'90s Cosby Sitcom Now on Gospel Music Channel; Remembering TV Writer Barry Blitzer

Gospel Music Channel (GMC) has quietly added the '90s sitcom Cosby to its schedule since Monday (Feb. 1). The series aired from 1996-2000 on CBS. The series previously aired in repeats in broadcast syndication and on cable on TBS shortly after its run ended on CBS. Bill Cosby stars as Hilton Lucas, a hard-working, devoted husband and father trying to make sense out of the challenges of everyday life. Also starring are Phylicia Rashad (The Cosby Show), Doug E. Doug and the late Madeline Kahn. The series is airing weekdays in the 9am ET hour and encoring later in the day in the 11pm ET hour. View the promo GMC has created for the series.
You can win a 10 CD prize pack on Twitter if you retweet their status. Contest ends Friday (Feb. 5) at 12 noon ET, so hurry Hilton Lucas fans!
They have also quietly added Funniest Pets & People airing weekdays in the 7am hour. With the additions of Cosby and Funniest Pets & People, there are some time changes for their existing series. Airing weekdays in the 8am hour now will be Sister, Sister in between the two new series. In the 10am hour we now have an hour of Amen. Joyful Noise Cafe has now moved to 11am-1pm, as it used to air 7am-9am, which means Christy is now gone from 12 noon. Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman will still remain in the 1pm, 2pm, 6pm and 7pm hours. Faith & Fame replaces Promised Land at 3pm, but Promised Land will now move to 10pm. Sue Thomas, F.B.eye will remain weekdays at 4pm and 8pm, while Doc also remain weekdays at 5pm and 9pm. Sister, Sister is replaced from 10pm-12am with the aforementioned Promised Land and Cosby hours. Various gospel progamming remains airs at 12 midnight ET and Amen continues to air with back-to-back episodes in the 1am ET hour, which is in addition to its 10am ET hour.
For weekends, everything looks the same with the weekly Sister, Sister Saturday marathons from 9am-2pm leading into movies the rest of the day. Sundays will still have a mix of movies and gospel programming.
View the full Gospel Music Channel schedule and to discuss these new changes.

Veteran television writer Barry Blitzer, who wrote for classic TV shows such as Get Smart and The Flintstones, died last Wednesday (Jan. 27) in Santa Monica, Calif from complications after abdominal surgery. Blitzer shared a Writers Guild nomination in 1968 for Get Smart, with co-writer and frequent collaborator Raymond Brenner. He wrote for comedies including The Phil Silvers Show, Gomer Pyle, Andy Griffith Show, The Love Boat, Hot L Baltimore, Too Close for Comfort, McHale's Navy, Filthy Rich, Small Wonder, and Good Times.
In addition to The Flinstones, Blitzer also wrote episodes for other Hanna Barbera cartoons like The Jetsons, The Flinstone Kids, The New Yogi Bear Show, and Top Cat, as well as children's programs including Land of the Lost. He was also the last surviving member of the group of writers who shared a 1956 Best Comedy Writing Emmy for The Phil Silvers Show (for the episode, "You'll Never Get Rich").
He was also a story editor for the animated versions of Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley (The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang and Laverne & Shirley in the Army), along with writing episodes for The Partridge Family animated series Partridge Family 2200 AD.
Mr. Blitzer will certainly be missed even though he has not written anything since 1990. He was 80.

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

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

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

iTunes Free Summer of Laughs; Gospel Music Channel Acquires Three Dramas

Apple's iTunes Store is going for laughs this summer! They are doing a comedy promotion this summer making many comedies for free. And some others will be only 99 cents per episode. Among the freebies are: Arrested Development, Human Giant, Reno 911!, The State and The IT Crowd. Buy episodes for 99 cents for comedies likes The Office, 30 Rock, The Larry Sanders Show, Barney Miller, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Good Times. Even better is that you can watch the entire first season of SNL for 99 cents...that's 24 episodes for less than a dollar!

Gospel Music Channel has acquired the rights to air three dramas starting this afternoon! Starting today (Monday, June 15), they will air Christy, Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, and Doc from 4-8PM every weekday. Dr. Quinn will air two episodes (5-7pm).
Christy was a short-lived CBS family drama from 1994-95 starring Kellie Martin. There will also about four TV-movies from 2000-2003 that PAX produced. Dr. Quinn was of course the popular family western drama starring Jane Seymour that aired from 1993-98 on CBS. In addition, the series also had two TV-movies in 1999 and 2001. And finally Doc was a family medical drama starring Billy Ray Cyrus that was on PAX from 2001-2004. These are the first scripted series to ever air on this network. They also air movies, though. Incidentally, all three have aired on the former PAX-TV at some point, whether it be reruns or originals (in Doc's case).
Gospel Music Channel recently also acquired the television rights to the off-net series Amy Grant's Three Wishes and Clash of The Choirs, which both shows air together on Wednesday nights since June 3. Three Wishes airs at 8:00 p.m., while Clash of the Choirs follows at 9:00 p.m. Both were short-lived reality series on NBC.
View their website to see if you receive this network.

Coming this week: Nick at Nite July - see how the addition of Malcolm in the Middle will affect the schedule.