Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Grounded for Life Returns to ABC Family; Comedy Central Acquires The Goode Family

Grounded for Life is returning to ABC Family in November. They made a last minute change and will return Grounded for Life on Monday, Nov. 2 airing weekdays in the 4pm hour, replacing What I Like About You, which will be leaving the line-up for now. The Donal Logue sitcom was airing on weekends (Saturdays 10-11am and Sundays 11am-12pm) until the end of September, when it was replaced by 8 Simple Rules in October, so now the sitcom returns...in a much better slot and more airings! Now all they need to do is add 8 Simple Rules back to weekdays, and I'll be happy!
View our previous blog post on ABC Family November 2009, which we highlighted the Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas (Nov. 10-30).

Comedy Central has acquired the animated sitcom The Goode Family for play starting in January. The series aired for 13 episodes this past summer on ABC and didn't deliver in the ratings on Wednesday nights before quickly being burned off to Friday nights. The Goode Family is from Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, and there is also a slight chance Comedy Central can pick up the show for a second season and produce new episodes!
The series revolves around a family attempting to live an ultra-politically correct lifestyle and stars the voices of Mike Judge, Nancy Carell, Linda Cardellini, Dave Herman and Brian Doyle-Murray. It was pretty good, I thought.
Comedy Central is also in talks to pick-up Sit Down, Shut Up, the Fox animated sitcom that also was short-lived, Variety reports. Stay tuned if they do!

Speaking of animated comedies, look for the classic Halloween special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown tonight at 8pm on ABC leading into ABC Comedy Wednesday comedies The Middle, Modern Family, and Cougar Town from 8:30-10pm. Good stuff!

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

ABC Family's 2009 Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas; Comedy Central Acquires Reruns of Philadelphia

While ABC Family Channel's annual 25 Days of Christmas programming doesn't start until Tuesday, December 1, like previous years they will still have the "Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas" that starts Nov. 10 at 7pm with the holiday movie Snow followed by the sequel Snow 2 Brain Freeze. Other holiday movies or specials airing are Santa Jr., Snowglobe, Eloise at Christmastime, A Dennis the Menace Christmas, Richie Rich's Christmas Wish, Gotta Catch Santa Claus, Christmas Caper, A Carol Christmas, Santa Who?, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, A Chance of Snow, Stealing Christmas, The Christmas Box, The Christmas Secret, The Christmas Wish, Once Upon a Christmas, Twice Upon a Christmas, Christmas in Boston, Christmas Do-Over, Chasing Christmas, Santa Baby, Holiday in Handcuffs, A Holiday to Remember, Unlikely Angel, Holly and Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure, Sons of Mistletoe, The Christmas List, Miracle on 34th Street, Home Alone 4, Naughty or Nice, and the ABC Family original movie premiere of The Dog Who Saved Christmas starring Mario Lopez, Dean Cain, and Adrienne Barbeau.
Wow and this is just the countdown! Stay tuned for the actual 25 Days of Christmas schedule!

Comedy Central has reached a deal with Twentieth Television for the exclusive basic cable syndication rights to the critically-acclaimed FX comedy series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, in a multi-year deal that will see the series start its run on Comedy Central beginning in summer 2010. Following the limited summer 2010 window, the series with settle into its long-term, multi-year run in January 2011.
First-run seasons of Sunny will of course continue to air on FX. In addition to its current fifth season that runs through November 5, the network has ordered seasons six and seven which will air in 2010 and 2011 respectively. FX Productions will have produced 84 episodes though season seven.
The half-hour series, starring Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito, is currently in its 5th season and features the cast as self-centered owners of Paddy's Irish Pub in Philadelphia who will do just about anything, no matter how reprehensible, in an attempt to better their own situation. Serious issues such as racism, abortion, underage drinking, molestation, gun control, cancer and death somehow weave their way into the cockeyed universe of "The Gang." The characters are experts on every subject but actually possess expertise in nothing at all. They often use revisionist history to bolster their self-worth, which contrasts sharply with the true reality of their lives.

