Review: Pittsburgh Dad

By: John Bozic

Summary:
          In my opinion, the Pittsburgh Dad is a beacon of comedic delight from the steel city, as each episode is more enticing than the last. The Pittsburgh Dad is an online series on YouTube that is centered around the observations of a blue-collared comedic Father and the daily life of putting up with the actions of family and friends.

          The series creators Chris Preksta and Curt Wootton, both who are natives to the Pittsburgh area, grew up, and went to college in "Blitzburgh" met in 2005. Originally as a joke, a few minute long sketches were shot on each other's iPhone's to play to there friends, Chris put them on YouTube and got over 3 million views in less that 6 months, both friends knew it would be a hit!

          The series depicts of everyday situations any family goes through, eating out at a restaurant, grocery shopping, riding in the car, or going to a fun park, and having to bear each others opinions is no exception.

Main character Curt Wootton

          The episodes include spot-on impressions of the accent heard around the area as "Pittsburghese" and is familiar to both current and ex-Pittsburgher's as the way of life.

          Each episode is between 2 and 9 minutes long, and resembles that of another famous Pittsburgh-based television show, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.

Cast:

          Although Pittsburgh Dad is the only character to be seen on camera, there is a series of other family members and friends frequently mentions and involved in every episode.

-Deb is Pittsburgh Dad's wife, and is commonly related as having as many mannerisms coming from Pittsburgh as the Dad. 

-Mandy is Pittsburgh Dad's 14 year old daughter and is depicted as the stereotypical American teenage girl who has a boyfriends named Andrew.

-Brandon is Pittsburgh's Dad 8 year old son who enjoys watching wresting and the Steelers and gets into mischief with best friend Jeffy.

-Jessica is the youngest daughter on Pittsburgh Dad and is the only character to have heard the voice of in the episode "Leaving the Lights On".

-Jeffy is the neighborhood thorn in Pittsburgh Dad's back, portrayed as a messy child who is constantly getting into trouble because of reckless behavior and irresponsible parents. The only other human character to be seen on the show.

-Tom is Pittsburgh Dad's next door neighbor, and might as well be from another planet, as he is from Baltimore and is a die hard Baltimore Ravens fan, and has a personal hatred to the state of Tom's lawn.

-Pete is Dad's best friend, spoken most often too, and seen being helped in home improvement projects.

-Rick is Dad and Deb's brother-in-law and is a loudmouth, drunken wife beater married to Linda, Deb's sister.

-Linda is Deb's sister and wife of Rick whom she argues with constantly about nothing, she works with hair and has a daughter named Brittany.

-Gram and Pap are Dad's Mother and Father, both suffer from old age and medical problems, and appearance issues included in result of getting up there in years.

...There are also a group of secondary characters including June Boyers, "That Dog", Dana the Witch Girl, the DeNuzi family, and Bob Ash.

          The Pittsburgh Dad is one of the funniest series based strictly on focusing on one man in one town, there is nothing else like it, and I hope it continues to grow into one day, being picked up for a season on television, where all the family members may materialize into physical beings that being even for smiles to are faces.

Episodes:

          O'Hara Township, Pennsylvania-based supermarket chain, Giant Eagle is the ideal choice of picking up last minute items, or a day long shopping jaunt.

          A weekend outing to the Century III Mall in West Mifflin, has Pittsburgh Dad on his last nerve by the time he see's the parking lot again.

          A baffling shopping experience at Ikea, went there expecting an in and out purchase of a chair, a couch, and an end table, ends up being more hectic that a family vacation to Kennywood.

          Homestead, Pennsylvania-based Eat 'N Park, locally known sit down restaurant chain, best for serving some of the best iced "smiley" cookies, once had ones decked out with the resemblance of Pittsburgh Dad's face on them.

          Not even done with Thanksgiving Thursday, forced to shop on Black Friday, and end up having no green on Saturday!

Thank you for reading and do not forget to leave comments and post questions below.

TTTM