Movies/TV category, Page 37
Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who skewered fast food industry, dies at 53
NEW YORK — Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar-nominee who made food and American diets his life’s work, famously eating only at McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53. Spurlock died Thursday in New York from complications of cancer, according...
TV Talk: NFL spreads telecasts among networks, streaming platformsVideo
Remember in January when the NFL’s AFC Wild Card game streamed nationally on Peacock and viewers were confused about how to watch it? Well, steel yourself for the 2024-25 NFL season with games on platforms as varied as Amazon’s Prime Video, home to Thursday night games for a couple of...
Movie review: The ‘Mad Max’ saga treads (hard-to-find) water with frustrating ‘Furiosa’Video
At the beginning of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” we are introduced to a kick-ass woman who rides a horse, then a motorbike, nails a few bad guys with sharpshooting finesse and fights off a mob. But it’s not Furiosa — it’s her mom. That’s one of the oddities of...
TV Talk: Point Breeze’s Victoria Groce wins ‘Jeopardy! Masters’Video
Point Breeze’s Victoria Groce won this year’s “Jeopardy! Masters” tournament on ABC on Wednesday night, vanquishing past “Jeopardy!” champs including Yogesh Raut, James Holzhauer, Amy Schneider, Mattea Roach and Matt Amodio. “Masters” began taping in mid-April with its final episode, where Groce won $500,000 and the Trebek Trophy, recorded May...
TV Q&A: Does retired KDKA anchor Stacy Smith star in an Ozempic TV ad?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Does Stacy Smith do a commercial for Ozempic where he’s stepping off a small airplane with clipboard in hand? — Susan, via email Rob: I...
OpenAI is halting use of ChatGPT voice that Scarlett Johansson says is ‘eerily similar’ to hers
NEW YORK — OpenAI on Monday said it plans to halt the use of one of its ChatGPT voices that “Her” actor Scarlett Johansson says sounds “eerily similar” to her own. In a post on the social media platform X, OpenAI said it is “working to pause” Sky — the...
TV Talk: Except PBS, broadcasters rely on competition, game shows this summerVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Remember back in the ‘80s and ‘90s when broadcast networks used to put out a “Gone Fishin’” sign for the summer, airing mostly reruns? Then in the early 2000s to compete with cable, broadcasters upped...
TV Talk: Broadcast networks announce fall schedulesVideo
This week, “the upfronts” took place in New York as advertisers committed to buy ads ahead of the 2024-25 TV season that begins in September. With no pandemic or strikes, this fall the networks get back to normal — albeit a new normal with more, lower-cost unscripted programs than ever...
Former WPXI reporter Dee Thompson dies at 84
Retired WPXI reporter DeHaven “Dee” Thompson died May 9 at age 84. Thompson worked at Channel 11 from 1974 until his retirement in 2009. WPXI meteorologist Scott Harbaugh posted a tribute on Facebook, writing, “ ‘Dee’ was one of the kindest people you would ever want to meet. … Always...
TV Talk: ‘Young Sheldon’ signs off; new KDKA freelancer
PASADENA, Calif. – CBS’s “Young Sheldon” signs off tonight with its final two episodes at 8 and 8:30 p.m. on KDKA-TV, exploring the aftermath of the death of Sheldon’s father (Lance Barber) from a heart attack and then closing its run with a finale that brings back the adult Sheldon...
TV Q&A: Why do Channel 4 anchors stand to read the news?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Why do they make Kelly Sasso and others on Channel 4 Action News stand while giving us the news when other news stations don’t? I...
Roku will stream weekly MLB game on Sundays. Viewers won’t need one of the service’s devices
Roku will carry Major League Baseball games on Sundays beginning this week, and viewers will be able to watch for free and not be required to use a Roku device, the streaming service announced Monday. Roku secured multiyear rights for MLB Sunday Leadoff games beginning with the Boston Red Sox...
TV Talk: ‘Bridgerton’s’ return kicks off summer scripted series on streaming, cableVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Netflix’s hit Shonda Rhimes-produced, Regency-period drama “Bridgerton” returns for the first half of its eight-episode third season May 16, capturing the events of Julia Quinn’s fourth book in the “Bridgerton” series, “Romancing Mister Bridgerton.” (Part...
