TV Talk: From ‘The Pitt’ to Mister Rogers, gifts for TV fans abound

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers gift-giving tips for the TV fan in your life.

As the holidays draw near, there’s still time to pick out gifts for the TV fans in your life, including for devotees of “The Pitt.”

Whether it’s a Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center T-shirt or sweatshirt or a tribute tee to Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) or Dr. Mel (Taylor Dearden), TeePublic offers many fan-made creations available at teepublic.com/t-shirts?query=the+pitt. Another option? Acrylic keychains of cartoon versions of Dr. Robby, Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), Nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa), Dr. Mel and Whitaker (Gerran Howell) that are for sale on Etsy.com ($10-$12 each).

Or, if you just want to dress like Dr. Robby, that Beers of the Burgh hoodie he wore through many episodes of season one is available from the Beers of the Burgh Festival’s website at beersoftheburgh.com. ($54).

There are plenty of gift options for fans of other TV staples, too, including:

“Abbott Elementary”: Show your school spirit for the ABC comedy hit with an Abbott embroidered hoodie ($50), fleece pullover ($45) or coffee mug ($15) (WBShop.com).

“Better Call Saul”: TV critic Alan Sepinwall published “Saul Goodman v. Jimmy McGill: The Complete Companion to ‘Better Call Saul’ ” ($30) earlier this year, featuring critical essays on every episode of the “Breaking Bad” prequel series. (Barnes & Noble).

“Bluey”: That family of Australian blue heelers is represented in stores with loads of merch, including a Squishmallow 10-inch Bluey ($20, WalMart) and a toy vending machine ($40, Target).

“Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood”: Fred Rogers Productions’ longest-running contemporary PBS Kids series continues to impart social-emotional learning, using licensing deals to help sustain production. This year’s new products include Trolley Seek & Find ($15, Amazon.com), which promotes fine motor skills.

“Dance Moms”: Nia Sioux, one of the Pittsburgh kids featured on Lifetime’s original “Dance Moms” series, is all grown up and recently published a book, “Bottom of the Pyramid: A Memoir of Persevering, Dancing for Myself and Starring in My Own Life” ($23, Amazon.com).

“The Gilded Age”: Not an official tie-in to the HBO series, but “The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook” ($35) should suffice for fans of the show interested in recreating cookies and treats from “America’s Golden Era,” 1868-1900, including German butter cookies, orange tartlets and mock mince pie. (Barnes & Noble). For official tie-ins from the show – T-shirts ($27-$29), coffee mugs ($15-17) — try shop.hbo.com.

“Gilmore Girls”: Twenty-five years after its premiere, “Gilmore Girls” continues to hold cultural sway over a generation (or two or three), so it’s no surprise Warner Bros. keeps churning out merch, from a “premium” advent calendar ($125) to a Chilton Academy hoodie ($75) to a Luke’s Diner candle mug ($25) (WBShop.com).

“The Golden Girls”: Celebrate the 40th anniversary of the NBC sitcom classic with a Shady Pines candle ($15, Amazon.com), a 734-piece brick building set ($50, Amazon.com) or wine ($30, NockingPointWines.com).

“Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”: Last year, Lionel introduced the first Mister Rogers train cars and this year, there are new additions, including a Mr. McFeely mail car ($150 O gauge, $41 HO gauge) and a Neighborhood of Make-Believe characters box car ($115 O gauge; $33 HO gauge), available at Lionel.com.

NFL: The book “Madden & Summerall” ($33) by Rich Podolsky recounts how John Madden and Pat Summerall became one of the greatest NFL broadcast teams in TV history (Barnes & Noble).

“Peanuts”: Charlie Brown, Snoopy and friends celebrate a milestone anniversary with the “75th Anniversary Ultimate TV Specials Collection” ($77 Blu-ray; $65 DVD) featuring 40 “Peanuts” TV specials made from 1955-2011, including 1965’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and 2011’s “Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown” (Amazon.com).

Gordon Ramsay: This year, the star of many unscripted shows on Fox introduced a new cookbook label, Bite Books, and along with it the cookbook “Idiot Sandwich: 100+ Recipes to Elevate Your Sandwich Game” ($28), featuring recipes fit for morning, noon and night (Amazon.com).

“Robot Chicken”: Over two decades and 228 episodes, “Robot Chicken” skewered pop culture generally and sci-fi/horror specifically (“Star Wars,” “The Walking Dead”) and now all that satire has been collected in a complete series DVD set ($105) (Amazon.com).

“Seinfeld”: Young children may not be ready for the NBC comedy classic, but you can prepare them with Little Golden Books’ “Who Are These People?” ($6), which introduces the show’s characters presented in the style of Funko Pop! figures (Amazon.com).

“The Sopranos”: Film historian/author Jason Bailey chronicles the life of “Sopranos” star James Gandolfini in “Gandolfini: Jim, Tony and the Life of a Legend” ($30), a biography of the actor who was propelled to fame by the critical and commercial success of the HBO mob drama he starred in (Barnes & Noble).

“Spenser for Hire”: Robert Urich’s 1985-88 crime-drama gets a 40th anniversary DVD release ($70) featuring all 65 episodes from the show’s three seasons (Amazon).

“Squid Game”: Netflix’s nihilistic juggernaut seemed to lose some juice in its final season, but that didn’t stop the merch machine from churning out brick-building playsets ($140, Amazon.com), T-shirts ($20, Amazon.com) and Funko! Bitty Pop character four-packs ($15, Funko.com).

“Stranger Things: With the final season debuting in three parts over the next month, Netflix’s supernatural sensation will go out with loads of merchandise tie-ins. From “Stranger Things”-themed Gatorade and Chips Ahoy cookies at the grocery store to a stuffed, Squishmallow Demogorgon ($15) at JazWares.com, “Stranger Things” products are unavoidable.

There are multiple clothing collections, including from The Gap ($34-$148) and Pull & Bear ($20-$119), as well as Loungefly bags and backpacks ($38-$81, Loungefly.com), a Coleman cooler ($35, Target), Aldo shoes ($130-$170, Aldo.com) and Casio watches ($99-$150, Casio.com).

“Tom & Jerry”: Hanna-Barbera’s 114 theatrical cat and mouse shorts, released from 1940-58, are collected in “Tom & Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology” ($68 DVD, $57 Blu-ray), which also includes two all-new bonus featurettes on the Blu-ray edition (Amazon).

“The White Lotus”: HBO’s satire inspired a slew of merchandise tie-ins for its third season, including a collection of clothing at Banana Republic (many items now seem to be marked down), an “Official Cocktail Collection” book ($28) and a book of quotes ($17). (Barnes & Noble).