Q: Wow — what happened? Why did they have my favourite actor, Elias Koteas, who played Alvin Olinsky on “Chicago P.D.,” die on the show? Did Elias want to leave or were there other factors? I will still watch “Chicago P.D.” but it won’t be the same without Detective Olinsky.
A: Olinsky was a casualty of the show’s complicated storytelling around Olinsky, Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) and Denny Woods (Mykelti Williamson). Executive producer Rick Eid told Entertainment Weekly that “Once that Woods-Voight-Olinsky storyline really became front and centre and we started thinking of ways to dramatize it and play it through to its honest conclusion, it was an idea that just kept coming up.” It was a powerful way of making Voight pay a price for his actions, and “an interesting way for Olinsky to exit.” And in this case the narrative overwhelmed the producers’ love for Koteas, whom Eid called “a great actor and a great person.” Eid told US Weekly that breaking the news to Koteas was “just horrible.”
Q: I was a big fan of the original “Hawaii Five-0.” With the newer series I was hoping for a remake of the original version — with a few updates — but these two scruffy guys, sleeves rolled up, often driving around in a truck, and hardly ever in their office, just don’t make it for me. I realize the world has changed in the past 40 years, but this is ridiculous. I suppose it plays well to the younger crowd, though.
A: Since the series has been picked up for its ninth season in the fall, yes, there are people who like its blend of action, humour and Hawaiian locations. It reportedly has an average of 11 million viewers per week, good enough to rank among the 20 most-watched shows on network TV. It is not nearly as successful among viewers 18 to 49 years old, who are often sought by advertisers. But the series’ overall audience is noteworthy because, as the Los Angeles Times noted some time ago, fewer people are watching TV on Friday nights than on Sunday through Thursday.
“Five-0” has another advantage for CBS: it is very successful internationally, bringing additional money to the network through overseas sales. And a top CBS executive told the Times that around the world “action adventure and escapist entertainment translate very well. The language is less important.”
Q: In the early ’90s there was a show on Fox about a James Bond-type secret agent, which was filmed in central Florida. What was the name of the show and who were the stars?
A: That was “Fortune Hunter,” which aired on Fox for a few weeks in 1994. Mark Frankel starred as Carlton Dial, a former spy now taking on jobs around the world for a private company called Intercept. John Robert Hoffman was Harry Flack, Dial’s tech-savvy associate. While Intercept was supposedly in San Francisco, Florida filled in for that and other locations on the series. But, even with NFL football as a lead-in, the show did not catch on.
Q: I remember a show called “Filthy Rich” that was a spoof of “Dallas” on the same network as “Dallas.” It starred Dixie Carter. Who else was on it and who sang the theme song?
A: “Filthy Rich” was indeed a parody of prime-time soaps, with a family fighting following the death of wealthy patriarch Big Guy Beck. Airing first in the summer of 1982, it was a surprise hit (and very funny) and CBS brought it back the following October, where it did not do well in the ratings; it was over in 1983. Besides Carter, the cast included Delta Burke, Charles Frank, Jerry Hardin, Ann Wedgeworth and Nedra Volz. Big Guy was originally played by Slim Pickens, then by Forrest Tucker after Pickens’s sudden death. The series’ creator was Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who would rocket to TV fame with the grand “Designing Women” in 1986 — a series that, as you probably noticed, also featured Carter and Burke.
As for the theme, country hitmaker Bucky Jones — who wrote the song — told me it was sung by Ronnie McDowell.
