Buffalo connections are everywhere on TV—including on HBO’s “The Pacific,” Tyra Banks’ daytime talk show, VH-1’s transgender series “Transform Me,” the syndicated version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and “The Price Is Right.”

There are four local angles involving HBO’s “The Pacific,” which premiered Sunday and will continue for nine weeks. In last week’s review, I mentioned that legendary Marine Lt. Col. Lewis “Chesty” Puller is played by Hamburg native William Sadler.

Also, two of the three main characters and a third supporting character with some memorable moments are based on Marines with Buffalo ties.

Jon Seda’s character, Marine Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone, was a former Buffalo resident. Basilone, who was born in Buffalo but raised in Raritan, N. J., is one of the three main characters followed over the series’ 10 episodes. Basilone died in 1945 at Iwo Jima.

Army Lt. Col. Terry McGuire, a Snyder native, reports that “Basilone Manor” is named in his honor at the WNY Veterans Housing Coalition, located at 25 W. Utica St. The U. S. Postal Service has created a stamp in honor of this heroic Medal of Honor recipient.

Additionally, Robert Leckie, author of one of the books on which the series was based, “Helmet for My Pillow,” has Buffalo ties. Leckie (played by James Badge Dale) also is one of the three main characters. He was a newspaperman who at one time worked for the Buffalo Courier-Express.

And one of the more amusing characters in the early episodes, Pfc. Wilbur “Runner” Conley (played by Keith Nobbs) is a Nichols School graduate. His daughter, Jeanine Conley Baran, showed some journalistic flair in reporting that her mother, Rita Maryetta Conley, spoke to “Pacific” writer Bruce McKenna about “Runner’s” part in Leckie’s book. Baran said McKenna was “especially interested” in what her dad—who was called Bud all his life—was like. Nobbs, who plays Runner, also visited Conley’s family when he was visiting relatives here.

“Mom was thrilled to meet Keith, and she said later he could be a young Bud,” wrote Baran. “His height, build, coloring, eyes and hair were perfect. The producers obviously used old photos to find an actor who resembled him. I learned later from Bob’s [Leckie] daughter, Joan, that her mother had the same reaction when she met the actor who plays Bob. My brother Dan, my two children, Mom and I spent several hours with Keith.

“We showed him a stack of photos and he chose several; on our way to make copies we drove by the house Dad grew up in on Starin Avenue, showed him ... Nichols and drove down Hertel so he could get a feel of where Dad came from. By the time he left us, he had Dad’s nervous knee and expressive hands down pat. Whether he uses them in the movie is something to be seen.”

Baran said her father was born in Cleveland, moved to Buffalo when he was 12 and considered Buffalo his hometown. He lettered in football and track at Nichols. He died in 1997.

“Like thousands of young men at the time, he enlisted after Pearl Harbor,” she wrote. He was assigned to the 1st Marines after basic training and met Leckie. “They became fast friends, and that friendship lasted the rest of their lives,” wrote Baran.

“Dad had a great sense of humor and like most Irishmen could tell a great story. Through the years, our family listened to Dad’s stories about the war, we heard about the battles they fought, the deprivation they experienced, the illnesses they suffered, and we read the book. I think Dad would be proud that Bob Leckie’s book was chosen for this series; it was so real. But, I think he would have mixed emotions about watching those battle scenes because of the memories.

“Dad always felt something would be done because of Chesty Puller. Chesty is to the Marines like Patton is to the Army. He wouldn’t give an inch and expected his troops not to give an inch. Chesty is revered by the old Marines who served under him. To think that the series is about Bob Leckie and company would never have occurred to [her dad].”

Runner’s wife was his high school sweetheart. They had six children, 11 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. This isn’t exactly a spoiler alert, but Vera, the woman whom Leckie met in the first scene at church in Sunday’s episode and to whom he writes throughout the series, became his wife.

Caralyn Mirand, a senior from the Park School, was recently the runner-up in the Tyra Banks “Fiercely Real Teen” modeling contest involving full-figured teenagers. Finishing second among 10,000 contestants has its perks. She reports she has a meeting with the Wilhelmina agency and Seventeen magazine, and was also offered a photo shoot with Plus Model magazine.

The new VH1 fashion makeover series that premiered Monday, “Transform Me,” in which three transgender women change women “badly in need of a transformation on the outside and inside,” has an episode airing April 5 that was shot in Buffalo and Niagara Falls. The transformed woman is from Niagara Falls, but most of the filming is done in Elmwood Avenue and Delaware Avenue stores and at Franklin Street nightclubs.

Julia Roberts, a 29-year-old attorney from Buffalo, is a contestant on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” at 1

p. m Tuesday, March 23, and 1 p. m. Wednesday, March 24. It is carried locally on WNLO. I’d bet a million she gets a lot of ribbing about her famous name. Roberts is a 1998 graduate of Nardin Academy.

According to a “Millionaire” press release, Roberts said the comments about the actress can get annoying, but there’s also a positive side. For instance, there was the time that a winery thought she was the “Pretty Woman” star and offered her a private tour. The release added: “The winery owners were disappointed when she arrived— but she still got the grand tour!”

Jordana Pellow, who graduated from West Seneca East High School and Niagara University (magna cum laude, 2004), is a “Price Is Right” showcase winner. According to her mom, she won a scooter, a workbench, $1,000 on the wheel, maid service for one year (my personal favorite), a closet makeover, a trip to Paris and $2,500 to spend there. The show said the package retails for about $35,000, according to her mom.

Her mom added that Pellow performed in theater shows at Niagara, sang for the Buffalo Sabres and worked at Climb Theatre in Minnesota. She now is manager for the largest Ann Taylor Loft in California and still sings at engagements.