TV Q&A: Will ABC’s ‘The Rookie’ ever film in Clarion County where its story began?

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: The series premiere of ABC’s “The Rookie” showed the lead character, John Nolan (Nathan Fillion), walk into a bank robbery in progress in Foxburg, Pa., and that sparked his interest in becoming a police officer. But anyone that has been to Foxburg – near Emlenton on the Allegheny River – knows Foxburg doesn’t have a bank.

Why did they say it was in Foxburg? Is anyone – writers, producers, actors – from the Foxburg area? What is the connection? And last, do they have any plans to actually film there as it is a beautiful town?

– Jim, New Castle.

Rob: Other than that opening scene in the 2016 pilot, “The Rookie” is set in Los Angeles so the show is unlikely to undertake the expense of filming any scenes in Clarion County, because in addition to cost, it wouldn’t fit where the show’s story has gone.

I wrote about that early initial setting before the show premiered in 2018. Series creator Alexi Hawley (“Castle”) told me producer Mark Gordon bought the life rights from a real-life Los Angeles cop who was the oldest rookie on the force when he began.

“Our real-life cop is from that area,” said Hawley of his choice of Foxburg after a press conference during the ABC portion of the Television Critics Association summer 2018 press tour (the real cop declined to be identified). “I was looking at a map and thought that looked like a good place for him to be from. It’s a small town. John Nolan is a very blue-collar guy.”

A new season of “The Rookie” debuts at 10 p.m. Sept. 25 on WTAE-TV.

Q: The news that amongst the many programs HBO Max has culled from its catalog since the merger with Discovery was 200 episodes of Sesame Street — classic, hour-long ones — is painful. I have a disabled adult son and “Sesame Street” is his happy place. Sure, HBO Max is keeping some 450 episodes, but how long will that last? Do you know a reliable place to go for older episodes now? Subscribe to YouTube? Sesame Workshop? Buy the DVDs?

– Linda, Monroeville

Rob: When first-run “Sesame Street” episodes moved from PBS to HBO in 2015, it seemed like a win-win: Episodes continued to air on PBS (about nine months after they premiered on HBO; season 52 arrives on PBS in September) and Sesame Workshop, owner of the series, got an infusion of HBO cash and a five-year extension for the series.

But now that WarnerMedia, parent of HBO, has merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery, the Sesame Workshop-HBO relationship no longer seems to be on solid ground, especially given reports that the latest executives to run the company have essentially ceded children’s and family programming to rivals Netflix and Disney+.

A Sesame Workshop representative did not answer Linda’s question, which leads me to believe HBO Max remains the best place to see the largest cache of episodes, though some “select episodes” are also available on the “Sesame Street” YouTube channel. There are some DVD collections, but the comments on at least one suggest they are not full seasons of older episodes.

Q: Will CBS bring the FBI series (“FBI,” “FBI International” and “FBI: Most Wanted”) in the fall?

– Vonnie, Murrysville

Rob: Yes, all three shows return with new episodes on Sept. 20.

Q: I’ve noticed something that’s been advertised: Amazon Freevee. I don’t know if it is on Comcast. I don’t know if that is something you pay for. What does it show? Does it have commercials?

– Peter via voicemail

Rob: Amazon Freevee is, as the name suggests, free. Yes, it has commercials that you cannot skip over. It’s an ad-supported, free streaming service that you can get on any computer or streaming device. It does not require a Comcast subscription, but Comcast did make it accessible through its cable service a while back when this streamer was known as IMDb TV.

Its original programming includes filmed-in-Pittsburgh comedy series “Sprung,” the latest Judge Judy series, “Judy Justice” and sequel series “Bosch Legacy” and “Leverage: Redemption” co-starring a Carnegie Mellon grad.