TV Q&A with Rob Owen

Friday, October 10, 2008

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about network movie nights, "Heroes" and sound on The CW. As always, thanks for reading, and keep those questions coming.

-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor

Q: What ever happened to network movie nights? Whether the network produced a made-for-TV movie or ran theatrical release film, there was still the "NBC Sunday Night Movie" or the ABC/CBS version. Just curious ... what happened?

-- Matt, 34, Pittsburgh

Rob: ABC still has movies on Saturday night after fall football wraps up, My Network TV has movies on Thursday night and Fox occasionally airs a movie, but for the most part, broadcast networks have ceded movies to cable.

There are certainly a lot of factors at play -- cost, ratings, demographics, etc. -- but probably the primary reason for fewer movie nights on the broadcast networks is that the windows of distribution for theatrical releases have moved so close to each other.

It used to be that a movie would be in theaters and then not on home video until six months later. Now a hit movie can turn up on DVD just a couple of months after it's in the theaters. That also means the movie turns up on On Demand faster and then on premium cable faster. The movies are also seen on so many more platforms now (including Internet downloads) that by the time the broadcast network window is open, it seems like most people who wanted to see the movie already saw it, depressing movie ratings on the broadcast networks even further.

As for made-for-TV movies, networks decided to concentrate their energies and spending on series rather than one-shot events. CBS still has the Hallmark Hall of Fame productions on a few times a year, but as we noted two years ago just before CBS dropped its weekly Sunday night movie, it's just not an investment that pays off for networks anymore.

Q: How about some jokes about Obama instead of McCain & Palin on late night TV?

-- Rich, 74, Negley, Ohio

Rob: I'm sure when Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden make some of the gaffes made by the Republicans -- particularly Palin's non-answers to non-gotcha questions (objectively, there's no way asking what newspapers a person reads can be considered a "gotcha" question) -- the late night hosts will tease them.

Biden was mocked, along with Palin, on "Saturday Night Live" this past weekend. And the liberal "Daily Show" on Comedy Central has been mocking Obama for months.

Q: On the premiere episode of "Gary Unmarried" the little girl who played his daughter was the girl from one of the "classes" of "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader" -- I think her name was Laura. She's the girl who left "Smarter" to get a character on the ill-fated "Back to You" last year, where she was also replaced. On last Wednesday's episode of "Gary Unmarried," another girl played his daughter. Any reason why Laura was replaced this time?

-- John, 52, Delmont

Rob: Networks will never say why an actress was re-cast but it is odd that Laura Marano has been replaced on two series in a row, especially considering that her performances seemed fine. Makes me wonder if something else may be going on behind the scenes.

"She was re-cast and replaced by actress Kathryn Newton who now plays the role of Gary's daughter, Louise, on the show," a CBS publicist explained. "They did not re-shoot the pilot scenes using Kathryn, which is why there were two separate actresses from week one to week two."

Q: Just started watching the new "Survivor" for this season. I know HD is the big thing these days, but WHAT THE HECK have they done with "Survivor"? It looks funky. It looks muffled or muted somehow. HD is nowhere to be found on this series. Plus they must have told the editor to "speed-things-up." There was no scene on screen longer than 3 seconds! I generally like to watch "Survivor," but I don't know if I can continue to watch this 3-second roller-coaster ride each week. I had to take a Dramamine after last night's episode! What have they done? Let's go back to when TV was standardized and it ALL LOOKED THE SAME! No stretched pictures, no wide screen, no HD, non-HD etc.

-- Bryan, 43, Bethel Park

Rob: Sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about. I've watched "Survivor" this season and it looks fine to me. The editing seems no different from usual. Perhaps there's an issue with your TV set or cable connection?

Q: My wife and I watched "Holmes On Homes" when it was on the TLC network. Did TLC cancel "Holmes"?

-- Bob, 53, Brentwood

Rob: It sounds like TLC has not yet made a decision on the future of "Holmes."

"TLC did air a season of episodes of 'Holmes on Homes' this past summer," said a TLC representative. "We are still evaluating our schedules for next year, and know that Mike has a eager fan base who are looking for more episodes."

