TV Talk: George Romero leaps off comic book page in ‘Creepshow’

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.

McCandless native Greg Nicotero loves to weave Pittsburgh homages into his “Creepshow” series, which televises its fourth season at 10 p.m. Fridays beginning Oct. 13 on AMC (episodes also stream on Shudder and AMC+).

In the show’s second season Nicotero set stories at a WQED-like Pittsburgh public television station. In the fourth season premiere, the second of two stories, “Smile,” begins with a beauty shot of Downtown Pittsburgh as seen from the Ohio River.

Directed by Pittsburgh native John Harrison (Syfy’s 2000 “Dune” and its 2003 sequel miniseries), “Smile” doesn’t have a lot to do with Pittsburgh beyond those early establishing shots as it tells the story of a photojournalist haunted by one of his past photos.

“It was initially (written as) Anytown, USA, but we made it Pittsburgh because any time I can pay tribute to the ’Burgh — and John’s got a good history there, too — I will,” Nicotero said in a Zoom interview earlier this month.

But for “Creepshow’s” fourth season finale (10 p.m. Nov. 17, AMC), Nicotero directs a Pittsburgh-centric story: “George Romero in 3-D!”

“I read the pitch and I just said, look, this is everything about the guy that I respect and admire and it was honestly handwritten for me to make this episode,” Nicotero said. “I said, ‘We’re making this episode.’ I didn’t even take notes from the network, just said, ‘We’re doing it.’ ”

Written by Todd Spence and Zak White, “George Romero in 3-D!” opens with the preamble, “Pittsburgh is known for the Steelers, Heinz Ketchup, Primanti Brothers and … zombies! The employees of Book Time are about to find out just how deadly this legend can be.”

Book Time owner Sarah (Kyra Zagorsky) is having trouble paying the store’s rent. Her obnoxious landlord (Peter New) doesn’t help her mood — but does set himself up for a nasty fate — when he tells her, “It’s strictly business, dear. It’s kill or be killed out there!”

“There’s so much of me in that story,” said Nicotero, whose earliest work in film/TV production was working on Romero’s 1985 film “Day of the Dead.” “I remember Waldenbooks in the Northway Mall. I love going to bookstores and walking around. So it’s the idea that everything is online now and people that have brick-and-mortar stores can’t make it work. … Every time I fly home, I go to Eide’s (Entertainment). If it was ever not there one day, I don’t know what I would do with myself.”

When Sarah thinks about buying a new computer to start a website for the store, her son Martin (Graham Verchere) says, “I heard that jagoff, you can’t afford jack!”

Martin and fellow employee/possible love interest Dawn (Megan Charpentier) discover a box marked “Image 10” that’s full of old “Brain Rot” comic books that Martin says are the work of the late George A. Romero. A pair of 3-D glasses falls out of the comic book, and when Martin puts them on he can see zombies jumping out of the comic book, invading the store and killing a customer. But without the 3-D glasses, his co-workers don’t see the undead.

“In the world of zombie history, there’s never been an invisible zombie,” Nicotero said. “That was one of the big pitches to the network: I have this great visual of this guy bent over backwards, having his throat torn open but nobody can see a zombie’s doing it unless they put on the 3-D glasses.”

Eventually an image of Romero (Sebastian Kroon) in the comic book comes to life in a sketchbook style reminiscent of the visuals in the 1985 A-Ha music video “Take on Me.”

Romero, wearing his trademark large glasses, reminds Martin that he called his creations “ghouls” rather than “zombies.”

“I saw you on ‘Chiller Theater’ with Bill Cardille when you guys ran ‘Night of the Living Dead’ uncut,’ ” Martin tells Romero. “And for ‘Dawn of the Dead,’ I changed my learner’s permit so I could get in on opening night!”

Nicotero said before he filmed “George Romero in 3-D” in Vancouver, Canada, in July 2022, he talked to Romero’s widow, Suzanne Desrocher-Romero, about the project. Nicotero said he’s pleased with how the episode turned out, particularly its depiction of Romero.

“George always had a really unique sense of humor,” Nicotero said. “He was very funny. And a lot of people didn’t really know that because they’d watch his movies and they’d be like, ‘Oh, this guy’s so dark, and everything’s so bleak.’ And they wouldn’t realize that he had a really good laugh. So I really wanted the George that came out of the comic book to be the ‘Dawn of the Dead’ version of George that was a bit more confident with the beard and the scarf and the plaid shirt. That was the George Romero that I grew up with.”