Post-Gazette Click photo for larger image.

It was the first official day of press tour and PBS kicked things off with a session on the four-hour "NOVA" session "Origins," hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

It was odd to see him here because it was my third encounter with Tyson in two weeks. He appears in a video at the Natural History museum that I saw two weeks ago, then he turned up on the "Today" show to discuss space exploration. Guess he's having his 15 minutes of fame.

It was a Pittsburgh day at press tour with a PBS press conference devoted to WQED producer Rick Sebak's latest special, "A Program About Unusual Buildings & Other Roadside Stuff," airing at 8 p.m. Sunday.

Rob Owen, Post-Gazette WQED's Deb Acklin, senior vice president and chief content officer, and producer Rick Sebak are in L.A. to promote promote Sebak's latest special, "A Program About Unusual Buildings and Other Roadside Stuff, " at the PBS portion of the Television Critics Association summer press tour. Click photo for larger image.

Sebak attended with WQED senior vice president and chief content officer Deb Acklin.

About two dozen critics showed up for Sebak's session, pretty typical given the post-Ken Burns time period Sebak's presentation was slotted in. He was received pretty well by the critics, save for one who doesn't seem to get Sebak's style.

The critic asked why Sebak chooses not to offer his opinion in his specials, but I can't imagine him doing that. It would ruin what's best about Sebak's programs: Hearing normal people giving their opinions, which are often clever, funny and very human.

I'll have more on Sebak's show in Saturday's Post-Gazette and a review will appear in Sunday's paper as the TV Week cover story.

The day ended with a sneak peek at PBS's six-part series "Broadway: The American Musical," which airs in late October. Julie Andrews is the host and she was here for a panel discussion that was followed by a performance by Broadway stars Faith Prince and David Garrison.