Dave & Dave recently had the honor of sitting down with Pittsburgh’s favorite pizza sons, Dom (pictured with Dave & Dave) and John Mineo to discuss their family business.  Let’s be real, whenever anyone brings up the topic of Pittsburgh pizza only a few names pop up and topping the list is always Mineos.

Noticed how I said “topping” the list?  Not a bad pizza tie-in!  Anyway… back to the topic… Pizza!  Mineo’s is celebrating their 50th year and after five decades of success you have to wonder what they are doing to keep folks coming back.  And that’s why we dropped by.  Dave & I along with our trusty cameraman Frank stopped by the original Squirrel Hill location on an average weeknight to shoot a TV segment for an upcoming OnQ episode and we found everything from young first-timers to hordes of regulars who’ve been enjoying the pies all their lives.

So we put the Mineo brothers under the hot lights and pelted them with questions trying to figure out their secret recipes and business strategies and they wouldn’t crack.  Apparently the quality ingredients they use seem to have something to do with keeping things consistent and delicious for half a century! 

As usual we did have a moment to sample some pizza for ourselves and we HIGHLY recommend the sausage and pepperoni!  Let us know what you think about Mineo’s pizza and do tune in to OnQ on WQED, Tuesday, November 25th at 7:30pm to see the story! - Dave H

Okay so “Pittsburgh N’at has finally aired… and we want to know what you think.  This show was a bit of a departure for us.  Usually in our programs we show you things you might not know about, but this time around we decided to go the Pittsburgh history route and really celebrate this place we call home.  Of course we still did it in our own “Dave & Dave” style.  Is this something you’d like to see more of?  Well shortly you’ll get to see a little more!  Dave & Dave had so much left over from the edit that we’re crafting an additional half hour of “N’at” to air some time soon!!

But if you missed the big hour documentary, WQED has already scheduled a repeat for Monday night, December 29th at 10pm.

Here’s what Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV critic Rob Owen had to say about our show!

Our pal Sally Wiggin also did a story on us that aired on WTAE News the night of our premiere.  You can check it out here on the WTAE Video page.  For the life of me I can’t get it to play, but you can give it a shot.  You may have to do a search for the video.  It is called “Sally Wiggin talks Pittsburgh n’at with Dave and Dave.”  Thanks Sally!  - Dave H.

An ambitious shoot day today for sure!  5 interviews!  Each one is taking about an hour so that doesn’t leave much time for driving around or lunch.  Fortunately Dave Rhodes has coordinated a finely tuned schedule and when it’s all said and done, we will have 13 celeb friends in the show.  13… just like WQED13… Coincidence?  Absolutely.

First stop is that gleaming gold building that towers over Greentree Hill and is also the home of the many Clear Channel radio stations in the ‘Burgh including WDVE.

While Jim, Randy, Val, Mike, and ace producer, Ryan Camuso put the finishing touches on today’s ‘DVE Morning Show, Dave, Frank & I set up in a cozy studio just down the hall so we could catch resident funnyman Jim Krenn right when he gets off the air.  Jim is another one of our real media friends in the show.  His legacy in Pittsburgh radio speaks for itself and it’s always been an honor for us to consider Jim a friend and mentor.  He was there when Dave & I started doing TV and welcomed us onto the WDVE airwaves for several years where we were really able to make a name for ourselves with the vast WDVE listenership and hone our comedic skills at the same time.  So we have a lot to thank him for and having him in the show will be a treat.  Some people are funny and some people are not.  Jim is funny.  ‘Nuff said.

After we extended Jim’s workday by an hour, his morning show partner, Randy Baumann made his way into the interview hot seat so we could mentally work him over for an hour.  While not a native Pittsburgher, Randy’s been in and around the ‘Burgh for most of his life and sitting at the controls every morning on WDVE puts him right at the epicenter of Pittsburgh nation.  Most of what I said about Jim, also applies to Randy.  He also really helped two guys named Dave become “Dave & Dave.”  We were hoping for lots of Randy’s trademark, lightning-quick wit and highly creative comedy, and he really let us have it!  When Frank laughs behind the camera Dave & I know that’s the good stuff!

