New TV One Daytime Schedule Starting Monday; Retroality.TV Stories on Suzanne Somers, Rod Roddy, and More!

Starting Monday (Nov. 16) TV One will be making last minute schedule changes to its daytime line-up. Short-lived sitcom For Your Love will now air for the full hour at 7am, rather than just the 7am half-hour, as original series Singletary Says is no longer scheduled at 7:30am. Sitcom Half & Half moves to the 8am hour, replacing an hour of original series. Original series will continue to air from 9am-12pm. Then at 12 noon, we now have an hour of Eve replacing short-lived comedies Where I Live and That's My Mama, which are now gone from the schedule totally. In the 1pm hour we now have another hour of Martin, replacing Amen and Like Family. This means Amen is totally gone from the regular schedule, but Like Family remains Saturdays in the 6am hour. In the 2pm hour, we now have back-to-back Living Single instead of Half & Half, since that moved to 8am. New York Undercover and Divorce Court remain in the 3pm and 4pm hours. The final change is to the 5pm hour with two episodes of All of Us replacing original series. Everything else will remain the same such as The Jeffersons in the 6pm hour.

Chris Mann has some very interesting reads up on his wonderful website Retroality.TV that you won't want to miss reading! As you all probably know, Suzanne Somers is much in the headlines these days about cancer and how chemo is not the answer. She has a new book titled Knockout, which boldly slams chemotherapy while promoting controversial treatments. Suzanne has gone back and forth this week with Gerald Posners in dueling blogs on The Daily Beast this week. Chris takes a look at this entire debacle and even has some interesting comments from her Three's Company co-star John Ritter about Suzanne Somers' breast cancer revelation and related liposuction debacle in 2001. Did Suzanne lie again? You won't want to miss this interesting investigative blog story titled "RETROALITY.TV EXCLUSIVE! John Ritter initially questioned if Suzanne Somers really had breast cancer: 'She lies,' he told me ...!"
Chris says he will have even more about this story later this month, so stay tuned! In other updates for Retroality.TV, the cover story is about Price is Right announcer Johnny Olson. GSN's new The Newlywed Game announcer Randy West wrote a great new book about his old friend and mentor Johnny. Chris has an exclusive interview with Randy.
Staying on the topic of The Price is Right, announcer Rod Roddy mysteriously wasn't visible on camera much as used to be in his final years. Why? Chris has an exclusive and interesting story on why from a former Barker's Beauty. Was Bob Barker responsible for this instead of the generic response given by FremantleMedia? Read Chris' very interesting story on Rod Roddy.
All of this is part of cancer month on Retroality.TV.
Also, later this month, he'll have an interview with Dick Van Patten regarding his new book Eighty is Enough. Retroality.TV just gets better and better! I suggest you read all of this, it is good stuff (I was especially interested in the Somers and Roddy blog stories!)!

TV Land December 2009 Includes 10th Annual Merrython; TNT Picks-Up Southland

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.

TBS and ABC Family Renew Original Sitcoms; Remembering Larry Gelbart

The beer will continue flowing at Crowley's Tavern as TBS orders up a fourth season of its critically acclaimed original sitcom from Sony Pictures Television, My Boys. The series stars Jordana Spiro as PJ Franklin, a 20-something sports columnist in Chicago. TBS has lined up nine episodes for the new season, which is slated to launch in 2010.
Co-starring in My Boys as PJ's mostly male group of close friends are Kyle Howard as boyfriend Bobby, Reid Scott as best friend Brendon, Michael Bunin as Kenny and Jamie Kaler as Mike. Kellee Stewart co-stars as Stephanie, a former schoolmate and the only female influence in PJ's life.
The single camera sitcom premiered to critical praise on TBS in November 2006. When the series returned in summer 2007, it scored 22% growth among adults 18-34. Earlier this year, the show's third season garnered 11% growth among adults 18-34. The comedy is particularly strong among DVR users, delivering 72% growth among adults 18-34 and 52% growth among viewers when comparing Live to Live + 7 viewing for the third season.

