Submit your question to Rob Owen: http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/questions/qaform.asp

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about "In Plain Sight," "My Boys" and severe weather coverage. As always, thanks for reading, and keep the questions coming.

-- Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor

Q: Any chance that Zach Gilford (Matt Saracen) or Connie Britton (Tammy Taylor) can finally break through and get an Emmy nomination for "Friday Night Lights"? Gilford had a great episode last week concerning the death of his father and Britton has been great all season.

-- James, 44, North Hills

Rob: Anything is possible and "FNL" is certainly Emmy-worthy, particularly that recent, excellent episode. James is not alone in his thinking but I sort of suspect "FNL" and its performers won't get nominated. The series does not have a large audience and may be viewed as damaged goods because of its low ratings.

Q: I was watching the May 21st episode of "Friday Night Lights" and in the previews it showed that in the May 28th episode Matt's Dad was presumably hurt or killed in Afghanistan. I figured that this would be the main story that week but it was only covered in the last three minutes of the episode with this weeks episode dealing with the death.

My question is, why spoil this in the previews? I would have liked to have been shocked at the end of the May 28th episode with something I could not have seen coming. Instead I knew it was coming and its impact was FAR, FAR less.

-- Mike, 31, Pittsburgh

Rob: I agree completely. And I bet the producers of "FNL" do too. Producers of TV shows often complain when network marketers give away too much. But the network folks don't care about the integrity of the show or the viewers' experience of the program, they just want to draw more eyeballs to the set to boost ratings. If giving away a character death with major impact, so be it.

Q: Do TV shows ever use model or fake buildings for outside shots? I was watching "In Plain Sight" the other day and the outside shot of the WITSEC building looked like a model building to me.

-- Diane, 56, Arlington

Rob: Once upon a time TV and movies would use models for building establishing shots but today that sort of thing is done with computer animation. I have not seen the image you mention but if it's not real, my guess is that it's CGI.

Q: I noticed in your article about returning summer series that you omitted "My Boys." I thought this series was coming back. The web site says July 25. Was this just an oversight? I hope it is coming back because this is, in my opinion, one of the best, and most underrated, series on TV.

-- Mike, Groton, Conn.

Rob: It was not a comprehensive list because there are just too many shows and at the time TBS had not released a premiere date for "My Boys."

The fourth season will premiere with back-to-back episodes at 10 p.m. July 25. It seems likely this will be the final season since several cast members have new shows coming in the fall on broadcast networks.

Q: Why did "The Big Bang Theory" not come back for the end last night? KDKA cut right to the 10 p.m. show after commercials and viewers did not see the end.

-- Fred, 20, Pittsburgh

Rob: Chalk it up to a control room mistake.

"KDKA and sister station WPCW are controlled out of the same master control area," explained KDKA/WPCW general manager Chris Pike. "When triggering an event on WPCW the commercial break was accidently triggered early on KDKA resulting in the problem. We apologize for the program disruption."

Q: I'm not a regular viewer of the afternoon news but just happened to have the TV on while eating lunch. We had WTAE on and during the broadcast Sally Wiggin dramatically announced "Breaking news, Ben Roethlisberger was talking to the press." She then went on to say that they would show the interview shortly and went to another story.

I was astounded that a major market TV station would stoop so low as to announce someone is talking to the press as breaking news without actually showing the person being interviewed.

I immediately turned the station to KDKA and to my surprise there was Ben Roethlisberger being interviewed.

The first question I have is why it was so important for WTAE to announce it as breaking news without actually showing the interview. Secondly, did they need to call it breaking news when its been well known that he was back in camp and he's had every opportunity to talk to the press since the incident in Georgia happened?

-- Lou, 63, White Oak

Rob: It's all about promotion in an effort to win the ratings race. By touting "breaking news," TV station executives hope to draw viewers' attention to the screen.

I put your question to WTAE news director Alex Bongiorno but she did not respond.

We've seen local stations get all excited this week about their interviews with Roethlisberger. The PG's Ed Bouchette reports on some of the behind-the-scenes jockeying for access at PG+.

WTAE aired the first sit-down interview with the quarterback Wednesday night with more from the interview planned for last night. KDKA supposedly got more time with Big Ben and aired its interview last night.

WPXI got shut out from the one-on-ones -- as did other media organizations, including the Post-Gazette. Some viewers have asked me what Channel 11 "did" to get cut out ("Was it because of Fedko?" wondered one viewer) and I left messages for news director Mike Goldrick but he did not return the calls.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, WPXI led with a police chase story while competitors lead with Roethlisberger news -- Sally Wiggin's interview on WTAE and the release of videotaped interviews from the investigation on KDKA. Would WPXI have done something different if they had access to Roethlisberger?

Yes, the one-on-ones constitute the quarterback's first lengthy remarks, which is newsworthy, but it seems like the TV stations are also being used by Big Ben and his representatives. It's certainly not coincidence that these interviews were granted at the same time that his accuser's video was released, perhaps in an effort to distract from her recollections of the night of the bar bathroom incident in Milledgeville, Ga.

Q: I know others have complained about this, but I am just copying you on an e-mail I sent to WPXI this morning:

PLEASE quit interrupting shows with info about thunderstorms. We have lived with thunderstorms for years and years and I don't think they are breaking news. A scroll across the bottom of the picture would be fine. A tornado warning is different but please make them shorter. I don't mean to be rude, but Julie B. goes on and on. Last Friday you interrupted several times between 4 and 5 p.m. when the news was coming on at 5 AND you have a little newsbreak at the half hour. And then ... an interruption during "Friday Night Lights," one of the best shows on TV!

I never write to complain but this has been a growing irritation for me. LET'S ALL SETTLE DOWN ABOUT THE WEATHER!

-- Diane, 61, Allison Park

Rob: I don't think my response has changed much since viewers complained about the same thing last spring but here goes: TV stations will never please everyone. While I tend to share Diane's sentiment that Pittsburgh station's go over-the-top on weather coverage, a co-worker was complaining to me last week that stations cut away from their weather break-ins just as it was getting bad at his house. And that's the problem: Local stations cover a large territory and the weather varies widely in that territory at any given time.

I still think the best approach in a digital universe is to put weather coverage on a digital sub-channel and run a crawl on the main channel but when I suggested that last year, all the TV executives had reasons that would not work for them.

Regarding the Bell/Stockey sunscreen scandal, I remember watching WTAE's "AM Pittsburgh" as a girl, and they once did a story on sunburn. At the end, Lynn Hinds asked a sincere question of co-anchor Cathy Daniels: "Do black people get sunburns?" She said yes and gave a good explanation. It definitely wasn't a planned bit of banter, but it was informative and not offensive at all. That was the late 1970s (I think!). It's too bad Wendy Bell couldn't have taken a similar approach about the subject.

-- Liz, 47, Camp Hill

Usually I find myself rolling my eyes at the latest predictable outrage from the Parents Television Council, which catalogs with an almost prurient interest every off-color remark that airs on TV. But some of their objections -- and those of less reactionary groups -- to Sunday's "MTV Movie Awards" were warranted. I'm not one to pitch a fit about an occasional profanity crossing the airwaves but the sheer volume of bleeps in the "Movie Awards" telecast was ridiculous. And ineffective. The show became so bogged down in bleeps that it wasn't an entertaining viewing experience, just annoying. And kind of boring, too. There was no shock value with the constant repetition of the F-word. It just made all those participating in the profane-a-thon seem deeply unimaginative and desperate to be what they see as hip.

"Get Julie Bologna off the TV set. She's interfering with the regular programs!"

-- Female caller angry about weather interruptions last week

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