A daily news blog by Pavan of SitcomsOnline.com with news scoops of sitcoms and more on TV and DVD. This blog is updated DAILY no matter what! Since August 2005 everyday--non-stop!
This December on TV Land there are not many changes to the regular schedule, but of course we have the 10th Annual Merrython coming up filled with holiday episodes of all your TV Land favorites! But first, TV Land original series Make My Day returns Wednesday, December 2. It was pulled from the schedule in August but now will be burned-off with three weeks of episodes in the 10pm & 10:30pm half-hours. Amazing dreams really do come true when TV Land returns its new original comedic hidden camera series Make My Day on Wednesday, December 2 at 10:00 P.M. ET/PT on TV Land PRIME. The 30-minute series executive produced by Michael Davies provides an exciting window into the eventful day of an unsuspecting and deserving participant as hidden cameras capture the weird coincidences, extraordinary situations and surprise celebrity appearances that occur for them over the course of a seemingly "normal" day. Kick start the holiday season with TV Land's 10th Annual Merrython on Sunday, December 13! TV Land delivers holiday cheer to our viewers during this all day marathon featuring holiday-themed episodes from classic series like Andy Griffith, All in the Family, Brady Bunch, Three's Company, Sanford & Son and Beverly Hillbillies together with modern favorites from Roseanne, 3rd Rock and The Cosby Show. Grab the eggnog, tune in with loved ones, and celebrate the holiday season with TV Land! It's three days of holiday magic on Sunday, December 13, 2009 from 6am-6am, Thursday, December 24 from 8pm-6am and continues Friday, December 25 from 9am-9pm! Saturday classic marathons continue in December with big blocks of Sanford & Son, Good Times, and Beverly Hillbillies. And the Friday night PRIME movies for the month are The Pelican Brief, Top Gun, and Planes Trains & Automobiles. Encore showings on weekends are of Crocodile Dundee II and City Slickers. View the FULL TV Land December 2009 highlights with full Merrython details!
TNT has picked up the critically acclaimed series Southland, closing a deal with Warner Bros. Television that will bring the drama from Emmy-winning producer John Wells (ER, The West Wing) to the network in January. TNT has obtained exclusive rights to air all six episodes that have been shot for the second season, as well as the seven episodes from the series' first season. Southland will air on TNT Tuesdays at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), beginning with the very first episode of the series on Jan. 12. Southland aired on NBC in the first season and they picked up a second season but then decided to cancel it before it even launched its second season. It is unclear right now if TNT will make more than the 6 episodes produced for season two. It will depend on ratings of the first season and the new second season. As of now TNT will air the series following repeats of Law & Order. TNT will give it a lot promos though on their Monday night original block of The Closer and Men of a Certain Age.
We broke the news a few weeks back that WGN America is planning Halloween marathons for The Munsters and The Addams Family, but now we have more of their Halloween plans! This Halloween you'll scream with delight as WGN America presents "Halloween Freak Week," a monstrous mash of movies and marathons--including the first families of fright, The Munsters and The Addams Family. "Halloween Freak Week" on WGN America begins on Monday, October 26 and will have you howling with laughter through Halloween night--Saturday, October 31. Airing during "Halloween Freak Week" are three back-to-back Halloween-themed episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos on Monday, October 26 starting at 7pm ET/4pm PT until 10 pm ET/7 pm PT. Then on Tuesday, October 27 at 8pm ET/5pm PT it is the movie The Rage: Carrie 2. On Wednesday, October 28, as part of WGN America's retro movie night "Way Back Wednesday with Winslow," they have the classic film Gremlins at 8pm ET/5pm PT. On Thursday, October 28 some regularly scheduled sitcoms get the Halloween treatment! Bewitched & Cheers will air Halloween-themed episodes in their normal timeslots beginning at 4pm ET/1pm PT. On Friday, October 30, The Beverly Hillbillies gets to air a Halloween themed episode in its regular timeslot of 2:30 pm ET/11:30am PT. On Friday, October 30, I Dream of Jeannie also gets to air a Halloween themed episode at 3:30 pm ET/12:30pm PT, leading into the "The Monstrous Munster Mash Marathon." 16 back-to-back classic episodes of The Munsters, hosted by legendary shock rocker Alice Cooper. The eight-hour marathon features the odd occupants of 1313 Mockingbird Lane as the iconic Alice Cooper, who was named the world's most "beloved heavy metal entertainer" by Rolling Stone, will be hosting the opens and interstitials for all 16 episodes of The Munsters. WGN America will also air the broadcast debut of Alice Cooper's new video "Keepin' Halloween Alive" immediately following the marathon, which we told you previously will run from 4pm ET/1pm PT until 12am ET/9pm PT. And finally on Halloween itself, Saturday, October 31, "The Addams Family Fright Fest" will air with 18 back-to-back episodes of The Addams Family on Halloween. The 9-hour marathon will feature the creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky Addams Family, which we told you previously will run from 3pm ET/12pm PT until to 12am ET/9pm PT. Following the marathon get scared on Halloween night with the horror movie Pet Semetary 2 at 12am ET/9pm PT. The fun all starts next week! But if you can't wait for Halloween to get your Herman fix, then WGN American has something already for you! Do you have the brains to make ghouls drool? Put your Munsters knowledge to work with Alice Cooper's Monstrous Munster Mash Game on WGNAmerica.com. Correctly answer trivia and Alice will spare your army of Munster-like zombies a horrible fate. The Monstrous Munster Mash Game is "alive" through November.
Three years ago we told you that cable network G4 has acquired the short-lived sitcom Arrested Development for a three-year term, but now that term is up. So IFC (Independent Film Channel) has now acquired the cable rights to the series starting this Sunday (Oct. 25). IFC will air Arrested Development Sundays at 10:00pm and 10:30pm and Tuesdays at 9:00pm and 9:30pm. This is the second major acquisition for IFC in October. The network picked up the complete series of Monty Python's Flying Circus earlier, to go along with its six-hour documentary about the legendary British comedy troupe. The Emmy-winning Arrested Development, created by Mitch Hurwitz, never drew a large crowd in its three-season run on Fox but has endured as a cult fave. There's also been endless chatter about a possible feature adaptation of the laffer, which starred Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Will Arnett and Jeffrey Tambor. In addition to G4, Arrested Development previously aired on HDnet and was offered online via MSN.com.
This November on TV Land, there will be no schedule changes, as of now, but we have movie premieres and the annual Thanksgiving event! The regular schedule with changes that started in October will carry over into November. So Married...with Children is still not back on TV Land. Friday PRIME movie premieres for November are Crocodile Dundee II and Twelve Angry Men. Encores for the month are City Slickers and Footloose. TV Land will also premiere the big screen Dennis the Menace movie on Saturday, November 21 at 8am. Not sure why they didn't premiere it in primetime...could be a contract thing. Weekend marathon blocks continue in November, but Sundays are now the same every week with blocks of Hogan's Heroes, Beverly Hillbillies, TV Land Goes West and Andy Griffith Show. But on Saturdays they are different each week. We will see marathon blocks such as Brady Bunch, Sanford & Son, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Leave it to Beaver, and The Beverly Hillbillies. As for stunts, all we have in November 2009 is the 3rd Annual Overstuffed Thanksgiving Weekend from Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26) to Sunday, November 29. TV Land knows that once the holidays begin that you can always make room for one more - eating one more helping of food, giving one more gift or watching one more of your favorite classic TV shows! The 3rd Annual Overstuffed Thanksgiving Weekend will serving up four days filled with multi-packs of great TV. So gather the family around and feed your funny bone with multiple TV servings as well as a back-to-back double-features of some our viewers' favorite movies. With favorites The Andy Griffith Show, Sanford & Son, Little House on The Prairie, Beverly Hillbillies, Brady Bunch and Hogan's Heroes together with movies Crocodile Dundee II and Footloose, there will be something for everyone in the family! It looks like a November to remember on TV Land! View the full TV Land November 2009 schedule and highlights!
Starting today Lifetime has made some minor schedule changes. The 12pm airing of Wife Swap will be replaced by Medium, but Wife Swap will still remain 1pm & 2pm. Then weeknights at 7pm starting tomorrow (because Project Runway marathon is today from 3pm-11pm) will be a third consecutive hour of Grey's Anatomy, replacing Medium. Grey's Anatomy's late night airing of 1:30am will be replaced by Medium starting tonight, though. So Medium gets a third airing, but it loses its evening slot. And finally on weekends, How I Met Your Mother was airing Saturday nights 1-2am, now that will be Sunday nights 1-2am instead. As for original sitcoms Sherri and Rita Rocks, catch new episodes Tuesdays at 10pm & 10:30pm and then encores later that night at 1am & 1:30am. And for this week only, the comedies are encoring 10am-11am weekdays this week ONLY.
The Middle - Wednesdays 8:30PM ET/PT on ABC Premieres Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 8:30PM ET/PT
Emmy-winner Patricia Heaton stars in this warm and witty single-camera comedy about raising a family and lowering your expectations.
Frankie Heck is a superhero. Well, no, not an actual superhero - not unless you count getting her kids out the door for school every morning as a superfeat. Middle-aged, middle class and living in the middle of the country, this harried wife and working mother of three uses her wry wit and sense of humor to try to get her family through each day intact. Frankie has a job selling cars at the town's only surviving car dealer; her husband, Mike, is a manager at the local quarry.
In between juggling shifts and picking up fast food dinners eaten in front of the TV, Frankie and Mike raise their kids with love and solid Midwestern practicality. Axl is the oldest, a teenage jock who eats the family out of house and home and walks around in his underwear. Then there's Sue, their extraordinarily ordinary pre-teen daughter who fails at everything she tries with great gusto. Brick, the youngest son, is an odd kid whose best friend is his backpack. Together, they're putting THE MIDDLE on the map.
Patricia Heaton (Frankie Heck) is perhaps best known for her role as Debra Barone on the award-winning series Everybody Loves Raymond. She won two Emmy Awards for the role and was nominated seven times. In addition to her Emmy wins, Heaton is also the recipient of the Best Comedy Actress Award from the Viewers for Quality Television, a SAG Award and three SAG nominations in the Best Actress category for her work on Raymond. Heaton most recently starred opposite Kelsey Grammer in the Fox comedy series Back to You. She also starred in the Hallmark Hall of Fame film, Front of the Class. Other television credits include a recurring role on ABC's popular series thirtysomething and prominent roles in the series Room for Two, Someone Like Me and Women of the House, as well as the television films A Town Without Christmas and Miracle in the Woods. Heaton produced and starred in the TNT/FourBoys Films production, The Engagement Ring, She also starred in the TNT/Neil Simon production of The Goodbye Girl and ABC's The Path to 9/11. Her feature film credits include Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Beethoven, New Age and Space Jam.
Neil Flynn (Mike Heck) just finished his eighth season as Sacred Heart Hospital's menacing janitor in the ABC comedy series Scrubs. Flynn can be seen interrogating Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, directed by Steven Spielberg, and is also well known for playing Lindsay Lohan's dad in the hit comedy Mean Girls. His other feature appearances include Hoot, Home Alone 3, The Fugitive, Chain Reaction, Rookie of the Year, Baby's Day Out and Major League. Equally adept at comedy and drama, Flynn has performed a variety of roles on television series, ranging from Seinfeld, The Drew Carey Show and That 70's Show to C.S.I., Boston Public and NYPD Blue. Other T.V. appearances include Arli$$, Ellen, Family Law and Smallville.
Charlie McDermott (Axl Heck) is a quickly rising star who will make his presence felt on both the large and small screen in 2009. On the big screen he has two new films in production: He'll join Chevy Chase, John Cusack, Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson in United Artist's Hot Tub Time Machine, an absurdist comedy slated to open in February 2010; he will also star alongside Laura Linney and writer/director Leland Orser in Morning, opening later this year. McDermott began his career with M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver. Additional film credits include The Sex Drive, opposite Seth Green and James Marsden. Television credits include The Office, as the disinterested student who ignores Michael Scott (Steve Carell), ABC's Private Practice, Parks and Recreation, and Medium.
Eden Sher (Sue Heck) is best known for her work on the ABC comedy Sons & Daughters. She has also starred in Starz Party Down, ABC Family's The Middleman, Disney's Sonny With A Chance and Showtime's Weeds.
Atticus Shaffer (Brick Heck) was discovered by his manager in 2006 and soon landed a guest starring role in the series The Class. That role led him to the role of Brick in the original ABC pilot, The Middle. Several episodics followed, such as My Name is Earl, Days of Our Lives, Carpoolers, Out of Jimmy's Head and Human Giant. Perhaps best known for the bus stop scene he shared with Will Smith in Hancock, Atticus' other roles in feature films include The Unborn, An American Carol, Leaving Barstow and Opposite Day.
Chris Kattan (Bob) is best known for his many characters on Saturday Night Live, which he joined in March 1996, completing his seventh and final season in 2003. With numerous upcoming projects, he was recently seen in the Independent Film Channel's three-part miniseries, Bollywood Hero, in which he played himself in an otherwise fictional comedy. Other big-screen credits include Universal's Undercover Brother, Disney's Corky Romano" the script of which was based on a character Kattan developed, and A Night at the Roxbury, written by Kattan and Will Ferrell and produced by Lorne Michaels and Amy Heckerling. Kattan was also seen opposite Brendan Fraser and Bridget Fonda in Monkey Bone, and in The House on Haunted Hill, opposite Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Ali Larter and Taye Diggs and produced by Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis.
Pilot Plot:
#1 "Pilot" (Airs September 30) Frankie is struggling in her career as a car salesperson because she has failed to actually sell a car. Sue has auditioned for show choir and, to everyone's shock, makes the team, but fails to mention that she's part of the stage crew. To top things off, Brick wants Frankie to come to his class presentation dressed as a superhero. Just when Frankie thinks she's got a car sold and her kids under control, she does show up to Brick's class dressed as a superhero -- but he's given her the wrong day -- and the car she thought she had sold is stolen right in front of her. Work and home have taken over Frankie's life... to the point that she barely recognizes herself and has even taken to coloring her hair with a magic marker. Her youth has faded and the day-to-day grind has worn her down, but it's family and the struggles they face together that keep Frankie and the rest of the Hecks one big happy mess. Guest starring are Brian Doyle-Murray as Mr. Ehlert, Amy Farrington as Gail, Patricia Belcher as Mrs. Rettig, Jeanete Miller as Aunt Edie, Francis Bay as Aunt Ginny, Peter Breitmayer as Pete, Andy Kreiss as choir director, Ping Wu as Mr. Yamamoto, Mike Randleman as flight attendant and Robert Clendenin as P.A. "Pilot" was written by DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler, and directed by Julie Ann Robinson.
Analysis:
ABC has had this pilot in development for a few years, so they have really believed in it and got to a point where they made it the best they could. Previously when it was in development, Ricki Lake was the star...now we have Patricia Heaton as the star and she shines in this role! This sitcom is about an average family living in "the middle" of the country in Indiana. If you liked Malcolm in the Middle, you are sure to like this. While that series was focused mainly on Malcolm, this series is all about Frankie Heck (Patricia Heaton). But that is not to say this isn't an ensemble, because the family is a key part of the show.
The pilot is excellent. Mike and Frankie Heck have three children Axl, Sue and Brick. They are all so unique and funny in their own ways. I think everyone in the entire country will love the youngest child, Brick. He is unbelievably funny! Even his name is pretty funny! Seriously, Frankie, Axl, and Brick...strange names, but funny! Frankie is a car salesman and of course a mom, where she has to juggle so many tasks. Brick has even called his mom a superhero for his class. What happens with that is actually very hysterical. Frankie also can't sell any cars and when you think she is about to, something very out of the blue happens that you'll never see coming. And at the dealership, Frankie's co-worker Bob (Chris Kattan) is there, but he hasn't really gotten any substance yet. He has now been made a series regular, where on this pilot he was just a guest star. We have two very fun men here in Neil Flynn as Mike Heck and Chris Kattan as Bob the car salesman. Just a wonderful cast and a hilarious family!
You've see some hilarious scenes in promos, such as Brick unknowingly tapping her teacher's breast when trying to get her attention, and the hilarious scenes just keep on coming on this show! Another scene that is hysterical is when Frankie is telling Brick to lick his frozen pancake because it will last longer! Everything in this pilot clicks very well and ABC now I think has 3 very good comedies on Wednesday nights, with only Hank (The Middle's lead-in) being the exception so far.
Conclusion:
This could quietly become one of the top comedies on the air right now. Modern Family is probably the best family comedy, but this should not be overlooked either. If you like sitcoms like Roseanne and Malcolm in the Middle, you'll love this one because it is a mix of both. I am from the Northeast, so I don't know if families are really like that in "the middle" of the country, but Heaton has said in interviews that she was born in Ohio (close to Indiana) and her family was so much like this. I'm sure people in the middle of the country will even like this show more since they can relate to this. In these tough times, we sure need a show like this! I never really liked Everybody Loves Raymond, but Patricia Heaton shines in this role...she plays it real and is funny. Neil Flynn was always hilarious on Scrubs and just seeing the janitor from Scrubs as a father is hysterical itself! I think the real show stealer in this is Atticus Shaffer as the young Brick. He pulls his pants down in public to go to the bathroom, he touches his teacher's breasts (not on purpose), and repeats stuff under his breath. He is like Dewey from Malcolm, but so much funnier!
The ratings should be pretty good for this show. This hour is pretty weak and the show is millions better than CBS's competing Gary Unmarried. Tune in tonight at 8:30pm for this new hilarious comedy on ABC Comedy Wednesday! You'll be saying "this is a winner" and like Brick, you'll say it under your breath, too!
TV Land has made a slight change for the remainder of the week starting tonight. The Brady Bunch will air Wed-Fri this week ONLY in the 7pm hour instead of the usual back-to-back The Beverly Hillbillies. That is interesting as it seems last week's Brady Bunch anniversary must have did decent for them in the ratings. However, it just seems so strange they have Brady Bunch followed by Married...with Children! Talk about two totally different shows! I'm not sure what TV Land is doing, but their scheduling has been pretty weird the last year or two. TV Land has also quietly returned Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in the weekdays at 9am hour, replacing Good Times, which now shifts to 10-11am, followed by Sanford & Son from 11am-12pm. Previously three episodes each of these two sitcoms were airing from 9am-10:30am and 10:30am-12pm. Stay with us for more TV Land news. We hear more changes could happen next week, so keep checking back. We also have the TV Land November 2009 schedule to give you all, but we might wait a few days for that...just in case we have wholesale changes happening next week.
