Pittsburgh Pop podcast: ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry’s death; new grant for Pittsburgh Film Office, WQED-TV screws up again

In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including the $200,000 grant that Citizens Bank gave to the Pittsburgh Film Office on Friday that will be allocated to Create Pa. as it trains diverse talent to work behind the scenes on local TV/film/streaming and stage productions, from costuming to makeup artistry.

Owen discussed the 15th season premiere of WQED-TV’s “Filmmakers Corner” (10 p.m. Nov. 4) with films by local directors Benjamin Carlucci (“The Shortest Night of Summer” and “Long Live the Larpers”), Lily Ekimian Ragheb and Ahmed Ragheb (“The Sailor”) and Nathan Fullerton and Edwin Huang (“Capitalism Wins,” a 48 Hour Film Project Pittsburgh award winner) as well as an interview with Morgan Overton, workforce director of Create Pa., which seeks to train artisans and technical workers for Pittsburgh-based film and stage productions.

Owen goes off on WQED’s seeming inability to fulfill its basic mission of broadcasting. Once again Sunday night, there was a technical glitch with the station’s automated master control, resulting in programs airing an hour earlier than scheduled. WQED will rebroadcast “Hotel Portofino” tonight at 8 and “World on Fire” tonight at 9. Those rebroadcasts will bump tonight’s “Antiques Roadshow” to 2 p.m. Tuesday and “American Experience: War on Disco” to 10 tonight. WQED’s new CEO Jason Jedlinski has talked a lot about the station becoming more than a broadcaster, but Owen says until WQED can get its basic purpose working in a functional manner without frequent errors, Jedlinski really needs to rethink his priorities.

Benz and Owen discuss the death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry and former “Friends” writer Jeff Greenstein’s social media post observation that “something has shifted for fans of the show as well, of course. In the same way the death of a Beatle made it impossible to experience their music the same way; the death of a Friend makes it impossible to experience the show the same way. A scrim has come down between us and those characters. Those six actors will never share a stage again.”

The pair dissect the new trailer for “Napoleon.”

Owen reviews the Pittsburgh-obsessed second season of HBO’s “The Gilded Age.”

Listen to Pittsburgh Pop on the TRIBLive Podcast Network or on iTunes.