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Monday, August 10, 2009

FX, USA, TNT, Hallmark, Comedy Central Fall 2009; Hallmark Weekend Change

Today's fall schedule barrage theme is "more of the same." There will be some cable networks who really aren't changing anything this September. They include FX, USA Network, TNT, Hallmark Channel and Comedy Central. USA Network will continue to have
Wings and Becker air on some weekdays in the 6am hour with various late night filler airings also. Drama blocks and movies still air on weekdays for shows such as Monk, NCIS, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Wednesday mornings has Walker, Texas Ranger and JAG.
As for Comedy Central, it's more of the same as well. Just Shoot Me! continues to air in the weekday 8am hour, but Scrubs will move from the 7pm hour to the 8pm hour starting Sept. 14, as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report take the 7pm hour. That's really the only change.
FX, TNT, and The Hallmark Channel have the exact same line-up for September as they do right now, with shows like Malcolm in the Middle and Bernie Mac on FX; Charmed, Law & Order, Bones and CSI NY on TNT; and Golden Girls, Touched by an Angel, and M*A*S*H on Hallmark...all in the same time slots!
We had to cover these because we would get the question if these networks are making any changes in September. But are these the fall line-ups? We're not sure. Changes could be made in October, so stay tuned. However, USA Network is more of the same in October, so don't expect anything from us for that.
Stay tuned for more fall schedules all this week. We still have WGN America, Nick at Nite, The N, BET, WE tv and more to go through.

We didn't get a chance to warn you on Friday but Hallmark Channel has made some weekend changes that started this past Saturday (Aug. 8). The Saturday morning 6-9am episodes of Little House on the Prairie have been replaced by The Golden Girls. The same goes true for the Sunday morning airing from 8-11am as more Golden Girls are added. And if you think that's it, you're wrong because Hallmark will be thanking you for being a friend late nights on weekends as well! Both Saturday and Sunday nights (that's early Sunday and Monday mornings) from 1-3am are now also Golden Girls instead of a late night movie. So they go from no airings on weekends to all of this!

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Comedy Central, USA Network Sitcoms Reduction; RTV's Emergency King in Phoenix

Comedy Central has dropped Just Shoot Me! from its line-up already. It was airing weekdays at 3:30pm and 4pm and weekends during mid-morning since June 1. It looks like ratings must have been pretty low for it to be dropped totally. It was dropped last week. No word on when or if it will return to Comedy Central, or on any Viacom-owned network for that matter. It had bombed on TV Land already. Now Comedy Central only airs Scrubs, sitcom wise. And as we mentioned on Friday, they have an original sitcom coming soon with a 10-episode order.
Meanwhile, USA Network has quietly removed Becker and Wings from its weekday morning line-up. They were airing most weekdays in the 6am hour. Now they are starting marathon stacks at 6am of their dramas like Monk and Law & Order: SVU. Becker and Wings will next air together during late night on Friday, July 24 (early July 25) in the 3-4am hour. In August, they will also air in the 3-4am hour together on Saturday nights (early Sundays). Becker will get filler plays during the week sometimes in the late night as well in both July and August. Check your listings. Becker is also airing in marathon blocks on Universal-owned network Universal HD, airing in HD and weeknights on WGN America as well. Wings is only on USA Network.
We will have more on these two shows on USA Network very soon when we announce the fall line-up in our annual fall schedules barrage here on the blog!

Retro Television's KAZT (7.2) in Phoenix is killing the competition at 3PM. At 3PM RTV's KAZT airs Emergency! and they are doing very well with it in the A25-54 demo. Last Monday (July 6), Emergency! posted a 0.7 A25-54 rating beating Oprah's 0.6 on KTVK. It also beat many other Phoenix airings throughout the day in A25-54 such as The Doctors, Dr. Phil, Rachel Ray, Fox's (KSAZ) primetime House, and The CW (KASW) primetime.
That's not all! The very next day (Tuesday, July 7) it was #1 in Men 25-54 in its 3PM timeslot in Phoenix beating not just Oprah at 3pm, but everything at 3pm! Emergency! posted a 1.2 M25-54 rating, beating Oprah's 0.8, Yes Dear on TBS's 0.8, Ellen DeGeneres Show on KPNX's 0.6, and so many other shows such as Gunsmoke on TV Land's 0.2 in Phoenix.
Emergency! aired originally from 1972-79 and was produced by Universal. The series followed the early years of the Paramedic program in the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) with the focus on the personnel of Fire Station 51, in particular Firefighter/Paramedics. Robert Fuller stars.
View more on Retro Television on their official website.

