Rob Owen stories, Page 48
TV Talk: Sandra Oh praises local actors in Netflix’s ‘The Chair’Video
Perhaps it should be no surprise that, in a town full of colleges with acting programs, it wouldn’t be too hard for a big-budget series to swoop in and hire a passel of actors/acting professors to play college faculty members in “The Chair,” streaming Friday on Netflix after filming in...
TV Talk: Former Pittsburgher gets ‘Naked;’ ‘Destination Fear’ visits WaynesburgVideo
It’s a ridiculously busy week for Pittsburgh on TV and TV shows with local ties. Not only is Netflix releasing filmed-in-Pittsburgh “Sweet Girl” and “The Chair” on Friday, but two reality shows — “Destination Fear” and “Naked and Afraid of Love” — also have ties to Western Pennsylvania. ‘Destination Fear’...
TV Talk: Obama-produced ‘Rustin’ will film in Pittsburgh
The latest Netflix project to come to Pittsburgh marks a return to town for the film’s director and the first Pittsburgh production from the production company created by former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. “Rustin,” directed by George C. Wolfe, who directed “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” in Pittsburgh for...
TV Q&A: Will new episodes of ‘Doc Martin’ ever air on WQED-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: Will PBS run new episodes of “Doc Martin” soon? I assume the pandemic has held up production. — Kathy, Allegheny Township Rob: Technically, “Doc Martin”...
Jason Momoa appears to dive off PNC Park in new Netflix movie ‘Sweet Girl’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Perhaps it would have been better not to ask Jason Momoa about the special effects work in a scene early in filmed-in-Pittsburgh Netflix movie “Sweet Girl” where his character, Ray Cooper, dives off the roof...
TV Talk: Son of Mr. McFeely follows in his ‘speedy delivery’ footsteps on ‘Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood’Video
A second-generation Newell will make a “Speedy Delivery” on PBS’s “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood,” the animated spin-off of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Alex Newell, the 39-year-old son of Pittsburgh actor David Newell, who played Mr. McFeely on “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and continues to make occasional public appearances as the character, makes a...
TV Talk: Former Steelers linebacker James Harrison wrestles in ‘Heels’Video
For Steelers linebacker-turned-actor James Harrison there’s a commonality to playing for the NFL and acting in a TV series. “It’s bonding, it’s team building,” he said of making “Heels,” a Starz eight-episode, first-season drama he co-stars in as a wrestler. “You can’t just go out there and think you’re gonna...
TV Q&A: What happened to ‘Tamron Hall’ and ‘Dr. Oz’ on WTAE-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 happened to Tamron Hall’s show on WTAE? It’s not on in the afternoon anymore. — Jean via voicemail Rob: When WTAE started a 4...
TV Talk: ‘What If…?’ imagines alternate scenarios in the Marvel Cinematic UniverseVideo
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’Video
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 2Video
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-seriesVideo
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’ trailerVideo
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 aliveVideo
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?Video
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’?Video
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’Video
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,’ diesVideo
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 musicalsVideo
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...
