TV Q&A with Rob Owen
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This week's TV Q&A addresses questions regarding "Wonderfalls," "60 Minutes II" and Whitney Drolen.
As always, thanks for reading, and keep those questions coming.
Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor
Q: At the end of recent "Letterman" shows, as the final theme is playing, a somewhat dowdy, past-middle-age woman appears standing in front of the fake New York skyline, smiling. Several times (every time?) she is presented a bouquet of long-stemmed roses by the show's announcer. No caption. No explanation. Did I miss the beginning of this on-going bit? What's going on?
- Richard Sproat, Marshall Township
A CBS publicist said there's no explanation for the new bit, calling it "one of those unexplainable unique things that makes 'The Late Show' 'The Late Show.' "
Q:I'm a huge outdoors guy and as a matter of fact I enjoy most warm weather weekends either up on the waters of Lake Erie or in the mountains. Since Locke Roberts left KDKA-TV no one in this market presents weather forecasts for recreation. Not even on weekends! Why is this??
- Travis, Butler
Because they're not in bed with any outdoor sports companies that have summer activities. It seems the only time you see a local station give an outdoors forecast is during, say, the ski season when WPXI pushes Steve Teeling into service for Seven Springs ads that masquerade as weather reports or when WTAE holds its annual Winterfest at Seven Springs.
Q:I loved the show "Wonderfalls" and I don't think it was given a chance before being cancelled. Will they show the unaired episodes ever?
- Cindy Litzing, East Pittsburgh
No, it is unlikely that Fox will air those, but you can see them on DVD when a boxed set of "Wonderfalls" is released Dec. 7, according to executive producer Todd Holland.
Q:I have several complaints about local news -- but this one bugs me every summer. Why is it that the sports segment on the local news can't give any scores beyond the local teams? Do they just assume that everybody has ESPN or that no one in the area cares about any other teams? I grew up in a different state and I am a fan of a baseball team other than the Pirates (I'm sure I'm not the only transplant in Pittsburgh!). I don't need a recap of all of the other games, just the scores. Is it really too much to ask for the news to take 10 seconds to scroll through the scores? In the fall, they show every football score for every high school in the area -- I would think it would take a lot less time to scroll through the MLB scores. (Or NHL, NBA or NFL ... depending on the season.) Who should I write to to register my complaint?
- Amy Maceyko, Highland Park
OK, let's see, you answered your first question with the first part of your second question. And yes, you and I may be the only two transplants in Pittsburgh. I'm kidding. But you're right that local stations don't bother to supply this information because they assume anyone who's interested in it will get it from ESPN. Sports coverage has been de-emphasized -- or folded into news coverage -- on local stations nationwide, so Pittsburgh is not the exception.
Q:I see that CBS has quietly removed the "II" from "60 Minutes II." A trial run, or is the "II" gone for good?
- Dan, Shadyside
With original "60 Minutes" executive producer Don Hewitt retired, the CBS big wigs wasted no time in doing what they always wanted to do: Dropping the "II."
Q:Someone said Whitney Drolen is reporting for E! (Entertainment TV). Can you confirm this?
- Jessica, Pittsburgh
Actually, we did in April. You can read the mention in this TV Notes column. Scroll down to "Channel Surfing."
Q:With the news that Julie Bologna may go elsewhere, do you think that WPXI may rehire Dennis Bowman to do the morning weather since he again lives in the area?
- Andy Harbert, Dormont
That strikes me as quite unlikely. If you go with the conventional wisdom that Bowman was put out to pasture and replaced by a younger model of the same "type" in Steve Teeling, it seems unlikely they'd be interested in bringing Bowman back. Furthermore, the station has had great success in the morning with an attractive, young female weathercaster. I expect they'll try to duplicate that dynamic if Bologna leaves.
Q:I've been wondering what happened to the ABC mini-series "Kingdom Hospital." Was it canceled? Or has it just ended? There seemed to be too many conflicts that haven't been resolved to have it end so suddenly.
- Sean Adams, Eighty Four
"Kingdon Hospital" was canceled, but ABC will begin burning off unaired episodes tonight at 9.
Q:I was pleased to see that NBC was showing repeats of "Las Vegas" on Friday nights. It is a good show that I was unable to watch on its scheduled night. To my disappointment WPXI is running a local show. Are we going to be able to get "Las Vegas" at all? They should at least show it sometime later in the night or air it during the day on the weekends.
- J. Stefan, Wilmerding
Channel 11 is showing the pre-empted Friday night "Las Vegas" reruns at 11:35 p.m. Sunday.
FEEDBACK:
Great Q&A column please keep it going as I enjoy it very much. A comment on the question about channel logos in the bottom right corner of the TV screen.
The logo also serves another purpose -- to prevent unauthorized "clean" recordings of programs that could be sold illegally as the real thing. The logo also prevents the unauthorized redistribution of the program where the broadcast rights might not be allowed through mutual negotiation with the copyright owner of the program. The logo insert (or "bug" as we call it) tells the copyright owner what channel the program was copied from -- or how a particular unauthorized location (country, business etc) receives the program. The copyright owner can then address that broadcast company/corporation to resolve the illegal activity. Covering up the bug will not help because there are other ways to help deter that kind of illegal activity as well -- but I won't go into them for obvious reasons. Hope this helps!!
-- Jeff Kimble, Washington, D.C.
First Published June 24, 2004 12:00 am
