TV Talk: ‘This is Us’ gives a shout-out to Eat’n Park

Rob Owen
Tuesday, March 29, 2022 9:59 p.m. | Tuesday, March 29, 2022 9:59 p.m.

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Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Ca’Ron Jaden Coleman as Randall, Mandy Moore as Rebecca in the March 29 episode of "This Is Us."

Cliff Lipson/CBS

Pete Holmes stars in a new comedy inspired by the life of professional bowler Tom Smallwood, who gets laid off from his factory job and makes the extraordinary decision to follow his dream of becoming a professional bowler, on the series premiere of the CBS Original series “How We Roll.”

NBC’s partially Pittsburgh-set “This Is Us” has its share of local references – the Steelers, the Pirates and even the late Froggy’s in Downtown Pittsburgh have received multiple references on the family drama – and in Tuesday’s episode it was local chain Eat’n Park’s turn.

In the present, while at a restaurant, Rebecca (Mandy Moore) watches her adult son Randall (Sterling K. Brown) build with little, pink Sweet Low packets.

“It was at Eat’n Park the first time I saw you do that,” Rebecca says. “You were 6 or 7 and we spent the summer working on your Scholastic book club reading list. … Every Friday in the summer we would get to the library before it opened and we would stay until it closed and then I would take you to Eat’n Park. Just us.”

“We’d always get the Smiley Face cookies,” Randall recalls.

“That was always our favorite part, remember?” Rebecca says.

In a later flashback scene, a college-aged Randall is on the phone with Rebecca and tells her to check a pocket in his backpack. She pulls out a white bakery bag, opens it, and nearing tears at his thoughtfulness, says, “Our cookies!”

“I stopped by Eat’n Park on my way home,” Randall says.

“Thank you, I needed this,” Rebecca says, biting into a Smiley Face cookie.

Until I contacted them, Eat’n Park executives were unaware there would be references to the restaurant chain and the Smiley Face cookie in this week’s “This Is Us” episode.

“We have always been huge fans of ‘This Is Us,’ and as a Pittsburgh-based company, we have loved watching the Pearsons ‘grow up’ on screen in our beloved hometown,” said Eat’n Park spokesperson Amanda Giacobbi after viewing the episode. “It seems nearly every Pittsburgher has a favorite Eat’n Park memory, so it’s only appropriate that this would be the case for the Pearsons, as well!”

This is not the first time a Pittsburgh icon has appeared on “This Is Us” without the production seeking permission in advance. In April 2021, a “This is Us” episode featured a visit to the set of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” with young Randall in conversation with Mister Rogers’ Daniel Striped Tiger puppet.

Although use of elements from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” was not licensed prior to the initial broadcast of the episode, my understanding is subsequently Fred Rogers Productions amicably resolved any disputes related to that use.

‘How We Roll’

New CBS sitcom “How We Roll” (9:30 p.m. Thursday, KDKA-TV) has two key elements working in its favor: The likability of star Pete Homes (“Crashing”) as Tom, a laid-off factory worker-turned-pro bowler, and the saltiness of scene-stealer Julie White (“Grace Under Fire”) as Tom’s mother, Helen.

But the writing and plotting by series creator Mark Gross (“Man with a Plan”) is as pedestrian as one would fear going into this bland multi-cam sitcom that is not worthy to air after the clever CBS hit “Ghosts.”

Katie Lowes (“Scandal”) plays Tom’s supportive, encouraging wife and Chi McBride (“Boston Public”) co-stars as Tom’s bowling coach. The series is inspired by the life of real professional bowler Tom Smallwood.

“How We Roll” marks Mt. Lebanon native David Hollander’s first sitcom credit as one of the show’s executive producers (usually he’s involved in dramas like “Ray Donovan”). But don’t blame him for “How We Roll.” In January, Hollander told me he’s “not a creative force on the project,” leaving those duties to his friend and fellow executive producer, Broadway actor Brian d’Arcy James.

Channel surfing

Final Oscars ratings adjusted up to 16.6 million viewers, an increase from the 10.4 million who watched in 2021 but still down significantly from the 23.6 million viewers who tuned in in 2020. … The final “Ozark” episodes stream on Netflix April 29. … The six-episode “Pistol,” about the rise of the punk band Sex Pistols, premieres on Hulu May 31. … 2017 Carnegie Mellon University grad Victoria Pedretti (“You,” “The Haunting of Bly Manor”) will star in Hulu’s “Saint X,” a psychological thriller based on the Alexis Schaitkin novel of the same name about a young woman’s mysterious death during a Caribbean vacation.