TV One December 2009 Highlights; Accidentally on Purpose Gets More Episodes

This December on TV One, they have holiday stunts, special marathons, and more! We'll only cover the sitcom/TV series events, like usual. First up, on Saturday, December 12 beginning at 12 Noon through 8pm, TV One keeps with the Holiday Season Spirit as they air a Holiday Sitcom Marathon consisting of Christmas-themed episodes of favorite TV One comedies Good Times, The Jeffersons, The Hughleys, Amen, and Sanford & Son.
Beginning on Monday, December 14, TV One presents a Lincoln Heights - "Best Of Season 2" week-long event. The series is an original ABC Family series, but TV One is once again airing some repeats. The Sutton family is back for another stunt week on TV One...which starts out with a race riot at the high school that spills out into streets where violence catches up to Eddie, who shoots a boy who he thought shot at him. Join the Sutton Family as they must deal with life on the hard edge confronting such issues as racial violence, gangs, family issues, and an unexpected tragic event. Episodes in this special stunt week air Monday-Friday the week of Dec. 13 only at 9pm and 10pm with encore airings at 1am & 2am.
On Saturday, December 19 beginning at 2pm through 12am (encores until 6am), TV One keeps with the Holiday Season Spirit as they air another Holiday Sitcom Marathon consisting of Christmas-themed episodes of favorite TV One comedies Martin, All of Us, Eve, The PJs, For Your Love, Where I Live, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, Half & Half, and Living Single.
Then beginning on Monday, December 21 and continuing through Christmas Eve (Thursday, December 24), TV One presents a Christmas Comedy Countdown from 7pm to 11pm each night showcasing Yuletide episodes of your favorite TV One sitcoms leading up to Christmas. The Holiday countdown begins each night with Christmas episodes of Martin at 7pm followed by Good Times at 7:30pm. The 8pm to 11pm Christmas Comedies are in blocks. On Monday we get Martin & Living Single, on Tuesday we get Good Times & Amen, on Wednesday it is The Jeffersons & Cedric The Entertainer Presents and on Thursday we get All of Us & Eve on Christmas Eve.
And finally on Friday, January 1 (New Years Day) beginning at 9am through 8pm (encores until 6am), ring in your New Year in 2010 with Martin Payne as TV One presents the "Martin: It's All Love - New Years Day Marathon." Join Martin along with Gina, Tommy, Pam, and Cole as love is the theme of the day with the thin line between love and hate growing ever so closer in the world of Martin.

CBS has ordered an additional five episodes of its freshman comedy Accidentally on Purpose, bringing its season order to 18. Accidentally on Purpose is averaging 8.04 million viewers, 3.1/7 rating/share in adults 18-49 and 3.7/8 rating/share in adults 25-54 in its Monday (8:30PM) time period, according to Nielsen most current ratings (not counting the repeat on Oct. 26).
This Monday's episode did a decent 8.09 million, 3.1/8 rating/share in adults 18-49, and a 3.7/8 rating/share in adults 25-54, right on par with its season average. However, it was slightly off from its previous all-new episode on Oct. 19 of 8.26 million, 3.3/8 rating/share in adults 18-49, and a 3.7/9 rating/share in adults 25-54.

TV One November 2009 Highlights; New Biography Episodes in November on Bio TV

This November on TV One there won't be any regular schedule changes, so it will remain the same as October, but there will be plenty of sitcom related stunt marathons! On Friday, November 13 beginning at 10pm, it's a comedy master class as TV One presents the "Martin 'Thug Homey' Mega-thon," a 24-hour comedy event that features episodes of TV One sitcom favorite Martin with Martin Payne (Martin Lawrence) in aggression mode battling his friends, his enemies, his woman, and even himself in this hilarious TV One comedy extravaganza.
Thursday, November 26 is Thanksgiving Day and TV One has programming scheduled to keep viewers "Home for the Holidays" and in the holiday spirit in the day and thumping to a music beat throughout the evening, while the rest of the holiday weekend includes a mix of TV One originals and TV One sitcom favorites, and movies. Thanksgiving weekend programming plans for sitcoms are as follows:
On Thursday, November 26, Thanksgiving Day will begin at 6am with a sitcom marathon consisting of Thanksgiving themed episodes of TV One sitcoms Half & Half, Martin, The Hughleys, Living Single, Good Times, and All of Us through 1pm with select encores in the overnight from 2am-6am.
Then on Friday, November 27 beginning at 10pm, it's a Holiday Comedy Mega-thon as TV One airs 24-hours of holiday themed episodes of TV One sitcom favorites Martin, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Eve, Amen, The PJs, The Hughleys, Living Single, Cedric, Half & Half, Where I Live, Good News, Amen, Sanford & Son, , and All of Us in this holiday comedy mega-thon event.

This November Bio TV will launch a few TV related Biography episodes. Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives, Lois & Clark) will be featured on Wednesday, November 4 at 10pm and Woody Harrelson (Cheers) is featured on Tuesday, November 24 at 10pm. For Teri Hatcher, a profile of the glamorous Desperate Housewives star whose career and personal life have seen many ups and downs. Hatcher suffered sexual abuse as a young girl. But her career took off when she appeared on TV's Seinfeld and starred as the girlfriend to both Superman on TV and James Bond in the movies. After her professional life cooled down a decade ago, she came roaring back with Housewives and her 2006 autobiography, "Burnt Toast and Other Philosophies of Life," which was endorsed by Oprah's Book Club. For Woody Harrelson, a portrait of the actor who was plucked from obscurity and found stardom on the hit TV sitcom Cheers. Harrelson became a violent youth when his father was sent to jail. He started acting in high school, and nailed the audition for Cheers after hearing about the casting call from a friend. He went on to star in White Men Can't Jump and such controversial movies as Natural Born Killers and The People vs. Larry Flynt. Harrelson also became a vegan, took up yoga, and became an activist--he was arrested for climbing the Golden Gate Bridge in an effort to protect California's redwoods.
Repeat episodes airing this month include Biography episodes on Alyssa Milano, Tony Danza, Melissa Gilbert, Michael Landon, Aaron Spelling, Burt Reynolds, Heather Locklear, Shaun Cassidy, Valerie Bertinelli, Gary Coleman, Bob Saget, Dana Plato, Diff'rent Strokes, Kristy McNichol, Billy Crystal, Reba, Suzanne Somers, Patrick Duffy, Don Knotts, John Ritter, Three's Company, Patricia Heaton, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kirstie Alley, Cheers, Batman, The Partridge Family, Full House, Doris Roberts, Shirley Jones, Bill Cosby. Truth Behind the Sitcom Scandals: Gilligan's Island and Diff'rent Strokes; Laverne & Shirley and Cheers, Dynasty Reunion, The Cosby Show: A Look Back, Cast Confessions: Facts of Life, and Laverne & Shirley Reunion will also reair.
And about 10 days ago we told you the Celebrity Ghost Stories episodes for November that will feature stars like Lisa Rinna, Eric Roberts, Justine Bateman, and Jay Thomas.

Gospel Has Amen, Sister Sister Every Weekday Now; Ugly Betty Season Premiere Now Oct. 16

Gospel Music Channel quietly added Sister Sister and Amen to their regular weekday schedule. Previously both were airing just a few times week. Sister Sister now airs weekdays 10-11am and 10pm-12am and also on Saturdays from 9am-11am. Amen airs weekdays 11am-12pm and 1am-2am and also on Saturdays from 8-9am. The weekday dramas have some time changes as a result. The dramas start at 1pm with back-to-back Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, followed by Promised Land at 3pm, Sue Thomas F.B.Eye at 4pm, and Doc at 5pm. Encores of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Sue Thomas F.B.Eye, Doc air from 6pm-10pm.
Now they have more of a daily schedule and it is so much easier to follow! Movies are now on weekends and Fridays in primetime.

I haven't had a chance to post this on the blog, but I did break the news on our message board about the season premiere of Ugly Betty being delayed a week on ABC. The two-hour season premiere of Ugly Betty is now scheduled to air on Friday, October 16, 2009 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT and not on Friday, October 9, 2009 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT as previously announced. Instead encores of this week's FLASHFORWARD, Modern Family and The Middle will air from 8-10pm on Friday (Oct. 9). Ugly Betty will begin airing in its regular 9:00 PM ET/PT hour effective Friday, October 23, 2009.
The season premiere of Supernanny is now scheduled to air on Friday, October 23, 2009 in its regular 8:00 PM ET/PT hour. It was previously scheduled to have its season premiere on October 16, but now that will be Ugly Betty from 8-10pm.
In other updates, It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is scheduled to air on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 from 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT on ABC (ABC will air the full-length version of this classic Charlie Brown special including a bonus Charlie Brown cartoon entitled, You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown, which has the Great Pumpkin in the storyline.).
Finally in November, In The Spotlight With Robin Roberts: Bright Lights, Big Stars, All Access Nashville is airing on Tuesday, November 10, 2009 from 10:01-11:00 PM ET/PT. This special features interviews with country superstars Carrie Underwood and Tim McGraw on the eve of the CMA's (airs November 11 on ABC). the forgotten will be preempted on this night.

TV One October (Fall) 2009 Schedule; Yet More Hallmark Changes

As we predicted on the TV One September 2009 schedule, the fall schedule changes will happen on TV One in October 2009! Beginning on Monday October 5, 2009, as the seasons change, the TV One fall schedule settles into place! Divorce Court starts the weekday schedule off from 6-7am. Then we have original programming from 7am-12pm with programs like Sharp Talk, TV One on One, and Comics Unleashed. At 12pm the series programming starts with short-lived comedies in the 12pm hour with the '90s comedy Where I Live followed by '70s comedy That's My Mama at 12:30pm. Amen now moves to 1pm being paired with the short-lived comedy Life Family. At 2pm we get back-to-back episodes of Half & Half. NY Undercover returns to the line-up airing weekdays at 3pm, while Divorce Court's afternoon airings move to the 4pm hour. In the 5pm hour will now be TV One original TV One Access. Returning to the regular schedule are The Jeffersons airing back-to-back in the 6pm hour. TV One staples Martin and Good Times now are airing in the 7pm hour. In primetime, we get blocks and movies. Mondays from 8-11pm will be Martin, Tuesdays will be Good Times, Wednesdays will be a movie followed by an hour of The Jeffersons at 10, Thursdays it is Sanford & Son and Fridays are more movies. At 11pm, Martin and Sanford & Son remain, as will Living Single and Eve in the 12am hour. At 1am it is a movie and 3am-5am will be abbreviated encores of the primetime marathon. And finally at 5am we get more original programming encores.
Saturday morning sitcoms will change a bit. All About the Andersons, Parent'hood and South Central will leave, as Life Family, The Hughleys, and The Jeffersons are now in. Airing from 6am-12pm are back-to-back episodes of Like Family, The Hughleys, All of Us, Good Times, The Jeffersons and Sanford & Son.
Moving on to stunts and marathons, on Saturday, October 24 beginning at 12 Noon, the hunks just keep coming as TV One presents the "Hottest Hunks" Sitcom Marathon showcasing episodes of favorite TV One sitcoms including All of Us, Half & Half, Eve, and Living Single that feature guest appearances by some of the hottest hunks in Hollywood including Boris Kodjoe, Will Smith, DMX, Tyrese Gibson, Tyson Beckford, Shemar Moore, Ginuwine, Eric Benet, and Blair Underwood.
On Saturday, October 31 beginning at 12 Noon, the ghouls and goblins are upon us as Halloween comes to TV One in the form of the TV One "Hallo-Scream" Marathon. TV One showcases Halloween-themed episodes of TV One sitcoms The Jeffersons, Martin, Living Single, Sanford & Son, and The Hughleys.

