What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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January 29 - February 4, 2023 WHATS UP! T11 Q: Am I right in noticing essentially the same plot in two black-and-white "Gun- smoke" episodes? About a disgruntled farmer who comes into Dodge to seek revenge? The dialogue was even similar in the two epi- sodes. A: We have to cut the writers some slack here — there are only so many Wild West sto- ries to tell, and "Gunsmoke" had to come up with enough to fill 20 seasons. Two popular story wells they often drew from were: vigilante justice and honest farmers done wrong. The epi- sodes you refer to just hap- pened to draw from both at the same time. Indeed, these were popular enough story tropes for the classic western series (which ran on CBS from 1955 to 1975) that I couldn't actually pin- point which episodes you're referring to. My best guesses are the Season 2 episode "Exe- cutioner" and the Season 4 in- stallment "Lynching Man." But your description could also apply to a few others. And so, you're certainly right that "Gunsmoke" got re- petitive with its storylines. You know who else agrees with that? Burt Reynolds. The late screen legend (star of 1977's "Smokey and the Ban- dit" and loads of other clas- sics) got his start as a young actor in "Gunsmoke" in 1962. He played an angry young man named Quint Asper who's tak- en in hand by Marshal Dillon (James Arness). In the book "The Gunsmoke Chronicles," by David R. Greenland, Reynolds said that he quit the show after two sea- sons because it got "boring." "The bottom line is the job had become boring. Each week, Quint got insulted. Then Jim [Arness], after spending six days in Hawaii, would show up on the set and beat up the guy who insulted me." Q: Is that thing about the contract clause in "See How They Run" true? Could they not produce a film version of "The Mousetrap" until the play closes? A: Incredibly, it is true. And it could be why there has never been an English-language ad- aptation of "The Mousetrap" to this day. Agatha Christie, the legend- ary novelist who also wrote "The Mousetrap," insisted in her contract that a film adapta- tion couldn't be made until the play's run closed. She feared that if the end of the mystery became widely known, people wouldn't go to see the play for themselves But it turns out she didn't need to worry. "The Mousetrap" has never actually closed, and is now the longest-running play of all time. And the contract clause is still in place — though there have been adaptations in other lan- guages, there's never been an English-language "Mousetrap" film. This clause is, as you say, a central point in the plot of last year's indie mystery "See How They Run." The film is a long- form tribute to Christie and her work in shaping and populariz- ing the whodunit mystery. Have a question? Email us at questions@tvtabloid.com. Please include your name and town. Per- sonal replies will not be provided. Advance Pest Control 2 x 2 TAKE 5 BY ADAM THOMLISON TV Media Q: Has John Goodman ever done a singing role? He has such a distinctive voice, so I'd love to hear him sing. A: If your goal is just to hear John Goodman (of "Roseanne" and "The Connors") sing, then the 1998 big-screen sequel "Blues Brothers 2000" has you covered. According to most crit- ics, it doesn't deliver much else. This 18-years-later sequel to the cult classic "Blues Broth- ers" (1980) is one of the most hated cinematic followups of all time. ("It makes an audience pay for every two seconds of pleasure with 10 seconds of pain," the San Francisco Chron- icle's Mick LaSalle said). The soundtrack was about the only thing that people liked about it, and that had a lot to do with Goodman's big baritone voice — he plays a member of the tit- ular Blues Brothers band, so he gets to show it off quite a bit. That voice also got him some of his earliest lead roles. He was one of the main characters in the oddball 1986 musical film "True Stories," a passion proj- ect from Talking Heads singer David Byrne, and got to per- form an original Talking Heads song ("People Like Us") writ- ten specifically for the film. A few years later, he played the title role in the modest co- medic hit "King Ralph" (1991). He got to do a couple of musi- cal numbers as a low-rent lounge singer who, through a pretty convoluted set of cir- cumstances, becomes the King of Great Britain. This, and his imposing six- foot-two frame, all led up to the day he got to play a singing bear. And not just any singing bear — the "Bare Necessities" singing bear. Goodman had the honor of voicing Baloo in 2003's "The Jungle Book 2," another long- awaited sequel, though this one was a good deal more popular. This is despite the fact that the wait was even longer: 36 years after the original animated classic "The Jungle Book" (1967). Playing Baloo meant he got to put his own stamp on "The Bare Necessities," an Oscar- nominated classic from the original film that's one of the most beloved Disney songs of all time. John Goodman and Dan Aykroyd in "Blues Brothers 2000" HOLLYWOOD Q&A Solution on page T23 Use the clues above and beside the grid to fill in the squares www.advancepestcontrolnwa.com Family Owned, Competitively Priced, Quality Service Since 1981 Rogers 479-636-5590 Springdale 479-756-1788 Eureka Springs 479-253-8967 PEST CONTROL TERMITE FERTILIZATION WEED CONTROL PRE-EMERGENTS