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Friday, July 10, 2009

ION Television August 2009 Highlights; Comedy Central Orders Original Sitcom

This August on ION Television, there will be no regular changes, so August 2009 will look the same as July 2009 in terms of the regular schedule. So for weekdays starting at 4pm we have M*A*S*H, Boston Legal, Family Feud, and Reba leading into primetime with Ghost Whisperer and NCIS on Mondays, Boston Legal on Tuesdays, and movies the rest of the week.
The movie premieres for August on ION are Dave, Cocktail, Hard to Kill, Blazing Saddles, End of Days, Suspect, Matrix Revolutions, Wyatt Earp, The Specialist, and four movies in the Clint Eastwood Weekend on August 29 and 30: The Gauntlet, Magnum Force, Dead Pool and The Enforcer.
Encores movies airings are Unlawful Entry, Batman, Soldier, Double Impact, Tango & Cash and Assassins. It looks like the full M*A*S*H Sunday airings are preempted this month for movies in primetime, but we still do get M*A*S*H in the early part of the evening usually.
View the complete ION Television August 2009 Highlights.

Employing the same unique formula used for the launch of Tyler Perry's two successful sitcoms, Debmar-Mercury, the television distribution and syndication arm of Lionsgate, announced that Comedy Central has ordered an initial run of 10 episodes of a new, untitled sitcom starring Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite, Blades of Glory) from Gary Sanchez Productions and Debmar-Mercury.
The production company led by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy, and distributed by Debmar-Mercury, the untitled, multi-camera sitcom for Comedy Central will star Heder as an out of work computer IT specialist who leaves the big city and returns to his small home town, where he moves back in with his parents and younger brother. Ferrell, McKay and Henchy will write and produce the series.
They have initially ordered 10 episodes of the Heder sitcom and will then have the option to order an additional 90 episodes upon a successful first-season run. Debmar-Mercury would retain the rights to take the series into syndication after its run on Comedy Central.

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Wednesday, July 08, 2009

30 Rock Reruns Coming to Comedy Central, WGN America in Fall 2011; NY's WWOR Makes Historic Change

30 Rock is heading to off-network syndication in fall 2011 and has already sealed a cable deal. Both Comedy Central and WGN America have acquired the off-network cable rights to the critically acclaimed but ratings challenged comedy. They both will share the cable rights to the sitcom airing weekdays starting fall 2011 and have paid a combined $800,000 an episode, approximately speaking. That is similar in price to FX's buy of Two and a Half Men, but that was only FX buying it and not a shared deal. FX starts Two and a Half Men in fall 2010.
30 Rock will be coming to cable the same time it starts local broadcast syndication as well. That usually doesn't happen, as usually it takes 3 years or more for a show to hit cable after it hits local broadcast syndication, as is the case with Two and a Half Men. So far 30 Rock has not had any local station clearances for fall 2011, but that is still a while away. If the series gets canceled after next season, that might not even happen anyway.
Comedy Central currently airs only two actual sitcoms--Scrubs and Just Shoot Me. 30 Rock would make a nice pair with Scrubs, but Scrubs' deal would be over by fall 2011, unless they renew it. As for WGN America, they are trying to be an all-around network, as they have also acquired Entourage for fall 2010 and South Park for this fall, both as we previously announced. This type of programming is geared for their late night line-up. Classic TV will still be a big part of WGN America's line-up as well, so don't fret!
30 Rock is entering its fourth season on NBC this fall, airing Thursdays at 9:30pm ET/PT. We will certainly have more on the syndication deal as we get more information.