Meanwhile, ABC Family has ordered another season of ten episodes of original comedy 10 Things I Hate About You. The ensemble single camera sitcom based on the 1999 feature of the same name has performed well for ABC Family since its July 7 debut. The comedy is created and executive produced by Carter Covington and stars Lindsey Shaw, Meaghan Martin, Larry Miller and Ethan Peck. The series just finished its first season episode order (10 episodes) last Tuesday.
However, the news was not as good for another original ABC Family series that premiered this summer, Ruby and the Rockits. ABC Family will not renew the multicamera sitcom that revolved around a pair of aging pop stars and their families, which starred Patrick Cassidy, David Cassidy and Alexa Vega and was executive produced by Shaun Cassidy. The series still has two episodes left to air in its only season episode order, with the series finale airing next Tuesday at 8:30PM.

Larry Gelbart, the award-winning writer whose sly, sardonic wit helped create such hits as Broadway's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, the film Tootsie, and of course television's M*A*S*H, died Friday. Gelbart died at his Beverly Hills home after a long battle with cancer. He is likely best remembered for the long-running TV show about Army doctors during the Korean War. Gelbart won an Emmy for M*A*S*H and was nominated for writing but quit during the show's fourth season, saying he was "totally worn out."
Gelbart's Broadway show, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, written with Burt Shevelove, was a runaway hit. It was based loosely on the Roman plays of Plautus with songs by Stephen Sondheim.
His films Oh, God! with George Burns as a philosophical deity, and Tootsie, with Dustin Hoffman as a cross-dressing actor, both brought him Academy Award nominations, and the HBO movie Barbarians at the Gate, about Wall Street chicanery, brought another Emmy.
Gelbart's other television work was creating the short-lived CBS sitcom Roll Out! in 1973. It starred Stu Gilliam and Hilly Hicks, and featuring Ed Begley, Jr. and Garrett Morris, the series was set in France during World War II and was loosely based on the 1952 film Red Ball Express. Instead of Army medics, Roll Out! highlighted the pratfalls of the supply drivers of the 5050th Quartermaster Trucking Company of the U.S. Third Army's Red Ball Express, whose staff was mainly African American.
Gelbart was also known for writing the first television pilot for Three's Company in 1976, which today is known as "The Larry Gelbart Pilot." The pilot never aired originally, but has been on DVD and aired on cable on TV Land. In 1980, Larry had another show that didn't last too long. The series was for NBC titled United States and starred Beau Bridges. It was a show about Richard and Libby Chapin and their two children Dylan and Nicky. The show differed from other sitcoms in that there might not be closure to problems after a frank discussion and the subjects discussed were not common to other sitcoms.
In 1983, Larry came back to M*A*S*H in the spin-off AfterMASH. It only lasted two seasons and had the Korean War ended with Colonel Potter, Sergeant Klinger, and Father Mulcahy finding themselves together once again, this time at a veteran's hospital.
In recent years Larry has been interviewed for TV Land Confidential, Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America, Inside TV Land: The Dick Van Dyke Show, M*A*S*H: 30th Anniversary Reunion, and most recently Biography: Three's Company. He was also at the TV Land Awards earlier this year.
Larry will certainly be missed and his great writing will live on forever in M*A*S*H and his other work. He was 81.

