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: Is Ryan Recker of WTAE related to Bobby Recker who was the batboy for the Pirates back in the early ‘60s?
— Michael, Beaver Falls
Rob: File this one under You Never Know If You Don’t Ask.
Turns out, they are related.
“Bobby and I are cousins and we speak and get together frequently,” Ryan Recker explained. “Bobby is the answer to a great Pittsburgh sports trivia question: Who was on the on-deck circle when Bill Mazeroski hit his home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to win Game 7 of the 1960 World Series? The answer is Bobby, who was kneeling on the on-deck circle at the time.”
Q: I love the show “The Pitt,” but my husband was wondering why no one speaks Pittsburghese, such as yinz (for “you all”), hus (for “house”), etc., like how people who are from Pittsburgh talk?
— Cindy, via email
Rob: Many of the characters in “The Pitt” are doctors in training who are not necessarily from Pittsburgh. For instance, we know Whitaker (Gerran Howell) is from Nebraska.
And there has been Pittsburghese on the show, though not a lot of it. Nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa) used “yinz” in the fourth episode.
When I visited “The Pitt” set at Warner Bros. in Burbank, Calif., last summer, I asked executive producer Michael Hissrich, who grew up in Forest Hills, if the show planned to incorporate Pittsburghese.
“We’re not really diving too far into that,” Hissrich said. “It’s one of those things that, when you tell a story in one day, how do you explain it? There will be little pieces of things, and you’ll hear different things from around town and stuff, but if you’re telling a story over months and months and months, you could get into the details of that, but I wouldn’t look (for) too many specific” examples of Pittsburghese.
Q: What’s going on with NBC’s “Brilliant Minds”? I love it. Did it get canceled?
— Lynn, via Facebook
Rob: “Brilliant Minds” ended its 13-episode first season in January. No word yet on whether it will be canceled or renewed. We should know its fate by mid-May. With NBA games taking up a portion of the NBC prime-time schedule next season, time slots for scripted shows will become more scarce.
Q: I’m really looking forward to season four of “Ted Lasso.” Do you have any idea of its production schedule or when it may start streaming?
— Rick, Wexford
Rob: Per Deadline.com, production on the fourth season of Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso” is expected to begin in July. That likely means it will debut sometime in 2026.
Q: Will “Tulsa King” ever return?
— Beverly, via Facebook
Rob: When I got this question, I figured Beverly was referring to the show’s original run on Paramount+, which is currently in production on its third season. That third season of “Tulsa King” is likely to stream on Paramount+ later this year.
But if Beverly is talking about the “Tulsa King” run of episodes that aired last summer on CBS — reruns from the show’s first season on Paramount+ — that remains an open question. CBS has not yet announced a summer schedule.
