Gardell surprises ‘second mom’ with ‘Secret Celebrity Renovation’
Billy Gardell will take any excuse to get back home to Pittsburgh, especially one that involves doing something special for someone close to him.
The 52-year-old comedian, actor and Swissvale native was in town over Mother’s Day weekend filming a season-two episode of the CBS reality series “Secret Celebrity Renovation,” a show that involves stars gifting surprise home renovations to important people in their lives. Gardell chose to upgrade the Penn Hills home of Marianne O’Connell, the mother of his best friend, Joey O’Connell.
Not only was it an opportunity for Gardell to give back to a woman who he considers to be a “second mom,” but it also was a nice ego boost for him: He is now officially a “celebrity.”
“I always look at myself as middle management in Hollywood,” Gardell told the Post-Gazette on Wednesday morning. “I’m not an A-lister, but I did enough to be asked to do nice things like this. When you get an opportunity to lift someone else up like this, that’s where the real juice of life comes from.”
Since season two of “Secret Celebrity Renovation” isn’t expected to begin airing until midsummer at the earliest, there were certain things Gardell couldn’t talk about, including the renovation itself. He was allowed to say that he thought the opportunity to surprise Mrs. O’Connell was “a beautiful idea.”
Gardell fully expects everyone who watches his “Secret Celebrity Renovation” episode to get a real kick out of her “inspirational, upbeat personality.”
“People are going to fall in love with my buddy’s mom,” he said. “She’s just the sweetest, cutest lady.”
Part of being on the show
involved showing host Nischelle Turner some of his favorite local haunts. Although a lot of the filming took place in Penn Hills, Gardell still found time to take the “Secret Celebrity Renovation” team to Kennywood in West Mifflin and to his childhood stomping grounds in Swissvale.
He made a point to introduce some of the show’s cast and crew to Rocco’s Tavern on Harrison Avenue as “a proper blue-collar thankyou” for all their efforts.
“I think I portrayed Pittsburgh well,” Gardell said. “I just think that if you’re a Pittsburgher with pride about being a Pittsburgher, you’re going to love this show.”
Filming a reality show was a departure from most of Gardell’s work over the past decade. He starred for six seasons on the CBS series “Mike & Molly” and three on CBS sitcom “Bob Hearts Abishola.” He “has just been going to work and home” for most of the past year to avoid catching COVID-19 and affecting the “Bob Hearts Abishola” shooting schedule.
Luckily, the show only had a couple of shutdowns while making season three and was able to successfully wrap production about a week ago. “Bob Hearts Abishola” was renewed for season four earlier this year. Gardell plans to take full advantage of this hiatus to relax and continue “getting healthier” before production on the new season starts later this year.
“I still can’t believe I’m getting a second ride,” he said. “I thought after ‘Mike & Molly,’ ‘OK, I got my ticket punched, and that will be that.’ God bless Chuck Lorre, who had another great idea for me. ... I love the show. It says love conquers all, and that’s my favorite kind of stuff.”
It would be irresponsible to let Gardell go without getting a few Pittsburgh sports takes from him. He loved that the Steelers took Pitt’s Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft and believes he will be “a great addition to our team.” Even if Pickett isn’t ready to start right away, Gardell has faith that he will at least help “light a fire under [fellow Steelers QB Mitch] Trubisky.”
As for the Penguins and Pirates, he has polar opposite feelings about those clubs. At the time of the interview, one squad was up 32 in its first-round playoff series while the other was at third place in the NL East.
“I only have one thing to say about the Pens, and that’s spicy pork and broccoli. Let’s go!” Gardell said, before adding with a bit less enthusiasm: “And my Buccos continue to torture me.”