‘White House Christmas’ is tonight
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 loved seeing the annual “White House Christmas” special on HGTV. This year I cannot find any listing for it anywhere and I have to wonder is HGTV not going to show it. Rob, maybe you find out: Will there be a White House Christmas this year? I hope so, thank you.
— RAY VIA FACEBOOK
Rob: “White House Christmas 2017” will air at 6 p.m. tonight on HGTV.
Q: I usually don’t get too worked up over a show cancellation, but the fact that CBS pulled “Me, Myself, & I” so quickly is really sticking in my craw. Why do these networks insist on keeping so many unintelligent and unoriginal shows going for years, yet cancel something fun and witty like “My, Myself, & l” after four episodes??!! This was a show that had yet to truly find its audience and was fresh, at the very least. — TONY, VALENCIA Rob: It was purely a business decision. The show was not bringing in the ratings necessary to make it profitable, so CBS pulled it from the schedule. That’s the way the TV business works.
But I understand Tony’s frustration because I liked “Me, Myself & I” better than “Young Sheldon” and watched “Me, Myself & I” consistently. The kids on “Me, Myself & I” were great and I especially liked the relationship between Alex and his stepfather. And I agree with Tony that this was a distinctive show on a network full of blah sitcoms, which may also be why it failed: It didn’t fit in with the shows CBS viewers prefer.
Q: I checked my Netflix calendar and there was no preview dates for “Peaky Blinders” or “Doc Martin” thru 2018. Did I miss something?
— SANDRA VIA EMAIL
Rob: Recent seasons of “Doc Martin” are exclusive to Acorn.tv so I wouldn’t expect to see those on Netflix.
“Peaky Blinders” season four will be available in the U.S. on Netflix on Dec. 21.
Q: I’ve noticed on most television shows that when the character is
drinking coffee, the cup is obviously empty. To me, this takes away the authenticity of the scene. Any thoughts as to why the actors drink from an empty cup in such scenes? — DAVE, CHICAGO
Rob: Because they don’t want to have to take a lot of bathroom breaks? Or take in the calories? Or they don’t like coffee? I have heard this complaint from others, but I can’t say it is something I have noticed.
Q: Is it just my television sets that have some of the comments that are shown during the advertisements and mostly the news out of the left and
right borders of the screen? It is very annoying and I don’t know if it’s a program problem or, for me, my service provider, which is Verizon. I would appreciate a response. — MIKE, MUNHALL
Rob: This sounds like an issue with settings on your TV sets or cable boxes. I have experienced this same problem myself when the setting for how the picture displays gets accidentally changed. Try calling Verizon and ask them to walk you through how to resize the on-screen picture so elements of the display are no longer getting cut off.
Ask TV questions by emailing rowen@post-gazette.com, including your first name and location, or submitting the form at postgazette.com/tv.