Since we’re in Greentree, Frank insists on a late breakfast/early lunch at the Original Pancake House.  He and his family are regulars at the McIntyre Square location and h’s been wanting to visit their Greentree franchise for a few months.  We all got pancakes and as usual made fun of Dave R for the way he slices them all beforehand… and his little glass of chocolate milk too.

Okay, with bellies full of flapjacks, it’s off to the new home of Channel 11 to visit our meteorological friend, Julie Bologna. When we found out Julie B was coming back from Dallas, we were totally thrilled!  She’s another what-you-see-is-what-you-get celeb… Super nice, sweet, funny and now the mother of two cute sons.  Julie was so nice to us years ago when we did a series of “MTV Cribs” style shows, and she agreed to be our first one.  That was a huge leap of faith letting us into her home!!  Julie gave us a nice tour of WPXI’s new building and what a facility it is!  Very swank.  And during her interview she cleared up a few of our weather questions too.  We now know that partly cloudy is actually better than partly sunny.  There’s more sun.

Not letting us borrow chopper 11, we had to race our WQED van back down the parkway north to Oakland where our pal from MTV, Susie Meister was waiting for us.  Susie took Pittsburgh pride down under for the world to see on her season of “Road Rules,” which had her criss-crossing Australia reality show style.  Susie’s been on a few of those “Challenge” shows too where they pit people from “Road Rules” and “The Real World” into crazy inferno-like competitions.  But how will she do in our hot seat?  Turns out… just fine.  Susie’s been doing lotsa TV stuff for “OnQ” and other outlets and we’re happy to have her joining us in this show too.

Hot on the heels of Susie’s interview, we welcomed Anji Corley into the studio!  For those of you who do not know, Anji is Pittsburgh’s real slash.  Radio personality/TV personality/model/actress… and lots more slashes, but you get the idea.  Anji’s day job is the midday voice of WAMO-106.7 FM and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to catch some of that ‘Anji style’ for our show.  Although Ms. Corley is originally from New York, she like Randy from ‘DVE has been baptized by the Pittsburgh population as one of their own.  Her energy is as big as her smile and she made our job super easy.

Now that I think about it… what a rough afternoon having to spend it with the likes of Julie Bologna, Susie Meister and Anji Corley.  Talk about dream jobs!! - Dave H.

Okay it’s a truly ugly Pittsburgh day, dreary, rainy and gray so what better thing to do than interview a batch of Pittsburgh media icons for our “Pittsburgh N’at” show!

First up, we drop into America’s original radio station, KDKA to chat with morning man Larry Richert.  Larry’s very well-known for his genuine nice-guy demeanor wrapped in a razor wit, and he did not disappoint.  Even though he just got back from Ireland and had to get up really early to do his show, he more than willingly gave us a nice chunk of his time for us to fire our “60 Minutes”-like questions at him.  He’s a native North Hills-ian by the way!  Bet you didn’t know that in addition to everything Larry does for KDKA Radio and TV, his voice does a lot of work for NFL Films.  Yeah that’s right… NFL Films!  How cool.  Frozen tundra cool.

After a quick stop for some breakfast/lunch (somebody should come up with a word to abbreviate that) in the Strip at Pamela’s diner (it was raining and that’s where we got a sweet parking spot), it was a hockey day in Pittsburgh!  The legendary voice of the Pittsburgh Penguins Mike Lange sat down with us just outside the Igloo Club West as soon as the boys of winter wrapped up their morning skate.  We talked to Mike for about an hour while for some reason Pens star center, Jordan Staal shot puck after puck after puck after puck…. all by himself the entire time!  ‘The Langer’ dazzled us with his trademark catch phrases, “Buy Sam A Drink And Get His Dog One Too,” etc. and revealed to us the reasons behind his fear of fireworks.  Exhilarating and cathartic all at the same time.  Let’s Go Pens!

