TV Talk: Steelers fan shares ‘True Story’ of sneaking into the 1979 Super Bowl

Retired Pittsburgh boxer and boxing referee Rick Steigerwald has previously shared his story of how, at age 24, he snuck into the 1979 Super Bowl, where the Steelers beat the Dallas Cowboys. But until now, he’s never had the tale re-enacted by a cast of professional comic actors, including Adam Pally, Rob Riggle and Paul Scheer.

“True Story with Ed and Randall,” premiering Thursday on streaming service Peacock, kicks off with the episode “Rick,” AKA Steigerwald’s story. Each episode features an everyday person recounting a crazy story to hosts Ed Helms (“The Office”) and Randall Park (“Fresh Off the Boat”). Comic actors re-enact – and embellish – those stories.

When Steigerwald tells Helms and Park that “when the Steelers are playing, everything shuts down” in Pittsburgh, “True Story” cuts to a scene in an operating room where a patient lying on a gurney reminds the doctors about the game. The doctors abruptly leave and the patient declares, “Time of death? Kickoff.”

Pally, a New York native best known for his role in the ABC sitcom “Happy Endings,” doesn’t attempt a Pittsburgh accent and isn’t so much playing Steigerwald as re-enacting scenes from Steigerwald’s story, much the same way comic actors re-enacted past events in Comedy Central’s “Drunk History.”

Riggle plays an NBC sportscaster who at one point declares, “Will Rick Steigerwald keep the streak alive or will the night get messier than a Primanti Brothers sandwich?” (Have grace, Pittsburgh viewers, with his pronunciation of “Pri-mahn-ti”).

Steigerwald, who grew up on the North Side and now resides in Wexford, has been re-telling his story – the Super Bowl was the culmination of sneaking into every home game at Three Rivers Stadium that season – for years, including sharing it with Pittsburgh-based, former Hollywood producer Carl Kurlander, who set Steigerwald up with a writer to work on a screenplay based on Steigerwald’s exploits and recorded a YouTube video with him. Steigerwald also shared the story on Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini’s podcast, “Ray’s Boom Boom Room” in February 2019, which is how a scout for “True Story” first heard about Steigerwald’s audacious antics. (Steigerwald’s escapade was first covered in February 1979 by Bill Naab in The Pittsburgh Press.)

Steigerwald said he was contacted by “True Story” just before the pandemic and was working with producer Lauren Moore Morden (“Weather Gone Viral”), a Mt. Lebanon native. When pre-production on the serires resumed mid-pandemic, she was off “True Story” and he was instead working with “True Story” co-executive producer Kris Lythgoe, son of Nigel Lythgoe (“American Idol,” “So You Think You Can Dance”).

Steigerwald, a retired steamfitter and a current Pennsylvania State Athletic Commissioner, flew to Los Angeles in June 2021 to record his segment, telling his story to Helms and Park.

“I knew Ed Helms from ‘The Hangover’ and I watched ‘The Office’ and I was thrilled he was involved,” said Steigerwald, who is not part of the same clan as Pittsburgh media figures John, Bill and Paul Steigerwald. “And Randall I knew from ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ and his deadpan acting is great. The two of them are opposites each other with their comedy.”

Richie Knapp/Peacock

Rick Steigerwald

Steigerwald wore his own shirt and sport coat for the taping, but producers didn’t like his black jeans (“I didn’t want to be a pain in the [butt] so I changed my pants”) which were replaced with black khakis. He only shot for one day but got to spend five days in L.A. with a limo driver at his disposal to take him to go on hikes and visit boxing gyms and comedy clubs.

The comedic re-enactments, filled with actors clad in black and gold attire, were shot later and Steigerwald, who suggested Pittsburgh native and actor Chad Conley play him, was never contacted by Pally.

At one point there was talk of Steigerwald, who had small roles in filmed-in-Pittsburgh “Southpaw” and “Foxcatcher,” playing his own father in one re-enacted scene, but he said that got nixed over SAG rules regarding a non-SAG member speaking dialogue.

Steigerwald would still like to see his story told in a scripted movie. He never tires of re-telling the tale.

“It’s so much fun to see peoples’ faces when you tell the boldness of what you did,” he said. “Can you imagine getting away with that today? That’s the crazy part. This whole thing will never happen again.”

At one point in “True Story,” Pally comes face-to-face with Terry Bradshaw, playing himself while wearing an ill-fitting blond mop of a wig.

“You’re not a man, you’re a god,” Pally tells Bradshaw, “a golden god with a beautiful head of hair. Don’t be worried, it’s not going anywhere, I can tell.”

Ultimately Pally praises the Steelers, presumably with some help from a Google search and a mangling of one neighborhood name, declaring, “I hope you know that every Pennsylvanian, from Allentown to Shadyville is singing your praises and that song is ringing true from every bridge in Pittsburgh, all 446 of ‘em!”

Kept/canceled/revived

Epix renewed “Godfather of Harlem” for a third season.

Peacock will bring back “One of Us is Lying” for a second season.

Paramount+ canceled “60 Minutes Plus;” Netflix canceled “Gentefied.”

NBC is developing a sequel series to ABC’s “Life Goes On” that would star Kellie Martin.

HBO Max ordered a reboot/continuation of “Degrassi” for 2023; all 14 seasons of “Degrassi: The Next Generation” will be available on the streaming service this spring.

Tim Allen will reprise his “The Santa Clause” role in a Disney+ limited series.

FX will revive “Justified” with star Timothy Olyphant and executive producer Graham Yost returning for “Justified: City Primeval,” a limited series inspired by Elmore Leonard’s novel “City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit.”

NBC ordered a pilot for a “Quantum Leap” reboot; it’s unclear if it will involve original series star Scott Bakula in some capacity.

Channel surfing

The second season of “American Detective,” hosted by Westmoreland County native and University of Pittsburgh grad Joe Kenda, premieres Jan. 26 on streaming service Discovery+ with new episodes debuting on subsequent Wednesdays. … Fox pushed its midseason country music soap “Monarach,” starring Susan Sarandon, from a Jan. 30 premiere to fall, blaming production delays caused by the pandemic. … Netflix announced rate hikes for its streaming service last week with one-screen, non-HD service up $1 to $9.99 monthly; plans that allow streaming of two screens simultaneously are now $15.49 per month, up from $13.99. Premium plans rise to $19.99 monthly. … Bloomberg reports DirecTV plans to drop OANN when its contract expires in April. … Tori Yorgey, a Penn State grad and Philadelphia-area native, joins WTAE-TV next month as a general assignment reporter. She arrives after a stint at WSAZ-TV in Huntington, W.Va.