Post-Gazette TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions online every Friday in Tuned In Journal blog at post-gazette.com/tv. Here’s a selection of recent queries.
Q: I know this is the last season for “Parenthood,” but are there new writers for the show? I ask because the whole dynamic of the show has changed, especially in the dialoge between the characters. Suddenly they are speaking in short outbursts, talking over each other, or all of them speaking at the same time, etc. It lends a touch of frenzy to the mood of the show, and in a discussion with others, we agreed that it's very annoying and seems very unnatural to these characters we have become very fond of.
— Karen, 68, Orange County, Calif.
Rob: No, there was no shakeup in the writing staff, and series creator Jason Katins remains the showrunner/head writer.
Q: Will there be a “Full Throttle Saloon” season this year on TruTV? They kind of left us hanging last season with an upcoming baby.
— Saundra, 70, Springdale
Rob: TruTV is shifting its brand to become a comedy network, and a recent tweet from TruTV reports no new season of “Full Throttle Saloon” was filmed in 2014.
Reruns of past seasons are airing on ReelzChannel.
Q: When a TV series goes into syndication, are all episodes in the rotation or are some held back?
— Jay, Oakland
Rob: Yes, it is super annoying, but often series are rolled out in batches of episodes and not always in chronological order. This seems to be more prevalent among sitcoms, where episodes that rated better in their initial run are more likely to be part of the batch presented in syndication.
Q: Do you know when the new season of HGTV’s “Flea Market Flip” will start?
Also, can you find out if the Food Network show "Mystery Diners" is real? There seems to be a lot of people who are on the show who are bad actors, especially at the end of the show when they are "busted."
— Darrin, 42, Pittsburgh
Rob: The second season of “Flea Market Flip” premiered in March 2013. It seems likely that if it had been renewed, another season would have appeared by now. HGTV publicist Jade Williams did not respond to Darrin’s question.
A lot of evidence online suggests “Mystery Diners” is staged, including a Radar Online report and a critique from Previously.TV.
Food Network publicist Julie Chudow offered this response: “Specific to your ‘Mystery Diners’ question, that program’s general premise is when a restaurant owner suspects employees of not doing their jobs, said owner/manager calls in the Mystery Diners. These Mystery Diners are undercover operatives who go into restaurants, bars and food service establishments with hidden cameras and perform surveillance to find out what's really going on when the boss isn't around – hence during any establishments requested visit, setting the stage for certain behavior to be captured is to be expected.”
Q: I swear when I was watching “American Horror Story: Freak Show,” it sounds as if Kathy Bates as the Bearded Woman is sporting a DEEP Pittsburghese accent! Can you confirm that?
— Ken, 49, Ross
Rob: To my ear it sounded like a Baltimore accent, but I went searching for confirmation and found it in Kathy Bates’ Twitter feed and in a Ryan Murphy interview with Entertainment Weekly where he explained, “Kathy came up with that idea which I love. She thought that Ethel would be from Baltimore. So we’re saying in that period the two most famous things to come out of Baltimore were Kathy Bates’ character and Wallis Simpson. She worked really hard on her Baltimore-ese. Somebody watched a screening of the first episode and said, ‘I thought Kathy Bates was out of a John Waters movie.’ And I’m like ‘You’re right!’ Because that’s set in Baltimore and back in the day, the accents were even thicker. But I love that. I love when she says ‘spektakular.’”
Ask TV questions at post-gazette.com/tv under TV Q&A (scroll down to find link on right side of the page).
First Published: January 11, 2015, 5:00 a.m.