Netflix’s horror series “Archive 81” has been filming in and around Pittsburgh since November and will be joined in a couple of weeks by another Netflix program, “The Chair.” Showtime’s “Rust” expects to film in March.

Beyond these three series, 2021 local big-budget TV/film production is in a holding pattern. All $70 million of Pennsylvania’s film tax credits for 2020-2021 have been claimed. (Hollywood productions invariably seek out filming locations that offer a tax incentive.)

Pittsburgh Film Office director Dawn Keezer is waiting for the Pennsylvania legislature to re-authorize the state’s film tax credit program, often a political football, for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Pa. Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington, will introduce legislation to increase the Pennsylvania film tax credit program cap from $70 million to $125 million annually. Bartolotta grew up in Southern California and has worked in the entertainment industry on camera (in Pittsburgh-filmed “The Fault in Our Stars”) and behind the scenes (she executive produced the 2014 indie movie “Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies,” filmed in Charleroi).

Keezer said the goal of Pennsylvania’s film tax credit program since its 2004 inception has been to build an industry, not just hand out incentives, “but because we’ve limited the incentives so much, we keep shooting ourselves in the foot. This industry is working again. It took a lot of people off unemployment and put them back to work. It’s a real bright spot in the overall Pennsylvania economic picture.”

Neighboring Ohio, which had no significant film incentive program until 2009, now competes for film and TV projects. The Ohio program has a $40 million cap while at the other end of Pennsylvania New Jersey increased the cap on its film tax credit program in 2020 from $75 million to $100 million annually.

Keezer said filming was able to resume locally mid-pandemic after the film/TV production industry instituted detailed covid compliance rules.

The eight-episode “Archive 81,” which is expected to film for another couple of months into early spring, did have to suspend production for a few days in early December after a positive coronavirus test but production resumed after that.

“Archive 81” tells the story of archivist Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie, “The Get Down”) who restores a collection of damaged videotapes from 1994, piecing together the work of a documentary filmmaker.

“The Chair,” starring Sandra Oh (“Killing Eve”), Jay Duplass (“Transparent”) and Holland Taylor (“Hollywood”), is a six-episode dramedy from actress-turned-writer/showrunner Amanda Peet, whose husband, David Benioff, executive produces the show alongside his “Game of Thrones” writing partner D.B. Weiss and “GOT” producer Bernie Caulfield.

The series follows the chair (Oh) of a university English department and should not be confused with Starz’s 2014 movie-making reality competition series, also titled “The Chair,” that was produced by Pittsburgh native Zachary Quinto and filmed locally. Netflix’s “The Chair” is expected to use the campuses of Chatham University and Washington Jefferson College for filming.

A Netflix representative would not confirm that actor David Duchovny will play a fictional version of himself, a visiting professor at the college.

Showtime’s “Rust” (or possibly “American Rust,” it’s gone by both titles) stars Jeff Daniels as the chief of police in a southwestern Pennsylvania town whose former girlfriend’s son is accused of killing an ex-cop. The series is based on author Philipp Meyer’s 2009 novel “American Rust,” which is set in the fictional Mon Valley town of Buell, Fayette County. “Rust” was about to start filming locally in March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered film and TV production worldwide.

‘Bridge and Tunnel’

It’s difficult to categorize the new half-hour, character-driven Epix series “Bridge and Tunnel” (9 p.m. Sunday), but “dramedy” seems to fit best even though the drama is small-bore (will a high school couple get together again after college?) and there’s little outright comedy.

2014 Carnegie Mellon University drama program grad Brian Muller describes his show as a coming-of-age story about a group of high school friends who’ve just graduated from college and are about to enter the real world.

“For me personally, that was one of the most difficult transition periods of my life,” Muller said. “I graduated from Carnegie, moved to L.A. and I hated it.”

In “Bridge and Tunnel” the New York native plays Pags, best friend of one of the show’s lead characters.

“Pags is there to bring a little bit of lightness to it,” Muller said. “He isn’t in the midst of a tumultuous love story. He has his life all set and figured out … and then he gets thrown off his axis. He may be the most neurotic character in the show.”

Muller started acting at Stagedoor Manor summer camp in New York, got into CMU and landed a role in the ensemble of “Little House on the Prairie: The Musical.” With CMU’s blessing, Muller deferred college for a year and toured the U.S. with “Little House.”

After college, Muller had roles in “Cruel Intentions: The Musical” (first in L.A. and later in New York), a guest role in several episodes of the final season of CBS’s “The Good Wife” and he recurred on HBO’s “The Deuce” as a crooked cop.

Muller landed “Cruel Intentions” after wandering into a L.A. dinner theater looking for a job as a bartender. There he ran into a friend from Stagedoor in the midst of rehearsal and Muller wound up getting pulled in to play the stage show’s lead, Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe’s part in the original movie), when an actor left for another role.

Muller said it can be difficult to put his Carnegie training to use when auditioning for a role that has only two lines but on “Bridge and Tunnel,” executive produced by Ed Burns (“The Brothers McMullen”), he felt “the freedom to make bold choices and lean into impulses.”

The six-episode first season filmed in October and November and while the characters have their sights set on Manhattan, they’re mostly on Long Island.

“Manhattan is an idea in the distance in season one,” Muller said. “If we get to do season two there will be more Manhattan.”

Kept/canceled

OWN renewed “Queen Sugar” for a sixth season ahead of its fifth season premiere (8 p.m. Feb. 16).

TNT renewed “Animal Kingdom” for a sixth and final season ahead of its fifth season, airing this summer. TNT also ordered a third season of “Snowpiercer” ahead of its second-season premiere at 9 p.m. Monday.

Peacock renewed its “Saved by the Bell” reboot for a second season.

HBO’s “High Maintenance” will not return for a fifth season.

Netflix’s “Peaky Blinders” will end after its upcoming sixth season though the show’s creator says his intention is to end the story with a movie.

TruTV canceled “At Home with Amy Sedaris” after three seasons.

Channel surfing

Pittsburgh author Deesha Philyaw’s 2020 National Book Award finalist short story collection, “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies,” has been picked up by actress Tessa Thompson (“Westworld”) and her production company for a series adaptation at HBO Max with Philyaw writing the scripts and executive producing alongside Thompson. … “The 43rd Kennedy Center Honors,” delayed from December due to covid-19, will air on CBS at 9 p.m. June 6 recognizing choreographer/actress Debbie Allen, singer-songwriter/activist Joan Baez, country music legend Garth Brooks, Violinist Midori and actor Dick Van Dyke. … All five seasons of “The Muppet Show” will stream on Disney+ starting Feb. 19. … Streamer CBS All Access will be rebranded Paramount+ on March 4. … Real-world, true-crime story “The Salisbury Poisonings,” which streamed in 2020 on AMC+, debuts at 10 p.m. Monday on cable’s AMC. … The second of two between-season episodes of HBO’s “Euphoria” becomes available Friday at 9 p.m. on HBO Max and airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO. … NBC delayed this week’s “This is Us” episode due to covid-19 production delays. New episodes are expected to resume Feb. 2.

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