In typical late Friday, take-out-the-trash (e.g. bad news you don’t want too many people to see) fashion, Amazon’s Prime Video confirmed it canceled “The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh,” its entertaining-for-the-whole-family comedy about an Indian family that immigrates to Pittsburgh.

Although filmed in Toronto, the series was created by veteran TV comedy writer Vijal Patel (“The Middle”), who based the show on his childhood years growing up in Monroeville.

“Pradeeps” told its story through flashbacks and ended its first season on a cliffhanger.

While disappointing, the cancellation isn’t overly surprising, considering Prime Video’s recent track record with half-hour comedies: They’ve canceled them all, including the less explicitly Pittsburgh-set “Dinner with the Parents,” created by Squirrel Hill native Jon Beckerman. (These cancellations don’t bode well for the future of just-premiered Prime Video comedy “Clean Slate.”)

Before the show premiered in October, Patel expressed confidence that “Pradeeps” would “be the show that changes Amazon” and its lack of success in drawing a large enough audience to its comedies to warrant renewal.

“I pitched them season two and they loved it so much, they ordered scripts for season two,” Patel said last fall, acknowledging that while a script order is not a renewal, it can be a vote of confidence from a platform. “We haven’t even premiered and they felt so invested in the story.”

Presumably, not enough viewers tuned in to justify the financial investment required of Amazon to actually film a second season.

‘Kingstown’ casting

More local celebrity sightings to watch for: Filmed-in-Pittsburgh “Mayor of Kingstown,” currently in production on its fourth season, added Edie Falco (“The Sopranos”), Lennie James (“The Walking Dead”) and Laura Benanti (“Younger”) to its cast.

Falco plays the new prison warden, a series regular role. James, in a season-long arc, plays a “respected” gangster. Benanti, also in a new series regular role, plays a new corrections officer.

‘The Z Suite’

Streaming new episodes Thursday — the first two (of eight) are now available — Tubi’s eight-episode original comedy “The Z Suite” stars Lauren Graham (“Gilmore Girls”) as Monica Marks, a narcissistic advertising executive, who finds herself displaced by a trio of Gen Z upstarts.

Written by Katie O’Brien (“The Santa Clauses”), the series has the occasional funny generation gap gag but largely it’s a pastiche of cartoony characters, including Monica’s stereotypical suck-up fellow executive Doug (Nico Santos), and made-for-TV-but-not-at-all-realistic scenarios with Monica as the mustache-twirling villain who just doesn’t understand “these kids today.”

Renewed

Shudder renewed “The Creep Tapes” for a second season.

FX will bring back “English Teacher” for a second season.

Premiere dates

PBS drama series “Marie Antoinette” returns for its second season at 10 p.m. March 23.

On March 25 Fox’s “The Cleaning Lady” (8 p.m.) and “Alert: Missing Persons Unit” (9 p.m.) return for an uninterrupted run of their fourth and third seasons, respectively.

PBS’s “Call the Midwife,” now set in 1970, returns for its 14th season, airing new episodes at 8 p.m. Sundays from March 30 to May 11.

Channel surfing

Pittsburgh-based Fred Rogers Productions received a $100,000 grant from Citizens to support funding for FRP’s Writers’ Neighborhood Program, a fellowship program that aims to help emerging writers build and sustain careers in children’s media, and for community engagement events tied to FRP’s animated PBS Kids show “Alma’s Way.”

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)