Q: I noticed in the program description for "90210" (I have Verizon, though not sure that makes a difference) that Tori Spelling is listed in the cast. That surprised me since I did not think she ever actually joined the show, just that she was supposed to (money was the reason, I think). I understand that program descriptions and even programs themselves are often incorrect as schedules change. But it seems odd to me to have a person who was never actually in a show listed as being in that show. Is that typical? I don't think I am missing her in the show (although I tend not to watch the entire show).

-- Faith, Penn Hills

Rob: That is an odd one. The only thing I can guess is that someone at the listings service used by Verizon mistakenly input Spelling's name into the cast list. The CW indicated she would be in the series back in July before she dropped out, but she hasn't been mentioned in CW press materials since then.

Q: After watching the season three premiere of "Heroes," I can safely say that I am finished with this show. The first season was great, the second was decent and the third looks to be a mess. Too many characters, plot lines and weak visuals to determine past, present and future. Look, Peter has a scar! Now he doesn't! Claire is now a brunette! I can't even remember what they are trying to accomplish. I love serialized shows like "24" and "Lost" but "Heroes" has become a joke. This show will be on for at least two more dreadful seasons. I can't even imagine where they are going with this plot.

What do you think of "Heroes" thus far this season?

I have replaced "Heroes" with "Mad Men" on my DVR and am not looking back.

-- Matt, 32, Scott

Rob: I am so with you on this one, Matt. "Heroes" has devolved into a complicated mess and one that I'm no longer interested enough in to attempt to figure out. I'm still watching because I feel like I have to but my drift factor -- when I find myself losing interest and drifting away to thumb through a magazine or check e-mail online -- is getting higher by the week.

Q: Who replaced Al Vanik as the voiceover for KDKA's news promos and opens?

-- J. P., South Fayette

Rob: The male voice is Jeff Collins. The female voice is Molly O'Brian.

Q: A lot of Pittsburgh TV stations are undergoing anchor changes. When do you think KDKA will finally make a change with the 5 p.m.?

Here are my lineup suggestions for them. What do you think?

Morning: Keith Jones and Sonni Abatta
"Pittsburgh Today Live": Kristine Sorensen
Noon -- Jones and Abatta
4 p.m. -- Patrice King Brown and Stacy Smith
5 p.m. -- Stephanie Watson and Ken Rice
6 p.m. -- Brown and Smith
11 p.m. -- Watson and Rice

Any chance?

-- Doug, 26, Green Tree

Rob: Anything is possible, but I get the sense that KDKA plans no changes to its anchor lineup at this time.

When the time for change comes, I doubt they'll take your suggestion and keep everyone on currently and add Watson to the weekday lineup. I think viewers are more likely to see fewer different anchor teams in the future. There will probably be more stations with lineups similar to what we see evenings on WPXI, simply because it's a less expensive approach.

Q: There has been one of those annoying "Gus the groundhog" Pennsylvania Lottery ads running for a Halloween scratch-off game. In features two people who hear noises in the basement and creep down there only to find the groundhog. I am convinced that the female in the commercial is our own Kelsey Friday, formerly of Brownie Mary. I have been a big fan of hers and I recognize that face. Any help on this?

-- John, 52, Delmont

Rob: Good eye, John! It is Friday in the spot, which she said she filmed in Philadelphia several years ago. The ad ran shortly after it was filmed and has now been revived, she said.

Q: We get KDKA on TimeWarner Northeast Ohio. For some reason, the sound goes out on a regular basis. This is just for a few seconds, but occurs as often as every minute or so. TimeWarner NEO insists that it's something on KDKA's end. None of the other channels, including the other Pittsburgh channels carried, has this problem. Any chance you can find out what's going on? It's bad enough that I usually end up watching the Youngstown CBS channel instead.

-- Rick, 50, Greenville

Rob: In an approximation of what chief engineer Montgomery Scott would say, I'm a TV critic, not an engineer!

