Rob Owen stories, Page 40

Rob Owen
Rob Owen
Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff, dies at 88
TV Talk: ‘What If…?’ imagines alternate scenarios in the Marvel Cinematic Universe 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Animated Marvel series “What If…?” is a bit of a detour from the ongoing story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but for die-hard fans it offers some tantalizing alternate scenarios featuring some of the MCU’s...
TV Talk: Fox returns to ‘Fantasy Island,’ FX introduces winning ‘Reservation Dogs’ 
Two series premieres over the next week show the strategic contrast facing TV network executives and viewers: Take the safe, easier path and order a new version of an existing show or dare to try something new. ‘Reservation Dogs’ FX still aspires to be the basic cable version of HBO...
TV Q&A: Didn’t Peggy Finnegan retire from WPXI-TV?
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: What is the story with Peggy Finnegan? I thought that she had recently retired yet I see her back as an “Olympics commentator.” Was this...
TV Talk: Terry Bradshaw’s E! series returns this fall for season 2 
The sophomore season of E! reality series “The Bradshaw Bunch,” starring former Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, will premiere at 9 p.m. Oct. 6. The show’s first season averaged 2 million total viewers across all platforms, which E! says made the show the most-watched new series on the network among total...
TV Talk: Local TV news goes under the microscope in comedic HBO docu-series 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. A local TV newsroom has been the setting for plenty of past series, whether fiction or non-fiction, but the six-episode “Small Town News: KPVM Pahrump” (9 and 9:30 p.m. Aug. 2, HBO and HBO Max)...
TV Talk: Where are these former Pittsburgh TV news anchors now?
While the dog days of summer TV no longer exist, I’m taking a break from the rushing river of new content this week to catch up with some former local TV personalities. Brenda Waters One of the most-liked Pittsburgh TV anchors/reporters of recent decades by both viewers and her newsroom...
TV Q&A: Why are there so many hours of local evening 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: Once again news channels in Pittsburgh are expanding their coverage and starting earlier at 4 p.m. or adding a later edition at 7:30 p.m. Do...
TV Talk: Showtime releases new ‘American Rust’ trailer 
After debuting a teaser in June, Showtime has released a trailer for the nine-episode first season of “American Rust,” which is set and currently filming in Western Pennsylvania in advance of the show’s 10 p.m. Sept. 12 premiere. This new trailer leans more into the story involving Del Harris (Jeff...
TV Talk: Locast now offers free streaming of Pittsburgh TV stations
Cord-cutters take note: Locast is offering free, local broadcast television signals via streaming in Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh, Locast delivers more than 40 local channels, including all the major broadcast channels (KDKA, WPXI, WTAE, WQED, WPGH, WPCW) and their digital subchannels, including StartTV (2.2), Cozi (4.2), MeTV (11.2), Comet (22.3) and...
TV Talk: Ming-Na Wen’s Mt. Lebanon ties may have kept her ‘Mandalorian’ character alive 
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. She’s been an animated princess warrior in “Mulan,” part of the Marvel universe on ABC’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” and now actress Ming-Na Wen is tearing up that galaxy far, far away in two “Star Wars”...
TV Talk: Won’t you be Ted Lasso’s neighbor? 
It’s perhaps unsurprising that Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso” became a critical hit two years after a Mister Rogers renaissance and a few months after the final episode of “Schitt’s Creek” premiered. “Ted Lasso,” returning for its second season July 23, filled a goodness void. Not treacly, sitcom-y, audience-goes-“awwwwwww” banality but...
TV Talk: Netflix’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘The Chair’ releases trailer
The trailer for Netflix’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh “The Chair,” which premieres on the streaming service Aug. 20, introduces Sandra Oh’s Pembroke University English department leader and some of the challenges she faces, including her relationship with another professor (Jay Duplass) who’s gotten himself into a “serious reputational matter” (what he did is...
TV Talk: Peggy Finnegan returns to WPXI-TV temporarily
In November when she announced her retirement, WPXI-TV anchor Peggy Finnegan said she’d potentially return to the air at Channel 11 for special coverage. This week she’ll be back on TV as part of the station’s coverage of NBC’s broadcast of the Tokyo Olympics. Tuesday night Finnegan posted a photo...
TV Q&A: Did Ricki Wertz host ‘Romper Room’? 
