Tallahassee on TV: How the capital city lit up the small screen in 2019 (2024)

National TV watchers got to know Tallahassee pretty well in 2019, especially audiences into live police and firefighter shows on A&E.

A couple of our neighbors got their few minutes of fame,kicking butt on "Jeopardy!" orbuying a house. And one sang his way into million of hearts — including Gwen Stefani's — and got pretty darned far on "The Voice."

We had the requisitewinners and losers on the major awards shows, plus the seemingly annual"true crime story."

Here's a look back at some of the thingswe watched our fellow Tallahasseeans doing on television this year.

January: FSU Film School grads get nominated for more Oscars

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Barry Jenkins, the 2003 graduate of the FSU Film School — who was already anAcademy Award- and Golden Globe-winning screenwriter and director —wasnominated for an Oscarfor "If Beale Street Could Talk."

Jenkins, who wrote and directed the film, was nominatedfor Best Adapted Screenplay, but in on Oscar nightlost to the team who wrote "BlacKkKlansman."

(We think Jenkins is doing OK, though. In July, the websiteIndieWire named Jenkins' earlier Best Picture Oscar winner "Moonlight" the Best Movie of the Decade.)

But FSU did have at least one winner this year at the Oscars. Jonathan King ('92) was executive producer of "Roma," which was nominated for Best Picture, and"Green Book," which won."Green Book" happens to have another local connection. One of the hotels listed in the real "Green Book" was in Thomasville, Georgia. An effort is underway to restore the building.

Related:This Thomasville hotel was in the real ‘Green Book’: Inside a $1M quest to restore it

Watch it: "Green Book" on Amazon

Watch it: "If Beale Street Could Talk" on Amazon

February: The internet rumor millturns toT-Pain

It started with a whisper. Near the end of the first season of the new "reality" competition show, "The Masked Singer," the internet started to believethe show's clues pointed to the character of "The Monster" being Tallahassee's own T-Pain.

In case you missed the phenomenon, "The Masked Singer" dresses up celebrities as colorful characters in giant Disney-style costumes whilethey compete a la "American Idol." But the producerstake all kinds of pains to make sure the audience can't recognize the famous voices.

Not only did the fans turn out to be right — The Monster wasindeed T-Pain — but he won the whole competition! He turned a lot of heads who'd written him off as "just a rapper," too.

T-Pain released a new album, "1UP," carefully coordinated with the season finale, and launched a national tour. He's been performing his monster heart out, hosting the "2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards" and evendropping in as a guest star on the first episode of Season 2 of the "The Masked Singer."

More:'The Masked Singer' winner: 7 fascinating facts about Tallahassee's T-Pain

Watch: Season 1 of "The Masked Singer" on Fox.com

February: FSU athletic trainer pops ups on HGTV

Amanda Robinson, aFlorida State athletic trainer with the men's basketball team, appeared on an episode of HGTV's "House Hunters"that was shot in Tallahassee.

What began with filling out acasting call on a late-night whim ended up as an episode titled"Like Mother Unlike Daughter in Tallahassee." (Yes, her mother appeared with her on the show. Really.)

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Robinson ended up (spoiler alert) buying a house, but the processhad its mishaps and is an entertaining watch — especially if you've ever made a major purchase with your mother.

Watch it:"Like Mother Unlike Daughter in Tallahassee" on HGTV

September: FSU grad student competeson "Jeopardy!"

In September, Laurel Lathrop, a Ph.D. candidate in creative writing at Florida State, was a contestanton "Jeopardy!" for three days.

Lathrop, 33, said she knew that herstrongest subjects would be literature, historyand art, with sports and geography as the categories she hoped to avoid.

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She ended up winning about $64,000 in the first two days, and lost the third on the Final Jeopardy answer: "A chain of volcanoes is named for this mountain range where the continental USA’s deadliest eruption took place."

Lathrop guessed"What are the Olympians?" but the correct question was "What are the Cascades?"

Damn that geography category!

September: TPD and TFD go live

The for a bunch of episodes of "Live PD," billed as "a real live look at police across the country as they work the night shift in real-time."

