TV Talk with Rob Owen category, Page 43
TV Q&A: Local TV news can be a transitional business
Q: What is going on at WTAE? The station has lost what I believe to be exceptional, diverse on-air talent. Chris Lovingood and David Kaplan leaving was unexpected, but Kelly Frey, really? WTAE has to know this is not a good look for them and I’m sure they’ll take a...
TV Talk: Curiosity Stream turns ‘Spotlight’ on Beaver Falls native Joe Namath
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Nonfiction streaming service Curiosity Stream goes “Beyond the Spotlight” for an episode dedicated to Beaver Falls native Joe Namath. Now streaming, “Beyond the Spotlight” debuted this fall with three episodes about celebrities who are trying...
TV Talk: Showtime thriller ‘Yellowjackets’ merits buzz
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. “Alive” meets “Lost” in “Yellowjackets” (10 p.m. Sunday, Showtime), an engrossing, character-driven thriller about a 1996 New Jersey high school girls’ soccer team whose chartered plane crashes in the wilderness leading to “Lord of the...
TV Talk: Lynne Hayes-Freeland calls it a career; documentaries with Pittsburgh ties debut at DOC NYCVideo
From her earliest days producing “The Roy Fox Show” on KDKA-AM to her current noon-3 p.m. weekday radio show on the same station, to her years covering news and public affairs on KDKA-TV, Lynne Hayes-Freeland has been a consistent media presence in her hometown for more than 40 years. That...
TV Q&A: Why are so many TV reporters leaving Pittsburgh?
Q: Another person leaving WPXI-TV with the departure of Michele Newell. What’s going on at that station in recent times? — Gary via Facebook Rob: Newell left Channel 11 and her hometown of Pittsburgh for a reporter position in the larger Atlanta TV market at a station that’s part of...
TV Talk: ‘American Rust’ ends 1st season on multiple cliffhangers
Spoiler warning: This article includes spoilers for the season-one finale of Showtime’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh “American Rust” that aired at 10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7. While the first season of “American Rust” began at a glacial pace, the show steadily improved through its nine-episode run, culminating in Sunday’s chickens-coming-home-to-roost first-season finale. If...
TV Talk: Steelers legend Jerome Bettis guest stars on CBS sitcom ‘The Neighborhood’
Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome “The Bus” Bettis guest stars on Monday’s episode of “The Neighborhood” (8 p.m., KDKA-TV) as himself. The storyline finds Calvin Butler (Cedric the Entertainer) running into Bettis at a restaurant and learning the Hall of Famer grew up knowing Calvin’s wife, Tina (Tichina Arnold),...
TV Talk: Disney+ debuts new episodes of ‘The World According to’ West Homestead native Jeff Goldblum
When Disney+ launched in November 2019, “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” was among the first original series to be available. The quirky “Jurrasic Park” star, who grew up in West Homestead, explored everyday items and occurrences in season one, from ice cream to sneakers, including an episode on tattoos...
TV Talk: ‘Dexter,’ ‘Yellowstone’ return for new seasonsVideo
Disney+ has its Marvel Cinematic Universe. HBO Max has its “Game of Thrones” spin-off in the works. Paramount+ has placed its bets on the Taylor Sheridan cinematic universe. Granted, it’s not quite as high-profile – plenty of folks may be scratching their heads wondering who Sheridan is at this point...
TV Talk: Kelly Frey exits WTAE after 2 decades
Viewers had a hunch something was up. They’ve noticed the more frequent absence of anchor Kelly Frey on WTAE’s morning newscasts in recent weeks. This week, her absence was particularly notable given that it’s November sweeps, and usually that’s not a time news anchors take vacation. Wednesday morning, Channel 4...
TV Q&A: Why is a KDKA-TV reporter filing stories from home?
Q: KDKA-TVs Bryant Reed has been reporting from, what I gather is his home, for what seems like a few months now, longer than quarantining for covid-19 exposure. Hopefully, he is okay and this is his choice. — John via email Rob: This is not a covid quarantine. Reed broke...
TV Talk: Feel-good ‘Highway to Heaven’ is back as a cable movie series
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. ^ This week, Lifetime delivers the first in what is intended to be a series of “Highway to Heaven” movies with Jill Scott taking over as the angel from the late Michael Landon, who starred...