TV Land October 2009 Highlights; Retroality.TV's Totally Awesome Features for September

October 2009 for TV Land will be the same regular schedule that will start in September, as of now. There are some minor weekend time adjustments, but it is not a big deal. This October, Married...with Children's Saturday block goes from 5pm-10pm to 2pm-10pm, while Andy Griffith Show's Sunday block goes from 5pm-10pm to 5pm-12am. As a result, M*A*S*H's Sunday primetime airing gets shifted to Saturdays 10pm-1am replacing Cosby Show. That's all but there are plenty of highlights! First off, leading into Married on Saturdays will continue to be various classic marathons each week, in October on Saturdays we have 3rd Rock from the Sun, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Sanford & Son, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Three's Company...with time varying, but usually between 10am-2pm. Leading into Andy on Sundays will continue to be various classic marathons each week as well, in October on Sundays we get Hogan's Heroes, Bonanza, Good Times, and Gunsmoke.
TV Land invites you again for the annal event CASA Family Day. Spend the 6pm hour with your family around the family table during CASA's annual Family Day on Monday, September 28. This year an episode of Little House on the Prairie will air.
This Halloween be scared. Be very scared! Because it's Roseanne's Wicked Halloween Bash! Catch every single Halloween episode from Roseanne's run on Halloween night from 10pm-2am! What better way for a wicked Halloween bash? Michael Myers who?
Finally, the TV Land PRIME movies for October are Police Academy, Office & a Gentleman, The Mod Squad, The Bodyguard, and Private Benjamin.
View the TV Land October 2009 Highlights.

Chris Mann's Retroality.TV has many many new features coming this September that will something for everyone! The cover story for September will be about Susan Olsen's new book Love to Love You Bradys, a look at how the Bradys paved the way for reality TV! There will be another cover story as well! Chris Mann has part 1 of an explosive two-part, in-depth interview with Farrah's Story executive producer Craig J. Nevius. Two days before NBC premiered the special back in May, Nevius sued Ryan O'Neal and Alana Stewart, claiming they interfered in the project and barred him from carrying out the terms of his signed April 2008 contract with Farrah. Nevius also was barred from contacting Farrah during the last three months of her life. She died of course on June 25 after a three-year struggle with anal cancer. In part one of this exclusive interview, Nevius discusses his five-year friendship and business relationship with Fawcett--beginning with a failed Charlie's Angels reunion and then TV Land's Chasing Farrah--and his promise to help her win an Emmy (She and Nevius are nominated for their roles as executive producers in Farrah's Story). Part 2 of the story will post by Sept. 7, leading up to the Creative Arts Emmys on Sept. 12.
Also, coming this September to this wonderful and cool website is a story on why TV Land censors Sanford and Son from guest columnist John Wekluk. And Price is Right fans take note, part four of Holly Hallstrom's audio interview will be posted in mid-September. She discusses, among other things, Rod Roddy's tragic, lengthy battle with colon cancer and why Bob Barker's longtime on-screen sidekick was suddenly taken off camera--against Roddy's wishes--on The Price is Right in 2002. Was it "Come on Out" instead of "Come on Down" for Roddy? You'll want to hear this!
And finally, the home page of Retroality.TV will feature links to last month's exclusive Hollywood Show video interviews, including Chris' chat with Tanya Roberts (who discusses her husband's death after a long illness, as well as Farrah's passing), Three's Company's Jenilee Harrison (Cindy Snow), and his revealing four-part chat with Susan Olsen (who gives Chris Brady scoops on her book, the Jan and Marcia "feud" and a rumored Oprah reunion this fall). That Olsen video is perfect timing since one of the cover stories is on Susan Olsen!
So head on over to our pals at Retroality.TV! Chris Mann never disappoints!

WGN America Fall 2009 Marathons; Fox Schedules King of the Hill Finale; Three's Co Bio Tonight on Bio TV

