TV Talk: Former Pittsburgher profiled in ‘Murf the Surf;’ ‘Titanic’ turns 25

While the story of “Murf the Surf” runs through Pittsburgh, the four-part docu-series devotes little attention to Murf’s time in Western Pennsylvania. That might make sense if there was a lot of other story to tell, but it turns out to be a generally overlong, unsatisfying program.

“Murf the Surf: Jewels, Jesus and Mayhem in the U.S.A.” (10 p.m. Sunday on MGM+ linear, MGM+ streaming) is the story of Jack Roland Murphy (AKA “Murf the Surf”) who was part of a band of surfers who staged a jewel heist at New York’s American Museum of Natural History in 1964.

That’s a decent hook, but some of what follows — including murder — remains unsolved.

Director/executive producer R.J. Cutler chooses not to show talking heads on camera for most of the series, preferring instead to rely on voiceover on top of still images and video (archival footage, animation and some re-created stills and video, but the re-creations are not marked so there’s no way to tell what’s a re-creation and what’s not). It’s a dramatic entrance when the first talking head appears and it’s Murf himself. Unfortunately he doesn’t offer much because he died in 2020 shortly after the first in what was surely intended to be a series of interviews.

Murphy moved to McKeesport as a teen and displayed musical talent and tennis skills and was offered a tennis scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh, but he dropped out his freshman year and moved to Miami where his troubles with the law took root.

“Murf the Surf” dispatches with his time in Western Pennsylvania in a few sentences. Sometimes producers know more about aspects of a subject than they have time/space to include, but when I asked Cutler about Murphy’s Pittsburgh background last month after a press conference for the series during the Television Critics Association winter 2023 press tour, Cutler didn’t have more details to offer.

‘Titanic: 25 Years Later’

Director James Cameron (“Avatar”) takes challenges to the accuracy of his films seriously. In “Titanic: 25 Years Later with James Cameron” (9 p.m. Sunday, National Geographic Channel), he updates a 20th anniversary documentary with a test that pushes back on fan contentions that Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) didn’t have to die, that there was room for both Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack on the door floating in the North Atlantic after the Titanic sank.

Cameron gathers hypothermia experts and mounts a simulation test to determine if they both could survive. He’s also out to set the record straight: Rose was not on a door.

“It’s a piece of paneling from the first class lounge, but lush,” he said during NGC’s portion of TCA.

Cameron said tests found the floating debris was unstable if Jack and Rose both got on top of it in a position to the point that their cores were completely out of the water.

“It didn’t work,” he said. “Then, we worked backwards from that and said, ‘What if they got into a position that was semi-stable for them enough to be at sea in pitch blackness in the middle of the North Atlantic in 28-degree water, not knowing when a rescue ship is coming, what decisions would they have made? How would they have helped each other? How much heat would she lose if she was semi-submerged, and how much advantage would he gain?’ Across those four tests, we were able to come to some pretty hard-and-fast conclusions.”

‘Not Dead Yet’

There’s a lot to like about ABC’s latest single-camera comedy – star Gina Rodriguez (“Jane the Virgin”), always a welcome TV presence; “Superstore” alum Lauren Ash, almost unrecognizable as a glam boss – but even with a decent ensemble, “Not Dead Yet” (8:30 p.m. Wednesday, WTAE-TV) doesn’t completely click.

Part of it might be the high concept: Rodriguez stars as Nell, a newspaper journalist whose career hit the skids and now she’s writing obituaries for the SoCal Independent. As she gets assigned each obit, the ghost of the deceased person appears to Nell, who inevitably learns about herself while learning about the dead.

When a series has a fantastical element at its center, everything that surrounds it should probably be more grounded. But in “Not Dead Yet,” everything is fantastical and/or nonsensical, beginning with the notion that small newspapers today have dedicated obit writers and editors (Ash) who order catered lobster dinners for staff.

“Not Dead Yet” is only mildly amusing, not laugh-out-loud funny.

Showtime consolidated

As predicted in December, Showtime will cease to be a stand-alone brand as the premium cable network will be renamed Paramount+ with Showtime later this year. (That mouthful surely won’t last and eventually the Showtime name will get dropped.)

Showtime content will then be available on Paramount+’s “premium tier” and some Paramount+ content will be programmed on the linear lineup of what is currently still called Showtime on cable systems.

Essentially combining Showtime with Paramount+ reduces the number of streaming services by one (Showtime’s current OTT offerings will go away). The anticipated winnowing of streaming services has begun.

Kept/canceled/revived

Starz ordered a fourth season of “Power Book II: Ghost” ahead of the show’s third-season premiere on March 17.

Apple TV+ renewed “Acapulco” for a third season; NBC did the same for “La Brea.”

Showtime canceled “Let the Right One In” and “American Gigolo” after one season each.

Hulu’s “Reboot” and FX’s “Kindred” won’t be back for second seasons.

Daytime talk show “Dr. Phil” will end production after 21 seasons this spring.

Hulu ordered a new season of the 1997-2010 Fox comedy “King of the Hill” with the same executive producers and voice cast.

CBS ordered a pilot for a “Matlock” reboot starring Kathy Bates and “Elsbeth,” a “Good Fight”/”Good Wife” spin-off with the character Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston) relocating from Chicago to New York to help the NYPD solve crimes.

Channel surfing

Heidi Lagares-Greenblatt, an engineering manager from Pittsburgh, will be among the competitors on the 44th edition of CBS’s “Survivor” (8 p.m. March 1). … Season three of “Cartoon Academy with Joe Wos” airs as a marathon 12-1:30 p.m. Sunday on WQED-TV. … CBS’s Tuesday night “FBI” shows will have a three-way crossover on April 4. … Peacock will no longer allow new subscribers to sign up for its free tier, redirecting them to premium with ads ($5) or premium plus ad-free ($10). Existing free tier subscribers will retain access for now. … KDKA-TV reporter Ross Guidotti is leaving the station’s Westmoreland County bureau after nine years to work out of 1 Gateway Center in Downtown Pittsburgh. KDKA news director Shawn Hoder said several reporters live in or near Westmoreland County and will cover stories as needed, while a photojournalist will still be in the area daily.