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: Great piece about Ricki Wertz’s career in Pittsburgh television. I also believe she hosted our local production of “Romper Room,” also on WTAE, if I...
TV Talk: CMU grad Patina Miller stars in ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ 
On TV, 2006 Carnegie Mellon University musical theater grad Patina Miller is best known for playing a press secretary on CBS’s “Madam Secretary.” On Broadway, she won the Tony for lead actress in a musical in 2013 for a revival of “Pippin.” In Starz’s “Power Book III: Raising Kanan” (8...
Ricki Wertz, star of WTAE-TV’s ‘Ricki and Copper,’ dies 
Ricki Wertz, one of the original stars of Pittsburgh TV as the host of WTAE-TV’s “Ricki and Copper” and “Junior High Quiz,” died Wednesday in Chicago. She was 86. The cause of death was not immediately available. A Wilkes-Barre native, Ruth Elizabeth Wertz Bordenkircher came to Pittsburgh to study acting....
TV Talk: Apple TV+’s ‘Schmigadoon!’ offers a joyful ode to and send-up of musicals 
Fans of Broadway musicals and the TV series “Pushing Daisies” and “Galavant” unite: Apple TV+’s “Schmigadoon” is the musical comedy series you didn’t know you need. A joyfully silly fantasy, “Schmigadoon!” begins by showing viewers how two doctors, Melissa (a game Cecily Strong, “Saturday Night Live”) and Josh (the equally...
Ricki Wertz, star of WTAE-TV’s ‘Ricki and Copper,’ dies 
Ricki Wertz, one of the original stars of Pittsburgh TV as the host of WTAE-TV’s “Ricki and Copper” and “Junior High Quiz,” died Wednesday in Chicago. She was 86. The cause of death was not immediately available. A Wilkes-Barre native, Ruth Elizabeth Wertz Bordenkircher came to Pittsburgh to study acting....
TV Q&A: What happened to QVC and HSN over the air?
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 are QVC and HSN no longer on Channel 16.5 and 16.4 over the air? I don’t have cable. Is there somewhere else I can...
TV Talk: Susan Koeppen returns to anchor new WPXI-TV newscast
Because the ratings for “Ellen” have been terrible in Pittsburgh for several years, it was unsurprising this month when WTAE-TV announced a 4 p.m. newscast. Similarly, with original episodes of “Judge Judy” ending on broadcast TV — she’ll have a new, similar show on free, ad-supported streamer IMDbTV in late...
TV Talk: WPXI reporter Amy Hudak marries WTAE’s Jim Madalinsky
Pittsburgh TV stations are rivals in coverage and ratings but for two reporters at different local stations, it’s just a matter of doing similar work for different outlets. And given their respective beats, they don’t compete with one another on stories, which should make married life a bit easier. WPXI-TV...
TV Talk: Netflix releases trailer for Jason Momoa’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh thriller ‘Sweet Girl’ 
The Pittsburgh skyline gets a starring role in the trailer for Netflix’s filmed-in-Western Pennsylvania Jason Momoa thriller “Sweet Girl,” available on the streaming service Aug. 20, the same day filmed-in-Pittsburgh limited comedy series “The Chair” debuts on Netflix. Locations spotted in the movie’s trailer include PPG Place, PNC Park, McConnell’s...
TV Talk: PBS’s ‘Odd Squad,’ from Fred Rogers Productions, evolves again in new episodes
Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Productions’ “Odd Squad,” the rare live-action, educational program for children, returns with the second half of its third season in a week of four new episodes beginning Monday (5 p.m. WQED-TV). The PBS Kids show continues to follow a quartet of child agents who investigate oddities that...
TV Talk: ‘Gossip Girl’ returns, ‘The White Lotus’ opens for business
With summer in full swing, TV networks and streaming services are premiering series after series with hopes for a buzzworthy smash. ‘Gossip Girl’ This latest reboot gets off to a stronger-than-expected start before it begins to deflate. Directed by Karena Evans (“Snowfall”) from a teleplay by showrunner Josh Safran, the...
TV Q&A: Why can’t Pittsburgh TV stations keep young anchors?
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 do you suppose Pittsburgh’s TV stations simply can’t keep the young upstarts? WTAE-TV’s Chris Lovingood is the latest in a growing list of fine...


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