TV Q&A with Rob Owen

Friday, November 03, 2006

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about the art on "Heroes" and the inspiration for a "Studio 60" character and includes viewer feedback on last week's sweeps-themed Tuned In column.

As always, thanks for reading, and keep those questions coming.

-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor

Q: I've watched "CSI" (the original) for years. I loved the season-opening shows, but they seem to have dropped the ball. They never solved who killed Danny Bonaduce or said whether Catherine's dad, Sam, was dead. There was one reference in another episode when Brass asked Catherine if it was too soon to go back to work, but I don't know if it was because Sam was shot or killed. And I really want to know who killed Danny Bonaduce because it seemed all the suspects were eliminated.

-- Betty, McMurray

Rob: Patience, Betty, patience.

"While we never had a character say the words 'Sam is dead,' we actually thought that it was pretty clear," said "CSI" executive producer Naren Shankar in an e-mail. "In the third episode of the season ['Toe Tags'], Catherine makes a reference to some things about casinos that Sam taught her and intimates that work is helping keep her mind off the incident. And, in episode five ['Double Cross'], Catherine lights a candle in Sam's memory. Sorry if there was any confusion, it wasn't intentional.

"With regard to the death of Danny Bonaduce's character in the season opener, however, we didn't drop the ball -- we're just keeping it in the air. At the end of episode two ['Built to Kill, Pt. 2'], Grissom notes that they've been basically left with a city full of suspects; the only clue to the killer seems to be a strange image of a bloody doll in the miniature kitchen scene. Rest assured, that killer is still out there and will be re-surfacing soon (say, maybe around Nov. 9, when episode seven, "Post Mortem" airs). Stay tuned."

Q: Has "Kidnapped" been canceled? I know that it's been moved to Saturday night. I hope they will wrap up the story line if it has and allow Leo to be rescued.

-- Robin, Pittsburgh

Rob: Don't hold your breath. NBC canceled the show but had planned to air all the episodes on Saturday nights. Then on Wednesday, NBC yanked the show off Saturday nights, too. The remaining episodes can be viewed at NBC.com.

Q: I never miss an episode of "Lost," and I don't recall seeing (pet dog) Vincent get on the boat with Michael and Walt. I haven't seen him at all this season. What happened to Vincent?

-- Ruby, Brighton Heights

Rob: According to the show's publicist, Vincent did get on the boat with Michael and Walt.

Q: What is the name of the show, on for one season, about four individuals who have eating disorders?

-- John, Fresno, Calif.

Rob: That show was FX's 2005 comedy "Starved" (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05216/548228.stm).

Q: Recently, USA Network advertised an "uncut and extended" version of "Dawn of the Dead." I tuned in to see exactly how they would pull this off. It was neither uncut nor extended. First off, it had commercial interruptions. Second, all the swear words were cut, the nudity and a few sex scenes were cut out. All the violence was left in. What exactly qualifies this for uncut and extended? It is a sad state of our media that the censors were OK with all the violence (which included decapitations and every other act of violence imaginable) but a four-letter word or a woman's breast were deemed inappropriate.

-- Mike, Philadelphia

Rob: Welcome to the post-Janet Jackson "Nipplegate," George W. Bush America.

Here's USA Network's response: "'Uncut' does not mean 'without commercial interruptions,' it means that no content is edited out. The telecast of "Dawn of the Dead" was not only uncut, it was in fact extended: USA aired the 'director's cut' of the film, which is approximately eight minutes longer than the theatrical version.

"USA blurred nudity and 'dropped out' offensive language but did not excise content, including sex scenes. We evaluate violent content on a case-by-case basis. In the case of 'Dawn of the Dead,' the violence was rooted in fantasy, and was therefore deemed acceptable."

Q: Who is the real-life artist of the paintings created by character Isaac on "Heroes"? They look Burton Morris-esque. And I know his art has been featured on TV before ("Friends").

-- Vikki, O'Hara

Rob: Morris is not doing art for this one. The "Heroes" artist is Tim Sale. You can see more of his work at the show's Web site, www.9thwonders.com, or at his personal page, http://www.timsale1.com/home.html.

Q: I too have become a fan of "Friday Night Lights," but what's with the camera work? Watching the last episode, I thought I was going to lose my lunch with all the swooping, swirling, sudden moves. They're just not happy unless they're filming in the dark ("CSI") or attempting artistic shots. Please, just let the story unfold.

-- Joan, Pittsburgh

Rob: I've heard this complaint from a few viewers. I have to say, the camera work on "FNL" does not bother me at all. It seems designed to give the show a sense of immediacy. Executive producer Jason Katims addressed the show's look in a recent chat with TVGuide.com at http://www.tvguide.com

Q: I just listened to a radio interview of Julia Sweeney from "Saturday Night Live" about her one-woman show called "Letting go of God." She talked about how she was very religious, but now she is not. Is the religious character on "Studio 60" based on Julia Sweeney?

-- J., Monroeville

Rob: No, Harriet Hayes on "Studio 60" was inspired by actress Kristin Chenoweth, who once dated the show's creator, Aaron Sorkin. We explained all the character inspirations when "Studio 60" premiered: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06261/722709-237.stm.

Q: I've noticed that the Pittsburgh TV stations now refer to the Steelers as "the Black and Gold," even some of the shows are called the "Black and Gold Zone," etc. Are there restrictions that stations can only use the team's name at certain times? Or is this the dirty hand of media consultants?

