Day 11: WGA's Writers' Strike; In2TV to Re-Launch; M*A*S*H Marathon Score for TV Land

We are now on day 11 of the writers' strike. Reality/game shows will dominate the schedule soon when originals of scripted series run out. The Office runs out after tonight's airing. CBS's new sitcom The Big Bang Theory ran out of new episodes this past Monday. Rules of Engagement looks like will run out of episodes after its airing this Monday. Which means half of CBS's Monday sitcom line-up would have ended...the other two are expected to end after their Monday, Nov. 26 airings.
NBC has announced that its struggling new series Life, which airs Wednesdays at 10, will have a special two-part episode which will air following the finale of Heroes on December 3 at 10pm. Part two will air in its regular timeslot on Dec. 5. NBC will also have a special three night Deal or No Deal stunt a week later, on Dec. 10-12 starting at 8pm. Following that NBC will launch the new series Clash of the Choirs, which will air Dec. 17-21 at 8pm. Michael Bolton, Patti LaBelle, Nick Lachey, Kelly Rowland and Blake Shelton will embark on a musical challenge as they return to their hometowns to assemble an amateur choir and prepare them to compete live in studio for the title of America's best choir. ABC will counteract with a new gameshow called Duel the same four nights, but with also an airing on Sunday, Dec. 23 at 8pm. Duel is a tournament style competition featuring head-to-head matches with nerve rattling game play rewarding contestants who embrace shrewdness and manipulation to win. If a contestant can react quickly under pressure and outsmart their opponent using strategy and deception, intellect and skill, they could walk away with up to $2 million.
We gave you ABC's holiday plans (with more coming probably), now we will give you CBS's. The classic holiday special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer will air Tuesday, December 4 from 8-9pm on CBS, head-to-head against ABC's Santa Claus is Coming to Town. CBS will also air the classic special Frosty the Snowman on Friday, December 7 at 8pm, followed by Frosty Returns at 8:30. CBS will also air the holiday movie Elf on Saturday, Dec. 22.

MediaPost is reporting that AOL/Warner Bros. plan to relaunch their In2TV co-venture sometime next year, as the broadband network with full episodes of old-time hits has failed to gain traction since debuting in early 2006. They said it would be "reinvented" by the second quarter next year. A redesign and the addition of some sort of social networking capabilities are expected. The service's section, with memorable show theme songs, might also be an untapped resource. The site's experience is "not immersive" enough.
The coming relaunch is an example of the commitment of the studio--which produces a run of current prime-time hits--to exploiting its library via new distribution channels.
Also next spring, the company has said it will launch TWorks.com--a site focusing on animation with shows such as Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera series. The company said the venture, which will have original content produced by Warner Bros., will also include games and virtual worlds.
So what does this mean? We are not 100% sure...but let's hope they don't remove all of the classic TV on In2TV. So this is the reason why there have not been many new episodes for series on In2TV. They started by giving us 4 new episodes a month, but that hasn't happened in many months now. We will keep you up to date on any further development.

TV Land's M*A*S*H Mail Call Marathon averaged big gains across several key categories during the programming event, which aired on Saturday, November 10 and Sunday, November 11, in honor of Veteran's Day. The eighteen episode programming salute scored double-digit gains in rating and delivery among its target A25-54 audience and total viewers over last year while doubling delivery among its core audience of A40-54. The M*A*S*H Mail Call featured episodes about members of the 4077th sending and receiving letters from loved ones. M*A*S*H averaged a 0.5/524,000 among A25-54, representing a +67% lift in ratings and +95% increase in delivery over the same period last year. TV Land averaged over 1 million total viewers, an increase of +79% over YAGO. Among its core audience, Adults 40-54, TV Land secured substantial gains in rating and delivery, averaging a 0.7/404,000, representing a rise of +75% in rating and +108% in delivery.
In other TV Land news, starting in December Mondays 4-5PM will now be Sanford & Son, thus it will be Mon-Fri instead of Tues-Fri. Gunsmoke will be 2-4pm on Mondays now, with Bonanza 11a-2p Mondays.
On Saturday, Dec. 8, the 12PM encore of the movie Beaches will be replaced by I Love Lucy from 12pm-2:30pm. I Love Lucy's morning airing that morning from 10a-12p will be Designing Women instead. On Saturday, December 15, encores of the movie Wall Street are canceled in the afternoon, so we will get a Three's Company marathon from 1-5pm. Wall Street encore will now air from 7-9:30pm, with Andy Griffith following at 9:30pm.