There will be lots of changes this fall to WGN America, but it will take a few weeks each in September to finally get there. First up, effective September 8 Cheers will now also air on the weekday schedule! Cheers will air weekdays at 5:00pm & 5:30pm ET (2 & 2:30pm PT) replacing one of the Scrubs hours (Scrubs remains at 11pm ET). During late nights, Corner Gas will now leave the line-up starting Sept. 7, replaced by Homicide: Life on the Street for this week only from Mon-Wed at 4am ET (1am PT). Funniest Pets & People will take the 5am half-hour Mon-Wed this week as well. Corner Gas was airing Mon-Tues from 4am-5:30am ET. Finally for this week, The Cosby Show moves to the 7pm ET (4pm PT) hour on the Outta Sight Retro Night on Sunday nights, as WKRP in Cincinnati leaves. Moving on to the week of September 14, South Park will join the late night line-up airing weeknights at 12:00am & 12:30am ET (9 & 9:30pm PT), replacing Bob & Tom Show, which will move to 2am ET (11pm PT) replacing Steve Wilkos Show...which is now gone. And as I was saying, the late night 4am-5:30am block for week of Sept. 7 was temporary. Effective Sept. 14, Reno 911! will air Mon-Wed at 4am ET, South Park on Thursdays from 4-5am ET, and Chappelle's Show on Fridays from 4-5am ET. The Cosby Show will air Mondays and Tuesdays at 4:30am ET, while Reno 911! airs for the full 4am hour on Wednesdays. And Funniest Pets & People will expand to all five days at 5am ET (2am PT), but for this week only. Next up is the week of September 21, we now get two hours of In the Heat of the Night, as Nash Bridges is off the schedule at 12pm ET. The Beverly Hillbillies will return to WGN America and at a better time now! It will air weekdays in the 2pm ET (11am PT) hour replacing Bewitched, which moves to the 4pm ET (1pm PT) hour replacing The Cosby Show. The Cosby Show will only air now Monday nights at 4:30am and in the Sunday night block in the 7pm hour. Joining the weeknight schedule now will also be Punk'd airing weekdays at 5am ET (2am PT) replacing Funniest Pets & People, which will leave the line-up. Punk'd will also air Tuesdays at 4:30am ET. Joining the Sunday schedule will be new first-run syndicated series Smash Cuts airing for a full-hour on Sundays at 4pm for its first week only & will regularly air at 4am ET on Sunday nights. South Park will air Sundays in the 3am ET hour, while Nash Bridges will air in the 2am ET. Boston Legal will air weekends at 1pm ET after baseball season is over (starting Oct. 10). Finally by September 28, we are all set basically for the fall. Just a few more changes are happening. Punk'd will get a decent addition airing Thursdays at 9pm ET replacing American Gladiators, which is leaving. It will also air Sundays at 11am ET after baseball season. Joining the weekend schedule will be Bones on Saturdays at 6pm and 7pm ET and Law & Order: Criminal Intent on Saturday nights at 4:30am ET and Sunday nights at 2am ET for its first week ONLY before settling into Saturday afternoons at 2pm and 3pm ET after baseball season is over. Boy that's a lot of new additions! Let's recap: South Park, Punk'd, Smash Cuts, Bones, Law & Order: Criminal Intent are all new. Beverly Hillbillies returns. Corner Gas, Funniest Pets & People, Homicide: Life on the Street, Steve Wilkos, American Gladiators, Bullwinkle, WKRP in Cincinnati, Coach are leaving. Coach is not scheduled, but they will likely air it at some point (enjoy the marathon on Sept. 6). View the FULL WGN America Fall 2009 schedule, so you get the full taste of the line-up that will essentially happen by Sept. 28. As for highlights, we already noted the marathons including the Cosby Show 25th anniversary marathon on Sunday, Sept. 20. We now get word the marathon is even longer now! 1pm-5:30pm ET has been added, in addition to the 5:30pm-7pm ET & 11pm-4am ET. The 25th anniversary half-hour special is airing at 1pm and 6:30pm ET. Classic NBC line-up on that date from 7pm-10pm ET is of course airing with The Cosby Show pilot at 7pm ET, Family Ties at 7:30pm ET, a full-hour of Cheers at 8pm ET and Hill Street Blues at 9pm ET. All episodes that exactly aired on NBC from that night. View more marathon info for Honeymooners and Coach.
Moving on to some TV tidbits...Senator Ted Kennedy has passed away at age 77 yesterday. In honor of his memory we have some specials. Bio TV will air Biography Remembers: Ted Kennedy on Thursdays at 9pm ET and Saturday at 12pm & 4am ET. Biography: John F. Kennedy and Biography: Barack Obama will air before and after Kennedy's episode on Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon. Biography: John F. Kennedy Jr. will air at 11pm Thursday and 10am Saturday. On the broadcast networks, ABC will air ABC News Special: Remembering Ted Kennedy at 10pm ET, preempting Primetime: Crime. Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer will anchor this special. CBS will air Ted Kennedy: The Last Brother at 8pm ET preempting comedy repeats. Katie Couric will report. NBC will expand NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams to one-hour, but nothing will air in primetime. CNN will air the documentary Teddy: In His Own Words from 7-9pm ET. Finally, NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution has sold Bravo's unscripted series The Real Housewives as a one-hour syndicated strip for fall 2010 to NBC and Hearst television station groups, B&C reports. The series has taken place in Southern California's Orange County, New York City, New Jersey and Atlanta. It will reach 100 episodes this fall on Bravo.
Today we have a couple of updates to fall schedules we already gave you. Viacom strikes again. Yesterday we mentionedMarried...with Children is returning to TV Land effective immediately. So yes this will indeed affect TV Land's September line-up that we originally gave you. Married...with Children will remain on the TV Land schedule this September as well! Starting Sept. 14 it will air weeknights 8-9pm and will join the weeknight 9pm-12am block on Tuesday nights. So this means Andy Griffith Show will not air weeknights 7-9pm anymore, as originally planned. Beverly Hillbillies will still fill the 7pm hour, as that change starts next week. Originally the 9pm-12am block from Mon-Thurs had Andy on Monday, Roseanne on Tuesday, M*A*S*H on Wednesday, and Cosby Show on Thursday. Now it will be Andy on Monday, Married...with Children on Tuesday, Cosby Show on Wednesday, and Roseanne on Thursday. Also, Married...with Children will air on Saturdays as well in marathon blocks during the day instead of Andy Griffith, but that will remain on Sundays. Late Sunday nights from 4-6am will now be Brady Bunch airings. And since the Cosby Show primetime block goes from Thursdays to Wednesdays, the 25th anniversary marathon moves to Wednesday, Sept. 23. View the fully updated TV Land September 2009 line-up.
And that's not all for changes! Spike TV's Fall 2009 line-up starts on Monday, Sept. 28, as we told you. There is one change now. Instead of Married...with Children from 9-11am on weekday mornings, we now get a morning movie. Why? You guessed it...sister network TV Land is now airing the show on weekdays and Saturdays as we mentioned above. But on Sundays, Spike TV will still air the show in the mornings and sometimes in the 1am hour on that night. Everything else for Spike TV Fall 2009 is the same as we previously relayed to you, so Unsolved Mysteries is still Mon-Wed nights at 2am.
Moving on to Lifetime, we first announced the premiere date for Lifetime's new original sitcom Sherri as October 5 on our Lifetime Fall 2009 schedule...now we have full details on that and the return of Rita Rocks. The all-new, multi-camera comedy series Sherri, premieres Monday, October 5, at 7PM ET/PT on Lifetime Television. Sherri will bow as part of a one-hour comedy block paired with the returning Rita Rocks, starring Nicole Sullivan, at 7:30PM ET/PT. Both series will feature stripped original episodes for a full week in the 7PM hour. Sherri will then move into its regular timeslot Tuesdays at 10PM ET/PT, followed by Rita Rocks Tuesdays at 10:30PM ET/PT--both starting Oct. 13. Sherri centers around a newly single mom, paralegal and part-time comedienne/actress who tries to get back into the dating scene and move on with her life after divorcing her cheating husband. Sherri finds solace and support among her girlfriends at the office while juggling her hectic life. Sherri marks the first comedy series ever to be wholly owned by Lifetime. The Network has picked up 12 episodes of the program, to be produced in New York by Lifetime Television. Also starring in the series are Elizabeth Regen, Kate Reinders, Kali Rocha and Tammy Townsend. Classic TV stars Malcolm-Jamal Warner and James Avery will guest-star in multiple episodes.
Finally, I have a few personal news for you. Tonight's episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is the one I went to! Watch Night 5 tonight at 8pm ET/PT on ABC. Hint: I'm sitting close to where the contestant's spouse/family member sits, but in the third row instead of the first row. And finally, since 1997 I've been raising money for a Walkathon. This year I'm raising money online as well. So I'm asking you readers out there to help me out for my online portion and donate for a great cause that benefits so many causes, including the American Cancer Society. Any amount is good and you'll feel good for donating! So please donate today (I sound like Sally Struthers, don't I?)! You'll find all the info on that link...it is amazing. Please help us out!
We interrupt our fall schedule barrage blog posts for a special announcement! The Bundys are back! TV Land made a very last minute schedule change yesterday and aired a block of Married...with Children last night from 8:30pm-11pm. TV Land will also air the show again on Friday from 7-9pm and on Saturday a 12-hour marathon will air from 12pm-12am, replacing blocks of Green Acres and Andy Griffith. The final Green Acres block is on Aug. 22 from 6am-8:30am, as the contract for the series is expiring. So, after these special airings, Married...with Children will return to the TV Land line-up! Spike TV isn't airing it daily right now, but is scheduled to return it as of now starting Sept. 28...so it seems TV Land will air it daily until then at least. Effective next week, Married...with Children will air Tuesdays 8pm-12am, Wednesdays & Thursdays 8-10pm and Fridays 8-9pm. Essentially replacing Cosby Show and Roseanne slots. The Cosby Show's 7-8pm hour will now belong to The Beverly Hillbillies starting Monday (Aug. 17), while Cosby Show moves to 3-4am instead of another hour of Roseanne. Also, there will be another 12-hour Married...with Children marathon on Saturday, Aug. 22 from 10am-10pm, replacing the scheduled Bonanza and Andy blocks. The series has done well for TV Land but had to be pulled because Spike TV (a sister network) was putting it back on the daily schedule. Right now Spike is only airing it Sunday mornings. View the updated TV Land August 2009 changes. So how will this affect TV Land in September starting Sept. 14? We're not sure, but I expect changes to the original Sept. schedule. Looks like we'll have to update our TV Land fall schedule post. Will Married...with Children be a part of it? We shall see. Stay with us, as always!
KPBI-TV the full power MyNetwork TV affiliate in North West Arkansas will drop its MyNetwork TV affiliation this week and become a full-time Retro Television RTV affiliate! According to Greg Fess, President of KPBI, "I am very excited to be bringing the RTV Network to the NW Arkansas area. We love the family friendly programs that we have enjoyed over the years. We know that viewers will embrace this new programming on KPBI which has served the area for many years as a broadcasting leader." RTV's Neal Ardman pointed to the success many full power primary stations are now having using RTV on the main channel as the primary and often only network. "We have enjoyed tremendous ratings success in several markets including Boston on WMFP, Knoxville on WMAK and WPXS in St. Louis. RTV offers what other networks can't. Along with fantastic shows like Magnum P.I. and Quincy, RTV provides most of its affiliates 24/7 centralized master control on a barter basis. The RTV model has to be the future of TV for the local station to survive," said Ardman. By providing the both the local and nation content on an individual stream the stations have little if any capitol cost in launching and the only ongoing cost is the actual cost of spot sales.
We hope to have a fall schedule for you tomorrow, pending approval. So bear with us, we are trying! We still have quite a few left to deliver.
Ed McMahon, a fixture on U.S. late-night television for 30 years as the full-throated announcer and sidekick for the late Johnny Carson on NBC's The Tonight Show, has died this morning (Tuesday, June 23, 2009). The veteran TV personality, best known for his nightly introduction of Carson in a deep, booming voice with the drawn-out line, "Heeeeeeeeere's Johnny!" died at a Los Angeles-area hospital early this morning with his wife and loved ones by his side. McMahon had been battling pneumonia and other illnesses for about the past month. Ed and Johnny first worked together in 1957 as announcer and host on the daytime game show Who Do You Trust? The duo moved to the Tonight Show in 1962 when Carson succeeded Jack Paar for three decades, stopping in 1992 when Carson retired as host. Ed was also famous for his "Hi-oooooh!" line. Among his other roles, he was with Dick Clark on the TV series and specials TV Bloopers And Practical Jokes on NBC from 1982 until 1998. He was also host of the successful weekly syndicated series Star Search, which began in 1983 and ended in 1995. He has appeared on many sitcoms as himself over the years such as Here's Lucy, ALF, Full House, Who's the Boss?, Roseanne, Living Single, Malcolm & Eddie, The Simpsons, Suddenly Susan, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Popular, That '80s Show, Family Guy, It's All Relative, and Scrubs. He has also appeared on TV series as a character as well, such as an earlier episode of Here's Lucy, Ellen Queen, Newhart, Burke's Law, Nurses, and Baywatch. He had a regular role on the short-lived comedy called The Tom Show starring Tom Arnold on The WB in the 1997-98 season. In recent years was co-host for TV Land's ALF Hit Talk Show and co-host in 2003 for a handful of episodes for Jimmy Kimmel Live!. And last summer he and his family appeared on Celebrity Family Feud battling the The Kardashians, Deion & Pilar Sanders, Tiki Barber's families. Ed will certainly be missed by everyone. He was a familiar face and had a familiar voice that everyone knew. He is survived by his wife, Pamela, and five children. Ed was 86. Share your memories of Ed on our message board.
Back to our regular news, WGN America is pulling The Beverly Hillbillies from its line-up starting Monday (June 29). They will replace it with another airing of America's Funniest Videos in the 8am weekday hour. WGN America has not lost rights to air Hillbillies, so it WILL return soon to a better timeslot I'm told. I think it would have returned anyway since it doesn't expire until Fall 2011. Ya'll come back now ya here, indeed! And remember when we promised something for classic TV this summer on WGN America? Well we will soon announce what that is! So we won't have to wait until the fall to see more classic TV! Keep checking back for that and the return of Hillbillies (and maybe more)!
TNT has acquired the crime drama CSI: NY for its "we know drama" line-up starting Friday, July 3. They will share the series with Spike TV, which currently airs the reruns. TNT has the primetime rights starting in July, so Spike TV will be only airing it in the daytime (1-3pm) and early evening (5-7pm) starting in July as we mentioned. TNT will launch CSI: NY with a block on Friday, July 3 from 7pm-11pm. Then the series will air weeknights at 7pm and Wed-Fri at 8pm as well. The regular schedule will see some time changes due to this addition on TNT. Here is how the schedule will look: 6-8am Angel, 8am-11am Charmed, 11am ER, 12pm-2pm Las Vegas, 2pm Charmed, 3pm-5pm Law & Order, 5pm-7pm Bones, and 7pm CSI: NY. 8pm will have The Closer encore on Monday, Bones on Tuesday, and CSI: NY Wed-Fri. With original series the rest of the time on weeknights. 1am-6am late nights sees a mix of blocks of Cold Case, Without a Trace, and Law & Order. Movies air in late night on Fridays and sometimes on Thursdays. No signs of NYPD Blue, X-Files, and Alias, but they are airing LAPD: Life on the Street as a filler.
Previously on "TV Land Schedule Changes," Bree wanted Orson to stop stealing, oops wrong show...we told you the changes from June 15-28, now we have June 27 through July 12! This is like a soap opera, isn't it? The weekend of June 27-28 will now have a change now. It will have a Married...with Children marathon primarily. Al Bundy and family will air from 9:30am-8pm on Saturday, June 27 and from 8am-2am on Sunday, June 28. That's a whole lotta Bundy! Encores of movies Grease and Grease 2 will also air on Saturday, June 27, with Roseanne blocks as well. Then the regular schedule starting Monday, June 29 is pretty similar to the changes that started on June 15, but just a few things. For weekdays, the 12pm hour is now back to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, replacing Leave it to Beaver/Beverly Hillbillies. But Beverly Hillbillies will air in the 1pm hour, so that means TV Land Goes West (2 episodes of Gunsmoke & Bonanza each and one Little House) goes from approx. 1:30pm-7pm to now more on the clock from 2pm-7pm. This means Beaver is now weekends only again if they have a marathon. Mondays from 8pm-11pm will now be yet more Roseanne replacing Married...with Children, so Married is now off the regular schedule, but not to worry as it returns to Spike TV weekdays on July 6. So it looks like (for now I guess) Married (which is doing decent for them) will have its last TV Land airing during that weekend marathon (June 27-28). I expect we will see more soon as they keep bringing it back and changing the schedule, so stay tuned. Everything else on weekdays is the same as it is now, so yes, Andy Griffith is not on weekdays through July 12. On weekends we get marathon blocks ("Andy & Friends" as I'd like to call it). But first, from 6-8am on both days we now see more Roseanne, so that replaces Star Trek, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and whatever else pops up weekend mornings usually. But remember, as of now this is through July 12 only. The weekend of July 4-5 will see Leave it to Beaver and Andy Griffith. On Saturday, July 4, we see Beaver from 11am-3pm and Andy Griffith from 3pm-8pm. On Sunday, July 5 we see Beaver from 12pm-3pm and more Andy from 3pm-8pm. As previously announced, Roseanne July 4th Feuds & Fireworks Marathon airs from 8pm-6am on both nights. The weekend of July 11-12 will see more marathons. A special SpongeBob SquarePants block will air on Saturday, July 11 from 10am-12pm, as SpongeBob is getting ready for his 10th birthday on Nickelodeon with "The Ultimate SpongeBob SpongeBash." We will have more on that during our Nick at Nite July schedule & highlights very soon, as SpongeBob will have about a 50-hour non-stop marathon on Nick/Nick at Nite from July 17-19. Back to TV Land, it's more marathons as the weekend of July 11-12 it is Hogan's Heroes and Andy Griffith. Hogan's Heroes on both days will air from 12pm-5pm while Andy will air both days from 5pm-10pm. Regular weekend schedule will air elsewhere. So is TV Land trying to phase Andy out by airing it only on weekends? Sound off on our message board and also you can view these changes in a list form. Remember TV Land keeps releasing schedules two weeks at a time, so as of now this is through July 12 only. Stay tuned for more!