WWOR (My9) in New York is making some drastic and historic changes starting next week. Historic because they are moving the long time 10pm newscast to 11pm and removing the weekend newscast totally! We first reported this on our message boards on Monday, but we wanted to do a story on this as well. WWOR will air The Wendy Williams Show now weeknights at 10pm following MyNetwork TV programming, replacing the hour-long 10pm newscast with Brenda Blackman and Harry Martin. The Wendy Williams Show is a encore from earlier in the day from sister station WNYW (Fox5), which will air it at 10am. So the WWOR news moves to 11pm, and will now only be 30-minutes but will be continued to be anchored by Blackman and Martin. Law & Order: Criminal Intent shifts from 11pm to 11:30pm weeknights as a result of this change. On weekends, the news hour is completely gone--so on Saturdays we now get The King of Queens at 10pm and on Sundays the second run of House at 10pm.
There are tons of other changes during the day on weekdays starting July 13 as well, most notably are sitcoms now from 1pm-2:30pm with One on One, Scrubs, and That '70s Show. WWOR is preparing for the fall as they are cutting the double-runs of canceled shows to just one airing like Family Court with Judge Penny and Trivial Pursuit. WWOR will also have a big hole to fill in the fall when Tyra Banks Show moves from syndication to The CW Daytime.
Sister station WNYW is also making changes. This week they added a test-run of Beyond Twisted, which is an eight-week trial run on Fox owned stations (WNYW New York, KTTV Los Angeles, KDFW Dallas, WJVK Detroit, KSAZ Phoenix and KMSP Minneapolis) at 12am. Then starting next week, Good Day NY expands into the 9am hour as well, bumping the canceled Morning Show with Mike & Juliet to 12 noon for now. As we mentioned, The Wendy Williams Show will air weekdays at 10am on WNYW. And the second run of Everybody Loves Raymond moves from WWOR to WNYW, airing weeknights at 12:30am. WWOR will air the first run but will move it to weekdays at 6:30pm. Finally, starting July 20, another test run show will air on WNYW. Weekdays at 11am Deadlock or Wedlock (a sort of a Divorce Court spin-off) will get a six-week trial run on Fox owned stations in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa, Phoenix, Orlando and Memphis.
View the full changes for WWOR and WNYW in a list form. We will have more on WWOR and WNYW later this month (along with cable networks and other NYC market stations) in our annual fall schedules barrage blog posts! So stay tuned!

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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

ABC Fall 2009 Premiere Dates; Futurama Returns in Mid-2010; TV Land Changes Night and Time for Originals

ABC has announced most of the premiere dates for the 2009-2010 season. Additional premieres will be announced at a later date. Most of the series will launch or return for premiere week (Sept. 21-27), but there are some before and after. Saturday Night Football returns on Saturday nights at 8pm ET starting Saturday, Sept. 5. 20/20 will launch its new season (it never has repeats though) on Friday, Sept. 11 at 10pm. Then we move on to premiere week. Dancing with the Stars kicks-off premiere week and the new season for ABC on Monday, Sept. 21 from 8-10pm followed by the season premiere of Castle at 10pm. Dancing with the Stars will also air on Tuesday, Sept. 22 from 8-10pm leading into the series premiere of The Forgotten. Airing at 8pm on Tuesdays will be Shark Tank starting Aug. 25 (with special airings after Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on Sundays at 9 on Aug, 9, 16 & 23), but Shark Tank is preempted on Sept. 22, but will return Sept. 29 at 8. On Wednesday, Sept. 23, a special Dancing with the Stars: The Results on a special night & time of 8pm will lead-into the comedy premieres of Modern Family & Cougar Town. No word yet what will air at 10pm on this night, as ABC has not announced when new drama Eastwick will launch. Dancing with the Stars: The Results will move to its regular Tuesdays at 9pm slot the following week (Tues., Sept. 29). On Thursday, Sept. 24, ABC launches the premiere of Flash Forward at 8pm followed by the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy. ABC has not announced yet when Private Practice will launch. On Sunday, Sept. 27, ABC will have a two-hour season premiere of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition from 7-9pm, followed by the season premiere of Desperate Housewives at 9pm. No date for Brothers & Sisters has been announced yet.
Premiering out of premiere week will be new comedies Hank and The Middle on Wednesday, Sept. 30 in the 8pm hour. Also, AFV will launch its new season on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 7pm, as Home Edition moves back to the regular 8pm hour. Premiering in week three will be the two-hour season premiere of Ugly Betty from 8-10pm on Friday, Oct. 9, before moving to its regular 9pm slot the following week. And Supernanny launches its new season in week four at 8pm on Oct. 16. That's good to launch the Friday series a bit later as Friday ratings tend to be very low until its gets cooler.
So, to recap so far no premiere dates for Brothers & Sisters, Private Practice and new drama Eastwick. Why? I think ABC might be mulling a special preview for Eastwick. If I were to guess, Eastwick would get a special premiere on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 10 following Desperate Housewives, with Brothers & Sisters launching its new season the following Sunday at 10 (Oct. 4). Eastwick would have its Wednesday premiere on Sept. 30 at 10. During premiere week they might have a special at 10pm on both Wednesday, Sept. 23 and Thursday, Sept. 24 to fill those vacant spots, so maybe Private Practice will not launch until week two (Thursday, Oct. 1). Just my guesses. We also don't know yet what is airing on Fridays the first two weeks from 8-10pm? Maybe special encores of something during the week?
View the premiere dates in list form. We'll inform you as soon as we know about the missing premiere dates.

