TV Q&A: Is Amazon’s ‘Daisy Jones’ set in Pittsburgh?

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 new series about a fictional ‘70s band called “Daisy Jones & the Six” is on Amazon Prime Video and the trailer shows a guy in a Pirates hat. Do you have any inside information about any Pittsburgh connections?

@seasnsramblings, via Twitter

Rob: I didn’t watch this one in advance of the premiere — #TooMuchTV – so it took some Twitter conversation back and forth to find a guidepost to the answer.

Initially I checked the bios of the show creators, who didn’t seem to have ties to Pittsburgh other than writing the screenplay for locally-shot “The Fault in Our Stars,” but that wasn’t a conclusive link because often in movies the writers are never on set.

Will Graham, co-showrunner of “Daisy Jones” and locally-filmed “A League of Their Own,” said, “The band is from Pittsburgh, and it was a lovely coincidence we were shooting ‘League’ there right before [we made] ‘Daisy’!”

That prompted me to dig a little further to discover the series is based on a book of the same name and in the 2019 novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid, some of the band members are from Pittsburgh.

So really any setting is less about the series and more about the book the series is based on. I couldn’t find anything that tied Reid, born in Maryland, raised in Massachusetts and educated at Emerson College in Boston, to Pittsburgh.

Filmed in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Greece, “Daisy Jones” begins with adult versions of the characters recalling how the band was formed, including those band members who grew up together in Pittsburgh. Production designer Jessica Kender told Conde Nast Traveler, “You wanted it to be real, but you also want people to know what time you’re in, so finding those locations that immediately say ‘70s was important. The first half of the series is really a love letter to Los Angeles.”

But Pittsburgh doesn’t factor in the series in a major way.

“There [were] two options for the kids in my town: There was the mill and there was the war. I always dreamed of something different,” says Billy Dunne (Dan Roe, Sam Clafin), who grew up in Pittsburgh in the 1960s and is shown carrying a Giant Eagle shopping bag in a flashback in the first episode. Beyond that and the Pirates hat, there’s a reference to the Hazelwood neighborhood and a tour manager advises Billy that if he wants to have a big music career he needs to “get the [expletive] out of Pittsburgh.” By the start of episode two, Billy arrives in L.A.

Q: Most recently, Comcast stopped carrying KDKA-TV and WTAE-TV in Weirton, W. Va. Comcast previously removed WPXI-TV. Why are they taking off these channels?

— Mike, Weirton, W. Va.

Rob: These standard-definition, out-of-market channels were holdovers from early days of cable when there was not as much content as there is today. “Must carry” rules say Comcast must carry local stations. Weirton is in the Wheeling, W. Va., TV market, not the Pittsburgh TV market, so “must carry” does not apply to Pittsburgh TV stations in Weirton.

Comcast sees out-of-market channels as duplicative of everything but local Pittsburgh news — but there are ways to still get that, too.

“We apologize for any inconvenience to our customers, and those who are interested in local news from these two Pittsburgh stations can find their newscasts live on Pluto TV (KDKA) and Tubi TV (WTAE),” said Comcast spokesman Bob Grove.

Those apps can be reached by speaking “PlutoTV” or “Tubi TV” into Comcast’s voice-activated remote control, explains Grove, who is on the cusp of retirement. (Thanks for your willingness to always answer your customers’ questions, Bob. Happy retirement!)

Q: On the show “Call Me Kat,” season three, episode 15, that aired Feb. 23, they played a short piece of a song during the closing credits. Do you know the name of the song and its artist?

— Ken, North Huntingdon

Rob: Per Fox publicity the song is “Here for You” by Lónis featuring Jeffrey James.