The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards has been re-scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 20 from approx. 8:00-11:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT) on CBS. That was the original date and now CBS has gone back to that after moving it to Sunday, Sept. 13. But September 13 is the same day for the MTV Video Music Awards. So CBS had to move it back to the original Sept. 20. date. CBS moved it to Sept. 13 originally because of an NFL game from 4-7:30pm ET. To present The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards as close as possible to its scheduled 8:00 PM start, 60 Minutes is planning a flexible broadcast following CBS Sports late afternoon NFL game. So we will finally see a shortened 60 Minutes or possibly preempted totally in the East if the game goes over 7:30pm ET. Remember nominations will be announced Thursday, July 16 at 5:40 AM PT from the Television Academy's Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood. You can watch it live on CBS's Early Show.
WGN America is going Newhart crazy! This coming Sunday they will air all Newhart during the weekly Outta Sight Retro Night! The Cubs and Padres baseball game is from 4-7pm ET, but immediately following the game, watch a Newhart marathon from 7pm-10pm ET and from 11pm-2am ET! Before the game there is also a Newhart episode at 3pm ET, leading into the game. And that's not all for Newhart! The series will now air for two-hours every Sunday night from 8-10pm ET, so it will replace The Honeymooners in the 9pm ET hour. But The Honeymooners will move to the 1am hour replacing Beverly Hillbillies (but that airs weekday mornings anyway).
And if that's not urgent enough for you, Hallmark Channel is making a last minute schedule change that starts TODAY! We told you that they made changes starting this past Monday (May 21), and now they are already changing that schedule change. I Love Lucy replaced back-to-back Matlock from 3-5pm, and now starting today, Lucy will be replaced from 3-5pm with Little House on the Prairie. But Lucy fans don't fret, because I Love Lucy will actually benefit and air an hour more now, airing 11am-2pm replacing an episode each of Little House, Touched by an Angel and 7th Heaven. 7th Heaven remains at 2pm though. Earlier in the morning, Golden Girls gets extended and adds the 10am hour, replacing Little House. It evens out because in the 7pm hour now will be an extension of M*A*S*H, replacing an hour of Golden Girls. That's just weekdays, now we have weekend changes, too! Saturdays from 6-9am will now be three episodes of Little House on the Prairie replacing three-hours of Golden Girls. Also, we get more Lucy as I Love Lucy will air late nights from 1am-3am replacing back-to-back Murder, She Wrote. Sundays is basically the same changes, 8am-11am will be Little House replacing two-hours of Golden Girls and an episode of 7th Heaven. An finally like on Saturday nights, two-hours of Lucy closes the night from 1-3am replacing Murder, She Wrote. So, Touched by an Angel is off the schedule it seems for now, joining Walker Texas Ranger and Matlock on the bench. Weekdays from 8am-8pm is now filled with three-hour blocks of different shows: Golden Girls, I Love Lucy, Family Dramas (7th Heaven/Little House), and M*A*S*H (which is actually 4 hours). View the full changes and the full schedule if you get confused. Remember this starts TODAY!
Finally, we close the day with some Sci Fi Channel news. The movie version of Land of the Lost starring Will Ferrell is coming out Friday, June 5, but before that comes out...Sci Fi Channel will air a marathon of the classic '70s NBC series on Memorial Day and two other days! On Monday, May 25 from 8am-4am it's all Land of the Lost, all day! Get your Cha-Ka on! Then the following week as we get ready for movie version, watch more classic episodes on Thursday, June 4 and Friday, June 5 from 8am-6pm on both days. I was hoping someone would also air the '90s ABC version since the big screen movie is coming out. Yes, it was cheesy, but still good. Good show for ABC Saturday mornings and very rare these days as it hasn't been on television in a while (last seen on Nickelodeon).
The CW is dropping Sundays this fall, so they will only program Mon-Fri. With only 10 hours a week of programming, space is limited. And to make things worse, they have 0 sitcom pilots in development, so all of their new series pick-ups will be dramas. Here is the SitcomsOnline.com The CW 2009-10 preview:
New Series Already Picked-Up: None. New Series We Think That Are Almost Good To Go: Melrose Place (drama), The Beautiful Life (drama), and Vampire Diaries (drama). New Series Perhaps Picked-Up for Mid-Season: Body Politics (drama) and Gossip Girl: Lily (drama).
Wednesdays 8:00PM America's Next Top Model 9:00PM The Beautiful Life(NEW!)
Thursdays 8:00PM Smallville 9:00PM Supernatural
Fridays 8:00PM The Game OR One Tree Hill 9:00PM One Tree Hill OR Privileged
Comments: The CW needs help and they need to improve ratings. With zero comedy, they are not a balanced network and have similar types of shows. For Mondays, Gossip Girl will likely continue to be leading off Mondays and they can try new drama Vampire Diaries at 9pm, as One Tree Hill can help another night. This block needs to do more than 3 million. Tuesdays should have the classic remake with 90210 and now Melrose Place. Melrose needs to do much better than 90210, which hasn't done too well, especially this spring. Wednesday will of course have America's Next Top Model followed possibly by a drama that is focused on models called The Beautiful Life, a new series from Ashton Kutcher. That could be the fit The CW was looking for, instead of wasting the timeslot with repeats of 90210. Thursday is The CW's best night I think...with Smallville and Supernatural, nothing needs to change here. Fridays will have to change, though. They need to be more aggressive. The CW could redevelop sitcom The Game into a one-hour comedy, as they have mulled the idea. I think they should go for that and it would be a nice way to start off the night. At 9pm instead of the Top Model repeats, how about being more aggressive and airing One Tree Hill? I'm not sure if that goes well with The Game, but nothing on the schedule with The Game goes with it but Top Model. The CW is not likely to bring back Everybody Hates Chris for a fifth season. Look for that in syndication next fall with repeats on Nick at Nite and BET. Reaper is the only other on the bubble show with a shot, but I don't see it returning. It is said ABC Studios is shopping the series for first-run syndication, and perhaps it would air on CW stations on Sundays with new episodes, since affiliates are now going to program Sundays this fall. A long shot of happening, though. People keep saying Privileged has a shot...why? With those terrible numbers it had, it has no shot I think unless Fridays is an option instead of The Game. Which come to think of it, that makes sense and could go well with One Tree Hill. For midseason, they should for sure pick-up The Body Politic. It sounds actually good and has a nice cast including Gabrielle Union, Tim Matheson, Jay Hernandez, and Brian Austin Green. It is said the Gossip Girl spinoff called Lily starring the gorgeous Brittany Snow is being passed, but I think they will need it come midseason, so they should order 6 episodes. If not, they will order another drama like Light Years to fill the void. You can say goodbye to the following shows Stylista, Reaper, Privileged, Everybody Hates Chris, 13: Fear is Real, 4Real, Easy Money, In Harm's Way, Valentine. The CW needs help for sure, I think they should start each weeknight with a proven show (Gossip Girl, 90210, Top Model, Smallville, The Game/One Tree Hill). It baffles me why they had no sitcoms in development. Too many dramas that are centered for female teenagers is too much. Discuss your thoughts on our prediction and feel free to make suggestions of your own.
Remember, next Thursday (May 21) is the actual date when we will find out The CW's plans for the 2000-10 season. So, come on back next Thursday and we will let you know the details and you can see how much we were right (or wrong). Stay tuned on Saturday for our annual "weekend before upfronts rumbling." And as a reminder, stay tuned next week for all the final schedules released by all the networks! We will put them up as soon as they are released by the networks, so this will be your home to see them first!
We have some schedule news! First, ION Television will launch Ghost Whisperer in June! It was slated to begin in the fall, but will start earlier than expected. The show will air Mondays at 8pm starting Monday, June 1, 2009. It will replace two Reba episodes. Reba will continue to air weeknights in the 7pm hour and at times in the 8pm hour Wed-Fri, depending on the movies. For fans of Ghost Whisperer, or if you want to watch the show for the first time, the first five episodes will air in June (June 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29). So this is an update to the ION Television June 2009 schedule we previously announced. Ghost Whisperer will lead into two episodes of NCIS at 9 and 10pm on Monday nights.
Elsewhere, TV Land made a very last minute schedule change YESTERDAY that was in effect immediately! Some of you probably saw Roseanne airing from 9-10pm and 12-1am, airing between The Cougar. Roseanne was not set to launch on TV Land until June 5, so it started on May 13--three weeks earlier than planned. Roseanne will leave Nick at Nite effective immediately because of the change. It was only airing late nights on weekends anyway. Family Matters takes over the Roseanne slots on Nick at Nite. View the updated Nick at Nite May 2009 schedule. Back to TV Land, we also told you before that a second Married...with Children marathon was set for Thursday, May 14 (tonight) from 10pm-1am, and now TV Land has made that a weekly thing. So look for The Bundys every Thursday night in TV Land PRIME. Also, starting tomorrow the 6pm weekday hour will now be The Beverly Hillbillies, replacing Hogan's Heroes and Green Acres, which are leaving a few weeks earlier than planned. In the 7pm hour will be The Andy Griffith Show, as that show will air 7-9pm now. Though on Mondays it will still air its 7pm-12am marathons. Roseanne will air Tues-Fri in the 9pm hour and 12-1:30am on most nights. On Fridays, Roseanne will air from 9pm-2:30am, which means the TV Land PRIME Movie is gone. Will it remain in June? That still remains to be seen. On weekends, Roseanne is airing 1am-4am on Saturday nights and 1-3am on Sunday nights. Hogan's Heroes gets a half hour airing a week now, airing Sundays at 10am. The Cosby Show seems to be airing with Roseanne a lot, and gains the 11pm-1am slot on Saturday nights. And Three's Company moves from 1am-4am to 4am-6am on Saturday nights. Looks like 3rd Rock from the Sun is totally gone on this schedule! View the FULL new schedule that is in place now! Couple of points, TV Land will be going "off the clock" starting tomorrow...so the timings of shows will be way off. Just giving you a heads up, if you're taping something. And we're not sure what this means for June, as we already announced a schedule for that. As of now, these new changes are through the end of May. We will update you on any updates to the TV Land June schedule as soon as we get it. Stay tuned!
Come on back tomorrow for news on a sitcom coming to Lifetime in June!
Today we were supposed to give you TV Land June 2009, continuing our June week, but now TV Land has edited their May schedule. We will have to delay the June schedule until tomorrow or next week. So stay tuned for that. TV Land has changed their May schedule a bit starting May 4. Among the changes are more Gunsmoke & Bonanza on weekdays now extended from 2pm-6pm from Tues-Fri. This means the Monday block is now from 12pm-6pm. Evening sitcoms now start 6pm with Hogan's Heroes moving to the 6pm half-hour, followed by Green Acres at 6:30pm. The Beverly Hillbillies remains in the 7pm hour. TV Land Goes West is added also on Saturdays from 1pm-7pm, just like how it airs on Sundays, with two Gunsmoke episodes followed by four episodes of Bonanza. This means the TV Land movie encores are now just Saturdays at 6am. The Brady Bunch on Saturday mornings is now 9am-11am, with Leave it to Beaver from 11am-1pm leading into the westerns block. Beaver also airs 7-8pm on Saturdays, followed by blocks of Andy Griffith from 8pm-11pm, M*A*S*H from 11pm-1am, and Three's Company from 1am-3am. Sundays has an extended Hillbillies from 10am-1pm leading into the westerns. Andy follows from 7-10pm, then M*A*S*H from 10pm-1am, Hillbillies from 1am-3am, and now only an hour of Brady Bunch (in the 3am hour). It is not many changes, but this make schedule more of a regular schedule, especially on weekends with shows getting set time slots now. What does this mean for June? We will have to wait and see, but we know one thing, Roseanne is joining the TV Land PRIME line-up. But for now, view the full updated TV Land May 2009 schedule.
The Office, the BBC series that spawned the NBC comedy of the same name, is returning to American television on Adult Swim. The Turner-owned network, which shares channel space with Cartoon Network, has acquired both seasons of the British comedy, as well as The Office Christmas Special and will start airing them this summer. Created, written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, The Office is about the day-to-day lives of employees in the Slough, Bershire branch of the fictitious Wernham Hogg Paper Company. The series' main character, David Brent, as portrayed by Gervais, is familiar to office workers everywhere. As regional manager of the company, Brent fancies himself as a great team leader using humor to win the loyalty of his staff. In reality, he is belittling, smug, sexist, insensitive, patronizing and unthinkingly offensive. Adult Swim also airs the BBC hit The Mighty Boosh, since March 29. They recently secured the rights to Look Around You. The U.S. version of the series airs in repeats on sister station TBS.
TV Land has announced some last minute schedule changes. The first one begins tonight, with Thursdays 10pm-12am now M*A*S*H instead of The Jeffersons. Now next week that won't happen since the already scheduled Married...with Children stunt is airing, but M*A*S*H will air tonight and April 30. The rest of the changes are to the weekday late afternoon/early evening line-up starting Tuesday, April 21, 2009. At 4pm ET/PT we get a second episode of Bonanza replacing two episodes of Green Acres. Bonanza will remain at 3pm as well. Then from 5-8pm we had three episodes each of Beverly Hillbillies and Hogan's Heroes, but now we have will some changes. In the 5pm hour we get two episodes of Hogan's Heroes replacing back-to-back Beverly Hillbillies. In the 6pm hour we now get Green Acres replacing one Hillbillies and one Hogan's Heroes. Then finally in the 7pm hour we get two episodes of Beverly Hillbillies replacing back-to-back Hogan's Heroes. So nothing is replaced in the weekday schedule, but some time shifting, while Bonanza gets an extra episode and Hogan's and Hillbillies get an episode reduced. See our TV Land April 2009 schedule and highlights, if you haven't seen it.
Sticking with TV Land, they announced that legendary producers Sid and Marty Krofft will receive the Pop Culture Award at the 2009 TV Land Awards, and Will Ferrell, star of the upcoming film Land of the Lost, Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives), Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live, Parks and Recreation), comedian and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel (Jimmy Kimmel Live!), Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween) and TV talk show host and psychologist Dr. Phil will be among the presenters at the evening's celebration. Additionally, music stars Cyndi Lauper and David Cassidy will perform in the tribute to Sid and Marty Krofft. The two-hour show, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, will tape this Sunday (April 19) at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City and will air on TV Land during a special presentation of TV Land PRIME on Sunday, April 26th at 8PM ET/PT. Medical drama ER has been added as an honoree at the 2009 TV Land Awards. ER, one of television's longest running dramas, will be presented with the Icon Award for the way that it changed television with its fast-paced steadi-cam shots as well as for its amazing and gritty storylines. The Icon Award is presented to a television program with immeasurable fame and longevity. The show transcends generations and is recognized by peers and fans around the world. Cast members Alex Kingston, Anthony Edwards, Linda Cardellini, Ellen Crawford, Laura Innes, Kellie Martin, Mekhi Phifer, Parminder Nagra, Shane West and Yvette Freeman will all be in attendance to accept the award.
Other stars scheduled to appear so far: Don Rickles, Julia Louis-Dreyfus; cast of Home Improvement Tim Allen, Zachary Ty Bryan, Debbe Dunning, Richard Karn, Patricia Richardson, Taran Noah Smith; cast of Knots Landing Lisa Hartman Black, Kevin Dobson, William DeVane, Constance McCashin, David Jacobs, Michele Lee, Don Murray, Donna Mills, Michelle Phillips, Ted Shackleford, Joan Van Ark; cast of Magnum P.I. Larry Manetti, Roger E. Mosley, Tom Selleck; cast of Married with Children Christina Applegate, David Faustino, Ted McGinley, Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal; cast & crew of M*A*S*H Alan Alda, Allan Arbus, William Christopher, Larry Gelbart, Mike Farrell, Jeff Maxwell, Burt Metcalfe, Gene Reynolds, David Ogden Stiers, Loretta Swit, Kellye Nakahara Wallet; and cast & crew of Two and a Half Men Mark Burg, Jon Cryer, Conchata Ferrell, Angus T Jones, Chuck Lorre, Charlie Sheen, Holland Taylor. TV Land previously announced additional honorees for this year's show including Don Rickles (Legend Award), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Legacy of Laughter Award), Married With Children (Innovator Award), M*A*S*H (Impact Award), Home Improvement (Fan Favorite Award), Magnum P.I. (Hero Award), Two and a Half Men (Future Classic Award) and Knots Landing (30th Anniversary Award).
WADL TV-38, Detroit's Urban TV station will be adding some exceptional new programming that will include legendary favorites to the station's spring line-up. The new additions to the classic TV programs will include: I Love Lucy, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, The Brady Bunch, The Honeymooners, The Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith Show. WADL TV 38 features Detroit's only local dance show Dance Party, and nationally known programming such as Cribs, American Chopper, RENO 911, Dave Chappell's Show, and Cheaters. In addition, the station already specializes in classic programming such as Good Times, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Fat Albert, The A-Team, In The Heat of the Night and up and coming to the lineup, Steve Harvey, Brian McKnight, The Brady Bunch and many others. Currently the classic TV line-up on weekdays starting at 4PM is The Jeffersons, Sanford & Son, The A-Team, The Rockford Files, Fat Albert, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, A Different World, In the Heat of the Night, Good Times, M*A*S*H, The Odd Couple, Magnum P.I., Hawaii Five-0, and What's Happening Now!! So, the new programming will start Monday, March 30. Weekdays starting 4PM: Fat Albert, The Brady Bunch, Beverly Hillbillies, I Love Lucy, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Sanford & Son, Fresh Prince, A Different World, The Honeymooners, In The Heat of the Night, The Jeffersons, Good Times, M*A*S*H, The Odd Couple, Magnum P.I., Hawaii Five-0, and What's Happening Now!!
