Submit your question to Rob Owen

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about "Mad Men," "Big Love" and Wendy Bell. As always, thanks for reading, and keep those questions coming.

-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor

Q: Watching this season's "Mad Men" has got me wondering about the very real companies (e.g., Utz chips, Playtex bras, American Airlines, etc.) that are being used as fictional clients, or potential clients, of the Sterling Cooper agency. Are these companies paying for product placement in the series? Do they have any say in how their companies are portrayed, whether through the fictional ad campaigns thought up at Sterling Cooper, or how their fictional representatives behave (i.e., this week's episode where Playtex reps went to a strip club after their meeting and took the Sterling Cooper staff with them)?

-- John, 49, Green Tree

Rob: The examples John gives were all used fictionally, none are product placement. Whether the brands are contacted in advance is handled on case by case basis, I'm told by an AMC representative.

Since the characters playing company representatives are fictional, I don't think there is any legal jeopardy for "Mad Men."

It sounds like Utz certainly appreciates the free publicity.

Q: Is it not cost-effective to have closed captioning for movies shown on Turner Classic Movies (some are, some aren't)?

-- Kathy, Toledo, Ohio

Rob: According to a TCM publicist, the network is in the process of captioning as many films as possible and currently has close to 80 percent of its movies captioned.

"Unfortunately distributors don't always provide captioned versions of their films and because we play almost 400 movies per month, we can't get to each film," she said.

Q: Do you know when "Big Love" is returning to HBO? They have been showing repeats all summer and I thought they would be starting in September, but "True Blood" is on Sunday nights. I really enjoy "Big Love" and I think it is well written and entertaining. Any help you can give me would be appreciated.

-- Pam, 51, Swissvale

Rob: We reported in July that "Big Love" will be back in early 2009.

Q: With Niecy Nash now on that horrible Fox show "Do Not Disturb," what is going to become of her hosting duties with "Clean House"? I've seen some recent episodes of "Clean House" where Debi Gutierrez and Lisa Arch ("Corey in the House") have done the hosting duties. Are they replacing Niecy with one of these two women or possibly someone else?

And by the way, I didn't see your review of "Do Not Disturb" until after I had a chance to watch it myself, and now I wish that I had. Do Not Watch is right! That show needs to be canceled and canceled NOW! -- Ray, Pittsburgh

Rob: According to a Style publicist, Nash is still part of "Clean House" and will continue to appear in the show's seventh season, although some substitute guest hosts may be tapped.

I don't expect "Do Not Disturb" to last much longer so I think Nash will soon be available to star in more "Clean House" episodes.

Q: Why do some networks get their shows online in a day and others it takes weeks? I missed the most recent episode of "Monk" and when I went to the USA Web site it's not on there yet. Same for "House." Fox would not show the most recent episode until the next one ran. Yet CBS seems to have their shows up the next day.

-- Chris, 32, Mt. Lebanon

Rob: I couldn't find anyone at the networks who was eager to discuss the strategy, but here's what I could piece together. A show like "Monk" airs multiple times in its first week on the air. So USA holds the online availability of those episodes until all the airings throughout that week have happened.

A question to TV Guide this week inquired about The CW's policy on streaming episodes of "90210." Their policy is to post that show three days after it airs -- and likely after people have watched it on their DVR if they didn't watch it live. It's all designed to preserve ratings for the show on TV as much as possible.

Q: I don't want to be like the folks who constantly write you when a personality is missing from a program for a short while.

In this case though, I believe this lady has been gone for a lengthy time and we miss her bubbly personality. She is Wendy Bell of Channel 4 fame.

We keep waiting to see her and she continues to be a no-show. Is there a problem, is she ill or is she just on a protracted vacation?

Please help us put this question to rest.

-- Don, 70, Freedom

Rob: We reported this summer that Bell gave birth to twins in June and returned to the air soon after while the babies were still in the hospital. Once they were out of the hospital, Bell began her maternity leave.

She's expected to be back on the air by early October at the latest.

Q: Any insight on why KDKA has not launched any digital subchannels? Both WTAE and WPXI have a weather channel and WPXI also has RTN.

-- Mike, 36, McCandles

Rob: I suspect KDKA is waiting for CBS, its corporate owner, to devise a strategy for making use of digital subchannels for all its owned stations.

"At this point we do not have specific plans to launch an additional channel using this space," said KDKA general manager Chris Pike. "We currently plan to begin providing HD local news service very early in 2009."

A caller named Jenny wanted to know why WPXI is no longer airing "Merv Griffin's Crosswords." We reported last month that it was no longer in production. Jenny bemoaned the lack of game shows on TV, particularly in prime time (even though there are more competition series in prime-time now than there have been in the past 30 years).

She said, "When you get up in age, too much romance ..."

I'm not sure where she was going with the notion of too much romance and elderly viewers but the call ended shortly after that curious comment.