20th Century Fox Television, the animation powerhouse that brought Family Guy back from the dead five years ago, has done it again: Matt Groening and David X. Cohen's brilliantly subversive animated sci-fi comedy Futurama will return to production on 26 new half-hour episodes more than six years after the series aired its last original episode. The move comes on the heels of the series' blockbuster performance on DVD and on Comedy Central.
The new episodes will be available in mid 2010 to be shown on Comedy Central. However, Twentieth Century Fox Television retains the option to license the original runs of the new episodes to a broadcast network as well.
Futurama was a staple of Fox's Sunday night animation block from 1999 to 2003 before ceasing production on original episodes. In June 2006, Comedy Central acquired the rights to the existing 72 episodes of the series, which the channel began airing in January 2008, and four recently-produced extended length Futurama adventures: "Bender's Big Score," "The Beast with a Billion Backs," "Bender's Game" and "Into the Wild Green Yonder," which enjoyed enormous success both on Comedy Central and in DVD release. This new deal marks the show's return to episodic series production on original episodes. Futurama becomes only the second series in the history of the medium to go back into production based on the strength of its DVD sales and repeat airings on cable.

TV Land announced today that it is making changes to its summer schedule as upcoming original series How'd You Get So Rich? starring Joan Rivers and the comedic hidden camera series Make My Day will now premiere on Thursday, August 6 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and 9:30 p.m. ET/PT respectively.
It was previously announced that they would premiere on Wednesday, August 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT and 10:30 p.m. ET/PT. The series' will premiere in TV Land PRIME, the network's new primetime programming block designed to appeal to the attitudes, life stage and interests of people in their 40s.
Premiering on Thursday, August 6 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, How'd You Get So Rich? stars the notoriously uncensored gossip diva Joan Rivers as she explores the lifestyles of the fabulously rich and lucky in this 30-minute, six-episode series. Following How'd You Get So Rich? is the premiere of the six-episode show Make My Day at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT. This comedic hidden-camera series provides a window into one day in the life of an unsuspecting participant. Tune in as cameras capture the action as they experience weird coincidences, extraordinary situations and surprise celebrity appearances for one whole day.
It seems Thursdays at 9PM is the new hour for TV Land originals, as TV Land also launches the second season of She's Got the Look tomorrow (June 11) on the night and time.

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Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Just Shoot Me Joins Comedy Central; Scrubs Also Airing on Spike TV; JustMyShow.com Goes Wang Chung Tonight

Just Shoot Me!, the hit '90s sitcom, has now joined Comedy Central's line-up airing weekdays at 3:30pm & 4:00pm following episodes of Scrubs at 2:30pm & 3:00pm. Just Shoot Me! was previously on sister station TV Land (also owned by Viacom), but the ratings were not too good. Now it is getting a run on Comedy Central. The show will also air on weekends anytime between 10am-1pm, also paired with Scrubs. Scrubs will also remain in its weeknights 7-8pm slot as well.
Just a note, Just Shoot Me! is also still airing on TBS weekdays from 2-3pm. The series lasted 148 episodes on NBC from 1997-2003.