President Obama is as it again...with preempting primetime programming. This time it will be on Tuesday, March 24 at 8PM ET. I'm all for Obama, but come on this is crazy. Eastern/Central time zones will be mostly affected by this. I'll detail it by network. First up ABC will air the Presidential News Conference with Obama live at 8pm ET/5pm PT. So in the eastern/central time zones, the return of According to Jim will be totally preempted. Dancing with the Stars: The Results and Primetime: What Would You Do? will air as scheduled following the news conference. Out in the mountain and pacific time zones, everything will air as normally scheduled, including According to Jim...but they will be repeats instead ("The Blankie" and "Cabin Boys"). So if you're in the east/central time zones and love According to Jim, you'll have to watch the repeats on abc.com the next day, or if you get ABC onDemand on your cable system. Not sure how this will affect ABC's finale date of May 5 for According to Jim. Will it be pushed back a week or will they air two episodes on a special night to catch up? I was looking forward to the return, because Constance Marie (George Lopez) was going to guest star and the second episode was directed by Penny Marshall. CBS will air the Presidential News Conference with Obama live at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Following the address, they will air all-new episodes of NCIS and The Mentalist at special times of 9pm and 10pm ET/PT. Without a Trace will totally be preempted. Not sure yet what will air at 8pm PT/7pm MT, but that could go back to local affiliates or CBS could air a NCIS repeat there leading into a new NCIS. NBC will air the Presidential News Conference with Obama live at 8pm ET/5pm PT, pushing The Biggest Loser an hour back from 8-10pm to 9-11pm ET/PT. So, Law & Order: SVU is totally preempted. For mountain/pacific time zones at 8pm PT/7pm MT you will see a special Dateline episode leading into The Biggest Loser at a special time. Finally, most affected by Obama is Fox. Fox will have to totally scrap a two-hour American Idol Tuesday. They will air the Presidential News Conference with Obama live at 8pm ET/5pm PT. A House repeat will follow at 9pm ET/8pm CT. House will also air at 9pm PT/8pm MT. King of the Hill repeats will fill the hour at 8pm PT/7pm MT. The regular Tuesday installment of Idol will be moved to Wednesday 8-10pm ET/PT, so that means an episode of Lie to Me will have to be preempted that week. And the regular results of Idol Wednesday will have to be moved to Thursday, March 26 from 8-9pm ET/PT preempting Bones. Instead of this mess, couldn't Fox just have aired Idol 9-11pm ET on Tuesday and air it in its normal time in the mountain/pacific time zones instead of causing mass confusion? I know Fox doesn't schedule at 10pm, but the local affiliates wouldn't mind, I'm sure.
I'm on my way to a quick trip to Houston in literally minutes, so I'll see you back live on Sunday when I return...but please do come on by tomorrow (great story!) and Saturday (blog DVD review) as I have already done those stories for those days set to post on their own. Ain't technology grand?
TV Land will be making last minute schedule changes beginning today. We relayed you these changes on our message board, but would like to make it more widespread here. TV Land will alter its late afternoon schedule beginning today at 4pm. Weekdays in the 4pm hour will now be Green Acres, as the series returns to weekdays. The Beverly Hillbillies returns to early evenings, airing in the 5pm hour, causing Hogan's Heroes to move into the 6pm hour, shifting the Andy Griffith two-hour block to 7-9pm rather than 6-8pm. The 8pm Andy hour replaces Cosby Show, but Cosby Show is still heavily featured in PRIME. Rural sitcoms now air weekdays 4pm-9pm and 60s shows in general from 1-9pm with Hillbillies (1-2pm) and westerns still on from 1-4pm. TV Land will also change their late night schedule a bit. Sanford & Son and The Jeffersons will each take an hour from 2-4am, replacing Three's Company. Three's Company will remain on Saturday nights from 2-4am. So now on weekdays, we get Paid Programming in early mornings from 6-9am, '70s sitcoms from 9am-12pm, lunch hour at home at noon with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, '60s TV from 1-9pm with westerns and sitcoms, TV Land PRIME from 9pm-2am, and '70s sitcoms from 2-4am. We still have more changes, though! Monday nights now starting tonight will be Andy Griffith Show from 7pm-1am, while Tuesdays from 11pm-2am will be M*A*S*H/M*A*S*H specials. The Cosby Show will air in the 9pm hour, but on Tuesdays it will also air in the 10pm hour, which means Scrubs is totally off primetime now because of these Monday and Tuesday night changes. It wasn't airing Wed-Fri anyway. The final batch of changes are for Sundays, with the Beverly Hillbillies block being extended to 2pm, so 10am-2pm now rather than 10am-12pm. The Brady Bunch will air late Sundays now from 2am-4am instead of Beaver, which will remain 5-7pm earlier in the day. Head on over to our TV Land January 2009 thread to see these changes, the rest of January info we announced, and to discuss this!
The Television Critics Association's (TCA) winter 2009 press tour began last week. We haven't covered it yet because the cable portion (Jan. 8-10) has been very stale and nothing really noteworthy has come out of it. Coming up tomorrow the broadcast networks begin their portion, with Fox on Tuesday, CBS on Wednesday, NBC on Thursday, and ABC on Friday. Here is a recap of cable: Cable portion started midday on Thursday, Jan. 8, after PBS's 1 1/2 day tour. WE tv kicked off the cable portion with a lunch session. WE tv was followed by fellow Rainbow Networks AMC, IFC, and Sundance. Among the highlights were Breaking Bad launching its second season on AMC later this year. The National Geographic Channel closed out the day. On day two (Friday), select MTV Networks are on hand: Nickelodeon, Spike TV, Comedy Central, LOGO and MTV. Among the highlights were Nickelodeon's upcoming CGI series Penguins of Madagascar, launching in March. A&E was next as it promoted The Beast, the new drama starring Patrick Swayze. He was not on hand, as you all know, as he was hospitalized for pneumonia. He is batling Pancreatic Cancer. His series launches this Thursday. Comcast's E! and style. followed, as E! announced Keeping Up with the Kardashians returns in March. HBO followed with many new series and movies announcements, along with returning series announcements such as for In Treatment. Discovery Networks closed out the day as Discovery Channel, TLC, and Animal Planet relayed their upcoming programming. Finally on Saturday, we had BET, BBC America, Starz, Travel Channel, and Current. This was a total bore with nothing really noteworthy, and many cable networks were not here including TV Land, Nick at Nite, Lifetime, Hallmark, ABC Family, and more. No wonder it wasn't exciting! Stay tuned this week for updates from the broadcast portion...which will be much better.
The 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards were last night. For the television portion, cable ruled big time in drama as HBO won nearly everything. AMC won one award. 30 Rock was the only show that won for broadcast and swept comedy. Here are the television winners:
BEST TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL 30 Rock (NBC) Californication (Showtime) Entourage (HBO) The Office (NBC) Weeds (Showtime) WINNER:30 Rock (NBC)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL Christina Applegate, Samantha Who? (ABC) America Ferrera, Ugly Betty (ABC) Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC) Debra Messing, The Starter Wife (USA Network) Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds (Showtime) WINNER: Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC) Steve Carell, The Office (NBC) David Duchovny, Californication (Showtime) Kevin Connolly, Entourage (HBO) Tony Shalhoub, Monk (USA Network) WINNER: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)
BEST TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA Dexter (Showtime) House (Fox) In Treatment, (HBO) Mad Men (AMC) True Blood (HBO) WINNER:Mad Men (AMC)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters (ABC) Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU (NBC) January Jones, Mad Men (AMC) Anna Paquin, True Blood (HBO) Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer (TNT) WINNER: Anna Paquin, True Blood (HBO)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA Michael C. Hall, Dexter (Showtime) Jon Hamm, Mad Men (AMC) Hugh Laurie, House (Fox) Jonathan Rhys Meyers, The Tudors (Showtime) Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment (HBO) WINNER: Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment (HBO)
WGN America has announced its holiday schedule for 2008! They are airing holiday movies all month long such as the 1985 movie Santa Claus: The Movie on Saturday night, I'll Be Home for Christmas starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas & Jessica Biel, and It's a Very Muppet Christmas Movie. But what about their stunt on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day itself? On Christmas Eve, you can catch Christmas episodes of regularly scheduled timeslot series Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Matlock, In the Heat of the Night, and Nash Bridges from 8am to 1pm ET. Then after the WGN News at 1pm ET, Christmas episodes of The Cosby Show will air at a special time of 2-3pm ET (instead of the usual Homicide) followed by the classic 1977 Christmas special A Flintstone Christmas from 3-4pm ET and the 1980 Yogi Bear classic Yogi's First Christmas from 4-6pm ET. A Flintstone Christmas will also air Monday, Dec. 22 in primetime from 8-9pm ET, while Yogi's First Christmas will also air in primetime on Friday, Dec. 19 from 8-10pm ET. Back to Christmas Eve, WGN America will then reair the movie Santa Claus: The Movie from 6-8pm ET. Then in primetime, WGN America will spend the holidays with The Honeymooners from 8-9pm ET, includes the classic Christmas episode, leading into the Yule Log from 9pm-6am! Who needs a fireplace when you have the classic Yule Log playing classic Christmas songs from the Golden Age of Radio! On Christmas Day itself, WGN America will air Midnight Mass from Chicago at 8am ET and Midnight Mass from New York at 9:30am ET, with Feed the Children at 11am ET before regular programming starts at 12pm ET with a holiday movie marathon until 10:30pm ET, with stars in movies such as Peter Falk, William H. Macy, Don Rickles, Patricia Heaton, Valerie Bertinelli, and Katey Sagal. At 10:30pm ET WGN will air a half-hour special called WGN News Holiday Special. Now originally the plan was for some sitcom holiday episodes during the day on both days, but that is not happening. It was supposed to be from 2pm-6pm ET on Christmas Eve with holiday showings of Cosby Show, Coach, Becker, NewsRadio, Bewitched, WKRP and two episodes of Beverly Hillbillies leading into A Flintstone Christmas and Yogi's Fist Christmas. The Yule Log was originally slated for Christmas Eve night and Christmas morning from 1:30am-6am and again 8am-11am ET followed by a sitcom marathon from 11am-4pm ET of Beverly Hillbillies, Coach, Sister Sister, Cosby Show, Becker, NewsRadio, WKRP, Bewitched and more Coach & Hillbillies leading into three movies. It is too bad this isn't happening, but still WGN is giving us some goodies at least with the animated classic specials. NewsRadio fans might be happy though, as that series is airing as a filler now at times on Fridays at 10:30pm ET, and its holiday episode will air on Dec. 26! Make note of it! So what does WGN America have in store for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day? We can tell you it is a sitcom marathon! We will announce it next week...so stay tuned! Come on back!
NBC has announced its plans for their post Super Bowl schedule starting Feb. 2. We gave you their January schedule, now they have announced their February and March plans. Immediately following Super Bowl XLIII on Sunday, February 1, NBC will broadcast an original, hour-long episode of The Office from approx. 10:30-11:30 p.m. ET (airing simultaneously to all time zones). Then starting the next day, February 2, Monday nights will feature the returns of Chuck (8-9 p.m. ET), the latest volume of Heroes (9-10 p.m. ET) and the season premiere of Medium (10-11 p.m. ET), back in its old slot. Tuesdays will remain the same as they did in January with The Biggest Loser: Couples and Law & Order: SVU. Wednesdays will have the return of Life starting Feb. 4 in between Knight Rider and Law & Order. Speaking of Knight Rider, NBC has cut its episode for the series from the full 22 episodes to 17 episodes due to declining ratings. Knight Rider will now have its season finale on Feb. 25, with a new show launching March 4, but NBC has not announced what yet. Thursdays will stay the same until mid-March, when ER has its two-hour series finale on March 12 from 9-11pm. NBC has ordered an extra ER episode, giving it 20 for this final season. The following week NBC will launch new series Kings with a two-hour premiere on March 19 from 9-11pm, before settling to its new timeslot of 10pm on March 26. I just don't get why NBC is not launching this earlier when they have the Super Bowl platform. Kings is a riveting new drama about a modern-day monarchy. It is a contemporary retelling of the timeless tale of David and Goliath. This series is an epic story of greed and power, war and romance, forbidden loves and secret alliances -- and a young hero who rises to power in a modern-day kingdom. I don't know if the ER audience will stick for something like this. Anyway, Fridays will remain the same in February & March as January with Howdie Do It, Friday Night Lights, and Dateline. Saturdays will continue to have more Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU encores. While Sundays will continue the event specials with the new miniseries XIII airing a week after the Super Bowl from 9-11pm on Feb. 8 and concluding on the week after on Feb. 15 from 9-11pm. XIII is a high-stakes cat-and-mouse thriller starring Val Kilmer, Stephen Dorff, Stephen McHattie and Jessalyn Gilsig, as the first female U.S. president is shot dead by a sniper during her Veterans Day speech. Three months later, a wounded man is found tattered in a forest with no memory of his identity. The only clue is a tattoo on his neck -- XIII. NBC has not announced what will air 7-9pm on Sundays, but it will likely be Dateline or possibly the missing Deal or No Deal. NBC has not announced what special is airing on Feb. 22, but starting March 1, Celebrity Apprentice will air Sundays from 9-11pm. NBC says premieres for additional midseason shows such as The Untitled Amy Poehler Comedy and The Philanthropist, will be announced at a future date. View the NBC Feb-March 2009 press release for more details on these shows.
Yesterday we mentioned we thought ABC would air the docudrama Border Security USA as a lead-in to Lost starting Jan. 28. Now ABC has announced it has renamed the series to Homeland Security USA and will launch it instead on Tuesdays at 8pm starting Jan. 6 as a lead-in to the ABC premiere of Scrubs, a week before Idol comes. So this means According to Jim will not move to that slot on that date. Promos for Homeland started airing last night. However, it seems ABC is only airing 5 of the 11 episodes right now for Homeland Security USA as According to Jim is listed in returning on Feb. 10, though that could change. Looks like ABC wants to do better vs. Idol and give Scrubs a better lead-in. ABC still has not announced what will air as a lead-in to Lost...could it possibly be repeats of Lost? We will keep you up to date on this. But it seems the According to Jim holiday episodes in December will be it for awhile, so watch it all this month Tuesdays 9-10pm! Meanwhile, ABC has cut the episode order for upcoming new series Cupid from 13 to 9 episodes, as it is launching pretty late in the season...on March 24. ABC already cut The Unusuals and Castle from 13 to 10 episodes due to so many series, so this is nothing against Cupid.
Can you believe the holiday season is nearing? Thanksgiving is this week, which means Christmas is right around the corner! And then it will be 2009 a week after that. Time flies! Anyway as I mentioned, I have put together our annual network television (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CW, MyNetwork TV) holiday specials list that we all like to watch every year like Frosty the Snowman and A Charlie Brown Christmas, new classics like Shrek the Halls and we even get some new specials this year like A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa. Sure the network holiday line-ups are not as detailed as some cable networks like ABC Family, but the main holiday specials are still on network television! These are just actual holiday related specials and movies, not movies or specials airing during the holiday season on broadcast network television:
ABC Tuesday, Nov. 25, 8-9pm: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving/This is America Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers Thursday, Nov. 27, 8-9pm: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving/This is America Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers ENCORE Friday, Nov. 28, 8-10pm: ABC Friday Movie of the Week: The Polar Express Monday, Dec. 1, 8-9pm: Shrek the Halls and Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated) Tuesday, Dec. 2, 8-9pm: Santa Claus is Comin' to Town Friday, Dec. 5, 8-10pm: ABC Friday Movie of the Week: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (live-action) Monday, Dec. 8, 8-9pm: A Charlie Brown Christmas Tuesday, Dec. 9, 8-9pm: America's Funniest Home Videos Christmas Special Saturday, Dec. 13, 8-9pm: America's Funniest Home Videos Christmas Special ENCORE Saturday, Dec. 13, 9-11pm: ABC Saturday Movie of the Week: Surviving Christmas Sunday, Dec. 14, 8-10pm: ABC Sunday Movie of the Week: The Santa Clause 2 Monday, Dec. 15, 8-9pm: I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown Tuesday, Dec. 16, 8-9pm: A Charlie Brown Christmas ENCORE Saturday, Dec. 20, 8-9pm: I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown ENCORE Saturday, Dec. 20, 9-11pm: ABC Saturday Movie of the Week: Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat Monday, Dec. 22, 8-8:30pm: Shrek the Halls ENCORE Tuesday, Dec. 23, 8-9pm: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated, expanded edition) Tuesday, Dec. 30, 8-9:30pm: Happy New Year, Charlie Brown and Rudolph's Shiny New Year For other non-holiday related movies and specials airing during the holiday season on ABC, view our schedule.
CBS: Wednesday, Dec. 3, 8-9pm: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Friday, Dec. 12, 8-9pm: Frosty the Snowman and Frosty Returns Friday, Dec. 12, 9-10pm: The Flight Before Christmas (NEW!) Saturday, Dec. 20, 8-10pm: CBS Saturday Movie: Elf Tuesday, Dec. 23, 8-9pm: 10th Annual Home for the Holidays with Faith Hill For other non-holiday related movies and specials airing during the holiday season on CBS, view our schedule.
NBC: Wednesday, Dec. 3, 8-9pm: Christmas in Rockefeller Center Friday, Dec. 5, 8-9pm: Greatest Holiday Moments: TV & Film Countdown Wednesday, Dec. 10, 8-9pm: Little Spirit: A New York Christmas Friday, Dec. 12, 8-9pm: Greatest Holiday Moments: Songs of the Season Countdown Saturday, Dec. 13, 8-11pm: NBC Movie of the Week: It's a Wonderful Life Wednesday, Dec. 17, 8-9pm: A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa (NEW!) Friday, Dec. 19, 8-10pm: Greatest Holiday Moments: TV & Film Countdown and Greatest Holiday Moments: Songs of the Season Countdown Monday, Dec. 22, 8-9pm: Greatest Holiday Moments: Hilarious Home Video Countdown Tuesday, Dec. 24, 8-11pm: NBC Movie of the Week: It's a Wonderful Life Wednesday, Dec. 25, 10-11pm: Greatest Holiday Moments: Hilarious Home Video Countdown For other non-holiday related movies and specials airing during the holiday season on NBC, view our schedule.
Fox: None For other non-holiday related movies and specials airing during the holiday season on Fox, view our schedule.
The CW: Friday, Dec. 5, 8-9pm: Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer Friday, Dec. 5, 9-10pm: The Story of Santa Claus For other non-holiday related movies and specials airing during the holiday season on The CW, view our schedule.