TV Talk: Judge Judy returns; ‘Dead and Buried Treasures’ gives a ‘Chiller Theatre’ vibeVideo
Two premieres in the week ahead deliver public access TV looks, but only one is an actual public access TV show. ‘Judy Justice’ With the “Judge Judy” show over (reruns still air on WPXI-TV at 3 and 3:30 p.m. weekdays), retired Manhattan Family Court Judge Judy Sheindlin has a new...
TV Q&A: Why no Steelers game coverage on KDKA-TV morning news?
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 doesn’t KDKA do morning-after pieces the day following Steelers games, whether they win or lose? They seem to ignore sports stories including the Steeler...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh native Jamie Widdoes helps evolve CBS sitcom ‘B Positive’
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. When CBS’s “B Positive” debuted in November 2020, it was a meh sitcom with a big question mark hanging over it: Once button-downed Drew (Thomas Middleditch) got a kidney from high school classmate wild child...
Mike Holden cleared by doctors to return to WPXI-TV
WPXI-TV reporter Mike Holden, who’s been out on medical leave since early September, says doctors have cleared him to return to work at Channel 11 next week. In September, Holden posted to social media that he was suffering from a potential case of popliteal artery entrapment syndrome that didn’t allow...
Experts weigh in on ‘Rust’ tragedy: How can a prop gun be deadly?
Mt. Lebanon native and actor Joe Manganiello’s reaction probably mirrored that of many inside and outside the entertainment industry when hearing the news that actor Alec Baldwin “discharged” a prop gun Thursday on the set of his Western “Rust” in New Mexico. It killed the film’s director of photography, Halyna...
TV Talk: ‘4400’ is the latest in TV’s remake/reboot trendVideo
Now more than ever, Hollywood loves “IP,” also known as “intellectual property” that can range from TV and streaming series based on a book to the frequent practice of rebooting familiar TV and movie titles. The latest example: “4400,” premiering at 9 p.m. Monday on The CW and based on...
TV Q&A: Where is Rylan’s Tavern on filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘American Rust’ located?
Q: Do you know where the bar under the bridge in “American Rust” is? It looks familiar. — Rob via email Rob: The underside of the bridge may look familiar (it’s in Rankin) but the exterior of the bar may not: Per showrunner Dan Futterman, it’s part-flats, erected for filming...
TV Talk: ‘Doc Martin’ star Martin Clunes returns in a 2nd season of ‘Manhunt’
With production of the final season of public television hit “Doc Martin” delayed to 2022, series star Martin Clunes revisits the lead role in his other British franchise, “Manhunt.” Streaming Monday on Acorn.tv, the four-episode second season, “Manhunt: The Night Stalker,” chronicles a real-life investigation of a burglar and serial...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh native Tom Savini’s documentary goes wide; ‘Succession’ returns
Although it’s been available on streaming service Shudder since late 2019, the documentary “Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini” becomes more widely available Tuesday for rent or purchase via digital streaming on-demand (iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, XBox) and cable on-demand (Comcast, DirecTV, DISH Network). A Blu-ray release will...
TV Q&A: Which Pittsburgh TV newscasters have worked for 3 stations?
Q: Now that Susan Koeppen anchors WPXI-TV’s 4 p.m. broadcast, it completes her local news station hat trick (working for all three local news broadcasts.) Wondering if there are others, but the only other person I came up with is Alby Oxenreiter, who did stints on WTAE-TV and WPGH-TV before...
TV Talk: ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,’ other ‘Peanuts’ specials back on PBS this yearVideo
Fans of Charlie Brown and “Peanuts,” rejoice: The three most popular “Peanuts” TV specials will be available on PBS and PBS Kids as well as at their new home on Apple TV+. Last year the “Great Pumpkin” didn’t air on broadcast TV but after an uproar, Apple shared the Thanksgiving...
TV Talk: Christian Bale, director Scott Cooper return to Pittsburgh for Netflix movie that’s seeking extras
Actor Christian Bale will make his third movie in Pittsburgh (after “Dark Knight Rises” and “Out of the Furnace”) and director Scott Cooper returns for his second (after directing “Out of the Furnace” in Western Pennsylvania) with Netflix’s “The Pale Blue Eye.” Pittsburgh Film Office director Dawn Keezer confirmed production...
TV Talk: Michael Keaton talks Steelers and Hulu’s ‘Dopesick’
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. It’s not just producers and casting directors who have been stuck in their thinking on what roles an actor can and should play. Audiences sometimes have the same blinders. Remember when Pittsburgh native Michael Keaton,...