Today on the fall schedules barrage on the blog we will dish out cool marathons on WGN America! Their full fall schedule will come at a later date, but we just couldn't wait to give you details on their fall marathons! First up on Sunday, Aug. 30 we have a marathon of The Honeymooners! Following baseball, the classic sitcom will air from 5:30pm-10pm ET (2:30pm-7pm PT) and continue after the news from 11pm-2am ET (8pm-11pm PT)! The marathon will preempt the regularly scheduled Outta Sight Retro Night programming. Marathon episodes for The Honeymooners are a mix of lost and classic 39 episodes: "Game Called on Account...," "Ralph's Sweet Tooth," "Principle of the Thing," "A Dog's Life," "Here Comes the Bride," "Loudspeaker," "On Stage," "Bensonhurst Bomber," "The Safety Award," "Mind Your Own Business," "Alice and the Blonde," "Love Letter," "The Adoption," "Norton Moves In/Dinner Guest," and "Catch a Star." No word yet if The Honeymooners will return to the regular WGN America line-up.
Next up on Sunday, Sept. 6 from 4-10pm ET (1pm-7pm PT), are you ready for some football? Celebrate the return of football with a marathon of the sitcom Coach! What better way to celebrate than to air Coach? The Jerry Lewis MDA telethon will air after the news starting at 11pm ET (8pm PT). We don't have episode info yet for Coach's marathon.
Then remember the series I kept saying that will be celebrating an anniversary this fall on WGN America? Well that series is The Cosby Show! WGN America will go all out for The Cosby Show's 25th anniversary with a marathon and more! First up on Wednesday, Sept. 16 from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT) catch the 2002 reunion special The Cosby Show: A Look Back for the first time on WGN America. Then on Sunday, Sept. 20 we get a marathon and yet more! From 5:30pm-8pm ET (2:30pm-5pm PT) catch classic Cosby Show episodes with an all-new half-hour special at 7pm ET (4pm PT) titled The Cosby Show: 25th Anniversary Special. Thursday, Sept. 20, 1984 was the EXACT day The Cosby Show premiered on NBC, so WGN America will also air three other series that aired on NBC that night! From 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT) catch an episode each of Family Ties, Cheers, and Hill Street Blues! What a nice and creative idea to celebrate this anniversary! We don't have episode info for this day yet, but wouldn't it be cool if the exact same episodes from that night aired? Now Cheers already airs regularly on Sunday nights, but will Family Ties and Hill Street Blues also join? You'll have to stay tuned! But wait, we're still not done with The Cosby Show! More classic episodes will air after the news from 11pm-2am ET (8pm-11pm PT). What a night!
We will certainly have the WGN America Fall 2009 schedule very soon, so stay with us! One hint: Wednesday nights in primetime will be '80s night with some nights having movies and some nights having TV series. Movies include Police Academy, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Octopussy!

After 13 seasons of beer, barbecue, bickering and bonding, the Hill family delivers a Southern-style send-off in a one-hour series finale episode of King of the Hill airing Sunday, Sept. 13 from 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT on Fox. The King of the Hill finale will air after Fox NFL Sunday, so the lead-in will be big.
On the back-to-back series finale episodes, "The Boy Can't Help It"/"The Honeymooners," Bobby becomes quite the ladies' man when several girls in his class consider him a potential date for the Homecoming dance. When he realizes the girls are just playing with his emotions and are not really that interested, he asks his pal Connie to the dance. Also in the episode, Hank is shocked when his mother announces she is marrying a man she has only known for a few weeks. Soon after, the newlyweds celebrate by purchasing an RV and heading to Hank's. When Hank's mom and new stepfather have a heated argument, she takes off with the RV and Hank is left to rescue his mother once again.

Just a reminder tonight Bio TV premieres Biography: Three's Company tonight at 10pm ET with an encore at 2am ET. I just got an advanced copy and watched it. It is about the behind the scenes of the show--the sex, how it was developed, casting, history, and the cast after the show. I liked how they used clips of the unaired pilots, but that isn't anything new anymore. Interviewed were Matt Rousch (TV Guide), Robert Thompson (Professor, Syracuse University), Charlton McLivain (Professor, NYU), Fred Silverman, Larry Gelbart (Pilot #1 writer), Dom Taffner, Nancy Ritter, Richard Kline, George Burditt (producer), David Graham (casting director), George Sunga (producer), Carol Summers (script supervisor), and Priscilla Barnes.
It was nice to hear Larry Gelbart talk in detail on camera about this. I don't think he has done any of the other specials on the show. David Graham was also new to these specials and it was interesting on his casting take. This special said John Ritter wanted to stop the show after eight seasons. Everything else was pretty much the same from what we have known. Still worth watching and recording!

