Movies/TV category, Page 106
‘Encanto,’ ‘House of Gucci’ fuel Thanksgiving box office
NEW YORK — Thanksgiving weekend moviegoing was still far from the feast it normally is, but Disney’s “Encanto” and the Lady Gaga-led “House of Gucci” both gave a lift to two genres that have been particularly battered by the pandemic: family movies and adult dramas. “Encanto” led the box office...
TV Talk: Local stations set holiday programming
While locally produced holiday season specials have declined over the years, some favorites remain, including: “WTAE Project Bundle-Up Telethon” (Dec. 3): Channel 4 and the Salvation Army Western Pennsylvania Division launch their 36th year of community service to area children and seniors in need. The Project Bundle-Up telethon, hosted by...
TV Talk: ‘Great Escapes’ revisits a Pittsburgh prison break; ‘Hawkeye’ and ‘Hot Zone’ sequel debutVideo
Next week’s episode of “Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman” (10 p.m. Tuesday, History Channel) devotes its full hour to a 1997 prison break from the former Western Pen (AKA the now-shuttered SCI Pittsburgh). Freeman, known for prison-set movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” hosts the series with each episode devoted to a...
2 Fox News contributors quit, citing ‘irresponsible’ voicesVideo
NEW YORK — Two writers who have been paid contributors to Fox News Channel have resigned, citing Tucker Carlson’s “Patriot Purge” documentary on last January’s U.S. Capitol insurrection as a last straw for them. Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes, who put out a Substack newsletter on conservative news called The...
TV Talk: The CW delivers a new version of ‘The Waltons’Video
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. On first blush, it’s a puzzler why The CW, home to superhero and contemporary teen and twentysomething stories, would have an interest in remaking 1970s family drama “The Waltons.” But think back to The CW’s...
‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ captures $44 million in theaters
Busting ghosts is still a fairly lucrative business after almost 40 years. Heading into Thanksgiving weekend, the latest attempt to revive “Ghostbusters” drew a sizable audience to theaters, while the awards darling “King Richard,” like most dramas in the pandemic era, is struggling. With a reverence for nostalgia and a...
TV Q&A: Where has WTAE-TV’s Shannon Perrine been during sweeps?
Q: I was wondering where Shannon Perrine of WTAE-TV is? I know it is sweeps so I doubt she is on vacation. We haven’t seen her in a couple of weeks. – Evelyn via email Rob: Evelyn is correct: It is indeed unusual for a main anchor to be off...
TV Talk: Point Park grad goes to Mars in Netflix’s live-action ‘Cowboy Bebop’Video
For Point Park University grad Mason Alexander Park, a recurring role on Netflix’s live-action “Cowboy Bebop,” streaming Friday, finds the actor primarily sharing scenes with Tamara Tunie, a 1981 Carnegie Mellon University drama program grad who was born in McKeesport and raised in Homestead. Park and Tunie were quarantined a...
TV Q&A: Local TV news can be a transitional business
Q: What is going on at WTAE? The station has lost what I believe to be exceptional, diverse on-air talent. Chris Lovingood and David Kaplan leaving was unexpected, but Kelly Frey, really? WTAE has to know this is not a good look for them and I’m sure they’ll take a...
TV Talk: Curiosity Stream turns ‘Spotlight’ on Beaver Falls native Joe Namath
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Nonfiction streaming service Curiosity Stream goes “Beyond the Spotlight” for an episode dedicated to Beaver Falls native Joe Namath. Now streaming, “Beyond the Spotlight” debuted this fall with three episodes about celebrities who are trying...
‘Sesame Street’ debuts Ji-Young, 1st Asian American muppet
What’s in a name? Well, for Ji-Young, the newest muppet resident of “Sesame Street,” her name is a sign she was meant to live there. “So, in Korean traditionally the two syllables they each mean something different and Ji means, like, smart or wise. And Young means, like, brave or...
TV Talk: Showtime thriller ‘Yellowjackets’ merits buzz
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. “Alive” meets “Lost” in “Yellowjackets” (10 p.m. Sunday, Showtime), an engrossing, character-driven thriller about a 1996 New Jersey high school girls’ soccer team whose chartered plane crashes in the wilderness leading to “Lord of the...
Beloved ‘Dolphin Tale’ star Winter dies at Florida aquarium
CLEARWATER, Fla. — A prosthetic-tailed dolphin named Winter that starred in the “Dolphin Tale” movies died Thursday evening at a Florida aquarium despite life-saving efforts to treat a gastrointestinal abnormality, aquarium officials said. The 16-year-old female bottlenose dolphin died while being held by animal care experts who were preparing Winter...