MyNetwork TV: Saturday, Dec. 6, 8-10pm: MySaturday Night Movie: Miracle on 34th Street Monday, Dec. 8, 8-10pm: MyMonday Night Movie: Blizzard Tuesday, Dec. 9, 8-10pm: Olive the Other Reindeer and Santa's Funniest Moments Wednesday, Dec. 10, 8-10pm: MyWednesday Night Movie: Home Alone Tuesday, Dec. 16, 8-10pm: Soul of Christmas Wednesday, Dec. 17, 8-10pm: Christmas is Here Again and Santa's Funniest Moments Thursday, Dec. 18, 8-9pm: Wrestlemania Holiday Special Monday, Dec. 22, 8-10pm: The Spirit of Christmas Tuesday, Dec. 23, 8-10pm: MyTuesday Night Movie: Babes in Toyland For other non-holiday related movies and specials airing during the holiday season on MyNetwork TV, view our schedule.
TV Land has edited their line-up a bit effective immediately. I announced the changes on Saturday on our message board, but in case you didn't see that...they are adding Paid Programming from 5am-7am on weekday mornings. It started today. No reason was given and it will last at least until the end of December. So, this means Star Trek is off the regular schedule, but it will air sometimes on Thursdays at 7am. M*A*S*H will air every other weekday in the 7am hour, followed now by a full-hour of Night Court at 8am. Back-to-back sitcom episodes will last until 1pm with Sanford & Son, The Jeffersons, Good Times and I Love Lucy from 9am-1pm. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will be indeed staying at 1pm on weekday afternoons. The other changes are in primetime. After The Cosby Show block from 8-10pm, we now will get Scrubs from 10-11pm as 3rd Rock from the Sun moves to 11pm-1am, with a four episode block now. M*A*S*H will assume the 1am hour now while Three's Company moves up an hour to 2-3am. The 4-6am block of Designing Women, Mad About You, Murphy Brown and Just Shoot Me will all move up an hour to 3-5am, as mentioned Paid Programming will assume the 5-7am hours now. Weekends will not see many changes, but I advise you to view our one-time-only schedule dates for November and December. You can see the full list of changes starting Nov. 24 in the November highlights, too. The Beverly Hillbillies only airs on weekends now, primarily on Sundays from 12-4am...view our highlights for details. And yes, there is NO paid programming on Saturdays and Sundays. Paid Programming is just weekdays. If you notice on the December highlights, the last three days of December, the paid programming will be 6-9am instead of 5-7am. Not sure if that will continue into January or not, but we'll let you know soon. In the November schedule highlights, you'll notice the Thanksgiving marathon has been edited a bit, with CSI now included in the marathon this Saturday and Sunday night in primetime. CSI was originally supposed to air this week in the 11pm-1am hours, as it did last week, but TV Land has decided to air them in holiday weekend marathon block instead. After that, CSI will not be scheduled on TV Land in the near future, unless another schedule change happens.
Effective Saturday, December 6, struggling Friday drama Crusoe will move to Saturdays at 8:00pm ET/PT. It aired its last Friday airing this past Friday at 9pm and it continued to bomb for NBC. Six episodes still remain, so NBC will have to deal with more bad ratings until then, unless they pull it. It'll of course do worse on Saturdays, but NBC was airing low-rated Knight Rider repeats in the Saturday slot anyway, so expectations are lower. Because of the change, Fridays will see newsmagazine Dateline added, but not in Crusoe's slot. Dateline will air Fridays at 10pm against ABC's 20/20, while current 10pm slot holder Lipstick Jungle moves to Fridays at 9pm. Don't understand that move. Dateline would be better at 9pm, as Lipstick Jungle is also doing terrible and is on its last four episodes, so that series will air its last episode on Jan. 9. NBC has not announced what will happen to Fridays after that. In fact, NBC will likely see many changes in January and the rest of midseason, and we'll let you know as soon as we do. The schedule NBC announced last April for this winter is of course going to change, so I don't understand why NBC announced it last April in the first place.
We have a special Friday edition of our Blog DVD Reviews for you today. Today we take a look at Universal Home Video's Knight Rider: The Complete Collection. Knight Rider of course is the hit 1980s action series starring David Hasselhoff. This is not to be confused with the current revival series. Universal already had released each season on DVD separately, but now we can own the series in one cool box set! See my Blog DVD Review of Knight Rider: The Complete Collection:
Knight Rider: The Complete Collection (Universal, $139.98) brings all four seasons and 85 action-packed episodes of Knight Rider together for the first time in one amazing DVD collection! David Hasselhoff is back as charismatic crimefighter Michael Knight, the driver of the world's most dynamic, high-tech talking car, K.I.T.T. As this brave duo take on criminals, crooks and those eager to exploit K.I.T.T.'s impressive technology for their own evil purposes, you'll be blown away by their explosive adventures that set the standard for all TV action series to come. With 24 discs tricked out with an impressive array of bonus features, it's one complete DVD trip you can't afford to miss! OK, so all four seasons were already released separately. See our season reviews: Season 1 / Season 2 / Season 3 / Season 4 The only difference on this set is the packaging. The packaging is pretty big, but VERY cool. It is like a portfolio type, but much heavier. The cover is all in black with the Knight Rider: The Complete Collection words in grey. Underneath that we see a red bar with a button. The red bar is supposed to be the flashing lights we see on K.I.T.T. Once we press that button the theme song plays for a little bit and he lights flash back and forth in that red bar. It is very cool! Good job by Universal and excellent planning. Batteries are of course used for this. There are instructions on the set if your batteries die on how to replace them. On the back of this nice packaging we have the same black color scheme (fitting) with a shot of Michael, K.I.T.T., and the box art/discs. There is also info on the set and DVD bonus features. Just make sure you don't pull out the back part because it is just an insert really glued on. When we open the box, we open how we do a portfolio...very easy. There is a pocket that holds six slim cases each on a side. So we have 12 slim cases! If you recall from our season one review, the packaging was a digipak case, so we get something different this time for season one. Each slim case holds two discs each. Each slim case has the same artwork that was used for each season box art, with episode info on the back of each slim case. Now on each of the season sets the discs were all double-sided, now this time they are all single-sided. So, I think many people will just buy this set because of that. The artwork for each disc is the same...all black background, with the show logo, season number, and disc number. Simple but effective. Beats the double-sided pain for sure! Everything else is the same as what we saw on the season sets. The menus, video/audio quality, and special features. There is no new things content wise. See our season reviews again for details on these. I think a die hard fan would want this set for sure. The packaging alone would do it. It is so cool to press a button and the theme plays and the flashing red lights. I have pressed it so many times already. One of the coolest sets ever. Maybe the best packaging ever. It is just hard to find a spot on your shelf for it because it is so big. It certainly isn't "compact" like the cheap Sony complete series sets which are a waste of money and time. If you haven't bought any season sets, then this would be the way to go. Same content, but the discs problem is fixed as they are all single-sided now. So buy this set before Garth chases you down and makes you watch the new Knight Rider, which doesn't compare at all with this classic series! Long live Michael Knight! -- Reviewed by Pavan (4/5 stars)
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We still have news for ya! TV Land has made some changes for this weekend and some changes starting Monday. Some of the changes for this weekend are for only this weekend. Such as Leave it to Beaver Saturday morning from 8-10am and 3rd Rock from the Sun on Sunday from 4-8pm. Everything else is for every week. We will start with weekdays first. From 4-5pm weekdays, The Beverly Hillbillies will air replacing Hogan's Heroes, which moves back to 5-6pm. Two-hours of Andy Griffith moves from 5-7pm to 6-8pm, as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will be pulled from 7pm (it will still air 11pm). 12-1am and 1-2am hours will be switched, M*A*S*H will now air 12-1am and Cosby Show from 1-2am, with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's second airing now 2am instead of 7pm. On weekends Saturdays will see an hour of Andy from 8-9am (sometimes 12-1pm) and Lucy from 9am to 1 or 2pm usually. The movies follow, with now 3rd Rock from the Sun airing 6-8pm instead of Cosby Show which will now air 8-10pm. So, two-hour editions of Home Edition have been pulled. Andy Griffith will air from 10pm-12am instead of Scrubs and Myths & Legends. Sundays will see Gunsmoke have another airing at 7am, while Bonanza gets two airings from 8-10am. TV Land Goes West gets extended from 12-4am usually to now 1-7pm (or 2-8pm sometimes). See the full list of changes. It's official family game show Opportunity Knocks - from Ashton Kutcher - has been pulled from ABC, but it could return in December on a new night and time to finish out its remaining six episodes. Dancing with the Stars: Performance Recap Show will air this Tuesday ONLY (Tuesday, October 21, 2008) at 8:00PM ET/PT. It will be a condensed airing of Monday's performance. Previously scheduled It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will air on Tuesday, October 28, 2008 in the time period and ABCNews Vote 2008: Election Night will air on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. Programming for Tuesday, November 11 and Tuesday, November 18 in the time period has not been announced yet (As of now, Tuesday, November 25 is A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving). We will keep you up to date.
Before we get to the November 2008 TV Land highlights, we have some news for fans for this week. For this week only, from Wed-Fri (Sept. 24-26), two more Night Court airings will air per day from 7-8am instead of the usual M*A*S*H, in addition to its weekdays at 8am airing. Why is this happening? Because M*A*S*H will takeover the 11pm-12am slot this week instead of Scrubs, in addition to its 12-1am airings. The Cosby Show marathon is going on this week in primetime, so there have been time shifting, and possibly Scrubs didn't do well at 11pm this week. This November on TV Land it's time to vote and then have a feast on Thanksgiving! Its election season and TV Land is offering viewers the chance to voice off on a homefront issue of grave importance: Who should be the first family of TV Land -- The Taylors (Andy, Aunt Bea and Opie of The Andy Griffith Show), the Sanfords (Fred, Lamont and Aunt Esther of Sanford & Son) or the Clampetts (Jed, Granny, Elie-Mae and Jethro of The Beverly Hillbillies)? For two weeks, beginning Saturday, October 18 and leading up to election weekend, viewers will have the opportunity to go to tvland.com to vote on their favorite TV Land clan after viewing clips featuring the contending families at their best...and their worst. So whether they are having each other's backs or sticking a knife in it, TV Land's contenders always come together in the end to cut through the red tape and bring the laughter. On Sunday, November 2, after the viewers have voted on their favorites, the winning family will be featured in an 8 hour block from 8p-4a. Exciting! Every Wednesday at 10pm, TV Land continues with TV Land Myths & Legends in November. The season premiere is October 8 and runs through November 19. Don't miss the movies that made you believe a man can fly with a 3-night primetime limited commercial interruption event...of Superman! Superman and Superman II will be presented at 10pm on Friday, November 21 and Saturday, November 22. Then on Sunday, November 23 at 8pm, TV Land encores both movies in a special double-feature presentation (both of which will be enhanced with additional content giving viewers the scoop on behind the scenes drama along with fun facts and trivia about the Superman myth and the stars themselves.) Superman will save the day once more on Sunday, December 14 when the movie will encore on the eve of the 30th Anniversary of the film featuring limited commercial interruption and movie facts! It's certainly not a bird or plane! Finally, TV Land's 2nd Annual Overstuffed Thanksgiving Weekend is serving up four fun-filled days of great television from Thursday, November 27 through Sunday, November 30 beginning at 10am each day. Viewers will delight in having four fun-filled days of classic and modern shows, TV Land originals and dynamic movies. With shows like The Andy Griffith Show, The Cosby Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Sanford & Son, I Love Lucy and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition together with movies like Superman and Police Academy, viewers will keep coming back for more like they do with turkey on Thanksgiving! There will be no schedule changes to the regular line-up in November. Movie premieres for the month include Superman, Superman II, Dennis the Menace and Fatal Attraction with encore showings of City Slickers, Easy Money and Police Academy. View the full TV Land November 2008 schedule and highlights.
President Bush plans to talk to Americans directly about the financial crisis in a primetime tonight at 9PM ET. This means primetime programming will be delayed after 9PM tonight. The speech will last 15 minutes and will delay all programming on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox in Eastern, Central and Mountain time zones. Pacific time programming will not be affected by this, as they will get the speech at 6PM PT, so no delays out west. Out in the east and central, for ABC, David Blaine: Dive of Death will run from 9:15-11:15PM ET (that's 8:15-10:15PM CT). For CBS, the season premiere of Criminal Minds will run 9:15-10:15PM ET and CSI: NY's season premiere will run from 10:15-11:15PM ET. NBC's America's Got Talent will run 9:17-10:00PM ET and be abbreviated (it will air fully out west)the season premiere of Lipstick Jungle will run normally at 10-11PM ET. And finally, Fox's struggling sitcoms will be on a delay, with 'Til Death from 9:15-9:45PM ET and Do Not Disturb from 9:45-10:15PM ET. Set those DVRs or be on alert tonight!
It's a very busy Tuesday here at SitcomsOnline! WGN America has edited their fall schedule again. They will make a few changes to their weekend line-up this week (Sept. 27-28). On Saturday, September 27, at 6pm ET they will premiere Boston Legal leading into the White Sox game at 7pm ET. On Sunday, Sept. 28 from 11am-12pm ET will be two episodes of Funniest Pets & People for his week only. Now at 12 noon ET, WGN America will air Boston Legal every week. Following Legal, will be two episodes of Whacked Out Sports at a special time from 1-2pm leading into the regular season finale for the Chicago Cubs. Beverly Hillbillies Sunday airings will move to 1-2am ET, following the Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie hours. So what will happen regularly? Originally starting Saturday, October 4, NewsRadio was slated to join the WGN America line-up airing Saturdays 6-7pm ET followed by two Becker episodes from 7-8pm ET on Saturdays. Now NewsRadio won't be airing at all. Becker will slide to that 6-7pm ET timeslot on Saturdays followed by Boston Legal airing Saturdays at 7pm ET. On Sundays, as mentioned earlier, Boston Legal will air at 12 noon ET. The Cosby Show will be replaced on Sundays from 6-7pm with ALF, as ALF joins the regular line-up! The '80s comedy will actually launch Wednesday, October 1 from 8-10pm ET with a four episode block, for that week only. However, ALF will air on Mondays from 9-10pm ET as well starting Monday, October 6! So, Sundays 6-7pm ET and Mondays 9-10pm ET starting Oct. 5 and 6 for ALF. Also, on Sundays, as mentioned earlier, Beverly Hillbillies will move from Sunday daytime to 1-2am ET Sunday night. What a sitcom block on WGN from 5pm-2am on Sundays (with a break for news at 10-11pm ET), with Coach, ALF, WKRP, Newhart, Honeymooners, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie & Beverly Hillbillies! Finally, starting Monday, November 3, weekdays 1-2am ET has changed a bit. Reno 911 is now 5 days a week rather than just airing 5 times on Fri/Sat nights. Corner Gas will move to 1:30am ET, as Becker will leave late nights but will still air weekday afternoons at 4pm ET and Saturday evenings from 6-7pm ET. Reno/Corner will follow The Bob and Tom Show at midnight ET weekdays starting Nov. 3. And the Saturday night midnight ET airing of Reno 911 will be another episode of The Honeymooners instead starting November 8, since Reno 911 will be airing weekdays. So, The Honeymooners gains another slot (it already airs Sundays 9-10pm ET). I suggest you view the FULL WGN America Fall schedule so you don't get confused. We're not done with WGN America, as in the coming days or weeks we will announce what is airing on Halloween for a marathon!
TV One has made a few schedule changes. Beginning on Monday, September 29, the TV One primetime schedule will make a few adjustments. In the 9:30pm weeknight timeslot, TV One will now air the sitcom For Your Love replacing All of Us which has moved now to 10pm. Also beginning that week, the Friday night 4am timeslot will now be an additional airing of the animated comedy series The PJs. However, from Monday, October 6 and continuing through Thursday, October 9, that late night 4am timeslot will also be The PJs preempting All of Us for this week only. Also, the previously announced "Living Single: Celebrity Edition" marathon on Saturday, October 11 beginning at 11am, will now include an encore airing of Living Single: The Reunion Show, which reunites the cast from the classic hit sitcom. TV One has pulled the launch for short-lived sitcom South Central. The sitcom was slated for a launch marathon on Saturday, October 18, but now movies will air instead that day. It will definitely air at a later date. The TV One programming and marketing group decided that they had too many other things to promote this fall, and they wanted to be able to give it the attention they think it deserves. We will of course let you know when it is scheduled again. So, yes, it won't air regularly on Saturdays at 11am and Sundays at 6pm either. Instead we will get two back-to-back episodes of fellow short-lived sitcom Where I Live starting Sunday, Oct. 19 airing Sundays 6-7pm and Saturdays 11am-12pm. Where I Live was previously scheduled to air Saturdays 11:30am and Sundays 6:30pm following South Central. Moving on to The N...we mentioned Saved by the Bell was pulled last week and now a week later, it's back! The show is now airing weekdays at 3:00pm & 3:30pm starting immediately. Also, from 4-5pm two episodes of H2O is replacing two episodes of Kenan & Kel, which goes off the schedule. And from 5-6pm two episodes of Unfabulous replaces to shots of All That, which also is off the line-up now. Degrassi is back on The N with a weekend marathon from Friday, October 3 to Sunday, October 5. The show will air all day on those three days from 6am-6am, except 12-2am when That '70s Show airs. Degrassi returns for an all-new season the week after on October 10 at 8pm with an one-hour season premiere as Mia's got a new friend, a new guy, and maybe even a job as a model -- if she's willing to do what it takes to beat the competition. The season premiere will be followed by the season premiere of South of Nowhere at 9pm. If that weekend marathon was not enough, the week of October 6 will see more Degrassi. Degrassi will air Monday, October through Thursday, October 9 from 6am-10am, 3-6pm, and 2-6am. And all day on Friday, October 10 leading up to the season premiere.
The CW's drama 90210, quickly becoming one of the most popular series among young women, has been picked up for a full season of episodes even before it aired an episode during the actual TV season which started Monday. The two-hour debut of 90210 on Sept. 2 shattered ratings records for The CW Network, becoming the highest-rated series premiere in the network's history with women 18-34 (4.5/12), adults 18-34 (3.1/9) and adults 18-49 (2.6/7). The 90210 series opener on Sept. 2 led The CW to become Tuesday's #1 network in all key demographics. With a double airing of the 90210 premiere during the opening week (Tuesday and Thursday), 12.7 million viewers watched all or part of The CW's highly anticipated new series. Facing increased competition, the most recent telecast of 90210 scored week-to-week gains in target demos, including 6% in women 18-34 (3.3/10), 14% in adults 18-34 (2.4/7) and 3% in total viewers (3.3mil). In addition, the series debut of 90210 added over a third more viewers in target demographics with Live-Plus Seven Day DVR viewing included. While it is off to a good start, I think The CW should have waited until at least after today to announce it has picked up the back nine. The first Tuesday of the season is tonight, so it would have been wise to see how it would do tonight in the actual season.