Effective Tuesday, Little House on the Prairie returns to the Hallmark Channel line-up airing weekdays from 2-5pm, replacing 7th Heaven, which is now gone again. Can they make up their mind already? That's not all the changes. Weekends starting Oct. 3 will see the acquistion of Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures airing Saturdays 6-9am and Sundays 8am-10am replacing Golden Girls. Golden Girls morning airings on weekends will move to Saturdays 9am-11am and Sundays 10am-11am. It will still air weekends 1-3am as well. And effective Monday, October 26, the Mon-Thurs 9-11pm airings of Touched by an Angel will be replaced by a movie. Touched will remain at 8pm weekdays, though. That's still over 7 weeks away, so don't worry yet Touched fans! Finally, there will be an I Love Lucy marathon on Sunday, Oct. 4 from 11am-3am. Lucy is not on the regular schedule right now, but October is a special month for Lucy since it launced in 1951 in that month. So I guess you can say Hallmark is celebrating the 58th birthday for Lucy.
As Hallmark keeps changing the schedule, stay with us for updates!

Gospel Music Channel Fall 2009; WGN America's Huge 25th Anniversary Bash for Cosby Show

Today we will give you the September schedule for The Gospel Music Channel. First, the Monday comedy line-up will change a bit starting Monday, August 24. Sister, Sister will remain in the 8pm hour. At 9pm Good News will be removed, and will be be replaced by another Amen so Amen will air for the full hour at 9pm. Sister, Sister will encore in the 10pm and 12am hours, while Amen will encore in the 11pm and 1am hours. Sister, Sister will also air on Fridays in the 10pm hour. Amen and Sister, Sister will also get Saturday morning airings starting Aug. 29! Amen will air Saturdays 8-10am and Sister, Sister Saturdays 10am-12pm.
Starting Monday, August 31, Promised Land will now air also on weekdays. It'll air weekdays at 1pm and will also continue to air in primetime on Wednesdays from 8pm-11pm (encore from 11pm-2am). Meanwhile, Dr. Quinn goes from weekdays 5-7pm to 6-8pm, while Doc moves from 7pm to 5pm.
Starting Monday, September 14, Gospel Music Channel has acquired another new series. This time Sue Thomas F.B.Eye. Sue Thomas F.B.Eye will air weekdays at 4pm replacing Christy, which will leave the line-up.
Everything else remains the same basically, with series like Clash of the Choirs airing Sundays at 10pm and weekday afternoon movies at 2pm such as The Dreamer of Oz starring John Ritter (Sept. 23 at 2pm). That is a very rarely seen movie and it will come out on DVD on Sept. 29 part of the Oz The 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition from Warner Home Video.

Early last week we broke the news about WGN America honoring The Cosby Show with a very special 25th anniversary marathon. Now we have the FULL details on it!
Sunday, September 20, 2009 marks the 25th anniversary of The Cosby Show and to celebrate the milestone (to the day) WGN America will be airing a series of tributes to The Cosby Show including the replication of the original NBC Thursday night lineup as it aired on Thursday, September 20, 1984 (the day The Cosby Show premiered) with interviews by Lilly Tartikoff, a Cosby Show Viewer's Choice Marathon, an online contest and an online game.
Following the WGN America broadcast of the Chicago Cubs baseball game at 5:30pm ET, WGN America will be committing the prime and overnight schedule to The Cosby Show and the NBC Thursday night line-up that dominated the 80's. At 5:30pm and 6:00pm ET will see two best-of episodes and at 6:30pm ET WGN America will air a 25th Anniversary Special. Then from 7-10pm ET WGN America will re-air the original Brandon Tartikoff NBC Thursday night line-up EXACTLY AS IT AIRED IN 1984: The Cosby Show: "Pilot Presentation," Family Ties: "The Gambler," Cheers: "I'll Be Seeing You, Parts 1 and 2," and Hill Street Blues: "Eva's Braun."
Additionally, WGN America has interviewed philanthropist Lilly Tartikoff who shares her thoughts on the iconic programs of 1984 and memories of her husband, programming visionary Brandon Tartikoff. Lilly's interviews will air as interstitials in primetime from 7-10pm ET during the WGN America recreation of the 1984 lineup. Also, from 7-10pm ET WGN America will adopt the NBC theme "Let's All Be There" (circa 1984) using original promotional elements (A special thank you to NBC for sharing their archive materials).
In the overnight (11pm-4am ET), WGN America will air a viewer's choice marathon of the top ten Cosby episodes voted by viewers at WGNAmerica.com. Voting for The Cosby Show Viewer's Choice Marathon begins today and runs through Monday, September 14.
The Cosby Show Viewer's Choice Marathon will also have a contest component, all viewers who submit their favorite episode to WGNAmerica.com will be entered to win a complete DVD set of all eight seasons of The Cosby Show autographed by Bill Cosby plus a Cosby Show Prize Pack. Four runners up will receive a complete DVD set.
View the complete press release.

TV One September 2009 Highlights; Summer 2009 TCA Tour: NBC; Donna Reed Show Season 2 DVD Giveaway!

TV One has announced their September 2009 schedule and highlights. There are no changes to the regular schedule, so we are not certain if this is the fall line-up or not. My guess is we will see changes in October and that will be the fall line-up. But anyway, TV One has many stunts in September!
On Labor Day (Monday, September 7) beginning at 10am through 8pm (encores 8pm-6am), TV One proudly introduces the African American drama series Lincoln Heights, to its series roster with an all-day marathon event of all 10 episodes from the first season of this groundbreaking ABC Family original drama series. In the show, when police officer Eddie Sutton packs up his family and moves back to the inner-city neighborhood where he grew up, he faces the struggle to balance the safety and happiness of this family with his desire to change the neighborhood. The series stars Russell Hornsby, Nikki Micheaux, Erica Hubbard, Mishon Ratliff, Robert Adamson, and Rhyon Nicole Brown. We are not sure yet if repeats are joining the regular schedule anytime soon, but it will not be joining the September schedule, that's for sure. The series is entering its fourth season on ABC Family, but not sure why TV One is airing a marathon. Maybe they will pick up the off-net rights when eligible?
On Saturday, September 19 beginning at 1pm through 9pm (select encores from 2am-6am), TV One celebrates September brides with a 'Battle of the Brides' marathon of two classic sitcom viewer favorites Amen and Good Times in the "Battle of the Thelmas" marathon. Which Thelma has the best romance and wedding - Thelma Evans from Good Times or Thelma Frye from Amen? Episodes in this marathon feature the romance and wedding of Thelma and Keith from the classic sitcom Good Times in addition to the romance and wedding(s) of Thelma and Ruben from the classic sitcom Amen.
On the next day on Sunday, September 20 beginning at 12 Noon though 8pm (select encores from 2:30am-6am), it's a "Movin' On Up" Marathon as TV One presents a marathon of the classic sitcom The Jeffersons. Viewers can join George, Weezie, and the rest of the crazy characters in this special marathon of the longest running African American sitcom in the history of television. The series is still not returning to the regular schedule, but maybe a return in October is likely? But for now enjoy this marathon!
Stay tuned for October, because I think we'll see changes and perhaps new additions then!

NBC and its cable networks are up today at the summer 2009 TCA press tour. First up at the panel is Wake Up with Al, the new Weather Channel series with Al Roker. Then we have the executive sesson, followed by panels on new NBC series Community and Trauma. Lunch follows with Bravo's Top Chef Las Vegas. More panels follow of White Collar (USA Network), Syfy's Stargate Universe & Alice, and NBC's Mercy and Jay Leno Show. NBC Universal's All-Star Party follows sponsored by Oxygen's The Naughty Kitchen with Blythe Beck.
Stay tuned for any key announcements.

We have 3 copies of The Donna Reed Show - Season Two DVD for giveaway thanks to the fine folks at Virgil Films and Entertainment. It's now available in stores and from online retailers.
When you hear that ringing of the telephone, you know it is time for more of The Donna Reed Show on DVD! Season Two of The Donna Reed Show brings the 38 episodes from the 1959-1960 season of the series to DVD on a four disc set.
Donna Reed, the title star, plays Donna Stone, a woman that is proud to be a housewife based upon her perception of what a housewife is. Carl Betz plays Alex, her husband, who has a successful career as a physician. She has two children, Jeff (Paul Petersen) and Mary (Shelley Fabares). The series is much like most other sitcoms from the era in a sense, but at the same time, it is different. While it certainly wasn't the first family sitcom or the first sitcom with a female lead, it was among the first successful family sitcoms WITH a female leading character. The episodes mostly centered around Donna and her life, although that doesn't mean that the other characters never got story lines. She always liked to think of herself as more than just a housewife, somewhat of a domestic engineer so to speak, but that doesn't mean that the series was a new wave in feminism or anything like that. It was still a light-hearted late '50s/early '60s family sitcom. But a great family sitcom, for sure.
You can read our review of the DVD, purchase the DVD now, and enter the DVD contest if you're eligible! Make sure you read the contest rules first before entering. Good luck!

