TV Talk with Rob Owen category, Page 14
TV Talk: ‘Constellation’ starts strong, ends weak
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. PASADENA, Calif. — “Constellation” is one of those post-“Lost,” labyrinthine shows, the kind of series that may or may not ever provide satisfying answers or reach a decent conclusion. It’s a twisty conspiracy thriller with...
TV Talk at TCA: Pittsburgh native who won equal rights for flight attendants featured in PBS’s ‘Fly with Me’
PASADENA, Calif. — Growing up in Swissvale, Mary Pat Laffey Inman was familiar with the work of unions, but she had no idea just how important they would be to her career as a flight attendant. Her efforts to gain pay and benefit equality with men changed the airline industry’s...
TV Talk at TCA: W.Pa. natives Billy Gardell, Paige Spara say goodbye to ‘Bob (Hearts) Abishola,’ ‘The Good Doctor’
PASADENA, Calif. – It’s the end of the road for two prime-time broadcast series starring Western Pennsylvania natives. Billy Gardell’s CBS sitcom “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” and Paige Spara’s ABC drama “The Good Doctor” will call it quits by the end of the strikes-shortened 2023-24 TV season in May. ‘Bob (Hearts)...
TV Talk: Filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘American Rust’ streams season 2 on Prime Video in March
PASADENA, Calif. — After Showtime canceled filmed-in-Pittsburgh “American Rust” following its first season, Amazon’s Freevee said it would pick up the crime drama starring Jeff Daniels. But Amazon’s Prime Video announced Thursday the show will stream on Prime (not Freevee), confirming my reporting from late last year. The new season,...
TV Q&A: Why do local TV stations employ so many weather forecasters?
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: Why does KDKA-TV have so many weather forecasters? I know for a fact that I can get better weather forecasts for my exact location with...
TV Talk: Reporter Tori Yorgey exits WTAE-TV
WTAE-TV reporter Tori Yorgey, who arrived at WTAE-TV in January 2022 after becoming a viral sensation when she was hit by a car during a live shot at her previous station, will depart Channel 4 after Feb. 21 for a new job at sister-Hearst station WBAL-TV in Baltimore. She will...
TV Talk: Jon Burnett comforted by viewer support after former KDKA-TV host’s diagnosis revealed
For former KDKA-TV weathercaster and “Evening Magazine” and “Pittsburgh Today Live” host Jon Burnett, it wasn’t a difficult decision to share the story of his suspected CTE diagnosis. However, answering a question about it can prove challenging due to the disease’s effects. Then Burnett’s charming, folksy personality comes through clear...
TV Talk at TCA: Penn State grad consults on Hallmark’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’
PASADENA, Calif. – As part of its “Loveuary with Jane Austen” programming stunt, Hallmark Channel debuts a new production of “Sense and Sensibility” (8 p.m. Feb. 24) under its African American-focused Mahogany banner. A Penn State grad helped bring the story of the Dashwood sisters to life. Before she was...
TV Talk: PBS explores ‘Breaking the News,’ plans for America’s 250th
PASADENA, Calif. – PBS’s “Independent Lens” chronicles the 2020 start-up website 19thnews.org, co-founded by Emily Ramshaw, in the film “Breaking the News” (10-11:30 p.m. Feb. 19, WQED-TV). Ramshaw, who is featured heavily in the film, has ties to Pittsburgh and perhaps a genetic nose for news. Her mother, Mary Leonard,...
TV Talk: Best/worst Super Bowl ads; Pittsburgh native Jeff Goldblum appears in 3
Advertisers largely avoided weird, non-sequitur ads in favor of celebrity-starring commercials during Super Bowl LVIII. And often the spots didn’t feature just one star — additional bold-name folks made cameos. Pittsburgh native Jeff Goldblum not only starred in an Apartments.com ad but he also had a cameo in a Homes.com...
TV Talk: WPXI-TV back on DirecTV; Jon Burnett and CTE
A little more than a week after Cox Media Group stations, including Pittsburgh’s WPXI-TV, went dark on DirecTV, the two companies reached a deal. Channel 11 is now back on DirecTV. The retransmission dispute began on Feb. 3 and was resolved just in time for Cox-owned CBS stations in other...
TV Talk at TCA: ‘Percy Jackson’ and its Pa. teen star plot 2nd season; ‘Ghosts’ returns
PASADENA, Calif. – Last week, Disney+ renewed “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” for a second season that will be based on the novel “Sea of Monsters” and on Saturday, the show’s three young lead actors described how their lives have changed since the show’s premiere. “Mostly it’s been with my...