A blues-singing beagle, a bull dog who can skateboard and flush the toilet on command and a Jack Russell terrier who can jump rope and walk up steps backward are among the semifinalists as the final round of voting begins for the top six pups who will compete for the champion title on the First Annual Worldwide Fido Awards, airing in primetime, Sunday, Oct. 5, at 8:00 p.m. (ET/PT) on Nick at Nite. The one-hour special event hosted by actor/comedian Fred Willard (Best in Show) will showcase the six Fido finalists and best of WorldwideFido.com's user-generated videos, where one lucky dog will ultimately be crowned the 2008 Worldwide Fido winner. Fans can vote now on http://www.worldwidefido.com to determine the finalist in each of the six categories, including "Cutest Dog," "Best Dressed," "Best Voice," "Most Outrageous," "Best Trick" and "Dog/Owner Look-Alike." Popular dog trainer-to-the-stars Tamar Geller will serve as one of the judges, while one very special dog will be presented the "Hero" Award, to honor invaluable services provided to humans. The show will also feature pooch performances throughout the evening.
Nearly three weeks ago we gave you WGN America's Fall 2008 schedule, but now there has been a slight change, nothing drastic but they are changing the schedule a bit on Sundays. Originally there were no schedule changes in September on Sundays, but now WGN America will change Sundays starting Sept. 14 and a little bit more on Oct. 5, which was the original date of changes happening on Sundays. On Sept. 14 Whacked Out Sports will air at 1pm ET for an hour leading into Cubs baseball games at 2pm ET. After the game ends, Funniest Pets & People will now air in the 5pm ET hour leading into The Cosby Show now in the 6pm ET hour. The Outta Sight Retro Night will continue to air from 7-10pm ET (with WKRP, Newhart, and Honeymooners hours) followed by the WGN News at 9 at 10pm ET. Then more classic TV will be added as Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie will join the Sunday line-up earlier than planned and in a better slot too, Sundays in the 11pm ET hour for Bewitched and 12am ET hour for I Dream of Jeannie sliding Scrubs to 1am ET. Remember this is just Sundays. The weekday line-up starting Sept. 8 will remain the same as we previously announced, such as Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie in the 9am ET hour weekdays. There will be no changes to Saturdays in September as we previously said. Saturdays will still change starting Oct. 4 as we originally mentioned, with changes such as Bewitched airing at 12 noon ET, I Dream of Jeannie at 1pm ET, NewsRadio at 6pm ET and Coach at 7pm ET. So nothing changed there. However, Sundays starting Oct. 5 will be altered just a tad now because of the changes on Sept. 14. Originally this is where the Sunday overhaul was going to take place, but now the changes will just be Whacked Out Sports kicking it off at 11am ET followed by a double dose now of The Beverly Hillbillies at 12 noon ET. The rest of the Sunday line-up is generally the same as the one that will start Sept. 14. We will have much more on WGN America in the near future as they have classic TV marathons planned for all upcoming holidays starting with Halloween, so stay tuned! For now, view the entire WGN America Fall 2008 Schedule so you see the new Sunday schedule and the rest of the schedule as well if you missed it!
Two-time Golden Globe winner Valerie Bertinelli (One Day at a Time) is returning to the world of sitcoms. She has just signed to star in a new comedy pilot for TBS from writer/executive producer Dave Caplan, whose credits include TBS's highly popular sitcom The Bill Engvall Show, as well as past ABC sitcoms George Lopez and The Drew Carey Show. The as-yet-untitled sitcom centers on a single mother trying to run a business while raising two children. The premise of the show is inspired by events in Caplan's own life. Caplan wrote the pilot script and will serve as executive producer along with Original Film's Neal Moritz and Vivian Cannon. Bertinelli will also serve as producer. The project comes to TBS from Sony Pictures Television. The Caplan project follows the life of a woman (Bertinelli) who manages to get through the day with surprisingly good humor despite very difficult circumstances: Her husband walks out, leaving her with two kids and a struggling lumberyard. It will take every ounce of energy she has to keep both her household and her business afloat, while facing obstacles at every turn. Stay tuned for more news on this! Fox has announced the series premiere of new J.J. Abrams drama Fringe will premiere from 8pm-9:35pm now instead of 8-10pm on Tuesday, September 9. The 8pm-9:35pm premiere will still have very limited commercials. Airing for the last 25 minutes from 9:35-10pm will now be a special sneak peek of the new Fox reality series Hole in the Wall. Hole in the Wall is still scheduled to air in its regular Thursday night slot at 8-9pm starting on Sept. 11. Fox will encore the premiere of Fringe on Sunday, September 14 as well from 8pm-9:35pm, but the time slot after that is still to be determined, but it is likely Fox will show a Fall Preview Special there. ABC is moving forward with its plans for a male-based Supernanny spinoff called Supermanny. The network will air a pilot episode of Supermanny in the fall. The spinoff's format will remain similar to the original, with a child-development expert lending a family in crisis some tough-love guidance. But instead of professional nanny Jo Frost leading the living-room intervention, gruff Chicago child therapist Mike Ruggles will step in. Supernanny moves to Fridays at 9pm ET this fall on ABC and it is likely the Supermanny pilot will air in that slot sometime this season as a backdoor pilot.
It is a very big Friday today here at SitcomsOnline.com. We have many schedules and the CBS portion of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. So let's begin with the TV schedules ... TV Land, WGN America and BET. First up, as promised the TV Land September 2008 schedule. It's a funny bone emergency as TV Land welcomes the Emmy winning sitcom Scrubs to its roster with an 7-hour Labor Day marathon from 4pm-11pm. Then the show will air Mon-Sat back-to-back at 9:00pm & 9:30pm ET/PT starting September 2. The other changes starting Sept. 2 include M*A*S*H moving to 10pm-12am and the late night marathons are now from 1am-6am. Then starting September 15, TV Land celebrates the arrival of The Cosby Show to the network with a week-long marathon featuring the best of Cosby wit and wisdom each night starting at 8pm thru 11pm (with an encore from 1-3am). The marathon shifts into high gear that weekend when TV Land programs 20 hours of fan favorite episodes giving viewers even more quality time with the Cos from 8pm-3am both nights. Then starting Sept. 22, Cosby Show will air Mon-Sat from 8-9pm and 12-1am ET/PT. More changes will come as Cheers, The Addams Family and The Munsters are expiring and will leave starting the week of Sept. 15. Other changes include time shifting, such as Andy Griffith Show going from 7-9pm to 6-8pm, and Hogan's Heroes and Hillbillies move up an hour to 4-5pm and 5-6pm. Hogan's and Hillbillies will also still air in the late night 1-2am and 2-3am, which means the late night marathons will be now down to 3-6am. I suggest you see our TV Land September 2008 thread for the complete schedule. There is a Three's Company sighting as well, three airings back-to-back-to-back from 3:30am-5am on late Thursday, Sept. 11. It was originally planned for every Thursday late night. Also, Just Shoot Me and Murphy Brown will now be just weekend late nights, and not weeknight late nights, like originally planned. The Brady Bunch is off the line-up completely. Other TV Land September highlights include many movie premieres such as Back to School, Sister Act 2, Overboard, The Right Stuff, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. Again see our September 2008 thread for complete details and you can also ask questions and make comments there.
Next up is WGN America! For the past two months they have aired an Outta Sight Retro Nights marathon. In June they had a '70s week and earlier this month we had an '80s marathon. Now they will move to the Golden Oldies era! It's the Outta Sight Retro Nights Marathon: The Golden Oldies! The marathon will be a four night look at the '50s and '60s. The marathon will be from Monday, August 4 through Thursday, August 7, 2008 from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT) on WGN America (not in Chicago, sorry!). Up first is the all-time '50s hit The Honeymooners on that Monday with four classic episodes. Then we move to the '60s as we strike it rich with The Beverly Hillbillies, ya here? Then the next two nights will be two shows that don't regular air on WGN America! On that Wednesday we twitch our way to Samantha and Darrin's house in Bewitched! Finally, on that Thursday we make a wish for I Dream of Jeannie with four wishful episodes. What a week that will be for fans of the golden oldies era. Four classics indeed! For episode info visit our WGN America Golden Oldies episode listing.
We end our schedules galore with BET. BET will be making some sitcom changes. Next week (week of July 21), BET will have Diff'rent Strokes for four episodes in a row in the mornings. Its current 9-10am slot and 10-11am, replacing Malcolm & Eddie. Diff'rent Strokes has been preempted in its afternoon 3-4pm slot for weeks now and it will not be returning there now. It seems this morning change will be for the week of July 21 only. Because starting July 28, BET will turn the 9-11am block into rotating sitcoms. Mondays starting July 28 will be the short lived '90s sitcom Thea! Then Tuesdays starting the 29th it will be Diff'rent Strokes Tuesdays. On Wednesdays BET will showcase the UPN hit The Parkers. Thursdays spend mornings with your girlfriends while watching Girlfriends from 9-11am. And finally on Friday, end the work week with the hardest working man Fred Sanford in Sanford! So Thea and Sanford will return (remember they have a marathon this Sunday, July 20, too from 3-8pm), while Malcolm & Eddie gets the boot for now. We will keep you up to date if any more changes occur! Future Outlook: This September BET has acquired reruns of Judge Hatchett and also repurposing rights to the upcoming new court series Judge Karen. More info will come soon.
Today is day one for the CBS portion of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. All of the CBS shows that are planned for the panel are actually all going today on the panel, with CW/CBS syndication for tomorrow. After the Executive Session this morning (details on that below after the summary), up at the panel were the CBS News division, followed by rookie sitcom Worst Week and new drama Eleventh Hour. Then after lunch, the afternoon sessions had all rookies again, new drama The Mentalist, and new Friday drama The Ex-List. Weird that no returning show was at the panel for CBS. New sitcom Gary Unmarried (previously known as Project Gary) was supposed to be doing a panel today in the afternoon, but star Jay Mohr is out of the country. Following CBS shows, CBS had premium cable network Showtime go up next late in the afternoon. They had their Executive Session followed by their Sho Stoppers Showcase session. Finally, in the evening CBS, Showtime, The CW and CBS Television Distribution presented their Stars Party with executives, talent and executive producers from CBS, Showtime, The CW and CBS Television Distribution. From the CBS executive session we learned that William Petersen is indeed leaving CSI but they have planned new additions such as a serial killer type. Nina Tassler says CBS doesn't regret canceling Moonlight (ouch!). She also said Britney didn't save How I Met Your Mother and Sarah Chalke will return for multiple episodes next season. From the CBS News session, Katie Couric said she will stay on with CBS Evening News despite the low ratings. There were rumors that CBS would give her the boot after the Election. Moving on to Showtime, Edie Falco will return to television with the series Nurse Jackie. It will follow Falco's day-to-day life as a nurse with a drug problem. The series will begin production in the fall for a spring/early summer 2009 debut. The network also said it is developing a spin-off of The L Word, which is entering its final season. Meanwhile, comedy Weeds will get two more seasons for a total of 26 episodes. They also ordered six episodes of documentary series Lock 'N Load and a seventh season of Penn & Teller: Bull****! for 6 episodes, the longest-running series on the channel. It seems we learned more about Showtime, than CBS today. Coming up tomorrow its CBS Day 2, but it will feature The CW and CBS Television Distribution (that's their syndication series).
The TVS Television Network, the fourth oldest commercial TV network in the USA, has launched NTV Tele.Net, an advertising supported full time streaming video internet channel, short for the Nostalgia Television Network. NTVTele.Net is a streaming video channel that programs classic TV programs and movies 24 hours daily. While all of the classic programming is of a vintage nature, TVS plans an aggressive slate of new programs that capture the historic nature of NTVTele.Net programs. NTVTele.Net features top classic TV shows from the past 60 years of television including Bonanza, Andy Griffith, Robin Hood, Jim Bowie, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Dobie Gillis, My Favorite Martian, Sea Hunt, Peter Gunn, Checkmate, Beverly Hillbillies, Ozzie and Harriet, Dick Van Dyke, and many other classics. TVS is scheduled to roll out 16 more fulltime streaming channels in 2008, most under the legendary TVS banner. TVS began in 1961 telecasting to independent TV stations and has been a premiere occasional network for 47 years. NTVTele.Net is currently running marathon classic TV programming in its Beta stage, and will convert to a classic schedule of programming in August.
We have lost two more sitcom stars. George Carlin, who was one of the best stand-up comics, and Dody Goodman, more known for her Broadway work. Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday at about 6pm PT. Known for his edgy, provocative material, Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine about seven dirty words you could not say on television. A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of his "Filthy Words" routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court. He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and was also the first person to host Saturday Night Live back in 1975...he hosted an episode again in 1984. George Carlin got his own sitcom in 1994 on Fox called The George Carlin Show. The show only lasted 27 episodes and was about George playing New York City cab driver named George O'Grady. His other sitcom credits include guest shots on Welcome Back Kotter, That Girl and The Simpsons. Children best know him for his work on Shining Time Station as the conductor, which he spoofed in 2000 on an episode of MADtv. He was also the narrator for many years on the children's series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. His film credits include Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (which he also appeared on the animated TV series), Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Americathon, Prince of Tides, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jersey Girl, Scary Movie 3 and Cars. Stand-up comedy was of course what he was best known for. He hosted about 14 HBO comedy specials and is known as one of the best stand-up comics of all-time. The Kennedy Center just said it will posthumously award the Mark Twain Prize to the late George Carlin at this year's annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He died a week after being named the 2008 recipient of the Twain Prize. He will be remembered at the Nov. 10 ceremony. Mr. Carlin will certainly be missed. We are all probably saying the seven dirty words he was known to use today as we heard about his passing. Mr. Carlin was 71.
We have also lost Dody Goodman. Dody Goodman died Sunday (June 22) at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital and Medical Center. The actress had been ill for some time and had lived in the Actors Fund Home in Englewood since October. Goodman gained a measure of newspaper column space for her dancing solos in such '40s Broadway musicals as High Button Shoes and Wonderful Town. In 1955, she stopped the show in Off Broadway's Shoestring Revue with the novelty song "Someone's Been Sending Me Flowers." She came to the attention of nighttime talkshow host Jack Paar, who after becoming enchanted by Goodman's ditzy persona and seemingly spontaneous malaprops, invited the lady to become a semi-regular on The Tonight Show. As Goodman's fame grew, she became difficult to handle on the show, and Paar was not happy with her upstaging habits. So she left show and appeared on other talk shows such as The Merv Griffin Show. She returned to Broadway in 1974 to appear in Lorelei with Carol Channing. Then in 1975 she played Louise Lasser's mother on the comedy-soap Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Her high-pitched voice could be also heard announcing the show's title at the beginning of each episode. She appeared on the spin-off Forever Fernwood as well. She was also famous in the '80s for her recurring role as Aunt Sophia on the '80s sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. Goodman also provided the voice of Miss Miller on the animated series Alvin & the Chipmunks and various specials and movies such as The Chipmunk Adventure. She also had a role in the '80s daytime soap Texas. Her other TV credits include her first role as a waitress on The Phil Silvers Show, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Mary Tyler Moore Hour, CHiPs, Just Our Luck, St. Elsewhere, Punky Brewster, One Life to Live, Crazy Like a Fox, Bustin' Loose, Murder She Wrote, Here and Now, and Boston Common. She also appeared in the TV movie I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later. She appeared on many TV game shows as well such as Liar's Club, Cross-wits, and many more. She appeared in such popular films as Grease, Grease 2, playing Blanche (the principal's assistant), and in the movie Splash and Splash, Too. Both movie franchises are very memorable and she was a big part of them. She will certainly be missed by Broadway fans, TV fans, and movie fans as she had big roles in each. Dody lived a long life and was 93.
As we previously posted about WGN America doing a '70s week a few weeks ago and adding a weekly Sunday night block, we also hinted at a planned '80s week in July. Now we have full details on WGN America's Outta Sight Retro Nights Week: A Flashback to the '80s. The week-long event airs Monday, July 7 through Friday, July 11, 2008 from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT) each night that week. Kicking it off on Monday that week is the '80s hit ALF featuring the loveable alien. On Tuesday of that week, Michael J. Fox brings his classic '80s sitcom Family Ties to WGN that week...sha la la la! On Wednesday of that week, WGN America goes to the movies with two showings of the '80s blockbuster hit E.T. The Extra Terrestrial from 8-10:30pm ET and again from 10:30pm-1am ET. On Thursday the 10th, WGN America will show off one of its own regular shows, the all-time classic The Cosby Show starring the legendary Bill Cosby. Finally, the Friday airing that week will be more four episodes of the Tanner family and ALF. These shows are not going to air in the regular line-up on WGN America, except for of course The Cosby Show, which has been airing for some years now. For episode info for this week and to discuss this '80s week (July 7-11), head on over to our message boards!
Mark Tuttle passed away near his greater Los Angeles-area home on June 2, 2008. He will be missed by all who knew him. Mark's active and successful career as a screenwriter, producer and actor spanned more than 50 years after his start at Filmways in 1957. He wrote and co-produced during six years with The Beverly Hillbillies, and also was on the staff for shows such as the Three's Company, The Facts of Life, Private Benjamin, and Three's a Crowd. Tuttle also wrote an episode or two of series such as 227, What's Happening Now!!, The Practice (NBC), Oh Madeline, What a Country, The Harvey Korman Show, Petticoat Junction and The Tim Conway Show. He wrote over 200 episodes of series television. He will be certainly missed by fans of The Beverly Hillbillies and his other writing work such the fourth season of Three's Company. A tribute website was created by his family, check it out at marktuttle.info. Mark was 73.
Hallmark has licensed CBS Consumer Products' Classic TV catalog for various products. The agreement opens the door to more than 150 properties -- among them The Beverly Hillbillies, The Love Boat, Taxi, Beverly Hills, 90210, Happy Days and Rawhide -- not only for greeting cards but also for party goods, collectibles and other gift categories. The CBS property will be labeled Television City, as most of the shows from the CBS-Paramount library did not air on CBS itself. Several shows are also celebrating anniversaries next year: The Twilight Zone (50th), Rawhide (50th), The Brady Bunch (40th) and Happy Days (35th)...so expect some sort of tribute cards, collectibles or other products by Hallmark for them. Initial licensees include Hallmark, which will be producing cards featuring many classic TV titles. A Television City logo will be included on Hallmark products and in marketing outreaches. Television City shows are in the process of being licensed for use in other categories and already have been tapped by University Games for board games and Steve & Barry's and NTD Apparel for T-shirts and other clothing. I know I will be asked this question, so I will just say it right now...no, these Paramount shows will not be available on television on The Hallmark Channel, this is just for Hallmark products, like cards and collectibles.
