TV Talk: Former Pittsburgher Rob Marshall drops by Food Network; ‘Outer Range,’ ‘Swimming with Sharks’ debut

For former Pittsburgher Rob Marshall, director of the 2002 Oscar-winning film “Chicago,” appearing on Food Network’s “Be My Guest with Ina Garten” wasn’t a tough sell. After all, Marshall and Garten have been friends for 15 years, both living in the Hamptons 15 minutes from one another. He’s appeared on her past Food Network series, too.

When we talked by phone April 5, it was the 10-year anniversary of Marshall’s wedding to husband and producing partner John DeLuca.

“We’ve been together 40 years so it was just a formality in a way, but on our wedding day, Ina said, ‘Come over, we’ll have drinks,’” Marshall recalled. “So I went with my parents and John and we had lunch and a little celebratory drink 10 years ago today.”

For “Be My Guest,” Marshall and DeLuca went to Garten’s East Hampton home studio, located in a Belgian farmhouse on her property. Marshall described the one-hour version of the show as broken into three segments: an interview over drinks, Marshall and DeLuca share a recipe for DeLuca’s mother’s coleslaw that they use to dress salmon burgers, and then they’re off to the nearby 1770 House restaurant for dessert, joined by Garten’s husband, Jeffrey.

“I set the table and make the cocktails. That’s my expertise,” Marshall said, laughing. “John’s the real cook. I don’t know if it made the show, but Ina said, ‘John and I will cook and you’re gonna sit there and make snarky comments.’”

Marshall’s episode of “Be My Guest with Ina Garten” debuts as a half-hour food-centric episode at noon on Saturday on Food Network, while a one-hour version (with more chit-chat) streams the same day on discovery+.

“We love her shows and watch them all the time,” Marshall said. “The only ones we won’t watch are the ones we’re in. We’re too freaked out seeing ourselves.”

Marshall said they’ve been invited to taste-test recipes Garten works on for her cookbooks, making the recipe over and over, sometimes as many as 15 times, “until she really feels like it works.”

Marshall’s parents, Anne and Bob Marshall, relocated from Pittsburgh to nearby Bridgehampton around 2001 and he’s been missing Pittsburgh. He recalls his last visit was to talk to students at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University. He was back in 2011 for his induction into the Allderdice High School Alumni Hall of Fame (Marshall was in the class of 1978).

His favorite Pittsburgh foods include chipped chopped ham (“that meant so much to us growing up”) but he’s also had the opportunity to eat around the world. His last five movies were filmed in London and his most recent effort, May 2023’s live-action Disney musical “The Little Mermaid,” concluded its five-month shoot filming exteriors in Sardinia, Italy, in July 2021.

“The Little Mermaid,” which Marshall directed/produced and DeLuca produced, is in an extensive post-production process that’s required because most of the movie takes place underwater.

“It’s the most complicated movie we’ve ever done,” Marshall said. “So much of it is shot up in the air with everything on wires and the actors on this apparatus called a ‘tuning fork’ and teeter-totters so they swim and move and turn and flip. Everything is choreographed within an inch of its life.”

Good thing Marshall was a choreographer before he was a film director.

Even the characters’ hair has to be added in post-production to make it float the way hair underwater would. And the mermaid halves of mer-characters’ bodies are computer-generated, as are the tentacles on Melissa McCarthy’s villainous sea witch, Ursula.

“The Little Mermaid” is slated for a theatrical release

“It’s tricky because I think we all became very used to watching television and streaming services during the pandemic and it did become very comfortable. I get it,” Marshall said. “The thing you miss, especially with an event movie like ‘The Little Mermaid,’ is engaging not only with other people to enjoy the experience, but to see it in this massive way on the big screen, which this film is created for. It will also be shown on Imax and in 3-D because it’s that kind of movie that wants to be in that environment that you just can’t get in a streaming service movie.”

‘Outer Range’

For viewers who enjoy “Yellowstone” but wish the series included a time-warping black hole on the Dutton ranch, there’s now Amazon Prime Video’s “Outer Range,” streaming Friday.

Substitute Josh Brolin for Kevin Costner while keeping the emphasis on family and warring with neighbors and “Outer Range” delivers a decent supernatural version of “Yellowstone.”

Brolin stars as Royal Abbott, a Wyoming rancher who discovers a strange mystery on his land around the same time a new-age stranger (Imogen Poots) asks to set up camp in Abbott’s field.

In addition to the show’s black hole mystery, there’s also the question of what happened to Royal’s disappeared daughter-in-law: Did she run away? Is she dead or alive? Or maybe she stumbled into the big black hole that seems to behave differently depending on what (or who) enters it?

While the family story and conflicts with the neighboring Tillersons — you know they’re bad news because they ride ATVs and the Abbotts ride horses – feels overly familiar, credit series creator/writer Brian Watkins with building to shocks at the end of the first two episodes that leave viewers eager to learn what will happen next.

‘Swimming with Sharks’

An updated, distaff series take on the 1994 Kevin Spacey movie of the same name, “Swimming with Sharks” depicts a Hollywood that certainly existed but seems less rooted in our current reality in a post-Scott Rudin era.

The half-hour show even cribs from Rudin’s playbook with entitled, imperious Fountain Studios executive Joyce Holt (Diane Kruger) kicking an associate out of her car when she’s miffed and throwing her Louboutin at a subordinate.

The new wrinkle: Sweet-as-pie intern Lou Simms (Kiernan Shpika) appears to be a psychotic stalker, complete with a shrine to Holt and a willingness to do whatever it takes to get herself in Holt’s orbit, whether that’s landing a project or seducing Holt’s husband.

Premiering Friday on the streaming Roku Channel (for free with ads), it’s a cynical and often predictable look at the seamy side of the entertainment industry. “Beverly Hills, 90210” actress-turned-writer Kathleen Robertson created the six-episode “Swimming with Sharks,” so you might imagine a fresh take on the theme that feels personal and rooted in her specific experience – but instead it’s just one Hollywood-people-are-bad cliché after another.

‘48 Hours’ on Rudolph case

CBS’s “48 Hours” (10 p.m. Saturday, KDKA-TV) chronicles the case of Greensburg dentist Lawrence P. Rudolph, accused of murdering his wife Bianca while on a hunting trip to Africa in 2016.

Kept/canceled/revived

HBO renewed “Winning Time” for a second season.

Fox renewed “The Cleaning Lady” for a second season.

HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” will return for a 12th season.

ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” was renewed for two seasons but will relocate to Disney+ and will no longer air on ABC.

Amazon renewed “With Love” for a second season.

Netflix’s “Locke & Key” will end with its third season, expected to stream later this year.

AMC will revisit “Orphan Black” with the new series “Orphan Black: Echoes.”

NBC will revive the game show “Password” for a summer run with Keke Palmer as host.

Channel surfing

Subscription streaming service BroadwayHD debuts the West End “Little Women” musical on April 21. … Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”) will stay with AMC for his next series, “Straight Man,” an adaptation of the Richard Russo novel about the chairman of the English department at an underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt. No word yet on a filming location. … “It’s the Small Things, Charlie Brown,” a new “Peanuts” special themed to Earth Day, streams Friday on Apple TV+ featuring an original song by Ben Folds. … “The Batman” comes to HBO Max Monday. … Amazon’s free, ad-supported streaming service IMDb TV, home to the upcoming filmed-in-Pittsburgh comedy “Sprung,” will be renamed Amazon Freevee on April 27.