TV Talk: McCandless native Greg Nicotero tells new ‘Creepshow’ stories set in Pittsburgh

It should come as no surprise that both stories in the season two premiere of McCandless native Greg Nicotero’s “Creepshow” are set in Pittsburgh. He’s an unabashed devotee to his hometown and his memories growing up watching WPXI-TV’s “Chiller Theater” before getting his earliest work doing makeup effects on Pittsburgh director George A. Romero’s 1985 movie “Day of the Dead.”

The second season of “Creepshow” debuts Thursday on streaming services Shudder and AMC+ with the ’70s-era stories “Model Kid” and “Public Television of the Dead,” directed by Nicotero and inspired by his Pittsburgh childhood.

“‘Public Television of the Dead’ is kind of loosely based on WQED in terms of something I used to watch ‘Monty Python’ on on Sunday nights when I was a little kid,” said Nicotero, a makeup effects wizard known for “The Walking Dead” who’s now also the showrunner of “Creepshow.” “That TV station also had a very big connection to Romero. Most of George Romero’s crew all worked at WQED, they all worked on ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,’ and then when George would get a movie, they’d all go work on George’s movie.”

“Public Television of the Dead” is set at WQPS, Pittsburgh’s Channel 13. The station’s children’s show host, Mrs. Bookberry (imagine a profane-off-the-air, distaff Mister Rogers), and a Bob Ross-like painting show host come under attack after the host of “The Appraiser’s Road Trip” (think: “Antiques Roadshow”) reads an incantation from an ancient tome and his guest (Ted Raimi) becomes possessed by an evil spirit who demands, “Pledge to us!” a play on PBS station pledge drives.

“It felt like every time I turned on the channel, there was a WQED pledge drive going on,” Nicotero said, crediting the script by Rob Schrab for the “pledge” joke.

As for Mrs. Bookberry, Nicotero said, “she definitely doesn’t represent Fred (Rogers) in any way, but we were just trying to capture the spirit of those low-budget (PBS shows).”

“Model Kid,” written by John Esposito and set in “suburban Pittsburgh,” is even more personal as it tells the story of a child who puts together models of monsters he orders through the mail, something Nicotero did as an adolescent.

“I would send away for the model kits from an ad in the back of Famous Monsters (of Filmland) magazine,” Nicotero said. “Then I ultimately found a hobby shop, Burland’s on McKnight Road, where I’d buy all these model kits when I was 12 to 14. Always monster (models). I wasn’t into cars or airplanes, it was monsters.”

An episode near the end of the season invokes Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead.”

“I think it’s our season finale called ‘Night of the Living Late Show’ that stars Justin Long and D’Arcy Carden and it’s got some Pittsburgh vibes to it,” Nicotero teased. “I don’t want to give too much away. It’s not set in Pittsburgh but there are elements of Pittsburgh that play in that episode pretty strong.”

Nicotero said when he was developing “Creepshow” as a series, Pittsburgh was in the running along with Vancouver and Atlanta as a filming location. Nicotero said he pushed for Pittsburgh but tax credits led the show to Atlanta where he’s able to use crew from “The Walking Dead,” which he’s an executive producer on.

“Creepshow” has already been renewed for and completed filming a third season with director John Harrison (Syfy’s 2000 “Dune” miniseries), who grew up in Oakland and Oakmont, writing and directing one of the stories, “A Dead Girl Named Sue,” that takes place outside of Pittsburgh.

“It’s another period piece, late ’60s, and I remember we couldn’t get permission to use a 1968 Steelers calendar on the wall,” Nictotero said. “But we had some things in there that were relevant to Pittsburgh in the late ’60s.”

Nicotero, who was in town to visit his parents for a weekend earlier this month, said the city remains “near and dear” to his heart.

“I grew up about 20 minutes from the Evans City Cemetery where they shot ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ and we would go Christmas shopping at the Monroeville Mall where they shot ‘Dawn of the Dead,’” Nicotero said. “So I was always convinced that zombies were, sort of, it was in the water. It’s kind of like ‘The Crazies’: You drink the water and you got to love zombies. (Chiller Theater’ host) Bill Cardille was my mentor before I became friends with (makeup effects expert and actor) Tom Savini and George Romero in the early ’80s. Pittsburgh really just had it all for me.”