Steelers’ Cameron Heyward appears on Seth Meyers’ show, jokes about his brother Connor
Steelers veteran Cameron Heyward got in some good-natured, national television-sized digs Thursday against his little brother and teammate Connor Heyward during an appearance on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.” While the elder Heyward and Meyers discussed their families getting dinner together, Meyers said about Connor Heyward: “He also seems, I...
‘The Office’ spinoff coming to Peacock
A new series set in the same universe as “The Office” has been picked up by streaming service Peacock. The new show was created by Greg Daniels, who adapted the American version of “The Office,” along with “Nathan for You” co-creator Michael Koman. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who created...
TV Talk: Mister Rogers Lego set won’t happen; AMC’s ‘Vampire’ draws bloodVideo
PASADENA, Calif. — AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire,” returning for its second season at 9 p.m. Sunday on AMC and AMC+, managed to eclipse the 1994 film in quality in its first season as it retold the first story of Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles.” The show’s first season was...
TV Talk: Abrupt departures abound at WQED-TV in recent months
Editor’s note: This is the second part of a column on the current state of WQED Multimedia. Read part one here. Pittsburgh’s PBS station, WQED-TV, has had its turbulent moments in the past and it seems to be amid another storm. Nine months into the tenure of new CEO Jason...
Travis Kelce lines up another TV job joining FX’s ‘American Horror Story: Grotesquerie’ season
While his superstar girlfriend Taylor Swift resumes her world Eras tour, Travis Kelce is keeping busy. The NFL player has joined the cast of “American Horror Story: Grotesquerie.” Late Tuesday, cast member Niecy Nash posted a series of videos to Instagram featuring her on set with Kelce. “Guys, guess who...
TV Q&A: Does the star of ‘Tracker’ do his own stunts?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: I am really enjoying the show “Tracker” with Justin Hartley and when I was watching the show this past week, he skydived into a remote...
TV Talk: Does WQED still care about local programming?
WQED Multimedia eliminated five positions on April 29 amid a wave of staff dissatisfaction and concern about the future of the station’s local TV programming. Four of the employees exited immediately while one, IT director Mike Kobulnicky, was “invited” to stay on through June as the station outsources IT and...
TV Talk: Astronaut with Pittsburgh ties appears in ‘The Longest Goodbye’ on PBSVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. PASADENA, Calif. — Retired NASA astronaut Cady Coleman says in PBS’s new “Independent Lens” documentary “Space: The Longest Goodbye” (10-11:30 p.m. May 6, WQED-TV) that even after she’d spent 159 days in space on the...
Actor Bernard Hill, of ‘Titanic’ and ‘Lord of the Rings,’ has died at 79
LONDON — Actor Bernard Hill, who delivered a rousing cry before leading his people into battle in “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” and went down with the ship as the captain in “Titanic,” has died. Hill, 79, passed away Sunday morning, agent Lou Coulson said....
‘The Fall Guy’ gives Hollywood a muted summer kickoff with a $28.5M opening
NEW YORK — “The Fall Guy,” the Ryan Gosling-led, action-comedy ode to stunt performers, opened below expectations with $28.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, providing a lukewarm start to a summer movie season that’s very much to be determined for Hollywood. The Universal Pictures release opened on a weekend...
TV Talk: Billy Gardell ends ‘Bob (Hearts) Abishola,’ explores what’s nextVideo
BURBANK, Calif. — Swissvale native Billy Gardell has experience with ending a sitcom. He saw CBS’s “Mike & Molly” through 127 episodes to its conclusion in 2016 and now he’s saying farewell to CBS’s “Bob (Hearts) Abishola” (8:30 p.m. Monday, KDKA-TV), which ends its five-season run next week. “I told...
5 things to do in Pittsburgh: May 3-5
Cinco de Mayo! May the Fourth be with you! There are plenty of reasons to celebrate this weekend. Here are five fun events going on around town. May the Fourth Be With You at the Symphony On Saturday, May 4, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra presents “Music of Star Wars.” The...