Big Bird backlash: Vax lands even Muppet in political flap
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Smokey Bear taught kids the importance of preventing wildfires. McGruff the Crime Dog warned them not to talk to strangers. And in 1972, Big Bird lined up on “Sesame Street” to receive a measles vaccine as part of a campaign to get more youngsters inoculated against the...
TV Talk: Lynne Hayes-Freeland calls it a career; documentaries with Pittsburgh ties debut at DOC NYCVideo
From her earliest days producing “The Roy Fox Show” on KDKA-AM to her current noon-3 p.m. weekday radio show on the same station, to her years covering news and public affairs on KDKA-TV, Lynne Hayes-Freeland has been a consistent media presence in her hometown for more than 40 years. That...
Crew member sues Alec Baldwin, others over ‘Rust’ shooting
LOS ANGELES — The head of lighting on the film “Rust” filed a lawsuit Wednesday over Alec Baldwin’s fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the Western, alleging negligence that caused him “severe emotional distress” that will haunt him forever. Serge Svetnoy said in the...
TV Q&A: Why are so many TV reporters leaving Pittsburgh?
Q: Another person leaving WPXI-TV with the departure of Michele Newell. What’s going on at that station in recent times? — Gary via Facebook Rob: Newell left Channel 11 and her hometown of Pittsburgh for a reporter position in the larger Atlanta TV market at a station that’s part of...
Brian Williams says he’s leaving NBC News after 28 years
NEW YORK — Brian Williams, who remade his career as an MSNBC host after losing his job as NBC “Nightly News” anchor for making false claims about a wartime story, is leaving the network after 28 years. Williams said in a note to colleagues that “following much reflection,” he had...
Pittsburgh TV news changes: 2021 hires and departures
Pittsburgh has had its share of television news anchors and reporters coming and going this year. Here is a look at all moves covered by TV reporter Rob Owen in 2021 (so far): Departures ● KDKA’s Lynne Hayes-Freeland retired in early November after nearly 4o years on the local TV...
Dean Stockwell of ‘Quantum Leap,’ ‘Blue Velvet’ dies at 85
NEW YORK — Dean Stockwell, a top Hollywood child actor who gained new success in middle age in the sci-fi series “Quantum Leap” and in a string of indelible performances in film, including David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet,” Wim Wenders’ “Paris, Texas” and Jonathan Demme’s “Married to the Mob,” has died....
Richard Madden, Salma Hayek support ‘Eternals’ love scene
Marvel’s new film “Eternals” broke the mold in an area the studio has conspicuously avoided for years: Sex between superheroes. It’s the first time in 26 Marvel cinematic universe films that an intimate conjugal moment was visibly shown between two characters. The scene — depicted by Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao...
How director Chloe Zhao made ‘Eternals’ epic, intimate and unlike anything else in the MCU
Marvel’s “Eternals” is an action-packed superhero epic about cosmic beings that repeatedly save humanity from vicious, mutating monsters over the span of thousands of years. It’s also a delicate tapestry of love, friendship, grief and betrayal woven with quiet and passionate interpersonal moments — including, for example, the Marvel Cinematic...
TV Talk: ‘American Rust’ ends 1st season on multiple cliffhangers
Spoiler warning: This article includes spoilers for the season-one finale of Showtime’s filmed-in-Pittsburgh “American Rust” that aired at 10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7. While the first season of “American Rust” began at a glacial pace, the show steadily improved through its nine-episode run, culminating in Sunday’s chickens-coming-home-to-roost first-season finale. If...
‘Eternals’ opens with $71M but audience response is mixedVideo
NEW YORK — “Eternals,” one of Marvel’s most ambitious efforts to expand its superhero universe, arrived in theaters with about $71 million in ticket sales over the weekend, according to studio estimates. By most studios’ box-office standards, the opening was enviable. Only three other films have debuted better during the...
TV Talk: Steelers legend Jerome Bettis guest stars on CBS sitcom ‘The Neighborhood’
Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome “The Bus” Bettis guest stars on Monday’s episode of “The Neighborhood” (8 p.m., KDKA-TV) as himself. The storyline finds Calvin Butler (Cedric the Entertainer) running into Bettis at a restaurant and learning the Hall of Famer grew up knowing Calvin’s wife, Tina (Tichina Arnold),...
