There once was show a lot like 'Lost'

Answer: Darn that Michael Jackson! Oh — you mean the other moonwalk, the one with astronauts. At any rate, the show you recall is "The New People," which aired on ABC in the fall of 1969. The show was created by Rod Serling, and it was unusual in that it was only 45 minutes long, paired in a 90-minute time slot with another show, "The Music Scene." Richard Dreyfuss was one of the castaways.

Question: I am trying to find the name of an old movie. It is about two men who kidnap a little boy. The little boy is so bad that the kidnappers have to pay the town to take him back. I would like to know if it is out on video or DVD.

Answer: The plot is from the O. Henry story "The Ransom of Red Chief," and there have been several TV and movie versions. The earliest is a segment in the 1952 film "O. Henry's Full House," with Fred Allen and Oscar Levant as the kidnappers and Lee Aaker as their "victim." Then there's a 1998 TV version with Christopher Lloyd and Michael Jeter as the kidnappers and Haley Joel Osment as the kid. And there's a 1975 TV version with Jack Elam and Strother Martin as the kidnappers and Pat Peterson as the kid. Only the 1975 version is on video.

Question: Can you tell me the title of a movie from the 1950s? A young woman was the daughter of a black woman, but the daughter passed for white. She treated her mother shamefully, and what I remember most is the scene where the mom's funeral procession goes by and the daughter is filled with regret. Can you give me the name?

Answer:That's the 1959 film "Imitation of Life," which starred Lana Turner, Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner as the daughter. It's on video, in case you were wondering.

Question: Whatever happened to Gary Frank, who played Willie Lawrence on "Family"? He and Glynnis O'Connor also starred in a show that I loved (but no one else ever even heard of) called "Senior Year."

Answer: Oh, yeah? Well I've heard of it. The show was actually called "Sons and Daughters," and it ran on CBS for about three weeks in 1974. The TV movie — the show's pilot — was called "Senior Year." But to the matter at hand: Gary Frank isn't doing much these days. His most recent credit is the 1999 movie "Vic," and he's appeared in such TV movies as "Like Father, Like Santa" and "House of Frankenstein."