TV Talk with Rob Owen category, Page 50

Veteran WPXI-TV news anchor Peggy Finnegan announced she’ll retire from the station next month. Her last day on the air will be Dec. 18 with news anchor Lisa Sylvester taking Finnegan’s place on the 5 p.m. newscast. Finnegan’s retirement comes after 30 years with Channel 11, where she and anchor...

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: What Hallmark Christmas movies that will premiere in 2020 were filmed in the United States? — Chris Fiegler, Latham, N.Y. Rob: While the bulk of...

Again this year Hallmark Channel and Lifetime started televising Christmas movies the weekend before Halloween and Netflix dropped its first holiday-themed rom-com a few days later. Ambridge native Marita Grabiak directed Lifetime’s “Christmas on Wheels” (8 p.m. Saturday), the story of a woman (Tiya Sircar, “The Good Place”) who...

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 began watching the “The Trouble with Maggie Cole” on PBS (8 p.m. Sunday, WQED-TV) and it seems to me that where they are filming...

Pioneering Pittsburgh broadcaster Eleanor Schano accumulated many firsts – Pittsburgh’s first female commercial announcer and weathercaster at what is now KDKA-TV in 1952; the city’s first female general assignment news reporter at WTAE-TV in 1959 and first solo woman anchor at what is now WPXI-TV in 1970 – and she...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. The taboo of a female teacher getting sexually involved with her male high school student has been covered in pop culture before, most notably in “Dawson’s Creek” and more recently on “Riverdale.” So there was...

he election may go to Joe Biden, but the winner of TV’s election coverage became clear well before any tipping point vote totals: The “map guys” or as at least one Twitter post described them, “the chartthrobs.” Please, if you decide to profess your love for map kings John King,...

The CW’s “Supernatural” was one of the first American scripted drama series to resume production after the pandemic began with just two episodes left to be filmed, including the show’s series finale, slated for 9 p.m. Nov. 19 on WPCW-TV, Channel 19, following a series retrospective at 8 p.m. After...

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: How is the daughter of KDKA-TV reporter Pam Surano doing after that scary trampoline accident? And how did Surano feel being on the other...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. ^ The 2020-21 TV season’s first new scripted comedy, CBS’s “B Positive,” debuts this week and it’s very much a CBS comedy. Created by Marco Pennette (“Caroline in the City,” “Mom”) and executive produced by...

When CBS’s “Mom” returns next week (9 p.m. Nov. 5, KDKA-TV) the show will have some big changes in store as star Anna Faris’ Christy departs off-screen. It’s a changing-of-the-guard “Mom” series director and Pittsburgh native Jamie Widdoes has overseen before on TV series. He was there when “8 Simple...

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: Pittsburgh TV weather forecasters’ temperature maps always used to include what the late Joe DeNardo called Pennsylvania’s icebox, Bradford, Pa. Now none do. What caused...

Please note: This article includes spoilers from the fifth-season premiere of “This is Us” that originally aired 9-11 p.m. ET on Oct. 27, 2020. NBC’s partially Pittsburgh-set “This is Us” often imports real-life Pittsburgh, whether it’s references to sports figures, locations, characters dressed in Steelers gear or a 1970s-era visit...

New Netflix supernatural horror series “Archive 81” begins filming in Pittsburgh next month. A production office is already open and hiring crew. Netflix confirmed the series comes from veteran horror director James Wan (“Saw,” “The Conjuring”) who executive produces “Archive 81” alongside showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine (“The Boys,” “The Vampire Diaries”)....

“This is Us” creator Dan Fogelman has long talked about bringing some of the show’s cast to Pittsburgh where the show is partially set to film scenes. Although production on the series resumed with covid-19 safety protocols in place, the pandemic ruined any possibility for a trip from the show’s...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. For the 2019-20 season of NBC’s “Superstore,” showrunners Gabe Miller and O’Hara Township native Jonathan Green expected their biggest challenge to be satisfactorily writing star America Ferrera out of the comedy series. And they almost...

It seems like all the stars of HBO’s hit “Big Little Lies” are getting their own wealthy-pretty-people-with-problems shows. Reese Witherspoon had her shot with Hulu’s “Little Fires Everywhere” and now it’s Nicole Kidman’s turn with HBO’s six-episode miniseries “The Undoing” (9 p.m. Sunday), which has already been dubbed “Big Little...

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: Do you think ABC will actually skip showing “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” this year? — Jackson via Twitter Rob: I didn’t think that...

Netflix released the trailer for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” its adaptation of the August Wilson play that was filmed in Pittsburgh in the summer of 2019. The movie arrives on Netflix on Dec. 18. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” stars Viola Davis as blues singer Ma Rainey during a recording session...

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. ^ After the “Roseanne” revival imploded following star Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet, there was every reason to fear its sequel series, “The Conners,” would simply be a ratings grab. But as its third season premieres...

Game show “Supermarket Sweep” has been a TV staple with versions popping up in the 1960s, 1990s, early 2000s and now again in 2020 as ABC resurrects the franchise at 8 p.m. Sunday with new host Leslie Jones (“Saturday Night Live”). The ‘90s version of the show gained cachet with...