Happy Friday, everybody! Time for another installment of Ask Alan, where I take your questions about the past, present, and future of TV.
First up this week, I talk about shows that had to rewrite ongoing storylines because actors died during production. This is a bit different from shows that simply had to write out deceased stars, like John Ritter with 8 Simple Rules or Phil Hartman on Newsradio, and focusing specifically on one where there was some kind of major serialized story — or a planned one — that had to be scuttled or changed due to real-life tragedy.
After that, I speculate about what will happen if there’s another Writers Guild of America strike like the one that briefly shut down the TV and movie businesses in the winter of ’07/’08. If nothing else, those of us on the viewer side of things will have far more things to watch than the last time around, since Peak TV means we all have a ton to catch up on.
And we wrap things up with a more personal/process question: after doing this job for over 20 years, how do I keep feeling fresh, enthusiastic, and not jaded?
As always, you can send questions to askalan@uproxx.com, or tweet at me with the hashtag #AskAlanDay.