Question: Can you tell me what is the last name of the family on "Malcolm in the Middle"? I've been watching reruns and don't think I've heard them or anyone else say it.
Answer: That's because they don't have one.
It was a conscious decision by the show's producers, emphasizing the universality of the human condition, dig?
Also, they thought it would be funny if we never knew the last name.
Question: After Farrah Fawcett died some of us were talking about the actresses on "Charlie's Angels" and Cheryl Ladd came up in our discussion. Could you please help me in finding out if Cheryl Ladd is Alan Ladd's daughter or daughter-in-law? My friend and I cannot seem to agree.
Answer: Oh, a "discussion," eh? It didn't involve fisticuffs or heated invective, did it?
Well, rest easy. Ladd was married to David Ladd, Alan Ladd's son, which means that she was his daughter-in-law, except that she married David Ladd 10 years after his father's death in 1964.
Question: There must be a lot of people like me who grew up watching "Howdy Doody." One of the features that I remember from that show is movie clips of "The Three Tons of Fun." I have not been able to find any information on these three gentlemen. Could you help out all of us who remember this trio?
Answer: Gather round, all ye oldsters! I'll wait.
Those silent film clips featured three obese, obscure comics — Frank "Fatty" Alexander, Hillard "Fat" Karr, and "Kewpie" Ross — who appeared in several comedies during the mid-1920s, including "Heavy Love," "Heavy Infants," "Three Fleshy Devils" and "Wanderers of the Waistline." Oh, my sides!
Their final film as a team was in 1928, and they had all passed on by the end of the 1930s.
Question: While studying for my bachelor's in social work, our English professor made us watch a movie with Treat Williams. He goes to the home of a young girl and stands outside her door near his car and eventually he lures her out of the house. I believe the premise was to rape and kill her. I cannot for the life of me remember the story (we read the story) or the name of the movie. Can you name the movie for me?
Answer: Yes — it's "Smooth Talk," released in 1986. Laura Dern plays the girl. It's based on the Joyce Carol Oates story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
Question: Remember "Touched by an Angel"? There was an episode in which Monica was supposed to help a homeless person, so God removed all her angel powers and left her homeless to make her truly understand the situation. Can you find the name of that episode and whether it is available on DVD or video? That would be incredible!
Answer: That's the episode "There But for the Grace of God," from the first season, with guest stars Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Gregory Harrison. It's on DVD.
Question: There was a short-lived show in the late 1980s about a couple who had been killed in an accident and came back to their home as ghosts to discover a new family living there. I can only remember the first episode where this was explained and maybe that was the only episode that aired. Can you help?
Answer: That was "Nearly Departed," which ran on NBC in the spring of 1989. The departed couple was played by Caroline McWilliams and Eric Idle of "Monty Python." The couple in the house was played by Wendy Schaal and Stuart Pankin. And the grandpa of the house, the only one who could see the ghosts, was played by Henderson Forsythe.