TBS Fall 2009 Schedule; Gospel Music Channel Acquires Sister Sister; Summer TCA Tour: Cable Days 1 and 2

Our fall schedule blog posts barrage continues today with another fall schedule! Today we take a look at TBS Fall 2009, as they will add four new sitcoms to its weekday line-up. Three of them have been airing once a week, so there is only one new sitcom really. The Office, My Name is Earl and House of Payne are now also going to air in the regular weekday line-up, while According to Jim joins the TBS schedule for the first time.
TBS will make its first batch of changes starting the week of Sept. 21. For this week only, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will slide to the 8am hour replacing the second hour of Saved by the Bell. In the 9am hour now for this week it will be an episode each of Just Shoot Me and Home Improvement. The TBS Movie continues to air at 10am, but this week will be its last week! Yes, Dear moves to 12pm, sharing the hour with Everybody Loves Raymond. Home Improvement still airs in the 1pm hour for now, more on that in a bit. Then we get more Everybody Loves Raymond in the 2pm hour, so this show goes from 5pm-6:30pm to 12:30pm & 2-3pm now. Then House of Payne will join the line-up airing in the 3pm hour replacing Yes, Dear. The King of Queens remains at 4pm for now, more on that in a bit as well. Friends now gets a full hour and moves to 5-6pm. Seinfeld is now only a half-hour and at 6pm, leading into The Office at 6:30pm. My Name is Earl will air back-to-back in the 7pm hour. Primetime has blocks of Family Guy on Mondays, The Office on Tuesdays, House of Payne/Meet the Browns on Wednesdays, with movies on Thursdays and Fridays. The late night line-up will have Seinfeld in the 11pm hour on most days, with My Name is Earl on Tuesdays. Sex and the City remains at midnight with a movie following until blocks of Steve Harvey Show and Married...with Children airing after that until dawn. Lots of sitcoms, less movies, good!
Then starting the following week on Monday, Sept. 28, we get some more changes. Fresh Prince is back in the 9am hour, with Saved by the Bell getting its second hour back at 8am. The TBS 10am movie is now gone and we get all sitcoms now in the daytime, as Just Shoot Me and Home Improvement slide up to the 10am hour now and we get an extra sitcom hour as Home Improvement and Yes, Dear air in the 11am hour. Everything else is the same as the week of Sept. 21. But a few days later on Thursday, October 1, According to Jim joins the TBS sitcom line-up! According to Jim will air in the 4pm hour replacing King of Queens. That show will slide to 1-2pm, replacing two episodes of Home Improvement. Home Improvement will still air at 10:30am & 11am, so not to worry. Nothing is being replaced at all (well...except the movie) despite four new series coming to the regular schedule!
View the full TBS Fall 2009 schedule. Now it is still early, so we might have some changes, as always. I'm still not 100% sure what will happen on weekends after According to Jim comes, but it'll likely be the same as it was prior to it coming. As always, stay with us for more!

Gospel Music Channel will be adding even more shows now to their schedule! First they added Christy, Doc, and Dr. Quinn to weekdays, then they went with some comedies in Amen and Good News on Mondays in primetime, now we get another comedy and another drama! Gospel Music Channel has acquired '90s sitcom Sister, Sister and '90s drama Promised Land. Yes, this means Sister, Sister will be on THREE cable networks in BET, ABC Family and now Gospel Music Channel. WGN America also recently aired the Tia and Tamera Mowry comedy. The series premieres on Gospel Music Channel next Monday (Aug. 3) and will join the Monday comedy block with Amen and Good News. Sister, Sister will air back-to-back in the 8pm hour (encores at 12am), replacing two Amen episodes. Good News will remain at 9pm (encore at 1am) and Amen is cut to just 9:30pm (encore at 1:30am).
Sister, Sister will also air Saturdays in the 6pm hour as well starting Aug. 8! Amen has gained some more slots airing Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays back-to-back in the 7pm hour. So losing some slots on Mondays wasn't a bad thing! Good News will also air Saturdays at 7pm leading into Amen.
Gospel Music Channel has also acquired the drama Promised Land. It lasted three seasons on CBS from 1996-1999 and was a spin-off of Touched by an Angel. They will air the series Wednesdays at 8pm with an encore at 11pm starting Aug. 5.
I like how they are adding actual series now. We will as always keep an eye on then and if we have any more news, we will certainly let you know!

The Summer 2009 TCA Tour started yesterday and will through August 8. First up from July 28 to July 31 is the cable portion. Day one was pretty slow with TBS and TNT the main players on that day. Networks that went yesterday were Travel Channel Fox Reality Channel, Turner Networks (TBS, TNT, HLN, CNN) and AMC closed the night off with cocktails. We'll give you the rundown of the notables. Househusbands of Hollywood will premiere Aug. 15 on Fox Reality Channel. Househusbands of Hollywood follows the lives of five men and their high-powered, successful wives. The couples include Darryl Bell and Tempestt Bledsoe and Grant and Jillian Reynolds. And TBS gave details on their original new talk show Lopez Tonight, that will premiere in November. Comedian and actor George Lopez headlines a new talk show with an outdoor street-party atmosphere and a high-energy crowd. The show will feature celebrity guests, live music and comedy acts, and Lopez flair and personality.
Up today were MTV Networks (MTV, TV Land, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central), History, NatGeo, ESPN, Starz, and BBC America. TV Land promoted their new originals that premiere next Wednesday: Make My Day and How'd You Get Rich, which we have mentioned so many times already. Nick at Nite was promoting their new original animated comedy Glen Martin, DDS which will launch Aug. 17 at 8pm. We will have more on that very soon.

Hallmark Channel Cuts Lucy From Daytime; Amen and Good News Come to Gospel Music Channel

Hallmark Channel has made a last minute schedule change that will be in effect starting Monday (July 6, 2009). I Love Lucy will be removed again from daytime. So it will lose its two-hour weekday block of 11am-1pm and will be replaced by two episodes of Touched by an Angel. Touched will remain in its weeknights at 8pm slot as well, while I Love Lucy will now only air weeknights at 2:30am. It's been a bumpy ride for I Love Lucy on Hallmark Channel, as they want it to work, but it doesn't seem like it is doing ratings gold for them. They have tried it over and over again, and sometimes they have pulled it very fast, but this time they gave it a longer period before pulling it. Stay up until 2:30am and watch the show!

A few weeks ago we mentioned that The Gospel Music Channel has picked-up three dramas for their weekday schedule, now they have picked-up two sitcoms! They have picked-up '80s sitcom Amen starring Sherman Hemsley and the short-lived late '90s sitcom Good News. Good News as a spin-off of Sparks on UPN and lasted only 22 episodes. The series starred David Ramsey as a young acting pastor designated to South Central's African American Church of Life. Roz Ryan was also in it, and she of course was in Amen as well. Amen was of course the popular NBC comedy of the late '80s set at the First Community Church of Philadelphia and focusing on the comical differences between Deacon Ernest Frye (Sherman Hemsley) and the Reverend Reuben Gregory (Clifton Davis).
Amen will air Monday nights at 8:00pm, 8:30pm and 9:30pm with encores at 12:00am, 12:30am, and 1:30am, while Good News will also air Monday nights at 9:00pm with an encore at 1:00am.
Both of these shows can be found on TV One as well, so it isn't all that rare. Wow so the short-lived Good News is on two cable networks? That is pretty crazy, though TV One is now only airing the show from time to time, but Amen is airing every weekday morning.
Let's hope Gospel Music Channel brings in more sitcoms. If they want to focus on church comedies, then how about acquiring the short-lived late '80s sitcom Have Faith? The series was produced by John Ritter and starred Joel Higgins.

TV One December 2008, Acquires Jeffersons, Sanford & Son; ABC Schedules Season 5 Lost Premiere; More Network Notes

