TV/FILM Q&A

Q. I am looking for a Bud Abbott and Lou Costello movie where they have a hilarious routine where someone would say “Hocus pocus” and then it was, “Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch. ...” I have a dinner bet on this with my brother. He claimed it was the Three Stooges.

A. I think you should split the dinner check. You’re both right.

“Slowly I turned” is a vintage comedy routine. In its basic form, after hearing a significant phrase, one performer turns on another, saying, “Slowly I turned ...” and then pounding on another player. The comedy builds as the second performer keeps inadvertently saying the key phrase, getting another pounding.

The Abbott and Costello version you recall, with “Pokomoko” as the trigger, is in their movie “Lost in a Harem” (1944). The Three Stooges did the routine, with the phrase “Niagara Falls,” in their short “Gents Without Cents,” also from 1944.

Q. Any word about “The Unusuals” coming back?

A. It wasn’t popular with enough viewers. ABC decided not to pick it up for a second season.

Q. I am completely hooked on the NBC series “Kings.” After viewing the season finale, I am wondering if that is the end of the series. Do you know if it will return next season?

A. It will not. According to published reports, Angela Brom- stad, NBC’s scripted-programming boss, said recently that “Kings” “was a very complex idea. ... We thought it was just a little too highbrow and a little bit too difficult to sell in a 30-second spot. It doesn’t mean that we’re not looking for big ideas, but they have to be big ideas that the audience sort of can grab onto and be a little bit more relatable.”

Q. A few episodes ago on “Burn Notice,” the closing credits named Michael Weston as a guest on the series. Is this the real secret agent that appeared on the show?

A. “Burn Notice,” with Jeffrey Donovan as spy Michael Westen (not Weston), is fictional. There is an actor named Michael Weston, who guest-starred in an episode of “Burn Notice.” He has also had roles on “House” as Lucas Douglas, a private eye hired by House; “Six Feet Under”; and “Scrubs.” Born Michael Rubinstein, he is the son of actor John Rubinstein and grandson of the great pianist Artur Rubinstein.

Q. I saw a movie in the 1970s or ’80s about our moon landing. I can’t remember the name of it or who was in it. The movie was about our moon landing being filmed in a Hollywood studio and not being real. Do you know the name of the movie and whether or not it is out on DVD?

A: You are probably thinking of “Capricorn One,” a 1978 film starring Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Sam Waterston, O.J. Simpson and Hal Holbrook. The movie actually involves the faking of a mission to Mars, but it uses techniques that have been discussed by the goofballs who still insist the moon landing has been faked. The film is on DVD.

Q. Do you know which season and episodes of “JAG” introduced Leroy Jethro Gibbs and the rest of the “NCIS” crew?

A. Gibbs, played by Mark Harmon, and several other future “NCIS” stars first appeared in a two-part telecast of “JAG” called “Meltdown” and “Ice Queen,” which aired in April 2003, the show’s eighth season. “NCIS” premiered the following September. That season of “JAG” is on DVD.

Contact the writer:

rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com