Canada Cable Networks Fall 2009 Schedules; Joan Rivers' Show on TV Land Premieres Well

Today we put our full focus on cable stations up north... Canada, that is. We will take a look at some of the fall 2009 schedules for Canada including TV Land Canada, DejaView, CTS, TVtropolis, and SUN TV.
First up, we'll start with TV Land Canada. They will be adding the Canadian series The Red Green Show. Set in the fictional town of Possum Lake, Canada, this sketch/sitcom comedy series features the feats and foibles of Possum Lodge leader and hapless handyman, Red Green (comedian Steve Smith). Recurring characters include Harold, Red's techno-geek nephew and Bill, the resident naturalist. It will air Mondays through Fridays at 7am & 7:30am; repeats at 11:30am & 12pm, 7pm & 7:30pm, and 4am & 4:30am starting August 31.
Leaving the TV Land Canada line-up for now are 21 Jump Street, Dallas, Adventures in Rainbow Country, Swiss Family Robinson, and Adderly.
Among the highlights are The Red Green Show marathon on Canada's Thanksgiving. If you haven't caught TV Land Canada's latest new series yet, come and get acquainted by celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving in the great outdoors with Red Green and his cronies from 6am-12pm with two encores each from 12pm-6pm and 6pm-6am! Next, tune in to TV Land Canada on Christmas Eve starting at 5pm to kick-start the night with a double-bill of Lassie movies, then follow up with special holiday-themed episodes of your favorite programs Lassie, Happy Days, The Andy Griffith Show, and Hart to Hart. Then finally the next day, Christmas Day is a happy day, so spend with Fonzie, Chachi and the gang with a Happy Days marathon from 6am-5pm with an encore from 5pm-4am!
View the full TV Land Canada Fall 2009 Schedule.

Next up we have DejaView's Fall 2009 schedule. DejaView is removing The Rifleman, The Wonder Years, Good Times, The Ropers, Magnum P.I.. But since shows leave, new shows will join! Joining the schedule are The Rockford Files, Coach, Saved By The Bell, Silver Spoons. The first two are weekdays (Coach is weekends as well), while the latter two will air on weekends only. DejaView staples Three's Company, All in the Family, Who's the Boss?, The Cosby Show, and a few others will remain.

Then we have the TVtropolis Fall 2009 Schedule.
TVtropolis of course was known as PRIME previously. Their line-up features a mix of sitcoms, game shows, reality series, and more. They are a sister station to DejaView. Coming to the network this fall are Three's Company and Dawson's Creek. Yes, Three's Company will air on BOTH DejaView and TVtropolis! Mainstays Seinfeld, Married with Children, King of Queens, That '70s Show, Frasier, Friends, and Everybody Loves Raymond remain.

Next we have SUN TV and CTS TV. SUN TV will have series such as My Secret Identity, Caroline in the City, Dear John, Taxi, Dave's World, George Lopez, Becker, Alfred Hitchcock, Fame and Jimmy Kimmel Live. View SUN TV's Fall 2009 schedule.
CTS's fall line-up will not have any sitcoms anymore except for Family Matters. Sitcoms of recent years like The Hogan Family, Facts of Life, Family Ties, Full House, Amen, Fresh Prince, Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, are now gone! Replacing these comedies are now dramas Promised Land, Little House on the Prairie and Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman. View the CTS Fall 2009 line-up.

Finally, Teletoon will add The Yogi Bear Show, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, Top Cat, Captain Caveman, Josie and the Pussycats, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Inspector Gadget and Beetlejuice to their schedule, but Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, The Tom and Jerry Show, Woody Woodpecker, Merrie Melodies, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and The Porky Pig Show are leaving. View the Teletoon Fall 2009 schedule.
And continue to monitor and discuss Canada's fall schedules on our message board with the help of members like Sal from Canada.