According to KDKA, the station's engineering department will follow up with Time Warner to try to isolate the problem and correct it.

"Since we have not experienced this problem on any other system we have to believe that it has something to do with how they are receiving/decoding our signal," said KDKA general manager Chris Pike.

Q: Two of the last three weeks on Thursday night, while watching "Supernatural" on the CW, the show has been very blurry and the screen has been unwatchable. The most you could do was listen to it like it was a radio show. Is there something wrong with the feed to the local station or is the local station having problems? I love "Supernatural" and it has been frustrating to try to watch it. I am watching in Standard Definition on Comcast Channel 15 in Moon Township.

-- Michael, 32, Moon

Q: I have a question for you about "Smallville" on The CW. Twice I've had the show be scrambled for me and it was to the point of being unwatchable, both the season premiere on Sept. 18 and then again last Thursday night. I have Comcast digital cable, watching on Channel 15 (not HD). No other show on any station did this but "Smallville." Funny thing: When The CW repeated "Smallville" on Sunday, it didn't do that.

-- Jim, Ingram

Rob: According to Pike, WPCW's engineer has been working with Comcast to try to solve this problem.

"They have just added a time base corrector on the WPCW feed to try to correct the problem which appears to be tied to the older style decoder boxes in some homes," Pike said. "For some reason this problem seems to be unique to some CW Network programming. We and Comcast are working to try to solve this issue."

Q: I'm sure you're getting really tired of Comcast questions but no one at Comcast ever has an answer to the question of when is the Ross/Castle Shannon area going to get the same number of channels other areas have. Back in July most of the Comcast areas received an additional dozen or so HD channels but not our area. Then we received a message saying we would get the channels in August but shortly after that we were informed we would not be getting the channels in August and almost 2 months later there has been so new information. I spoke to someone at Comcast last week and all I got was the usual Comcast answer "we will get to it as soon as we can." I want to know how soon that will be. Do you have any insights into the inner workings at Comcast?

-- Linda, 57, McCandless

Rob: Alas, I do not know when that will come to pass. I had hoped to have an update on our August report on the delay, but the folks at Comcast have no new information.

I can say it will be at least a month from today. And if they announce nothing Monday, it will be a month from Monday. Some franchise agreements dictate a 30-day period between an announcement of a cable system change to implementation, so until they make that announcement, it will always be at least a month of more before Ross and Castle Shannon get the upgrade.

Q: What is up with Comcast? Five times, if not more, between 12:30 and 1 p.m. on Sept. 26 the "Required Weekly Test of the Emergency Broadcast System" ran. When did the weekly test move to five times or more a half-hour? By the fourth and fifth time I didn't even bother to look at the TV. What if this had been an actual emergency? Would I have been told to tune. ... just kidding. Seriously, I did start to ignore it.

-- Scott, 35, Dormont

Rob: According to Comcast, this was an anomaly due to an equipment issue that has been corrected.

FEEDBACK

In light of the shake-up at WTAE, I'm sure I'm not the only one who saw the irony in one of the segments on their 50th anniversary special. In the interview with Eleanor Schano, she talked about the transition from black and white to color and the concerns at the time that some talent might not look good in color and would lose their jobs as a result.

As the special went on to tout WTAE's shift to high definition, I could not help but think about stories I've seen warning that HD might be unflattering to some talent and make it especially difficult for older people to stay on the air. I doubt the relevance of Shano's memories and the situation today was lost on Sally Wiggin -- she was probably biting her tongue the whole time. I realize that TV has always had a youth bias, although I had hoped that the success of some slightly older women anchors -- such as Meredith Vieira on "Today" -- would filter down to benefit others like Sally Wiggin.

-- Fred, 47, Wilkins

PHONE CALLS OF THE WEEK

"I don't like jobs being taken away from men who are head of a family. ..."

-- Older, traditional female viewer upset about Mike Clark being moved to mornings in favor of Andrew Stockey

"WTAE must be run by dirty old men who like 'em young. Either that, or they're paying them by the word!"

-- Older female viewer

First published on October 10, 2008 at 12:00 am