TV Talk: Western Pa. mansion profiled on HGTV’s ‘Scariest House;’ WPXI reporter exits

Former Pittsburghers Thom Hutter and Edward Handley weren’t looking to buy a haunted house. Initially, they just wanted to remodel the kitchen of their Observatory Hill home.

But when the Greenville Manor, a former funeral home in Greenville, Mercer County, popped up on a Facebook feed for sale two years ago, the duo jumped at the opportunity.

“It’s very rare to find a French Second Empire style house that is brick and hasn’t been torn down or blown up,” said Hutter, who owns Pittsburgh’s Thinkcube ad agency. Handley works remotely for a mail order pharmacy.

A bidding war developed among Hutter and Handley, an attorney from Butler, a psychic from California and a Satanist from New York.

“They wound up giving it to the most evil guys,” Hutter joked, “the guys in advertising and health care.”

Hutter and Handley didn’t know the Manor’s supernatural or funeral home history until after they bought the place, Googled it and learned it’s supposedly “the most haunted home in Pennsylvania.”

Hutter, Handley and their 1881 house are featured on this week’s episode of HGTV’s “Scariest House in America” (9 p.m. Friday).

Hutter and Handley give host Retta (“Parks and Recreation”) a tour of their home, including showing off “a corpse door” where corpses would be lowered to the basement and prepared for burial.

“There’s always a corpse door,” Retta deadpans before visiting the basement that still has channels where blood from the funeral home’s bodies would be drained.

“That basement is ridiculous,” Retta observes. “It’s never gonna be a rec room, that’s all I’m saying.”

Hutter and Handley said their real estate agent followed up after they bought the house when casting producers for the HGTV show reached out. The production filmed for more than 13 hours one day in May.

“Thirteen hours for six minutes,” Handley said of the amount of time spent filming versus the running time of their segment on the show.

Hunter and Handley gave tours of their home multiple times during the filming day for multiple producers before Retta came in to be filmed exploring the house.

“We had our Apple watches on, and we walked about five miles that day,” Hutter said, “but we never left the house.”

Handley and Hutter were paranormal skeptics before moving to the Manor.

“This house is very reactive to our emotions,” Handley said.

“There are so many things that are difficult to debunk,” Hutter said. “There are lights that appear in the basement even when all the windows are boarded up … and there’s no light source. … There are periods where you’ll see something materialize in the center of the room, not projected on the walls, and we’ll see zip out of the room and the dogs will panic.”

Handley recalled brushing his teeth on the second floor one night and he saw a shadow coming toward him in the hallway. He thought it was Hutter and called out to him and there was no response. Handley called out again and Hutter responded – from the first floor.

“It was such a fine, opaque silhouette,” Handley said. “It was unnerving. I slept with the lights on that night.”

The duo said they’re excited for the attention “Scariest House” will bring to Greenville, which Hutter sees as “a hidden secret in Pennsylvania.” They’ll host an open-to-the-public screening of the episode, projected onto an inflatable screen, on their front lawn Friday night at dusk.

They’re in the process of renovating the Manor in a historically accurate manner, filling it with period appropriate furniture and décor. Hutter said they plan to open the home’s first floor to host professionally produced murder mystery parties, “high quality, small events.”

Eventually they intend to put the house into a trust and have it run as a museum after they’re gone “so the town has a historic relic from that era,” Hutter said. “This is the last house standing from [Greenville’s] Millionaire’s Row.”

Kirkland exits WPXI

Channel 11 reporter Talia Kirkland, who joined the station in January 2022, will depart WPXI after her Oct. 3 reporting shift. Kirkland’s husband, who works in casino marketing, got a job in Las Vegas and Kirkland lined up a role as an afternoon weekday anchor and reporter at the Fox affiliate in Vegas.

A Penn Hills native and Duquesne University grad (she was mentored by WTAE’s Mike Clark while in college), Kirkland said it’s difficult to leave her home again.

“It was so exciting to come back and be able to report in my hometown,” she said. “That was always the goal.”

Meanwhile, former Channel 11 reporter Nicole Ford, who exited the station last week, has a new job as director of public relations for Washington County.

‘Born Poor’

PBS’s “Frontline” kicks off a new season with “Born Poor,” a follow-up to its 2012 “Frontline” doc “Poor Kids.”

A 90-minute program, “Born Poor” (10 p.m. Tuesday, WQED-TV) filmed during a 14-year period following the subjects of “Poor Kids” as they age over three chapters that revisit their childhoods, then follow them as teens and adults.

“Born Poor” tells the sad stories you’d expect – not all the kids survive; one family uses ice in a motel sink as their refrigerator after they lose their home – but there are also stories of children who grow up to become adults who exhibit resilience and achievement, rising above the poverty they were born into.

Kept/canceled

Netflix renewed adult animated comedy “Haunted Hotel” for a second season.

Hulu canceled sitcom “Mid-Century Modern” after a single season.

Great American Family will bring back “When Hope Calls” for a third season in 2026.

Paramount+ renewed “Lioness” for a third season.

Channel surfing

For its 25th year, Pittsburgh’s original musical satire “Off the Record” – this year’s theme “Burgh to the Future” — will salute Pittsburgh broadcasters Jon Delano, David Johnson and Ken Rice for their contributions to the show and to the Pittsburgh media landscape. “OTR” will be staged at 8 p.m. Oct. 16 at the Byham Theater (tickets: $30-$80 at trustarts.org/production/103444). … David Ajala (“Star Trek: Discovery”) will join “Law & Order” for its 25th season as a new detective. … Summer box office hit “Jurassic World Rebirth” streams on Peacock beginning Oct. 30. … Apple TV+’s musical parody “Schmigadoon!” will hit Broadway next year with previews beginning April 4 and an engagement expected to run through Sept. 6. The stage show covers the series’ first season.