TV Talk: Billy Gardell back in town; Pitt history-maker featured in ‘Sky Blossom’

Swissvale native Billy Gardell (“Bob Hearts Abishola”) was back in Pittsburgh this past weekend to tape an episode for the upcoming second season of CBS’s “Secret Celebrity Renovation.”

In its first season last year the show featured celebrities in sports, music and entertainment gifting a surprise home renovation to a “meaningful person who helped guide them to success.”

Gardell told KDKA-TV he was doing the renovation for his best friend’s mother.

CBS has not announced when new episodes of “Secret Celebrity Renovation” will air but it will likely be sometime this summer.

‘Sky Blossom’

Timed to coincide with May as military caregiver month, “Sky Blossom: Diaries of the Next Greatest Generation” follows five 11-to-26-year-olds from across the country who care for parents or grandparents wounded while serving in the U.S. military.

The directorial debut of MSNBC weekend evening anchor Richard Lui, “Sky Blossom” airs at 8 p.m. May 16 on PBS World Channel (WQED-TV’s Channel 13.3) and streams on PBS Passport through June 30th. The film features the Grier family of Wexford.

Lui said the family came to his attention through the work of Rob Grier Jr. with the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, which is devoted to military caregivers and where he’s a volunteer. Rob Jr. and his daughter Camille are caregivers for his 89-year-old father, U.S. Air Force veteran Bobby Grier, who gained fame in 1956 as the first African-American football player to break the color barrier in the Sugar Bowl when he played for the University of Pittsburgh.

“What was special about the Griers is there was a multi-generational aspect of caregiving,” Lui said. “Also Rob being a male caregiver and me being a male caregiver is relevant to show because four out of 10 men do it and we don’t know that because we don’t talk about it.”

“Sky Blossom” previously aired on MSNBC and filmed in Wexford a few years ago before Camille graduated from Pine-Richland High School in 2021.

“As a caregiver, you just put your head down and do the work,” Rob Jr. says in the film. “You’re not really thinking about your own self-care and making sure you’re healthy enough to take care of your loved one.”

Rob Jr., head of sales for Evans City’s Holovisn, said the story of that 1956 Sugar Bowl and his father’s role in it may be told in a film someday: The production company of actor Anthony Mackie (“The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”) has signed onto the project and is currently in negotiations with a screenwriter to adapt the story.

After his stint in the Air Force, Bobby Grier was a supervisor at the U.S. Steel Edgar Thomson Works for 20 years and later an administrator at the Community College of Allegheny County.

“He’s doing well,” Rob Jr. said. “We just passed his fourth year of being cancer-free.”

Pittsburgh-set ‘Joe’

There’s another Pittsburgh-set series in the offing but it hasn’t yet locked in a filming location.

“Average Joe,” ordered to series by BET+, is a one-hour dark comedy set in the Hill District as it follows blue-collar plumber Joe Washington who discovers his recently-deceased father lived a secret, second life. The dead dad stole millions of dollars from dangerous people before he passed and those people think Joe knows where the money is stashed.

The series is written and created by Robb Cullen, who was co-creator of FX’s 2003 dark comedy “Lucky,” Billy Gardell’s first TV series regular role. Cullen told me he originally developed the project with Gardell in mind, hence the Pittsburgh setting.

“Average Joe” will star Deon Cole (“Black-ish”) as the title character. No filming location has been set. The project, which will shoot in September, has not yet contacted the Pittsburgh Film Office.

‘Baseball Boys’ screening

An expanded version of WQED-TV’s “A Season to Remember: The Baseball Boys of Mon City,” the story of a 1952 Washington County team that made it to the final game of the Little League World Series, will have a screening at Ringgold Middle School in Monongahela at 7 p.m. May 25. It will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by producer Beth Dolinar, a 1977 Ringgold grad.

Tickets are free but required due to limited auditorium capacity and are available online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-season-to-remember-the-baseball-boys-of-mon-city-tickets-325918038627 or via in-person pickup at the Monongahela Area Historical Society, 711 West Main Street, Monongahela, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and 2-6 p.m. Friday.

This director’s cut version of “Baseball Boys of Mon City” will be available online beginning May 26 at wqed.org/aseasontoremember and will get an airing on WQED-TV sometime later this year.

Kept/canceled

HBO Max renewed “Julia” and “Minx” for second seasons.

CBS renewed all three “FBI” shows for two years through the 2023-24 TV season.

Starz renewed “Shining Vale” for a second season.

Netflix will bring back “Sweet Magnolias” and “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson” for third seasons.

Peacock canceled its “Saved by the Bell” reboot after two seasons.

ABC canceled freshman drama “Queens.”

Hulu canceled “Dollface” after two seasons.

Channel surfing

“Sex Education” actor Ncuti Gatwa has been named to play the next iteration of the title character in BBC America’s “Doctor Who.” … NBC ordered a “Quantum Leap” sequel series for the 2022-23 TV season, executive produced by Charleroi native Don Bellisario and co-starring 2016 Point Park University grad Mason Alexander Park (“Cowboy Bebop”). … Following on last year’s “Waltons” reboot TV movie, “Homecoming,” The CW ordered another movie for this fall, “The Waltons’ Thanksgiving.”

You can reach TV writer Rob Owen at rowen@triblive.com or 412-380-8559. Follow Rob on Twitter or Facebook. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location.