TV Talk at TCA: Penn State grad consults on Hallmark’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’

PASADENA, Calif. – As part of its “Loveuary with Jane Austen” programming stunt, Hallmark Channel debuts a new production of “Sense and Sensibility” (8 p.m. Feb. 24) under its African American-focused Mahogany banner. A Penn State grad helped bring the story of the Dashwood sisters to life.

Before she was an author and expert in Regency-era finery, Vanessa Riley had a whole other career as an engineer, graduating from Penn State in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree and in 1994 with a master’s degree, both in mechanical engineering.

Riley said her role as this new film’s Regency-era consultant was to get everyone on the same historical page.

“Part of my role was to make sure everyone understood from a historical standpoint what were the traditions and illuminate more of Black history. Black history is Regency history,” Riley said. “You will see paintings of Black heroes (decorating the set) who lived during this timeframe. … And every aspect was intentional, from the hair to the costumes. Every color is period-accurate. As a nerd — and I’m a certified nerd — it warms my heart that everyone took the information to heart and really felt it and made sure that it worked.”

Riley, author of the historical fiction novels “Island Queen” and “Queen of Exiles,” is scheduled to attend the 2024 Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books on May 11 at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in East Liberty. She was on set for the four weeks it took to film “Sense and Sensibility” in Bulgaria and Ireland and gave presentations to set dressers and costumers to make the film’s look as historically authentic as possible.

“I want to give you the playbook,” Riley said of her first film consulting experience. “That way, I’m not telling you what something should look like. I’m telling you a silhouette type, types of embellishments that should be used.”

For one scene, characters were clad in nightgowns.

“Mahogany likes rich colors, but someone during that time frame wouldn’t spend that much on a nightgown,” she said. “If they’re gonna do color, it’s gonna be for a ball.”

Riley, an Aiken, S.C., native, said when she was young, she was good at math and writing, even winning competitions and awards for essays while also competing on the math team.

“My mom sat me down one day, and she was like, ‘Baby, I know you’re going to be a writer. I know you can do anything in science. But you always need to be able to pay your bills,’ ” Riley recalled. “That made it very obvious that we needed to go the science route.”

She received a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and said one of the tenets of engineering is to ask “how?” and “why?”

“Why does this world exist? How do they do certain things? And I bring that curiosity to my fiction,” Riley said. “So, if you read one of my novels, you’re going to feel like you are there. That’s why with this cast in ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and this reimagining, you’re going to feel like you’re there, like you’re in the ballroom, like you’re in the cottages. You’re in the carriages because authenticity is so very important to good storytelling. So, everyone must get a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering in order to write good fiction.”

For years, Riley worked as an engineer during the day, writing daily 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Her first novel, “Madeleine’s Protector,” was published in 2013, and she’s now written a total of 25 books. After the pandemic, she left her engineering job to become a full-time author.

Riley credits her parents with her interest in storytelling. Her mother stressed reading. Her father, who’s from Trinidad and Tobago, was a natural storyteller.

“We were reading Baldwin and Thoreau and Austen. And I get to ‘Sanditon,’ (which features Austen’s first Black character), and I’m like, that’s why it makes sense,” Riley said. “Sometimes in the States, we feel like we only get one story about Black history. And it’s an important story. But there are so many other aspects and so many other ways.”

Why Bialik exited ‘Jeopardy!’

During ABC’s portion of the Television Critics Association winter 2024 press tour, “Jeopardy!” executive producer Michael Davies said he hopes to work with Mayim Bialik on future “Jeopardy!” spin-offs despite her losing her role hosting the daily syndicated show after sharing hosting duties with Ken Jennings.

“Over the past 2½ seasons, I think what we’ve heard a lot from our television stations and other interested parties is they were looking for more consistency,” Davies said. “They wanted a single host. Mayim is a superb host on ‘Jeopardy!’ We hope to continue working with her on primetime versions, other spinoffs of the show. Those conversations are ongoing, but Ken has really won the (daily show) job. … As we spun off into ‘Jeopardy! Masters’ and into ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!’ and ‘Jeopardy! National College Championships” … and some of the other things we’ve got planned for the future development, I thought other hosts would do that. But the syndicated (daily) show I thought was always going to be better with a single host.”

Channel surfing

Members of Western Pennsylvania’s Wedding Cookie Table Community will be featured along with a cookie table on NBC’s “Today” in the 9 a.m. hour today, Feb. 14, on WPXI-TV. … Actress Jennifer Esposito returns to CBS’s “Blue Bloods” as Jackie Curtola, Danny’s old partner, in a new episode airing at 10 p.m. Feb. 23. … All seven Tom Cruise-starring “Mission: Impossible” movies are streaming on Paramount+. … 123.4 million viewers watched Super Bowl LVIII across CBS, Paramount+ and other Paramount Global networks, making it the most-watched telecast in recorded history of total viewer ratings.