The show is three hours long, following police officers in several cities per episode —and it's pretty much what you'd imagine. Some of it'sreasonably exciting TV;some is dull. There are lots of traffic stops, yelling, blurred faces and 'splaining.

The Dec. 6 episode was recapped byrobertjonathan.com — a fan with a blog —like this:"Tallahassee, Fla.— Officers respond to report that vehicle drove into canal. Turns out it’s just a stuck vehicle adjacent to the canal but not in it."

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Tallahassee Fire Department also welcomed A&E's cameras for the companion series, “Live+Rescue,” which follows firefighters, paramedics and EMTs.

Whether either show is your entertainment cup of tea, they arerare glimpses into what might begoing on just a few blocks away from us as we sleep.

Watch it:"Live PD" Season 4 on A&E

Watch it:"Live Rescue" Season 2 on A&E

September:Tony Hale loses anEmmy but gains a Netflix show

All eyes were on the Emmy Awards to see if Tallahassee's Tony Hale could bring home a third Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series awardfor playing the brow-beaten Gary Walsh on HBO’s hit “Veep.”

Alas,Hale lost to Tony Shalhoub for "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

"Veep" is over, so there won't be any otherEmmys for Hale for playing Julia Louis-Dreyfus' long-sufferingassistant. ButSeason 1 of Hale's newest project,"Archibald's Next Big Thing" — in which he writes and does the voice of an optimistic chicken who gets into a series of misadventures — began streaming on Netflix in 2019, so who knows what could be in his future?

Hale is also the voice of the new character Forky in "Toy Story 4,"and became so popular that Disney created a series of shorts for Forky on its new Disney+ service. "Forky Asks a Question" covers important topics like "What Is Time?," "What Is a Pet?," "What Is Art?" and, of course, "What Is Love?"

Watch it: "Archibald's Next Big Thing" on Netflix

Watch it: "Forky Asks a Question" on Disney+

September: Royce Lovett hits it big on "The Voice"

Tallahassee was transfixed when local musicianRoyce Lovett's blind audition secured him a spot on Team Gwen (Stefani) on Season 17 of the reality TV show "The Voice."

Lovett, 30, a popular fixture on the Tallahassee music scene,easily won his first battle roundwhen he was pairedup with a 22-year-old Las Vegas native to sing aBob Marley duet.

“Your voice is so animated,” Stefani said about it. “You can feel the undertone of the reggae, but then you’re bringing it to this modern place, this rock place. I love that.”

Sadly, Lovett was eliminated in the knockout round. Ah well.

October: Dan Markel case is back in prime time

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ABC's news magazine "20/20" aired a new — or rather, updated — look atthe murder of former FSU law professor Dan Markel. It aired the evening of the same day Sigfredo Garcia was found guilty of Markel's murder by a Leon County jury.

Originally shown Sept. 16, 2016,the new episode was titled "Over My Dead Body." It featured USA TODAY investigations editor (and former Tallahassee Democrat news director) Jennifer Portman and reporter Karl Etters, as well as prosecutor Georgia Cappleman and an attorney for Charlie Adelson, brother of Markel's ex-wife Wendi Adelson.

Watch it: "Over My Dead Body" on "20/20"

COMING SOON

LCSO K-9s get their 15 minutes

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Three officersfrom the Leon County Sheriff's Office along with their K-9 partners will show off theirspeed andagility on A&E's new reality series"America's Top Dog."The first pair, Officer Casey Skelton and his partner Maverick, are set to appear on the show's premiere at 9 p.m.Wednesday.

Local author Jeff VanderMeer gets AMC series

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Tallahassee author and New York Times bestsellerJeff VanderMeer's work has already been adapted for the big screenin the feature film "Annihilation"starringNatalie Portman.

Now his "Borne"-universe series, which includesthe recently-published"Dead Astronauts"(Midtown Reader usually has signed copies for sale)has been optioned for the small screenby AMC.

VanderMeer will be directly involved as an executive producer and creative consultant on the project, likely a TV series. Maybe Tallahassee will be the home of the next "Game of Thrones"?

Watch it:"Annihilation" on Amazon Prime

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Tallahassee on TV: How the capital city lit up the small screen in 2019 (2024)
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