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Television Q&A: Will there be more incidents of 'Murder in a Small Town'?

Rich Heldenfels, Tribune News Service on

Published in Entertainment News

You have questions. I have some answers.

Q: Do you know if “Murder in a Small Town” is coming back?

A: It is. Fox has picked up the series starring Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk for a third run. Based on a series of novels by L.R. Wright, it is not on the fall schedule but will be back later in the 2026-27 season. And it is adding a major player, Fox says: Peter Gallagher (“The Idolmaker,” “Covert Affairs,” “The OC”) as “Rod Finlayson, a charismatic, uber-independent, capable yet unreliable figure, whose arrival at the Gibsons’ marina on his beloved boat sets up a sequence of upheavals that Alberg (Sutherland) and Cassandra (Kreuk) will have to grapple with.”

Q: I've been watching the first season of “Law & Order” and noticed something with Episode 6, "Everybody's Favorite Bagman.” The star George Dzundza is thinner than in Episode 1. And Detectives Greevey and Logan introduce themselves to Assistant District Attorney Paul Robinette when it appears they know each other in Episode 1. Is there a reason why Episode 6 is out of place and should really be Episode 1?

A: “Everybody’s Favorite Bagman” is in fact the first episode ever made of “Law & Order,” shot as a pilot for CBS before that network passed and NBC picked up the series for its long run.

NBC decided to air the pilot later in the first season — presumably because it thought the other episodes were a better audience draw — even if that caused some confusion for viewers. Networks have done this with quite a few shows. NBC’s “Homicide: Life on the Street” offered two notable examples. In one, an episode with Robin Williams was moved from a late-season slot to the beginning of a season to lure viewers. In another, the death of a major character was muddled by out-of-order airing of episodes around the death.

Q: Is “Alaska: The Last Frontier” not coming back? I watched it for several years and then it was gone.

 

A: The reality series about the Kilcher family, Alaskan homesteaders, ended in 2022 after 11 seasons. There are still repeats out there, including on HBO Max. And the Kilchers have been active on YouTube.

Q: I am looking for a movie I saw many years ago, do not know the name, and only remember some of the story. Two people were stranded on an island. The woman was very famous and pretty, and the man was lower class. At first he was going to force himself on the woman, but he decided not to do that, and said she would later decide on her own to love him. As time went on, she learned to love him! When they spotted a boat which could rescue them, the woman said just forget any rescue and let us just stay on the island. But the man wanted to get rescued. And when they got back to civilization, he had a poor wife and family. Is that enough information, and is the movie available?

A: The man/woman/island plot has been well used, including in 1998’s “Six Days, Seven Nights” with Harrison Ford and Anne Heche and 2002’s “Swept Away,” with Madonna. You may have seen that “Swept Away,” or the 1974 film it remade, called “Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August.” Written and directed by Lina Wertmüller and starring Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato, it was far better received than the 2002 movie.

Wertmüller was a political and social provocateur, praised by some (including with an honorary Oscar later in her career) but called by one critic “a woman hater who pretends to be a feminist.” Still, the movie is available as a disc, download or streaming, as is the 2002 version.

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©2026 Tribune News Service. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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