Our last icon stop of the day took us to the other side of the Squirrel Hill Tunnels to the WTAE-Action-News-Is-Everywhere home of Pittsburgh’s (and also the readers of Pittsburgh magazine’s) favorite female newscaster, Sally Wiggin.  The consumate news pro, Sally not only answered everything we threw at her, but at one point even turned the cameras on us!  That’s probably because we found out Sally’s favorite thing about Kennywood Park isn’t the roller coasters, potato patch fries or any of the other rides, but their corn dogs!  Yes, you heard right, Sally loves corn dogs.  Breaking news worthy?  We think so.  While we were working with Sally in their slick news studio, weather team Steven Cropper, Erin Kienzle and Demetrius Ivory were all pow-wowing in the weather center and it kind of alarmed us.  Might there be a volcano coming or something else big?  We’ll have to watch the late news and see…

We’re thrilled icons the stature of Larry Richert, Mike Lange and Sally Wiggin would even give us the time of day… let alone be in our show.  Just another thing that makes Pittsburgh… Pittsburgh.  Sorry Rick Sebak, I think that’s actually the title of one of your shows… but I’m too lazy to change it so there you go. - Dave H.

Day one of shooting went so well with Cathy and Stan, we’re really looking forward to today’s interview sessions. We’ve got three of our media friends lined up and they all work with us here at WQED!

First up, Minette Seate in WQED’s studio B.  That’s the studio where they shoot “OnQ” every night.  Minnie goes waaaay back with Dave & I, and of all the “friends” in this show, she’s without a doubt our closest.  Minette does a lot of stuff here at WQED like producing “Black Horizons,” “OnQ” stories, and all kinds of shows, and we love working with her any chance we get.  I’ve also never met a person who knows more people then her.  We could be in a Mongolian restaurant in a suburb of Buffalo, and she’d know somebody at the next table!  Yeah she’s that cool.

Next up, we wind our way down to the edit room home of the one man who knows more about Pittsburgh than probably anybody else we know… Rick Sebak.  This is the man who brought us such classics as “Kennywood Memories,” “The Strip Show,” and dozens more of those great programs that really showcase this region and the people who call it home.  Dave & I have been lucky over the years to benefit from having a producer of Rick’s caliber just down the hall… and we’re lucky to have him in our show.

Our third and final interview of the day is our good pal Mr. McFeely (aka David Newell) from “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.” Pittsburgh is made up of a myriad of neighborhoods but the one thing they all have in common is “Mister Rogers Neighborhood!”  Dave & I grew up with him and I’m betting you did too.  Sadly Fred himself is no longer with us, but McFeely (that was Fred Rogers’ middle name), is and we’re glad to have him as part of the show.

Okay so three more interviews in the can… things are starting to feel like a show!  But lots more to come. - Dave H.

Okay for those of you from Pittsburgh, the title speaks for itself… but for everybody else, “N’at” is just Steel City shorthand for “and that”… and that is the title of our new show which will hit the air on Thursday, November 6th at 8pm on WQED.  What’s the show about you ask?  Well this one’s a bit different than what we normally do.  Instead of covering and uncovering all sorts of cool new things, this time we’re just celebrating the place we call home, Pittsburgh.  And we’re doing it with the help of a lot of our media friends.  Today was our first shoot for the TV special and in addition to shooting lots of hi-definition b-roll (really nice video footage for the show), we got down to business with two of our “friends!”

First up, was the mid-day host on 96.1 KISS-FM, Tall Cathy (aka Cathy Schodde).  What a treat!  It’s no wonder she was recently named the “best female radio DJ” by the readers of Pittsburgh magazine.  You know how some people have nicknames and you just can’t figure out why?  Well “Tall” Cathy isn’t one of those people.  But in her defense, she could also be easily labeled “Hot” Cathy, “Funny” Cathy, “Bright” Cathy or all of the above!  Also joining us in the KISS studio today was our other cameraman, Bob Lubomski… he’s even taller, and today was his birthday. (Frank was on another project today)  Not only was Cathy a great interview, but we also found out a lot about her and we’re happy to report that she’s a proud Pittsburgher through and through and we’re glad to have her as part of our show.  Do give her a listen on 96.1 KISS and check out her webpage

After leaving the gleaming gold Greentree home of the Clear Channel radio stations we pointed the QED van toward the North Shore in search of a Pittsburgh sports icon, Stan Savran.

