Movies/TV category, Page 104
TV Talk: Filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘Archive 81’ gets Netflix premiere date
Netflix’s “Archive 81,” the first series to go into production in Pittsburgh after the onset of the covid-19 pandemic in November 2020, will premiere on the streaming service Jan. 14. The supernatural horror series follows archivist Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie) who takes a job restoring a collection of damaged videotapes...
Q&A: With a new book out, Mel Brooks is still riffing at 95
NEW YORK — Leave it to Mel Brooks to blurb his own memoir. There, along with laudatory quotes from Billy Crystal, Norman Lear, Conan O’Brien and others is one from “M. Brooks,” who hails “All About Me!” as: “Not since the Bible have I read anything so powerful and poignant....
ACC Network finally coming to Comcast’s Xfinity cable
The two-year-old ACC Network, which carries Atlantic Coast Conference sporting events, including Pitt athletics, will finally become available on Comcast’s Xfinity cable service. The arrival of ACC Network is part of a larger overall carriage renewal agreement between telecommunications/entertainment behemoths The Walt Disney Company and Comcast, parent of NBCUniversal. There...
An almost complete listing of Christmas movies on television
DEC. 1 8 p.m. Christmas in Rockefeller Center: The 89th annual tree-lighting ceremony in New York features celebrity guests and live performances. NBC Four Christmases: (2008, Romance-Comedy) Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon. A couple must somehow fit in four holiday visits with family. AMC Office Christmas Party: (2016, Comedy) Jason Bateman,...
Crew to shoot footage at Compass Inn for film based on period murder tale
The Ligonier Valley Historical Society restored Laughlintown’s Compass Inn Museum to match its 1830s heyday as a stopover for stagecoach travelers and drovers. That has made it an ideal location to shoot footage for the film adaptation of “The Pale Blue Eye,” a tale of murder and revenge set in...
Pittsburgh Pop: First impressions of ‘Hawkeye,’ the new ‘Waltons’; November TV news sweeps ratings arrive
In this week’s episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including November sweeps ratings for local TV stations and this week’s Pittsburgh-set episode of History Channel’s “Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman.” The pair also...
From Mister Rogers to ‘Mrs. Maisel,’ gift ideas for TV fans of all stripes
Whichever series the TV fan in your life can’t stop talking about, there’s probably a product tie-in gift out there, including from: “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood:” Fred Rogers may not have been a fan of commercializing his PBS children’s show, but adults who grew up on that program continue to want...
‘Encanto,’ ‘House of Gucci’ fuel Thanksgiving box office
NEW YORK — Thanksgiving weekend moviegoing was still far from the feast it normally is, but Disney’s “Encanto” and the Lady Gaga-led “House of Gucci” both gave a lift to two genres that have been particularly battered by the pandemic: family movies and adult dramas. “Encanto” led the box office...
TV Talk: Local stations set holiday programming
While locally produced holiday season specials have declined over the years, some favorites remain, including: “WTAE Project Bundle-Up Telethon” (Dec. 3): Channel 4 and the Salvation Army Western Pennsylvania Division launch their 36th year of community service to area children and seniors in need. The Project Bundle-Up telethon, hosted by...
TV Talk: ‘Great Escapes’ revisits a Pittsburgh prison break; ‘Hawkeye’ and ‘Hot Zone’ sequel debutVideo
Next week’s episode of “Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman” (10 p.m. Tuesday, History Channel) devotes its full hour to a 1997 prison break from the former Western Pen (AKA the now-shuttered SCI Pittsburgh). Freeman, known for prison-set movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” hosts the series with each episode devoted to a...
2 Fox News contributors quit, citing ‘irresponsible’ voicesVideo
NEW YORK — Two writers who have been paid contributors to Fox News Channel have resigned, citing Tucker Carlson’s “Patriot Purge” documentary on last January’s U.S. Capitol insurrection as a last straw for them. Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes, who put out a Substack newsletter on conservative news called The...
TV Talk: The CW delivers a new version of ‘The Waltons’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. On first blush, it’s a puzzler why The CW, home to superhero and contemporary teen and twentysomething stories, would have an interest in remaking 1970s family drama “The Waltons.” But think back to The CW’s...
‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ captures $44 million in theaters
Busting ghosts is still a fairly lucrative business after almost 40 years. Heading into Thanksgiving weekend, the latest attempt to revive “Ghostbusters” drew a sizable audience to theaters, while the awards darling “King Richard,” like most dramas in the pandemic era, is struggling. With a reverence for nostalgia and a...
TV Q&A: Where has WTAE-TV’s Shannon Perrine been during sweeps?
Q: I was wondering where Shannon Perrine of WTAE-TV is? I know it is sweeps so I doubt she is on vacation. We haven’t seen her in a couple of weeks. – Evelyn via email Rob: Evelyn is correct: It is indeed unusual for a main anchor to be off...
TV Talk: Point Park grad goes to Mars in Netflix’s live-action ‘Cowboy Bebop’Video
For Point Park University grad Mason Alexander Park, a recurring role on Netflix’s live-action “Cowboy Bebop,” streaming Friday, finds the actor primarily sharing scenes with Tamara Tunie, a 1981 Carnegie Mellon University drama program grad who was born in McKeesport and raised in Homestead. Park and Tunie were quarantined a...
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...
‘Sesame Street’ debuts Ji-Young, 1st Asian American muppet
What’s in a name? Well, for Ji-Young, the newest muppet resident of “Sesame Street,” her name is a sign she was meant to live there. “So, in Korean traditionally the two syllables they each mean something different and Ji means, like, smart or wise. And Young means, like, brave or...
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...
Beloved ‘Dolphin Tale’ star Winter dies at Florida aquarium
CLEARWATER, Fla. — A prosthetic-tailed dolphin named Winter that starred in the “Dolphin Tale” movies died Thursday evening at a Florida aquarium despite life-saving efforts to treat a gastrointestinal abnormality, aquarium officials said. The 16-year-old female bottlenose dolphin died while being held by animal care experts who were preparing Winter...
Big Bird backlash: Vax lands even Muppet in political flap
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Smokey Bear taught kids the importance of preventing wildfires. McGruff the Crime Dog warned them not to talk to strangers. And in 1972, Big Bird lined up on “Sesame Street” to receive a measles vaccine as part of a campaign to get more youngsters inoculated against 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...
Crew member sues Alec Baldwin, others over ‘Rust’ shooting
LOS ANGELES — The head of lighting on the film “Rust” filed a lawsuit Wednesday over Alec Baldwin’s fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the Western, alleging negligence that caused him “severe emotional distress” that will haunt him forever. Serge Svetnoy said in the...
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...
Brian Williams says he’s leaving NBC News after 28 years
NEW YORK — Brian Williams, who remade his career as an MSNBC host after losing his job as NBC “Nightly News” anchor for making false claims about a wartime story, is leaving the network after 28 years. Williams said in a note to colleagues that “following much reflection,” he had...