MyNetworkTV will launch The Tony Rock Project Wednesdays this fall following episodes of sitcom Under One Roof this fall. 8 episodes have been picked-up thus far. Tony Rock Project is a sketch comedy show starring Tony Rock, the brother of Chris Rock from Everybody Hates Chris, that will fuse reality (streeter interviews, hidden camera footage) with comic examination of race, class and power. Other new MyNetworkTV shows for the fall are Magic Secrets (Mondays at 9), Funniest Moments (Wednesdays at 9), and WWE Smackdown! will move to the network in October. The network will also air Saturday movies now, in addition to their Thursday movies. Check out the MyNetworkTV Fall schedule. Today they announced Arsenio Hall will host Funniest Moments.
Take back the first season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles this August on Fox. Beginning Sunday, Aug. 10 at 9:00 PM ET/PT, encore episodes of the entire first season will air for two weeks Sunday through Wednesday at 9:00 PM ET/PT through Aug. 24. The action-packed season finale cliff-hanger that left Cameron's fate unknown will encore on Sunday, Aug. 24 at 9:00 PM ET/PT. The Season One reboot kicks off the countdown to the Season Two premiere Monday, Sept. 8 at 8:00 PM ET/PT on Fox.
Today is day 87 of the strike. Various reports are saying the strike could end very soon because the informal negotiations are going well. Let's hope this is true and we get an official announcement soon. If the strike were to end in the next week or two, we could see many of our favorite scripted shows return for a month or two of new episodes this spring! But there are reports shows like Pushing Daisies and Law & Order: SVU would not be able to come back with new episodes until the fall. We'll keep you posted for sure. In other news, NBC has renewed Celebrity Apprentice for another season. The second season of The Celebrity Apprentice will premiere in January of 2009. The first season wraps up Thursday, March 27 from 9-11pm.
As we did yesterday, we have some more NATPE notes for you. - Program Partners and 44 Blue Productions have cleared Family Court With Judge Penny, a new syndicated courtroom show, in more than 70% of U.S. markets for this Fall. Clearances include WNYW/WWOR in New York, KTTV/KCOP in Los Angeles, WCIU/WWME in Chicago, WUPA in Atlanta, WBFF/WNUV in Baltimore and KTVT/KTXA in Dallas. - It looks like The Montel Williams Show is ending after this season. However, CBS TV Distribution will offer 260 episodes of the best of Montel to stations for fall 2008. The show has aired for 17 seasons. Fox stations in the top two markets declined to renew the series for next season. - NBC Universal's The Steve Wilkos Show was renewed for season two, with clearances in more than 85% of the country including top-market stations WPIX New York, KTLA Los Angeles, WGN Chicago and WPHL Philadelphia. Top Sinclair stations picking up the show for season two include WTTA Tampa, Fla.; WNUV Baltimore; WTTE Columbus, Ohio; and WLFL Raleigh, N.C., and Fox-owned stations extending their deal include WFTC Minneapolis and KUTP Phoenix. - Litton Entertainment announced that Storm Stories, an unscripted series based on raw footage of extreme weather, has cleared 70% of U.S. stations. It will launch this fall. It comes from The Weather Channel and features customizable format options with features such as live local news and weather updates from station meteorologists. Major-market stations that have signed on include WABC in New York, KCAL/KCBS in Los Angeles, WGN in Chicago, KYW in Philadelphia, WJBK in Detroit, WSB in Atlanta, WTSP in Tampa, Fla., WJW in Cleveland, KPHO in Phoenix, KUSA in Denver, WESH in Orlando, Fla., KXTV in Sacramento, Calif., KSDK in St. Louis, WPXI in Pittsburgh and WJZ in Baltimore. Litton has done big so far in NATPE, already selling Baywatch reruns to ION and has Cribs, and Pimp My Ride up for sale for this fall.
Retro Television Network (RTN) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Media General to bring RTN programming to Mobile, AL/Pensacola, FL and Columbus, GA. The new affiliates will launch in the second quarter of this year on a digital stream of WKRG, the CBS affiliate in Mobile/Pensacola, and WRBL, the CBS affiliate in Columbus.
TV Land scored its most-watched month ever across several key categories for January 2008, according to Nielsen Media Research (12/31/07-1/27/08). The successful launch of new acquisition Just Shoot Me!, the network's regularly scheduled "Friday Night Movies" which included a telecast of The Jerk and "The Beverly Hillbillies New Year's Eve Marathon" led the network to score double-digit gains in rating and delivery among its target A25-54, core A40-54 audience and total viewers in total day. In total day, TV Land posted a 0.4 rating (382,000 viewers) among A25-54, up +33% in rating and +33% in delivery over a year ago. The network attracted an average of 782,000 total viewers, up +18% over January 2007. Among its core audience, A40-54, the network scored a 0.5 rating (279,000 viewers), representing a rise of +25% in rating and +29% in delivery over last year. In prime time, TV Land posted a 0.4 rating (460,000 viewers), up+3% in delivery over last year, and among A40-54, the network averaged a 0.6 rating (336,000 viewers). Additionally, TV Land attracted an average of over 1 million total viewers. For more on the best month ever in the ratings for TV Land, click HERE!
Come on back tomorrow for TV One March and details on Family Matters coming to Nick at Nite. Family Matters will launch on... (sorry you'll have to wait until tomorrow for that!)
It is day 73 of the strike and many development deals have been terminated because of the strike. Many producing deals have been canceled such as Taye Diggs' for ABC Studios. Sigh...let's hope this strike gets resolved soon, because it really doesn't look like we will have any shows developed for the fall now. Development season is usually now through April, and at this rate, nothing new (scripted wise) will premiere this fall. Meanwhile, The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has reached a comprehensive independent agreement with Spyglass Entertainment. The company finances, produces, and distributes theatrical motion pictures, including some of the most successful films of recent years, including The Sixth Sense, Shanghai Noon, Bruce Almighty, Seabiscuit, Memoirs of a Geisha, and the upcoming 27 Dresses starring Katherine Heigl. The deal reached with Spyglass Entertainment is similar to the deals the WGA recently announced with United Artists, Worldwide Pants, and MRC and addresses the issues important to writers, including New Media.
As promised, we now have the full details on TV Land Big '80s Weekend slated for President's Day weekend (Feb. 16-18). However, TV Land has cut the hours big time. It was originally slated for 12pm-11pm on Feb. 16 & 17 and on the 18th we would get it from 11am-11pm. We could have seen classic '80s TV shows too in addition to the '80s movies, TV series such as A-Team or Knight Rider, but now all we will get is '80s movies. The hours are now 5pm-11pm on the 16th, 5pm-3am on the 17th and the best two movies will air from 5-9pm on President's Day itself. Among the classic '80s movies airing are National Lampoon's Class Reunion, Sixteen Candles, Flashdance, and The Breakfast Club. Classic TV fans don't fret, because TV Land will also give us some sitcom marathons that weekend now! On the 16th and 17th we will get a two-hour block of Andy Griffith, followed by two episodes of Sanford & Son leading into the movies starting at 5pm. On President's Day itself, we will get a two-hour morning block of Leave it to Beaver from 8-10am, followed by I Love Lucy from 10am-1pm and The Beverly Hillbillies from 1-4pm. Two episodes of Three's Company will lead into the movies. See the updated February schedule highlights by clicking HERE for the full details!
Sticking to TV Land news...TV Land has ordered a second season of the series TV Land Myths & Legends, which aims to unravel Hollywood-related mysteries, scandals, rumors and urban legends. The first of the seven new half-hour episodes will premiere on Wednesday, August 27, 2008. Among the pressing issues to be covered are whether Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally cast as TV's Incredible Hulk and if Jennifer Lopez's derriere is really insured for $1 billion. Other investigations include whether Mars Inc., maker of M&M's, turned down product placement in E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, allowing Reese's Pieces to step in and benefit immensely.
We are in day 72 of the writers' strike. The Writers Guild of America and the NAACP signed an interim agreement that will allow The 39th Annual NAACP Image Awards to be broadcast on Fox as scheduled Feb. 14. The agreement will allow the hiring of WGA writers to script the show and means that there will be no picketing of the event by striking writers. In addition, the Guild has granted a waiver permitting the use of clips from motion pictures and television programs. Is that good for The Grammys and The Oscars? Writers Guild of America West president Patric Verrone reiterated Tuesday that he does not anticipate granting the Academy Awards or The Grammy Awards a waiver unless the striking writers and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reach a deal. Ouch. Finally, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and MRC, the independent film, television, and digital studio, have reached a comprehensive interim agreement that forges a new alliance between writers, producers, and financiers in the production of feature films, television shows, and digital programs. The terms of the agreement are similar to the Guild's recent deals with Worldwide Pants and United Artists There have been a lot of reality signings and renewals thanks to the strike. NBC has picked up a second season of the hit competition series American Gladiators after just three airings. The season finale is expected to air on a Sunday leading into the premiere of the Knight Rider movie in February. No word when the second season will air and how many have been ordered, but NBC is leaning towards a summer launch date. In other news, NBC has ordered a pilot for the international hit series Top Gear from BBC Worldwide America. CBS has ordered three new alternative/reality series for broadcast later this year - the biweekly celebrity talent contest Secret Talents of the Stars, the hidden camera game show Game Show in My Head and the search for America's Top Dog. I'm serious about the latter.
We have TV Land March 2008 for you! There are no regular schedule changes, but there are some minor adjustments on some dates (see link below for full schedule)...such as episodes of Just Shoot Me, mostly to accompany encores of High School Reunion. That series will launch on Wednesday, March 5 and will air at 10pm for 6 straight weeks, with MANY encores. TV Land reunites more than a dozen alumni from JJ Pierce high school in Richardson, Texas. The jock, the cheerleader, the partier, the bully, the nerd and several others reunite more than twenty years later in a two-week Hawaiian get-away to rekindle past relationships, rivalries and romances. For two hours every Friday in March, catch super-sized episodes of M*A*S*H as TV Land features every two-part episode from the series back-to-back. So come say a tearful goodbye to Radar, catch a touring USO vaudeville show with the gang, or see the unforgettable kiss between rivals, Hawkeye and Hotlips. No need to wait until next week for any of these exciting conclusions; TV Land has got it here and now all month long. Talk about March err M*A*S*H Madness! On weekends, catch some mini-marathons of your favorite shows such as Beverly Hillbillies, I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver! Also, a big weekend is planned for Andy the weekend of March 22! Investigate with the men of Mayberry in a two-day marathon of crime-solving episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. Swindlers, crooks, confidence men and slick-talkers all converge on this small town of simple folk and even simpler living. See how Sherriff Taylor and Deputy Fife use small town wisdom and wit to crack the case, round up the outlaws and make the streets of Mayberry safe once again. Finally, it's the monthly Movie Week on TV Land, the week of March 24! Showtime is every weeknight at 8p, starting Monday with Gary Busey as the music legend in The Buddy Holly Story. On Tuesday, Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice tries to spook Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis out of their home. Tom Selleck, Ted Danson, and Steve Guttenberg are thrust into fatherhood in Three Men and a Baby on Wednesday. Finishing out the week, Cher finds herself caught between her fiancé and his brother Nicolas Cage in the romantic-comedy Moonstruck. The Friday night movies include Beetlejuice, The Buddy Holly Story, and Three Men and a Baby. For the COMPLETE TV Land March 2008 highlights, including the schedule adjustments on some nights, High School Reunion encores, episodes for the marathons and stunts, and much more, click HERE! You can also discuss there, too! March on to the March highlights!
Today is indeed day 57 of the strike. Late on Friday the WGA struck an independent deal with Worldwide Pants to bring writers back for CBS' The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson starting January 2. Here is the statement the WGA released: "The Writers Guild has reached a binding independent agreement today with Worldwide Pants that will allow Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to return to the air with their full writing staffs. This is a comprehensive agreement that addresses the issues important to writers, particularly New Media. Worldwide Pants has accepted the very same proposals that the Guild was prepared to present to the media conglomerates when they walked out of negotiations on December 7. Today's agreement dramatically illustrates that the Writers Guild wants to put people back to work, and that when a company comes to the table prepared to negotiate seriously a fair and reasonable deal can be reached quickly. It's time for NBC-Universal to step up to the plate and negotiate a company-wide deal that will put Jay Leno, who has supported our cause from the beginning, back on the air with his writers."
New Year's Eve and Day gets a lot of marathons every year and this year is no different. We mentioned WPIX in New York will air a Honeymooners marathon tonight starting at midnight...in Boston WSBK will air a Three Stooges marathon. As for nationwide, we also mentioned The Drew Carey Show launches on ION Television tonight at 7/6 central with a marathon until 11pm ET. TV Land will re-launch The Beverly Hillbillies with a marathon starting tonight and lasting all day tomorrow. As for other marathon, Sci-Fi Channel will do its annual The Twilight Zone marathon which has already started today at 8am and it will last until 10pm tomorrow, then again from 11pm-6am late on Tuesday. The entire first season of 10 Items or Less will air tonight on TBS and five episodes of South Park on Comedy Central to ring in the new year tonight. TNT has a Law & Order marathon which has started today at noon and will last until 10pm Tuesday. A Law & Order: Criminal Intent marathon has started today on USA Network and on New Year's Day a Monk marathon will start at 6am...a 21-episode run of the defective detective, including run-ins with a psychic and Dale the Whale, and trips to the circus, a ballgame and Mexico. Bravo has a Project Runway marathon today and a Biggest Loser marathon tomorrow with a 10-show block opens with the contestants facing the challenge of navigating up and down the aisle of a moving railroad car. Spike TV will have a 14 episode marathon today of CSI. On SOAPnet it is the Serial Bowl V: One Tree Hill Marathon...13 hours of the teen drama starting at 11am. VH1 will have an America's Next Top Model-thon starting tonight at 10pm. On GSN, we will have a marathon of the 100,000 Pyramid with host Dick Clark, and of course we will all ring in the new year with Dick Clark on ABC tonight at 11:35pm with Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.
We have gotten a lot of searches on this, so I will indeed mention it. According to Jim will be back in 2008 on ABC with new episodes starting January 1, 2008. We got searches on "According to Jim's new season, "According to Jim 2008, "According to Jim winter 2008, "According to Jim mid-season 2008," etc. It will air Tuesdays at 9 on ABC. On January 1, two back-to-back new episodes will air starting at 9/8 central, including a spoof on Bruce Almighty, titled "Jim Almighty," with Lee Majors as God!
Well it is day 46 of the strike, and we have a lot of news to report...no nothing on the strike ending unfortunately. First, CBS has announced that the 34th Annual People's Choice Awards "will go on" on Tuesday, January 8, 2008, but it will NOT be live, instead it will be taped. Winners will make their thank-you speeches and then answer questions from fans in pre-shot segments. Queen Latifah, who already was on board to host, will be a part of the new format. David Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company said it will have a meeting Friday with the WGA to pursue a side deal that would allow his company's two late-night CBS shows, The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, to return to the air Jan. 2 WITH writers. Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel's shows will return on the air Jan. 2 but WITHOUT writers. More to come on Letterman, I'm sure. Yesterday NBC announced they have moved the premiere of Celebrity Apprentice to Jan. 10, now ABC has counteracted. ABC will move to series premiere of Cashmere Mafia out of the Thursday, Jan. 3 10pm slot to Sunday, January 6 at 10pm following the last pre-strike episode of Desperate Housewives, in which we will find out the outcome of the tragic tornado. The all-new Brothers & Sisters originally slated for this night will be moved to Jan. 13...and after that only two new pre-strike episodes will remain, and they will likely air Jan. 20 and Jan. 27 all following special two-hour episodes of reality hit Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. After its special Sunday premiere, Mafia will then still move to its regular night of Wednesdays at 10 starting Jan. 9. As for Jan. 3, ABC still has the last new pre-strike episode of Grey's Anatomy scheduled, but they could move it to Jan. 10 instead. ABC has already pulled a new episode of Ugly Betty for Jan. 3 in favor of a repeat and also have put a Desperate Housewives repeat that night at 10pm...which will be the tornado episode, so viewers can get ready for the conclusion on Sunday. The new Ugly Betty previously planned for Jan. 3 will air Jan. 10 now. After that airing only two pre-strike episodes will be left for Betty, and will likely air Jan. 17 and 24 because on Jan. 31 ABC has slotted a Lost clip show leading into the season premiere of Lost at 9pm on Jan. 31. Also, ABC has announced the last Women's Murder Club pre-strike episode will air Friday, Jan. 4 at 9pm, instead of the previously announced Cashmere Mafia pilot encore. Desperate Housewives encores looks like will air for the rest of the month on Fridays at 9, following Grey's Anatomy repeats at 8.
The 14th Annual Screen Actor Guild Awards (SAG) nominees were announced today. Leading the pack were The Sopranos, Ugly Betty and 30 Rock with 3 nominations each. Among the networks, ABC lead with 11 nominations. The awards will air Sunday, Jan. 27, on TNT and TBS at 8 PM ET/PT. Here are the main TV nominees:
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series JAMES GANDOLFINI / Tony Soprano – The Sopranos (HBO) MICHAEL C. HALL / Dexter Morgan – Dexter (Showtime) JON HAMM / Don Draper – Mad Men (AMC) HUGH LAURIE / Dr. Gregory House – House (FOX) JAMES SPADER / Alan Shore – Boston Legal (ABC)
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series GLENN CLOSE / Patty Hewes – Damages (FX) EDIE FALCO / Carmela Soprano – The Sopranos (HBO) SALLY FIELD / Nora Walker – Brothers & Sisters (ABC) HOLLY HUNTER / Grace Hanadarko – Saving Grace (TNT) KYRA SEDGWICK / Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson – The Closer (TNT)
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series ALEC BALDWIN / Jack Donaghy – 30 Rock (NBC) STEVE CARELL / Michael Scott – The Office (NBC) RICKY GERVAIS / Andy Millman – Extras (HBO) JEREMY PIVEN / Ari Gold – Entourage (HBO) TONY SHALHOUB / Adrian Monk – Monk (USA)
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series CHRISTINA APPLEGATE / Samantha Newly – Samantha Who? (ABC) AMERICA FERRERA / Betty Suarez – Ugly Betty (ABC) TINA FEY / Liz Lemon – 30 Rock (NBC) MARY-LOUISE PARKER / Nancy Botwin – Weeds (Showtime) VANESSA WILLIAMS / Wilhelmina Slater – Ugly Betty (ABC)
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Boston Legal, ABC The Closer, TNT Grey's Anatomy, ABC Mad Men, AMC The Sopranos, HBO
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series 30 Rock, NBC Desperate Housewives, ABC Entourage, HBO The Office, NBC Ugly Betty, ABC
For the complete TV portion nominees and to discuss the nominees, click HERE!