We have some Spike TV news! They have been airing CSI and CSI: NY all day long (9am-8pm) for a while now, but this July finally the regular schedule will return. But before that happens, another show that was on TV Land will make its way to a sister station. We get more Scrubs! Scrubs will air on Spike TV on Thursday nights to start-off in the 1am hour starting June 18, replacing MANanswers and Beavis & Butt-head. Then a few weeks later it will lose that hour to MANswers, but gain so much more. Scrubs will join the Spike TV weekday line-up starting Monday, July 6 airing in the 11am hour, following the daily return of Married...with Children from 9-11am weekdays. So yes, Scrubs will be on two Viacom networks (Comedy Central and Spike TV) along with WGN America and local syndication. That sure is a whole lot! But with this addition, it seems TV Land will not be airing it again. Married...with Children was airing on Sundays from 9am-10:30am on Spike TV since these CSI and CSI NY marathons have been airing lately and the show also has been airing on sister network TV Land. Lots of cross airings on Viacom networks it seems lately.
The rest of the new Spike TV schedule starting July 6 has Spike's Most Amazing Videos at 12 noon, back-to-back CSI NY from 1-3pm, CSI from 3-5pm, more CSI NY from 5-7pm, and more CSI from 7-9pm. This means Unsolved Mysteries is not on the schedule and won't return for now it seems. Primetime has movies and originals. The late night schedule has CSI, Spike's Most Amazing Videos, Disorderly Conduct: Video on Patrol, Star Trek: Voyager, MXC, and The Shield, with the latter two just once a week.

Our good buddy Eric from the wonderful JustMyShow.com is back with another new podcast! Hint: Everybody Wang Chung Tonight! He brought you some of the '80s most memorable hits. Now he's here to tell you how it all happened. JMS chats it up with Wang Chung lead singer Jack Hues. And that's not all! There is a special appearance by Emmy-winning writer Ken Levine! There is a bonus clip that will interest us the most probably. The bonus clip has Ken Levine discussing his famous Cheers Wang Chung line, as that sitcom had an episode ("To All the Girls I've Loved Before") that featured Wang Chung. So head on over to JustMyShow and listen to this podcast and the bonus audio!

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Wednesday, May 06, 2009

CW Sunday to Cease in the Fall; Spike/Comedy Central Acquires Entourage Reruns; Remembering Dom DeLuise

The CW network is reducing its programing to five nights a week starting this fall. It will return Sunday nights to its affiliated local stations to program as they choose, just like they do on Saturdays. The CW programmed Sundays from 5pm-10pm, and now they will go back to local affiliates to program starting this fall.
The CW will now focus on Monday through Fridays. The CW has not had any success on Sundays since its inception. This past fall, The CW attempted another solution, allowing Media Rights Capital (MRC) to provide Sunday's primetime lineup and help with ad sales, but the programming, which included Easy Money and Valentine, flopped. Currently, Sunday nights have been filled with reruns of CBS' canceled series Jericho and theatrical movies.

Spike TV has acquired all 78 produced episodes, the upcoming sixth season as well as rights to future seasons of the show for about $600,000 an episode. The Hollywood-centered comedy about young actor Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) and his posse will launch on Spike in January, after the show's sixth season wraps on HBO. Spike also has the right to carve a window for a second network, which likely will be sister cabler Comedy Central. This is Spike's second acquisition of an HBO program in the past month. The basic cable channel also picked up HBO's Emmy-winning miniseries Band of Brothers for a premiere in the third quarter.

Dom DeLuise

Prolific actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author Dom DeLuise died peacefully surrounded by his wife and three sons on Monday evening at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, CA. He was 75. The cause of death was not released by the family. He had been hospitalized and was suffering from kidney failure and respiratory problems following a long battle with cancer.

Deluise appeared in many movies and TV shows, Broadway plays and provided his voice to characters for numerous animated features in a career that spanned over 45 years. Mel Brooks cast him in many of his movies, including The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, History of the World Part I, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and Spaceballs as the voice of Pizza the Hutt. In the 1970s and 1980s, he frequently co-starred with Burt Reynolds in the films The Cannonball Run and Cannonball II, Smokey and the Bandit II, The End and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. He lent his voice to animated features such as The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, All Dogs Go to Heaven and Oliver & Company. He was a frequent guest on game shows and hosted Candid Camera from 1991-1992.