Wednesday night's premiere of TV Land PRIME's new reality series, How'd You Get So Rich? posted double-digit increases in rating and delivery among Adults 25-54 and Adults 40-54 a well total viewers over recent levels. It also witnessed double-digit gains over its 9:30 p.m. Roseanne lead-in as well as gains among women 25-54. The new series, starring the often outrageous and hilarious Joan Rivers, takes viewers on a journey to meet millionaires who worked hard and struck gold as she tours the most lavish and extravagant homes and introduces them to folks who made a lot of money in really interesting ways the way only Joan can.
According to Nielsen Media Research, How'd You Get So Rich? posted double-digit gains with a 0.3 A25-54 rating and 333,000 viewers among A25-54, up 29% in rating and 33% in viewers 25-54 versus the prior 4 week primetime average. The network averaged 650,000 total viewers, up 16% over the previous four week average. Among the network's core A40-54 audience, the premiere earned a 0.4 A40-54 rating and 203,000 viewers A40-54, an increase of 24% in rating and 26% in viewers 40-54 over the previous 4 week average.
The premiere telecast posted increases among Women 25-54 over recent primetime levels, scoring a 0.4 W25-54 rating 197,000 viewers W25-54, up 37% in rating and 38% in viewers W25-54 versus previous four week primetime average. How'd You Get So Rich? experienced appointment viewing as it lifted 35% among A25-54 over its 9:30 p.m. Roseanne lead-in.

Other TV Land news, The Beverly Hillbillies will air this Sunday night (Aug. 9) from 4-6am instead of The Andy Griffith Show. Andy Griffith has been extended on Tuesday, August 11 from 6-8pm, so it gets an extra half-hour on this date as it was scheduled for 6pm-7:30pm.

New Biography Episodes on Bio TV in August 2009; Hallmark Primetime News

This August on Bio TV we get three all-new Biography episodes related to TV series! First up is Biography: Family Ties on Tuesday, August 4 at 10pm ET. Ronald Reagan's favorite TV show was none other than Family Ties, the 80's comedy about hippies Elyse and Steven Keaton and their Young Republican son, Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox). They explore the show's genesis, the lives of its cast and crew, and the partisan politics of the Keaton's happy and hilarious home.
Next the following Tuesday on Tuesday, August 11 at 10pm ET, we get Biography: Three's Company! What do you get when a bubbly blond, a practical brunette, and a clumsy bachelor all live under one roof? Three's Company -- the sexy sitcom that had audiences laughing (and swooning) throughout the late '70s and early '80s. But for the loveable roommates, the eight-year run wasn't all fun and games. They'll explore Three's Company's ups and downs--from topping the ratings chart to fighting on-set battles over paychecks, and from breaking down cultural boundaries to facing boycott threats from moral watchdogs.
Finally the next Tuesday on Tuesday, August 18 at 10pm ET, we get Biography: Roseanne! She's racked up an Emmy, three ex-husbands (including Tom Arnold), and her own comedy, talk, cooking, reality, and radio shows. Bio TV chronicles the life and times of the loud-mouthed comedienne who can't keep her mouth shut (on or off the screen).
Bio TV also premieres The Andy Griffith Retrospective Special from 1993 on Tuesday, August 25 at 10pm ET. This one-hour special features cast members from The Andy Griffith Show gather to reminisce about the classic 1960s TV series.
Biography encores for August include Kim Fields, Alyssa Milano, Kristy McNichol, Michael J. Fox, Teen Heartthrobs on Aug. 4; Patrick Duffy, Suzanne Somers, John Ritter, Don Knotts on Aug. 11; Ed Asner, Patricia Heaton, Mr. T, Carroll O'Connor on Aug. 18; and Friends, Matthew Perry, Ron Howard, Andy Griffith, Happy Days on Aug. 25. Truth Behind the Sitcom Scandals encores for the month are on The Love Boat & M*A*S*H (Aug. 11) and Welcome Back Kotter, The Facts of Life & Roseanne (Aug. 18).