TV Land has formally announced The Beverly Hillbillies' Best Dang New Year's Marathon. TV Land rings in 2008 with 27 hours of non-stop Clampett wackiness and Granny's unforgettable colloquialisms during "The Beverly Hillbillies Best Dang New Year's Marathon" beginning Monday, December 31, at 6:00PM (all times ET/PT). Viewers will be "happier than a cat at a fish fry" with episodes like "Jethro Goes to School" in which Max Baer, Jr. (Jethro) also plays Jethro's twin sister, Jethrine, in drag, and an appearance by the late Sharon Tate in "Possum Day" as Miss Hathaway's dark- headed assistant at the Commerce Bank. As part of this celebration, TVLand.com will stream full episodes starting December 31, with weekly updates. The website will feature character bios, a comprehensive episode guide, and photo gallery. TVLand.com visitors will also be able to test their 'hill-folk' knowledge with The Beverly Hillbillies trivia game. Schedule can be found here. We will post TV Land February shortly, we are just awaiting some details on a President's Day Weekend event that looks like will be pretty good...it will be called "Big '80s Weekend" and it looks like will have '80s TV Shows and '80s Movies! Details hopefully by tomorrow. Come on back.
It is day 9 of the writers' strike. Nothing really new to report as of now. In a demonstration of the Screen Actors Guild's solidarity with the Writers Guild of America, TV's top stars will turn out today to walk the picket line at the WGA West's "Picketing with the Stars" to support striking writers. It will be from 12-2pm today Universal Studios in Universal City, CA You'll see stars like Jim Belushi (According to Jim); Patricia Heaton, Fred Willard (Back to You); Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory); Vincent Martella, Tequan Richmond, Imani Hakim, Jacqueline Mazarella, Travis Flory, Todd Bridges (Everybody Hates Chris); and Christina Applegate, Kevin Dunn, Tim Russ (Samantha Who?). For more info, click HERE. Let's hope negotiations start up again soon, so we can end all this. This better not last months because if it lasts through like March or April, not only we won't get any more new episodes of our favorite shows, but the pilot season could be lost and we won't get any new shows next fall.
TV Land is bringing in The Beverly Hillbillies this January! But before we get to that, they have announced three items before that. Starting Monday, November 26, the overnight hours will be back "on the clock." Which means you will see your shows actually on time, and we get 30 minutes less commercials, so an Three's Company will be added at 1:30am! No more shows starting at weird times like 1:17am. At the end of December, TV Land has added two stunts. A special week-long movie stunt and a Beverly Hillbillies preview! After Christmas, catch TV Land Movies all-week long at noon and 8pm! You'll see movies like Running Scared, Thelma & Louise, Wall Street and Beaches at noon and 8pm Dec. 25-28. On Saturday, Dec. 29 and Sunday, Dec. 30 we get a taste of some Texas Tea in The Beverly Hillbillies preview stunt! A mini-marathon both days from 10am-12pm. For episode info on these December stunts, click HERE. NOW we will move to January! TV Land rings in the New Year with a bang: a marathon of the "Best Dang" episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies. Stay up all night and on the couch all day with 27 hours of non-stop Beverly Hillbillies fun. Tune in for the most rip-roaring, possum stew making, happy go lucky chicanery you ever did see! Starts Dec. 31 at 6pm and lasts through Jan. 1 at 9pm. TV Land will air the show regulary weeknights at 6 & 6:30pm, everynight at 12 & 12:30am, Monday marathons from 9-11pm, and weekend afternoons from 12-2pm! Because of this, we will see some shows shifted over, like I Love Lucy will move from 6-7pm weekdays to 5-6pm weekdays. For more changes, click on the link at the end of this story. Next, what do Ron Howard, Laurence Fishburne and Shelly Long have in common? They're all Hollywood celebrities visiting the 4077 for two days of drama, laughs and romance in TV Land's M*A*S*H Guest Stars and Stripes Weekend. Don't miss 24 episodes featuring your favorite stars in marathons on Saturday, Jan. 5 and Sunday, Jan. 6 starting each night at 8p and lasting through 2a. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, tune in to Gunsmoke on January 21 starting at 12p for a marathon of marauding outlaws and despicable bandits. These 8 episodes feature some of the most devious villains in the series' history. Log on to TVLand.com to watch additional full-length episodes of Gunsmoke, as well as streaming clips of some of the best fights in Gunsmoke history. While at TVLand.com, make sure to play the new "Get-Out-of-Dodgeball" game and enjoy the sounds of their new Western-themed streaming radio station. TV Land will have an All-Star Movie Week, the week of Jan. 21! Showtime is every night at 8p, starting with Clint "make my day" Eastwood as the conflicted agent on In The Line of Fire. Then, it's National Lampoon's Class Reunion. Chevy Chase joins the schedule as the bumbling detective in Fletch and Fletch Lives and finally see Steve Martin in his most memorable movie role in The Jerk. Finally, Just Shoot Me hits TV Land with a 16-hour weekend launch party you won't want to miss: a whopping 36 episodes over 2 nights from 9pm-6am on Saturday, Jan. 26 and Sunday, Jan. 27. TV Land has gathered some of the best episodes from the series along with fun guest appearances from stars like Megan Mullaly, Carmen Electra and Pamela Anderson that will make everyone at this launch party "blush." It will then join the line-up on Monday, January 28, but the timeslot is not confirmed yet, but we hear it could be 8-9pm weeknights. Jan. 28 is considered the start of the February schedule, so we will confirm that then. For complete details on January's stunts and ALL the schedule changes for the month, I REALLY urge you to click HERE! Yall come back now, ya hear?
We have 5 Charles in Charge - The Complete Second Season DVD sets for giveaway, thanks to the fine folks at Arts Alliance America. It arrives on DVD on November 20, 2007.
One of the most entertaining family sitcoms of the 80's is back as all 26, Season Two episodes are available on DVD for the first time. Tag along with teen idol Scott Baio (Happy Days) as he takes on the role of live-in helper for a new family. Between his college friend, Buddy (Willie Aames) and the mischievous Powell kids, Charles has his hands full! Can he keep up with his social life while keeping the household going? Even when things spiral out of control, Charles still manages to be a positive role model for his three teenage charges. The high profile Season 2 cast members include Ellen Travolta, Willie Aames (Eight is Enough) and Baywatch beauty Nicole Eggert.
In its continued effort to superserve the entertainment needs of people in their 40s and 50s, TV Land announced a relaunch of the network's website TVLand.com. The new TVLand.com features special areas devoted to all aspects of entertainment including television, music and movies. Each section delivers unique attractions such as full-length episodes of beloved classic television shows including The Andy Griffith Show, Leave it to Beaver and Gunsmoke. Additionally, in the coming months, the site will feature The Beverly Hillbillies, Hogan's Heroes and Just Shoot Me. Television fans will be able to access these series online as select episodes are showcased on the site. There are much more features added to the website, I urge you to click HERE to see what they are!
Retro Television Network (RTN), announced today to add an affiliate in El Paso, TX. The network will launch in 2008 on a digital stream of KFOX-TV, the local FOX affiliate that serves the El Paso, TX / Las Cruces, NM market. Viewers will fall in love all over again with Love, American Style and will be on the edge of their seats as Dr. Richard Kimble, played by David Jansen, is The Fugitive on the run trying to prove his innocence. In the evening, audiences will enjoy seeing Robert Stack as Elliot Ness in The Untouchables. If you don't know by now, RTN is a new television network that provides each affiliate a customized feed (on digital streams) with classic hit shows, in addition to local programming including news, weather and sports. RTN is specifically designed to go on a broadcast digital channel and provides local broadcasters with a way to get ratings and successfully monetize their digital spectrum.
On October 16, Christopher Knight (The Brady Bunch) will be the first celebrity in the world to interact with his fans online and sign Brady collectibles with the inscriptions they request. You could be a part of this historic event-- there are a limited number of online signing experiences available, so Brady fans need to act fast (Each signing event includes a FREE DVD recording of Chris signing your item and responding to your question!). Go to LiveAutographs.com and check out the exclusive inventory of signing experiences featuring Chris Knight. Select your package (1 guaranteed authentic autographed item + you get to ask Chris a question and WATCH him respond!). Purchase it today to reserve your place at this Exclusive Online Fan Event. Grooovy!
I mentioned the other day that TV Land will start The Beverly Hillbillies in December. They will not now. It was slated for a marathon on Dec. 22 and regular play starting Dec. 25, but that will be moved to January now. We do however get a Christmas episode on Christmas Eve! There are no schedule changes (yet...), but we have some notable events. Christmas comes early to TV Land this year and yule love Thursday when TV Land features Christmas episodes from your favorite shows! Dec 6, 13 and 20 from 8-10pm catch The Jeffersons, Andy Griffith, Good Times, All in the Family M*A*S*H, and Three's Company in holiday episodes. And if that is not enough holiday episodes for you, TV Land will have not one but two 24-hour Merry-thons! Could the holidays be as merry without TV Land's annual Merry-thon? Christmas spirit, eggnog and your favorite TV friends means a jolly good time all around! Tune in to TV Land's 8th Annual Merrython featuring classic Christmas episodes of shows like Good Times, Three's Company, The Jeffersons, Andy Griffith, and so much more! Weekends at 5PM, TV Land will encore originals that had countdowns, like 100 Most Unexpected Television Moments and Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases. Finally, the Friday night movies include Thelma & Louise, Wallstreet, and Running Scared. For complete episode details and more on December, click HERE! Ho ho ho!
NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution has sold hit NBC primetime series Heroes to cable networks G4 and MOJO for its debut in off-network syndication. The multi-season strip deals with G4 and MOJO debut in fall 2010, and include a repurpose window of current season episodes the week following NBC's initial airings starting later this month. G4 will debut Heroes with all-day marathons of season one episodes on Saturday, October 27 and Sunday, October 28. The network will begin airing episodes from the current season with a mini-marathon of the first six episodes of Heroes season two on Saturday, November 3 from 5:00-11:00pm et/pt. G4 will then regularly air each week's current episode of Heroes on Saturdays at 10:00pm et/pt. Heroes will premiere on MOJO Thursday, November 1, airing the first six episodes of season two from 3- 9:00 pm et. Going forward, Heroes will air on MOJO every week on Wed. at 8pm pt/11:00 pm et and Thurs. at 5pm pt/8pm et. MOJO will also air a marathon of season one episodes during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Tonight sitcom wise we have NBC's Comedy Done Right block with My Name is Earl, 30 Rock and yet another hour-long The Office. All starts at 8/7 central on NBC!
TV Land has announced today on their message boards the two shows that people have asked about that are supposed to be coming. Finally, I can talk about them. The Beverly Hillbillies joins the network this January, with an anniversary marathon tentatively planned for December. The show joins the already announced Just Shoot Me, which also is coming in January 2008. Then the other show people were wanting to know is Hogan's Heroes. The '60s sitcom will join the network in June 2008. As previously mentioned, Mad About You and Murphy Brown will come to the network in summer marathon form in July 2008, while Scrubs comes in Fall 2008. But before all that, Designing Women is coming to TV Land this October...weeknights at 9pm starting Oct. 15. We will have more on Hillbillies and Hogan's Heroes when available.
ION Television announced today that it has secured the rights to air the NFL Films production, NFL Game of the Week, for the 2007 season. The highly-acclaimed highlights series will premiere on ION Television's nationwide broadcast network from 6:00-7:00 PM ET on Saturday, September 15, with the Giants-Cowboys game from Kickoff Weekend, which Dallas won 45-35. A new episode will air each week of the 17-week NFL regular season. Each week of the NFL season, NFL Game of the Week showcases that week's best game in a one-hour program, and tells the story of the game that viewers didn't see on the original broadcast. Presenting the action from a wide variety of angles, including specially-shot game footage, pre-game and post-game commentary and previously unheard sideline sound from players and coaches, Game of the Week brings fans closer to the action than ever before. NFL Films President Steve Sabol, a 36-time Emmy Award-winner, will continue to host the series, which premiered in syndication in 1965. It has aired on the NFL Network since 2003. In addition, ION Media Networks also has secured the rights to air a brand-new half-hour series from NFL Films, entitled Stories of the NFL, which will take a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of NFL players when they’re not on the field. Using NFL Films' original music, candid interviews, voluminous archives and award-winning cinematographers, these half-hour episodes will "reveal the hidden gems of the NFL." The season of 21 original half-hour programs will begin airing on ION Television in February 2008.
Just a reminder that George Lopez premieres tonight at 10pm ET/PT on Nick at Nite for a full hour and will air Sun-Thurs 10-11pm and 1-2am, on Fridays at 10:30pm, 12:30am and 2-3am and Saturdays 11pm-12am and 2-3am. The network will start with season 5 episodes and go in order from there. Also, on Saturdays and Sundays, the second episode of each night will start with season 3 and go in order from there. Weird. And finally, the show also launches in local syndication today. Check your local listings, because they have two rotations...the first run, which will go in order starting with the very first episode. And a second run which will start with season four and go in order from there. Again check your local listings.
I don't know what is with all these TV Land updates lately, but we have more today. TV Land has announced the Sept. 24-28 week-long marathon and it isn't The Beverly Hillbillies as I guessed unfortunately, it will be The Andy Griffith Show. So I was wrong. Let's hope that show comes in the future. Don't lose hope because it is likely to come. Anyway, Andy will air 8-11pm that week, but also its regular airings of 7-8pm and 11pm-12am will be there (yes it actually airs 12-1am in regular play, but not this week, as M*A*S*H will air 12-1am that week), so essentially the marathon is 7pm-12am. Moving on to TV Land original programming, TV Land and Wilhelmina Models, Inc. announced a partnership to discover the next new face of the fashion industry. Documented in a six-part series tentatively titled The Next Great Supermodel, TV Land and Wilhelmina Models, Inc. will scour the country -- and put the would-be models to the test -- to find their next star: a woman 35 or over who exudes sophistication, beauty and confidence. The Next Great Supermodel will premiere on TV Land in the Spring of 2008 and is being executive produced by Emmy Award Winner Allison Grodner (Big Brother, Blowout). The winner of the reality series competition will receive a lucrative modeling contract with Wilhelmina Models, Inc. For more details, including how to apply, click HERE.
Effective immediately, as of Tues., Aug. 21 and Wed., Aug. 22, the time slots of ABC News programs i-CAUGHT & Primetime: Crime (Tues.) and NASCAR IN PRIMETIME & Primetime: The Outsiders (Wed.) are being flipped. Meanwhile, ABC has announced that they will indeed burn-off The Nine on abc.com. 9 episodes aired on television, with 4 still in the can. Episodes 10 and 11 launched yesterday I believe, with episode 12 coming Aug. 23 and episode 13 on Aug. 30. Go to abc.com to watch this. They have removed their video section for The Knights of Prosperity completely, so it doesn't look like we will ever see the final two episodes...let's pray for a DVD! NBC will preview the upcoming syndicated game show Merv Griffin's Crosswords in primetime on Saturday, September 8 at 8:30PM ET/PT following the NBC Fall Preview Show. The first-run syndicated series will launch on various NBC owned-and-operated stations on Monday, September 10, 2007...check local listings for time and channel (here in NY, WNBC will air it back-to-back from 4-5pm).
TV Land has added a few extra stunts for September! TV Land will celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Bob Newhart Show on Monday, September 10, from 8pm-12am! If you miss the marathon somehow, you can catch 7 of the 8 episodes online at TVLand.com for the entire week anytime at your leisure from Monday, September 10 to Sunday, September 16. September 16, is the acutal date the series premiered 35 years ago. For episode info click HERE. TV Land will continue to celebrate the 35th anniversary of M*A*S*H as well for an entire week, from Sept. 17-21 from 8-11pm Mon-Thurs and 8-10pm on Friday. This is in addition to the already scheduled primetime stunt they announced for Sept. 15-17. So, it will be nothing but M*A*S*H in primetime from Sept. 15-21...almost an entire full week! September 17 is the actual date the series premiered 35 years ago. We don't have episode info yet from Sept. 17-21, but it will be posted on the above link when available to us. Finally, the last marathon will also be a week-long marathon from Sept. 24-28 from 8-11pm Mon-Thurs and 8-10pm on Friday. TV Land hasn't formally announced what the show is yet, but all guesses hint that it will be a 45th Anniversary marathon for The Beverly Hillbillies! The show premiered Sept. 26, 1962...so what else can they air that week? I'm sure fans will be happy with this! We will confirm when they announce it! And could this be one of the '60s shows they have acquired for regular play starting sometime in 2008? Maybe! Anyway, these are in addition to the week-long marathons of I Love Lucy and Sanford & Son for the first two weeks of October, before the regular primetime schedule returns Oct. 15 with the addition of Designing Women.
Retro Television Network (RTN), which is owned and distributed by Equity Media Holdings Corporation, announced today that it will partner with Capitol Broadcasting to bring RTN programming to Raleigh-Durham. The new affiliate will launch Sept. 10 on Capitol Broadcasting's WRAZ-DT, a station that reaches more than 22 counties in North Carolina. The new 24 hour-a-day network will be available over-the-air on digital channel 50.2 and on Time Warner Digital Cable channel 251 in the Raleigh, NC area. RTN is a new television network that provides each affiliate a customized feed with classic hit shows, in addition to local programming including news, weather and sports. RTN is specifically designed to go on a broadcast digital channel and provides local broadcasters with a way to get ratings and successfully monetize their digital spectrum. RTN is home to dozens of classic TV shows, such as Hawaii 5-0, Brady Bunch, Family Ties, Matlock, Perry Mason, Mission: Impossible, Hogan's Heroes and Gomer Pyle USMC. Let's hope more stations announce plans to carry RTN! We will let you know of course.
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