TV Q&A: Is a Pittsburgher writing for CBS’s ‘East New York’?

Question: In the Jan. 8 episode of “East New York,” Officer Bentley (Lavel Schley) and Officer Quinlan (Olivia Luccardi) are having lunch. Bentley asks if Quinlan has ever had a Primanti’s “hoagie.” She asks where’s that from and he says Pittsburgh. She asks why were you in Pittsburgh and he said he was thinking of attending Carnegie Mellon University. I was wondering if any Pittsburghers are writing for the show.

— Rich, via email

Rob: That episode was written by Allison Intrieri and Judith McCreary.

Intrieri is a Pittsburgh native who previously wrote on “Bull,” “Law & Order: SVU” and “Rogue,” which also counted Swissvale native William Schmidt (“Carni­vale”) among its writers.

“East New York” is one of the few CBS series that’s yet to be renewed for the 2023-24 TV season.

Q: It was mentioned in the holiday Playbill for “A Musical Christmas Carol” that Pittsburgh native Tim Hartman could be seen in the Tom Hanks film “A Man Called Otto.” I looked closely for him but didn’t see him. Where was he in the film?

— C.T., Coraopolis

Rob: My guess is that scene landed on the cutting room floor. I reached out to Hartman, who confirmed it.

“I was a coroner who tells Otto as a younger man that someone has died. I honestly knew there was a chance the scene would be cut. That’s showbiz!” Hartman said. “I haven’t seen the film myself, but everyone tells me I’m not in it. It’s fine. I still got paid.”

Although it opened quietly at the box office, “Otto” had staying power, racking up more than $100 million at the box office, a rarity for an older-skewing film in pandemic times. “Otto” is now available for rental/purchase as a VOD title and will be released on DVD March 14. The DVD will have one deleted scene, but its description doesn’t match the scene Hartman described.

Q: We normally watch Channel 4’s news. I enjoy reading the news crawl at the bottom of the screen. However, when the station cuts to weather, they remove the news crawl from the screen. Any idea why?

— Frank, via email

Rob: Per WTAE-TV news director Jim Parsons, “We remove the news ticker during weather to ensure that it doesn’t block weather graphics at the bottom of the screen.”

Q: I see that HBO’s “True Blood” is going to be on TNT. Will it be edited, or has TNT become more permissive about content? Why is HBO allowing its shows to air elsewhere?

— Peter, via voicemail

Rob: As Variety noted, this isn’t the first time HBO shows have been edited and syndicated to another channel. Edited reruns of “Sex and the City,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “The Sopranos” used to play on basic cable channels. But it is true that hasn’t happened recently.

When the streaming wars began back in 2019, media companies generally believed they had to keep all their older library programming for themselves. NBC clawed back the rights to “The Office” for Peacock. WarnerMedia grabbed “Friends” for HBO Max.

But then it turned out that most streaming services cost enormous sums to run and make content for and they aren’t yet profitable.

So now some companies, most notably Warner Bros. Discovery, formerly WarnerMedia, seek to be “arms dealers,” selling their content, particularly the less-watched shows, to the highest bidder. It’s how season one of “The Nevers,” including episodes that never aired on HBO, wound up on Tubi.

In the cases Peter cites, the shows are being rented out to other Warner Bros. Discovery-owned channels as filler now that those channels are no longer producing original scripted content (another cost-cutting move). Reruns of “True Blood” (10 p.m. Monday, TNT) and “Silicon Valley” (10 p.m. Sunday, TBS) have their original TV-MA content edited out for these basic cable airings and to create space for commercials.

Q: When will Hallmark Channel’s “When Calls the Heart” return with new episodes?

— Fred, Smithon

Rob: Usually “When Calls the Heart” returns in March, but this year the premiere has pushed back to 9 p.m. July 30 for the 12-episode season 10 premiere. Hallmark Channel also renewed the show for a 12-episode 11th season to air in 2024.