Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review.

Q: Did the actor who played Vince on CBS’s “Fire Country,” Billy Burke, quit the show, get fired, go do different things, or did he die?

— Calvine, via Facebook

Rob: Burke did not die, but his character did.

Producers have said they killed off Vince to show firefighting is dangerous work and sometimes lives are lost, but given the cast reductions on other CBS series of late, my guess is the character actually met his maker due to budget tightening.

Q: Why wasn’t Steve Kornacki on MSNBC on Election Day?

— Anthony, via voicemail

Rob: In the split between NBC and MSNBC – NBC is spinning its declining cable networks (except Bravo) into a separate company, Versant – Kornacki chose to go with NBC News, where he’ll appear on “Meet the Press” while also providing broader political and sports coverage, per Politico.com.

Q: I saw your article on Ken Burns’ “The American Revolution.” Will it be released on home video for purchase?

— Clarence, Scottdale

Rob: Yes, this PBS docuseries will be released for purchase on DVD ($55) and on Blu-ray ($70) on Nov. 18.

In addition to airing on WQED 8-10 p.m. Nov. 16-21, the full series will be available to stream on Nov. 16 at PBS.org and in 4K Ultra HD on the PBS app.

Q: On “The Brady Bunch,” it’s made clear that Mike (Robert Reed) was a widower, but nothing was said of Carol’s (Florence Henderson) status, yet an article said she was divorced from her husband. If so, why was it never mentioned and then why did the girls not have their father’s last name? Nothing was mentioned about Mike adopting them and having their last name changed to Brady.

— Peter, via Facebook

Rob: The 1960s were a very different time and what was permissible on TV was also different then. “Brady Bunch” creator Sherwood Schwartz said he always intended Carol to be divorced, but network standards and practices did not want that mentioned in the show, so that surely extended to the kids’ last names and whether or not Mike formally adopted the children as his own.

Looking back at what I wrote about the show in my 1997 book, “Gen X TV: The Brady Bunch to Melrose Place,” I was reminded of something Schwartz told me in a mid-1990s interview that I’d long since forgotten: There was talk of extending the series beyond five seasons and if that would have happened, they would have killed off Mike because Reed hated being on the show (Reed thought the series was insipid and beneath him, but he did care for the young actors who played the Brady kids). And in the book “Bradymania,” Schwartz said there’d been some conversations about killing off Mike and then bringing back Carol’s first husband and revealing he’d been missing with amnesia.

While the ‘90s “Brady Bunch” theatrical films are not canon in the way “The Brady Bunch,” “The Brady Brides,” “A Very Brady Christmas” and “The Bradys” are, Carol’s MIA first husband does figure in the plot of 1996’s “A Very Brady Sequel.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)