You have questions. I have some answers, including a lot of trips in the Wayback Machine.
The movie “Starman” has always been one of my favorites, and I still watch it once in a while. What I never have understood is why they never made a sequel as Jenny was left pregnant by the Starman.
There was, in a way. The original movie “Starman,” from 1984, starred Jeff Bridges as an alien who takes the form of the dead husband of a grieving widow (Karen Allen). It was widely admired, with one reviewer praising it for “sensitivity, love and humor seldom seen on today’s screens.”
Although the Starman returned to his planet at film’s end (he would die if he stayed on Earth), there seemed to be more story to tell. So, in 1986, came the TV series “Starman,” with Robert Hays in the title role. According to “Total Television,” the series was set 14 years after the film; Starman returned to Earth to help the son he had fathered and to find the missing Jenny. The series ended after a single season, with the finale having father and son reunited with Jenny (now played by Erin Gray). That appeared to be the end of the story — until 2016, when a planned “Starman” movie remake was announced.
I hope you can help me find the name of a movie I saw on TV, around 1995. It was about a group of people reuniting on the anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy and starred Lauren Bacall, Jeanne Moreau and an English actor whose name I do not remember. I live in a senior community with many World War II veterans and the movie would be perfect for our viewing on the anniversary of D-Day.
The film, originally shown on the BBC in 1993, is called “A Foreign Field.” The cast included Alec Guinness, Leo McKern, Edward Herrmann, John Randolph and the actresses you mentioned. It has been released on DVD. I have seen it for sale on Amazon.com or you may want to check your local libraries to see if it’s available there.
My favorite show was “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” with Jane Seymour but I cannot find the reruns lately. Is there any way to see it?
Episodes of the 1993-98 series are listed for the Hallmark Drama channel (which is a channel apart from the Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and Hallmark Movies) several times a day. Check whether your TV provider carries it.
The entire series has also been released on DVD; you could see if your local libraries carry it. Amazon.com has episodes available for digital viewing — for a fee, or at no extra cost with a Prime membership.
Would you help me with a nagging question? With the announcement of old shows getting new life breathed into them (“Will and Grace,” “Roseanne,” etc.) are you aware of any effort to bring back my favorite from decades ago, “Banacek”?
I am not, with one exception I will mention in a moment. For those of you tuning in late, “Banacek” starred George Peppard as the ultra-cool insurance investigator Thomas Banacek, who was especially good at sorting out seemingly impossible cases. It aired during the heyday of mysteries on NBC, the most enduring of which was “Columbo,” but “Banacek” had only a brief run in 1972-74. I do not know of any current plans to bring it back. However, you are not the only diehard fan. In March “The Simpsons” had an episode called “Homer Is Where the Art Isn’t” featuring a dead-on parody of “Banacek,” with Bill Hader giving voice to an investigator named Manacek. You can find that On Demand and on the Fox Now streaming service.