-- Mike, Beaver

Rob: At KDKA, the "official" broadcast partner of the team, news director John Verrilli said, "We can, with appropriate limitations, use the Steelers trademark in our news and related Steelers programming. For the most part, we don't use the phrase 'Black and Gold.'"

WPXI news director Corrie Harding said the Steelers are "understandably protective of how the franchise name is used.

"In addition, WPXI wants its viewers to remember WPXI coverage first and foremost, so we always look at every way we can make an impact, from how we staff the games, to doing specials, to what we title our coverage."

Bob Longo, news director at WTAE, said "the Steelers are the Steelers in all newscast coverage," but he added there are limitations on use of the name.

"Because of NFL and team paid-for contracts with networks and stations like KDKA, the Steelers have aggressively asked that stations without paid-for deals not use their name or likeness in other shows, like the former "Steelers Primetime," for example.

"In my opinion, things like this -- and the banning of local media from sidelines during games -- has done much to hurt the quality and quantity of truly objective, unique coverage and left us all with the same old same old. Ultimately, this will only hurt NFL teams, when local stations decide to devote less coverage because of these restrictions."

Dave Lockett, Steelers spokesman, said the Steelers name and logo is the club's "intellectual property."

"Stations can't just use it and say it's a Steelers program, which may come across as our sponsorship of a show," Lockett said. "But for news purposes, it's fine [to use the Steelers name]."

Q: Adelphia cable in Beaver is horrible. We get two sets of network stations, a CBS from Pittsburgh (KDKA) and an Ohio version. Why is the Ohio version so much clearer? I have to watch the Steelers games on the Ohio station because the picture is so horrible on the local one. Also, when are they going to get with the times? They offer no HD service or video on demand in our area and have no idea when it will be available.

-- Rich, Beaver

Rob: All of the former Adelphia properties are currently under review, according to a Comcast spokeswoman. The company expects to share details about future plans for these cable systems in 2007.

That response doesn't address the issue of KDKA's signal. I'll pass your comments along to KDKA, and I imagine they'll look into it and try to get corrections made.

Q: I wanted to know if Comcast was going to add the NHL Network or the ESPNU network? They have a contract to offer the NHL Network, but I don't know when it's due out.

-- Dana, Coraopolis

Rob: A Comcast spokeswoman said, "As the programming evolves on the NHL Network, we will continue to evaluate its benefit to our customers. Comcast does not carry ESPNU; however, it does offer dozens of channels of sports-related programming, including ESPN2, Golf, NBA TV, NFL Network, Fox Soccer, etc."

Q: Do you know if Comcast is going to offer the Boomerang channel? We have it On Demand but not in our lineup. Comcast customer service isn't sure why it's there and have no solid answers.

-- Patrick, Robinson

Rob: At the moment, Comcast does not carry the Boomerang channel, a spin-off of Cartoon Network targeted at baby boomers.

FEEDBACK

I just finished your article about local news and how they should be behaving. I'm sure you only wanted five, but here's another one that drives me crazy: Don't keep telling me what you're going to tell me. Back in the days when the 11 p.m. news was only 15 minutes long, you got the news, the weather (one time), and the sports. Now you have the weather two or three times, the sports usually twice, and "coming up --" at the beginning of the news and before each commercial. As a trainer, I practice, "Tell people what you're going to show them, show them, and then tell them again." But I'm not being trained in the news; I only want to hear the stories, and one time is fine. Just think, if they minimized the hype, they'd have more time to add some depth to stories, or add more news information.

What a concept.

-- Beverly Spagnolo, Pittsburgh

I enjoyed your article and agree 100 percent. I worked many years in Pittsburgh television, starting in 1956. In those days it was a stretch to produce a legitimate 15-minute newscast, and this included sports and weather! I've been saying for years that on a good day, it would be unusual to have more than 5 or 6 minutes of solid news occur in this town. Now the stations are dragging these newscasts out to 3 or 4 hours. I think it is simply because management gets the biggest bang for their expense buck producing and selling newscasts. Real programming is expensive. I watch national news; my local news is furnished by the Post-Gazette's online headline service that arrives at my computer around 4 a.m. every day.

-- John Cochran, Pittsburgh

One thought to add: Contrary to hype increasing viewership, there's a developing body of research that says that it is (and was) the advertising and hype of local news that actually drives away a significant viewer cadre: mainly the educated and generally well-to-do. But these folks aren't doing much sophisticated research or training these days. In fact, they're doing virtually none. Forty percent of local TV news viewership has abandoned that ship in many significant markets since the late '80s. The broadcasters claim it's cable penetration, Internet, kids not coming to news broadcasts, satellite radio, etc. My analogy for that line of thinking: If you build a Chevy and you lose 40 percent of your sales in the marketplace, you can blame it on the Japanese and Koreans all you want, but somebody had better be looking at the car itself and thinking of how to improve it. Fact is this: They've written off the 40 percent. Which means they've written off that part of the audience that is in the "community leader" category as well. Serious people don't quote local news programs any longer for serious discussion. They've made themselves the object of jokes.

-- Paul Paolicelli, Chapel Hill, N.C.

PROGRAM NOTE: TV Q&A will take a break next week but will return on Nov. 17.

First published on November 3, 2006 at 12:00 am