This December on TV One they are going all out in celebrating with holiday episodes of sitcoms and more, including the launch of Half & Half on Kwanza and classic sitcom The Jeffesons and Sanford & Son on New Year's Day. But first we have to talk about some schedule changes. The weekday 7-9am block has changed and will now be actual series programming rather than original repeats. Starting Monday, December 8 following Amen from 6-7am will be All About the Andersons at 7am, followed by back-to-back episodes of Comics Unleashed from 7:30-8:30am and the sitcom Good News at 8:30am. 9am-11am will continue to be originals, while 11am-4pm continues to be the daily marathons. Also on this date, TV One launches its HD channel TV One HD!
To the highlights we go, Saturday, December 13 is the beginning of the TV One "12 Days of Christmas" Promotion that features a mix of holiday series, movies, and specials to keep viewers filled with joy and Christmas spirit leading up to Christmas Day. First up is a Christmas Sitcom marathon on December 13 beginning at 7am through 10pm featuring Christmas-themed episodes of Amen, Martin, Roc, Wanda at Large, Living Single, Eve, The Hughleys, Good News, The PJs, All of Us, and Good Times.
On Sunday, December 14 from 3-6pm, you can catch a block of Amen Christmas episodes leading into the animated Christmas special Santa Baby at 6pm about a little girl who gets a wish for Christmas returns to TV One for the holidays and stars the voices of Patti LaBelle, Gregory Hines, and Eartha Kitt. This special has an encore broadcast on Sunday, December 21 at 7pm (and Saturday, Dec. 20 in the daytime at 12pm).
From Monday, December 15 through Friday, December 19, TV One devotes the 8pm-12am timeblock exclusively to "The 12 Days of Christmas" themed programming including sitcom episodes of Martin, Living Single, Good Times, Amen, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, All of Us and For Your Love from 8-11pm, original Christmas specials at 11pm, and the holiday film The Kid Who Loved Christmas starring Sammy Davis Jr. premiering Friday, December 19 at 10pm.
On Saturday, December 20 beginning at 6am, the holiday fun starts bright and early as TV One continues the "12 Days of Christmas" programming with a holiday marathon mix of sitcoms, holiday specials, movies that will give viewers the warm and fuzzy feel of holiday time at TV One. Sitcoms airs from 6am-12pm, 2pm-7pm, and late nights from 3-6am. Catch holiday episodes of Where I Live, Amen, All of Us, Eve, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, Good Times, The PJs, and Living Single on this day.
From Monday, December 22 through Wednesday, December 24, the TV One "12 Days of Christmas" themed programming begins each night at 5pm and continues all night with sitcoms, movies, and specials to keep viewers Christmas Cheer at a high level as we get closer to the biggest holiday of the year. Sitcom episodes airs from 5pm-1am these three days. Catch episodes of Good Times, Roc, The PJs, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, Wanda at Large, Parent'hood, Martin and Eve from 5-8pm, with blocks of All of Us (Mon), Good Times (Tues), and Martin (Wed) from 8-10pm. The fun continues from 10pm-1am with holiday showings of For Your Love, Cedric, Eve, Living Single, The Hughleys, Good Times, Roc, The PJs, and Martin.
On Thursday, December 25, TV One gives viewers 24 hours of Christmas on Christmas Day itself starting at 6am with themed movies, music, and specials keeping the holiday cheer at a high and then beginning at 5pm, the annual TV One sitcom Christmas Day Marathon closes out our "12 Days of Christmas" promotion with Christmas-themed episodes from sitcoms For Your Love, Roc, Martin, Good Times, Living Single, Parent'hood, Wanda At Large, Cedric, The PJs, All of Us, Eve, and The Hughleys.
TV One sure knows how to showcase sitcom Christmas episodes! I hope you all got that! One thing missing is Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, as it has left the line-up. It was airing Saturdays 7-8am but was replaced by Parent'hood on Dec. 6 and holiday specials/marathons for the rest of the month. No word on when it could return.
We're not done with TV One! Three shows will launch with big marathons! On Friday December 26 (Kwanza), beginning at 8pm, TV One introduces Half & Half to its sitcom lineup with a 24-hour Mega-thon that will keep viewers laughing all night long as they are introduced to the characters in the latest series added to the TV One sitcom landscape. Half & Half, starring Essence Atkins, Rachel True, Valarie Pettiford and Telma Hopkins, is a sitcom about two 20-something half-sisters who share the same father. They are completely unlike each other, but they live in the same apartment building, creating a situation of conflict and love especially with their often feuding mothers. Half & Half joins the TV One weeknight lineup on Monday, December 29 airing back to back episodes in the 7pm & 7:30pm timeslots Monday-Friday. It will replace an episode each of Martin and Eve. Half & Half will also air in the 4-5am hour replacing All of Us and Good Times in the hour.
As a sneak peak to January, TV One has acquired two classic '70s sitcoms: The Jeffersons and Sanford & Son! On New Year's Day, Thursday, January 1, beginning at 10am through 6am, the classic sitcom The Jeffersons makes its bow on TV One in a New Year's Day marathon taking viewers on a trip down memory lane with George & Weezie (Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford) and the hilarious cast of characters that will keep viewers laughing and reflecting all day long. The Jeffersons joins the TV One weeknight lineup on Monday January 5. More on that in our January highlights next month.
Finally, on Friday, January 2 beginning at 9pm through 9pm on Saturday, January 3, TV One premieres another classic sitcom Sanford and Son to its sitcom landscape in a 24-hour Mega-thon that introduces viewers to cantankerous junk dealer Fred Sanford (played by the late Redd Foxx) and his son Lamont (played by Demond Wilson) who run a junk business in a Los Angeles Watts neighborhood. Sanford & Son also joins the TV One weeknight lineup on Monday January 5 (more on that next month).
Recently President-Elect Barack Obama mixed up these two sitcoms by saying "I'm coming Weezie," when discussing McCain's Health Care plan. So maybe now Obama will know the line is "I'm coming to join you Elizabeth."
Both The Jeffersons and Sanford & Son are NOT exclusive to TV One, so TV Land will continue to air both series as well, but TV One will give them better timeslots obviously. Discuss all of TV One's December programming in our TV One December 2008 Highlights.

We were among the first to report the Lost season 5 premiere date and time on our message boards on Friday, but if you haven't heard, Lost will launch its fifth season on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 with an "all-night event." The first hour will be a recap one-hour clip show from 8-9pm ET/PT, followed by the two-hour season premiere from 9-11pm ET/PT. So, the promos that aired on Election Night on ABC were correct about the two-hour premiere.
Lost will then air Wednesdays at 9pm ET/PT starting the following week, as the show returns to Wednesdays after moving to Thursdays last winter. ABC has not announced what it will do at 8pm and 10pm on Wednesdays yet, but adding Lost to anchor Wednesdays is a good move. I'm guessing Private Practice will follow Lost, with new docudrama Border Security USA could lead off the night. Dirty Sexy Money is possibly on the move to another night and the jury's still out on Pushing Daisies. ABC is expected to announce their midseason winter schedule this week. We will bring it to you first either here or on the message board...depending on the timing. So keep checking back!

In other network news, NBC has picked-up the back nine episodes of sophomore crime drama series Life, giving it a full 22 episodes, despite low ratings. Life joins Kath & Kim and Knight Rider in surprising NBC full season orders. Life moved back to Wednesdays last week, but this time at 9pm, after disappointing in its Friday at 10pm slot. Speaking of Knight Rider, NBC is looking to change the direction of the series and we will get the direction back to the style of the '80s series...making it a show about a man and his car going out and helping regular people. Finally! This new style was dumb and a disgrace to the franchise I thought, and it is no wonder the ratings are bad. NBC is expected to start the changes on episode ten, which will be part one of a two-part episode. Episode ten will air in January (possibly after an NFL game), with episode nine as the fall finale on Nov. 26 (good riddance to this new style). Due to this change, three major stars, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Yancey Arias and Bruce Davison are leaving the show after 13 episodes. There are no immediate plans to add new regulars to the show, as now the show will focus on the five remaining characters: Mike (Justin Bruening), Sarah (Deanna Russo), Billy (Paul Campbell), Zoe (Smith Cho) and of course K.I.T.T. The producers also are looking to do stunt guest castings. Maybe more Hoff? Could this save this revival series?
Meanwhile, Fox has ordered a full season of the Family Guy spin-off series The Cleveland Show...and it hasn't even premiered yet. The show will now launch in Fall 2009 rather than this coming Spring. No reason was given for the delay in airing, but my guess is it would be better to launch in the fall. No word on what will happen to the other Fox animated series that was set to come, Sit Down, Shut Up. I would think that is still slated for this Spring. We'll let you know, as soon as we do.

TV One June 2008 Highlights Includes Return of Between Brothers; Law & Order SVU Heads to Weekday Syndication in Fall 2009

Starting Monday, June 2, the TV One weekday daytime lineup from 10am-4pm on weekdays will undergo a summer makeover. Each day, TV One will now air a mixture of daily marathons of their various sitcoms, dramas, movies, and original shows that will keep summertime viewing fun and easy while still offering the variety that will keep viewers coming back for more.
The 10am-4pm marathons include series marathons of All of Us, Fastlane, Wanda at Large, Eve, Good News, Good Times, Roc, Parent'hood, NY Undercover, The PJs, A Man Called Hawk, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and Amen! Some of these are specially themed, such as Eve's Black Music Month Special featuring musical guests, Happy Birthday Bookman and Happy Birthday Jimmie Walker marathons of Good Times, Happy Birthday Ella Joyce Marathon of Roc, New York Undercover's Ice T & Tyra Banks marathon, Fastlane with Bill Bellamy, and Amen's Thelma's In The Army Marathon.
Another schedule chage will happen starting Monday, June 2 at 9:30pm. The '90s sitcom Between Brothers (1997-99 Fox sitcom) returns to the TV One lineup in place of The PJs at 9:30pm weeknights. Tommy Davidson, Dondre Whitfield, Kelly Perine, and Kadeem Hardison starred in this sitcom about four bachelor friends. No other changes will be made to the line-up.
Other highlights include: On Sunday, June 8 at 10pm, the mystery is finally revealed and all of your questions are answered as TV One airs the much-anticipated series finale of Day Break starring Taye Diggs airs for the first time on television.
On Saturday, June 28 beginning at 1pm, summertime romance is in full bloom on TV One as we present the "Will You Marry Me" Marathon, a day chock full of love, romance, engagements, and weddings in celebration of the June bride season. First up is the TV One and Essence Magazine original special "Will You Marry Me" that has suitors proposing marriage to their women in new and innovative fashions. Then from 3pm-9pm, watch three of your favorite TV One sitcom couples - Thelma and Ruben from Amen, Thelma and Keith from Good Times, and Martin and Gina from Martin - all get engaged and married in a romance filled day full of laughter, tears, and celebration.
As a preview to July, starting at 8pm on Friday, July 4, with the nation's best interests at heart, its megathon time again, and Martin is doing his patriotic duty to make everyone in America laugh through their fireworks and barbecue with a 24 hour marathon of favorite episodes through 8pm on Saturday, July 5!

NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution has sold Dick Wolf's hit procedural drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit to the Fox Television Stations in the nation's top markets, as well as other local stations from other leading broadcast groups for weekday runs starting in fall 2009. SVU has been sold to the Fox owned and operated stations in New York, Los Angeles Chicago, Dallas, Washington D.C., Houston, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Orlando and Baltimore. The series has also been sold in 18 of the nation's top 20 markets, as well as to stations from CBS, Sinclair, Sunbeam, Belo, Hearst, Granite, Capitol, Local TV and more.
The announcement comes on the heel's of Law & Order: Special Victim Unit's successful debut this season in weekend broadcast syndication. SVU will follow in the footsteps of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, as that series has done pretty well in weekday play this season on Fox-owned locals and other local stations. Criminal Intent has ushered the return of hour dramas to weekday strip syndication. When SVU airs weekdays on locals, I'm sure it will not air on weekends anymore on locals.

TV One Brings Amen to Evenings Starting in April Now; Nick at Nite Sees 1st Quarter Ratings Do Big; TNT Loves Romano

Beginning on Monday April 7, TV One has made a change to their line-up. The Sherman Hemsley sitcom Amen will air one hour of back-to-back episodes in the weekday 5pm & 5:30pm timeslot. For Your Love and Eve, previously airing in these time periods will no longer air. This change was set to happen on Monday, May 5, as we said late last week, but TV One has decided to do it a month earlier!
As also stated late last week on the TV One May highlights, TV One will be airing 24-hour sitcom marathons during the month of May beginning on Friday nights. The first of these special marathons will actually begin now on Friday, May 2 at 8pm with a special Martin marathon continuing on the theme of TV One's election year slate of 'Martin for President' marathons that originated over President's Day weekend. This time, the "Martin 'HaterNation' Marathon" takes on the sniping that usually happens in election campaigns with a full 24 hours of Martin Payne & his host of wacky alter egos battling Pam, Sheneneh and all the other Martin-haters who would try to take Martin down.

Nick at Nite, fueled by the performance of George Lopez and Home Improvement, scored double digit increases during the 1Q08 (Jan-Mar) among total viewers (P2+) and Adults 18-49 in both primetime and total day. In primetime, Nick at Nite was up +32% over first quarter 2007 (1Q07), and was +37% higher among Adults 18-49. George Lopez has been the network's highest rated program in 2008, with ratings growing consistently since it joined the schedule, while Home Improvement ratings have also increased each month. The recent George Lopez marathon did huge as the ratings were the best week ever for Nick at Nite.

