This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about CNN's Jack Cafferty, "The Tony Danza Show" and Jeff Verszyla's marital status.
As always, thanks for reading, and keep those questions coming.
Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor
Q. What happened to the show "The Inside"? It was on Fox at 9 on Wednesday.
-- Linda, Pittsburgh
The show got lousy ratings from the start and was canceled quickly.
Q. I've been hearing a lot of buzz from critics about "Veronica Mars." So, when reruns started this summer, I tuned in and was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was. Kristin Bell is marvelous. Thanks. For once, I'm in total agreement with the critics. "Veronica Mars" is such a gem; my question is: Why can't the major networks create such a good TV show? I've been following your reports on upcoming fall shows, and they don't look promising. Except for "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" on ABC, we must depend on UPN, FX, WB, etc. to come up with new, fresh shows ... why not the major networks?
-- Patti Petri, Moon
Hmmm, sounds like you agree with the critics more often than you initially suggest. Glad you're watching "Veronica." It's a great series. It sounds like you prefer character-driven shows, which is why there's not much for you to watch on CBS and NBC, which have a greater number of procedural, plot-driven shows. CBS has had great success with those, which is why they stick with them. Personally, I don't care which network I'm watching, just as long as it's a good show, and there are plenty of those currently on TV.
Q. Ever since "Angel" was canceled, I've missed seeing James Marsters (Spike) on my TV screen. Have you heard anything about possible upcoming projects for him during the press tour?
-- Jennifer Stevenson, Addison, N.Y.
As we reported, Marsters will guest star as the villain Brainiac on multiple episodes of The WB's "Smallville." Still nothing definitive on a TV movie about Spike. I wouldn't hold your breath.
Q. I thought Tony Danza was going to have a talk show replacing the canceled "Jane Pauley Show." I've seen Danza on one time and since then it's been repeats of Pauley. Do you know what is going on with that? Thank you.
-- Janet, Crafton
Tony Danza's talk show premiered last fall at the same time Pauley's did, but both aired on different local stations. For the time being, reruns of Pauley's canceled show air at 1 p.m. on WPXI. Danza's show airs at noon on WPGH.
Q. I do not like the girl who replaced Shannen Doherty on "Love Inc." So how long do you think the show will last?
-- Parm, Kent, Wash.
Well, it's on UPN, and those shows tend to stick around a little while. The original pilot was terrible, but so were the pilots for a lot of UPN comedies that lasted years.
Q. Where did Jack Cafferty go when he left CNN? Or did he leave on a temporary assignment somewhere?
-- Larry J. Zuckett, Murrysville
He didn't leave CNN, just shifted from "American Morning" to Wolf Blitzer's "The Situation Room," which airs from 3 to 6 p.m. beginning Aug. 8.
Q. While watching the weather forecast on KDKA at 11 o'clock the other night, I thought I saw a wedding band on Jeff Verszyla's finger. When did he get married??? And I thought he was going to be a permanent bachelor, one who makes some very off-the-wall comments, but a very attractive and permanent bachelor!
-- Jennifer, Steubenville
Jeff Verszyla is indeed a married man. Here's what he had to say: "I never had any designs on being a permanent bachelor, I just needed the right woman to share the rest of my life with and I certainly found her! Shelly Bashour and I were married on Saturday, July 2, at the Historic Church of St. Peter in Brownsville, Pa. (her hometown). She's a pharmaceutical sales representative."
Q. I recently watched the "Steelers Trivia Contest." It was a pretty interesting half-hour program. I found the questions quite interesting, however, since I am deaf, I was completely lost about the answers. Why is such an interesting program not captioned so that the hearing impaired viewers could enjoy the whole program? Will KDKA be captioning this program in the future? I would call KD, but I can't use a phone, either.
-- Ed Schilling, Ross
Here's the response from KDKA general manager Chris Pike: "We currently caption all of our locally produced news programming and will caption the new two-hour local broadcast on UPN which premieres Sept. 12. That will be nine-and-a-half hours of locally produced programming captioned each day. We also caption all of our weekend newscasts and breaking news reports as well. We do not currently caption a few locally produced, once-a-week sports programs. I will look into the feasibility of adding this program to the list of things we caption locally. We appreciate the kind words about this new program. It will run for a total of 9 weeks."
Q. So I was wondering. How do I go about getting your job? Well OK, not your job specifically, but how do I go about getting that type of job where I am able to converse with the stars and tease the readers about things I know that they don't? I find myself very interested in a job that means I get to watch all of these fabulous cinematic pleasures, while at the same time I am able to say, sorry everybody, I'm working. That just seems like a dream job to me and I want it. Any advice? Besides moving as far away from Newfoundland as possible?
-- Jennifer Hillier, Pasadena, Newfoundland
First of all, you shouldn't tease people with your inside knowledge too often. That's not nice, and I try not to do it often (sometimes I just can't resist). As far as meeting celebrities, that gets old pretty fast. The only reason to become a television critic is because you love the medium and its ability to tell a story.
Reading about TV is step No. 1, just learning about the medium, its present and its past (I could do better on the latter, admittedly, if there wasn't so much to watch in the present). As far as education, it's probably better to get a good liberal arts education rather than a journalism degree (do as I say, not as I did), do lots of journalism internships, report hard news, then work your way over to features and then be in the right place at the right time to get the TV critic's job. It's not a job you just stumble into without paying your dues first.
Q. I've seen a lot of lists of the best comedies of all times, but I got to thinking about the funniest episodes of TV. For example, I saw the episode of "Just Shoot Me" in syndication where Elliot's brother fakes being disabled and I thought that was hilarious! Also, there was a "NewsRadio" episode where the Joe Rogan character "creates" a stun gun for the Phil Hartman character, who then uses it on himself, that is also hilarious. Finally, there was an episode of "Wings" where Antonio had to deal with the slow old man that was also very funny. Now, none of these shows would make any best-of list, but I'm curious what you and other readers think are some of the funniest TV comedy episodes. Thanks as always! Great column!
-- Linda Novak, Cecil
Have at it, folks. I'll publish responses I get in a future TV Q&A.
First Published: July 29, 2005, 4:00 a.m.
