Q: When a series ending with a cliffhanger is canceled, is there some reason why a popular culture columnist couldn't ask the producers how they had envisioned resolving the cliffhanger?

A: There's no rule. The question does get asked. Sometimes you do find interviews where producers talk about what might have been. One producer, having left her main character shot and bleeding in the first-season finale, tersely said that since the show was canceled, the character was dead. But other times the producers may hold back because they hope their show will still get picked up somewhere and they want to keep the story going. And I know of at least one case where the writers on the show had not yet figured out a key plot point because they thought they would have more episodes to work it out. Then they didn't.

Write to brenfelsgmail.com.