TNT has ordered a one-hour pilot of Men of a Certain Age, a new character-based drama from Everybody Loves Raymond Emmy winners Ray Romano and Mike Royce. Romano will star in the project that takes a wry look at what it means to be a guy approaching mid-life while also exploring the unique bonds of male friendship. Romano wrote the pilot script with Royce and will executive-produce with Royce (who will serve as show runner), Rory Rosegarten and Cary Hoffman. The show is about the highs and lows of being a guy in the modern era. It's about three best friends, each hoping to fulfill his dreams before the clock starts running out.
This is the latest project to emerge as part of TNT's aggressive plan to change most of the network's weekday, primetime schedule to originals by 2010. The network currently has 15 projects in various stages of development, including both scripted dramas and unscripted programs.

Star-Studded Marathon for Diff'rent Strokes on BET; TV One May 2008 Highlights

We gave you highlights of BET's schedule changes and upcoming marathons in April a few days back, but now we have full details on one of the marathons! The Diff'rent Strokes marathon that is airing next Sunday (Sunday, April 6) will be a star-studded marathon! Join Arnold and Willis and the rest of the family as they welcome in special guests such as LaWanda Page and Whitman Mayo (Aunt Esther and Grady of Sanford & Son), Janet Jackson, Muhammad Ali, Forest Whitaker, Robin Givens, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Mr. T! The marathons starts at 1pm and will end at 9pm on that Sunday. Fans will be happy to see an assortment of episodes from all seasons (well none from season 7, but we do get a few season 8 ones). There will be 6 Janet Jackson episodes! Whatchya talkin' about Wills, indeed. To see the marathon episodes with the times, click HERE. And discuss this episode selection with other Diff'rent Strokes fans by clicking here.

TV One in May will see lots of marathons, including a Mother's Day stunt filled with motherly episodes. Throughout the month, TV One is going to get the weekends pumping with a series of true 'marathons' – 24 hour May Mega-Marathons, which will each start on Friday evening and run through Saturday evening.
On Friday, May 9 beginning at 7pm, TV One offers a "Mothers Day Weekend" 24-hour marathon saluting favorite sitcom moms from TV One sitcom favorites Martin, All of Us, The Parent'hood, Good Times, Amen, and The Hughleys.
On Friday, May 16 beginning at 9pm, TV One offers its annual birthday tribute to superstar Janet Jackson (she turns 42 on May 16) with a 24-hour marathon of Good Times: "The Janet Years," featuring episodes when a young Janet played the Evans' neighbor, Penny. Directly preceding the marathon at 8pm on Friday, a special TV One Access, hosted by former Cosby Show Kid Keshia Knight Pulliam, takes a look at "Our Favorite Child Stars: All Grown Up."
On Friday, May 23 beginning at 11pm, TV One kicks off the long Memorial Day weekend with a trip to the 'projects' of The PJs – featuring all the episodes of the series during the course of the 24 hour marathon.
Finally, on Memorial Day itself (Monday, May 26), TV One takes a "Memorial Day Break" beginning at 8am, TV One presents a full day marathon of the first 11 episodes of the action crime-drama series Day Break starring Taye Diggs. The show airs weekly every Sunday at 10pm.
Schedule changes include more Amen as it will also air 5 and 5:30pm weekdays starting May 5 replacing For Your Love and Eve, which will both be off the line-up totally. Amen will also air in the mornings as well still at 6am & 6:30am. Eve will be replaced in the early mornings as well, weekdays at 4am will be another Parent'hood instead. And the 1am airing of NY Undercover will be replaced by two more Divorce Court episodes. NY Undercover will still air in its other slots.

BET Schedule Updates, Sanford Marathon Planned; TV One Revises Programming in March; RTN Comes to D.C.; CBS Brings Classic TV to Online

TGIF! It is a busy (and snowy in NY) Friday here on the blog, as we have quite a lot of stories today!
First we still start with BET. As you recall, we announced on Monday that BET is now airing Diff'rent Strokes and Malcolm & Eddie weekdays and they will bring out short-lived series Sanford and Thea on weekends starting March 1. Now we have some updates for you. We have gotten word that Diff'rent Strokes will also air Saturdays 9-10am, in addition to its weekdays 9-10am slot. It will start airing on Saturdays next Saturday (March 1). However, the Saturday airings will be two repeats from earlier in the week, mostly from the previous Monday's airings earlier in the week. We mentioned the show could air 3-4pm starting next week, but that won't be the case, it will only air 9-10am. Malcolm & Eddie will also air on Saturdays, at 10-11am and 4-5pm. It won't air 11pm-12am, though, that will be only Mon-Fri, while its other slots will be Mon-Sat. A Girlfriends marathon is tomorrow, that is why we are not getting both of these shows tomorrow.
We mentioned that Sanford and Thea will join the weekend line-up late night on Saturday, March 1, which is technically early Sunday morning, airing 2:30am and 3:00am respectively. They will encore later in the day on Sunday at 11:30am and 12pm. Yeah, so we knew that already, but now we have learned that BET will have an all-day San"forward" Marathon on Saturday, March 8 from 10am-11pm just in time for Daylight Savings, as we move our clocks one-hour ahead later that night as we spring forward, or should I say San"forward." And get this, all 26 episodes of Sanford will air back-to-back all day! What a dream come true for Sanford fans! Get those TiVo's, DVR's and VCR's or whatever you use rolling because this is your chance to get every single episode in one shot! Now I have an idea for BET, when we move our clocks back in the fall, we should have a Diff'rent "back"Strokes marathon as we move our clocks one-hour back doing a backstroke. Just a thought! Anyway, BET is certainly looking bright now sitcom wise and we hope they continue this! Be sure you have some chips, nachos, and more snacks ready for this very rare marathon on March 8!

Moving on to another African American network, TV One, we have some changes in store for March. We announced March highlights already, but there are a lot of edits to it now. The TV One premiere of the action series Day Break has be postponed until Sunday, March 16. On Saturday, March 15, and Sunday, March 16, both at 8pm, Taye time is finally here as the weekend with Taye Diggs is now this weekend instead of March 8 and 9 as TV One premieres the Cool Factor and How Stella Got Her Groove Back starring Taye, Angela Bassett, and Whoopi Goldberg. An encore airing is scheduled for Sunday, March 16 at 12am following the premiere of Day Break from 10pm-12am. The weekend with Taye Diggs continues on TV One Sunday, March 16 at 10pm with the TV One premiere of the recent ABC action series Day Break starring Taye Diggs as a law enforcement officer framed for murder. The series will premiere with two back-to-back episodes to air at 10pm and 11pm and will premiere episodes on Sundays at 10pm.
On Saturday, March 22 beginning at 1pm and lasting to 10pm, it's time to get your praise on as the sitcom Amen returns to TV One back by popular demand with an all-day 'Best of Deacon Frye' marathon to give viewers a special treat before it returns to the regular schedule on weekdays at 6am & 6:30am beginning on Monday, March 24th replacing Roc on the TV One schedule, which will be off the line-up now.
Finally, The Hughleys: "All in the Family Launch Marathon" previously announced for Tuesday, April 1 will now air as a two-day weekend marathon on Saturday, April 5 & Sunday, April 6 starting at 1pm both days for this '90s sitcom. We will have more on The Hughleys' regular slots in the April highlights coming soon! Stay tuned for that!

Retro Television Network (RTN) announced that it will partner with Allbritton Communications to bring RTN programming to Washington, D.C. The new affiliate will launch late this year on a digital stream of Washington, D.C.'s ABC affiliate, WJLA-TV.
Allbritton began airing RTN's "Prime Time All the Time" lineup today on a digital stream of WSET-TV (Roanoke-Lynchburg, VA). RTN is scheduled to launch later this year on a digital stream of WHTM-TV (Harrisburg-Lancaster, PA).

CBS Interactive announced that it will begin offering Television Classics from the CBS (Paramount) Library, which is one of the largest television programming libraries in the entertainment business, online and across the CBS Audience Network. The initial lineup includes full-length episodes of Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, MacGyver, Hawaii Five-0 and Melrose Place, with more programs and clips to be added in the coming months. The distribution of Television Classics across the CBS Audience Network follows the same open, non-exclusive strategy that CBS has been using for its content online for the last nine months. All content is ad-supported, free to the consumer, and available immediately.
The initial programming lineup for Television Classics on CBS.com and across the CBS Audience Network includes full episodes the following:
Star Trek (original series) - Seasons 1, 2 and 3
The Twilight Zone - Seasons 1 and 2
MacGyver - Season 1
Hawaii Five-0 - Season 1
Melrose Place - Season 1
Let's hope they add some sitcoms as well, and some sitcoms that lasted awhile and haven't been aired on TV lately, such as Dear John and Webster. Series such as Family Ties, Cheers, The Love Boat, would also be nice to have.

It's only noon ET and we already have a lot of stories, but if anything breaking happens, we will break in. So come on back!

Day 61: WGA's Strike; Wayans Bros. Coming to ION Television; Veoh.com Adds Full Episodes of TV Series

Today is the 61st day of the writers' strike. Jay Leno might be in a bit trouble for writing his own jokes this week. The WGA released this statement:
"A discussion took place today between Jay Leno and the Writers Guild to clarify to him that writing for The Tonight Show constitutes a violation of the Guilds' strike rules."

The hit '90s sitcom The Wayans Bros. starring Shawn and Marlon Wayans is coming to ION Television starting Monday, January 14, 2008. The sitcom will air back-to-back each weeknight at 6:00pm & 6:30pm ET/PT replacing Amen. The series also starred Anna Maria Horsford, who was also on Amen. So you'll still get your daily Anna Maria Horsford fix. No other changes will be made as of now. So we have back-to-back sitcoms each weeknight with The Wayans Bros, Alice, Mama's Family, Drew Carey Show, and Who's the Boss from 6-11pm.
To discuss this last minute change change, click on our ION Television January thread.

Video site Veoh.com will offer free full-length streamed videos today from NBC and Fox, including Heroes, The Office, The Simpsons and 24. Also new to the site: Battlestar Galactica and Monk from NBC Universal's Sci Fi and USA Networks. The site also plans to add to its CBS catalog which includes CSI: Miami and The Unit. A new "TV Shows" tab on the home page will reveal the hundreds of TV series available. Among the classic shows available are The A-Team, Kojak, Doogie Howser, Lou Grant, Mary Tyler Moore, Chicago Hope, WKRP, Remington Steele and more! Click HERE to watch!