Memorial Day Marathons, Include Growing Pains On The N; Flo and She's the Sheriff Among the New In2TV Programming; Remembering Charles Nelson Reilly

Happy Memorial Day from everyone here at SitcomsOnline! If you are not out in the sun enjoying the weather then head to your TV to watch tons of marathons! We will give you a breakdown on who is airing what.
First, let's start off with The N. They will air a marathon of Growing Pains after all the festivities are over for Memorial Day, so you can actually go outside if you want because the marathon will air from 12 midnight to 6am of this show. The N is one of the sister stations of Nick at Nite, so that is how the network is airing this show. The show will air Mon-Thurs at 12 & 12:30 a.m. for the rest of the week, but it is unclear if it will continue after this week. We will let you know as soon as we do.
Imagine the joy of a road trip without leaving the comfort of your own home -- no overheated cars, no flat tires and no getting ripped off at the pump. Beginning Monday, May 28 from 6:00am to 8:00pm (all times ET/PT), TV Land takes viewers on an excursion to cool and exotic places when the network presents Memorial Day Roadtrips, a fourteen-hour marathon of vacation episodes from the network's line-up, culminating with the hilarious pop culture hit movie, National Lampoon's Vacation. Join The Munsters for a frightful night of camping, the Ricardos and the Mertzes on their comedic cross-country journey to Hollywood, the Sanfords for some sun and surf in Hawaii and top off the day's adventures with The Griswolds at the famed Wally World Amusement Park.
FX will travel back to the '70s with That '70s Show's Memorial Day Marathon. Twenty episodes of the 1998-2006 sitcom begin with a 1998 outing in which the gang's finding of a keg of beer demands a party. But tapping the keg proves problematic, and there are parents in pursuit. Airs from 7am-5pm.
Hallmark Chanel will have a M*A*S*H marathon, as we stated before. And as we stated before spend the day with Martin on TV One.
BET will have an epic block for Memorial Day featuring 10 episodes of Run's House, followed by six episodes of The Wayans Bros. and six episodes of The Jamie Foxx Show. Al from 9am-8pm.
G4 will air a marathon of the original Star Trek from 9am-4pm, while Oxygen will air a marathon of the hit sitcom Roseanne from 11am-4pm.
TNT has an all-day Law & Order marathon starting at 10am through 11pm, while the spin-off Law & Order: Criminal Intent will get a marathon on USA Network from 6am-8pm.
A&E will send out the mob for an all-day The Sopranos marathon from 9:24am to 11:37pm. Spike TV will do some investigating this Memorial Day with a CSI marathon from 9am-11pm.
Other notable marathons: VH1's Flavor of Love, style's Biggest Loser marathon, Bravo's Shear Genius, History Channel's Band of Brothers, CourtTV's Beach Patrol: San Diego, Animal Planet's Planet's Funniest Animals, and MTV will also air a Run's House marathon along with some Real World. TBS and Comedy Central will go to the movies all-day.
Wow! I think I covered it all. Something for everyone will air I hope.

In2TV, the online TV channel airing tons of TV shows, has added two short lived sitcoms this month! Flo, the spin-off of the hit sitcom Alice was added earlier this month and just recently the short lived first-run syndicated sitcom She's the Sheriff was added. That sitcom starred Suzanne Somers in the title role. Flo joins Alice on In2TV, so both shows are now on the online network. 8 episodes of Flo have been added thus far. And thus far 10 episodes have been added of She's the Sheriff. There is an episode of She's the Sheriff titled "Hair" that has Suzanne Somers' Three's Company co-star Don Knotts in it, along with Jenilee Harrison, who replaced Suzanne Somers on that show...interesting right? That is the episode I'm watching first and you should, too! Click HERE to view it. Also of note, after just one episode was added to In2TV last year, The Ben Stiller Show will now have all 13 episodes online for viewers to view!
And of course new episodes of your favorite In2TV series such as Martin, Head of the Class and Veronica's Closet will have new episodes this month!

Finally, we leave you with some sad news. TV legend Charles Nelson Reilly has died. Reilly was famous for being one of the celebrity panelists on the '70s game show Match Game. He also appeared on The Tonight Show many times. Reilly died Sunday in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia, his partner, Patrick Hughes, told the New York Times. He wore his trademark giant glasses and colorful suits with ascots on Match Game and Hollywood Squares.
The actor appeared on many sitcoms as well. He appeared on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir from 1968-70. He has guest starred on The Patty Duke Show, Car 54 Where Are You?, The Farmer's Daughter, Nanny and the Professor, Here's Lucy, Arnie, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Love American Style, Charles in Charge, Evening Shade, New WKRP in Cincinnati, Family Matters and The Drew Carey Show. He had done a lot of TV voice work such as SpongeBob SquarePants. Mr. Reilly will be missed. He was 76.

New Shows for In2TV; VB Article on TV-DVDs; 'Studio 60' Burns Off Post-Sweeps on NBC

In2TV, the online TV channel airing tons of TV shows, has added some new shows this month. New shows and specials: Freddie, Wally Gator, Mr. Bill, Gumby, The Zeta Project, and The Growing Pains Movie. A short Growing Pains Blooper Reel has also been added.
And of course more episodes of your favorite In2TV shows are added. Have fun watching!

Video Business just posted an article on TV DVDs. Susanne Ault wrote the piece and it talks about classic TV on DVD. It tells us if sales are not good, they put shows on hold for future seasons. Also, this confirms what we first reported that Warner Home Video has put the TV Favorites campaign on hold and will release full season sets only! Read the article here.

NBC will return freshman drama Studio 60 from the Sunset Strip on Thursday, May 24. It will burn-off all six of its remaining episodes likely. The show is returning after May sweeps ends, so it doesn't seem likely it will return next season with new episodes. The show will air at 10 p.m. on May 24.