Three TV series set in Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH - Maybe it's this former steel town's blue-collar traditions. Or its down-to-earth reputation. Or perhaps the city's many connections to the entertainment industry.

Whatever the reason, Pittsburgh has become a popular setting for TV shows.

Spike TV's bank heist-driven miniseries The Kill Point was shot and is set in the city. The TNT medical drama Heartland, and Fox's planned fall TV news sitcom Back To You, starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, both set their shows in Pittsburgh although they are filmed elsewhere.

The Pittsburgh Film Office, which tries to lure film productions to the region, would prefer that all movies and TV shows with Pittsburgh as a backdrop be actually filmed in the city. But director Dawn Keezer says anything that showcases the city helps it shed an outdated image.

"We still get people wanting to go to the steel mills, asking where they can get the best view of the smokestacks," Keezer said.

Pittsburgh is accustomed to being slighted in movies and real life - from the memorable line, "If they knew what they liked, they wouldn't live in Pittsburgh," in the 1941 film Sullivan's Travels, to actress Sienna Miller last year using an expletive to refer to the city while filming a movie here.

"The name of the city often brings up connotations of a downtrodden place that is kind of sad," said Steven Levitan, one of the creators of Back to You, shot on the Fox lot in Los Angeles. "But when you talk to people who live there, they will defend it. Those who have chosen to live there have done so for the right reason - because it's a really nice place to live."

Levitan has never visited Pittsburgh, but he learned a lot about the city from a friend who is a Pittsburgh TV news anchor.

"We needed a [TV news] market that was not one of the very top but one that wasn't too far down that the audience wouldn't believe Kelsey and Patty anchoring there," Levitan said. "It's a very beautiful city."

Having several Pittsburgh-area expatriates in show business doesn't hurt, either, said Carl Kurlander, a writer and TV producer who also penned the 1985 film St. Elmo's Fire.

Heartland creator David Hollander grew up in nearby Mount Lebanon and also set his CBS legal drama The Guardian in Pittsburgh. Rob Marsha, who directed the Oscar-winning Chicago, grew up here and is a Carnegie Mellon University graduate, as are producers John Wells (The West Wing, ER and China Beach) and Steven Bochco (Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue). Producer Mindy Kanaskie (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) graduated from Montour High School.

In 2003, Kurlander helped create Steeltown Entertainment Project to take advantage of the showbiz connections to nurture local talent and incubate commercial entertainment projects in the region.

Steeltown's accomplishments include a 2003 entertainment summit that brought back Pittsburgh expatriates to discuss how the region could compete for film and TV productions, and the made-for-DVD children's film R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It. That film, made in collaboration with Steeltown Entertainment Project, is to be released in September. Also, a new initiative, the Steeltown Film Factory, is planned to help emerging local filmmakers.

"It's a special, unique opportunity to build on it and to help create an industry," Kurlander said. "But it won't happen because of one show. What really has to happen is that Pittsburgh's 15 minutes has to turn into something serious. "It always feels like it's on the brink of happening," he said.

Kurlander also is working on A Tale of Two Cities, a documentary about Pittsburgh's history and its attempt to reinvent itself. The film includes several current and former Pittsburghers gathering to sing the theme song from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

Of all the TV shows and movies shot in and around Pittsburgh, Kurlander believes that show best captured the essence of the city because, he said, "those neighbors really are around Pittsburgh."