouraging sufferers to seek treatment, even if it's not with the specific advertised drug,” he said.