TV Talk: Dianne Wiest talks filming ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ season two in Pittsburgh

Oscar-winner Dianne Wiest has become a Pittsburgh fan after spending recent months filming season two of Paramount+ series “Mayor of Kingstown” locally.

“It’s just wonderful,” she said Tuesday of her first time in the city. “It’s a great town, really. And I get some time off while I’m there in the next couple of weeks and I can’t wait to go to the Andy Warhol Museum that I’ve heard so much about, and the Carnegie Museum.”

For those without Paramount+, season one of “Mayor of Kingstown,” executive produced by Pittsburgh native Antoine Fuqua, will be out on Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday with bonus content, including a feature on making the first season and behind-the-scenes segments on each episode.

Wiest plays Mariam McClusky, matriarch of the McClusky family in Kingstown, Mich. Her sons Mitch (Kyle Chandler), Mike (Jeremy Renner) and Kyle (Taylor Handley) are Kingstown power brokers who bend the law to, in their minds, maintain peace.

Mariam is first glimpsed as a teacher in a prison and Wiest said it was her own interest in prison reform that made the script and story appealing.

“I have been involved just as a citizen in prison rights and the injustices of our terrible prison system in America being the world class jailers of all time,” Wiest said. “When I read the script and I saw that it was about the racism and the poverty and we solve our problems by putting people in jail [where] everybody’s divided up into gangs, according to race, and the cops are just another gang, and the corrections officers are just another gang. And these gangs are all maneuvering around each other to try and have the power control [in] the little town of Kingstown. It’s the only game in town.”

Mitch dies in the “Kingstown” premiere, which shakes Mariam’s world.

“Because of the death of her husband and the death of her oldest son, Mariam has stopped believing in family,” Wiest said. “She’s just filled with rage. And that’s how she addresses both her sons, but especially Mike who’s played so brilliant by Jeremy Renner. … I think the fear in her overrides everything and it comes out as rage. She’s just so terrified she’s going to lose them. And they’re the only two she has left.”

The first season ended with a prison riot, which gave Mariam more reasons to worry about her boys. Will that fear be something she continues to deal with in season two?

“No, she’s sort of been broken and that brings about other things,” Wiest said. “But without giving anything away at all, I think Mariam realizes that she’s very, very fortunate to have two sons and stops bemoaning the death of the ones who are lost to her and looks at the wonderful men she has.”

Wiest, whose most recent previous TV series role was on the CBS comedy “Life in Pieces” (2015-19), said “Kingstown” moving from Ontario, Canada, to Pittsburgh for its second season wasn’t that difficult. Set interiors were rebuilt at the show’s Warrendale stages. The former SCI Pittsburgh and SCI Greensburg are being used for prison scenes.

“It’s not a matter of decor in prisons, is it? I mean, they’re pretty much the same,” Wiest said. “I think we still have to use some exterior shots from Canada … but we’re just going to different places in Pittsburgh. So it’s not really a matching problem. It is dark streets, gritty streets, old houses — you’ve got them everywhere.”

WQED-TV’s ‘Mon City’ hour

WQED-TV stitches together four previously-released documentary shorts – a director’s cut of 2021’s “A Season to Remember: Baseball Boys of Mon City” (local little league team’s success in the 1950s), 2021’s “Comfort Food: Baking for the Flight 93 Families” (a traditional cookie table at the Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset County on the 20th anniversary of 9/11), 2020’s “The Longwell House” (renovating an 1872 landmark home to become a permanent site for the Monongahela historical society) and 2007’s “Calendar Girls” (12 senior citizens pose for a racy calendar to raise money for a historical society) – for a “Mon City” hour at 8 p.m. Oct. 6.

Kept/canceled/ordered

ABC renewed “Jimmy Kimmel Live” through at least the 2025-26 TV season.

CBS canceled reality competition “Beyond the Edge” after one season.

Showtime canceled “Flatbush Misdemeanors” after two seasons.

Amazon’s Prime Video ordered “Blade Runner 2099,” a sequel series to the film “Blade Runner 2049.”

Channel surfing

CNN will overhaul its morning program, installing Don Lemon, who loses his prime-time show, Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow as anchors later this year; current hosts Josh Berman and Brianna Keilar will be reassigned. …. CNN’s “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” returns with new episodes weekly beginning at 9 p.m. Oct. 9. … NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” begins its 48th season Oct. 1 on WPXI-TV with guest host Miles teller and musical guest Kendrick Lamar followed by Brendan Gleeson/Willow (Oct. 8) and Megan Thee Stallion as host/musical guest (Oct. 15).