Day 29: WGA's Strike; ION Holiday Highlights; Hallmark January Schedule

We are now on the 29th day of the strike. Negotiations resume tomorrow. Let's hope the WGA gets a deal they can't pass up this time. Jay Leno of NBC's Tonight Show will now pay the salaries of the non-writing staff for this week. Previously it was announced he would not and they would be laid off. Classic Leno episodes air again this week with guests like Michael Jordan from 1996.
In other news, ABC will place an encore episode of Grey's Anatomy this Tuesday at 9pm. This encore is the episode that aired on Thanksgiving night. It is part one of a two-part episode about an ambulance crash, titled "Crash into Me." Part 2 airs this Thursday at 9. Catch up this Tuesday if you missed it! It is very good! This change means repeat episodes of According to Jim will not air 9-10pm this Tuesday, but ABC will now air it on Dec. 18. It will still air Dec. 11 as planned.

As we promised we will give you the ION holiday highlights today. It is still not 100% complete, but we will share it anyway. If you browse our message boards, you've seen it already. Everyday is Christmas on ION, you can catch at least one holiday event each night. Among the items you will see this week are include a holiday episode of Alice, the movie Santa Trap, holiday episodes of Amen, and the movie The Night They Saved Christmas! In upcoming weeks you'll see more Alice and Amen holiday episodes, holiday episodes of Mama's Family and Who's the Boss? and special encores of the original movie Hogfather as well!
Click HERE to see the full holiday highlights and the rest of December's programming!

A few days back we gave you details on Hallmark's new acquisitions. Today we have the January schedule and it features one of those shows...7th Heaven and the renewed series Touched by an Angel. 7th Heaven will take the 1pm and 2pm slots on weekdays replacing Matlock. Matlock will air movie episodes on Sundays, but the regular series is on a break...not to worry because it has been renewed until 2011. 7th Heaven will also air Saturday mornings at 9am and 10am. Touched by an Angel gets the weekdays at noon slot, replacing one of the Murder, She Wrote airings.
For the full schedule and highlights, click HERE!

Drew Carey Show Coming to ION Television, December Monthly Preview

Many of you have seen the promos already that The Drew Carey Show is coming to ION Television on New Year's Eve! They will start the sitcom with a New Year's Eve marathon on Monday, December 31. The show will then join the line-up thereafter. We don't have complete details yet, but we should very soon...so check back soon!
And yes, I know we have not posted the ION December highlights yet. There seems to be no schedule changes except Alice getting a full hour at 7-8pm (replacing Designing Women at 7) starting Dec. 3 and Kung Fu is returning and airing Saturdays at 6PM starting Dec. 15, replacing the NFL Game of the Week episodes. They also plan to give us one holiday airing at least each night basically all month long, from holiday movies to holiday episodes of Amen, Alice, Who's the Boss?, and Mama's Family. We'll post the line-up very soon...let's hope they alter it a bit to have shows not on the lineup as well, like holiday episodes of Perfect Strangers, Growing Pains, and others. Stay tuned!
In addition to Alice returning on Monday at 7:30, Firebrand TV is finally launching Mon-Thurs at 11pm starting Monday.

OK, go back to your Black Friday sales!

Day 15: WGA's Writers' Strike; Alice Returns to ION Television; Remembering Dick Wilson

We are now in day 15 (week 3) of the writers' strike. We have some potential good news, though! Late last week we got word that the writers plan to go back to the negotiations table with studios on Nov. 26. So, hopefully this is the last week of the strike and by next week we get a settlement. If we get a settlement sometime next week, maybe we can start production again on TV shows before the holidays even. If not, for sure in early January. We might get a lot of repeats in January, but Feb-May will be essentially all-new episodes with very little repeats. This all depends what happens next Monday! Let's pray and hope they settle it!
ABC has announced that they have picked-up the back nine episodes of the addictive new drama Dirty Sexy Money. This is the first show to be picked-up for a full season during the strike. As of now 11 of the original 13 episodes have been completed, so when the strike ends, they will start working on the 11 episodes they need to for the season.
ABC is moving the holiday classic Santa Claus is Comin' to Town to Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 8pm now. It was slated for Tues., Dec. 4 at 8, but CBS will now program Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer there. So as a result, Pushing Daisies is pre-empted on Wed., Dec. 5. And a holiday encore of AFV, which was scheduled Tues., Dec. 4 at 9pm will move to 8pm. AFV will also air an encore on Dec. 18 at 9pm. Airing at 9pm and 9:30pm on Dec. 4 and Dec. 11 will be encores of According to Jim.
More network news: The CW's drama One Tree Hill returns for season five with a special two-hour premiere on Tuesday, January 8 from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET. Subsequent episodes will take over the 9:00 p.m. ET timeslot beginning Tuesday, January 15, following encore presentations of Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants. Reaper will return to the schedule with original episodes later in the season.
NBC and Donald Trump return to New York City with The Celebrity Apprentice, with an all-star celebrity lineup of candidates in its seventh season. The Celebrity Apprentice with host Donald Trump begins its latest edition on Thursday, January 3 (9:00PM ET). Participating are Tracy Adkins, Stephen Baldwin, Nadia Comaneci, Tiffany Fallon, Jennie Finch, Nely Galan, Marilu Henner, Lennox Lewis, Omarosa, Piers Morgan, Tito Oritz, Vincent Pastore and Gene Simmons. I wonder what will happen to this show if the strike ends? NBC for sure would want The Office to air instead...

First we announced Amen is returning to ION Television (which starts tonight at 6p!), now we got word late last week that '70s sitcom Alice is also returning! Alice will air Mon-Thurs at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT starting next week (Monday, Nov. 26), replacing one of the Designing Women episodes (that show will still air in the 7 p.m. half-hour). And the good news for fans who watched Alice from April-June is that they will start from where they left off! So, episode 62 "Sweet Charity" will air first. So we won't have to start all over again! For those who felt like telling ION "kiss my grits" at the end of June, let's take that back and watch the show starting next week!
I should post the full December highlights shortly, so come on back either today or tomorrow for that.

Long-time Charmin bath tissue pitchman Dick Wilson -- known to millions as Mr. Whipple -- died today at the Motion Picture & Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, CA. Wilson portrayed grocer Mr. Whipple and made "Please don't squeeze the Charmin" a household phrase. Wilson appeared as Mr. Whipple in more than 500 spots for Charmin from 1964 through 1985. After a 14-year hiatus, Wilson reprised the role in 1999 to introduce a new version of Charmin. In 2001, Procter & Gamble, maker of Charmin, presented Wilson with a lifetime achievement award to commemorate his contribution to the brand.
Wilson's television credits include Captain Gruber on Hogan's Heroes, Assistant Mayor Dino Boroni on McHale's Navy, a popular recurring character on Bewitched as a drunk, and other roles in Alice, The Bob Newhart Show, Adam-12, Love American Style, Get Smart, I Dream of Jeannie, The Flying Nun, Gidget, My Favorite Martian, Perry Mason, The Hero, That Girl, Don Rickles Show, The Rifleman, Fantasy Island, Quincy M.E., The Rockford Files, Arrest & Trial, Petticoat Junction, Maude, The Partridge Family on the Bewitched spin-off Tabitha, and many more.
Wilson is survived by his wife Meg, three children (which includes Perfect Strangers co-star Melanie Wilson) and three grandchildren -- all located in the Los Angeles area. He will be missed. I always loved him as the drunk on Bewitched. Mr. Wilson was 91.
Share your thoughts and memories of Dick Wilson HERE.

Day 8: WGA's Writers' Strike; Amen Returns to ION; Yet 2 More RTN Affiliates

We are now on the eighth day of the writers' strike. I guess weekends count. The Office only has one episode left before it will go on hiatus. You will see that episode this Thursday, so after that we will not see any more new ones until the strike is resolved. This will be the first primetime series to run out of episodes. TV Guide has a partial list of shows telling us how many episodes are left. We have roughly between one to 13 episodes left. Everybody Hates Chris will be the only scripted show to have a full 22 episode season, as their episodes were already produced before the strike happened. Lucky for fans of that show! Anyway, here is the list that will be updated daily. Bookmark it! I can tell you a few that I know: Cavemen has 12 episodes produced so like 6 are left, new mid-season ABC shows Cashmere Mafia will have 7 of the 13 episodes produced, and Eli Stone will have all 13 episodes produced. I'll try to keep you up to date of anything else I hear...still nothing on the Fox animated comedies.
The CW announced a new reality show today. The CW Network's outrageous new one-hour mother/daughter competition, Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants, premieres Wednesday, December 12 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET), following the season finale of the hit series America's Next Top Model. The remaining seven episodes of the beauty pageant/reality show will then take over the 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET slot beginning Wednesday, December 19, followed by new drama Gossip Girl, and continuing through the season finale on January 30. Encores of Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants will air on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET and Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET.
An encore of the penultimate episode of America's Next Top Model will air at 8:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, December 11. The Beauty and the Geek finale will air at 8:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, December 4.

ION Television will bring back Amen for a third time! The show will return Monday, November 19 airing weeknights at 6:00 p.m. & 6:30 p.m. ET/PT, which means Doc will be gone! We will have more on ION this week, including their December schedule. Come on back. In the words of Amen...Shine on me!

We got 2 more RTN affiliates since our last blog post! Retro Television Network (RTN) announced that it plans to bring RTN programming to Tyler, TX. The new affiliate will launch early next year on a digital stream of KYTX-TV, the CBS affiliate that serves the Tyler / Longview market. Love, American Style and the show that was launched from it, Happy Days, will entertain RTN viewers in Tyler. In addition, audiences will love seeing Robert Conrad as Cannon, Michael Douglas in The Streets of San Francisco and Robert Stack in The Untouchables, to name a few.
And they announced today that it will partner with Raycom Media to bring RTN programming to Montgomery, AL. The network will launch December 3 on a digital stream of WSFA-TV, Raycom's NBC affiliate that serves the Montgomery-Selma area.
Montgomery, AL and Tyler, TX just got better!