Beginning next Monday (Monday, July 27), the two-week test run is over for Hallmark Channel in primetime...but there will be some reminisce of it! Right now Touched by an Angel is airing 8-10pm, followed by The Golden Girls from 10pm-1am and Cheers 1-2:30am. Now that two-week run will end. Touched by an Angel will be the only show continuing like this and will add an extra hour, airing Mon-Thurs from 8-11pm, while The Golden Girls goes back to 11pm-2am and Cheers sharing the 2am hour with I Love Lucy. Movies will air Fridays from 9-11pm.

Stay with us starting next week as we start our blog fall schedule barrage posts! We will have something different each weekday until we just about get them all! Don't you just love that time of year? The Summer TCA tour also begins next Tuesday, so it's going to be a busy couple of weeks!

TV Land and Hallmark Last Minute June Changes; CBS To Air Unaired Worst Week Episode

TV Land June 2009 schedule - take three! And action! Yes, TV Land has changed its June schedule once again. As of now the changes are just for this week and next week (weeks of June 1 and 8) and are in effect starting TODAY, as we mentioned on our message boards this weekend. The new schedule will have TV Land Goes West on Mondays now from 11:30am-7pm with Gunsmoke and Bonanza and now Little House on the Prairie will air at approx. 5:30pm. I say approx. because TV Land is really off the clock now. From Tuesdays-Fridays, the western block will start at 1:30pm and run to 7pm with the same three shows. This means The Beverly Hillbillies will be only approx. 1pm now, as it loses 1:30pm and 6pm. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is totally gone for now it seems.
In primetime for the week of June 1, we have The Cosby Show in the approx. 8pm hour and Roseanne in the approx. 9pm hour. A different show will air from approx. 10pm-12am each night with Married...with Children returning on Monday, Roseanne on Tuesday and Thursday, and The Cougar/She's Got the Look Preview on Wednesday. Then at approx. 12am we have Married...with Children (just once in the hour, so it won't likely start until late except on Wednesdays when we have two episodes in the hour). At approx. 1am we have another Married...with Children, followed by M*A*S*H at 1:30am, and hour each of Roseanne, Three's Company, The Cosby Show and M*A*S*H follows from 2am-6am. So this week is a major overhaul and Three's Company returns to weeknights, at least for a week.
The Roseanne "launch" marathon is still on from Friday, June 5 to Friday, June 12 from 8pm-6am. However, this weekend (Saturday, June 6 and Sunday, June 7) we have an Andy Griffith Show marathon from 8am-8pm, leading into Roseanne. The week of June 8 has the same daytime line-up as June 1, but primetime and late night is all Roseanne, as mentioned as the marathon continues. The weekend of June 13-14 will have more all-day marathons. Married...with Children will air both days from 8am-10pm, so this show seems like it will stay on TV Land as it is doing well for them. The weekend schedule that was in effect before will remain from 10pm-6am on this weekend of June 13-14. Now starting Monday, June 15, we don't know yet what TV Land will do. Will they have the same daytime schedule as the previous two weeks and the same primetime/late night schedule as week of June 1? Will we see marathons every weekend all-day? We will let you know as soon as we do, but for now view the weeks of June 1 and June 8 schedules for TV Land and discuss this!

As for Hallmark Channel, the June changes are not as drastic. The changes are in primetime starting tonight. The 8pm weekday hour will now have the return of Touched by an Angel. The series was only off for a week or two and now it returns in a much better slot of 8pm replacing two episodes of The Golden Girls. Those two episodes of The Golden Girls will move to the 11pm hour, replacing Murder, She Wrote, which is now off the line-up for now. So if you're keeping track, The Golden Girls now airs from 8am-11am and 11pm-2am every weekday. Nothing else is changing, so expect the schedule as it was. Good news for Lucy fans as they are not messing with the I Love Lucy timeslots so far!

