STEELERS FAMILY AT THE HEART OF ‘THIS IS US’
NBC’s warm drama series got off to a strong ratings start
SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses the events of the first episode of “This is Us,” which aired Sept. 20, including a twist ending.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — NBC’s “This Is Us” (10 tonight, WPXI) debuted a week ago with strong ratings — 10 million viewers and the best 18-49 demo debut on a Big Four network series since “Supergirl” last fall — and a twist ending.
It turned out the show’s central characters are all related even as they exist in different time periods.
New parents Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) were shown in 1979 Pittsburgh, while their three kids — twins Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Kevin (Justin Hartley) and adopted son Randall (Sterling K. Brown) — were shown in the present in different cities.
Tonight’s episode features Jack and Rebecca in the late ’80s, eight years after their kids were born, still living in Pittsburgh. Next week’s episode flashes back to 1979 and bringing the babies home from the hospital.
Series creator Dan Fogelman said he chose the Pittsburgh setting because he lived in Bethel Park as a child before his family moved to New Jersey when he was 7.
Pittsburgh was never considered as a filming location due to the cast’s ties to Los Angeles.
“I had just shot ‘Me, Earl and the Dying Girl’ there, and one of my best friends lives in one of the suburbs outside Pittsburgh, and for whatever reason, when I go there, it’s what feels normal to me,” Mr. Fogelman said in August at an NBC party during the Television Critics Association summer press tour. “I’ve now lived in Los Angeles 19 years, and it feels like home to me, but it’s never felt like my description of normal; Pittsburgh always did.”
In August Mr. Fogelman said he planned to use Pittsburgh stock footage in subsequent episodes. This week he said Jack and Rebecca live in his old stomping grounds, Bethel Park.
Mr. Fogelman said “This Is Us” will continue to hop through time, although 1988, 1993 and 1995 will be touchstone years in the series.
“We’ll go back to before they had kids,” he said. “It’s really ambitious to tell the stories of these people and the people who formed these people.”
Although the pilot did not address what Pittsburgher Jack does for a living, Mr. Fogelman said Jack works in construction and eventually gets into project management.
As for the Pittsburgh accent, it might make an appearance.
“The Pittsburgh accent is my favorite accent in the world,” Mr. Fogelman said, hinting it could appear “maybe a little bit. The big thing is going to be the Steelers are a touchstone for this family.”
Both of the actors playing parents in Pittsburgh have visited the city previously.
“I’ve been through Pittsburgh briefly on tour maybe 15 years ago, just a quick passing through,” said Ms. Moore, who has a dual career as an actress and pop singer.
In 2006-07 Mr. Ventimiglia directed “It’s a Mall World,” a digital series created by
Pittsburgh-based American Eagle Outfitters.
“Back in the early days of digital, American Eagle wanted to have some content live on its website. It was about five kids who work in a mall,” including a character played by a pre-“Glee” Dianna Agron. The show’s characters all wore American Eagle clothes, and one worked at an AE store. “The idea was to represent the core of American Eagle through storytelling instead of ‘check out all these jeans and clothes.’ ”
The 12-episode series of three-minute films, shot in Los Angeles, aired during commercial breaks of MTV’s “The Real World: Sydney” and on AE.com.
“We had a bunch of creative meetings out there,” said Mr. Ventimiglia of his past Pittsburgh trips. “I love the working-class sense of the town, the old history of the town, the old steel town. To play a character from Pittsburgh that exists in Pittsburgh is doubly fun.”
Now that the big “This Is Us” twist has been revealed, Mr. Fogelman said future episodes will continue to explore the characters’ lives at different ages and in different decades.
“There’s these four interconnected storylines that will all get equal time,” he said. “And one of the stories is really going to be informing the others, and you’re going to be seeing a growth of these people as we jump around in time.”
The show’s warm tone will also continue.
“There’s a kind of romantic melancholy to the entire thing,” Mr. Fogelman said, “like a romantic, optimistic but melancholia that kind of feels lifelike, but a little bigger than life.”
TV writer Rob Owen: rowen@post-gazette.com or 412-263- 2582. Read the Tuned In Journal blog at post-gazette.com/tv. Follow RobOwenTV on Twitter or Facebook.