TELEVISION Q&A: WILL 'TULSA KING' KEEP AIRING ON NETWORK TV?

You have questions. I have some answers.

Q: I just finished watching the first season of “Tulsa King” on CBS. Will the second season also be on CBS? I don’t have Paramount+.

A: More than once the broadcast networks have brought streaming fare to their schedules only to return the shows to their (subscription-based) streaming homes with the hope that viewers will follow the shows to the streamers. This was especially noticeable during the Hollywood strikes last year as the networks filled gaps in their schedules with streaming series. But it has also happened with summer schedules needing filler. CBS accordingly added the first season of the Sylvester Stallone series “Tulsa King” to its lineup not long ago — but has no plans right now to carry the second season, which has begun on Paramount+.

Q: Can you explain why in TV show credits after the main cast is listed, there is always one last one where the star is named and the character played, such as “and Andy Kaufman as Latka Gravas" or "Michael D. Roberts as Rooster”?

A: While there’s not always a name with that position, it happens often. One article described the practice as one negotiated by actors’ agents “to bring added distinction to an actor.”

By the way, for those of you tuning in late, Andy Kaufman played Latka on the comedy “Taxi” and Michael D. Roberts’ Rooster was on the police drama “Baretta.”

Q: I was wondering if you know of a TV show from the ‘60s, perhaps British, in the vein of “The Twilight Zone.” The opening credits were in a deserted amusement park at night, with a ride on a roller coaster. I’ve been wondering about this for years.

A: Wonder no more. That’s “Journey to the Unknown,” a made-in-England anthology series that aired on ABC in 1968-69. It “focused on psychological horrors,” says “The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows.” Producers on “Journey” included Norman Lloyd and Joan Harrison, both of whom had collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on other projects.

Q: Any idea where I could find the movies about Dobermans robbing banks?

A: It may surprise some of you that there is a movie trilogy about highly trained dogs — “The Doberman Gang” (1972), “The Daring Dobermans” (1973) and “The Amazing Dobermans” (1976) — along with two Doberman-themed TV series pilots in 1980. (Neither went to series.) I have found a DVD of the first two films; one seller is Amazon. “The Doberman Gang” is also streaming, via Hoopla and for a fee at Prime Video, Apple TV and Fandango at Home; “The Daring Dobermans” is also on Prime, Apple TV and Fandango.

Q: On “Midsomer Murders” the episode “Vixen’s Run” has a scene at the graveside of Sir Freddy and a poem with the line “Do not stand at my grave and weep.” It would mean a great deal to me to know the entire poem. Was it written for the show or is it really in published form? Who wrote it?

A: The 2006 episode drew on a poem called “Immortality,” published in a magazine in 1934 and written by Clare Harner. Others took credit for the poem as it became popular at funerals over the years, sometimes with variations in the wording; still, as the journal Notes & Queries reported in 2018, the best case for authorship is Harner’s. Here is the poem:

Do not stand

By my grave, and weep.

I am not there,

I do not sleep—

I am the thousand winds that blow

I am the diamond glints in snow

I am the sunlight on ripened grain,

I am the gentle, autumn rain.

As you awake with morning’s hush,

I am the swift, up-flinging rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight,

I am the day transcending night.

Do not stand

By my grave, and cry—

I am not there,

I did not die.

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2024-09-19T15:55:30Z dg43tfdfdgfd