as to

His face is a conversation between his pleased smile and astonished eyes, expressions pushed just far enough into caricature to register as comic, but never so much as to violate the integrity of the character.

As to what keeps him working on the show, when he easily could have stepped away long ago, Brooks says, “Just to be pitching laughs — it just keeps you honest. It’s better than a good gym.”

As to whether the process of making the film helped him resolve any of his own resentment toward his father, he quietly allows, “I’m almost feeling since I did this a little movement in me. But he was definitely a bad, selfish guy who committed, you know, most of the sins.”

As to what Mackey brought to the part, Brooks says, “I thought she could do ‘The Philadelphia Story.’”

The cuts, however, swept far more broadly, leaving cities puzzled at times as to why their programs were frozen or nixed.