TV One Fall Schedule: Parent'hood Joins, All of Us Comes to Weekdays; Scott Baio VH1 Show to Return for 2nd Season

TV One starts their fall line-up October 1 and it is full of new comedies! New to TV One's lineup of daily comedy programming is the Robert Townsend sitcom Parent'hood, to air weeknights at 7:30pm. This year, TV One also features the recent high-ranking African-American family sitcom All Of Us on weeknights at 7pm.
On weekends, starting Sunday October 7, spirited fun abounds at TV One as the 1997 sitcom Good News, starring David Ramsay as a new pastor in an urban church, comes to the network with back to back episodes airing on Saturdays & Sundays from 7-8pm (and encore airings on Sundays from 1-2pm and 2-3am). Guest stars include Bernadette Stanis (Good Times), Anna Maria Horsford (Amen) and Chaka Khan.
As for the schedule itself, besides the new shows we just mentioned, NY Undercover and Wanda at Large return to the weekday line-up. Shows such as Amen, In the House, On Our Own, and Fastlane will be off the line-up. So if you like those shows, tape them now before they go away on October 1. 227 will be just 6-7am now. TV One airs sitcoms all day long, afternoons from 1:30-3pm (Roc, All About the Andersons, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper), evening and primetime from 5-10pm (For Your Love, Eve, Good Times, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, All of Us, Parent'hood, Martin, All About the Andersons, Cedric the Entertainer Presents and another Good Times), late nights from 11pm-1am (Martin, Eve, All of Us, Wanda at Large) and early mornings from 3-6am (Martin, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Good Times, Cedric the Entertainer Presents, Parent'hood, Good Times). 227 gets the 3-6am block every Sunday night (Monday mornings).
Highlights for the month include:
On Saturday, October 13 beginning at 1pm, in celebration of the impending Tuesday release of Eve's new CD "Here I Am," it's a marathon of the rapper Eve and her self-titled sitcom...Eve. All day long episodes will chronicle her character Shelley’s tumultuous relationship with her boyfriend J.T. as each tries to get the upper hand.
On Saturday, October 20, leading into the 'cool factor' premiere of the high school b-ball drama Sunset Park at 8PM, TV One presents a whole day of "hoops" with basketball themed episodes of All of Us, Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, and Martin as well as two basketball related movies Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story and White Men Can't Jump and lastly an encore play of TV One's Famous People special spotlighting NBA mom Ann Iverson.
On Wednesday, October 31, it's an "all howls" day mini-marathon as Halloween rolls into TV One. Daytime and primetime showcases Halloween-themed episodes of your favorite TV One sitcoms: Martin, Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, Parent'hood, Wanda At Large, and Minor Adjustments. This special Halloween marathon airs from 11am – 3pm and again from 6pm – 10pm.
For FULL details including highlights and the full schedule of all the shows airing, I urge you to click HERE to view and discuss this line-up!

Scott Baio is back again! VH-1 has picked up a second season of Scott Baio...Is 45 and Single. Obviously the title will be altered for next season. In the season one finale, Doc Ali's two-month boot camp comes to a close and Scott ends his "graduation party" by committing to Renee and in turn, Renee surprises Scott with the big one- revealing that she's pregnant.
Thus, season two finds Scott struggling to come to terms with impending fatherhood. Ultimately, it will be a season full of life changing decisions for Scott who will be preparing for marriage, fatherhood and instantly becoming a father to an 18-year old stepdaughter. Scott's friends, especially Johnny V., will also have learn to live with these many changes in his life.
The new series goes into production this a Fall and is slated to run with nine episodes-six 30-minute episodes and three 1-hour episodes in early 2008, most likely.

Mini-DVD Review: Perry Mason - Season 2, Part 1 (June 19); Solomon's Weekly Rant: ION Television

Welcome to another edition of mini-DVD reviews! Today we take a look at CBS DVD's Perry Mason: Season 2, Part 1. Perry Mason of course is the very popular law series. The series stars the great Raymond Burr. See skees53's mini-DVD review of Perry Mason: Season 2, Part 1:

Perry Mason: Season Two, Part 1 (CBS DVD, $39.98) brings the first 15 episodes of the second season of the show that featured America's all-time greatest defender (as well as Hamilton Burger, who HAS to be the worst DA EVER) in a four-disc DVD set. In this set, you'll find a case where a man is charged twice for killing the same man, a case where a woman is blackmailed by her ex-husband (who turns up dead), a case where a camera flash becomes part of a murder trial, a case where a parrot's testimony could incriminate one of Perry's clients, and many more. And if you have to ask who won the cases, then you just
don't know Perry Mason! Plus, there are guest roles featuring John Dehner, Joseph Kerns, Edgar Buchanan, and others there were bigger in their own time than they'll be remembered for in this set.
The set itself is presented in double slim cases (which is actually nice to see considering that CBS DVD seems to have abandoned these for other series) with artwork that is very similar to the two season one sets. And what is always amazing about these sets is the video and audio quality... sometimes we get shows that are ten years old that look lousy on DVD, yet somehow with these Perry Mason sets, with episodes that are FIFTY YEARS OLD, we get a beautiful picture on pretty much every episode along with audio that is generally pretty good too (it is improved in this season over the first season sets).
And there is never a need to worry about whether or not these are edited, as every single one runs over 51 minutes (this means that even if you are seeing reruns on a more generous station that airs 44 minute syndicated episodes, you are still missing out on up to 7 minutes per episode).
The only thing missing in this set is (once again) bonus features. Before the first volume was released, there was talk of the studio looking for special features to include in these sets, but so far, CBS DVD has been a disappointment in this area and we have yet to see any special features. Granted, many of the people involved with the show are no longer alive, but there has to be SOMETHING out there for this show... if nothing else, maybe some fans could contribute some special features for this set (there are plenty of Perry Mason fans out there). But in light of the evidence, such as the great episodes and the great quality of the set, I have to give a not guilty verdict to this wonderful DVD set!
-- Reviewed by skees53
(4/5 stars)

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Related links:
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Solomon's Weekly Rant
Saturday, June 16, 2007
"There's a New Girl in Town, With a Brand New BAD Style, And That is ION Television"
By Solomon Davis

I don't know where to start with the ION network because this channel has made my TV watching time very ODD so let's call this channel the "INCREDIBLY ODD NETWORK." One of the odd things about ION is the editing style which seems to be the Microsoft Word version of editing episodes. When watching episodes of Alice, it looks like they just cut and paste instead of cut and blend. It's the sloppiest form of editing I have ever seen in my rerun watching life. Not only that but ION goes to a commercial every 4 minutes during Alice making it impossible to follow a storyline. So why do they want to treat our eyes like a newborn baby and spoon feed us small doses of every episode?
This sloppy editing has made me stop recording Alice and wait for the DVD to be released because the ION episodes needs lots of improvement.
Not only is the editing crappy but the quality of the color of the episodes is very POOR. When watching Alice on ION it looks like the hours of operation for Mel's Diner is 12 midnight to 6am because the lighting is so dim. It makes me wonder if ION is being broadcast from someone's basement because everything presented to viewers just comes out as high school material.
Then the audio for the closing theme of Amen some nights is extra fast making it sound like it's being sung by Alvin & the Chipmunks. "Watch out cause here we come," is ION's motto, I guess.
I think ION should just go back to paid programming because they have shown they don't have the audio or editing skills to air TV sitcoms. Hey ION STOP DESTROYING OLD CLASSIC SITCOMS and get some real editors to work for your station instead of amateurs. People who tune in to see certain TV shows, especially rare to find series such as Alice, want well edited episodes, not SLICED and DICED episodes that are CRAZY GLUED to any scene making the storyline seem very ODD!! So until things change at this station, the new name for this channel is the ION: INCREDIBLY ODD NETWORK.

Agree or disagree with Solomon? Discuss it here.

DISCLAIMER: Remember, Solomon is not the voice of SitcomsOnline. He is just stating his opinions and does not reflect what SitcomsOnline says or thinks. It is just his 'View' but it is always quite entertaining.

TV One July Highlights; Nick at Nite, The N Changes; Honda Sponsors Sony Minisodes

There are not many highlights related to actual TV series for TV One in July, but we do have some. Here are some:
On Sunday, July 8 at 8pm, TV One premieres the legendary mini-series Roots: The Next Generations, the 14-hour, 7-part sequel to the original Roots miniseries that made television history. The story picks up in 1882 just after the original left off where Tom Harvey, the great grandson of Kunta Kinte has established a marginal existence as a blacksmith in Henning, Tennessee. The series continues the story of author Alex Haley’s family line from the Post American Civil War era to Alex’s search for his genealogical roots which led him to Africa. The mini-series stars Georg Stanford Brown, Lynne Moody, Debbi Morgan, Henry Fonda, Stan Shaw, Irene Cara, Marlon Brando, Paul Winfield, Ruby Dee, and James Earl Jones as Alex Haley. The first six parts air at 8pm all week through Friday, with encore showings at 10pm and in the weekday noon movie slots. They will also re-air on Saturday, July 14 from 12 noon to midnight. The final part will air Sunday night, July 15 also at 8pm and 10pm – and will be repeated on Monday, July 16 at 9pm.
Beginning Sunday, July 29 from 2am-6am, In the House replaces Amen in TV One’s Sunday weekly overnight comedy mini-marathons.

Nick at Nite has made a minor change for Saturday, June 23. From 10pm-2am, they have scheduled a mini-marathon for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. What else is new, though?
The week of June 18, The N will air overnight marathons of the teen drama Summerland from 12-3am, but Monday it will be 12-6am.

Next week Sony will officially announce the full details for the Sony minisodes we mentioned a few weeks back. Today, Sony said Honda will be the sole sponsor for the short episodes. It is scheduled to begin next week. Visitors to the MySpace Web site will be able to watch episodes of 15 (initially...more will come soon) vintage Sony series like Charlie's Angels, Police Woman, The Partridge Family, Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, Silver Spoons, What's Happening!!, Fantasy Island and Who's the Boss?, edited from their original lengths of approx. 30 or 60 minutes each to an Internet-friendly 4 to 6 minutes.
Honda and its longtime agency, RPA, have agreed to run only eight seconds of commercials with each episode, appearing before the shortened show starts. First, there will be an on-screen billboard lasting three seconds, declaring, "The Minisode Network, brought to you by Honda." The billboard will be followed by a five-second commercial for the Honda Fit, the mini-car that American Honda introduced last year, and its website.
The minisodes will appear exclusively on MySpace through the end of August. Initially, there will be three episodes of each series, with new episodes to be added each week. Sony Pictures Television announced the idea in April, describing it as a way to re-purpose for the new media programming that was originally produced for the traditional media.
The minisodes are not intended as pastiches or excerpts; they are edited carefully so the plots can be followed from beginning to end. (It helps that many of the series are formulaic sitcoms or police dramas.)
After the exclusivity with MySpace ends the goal is for the minisodes to come to other websites while remaining on MySpace. Sony Pictures Television is looking at sites like AOL.com, Yahoo! and YouTube, as well as posting them on a micro-site, a special site of their own.

