Courtesy of Julie Grant
Courtesy of Julie Grant
Peter Taylor / 2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment
Maahra Hill and Jill Marie Jones star in new legal drama “Delilah” on OWN.
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Former KDKA-TV reporter Julie Grant, now a 12-3 p.m. anchor on Court TV, was back in Pittsburgh briefly last month to interview former Allegheny County coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht, who reviewed the findings of multiple autopsies of George Floyd, the Black Minneapolis man killed by police last year.
In advance of next week’s Court TV coverage of the trial of police officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with Floyd’s murder, Grant interviewed Wecht about his take on the case.
Courtesy of Cryptic Pictures
George A. Romero directed a 1998 wrestling-themed TV pilot that makes its debut on VHS and DVD in April.
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Following last week’s news of a “tucked away” film by the late horror film director George A. Romero streaming on Shudder this summer, a low-budget, never distributed TV pilot helmed by the filmmaker will be released on DVD and vintage VHS on April 3 by Cryptic Pictures.
“Iron City Asskickers,” set and filmed in Pittsburgh, was created in 1998. The 21-minute pilot was written by Jason Bareford and focuses on professional wrestlers, the sensationalism behind the business and foreshadows the rise of reality TV.
Phil Bray/Netflix
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Sunday’s NBC telecast of the “Golden Globes” awards (8 p.m., WPXI-TV) includes a few ties to Pittsburgh, including Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit.”
Former Pittsburgher Susan Schulman, a New York-based literary agent, represented the estate of Walter Tevis, author of the 1983 novel of the same name that was the basis for the Netflix show, which has nominations for best limited series and best actress in a limited series for star Anya Taylor-Joy.
Schulman taught English literature at Ohio University before moving to New York, becoming a literary agent and eventually founding her own agency. She said most books that are optioned by film and TV producers don’t make it to the screen.
Streaming service Shudder will stream the “lost” George A. Romero film “The Amusement Park” this summer.
Restored by the Pittsburgh-based George A. Romero Foundation, the 1973 film was commissioned by the Pittsburgh-based Lutheran Society as a PSA about being helpful to the elderly, but it was never released publicly.
Romero’s widow, Suzanne Desrocher-Romero, oversaw the restoration of the film in 4K by IndieCollect in New York City. “The Amusement Park” was filmed at West View Park in the North Hills on the site of what is now a Giant Eagle. The park closed in 1977 and was demolished in 1980.
The film stars Lincoln Maazel as an elderly man who becomes disoriented and isolated as the humiliations of aging are manifested through roller coasters and chaotic crowds.
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Ever since ABC premiered “Lost” to critical acclaim and commercial success in 2004, networks have tried to duplicate its success with serialized, mystery-unlocking stories. Rarely have networks succeeded. A litany of supernatural/alien-themed series — “666