Like Tall Cathy, Stan gave us a really great interview.  His director at FSN even fired up the lights in their swanky new studio so we could shoot right on their set.  And with the big window, it really felt like the Today Show…  And once Bob rolled tape, Stan showed us why so many people “Love the Show!”  We had the opportunity years ago to do a story on Stan & Guy and their iconic show “Sportsbeat,” and we’re happy to report that in addition to Stan’s FSN-TV duties, he’s also back on the radio with Guy Junker weekdays at 10am on ESPN Radio 1250.  But you’ll have to tune in to “Pittsburgh N’at With Dave & Dave and Friends” to find out what scares Stan Savran so much about Kennywood!  -  Dave H.

Just like riding a bike, Dave & Dave got back on the horse and we had our first shoot for the upcoming season of WQED’s “OnQ.”  We heard about this new business in the area that was making vodka, so we just had to check it out.  If like us, a lot of you drive on Route 8, you probably see all of the old factory buildings in the Glenshaw area.   Well a part of the former Glenshaw Glass factory is now the new home of Boyd & Blair.  Like an upscale ‘Bartles and Jaymes,’ Boyd & Blair are actually 2 guys (with different names), Barry Young and Prentiss Orr.  These madmen/geniuses are sort of like those guys who home-brew beer and turn it into a micro-brewerey, except they’re doing that with vodka… and not just any vodka, vodka made with Pennsylvania potatoes.          Barry and Prentiss were really passionate about their product and their enthusiasm combined with a lot of expertise is part of the reason why they’ve been able to build the state’s first premium vodka distillery using state-grown potatoes.  The other reason they’ve been successful so far is that their vodka is produced in small batches by just the two of them.  They do it all, and there’s a lot to be said for that.  They are able to insure quality by doing it the old-fashioned way.  And to be sure things are old-fashioned, the facility has no automated processes and no computer-aided distillation equipment.  This stuff is really hand-crafted.  At the end of the shoot, we did get a little taste and those potatoes do give this spirt a level of sweetness that makes it go down smooth.  -Dave H.     

For those of you who might not know, Dave & Dave’s Emmy Award-winning cameraman, Frank Caloiero is quite the outdoor adventure maniac.  If the Olympics ever add “Freakout in the Forest” to their list of events, we have America’s gold medal candidate right here at WQED!  After a recent TV shoot for an upcoming Dave & Dave adventure, Frank took us to his favorite park to show us around.  He tells us all the time about his quirky outdoor workout regime, but to see it in person was quite something.  I’ve attached a bunch of pics to see him in action, but if I had to describe what I saw, I’d have to say it was like Cirque du Soliel-meets-The Deerhunter!  Not only did Frank display lots of high-risk agility manuvers, but he also showed us fossils and gave us some insights into the geology of the rocks in the area…. Who knew?????

-Dave H

Okay… the edit process (except for closed-captioning & feeding to all the other PA public TV stations) is complete and WQED in Pittsburgh has decided on an airdate for the show to premiere.  

T H U R S D A Y ,   S E P T E M B E R   2 5 T H  

A T    8 P M

Set your Tivos, DVRs, blackberries, alarm clocks and anything else in the house so you won’t miss this ’strange’ hour of unbelievable television!

-Dave H

While it looks like Dave may be just watching TV or downloading something off the Internet that might get him in trouble… he is actually starting the mammoth process of editing the “Strange Pennsylvania” documentary. 

Before things got to this stage, WQED’s Digital Avid worker bees, Amy, Ryan and Andy were able to get all of the tapes we shot on the road “digitzed” into the Avid Adrenaline for us to edit into a show.  WQED is acutally a state-of-the-art HD production facility and we have 2 weeks to turn that mountain of tapes into an hour of fantastic television before we hand it over to Frank (our cameraman, now our finishing editor) so he can make it as watchable as possible, prepare it for closed-captioning, and make sure it’s ready to feed to the Pennsylvania Public Television Network for broadcast across the state.

Many of you might not know that Dave, Frank and myself, in addition to being model citizens and fun TV people, are also highly capable digital non-linear editors who spend most of our workdays editing TV stuff on WQED’s Avid Adrenalines.  Frank also teaches digital editing at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. 

 By the looks of things on the monitors, Dave is beginning to craft the “Lawnmower Racing” story which was the first piece we shot for the program.  That means we have a loooooong way to go!  And yes that is a putter leaning against the console to Dave’s left.  Editing and working on his short game… very nice.  - Dave H.