TV Land Details TV Land Confidential Season 2 and New Series Back to the Grind; TV One Weddings with Amen and Good Times

Today TV Land announced the episode info and details for two new original series coming this July. The second season of the addictive TV Land Confidential and the series Back to the Grind, where classic TV stars actually go work in their classic TV character's profession!
Why was Ray Romano so reluctant to go to Italy to shoot Everybody Loves Raymond? What did Michael Jackson confess to Donny Osmond? What made the dance scenes in Saturday Night Fever so hot? TV Land, the network dedicated to building the ultimate Baby Boomer entertainment brand, answers these questions and reveals the untold stories behind viewers' favorite TV guest stars, finales, blockbuster movies and hit songs when the original series, TV Land Confidential, returns on Wednesday, July 11 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. This six-episode series, premiering with back-to-back episodes -- "Oddballs" and "Movies" -- airs every Wednesday at 10 p.m. through August 8.
For complete episode descriptions of the second season, click HERE.

What happens when Sherman Hemsley spends the day sweating it out at a real dry cleaning establishment? Can Loni Anderson really hack it as a receptionist at a top radio station? And does the courtroom listen when Harry Anderson starts hitting the gavel? Viewers will find out when TV Land airs Back to the Grind, a new original series premiering Wednesday, July 18 at 10:30 p.m. This half-hour series challenges iconic TV performers to actually work in the jobs their TV characters held on shows like The Jeffersons, Night Court and WKRP in Cincinnati. Other performers featured in the series include Erik Estrada (CHiPs), Marla Gibbs (The Jeffersons), Betty White (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Mark Curry (Hangin' With Mr. Cooper), Bea Arthur (The Golden Girls), Ed Begley Jr. (St. Elsewhere) and Jimmie Walker (Good Times).
This sounds good actually, and to learn more about the episodes, click HERE!

June is of course known for lots of things...Father's Day, First Day of Summer, among other things, but it is also a very popular month to get married! TV One celebrates with classic TV weddings from two very popular sitcoms...Amen & Good Times! See classic engagements, weddings, and more on Saturday from 2pm-10pm on TV One with happenings like Thelma finally marrying the Reverend on Amen! See eight episodes each of these two classic sitcoms!

We'll be back tomorrow with TV Land August details and later in the week details on TV One July.

ION Television July: Designing Women and Who's the Boss? Join Line-Up; Still Standing Joins Atlanta TBS; Network Notes

ION Television has released its July schedule and they will be adding two new sitcoms and of course the RHI Entertainment programming on weekends (Fri-Sun) from 7-11pm. Joining the schedule on June 25 will be the Linda Bloodworth produced sitcom Designing Women! The show will air Mon-Thurs at 7:00 & 7:30 p.m. replacing Amen and Alice. Diagnosis Murder will air Mon-Sat at 6 p.m. starting June 25, replacing Moral Court on Mon-Fri. ION Life will replace Battlestar Galactica on Sundays at 6PM, while the RHI Entertainment Weekend will air 7-11PM on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. So, yes, Alice, Amen, Moral Court, and Battlesta Galactica are gone.
Later in July, veteran sitcom Who's the Boss? will join the line-up and air Mon-Thurs at 9:00 & 9:30 p.m. starting July 9, replacing Diagnosis Murder. Diagnosis Murder will still air at 6 p.m. Special baseball-themed episodes will kick-off Who's the Boss?, before the episodes go in order.
Among the RHI Entertainment movies and mini-series airing are: The mini-series, Lonesome Dove, which will air each Saturday in July at 9pm, Sundays will be epic night as four-hour mini-series such as Cleopatra will air. ION will debut the mini-series Killer Wave on July 22.
So what about Perfect Strangers? We were told it was coming in July, but as you can see, that is not the case here. I would expect it in August or for sure in the fall. We will let you know when we do!
We are planning on an interview with ION Television, so if all goes well, we will get a lot of answers, including if the hours will expand. Let's hope the interview will come about, as our AmericanLife TV interview this past Wednesday got a lot of praise. I will keep you all up to date on this. But for now, click HERE to view the full July highlights on ION!

A few days back we mentioned Diff'rent Strokes has joined the WTBS-17 in Atlanta line-up, airing weekdays from 2:30pm-4:00pm. Well, looks like that will just be for two weeks, as starting Monday, July 18, 3-4pm will be Still Standing. Diff'rent Strokes will still air at 2:30pm at least. Remember this is ONLY for the TBS in Atlanta (and in some cases Canada, since they can get that feed). Still Standing airs on Lifetime nationwide, as WTBS-17 is just a local channel.

Finally, some network notes. CBS will launch a new season of veteran reality series Big Brother on Thursday, July 5 at 8pm, shifting struggling new reality series Pirate Master to 9pm for this night. The move will just for this week, as starting Tuesday, July 10 at 10pm, Pirate Master will move to this slot until further notice. CSI repeats will still air Thursdays at 9. Big Brother will also air Sundays at 8 and Tuesdays at 9.
Fox will debut its comedy-reality hybrid Anchorwoman with a one-hour special at 8 p.m. Aug. 21. It will settle into its regular 8pm half-hour on Tuesday, Aug. 28.
The series follows the travails of buxom blonde Lauren Jones, a swimsuit model striving to transform herself into a hard-hitting news anchor on a small, low-rated Tyler, Texas, TV station. Jones makes her live debut on KYTX’s 5 p.m. newscast June 11.

ION Television Soars in Ratings, Upfront Planned May 3; ABC Drops 'Dream Vote'

ION Television continues to deliver significant ratings gains in weekday primetime versus last year. According to the latest Nielsen Media Research data, ION Television’s weekday primetime average is up 30 percent for the season compared to the first two quarters of 2006.
The network will host an Upfront sales presentation for advertisers on Thursday, May 3, 2007 in New York City to unveil its programming strategy for the 2007-2008 season. RHI Entertainment, which will serve as ION Television’s exclusive programming supplier on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights beginning June 29, will provide a sneak preview of some of the original titles debuting on ION later this year.
For the week ending March 25, ION Television delivered its best performance for a single program this season with its broadcast of The Cowboys, starring John Wayne, on Sunday, March 25 at 8 p.m. The movie posted a 0.9 HH rating (1,044,000), boosting the night’s primetime average to a 0.8 HH rating (932,000), the network’s highest single weekend night performance for the season.
Overall, ION Television’s weekend movies, currently featuring popular titles from the libraries of Warner Bros., Sony Pictures and NBC Universal, have improved their time period by over 50 percent in households compared to the first two quarters of 2006.
In addition, during the recently concluded February Sweep period, ION Television’s viewers proved they love their Mama, with Mama’s Family posting a 0.9 HH rating (1,008,000) on Thursday, February 15. The night, anchored by Diagnosis Murder at 9 p.m. and Charlie’s Angels at 10 p.m., delivered the network’s highest single weeknight performance for the season at a 0.7 HH rating (752,000).
Don't forget the new spring line-up starts April 2 with the additions of Moral Court, Alice, The Wonder Years and the return of Amen. Also, the classic Battlestar Galactica will air on Sundays.

Also in the news today, after just two airings (with just one in its regular time period of Wednesdays at 8), ABC will pull The Great American Dream Vote off the schedule starting next Wednesday, April 4. Reruns of George Lopez will fill the hour that week. April 11 and 18 will probably be reruns of George as well, because new episodes were slated to return April 25 when Dream Vote concluded. This is much better news, as many of us would much rather watch George!

AmericanLife TV April Highlights; TV One April Highlights

It is double the please of the month of April today, as we take a look at AmericanLife and TV One's April line-ups!

AmericanLife TV Network, the only independent network devoted to the Baby Boomer spring with a bevy of April beauties, including a star-studded new episode of the healthy lifestyle series Alive & Well, a special hour-long episode of 'Til Debt Do Us Part helping engaged couples out of debt, the premiere episodes of F Troop and Homefront, guest star turns by Star Trek's Scotty and Sulu on The Gallant Men, and appearances by the likes of Sal Mineo on Combat!, and Boris Karloff and Peter Lawford on I Spy.
Also in April Secret Agents lurk Wednesdays on AmericanLife TV, with such series as The Man from U.N.C.L.E and I Spy!
Click HERE to view the full highlights!

On to TV One, on Easter Sunday April 8, starting at 8pm, TV One presents a special 30th anniversary showing of the highest-rated and most acclaimed mini-series ever in the history of television, Roots. Based on Alex Haley's book tracing his own family history, Roots told the saga of African-American life through many generations, dealing frankly with the issue of slavery. Presented in six 2-hour parts, TV One has recruited original cast members, including LeVar Burton, Leslie Uggams, Ben Vereen, Louis Gossett Jr. and Richard Roundtree, as hosts for individual nights of the broadcast.
Parts 1-5 will air Sunday, 4/8 through Thursday 4/12 at 8pm with encore performances each night at 10pm. Friday and Saturday will provide chances for viewers to catch up on any parts they may have missed, with Parts 1 & 2 re-airing at 8pm and 10pm respectively on Friday 4/13, and all of Parts 1-5 airing in order from 2pm to 12m on Saturday 4/14. The conclusion of the mini-series airs on Sunday April 15 at 8pm (and 10pm).
Starting Sunday night April 8 in the overnight hours, TV One will celebrate Amen Sundays all month long from 2am to 6am, with mini-marathons of the classic '8-s Sherman Hemsley sitcom.
Starting Monday April 16, the sketch sitcom Wanda At Large returns to weekdays on TV One each evening at 9pm, pushing Good Times to 9:30pm. All About The Andersons currently at 9:30pm weeknights, takes over the current Wanda slot on Saturdays at 6pm.
On Saturday April 21, beginning at 1pm, join TV One for the "Big Baller" Sitcom Marathon in preparation for the series premiere of I Married a Baller later that evening. Episodes of your favorite TV One sitcoms such as In the House, Martin, Eve, Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, and Amen are showcased featuring guest star appearances from some famous 'Ballers' including football legend Eddie George, who is one of the stars of I Married a Baller. Other 'Ballers' slated to appear in this TV One sitcom marathon are: Tim Hardaway, Charles Barkley, Marcus Allen, Reggie Miller, Gary Payton, Cheryl Miller, Randall Cunningham, Lisa Leslie, Kobe Bryant, and Derek Fisher.