TV Talk: History Channel revisits Johnstown Flood; chilly ‘Severance’ explores work-life balance

Mixing talking head historians with dramatic re-creations, George Stephanopoulos (“Good Morning America”) executive produces the new History Channel series “I Was There,” which kicks off Sunday at 10:30 p.m. and airs an episode on the Johnstown Flood Monday at 10:30 p.m.

While this hybrid interview/dramatization style has become common on History Channel, “I Was There” distinguishes itself with scenes featuring host Theo E.J. Wilson appearing alongside actors in the dramatic recreations (get it, he was there!). The show also distinguishes itself with a welcome lack of bloat: efficient 30-minute episodes are sufficient to share the stories selected.

The dramatic scenes offer a mix of actors on practical sets, on location and CGI work. Other historic events featured include the Hindenburg disaster, the space shuttle Challenger disaster and the 1965 Bloody Sunday march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala.

In a phone interview last week, Wilson said the episodes, including “Johnstown Flood: America’s Deadliest Flood,” were largely filmed around Minneapolis, home to the show’s production company, Committee Films.

“There’s so much to learn, especially when it comes to the class issues that the episode really delves deep into exploring, and how persistent it is, and how important it was for us to come up with the labor regulations, the laws and boundaries of corporate exploitation and the accountability measures put in place,” said Wilson, the grandson of a Tuskegee Airman. “Johnstown was a huge part of us shifting the culture of accountability towards the powerful.”

The Johnstown Flood story – with the wealthy enjoying their time on Lake Conemaugh above Johnstown and their failure to maintain the dam that led to the 1889 flood that swept away 2,200 of the laborers and their families in Johnstown below – has resonance today given ongoing concerns about income inequality.

“It’s interesting how it persists into the modern era,” Wilson said. “We understand that as the quality of life rises, so does the standard of living for everybody who would be called the lower class. But that doesn’t stop the wealth stratification. It’s easy to put Johnstown in a bygone era if you just discuss it on a surface level. But history is relevant to the now, which is why we’re interested in it. The parallels that can be drawn watching Johnstown to this modern era elucidate some of the dangers we still face.”

The episode offers a reminder of what potential the Johnstown Flood story has for a dramatic movie or limited series (the 1926 “Johnstown Flood” silent movie is pretty dated at this point). In 2002, Pittsburgh native and director John Harrison (Syfy’s “Dune” miniseries) had a four-hour miniseries, based on Pittsburgh native David McCullough’s 1968 book about the flood, in development at ABC but the project was scrapped a few years later.

‘Severance’

Apple TV+’s latest entry, the chilly drama “Severance,” streaming Friday, has a look that’s “Homecoming” meets “Loki” with some Kafkaesque vibes thrown in for good measure.

It’s an odd but not unwelcome arrival that delivers an unorthodox take on the work-life balance. In this parallel present, office workers can choose to have their work life “severed” from their lives outside of work so that when they’re at the office, they have no knowledge of their outside-work lives and when they are home they have no memories of work.

After his wife’s death, Mark Scout (Adam Scott) opts to undergo severance for his job at Lumon Industries. But questions about the procedure start to crop up when Mark’s former co-worker, Petey (Yul Vazquez), appears to have reversed the procedure. And new recruit Helly (Britt Lower) wants out almost immediately. As a cold boss, Patricia Arquette is inscrutably weird in the best, most quietly menacing way.

Written and created by Dan Erickson with episodes directed by Ben Stiller, there’s a dark humor, absurdist vibe that, alongside the mysteries (What are the workers doing at Lumon? Why does Mark’s boss live next door to him?), makes “Severance” appealing. But some of that interest gets undone by over-long episodes and a thudding pace.

Sandra Oh on more ‘Chair’

During a Television Critics Association 2022 virtual press tour panel earlier this month for “Killing Eve,” premiering its fourth and final season at 8 p.m. Feb. 27 on BBC America and AMC+, I asked star Sandra Oh if she’d heard anything about the possibility of a second season of Netflix’s “The Chair,” which was filmed in Pittsburgh a year ago.

“Ask them because no one’s called me,” Oh said. “And I would really have loved to have done it.”

A Netflix publicist offered no update as to whether the show, announced as a limited series, will or will not be back for more episodes.

‘Thon’ on WTAE-TV

“Thon – 50 Years for the Kids,” a 30-miunte celebration of Penn State’s student-run dance marathon philanthropy, will air in Pittsburgh on WTAE-TV at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Kept/canceled

Shudder renewed “Creepshow,” executive produced by McCandless native Greg Nicotero, for a fourth season.

HBO Max renewed “The Gilded Age” for a second season; Hulu did the same for “How I Met Your Father.”

Showtime renewed “Billions” for season seven.

Paramount+ ordered more episodes of “1883” and a spin-off, “1932.”

ABC pulled low-rated soap “Promised Land” from its Monday night schedule; the remainder of the episodes will stream on Hulu March 1.

Channel surfing

Cable’s Ovation debuts a new, 24-episode season of “Murdoch Mysteries” with episodes airing at 7 p.m. Saturdays beginning Feb. 26 and streaming on Acorn.tv Mondays beginning Feb. 28. … Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes will host the Oscars (8 p.m. March 27, ABC). … Fox is developing an animated series based on the 1980-89 “Bloom County” comic strip that will be co-written by the comic’s creator, Berkeley Breathed. … ViacomCBS renamed itself Paramount. … After winning $9,999 in the Feb. 9 premiere, Carnegie Mellon University student Kristin Donegan competes in a semi-final round of ABC’s “Jeopardy! National College Championship” Friday at 8 p.m. on WTAE-TV.