TV Talk with Rob Owen category, Page 42

“This is Us” creator Dan Fogelman has long talked about bringing some of the show’s cast to Pittsburgh where the show is partially set to film scenes. Although production on the series resumed with covid-19 safety protocols in place, the pandemic ruined any possibility for a trip from the show’s...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. For the 2019-20 season of NBC’s “Superstore,” showrunners Gabe Miller and O’Hara Township native Jonathan Green expected their biggest challenge to be satisfactorily writing star America Ferrera out of the comedy series. And they almost...

It seems like all the stars of HBO’s hit “Big Little Lies” are getting their own wealthy-pretty-people-with-problems shows. Reese Witherspoon had her shot with Hulu’s “Little Fires Everywhere” and now it’s Nicole Kidman’s turn with HBO’s six-episode miniseries “The Undoing” (9 p.m. Sunday), which has already been dubbed “Big Little...

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: Do you think ABC will actually skip showing “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” this year? — Jackson via Twitter Rob: I didn’t think that...

Netflix released the trailer for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” its adaptation of the August Wilson play that was filmed in Pittsburgh in the summer of 2019. The movie arrives on Netflix on Dec. 18. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” stars Viola Davis as blues singer Ma Rainey during a recording session...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. ^ After the “Roseanne” revival imploded following star Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet, there was every reason to fear its sequel series, “The Conners,” would simply be a ratings grab. But as its third season premieres...

Game show “Supermarket Sweep” has been a TV staple with versions popping up in the 1960s, 1990s, early 2000s and now again in 2020 as ABC resurrects the franchise at 8 p.m. Sunday with new host Leslie Jones (“Saturday Night Live”). The ‘90s version of the show gained cachet with...

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: How does Hallmark Channel make about 40 new Christmas movies during a pandemic? Were some movies made prior to March 2020? - Elaine via email...

Two local teens will be featured in a recurring Disney Channel segment, “Kudos and Kudon’ts,” for their creation of the Pittsburgh organization Black, Young & Educated. Disney Channel’s Ariel Martin and Trevor Tordjman (“Zombies 2”) chat with B.Y.E. co-founders Nicholas Anglin and Treasure Palmer in the two-minute segment, which also...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Western Pennsylvania native Stephanie D’Abruzzo has operated puppets on Broadway (“Avenue Q”) and in children’s programming (“Sesame Street”) and she’s appeared in prime time (“Scrubs”). She can trace a theme in her latest project, educational...

Actress Victoria Pedretti’s acting career took off just a few months after she graduated from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama in 2017 when she was cast in a supporting role in Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill House.” Form there she landed a major role in season two of Netflix’s...

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: A few years back there was a home improvement TV show that featured a Pittsburgh woman. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the show name, her...

In the latest retransmission dispute impacting local viewers, Verzion’s FiOS TV dropped AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh. A Verizon spokesman said its agreement to carry AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh expired Sept. 30. Verizon released a statement saying, “AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh has demanded a significant increase to an already high rate so fans can...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. ^ Based on the National Book Award-winning novel by James McBride, Showtime’s adaptation of “The Good Lord Bird” (9 p.m. Sunday) proves to be as entertaining as it is tonally messy. But it’s acceptably messy...

It was a mini-Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama reunion for Matt Bomer (CMU class of 2000) and Green Tree native Zachary Quinto (CMU class of 1999) in the Netflix movie “The Boys in the Band,” directed by Joe Mantello and executive produced by Ryan Murphy (“Ratched”). A remake of...

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: Can you please clear something up for me: On Discovery Channel is the “Alaskan Bush People” for real or are they just actors who are...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. ^ Here’s something that is likely to happen more often as the entertainment business looks into the future and sees that it’s digital: There’s a show premiering this week on AMC+, a streaming service you...

Back for its fourth season, the important good news is this iteration of “Fargo” (9-11 p.m. Sunday, FX) is significantly better than the disappointing third season, though probably not as good as the near-perfect second season. Sunday’s two-episode premiere spends a lot of time grounding the show in backstory that’s...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: I just saw the first promo for “The Great British Bake Off” “coming soon” to ITV in the U.K. Will Netflix be picking up the next...

The remotely-produced 72nd annual Emmy Awards promised to be an unusual, revised-for-the-pandemic affair and it miraculously came together with almost no technical glitches and enough novelty to freshen and loosen up the staid format. Pop TV’s “Schitt’s Creek” had an unprecedented early winning streak, taking home more top awards in...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. A spin-off of the “Bad Boys” movie franchise, police drama “L.A.’s Finest” (8 p.m. Monday, Fox) originally premiered on Spectrum Originals in May 2019. But since Spectrum Originals is only available to subscribers to Spectrum...

It’s a round-about way that “Manhunt: Deadly Games” came to film in Pittsburgh. The show’s first season, Discovery Channel’s “Manhunt: Unabomber,” was set to shoot in Western Pennsylvania in 2016 but initially couldn’t find a male lead. Once producers lined up a cast, there were no more Pennsylvania film tax...

Actress Sarah Paulson starred in writer/producer Ryan Murphy’s “The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” and multiple seasons of “American Horror Story,” proving to be his MVP, a streak she extends in Murphy’s “Ratched,” streaming Friday on Netflix. A prequel to “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” – both...

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: I would like to know if “Hometown High Q” will be returning this fall on KDKA-TV. -Jean, Oakland Rob: KDKA is continuing the show, according...