‘American Odyssey’ has ended for Friel

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Q: My husband and I watched “American Odyssey.” Is NBC going to bring it back, and if not, can we please see a conclusion?

— Karen Erwin, Powell, Ohio

A: You’ve seen as much of the Anna Friel-starring drama as you’re going to see. NBC declined to renew it for a second season, and its ratings wouldn’t seem to justify a special concluding story being produced. We feel your pain, but this is the gamble for all viewers of investing in a continuing story that may not have all the loose ends tied up when its season ends.

Q: I recently saw the “Criminal Minds” episode that introduced the new spinoff that will star Gary Sinise. When will that show begin?

— Ed Carlyle, Kingman, Arizona

A: Yes, the parent show repeated that episode last month — and it likely will turn up on CBS again right before “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders” has its official premiere. The network is holding the new show for midseason, and depending on how other series fare when the fall lineup starts, it could turn up at any time. The best bet for that is early next year, though, which was what happened with “CSI: Cyber” when “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” spawned that — and that also paid off in being able to cash in on star Patricia Arquette’s then-recent Oscar win for “Boyhood.”

Q: Will “Togetherness” be back?

— Megan Wade, Wheeling, West Virginia

A: It will, and it’s a happy circumstance for the seriocomic HBO series that took a while to make it onto the schedule. Not only did the show’s traditional-telecast ratings justify the renewal, so did its performance in other platforms (mobile, On Demand, etc.) It won’t return this year, but in the meantime, co-star Mark Duplass — whose brother Jay is a major creative force behind “Togetherness” — can be seen in the final season of the FXX comedy “The League” starting Sept. 9.

Q: What happened to “The Cycle,” “Now With Alex Wagner” and “The Ed Show” on MSNBC?

— Dot Lesar, Reading, Pennsylvania

A: Andrew Lack, the relatively new (or, more accurately, returned) chairman of NBC News — and in that role, also the overseer of MSNBC — made one of his first decisions for the cable network to overhaul the weekday-afternoon lineup, putting the emphasis on breaking news. Several hosts, including Wagner, are remaining with MSNBC, while others such as Ed Schultz, Abby Huntsman and Toure have left.

Q: It seems there’s no “Bachelor” show without Chris Harrison, as “Bachelor in Paradise” proves again this summer. Where did he come from?

— Alice Morse, via email

A: If you mean professionally (geographically, he was born in Dallas), his career began in local television … Oklahoma City, to be exact, where he was a sports reporter. He then worked for a horse-racing channel and began as host of HGTV’s “Designers’ Challenge,” and then in 2002, “The Bachelor” first appeared and gave Harrison a career-making job.

The franchise has spawned not only “Paradise” and its aptly titled after-show “After Paradise,” but also “The Bachelorette” (of course) and “Bachelor Pad.” And as for other jobs it has brought Harrison, he becomes Terry Crews’ successor as host of the syndicated “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” starting Sept. 14.

Q: How come movies that were shown on a regular basis on Turner Classic Movies — such as “Sabrina,” “Rear Window” and “High Noon” — are not shown at all now?

— Tom Barr, Columbus, Ohio

A: It has to do with the licensing of a given title. As vast as its library is, TCM doesn’t necessarily hold the telecasting rights to a film forever, and those have to be renegotiated with the related studio … as with “Sabrina” (owned by Paramount) and “Rear Window” (originally made by Paramount, but now owned by Universal).

It’s virtually certain you’ll see all the films you named on TCM again at some point, since after all, the channel deals in screen classics and all three of those titles surely qualify, However, the exact “when” of when they’ll reappear there is hard to predict.

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