Q: I thought I knew everything about "Magnum, P.I." with Tom Selleck but found out how wrong I am. I knew about his being married and his wife, Michelle, supposedly killed, then her being alive but married to someone else. I thought that was it.
Then, watching reruns recently, I saw that Michelle came back with a little girl who turns out to be Magnum's daughter. (She looked just like him.) Then Michelle really got killed and the little girl stayed with Magnum.
I would love to know where the story went from there.
A: Not very far. It appears that you saw "Resolutions," the two-part series finale from 1988. It ends with Magnum back in the Navy and finally with a shot of him and his daughter walking on the beach.
Hail to the Chief
Q: What happened to the Chief on the show "Gimme a Break"? He was looking all sickly, then in one episode they held a tribute to him. Was it the character or the actor, Dolph Sweet, who was in a bad way?
A: It was Sweet. Playing the gruff police-chief boss to a housekeeper played by Nell Carter, Sweet died of cancer in May 1985 after four seasons on the series; he also reportedly missed several episodes in the third season because of stomach surgery. When the show came back for its fifth season, the Chief had also died.
Sweet, by the way, had an intriguing career beyond "Gimme a Break," including Broadway and movie roles. The Los Angeles Times noted that his acting career began in a German prison camp during World War II, "when his fellow POWs staged a one-act play."
"After the war he was trying to break into acting but instead accepted a job at Barnard (College) that 12 years later found him heading the college's drama department." But he did finally become a known actor.
E-mail brenfels@gmail.com.