His early sitcom appearances included The Munsters, Please Don't Eat the Daisies and The Ghost & Mrs. Muir. In 1973, he starred in the short-lived Lotsa Luck as bachelor Stanley Belmont who was the custodian of a New York City bus company's lost-and-found department. The cast included Kathleen Freeman, Wynn Irwin, Beverly Sanders and Jack Knight. In 1987-1988, he starred in the first-run syndication sitcom The Dom DeLuise Show with George Wallace, Maureen Murphy, Angela Aames and Michael Chambers. He appeared with his sons--Peter, Michael and David DeLuise--in a 1997 episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun. They had previously appeared together in a 1994 episode of seaQuest DSV.

In later years he began a second career as a popular chef and cookbook author. He always had a love of food and authored 1988's Eat This — It Will Make You Feel Better! and 1997's Eat This Too! It'll Also Make You Feel Good. He also wrote seven books for children, including 1993's Charlie the Caterpillar. In recent years he was a regular contributor to a syndicated home improvement radio show, On The House with The Carey Brothers, giving listeners tips on culinary topics.

DeLuise is survived by his wife and actress Carol Arthur, actor sons Peter, Michael and David, his sister, Anne, and grandchildren Riley, Dylan and Jake. Donations can be made to his favorite charities: The Elixir Fund, The Lily Sanctuary, The Hydrocephalus Foundation, Inc. and The Pearl S. Buck Foundation. You can read more information on his official site. We will miss his warm smile and always remember the times he has made us laugh. Mr. DeLuise was 75. You can post your memories here.

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Wednesday, July 02, 2008

TV One August 2008 Highlights; Comedy Central Revives The Gong Show

The summer continues to heat up on TV One with daytime marathons and more! In August, the 10am-4pm daytime marathons for the month include, Amen, Between Brothers, All of Us, Eve, The Hughleys, All About the Andersons, Martin, New York Undercover, For Your Love, and Boston Public.
During Labor Day Weekend, TV One will be working hard for the viewers with four days of marathons:
On Friday, August 29, beginning at 10pm and through Saturday, August 30 at 10pm, it's a battle of the 'child star divas' pitting Janet Jackson's Penny from Good Times vs. Raven-Symone's Nicole from Hangin' With Mr. Cooper in a 24-hour 'Child-Star Megathon,' with episodes of the two sitcoms back-to-back alternating in a 24-hour TV One Megathon. Viewers can vote for their favorite at tvoneonline.com.
On Sunday, August 31, beginning at 3pm and running until 10pm (encores 2-6am), it's all about Black Men as TV One salutes Black Men in a day long event that starts with a marathon of the sitcom Between Brothers about two brothers and their two college buddies living and working in Chicago that stars Kadeem Hardison, Dondre Whitfield, Tommy Davidson, and Kelly Perine.
On Labor Day itself, Monday, September 1, beginning at 10am and running until 6am, TV One presents a "Martin 'Labor Day Cliff-Hanger' Marathon." Join Martin, Tommy, Gina, Cole, and Pam as TV One presents a Labor-Day marathon that will have viewers on the edge of their seats with multiple cliff-hangers in a day-long holiday even featuring some of the best and most memorable Martin continuing storylines and conclusions without the wait.
There are no schedule changes in August to the regular schedule.

First we had news of The Match Game being revived on TBS for possible premiere (pilot just taped with celebs like Sarah Silverman), now another '70s classic will be revived later this month. The 1970s classic The Gong Show is back with new episodes and who better to host the return of the legendary talent showcase series than boundary-pushing comedy all-star Dave Attell? Viewers won't be able to contain their laughter (and their astonishment) when The Gong Show with Dave Attell premieres Thursday, July 17 at 10:00 p.m. on Comedy Central.
Executive Produced by Doug Robinson of Happy Madison Productions and Andrew Golder in association with Sony Pictures Television, The Gong Show with Dave Attell will showcase seven to ten off-beat and diverse acts judged by a revolving panel of three celebrity judges. At the end of each show, the act with the highest score will be crowned the winner! The premiere episode features celebrity judges Brian Posehn, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Steve Schirripa.
Judges featured throughout the season include Adam Carolla (The Man Show, Dancing with the Stars), Kate Walsh (Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy), Andy Dick (NewsRadio, Less than Perfect), Ron White, Dave Navarro, Greg Giraldo, Jim Norton and JB Smoove.

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