Rob Owen stories, Page 51
TV Talk: Eureka! Syfy debuts comedic drama ‘Resident Alien’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. With media companies prioritizing streaming services over their basic cable networks, the number of original scripted shows on cable has started to decline. Other than “The Magicians,” which ended last year, Syfy’s scripted originals have...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh TV production bounces back; CMU grad stars in ‘Bridge and Tunnel’Video
Netflix’s horror series “Archive 81” has been filming in and around Pittsburgh since November and will be joined in a couple of weeks by another Netflix program, “The Chair.” Showtime’s “Rust” expects to film in March. Beyond these three series, 2021 local big-budget TV/film production is in a holding pattern....
TV Q&A: If I drop cable but want to see Penguins games, what TV service should I add?
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 really need to dump the cable portion of my Comcast bill. I saved your item about the Pens when AT&T SportsNet had their disagreement...
TV Talk: Marvel’s ‘WandaVision’ revisits sitcom styles through the decades on Disney+Video
Streaming service Disney+ debuts its first scripted Marvel series, “WandaVision,” which defies superhero story expectations in three episodes made available for review. But there are hints that action set pieces will come eventually during the nine-episode season. “WandaVision” finds Marvel heroes Wanda “Scarlet Witch” Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and sentient robot...
Joanne Rogers, widow of Mister Rogers, dies at 92
Joanne Rogers, a concert duo pianist and wife of the late Fred Rogers, died at her Squirrel Hill home Thursday at age 92 surrounded by family and friends. Known for a boisterous laugh, Joanne Rogers became the face of her husband’s legacy after his death in 2003, appearing on news...
TV Talk: Pittsburgh’s WPGH adds national morning newscast
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns Pittsburgh’s WPGH-TV, Channel 53, and WPNT-TV, Channel 22, tries to break into the morning news game with the Monday premiere of “The National Desk” (7-9 a.m. weekdays on WPGH). The...
TV Q&A: Why does background noise obscure Steelers announcers?
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 am not a guy that watches a lot of football. However, I seldom miss a Steelers game. I think my hearing is pretty good...
TV Talk: PBS reboots ‘All Creatures Great and Small’
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. It’s difficult to imagine a better TV balm coming off the annus horibilis that was 2020 than the latest production from “Masterpiece,” celebrating its 50th anniversary with the debut of a remake of an early...
TV Talk: Cable, streaming offer fresh shows to start the new yearVideo
Even as broadcast network shows return to the air this month, production on programs at most of the major studios in Los Angeles did not resume as scheduled this week due to rising covid-19 cases. Many series were pushed back to a Jan. 11 production restart and others, including NBC’s...
TV Q&A: How were the ratings for ‘Dancing with the Stars’ with new host Tyra Banks?
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 were the ratings of “Dancing with the Stars” when comparing last year to this year since Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews were fired? —...
TV Talk: Joe Kenda recounts the cases of other cops on ‘American Detective’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. On Investigation Discovery’s “Homicide Hunter,” Westmoreland County native Joe Kenda seemed like he retold cases from memory because he did: Episodes were based on cases he worked for the Colorado Springs, Colo., police department. In...
TV Talk: ‘The Bachelor,’ filmed at Nemacolin, is among midseason broadcast showsVideo
Premieres of new, returning and delayed-by-the-pandemic series begin rolling out on broadcast networks next week, including the 25th edition of ABC’s “The Bachelor” (8 p.m. Jan. 4, WTAE-TV), filmed this fall under a covid-19 quarantine bubble at Nemacolin in Farmington, Fayette County. It’s the first time the show has starred...
TV Q&A: Questions about KDKA-TV on-air talent answered
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: Stacy Smith has not been at the KDKA-TV anchor desk in some time. He was giving reports from his home. Is this health-related? Also, I...
TV Talk: PBS revisits ‘Little House’ author Laura Ingalls Wilder
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. To mark the 85th anniversary of the publication of “Little House on the Prairie,” PBS’s “American Masters” does a deep dive into the life and literary work of the book’s author in “Laura Ingalls Wilder:...
TV Talk: Netflix’s ‘Bridgerton’ aches to be a sexed-up ‘Downton Abbey’Video
“Bridgerton” wants to be the next “Downton Abbey,” albeit hornier and with a more modern spin. While this Regency period-set streaming series from executive producer Shonda Rhimes (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and showrunner Chris Van Dusen (“Scandal”) can be fun and beautiful to behold (sumptuous, brightly-colored costumes and landscapes dominate in early...
TV Q&A: When will ‘When Calls the Heart’ be back?
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: When will Hallmark Channel’s “When Calls the Heart” return with new episodes? — Nina via voicemail Rob: “When Calls the Heart” wrapped production on its...
TV Talk: Peggy Finnegan bids Pittsburgh viewers farewell as she retires from WPXI-TV
Humble to the end, retiring WPXI-TV news anchor Peggy Finnegan twice tried to make Channel 11’s farewell coverage about everyone else. On Friday’s noon newscast, anchor Gordon Loesch tried to celebrate Finnegan but she turned it around and praised his work as an anchor and reporter over his 17 years...
TV Talk: Powerful, filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘Ma Rainey’ debuts on NetflixVideo
The latest Netflix adaptation of one of Pittsburgh native August Wilson’s plays, the filmed-in-Pittsburgh “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” stars Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman in a period piece that feels relevant and timely. An almost unrecognizable Davis, jettisoning any semblance of vanity, stars as Ma Rainey, a real...
TV Q&A: Why so few episodes of ‘This is Us’ this season?
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: Why did NBC only broadcast two weeks of “This is Us” and “The Blacklist” and then they are not going to broadcast again until January?...
TV Talk: Time to catch up on the best TV of 2020
It’s inaccurate to consider this a literal “best of” list for that implies a TV critic can watch every TV series released this year. It’s nearly impossible for any one person to make such a claim in the current 500-series-relased-annually era, so instead consider this my list of favorites from...
TV Talk: IUP grad explores toxic masculinity in ‘Nate’ on NetflixVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. No one who watches the recently-released Netflix comedy special “Nate: A One Man Show” will confuse it with any other comedy special. The avant-garde, one-hour special is rated TV-MA for good reason and stars Natalie...
TV Talk: Holiday gift ideas for TV fans
Seeking a gift for the TV fan in your life? Here’s what to get if they’re always raving about: DVD box sets: Thousands of TV series are available on streaming services but DVD box sets give fans tangible evidence of their devotion to a program. New complete series sets include...
TV Talk: Filmed-in-Pittsburgh ‘I’m Your Woman’ shows crime story from another angle; joyous ‘The Prom’ premieresVideo
Filmed-in-Pittsburgh movie “I’m Your Woman,” streaming Friday on Amazon’s Prime Video, tracks a seldom seen aspect of a cinematic crime story. Instead of focusing on the mobsters, the film follows the criminal’s wife, Jean (Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), and the impact of her husband’s criminal activity as she...
TV Q&A: Why isn’t ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ on TV this year?
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: Looking at the Trib’s holiday television schedule and noticed no listing of the 1947 Christmas classic “Miracle on 34th Street”!!! How come? — John, Leechburg...
TV Talk: ‘Your Honor’ debuts with excruciating drama
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. There’s a reason Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” became a worldwide buzz magnet: Not only is “Gambit” well-made, well-acted and impeccably produced, it also tells a story that moves consistently in a positive direction. That trajectory...
