TV Mail Box / Purl, Thayer played ‘Matlock’s’ daughters
Q: I am a big fan of “Matlock,” and I watch all the reruns. How many different actresses played the title character’s daughter? — Leila Johnston, Frankenmuth, Mich.
A: Two. Linda Purl played Charlene, Andy Griffith’s younger daughter and fellow lawyer, during the show’s first season on NBC, then Brynn Thayer played elder daughter Leanne, also an attorney, for a couple of years in the mid-’90s, after the series had moved to ABC. Thayer had a different role in a “Matlock” episode before she joined the show as a regular.
•••
Q: What happened to “Men in Trees”? — Lynn Wilkerson, Des Moines, Wash.
A: The Anne Heche series won’t be back next season. Things were shaky for the show as early as spring last year, when it was replaced on Thursdays by “October Road,” which fared better than expected and delayed the return of “Men in Trees.” (Ironically, “Road” is now canceled, too.) During the past season, “Trees” was on again, then off again; that clearly didn’t help.
•••
Q: Regarding Jasmine Guy, who I have been seeing on television lately — I know the face and the name, but the “when” and “where” escape me. Where do I know her from?— Joanne Wilson, Columbus, Ohio
A: The actress made her first claim to fame as Whitley on the “Cosby Show” spinoff “A Different World” in the late 1980s and early ’90s. She resurfaced televisionwise in a big way in the role of Roxy on the series “Dead Like Me.” More recently, she’s been a host of PBS’ “America’s Ballroom Challenge.”
•••
Q: I am enjoying reruns of “Frasier.” I’m wondering what Jane Leeves and Peri Gilpin have done since the end of the show . — Margaret Reynolds, Denver
A: Leeves hasn’t been all that active, having supplied a voice for the 2006 movie “Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties” and appeared in an episode of the short-lived sitcom “Twenty Good Years.” And that’s pretty much it.
As for Gilpin, she’s been maintaining her career largely through guest roles on series including “Medium,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Side Order of Life” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.”
She also has made several TV movies including “Women of a Certain Age,” “For the Love of a Child” and “Crossroads: A Story of Forgiveness,” and she’s been the voice of professor Kate Corrigan in animated “Hellboy.”
Send questions of general interest via e-mail to tvpipeline@tribune.com .