TV Talk at TCA: ‘Space Race’ profiles Black astronauts; Peak TV peaks
PASADENA, Calif. — “The Space Race: The Untold Story of the First Black Astronauts” (9 p.m. Monday, National Geographic Channel; next day on Hulu, Disney+) profiles NASA legends past and present, including Ed Dwight, who had a successful military career before he was recruited to an Air Force training program...
TV Talk: W.Pa. pups compete in ‘Puppy Bowl XX;’ area native hosts ‘Rescue Bowl’
Super Bowl Sunday has gone to the dogs — this time to some dogs with local ties. The annual pet-centric tradition of “Great American Rescue Bowl” (noon-2 p.m. today, Great American Family), hosted by Fox Chapel native Beth Ostrosky Stern, and “Puppy Bowl” (2 p.m. today, Animal Planet, Discovery, TBS,...
TV Talk at TCA: More ‘Dead’ on ABC, AMC
PASADENA, Calif. – The dead live with the return of comedy “Not Dead Yet” on ABC and “The Walking Dead” franchise expanding yet again on AMC. ‘The Walking Dead’ It’s easy to be cynical and suggest AMC has gone to its undead well one, two or three too many times...
TV Talk at TCA: Andie MacDowell sees ‘Groundhog Day’ parallels in Hallmark series; PBS profiles ‘Gospel’
PASADENA, Calif. – Actress Andie MacDowell stars in Hallmark Channel’s “The Way Home” (9 p.m. Sunday), a multi-generational family drama in its second season about Kat (Chyler Leigh) and her daughter (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) who can travel between the past and present via a pond on the family’s land. They’re in...
TV Talk at TCA: CBS premieres ‘Tracker;’ BET+ debuts ‘Diarra’
PASADENA, Calif. – For his first post-“This is Us” series, actor Justin Hartley goes the procedural route with CBS’s “Tracker,” debuting Sunday after “Super Bowl LVIII” (approximately 10 p.m.; subsequent episodes will air at 9 p.m. Sundays, KDKA-TV). Hartley stars as Colter Shaw, a self-described “rewardist” who tracks down missing...
TV Q&A: Does WPXI have a new sports anchor?
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: Is Shelby Cassesse a new sports anchor at WPXI or is she just filling in until Alby Oxenreiter returns? — Ryan, via email Rob: Cassesse...
TV Talk at TCA: CBS’s ‘Watson’ will be set in Pittsburgh; Apple TV+ explores ‘New Look’ of post-WWII Paris
PASADENA, Calif. – Last month, CBS announced a straight-to-series order for “Watson,” a medical drama starring Morris Chestnut (“The Resident,” “Rosewood”) as Dr. John Watson, who resumes his career a year after the death of his friend and crime-solving partner, Sherlock Holmes. Sounds like the kind of drama procedural that’s...
TV Talk: WTAE hires news director; ‘Dish’ returns on WPCB
WTAE found a news director to fill the shoes of Jim Parsons, who will retire later this month. Baylor Long, currently news director at sister Hearst station WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Ala., joins Channel 4 on March 4. Long will be a familiar face in the WTAE newsroom: Before his stint...
TV Talk: WPXI-TV goes dark on DirecTV; Waterston exits ‘Law & Order’
As of Saturday morning, WPXI-TV is no longer available to DirecTV customers, the latest retransmission dispute that impacts local viewers, this time between Channel 11 parent company Cox Media Group and DirecTV. In a statement at WPXI.com, the station says, “DIRECTV has dropped WPXI from its lineup.” In its competing...
TV Talk: Millennial ennui meets ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. The 2005 film “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” worked well as both a high-concept thriller and as a coming out for the romantic relationship between stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who played married assassins hired...
TV Talk: KDKA adds co-hosts to ‘Talk Pittsburgh’
After rotating through a number of top-of-show hosts in recent months, KDKA-TV has settled on a co-host for Heather Abraham on “Talk Pittsburgh” (3 p.m. weekdays). Beginning Monday, Abraham will be joined by Mikey Hood (“Pittsburgh Today Live”) and Kelly Dzanaj, on-air personality at Star 100.7 FM. Boaz Frankel, who...
TV Talk: FX debuts dull ‘Feud;’ WQED-TV covers Carnegie International
Usually, FX is eager to get TV critics’ opinions on its shows in advance of a premiere, so its marketing team can splash positive notices all over ads in Hollywood trade magazines, burnishing the network’s deserved brand of quality, critically applauded, award-winning entertainment. Most of the time these embargoes, the...
TV Q&A: Why more than 1 color analyst on Penguins games?
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: I was sorry that Pens ownership dropped Bob Errey as a color analyst on TV broadcasts. This season has rotated at least three different announcers....