Finally, CBS has scheduled an unaired episode of the canceled comedy Worst Week for this Saturday at 8:30pm. CBS had one leftover episode still yet to air, that is titled "The Party." The episode will have a repeat of Old Christine as its lead-in at 8pm. So get those DVR's rolling Worst Week fans because you have one more episode left and surprisingly CBS is airing it!
In other CBS updates, 48 Hours will air at a special time of 8pm (instead of the usual 10pm slot) on Saturday, July 11, so the two-hour finale of Harper's Island can air from 9-11pm on that night. Harper's Island is not expected back, so that is a series finale.

ION Switches Reba and Feud; ABC Summer Sitcom Changes; Remembering Michael Ross

We gave you details on ION Television's June 2009 line-up already with the addition of Ghost Whisperer to the Monday night line-up starting June 1, but now they have made a switcharoo on weekdays that will start June 8. Reba will now move to weeknights in the 6pm hour, as Family Feud now switches to the 7pm hour. The switch was made due to Reba's poor ratings and also because Lifetime airs the series at the same time. Now ION will air the sitcom in the 6pm hour, an hour before Lifetime starts their 7-9pm weeknight block of Reba. Family Feud will air on most nights in the 7pm hour on weeknights, especially Mondays and Tuesday, but the other nights on weeknights you can see a movie start earlier.
View the full updated ION Television June 2009 line-up. We will have more on ION next week with their July line-up. We mentioned before ER would return to weekdays starting June 29, but now we hear that is not happening. What will happen? Come on back next week and see!

We have lots of ABC sitcom news for the summer for you today. First off, we have some breaking news. Just premiered animated comedy The Goode Family will air an additional episode at 9:30pm this coming Wednesday (June 3) instead of a new episode of Surviving Suburbia. The Goode Family will also air in its regular 9:00pm Wednesday time slot on this date as well. Why? Ratings. Suburbia did terrible and was pulled right away, but The Goode Family didn't do that hot either losing a lot from the big lead-in from Wipeout, but ABC is giving it more of a chance. If this change does better, expect ABC to double-pump The Goode Family until further notice to perhaps complete more of its 13 episode-run. Originally only 6 were slated to air.
We previously reported that the three remaining episodes of In the Motherhood would air Fridays at 9:30pm starting June 5. Now that isn't happening. ABC will double-pump repeats of Samantha Who? for three weeks in the Friday 9pm hour on June 5, 12 and 19 now instead. Then Samantha Who? will move to Thursdays at 8pm starting June 25, with new episodes (it has 7 episodes left to air). In the Motherhood will air its three remaining episodes at 8:30pm on Thursdays on June 25, July 2 & 9. It is unclear what will air in the 8:30pm slot thereafter, but it will likely be more Samantha Who? ABC has not announced what will air Thursdays 9-11pm yet starting June 25, as I doubt we get both Grey's and Private Practice repeats...maybe just Grey's and something like new crime drama Castle repeats? Then on Fridays at 9 starting June 26, we get According to Jim repeats on a new night and time (Remember the series finale is this Tuesday in the 8pm hour). The following week, July 3, Surviving Suburbia moves to Fridays at 9:30pm with new episodes following repeats of According to Jim at 9. I bet we won't see Suburbia until July 3 now, as I don't expect it to return to Wednesdays following the June 3 Goode Family test.
Elsewhere, 7 new episodes of Better off Ted and repeats of Scrubs will air in the 9pm hour on Tuesdays starting Tuesday, June 23 following episodes of the upcoming competition series The Superstars. This is a good way for the brilliantly done Better off Ted to be sampled before it returns with more new episodes in January 2010.
I applaud ABC in airing all of these comedies this summer! View these changes in a list form, if you get confused. And if we have more updates, we will bring it to you first...so keep checking!


TV producer/writer/director Michael "Mickey" Ross, best known for his work on hit sitcoms All in the Family, The Jeffersons and Three's Company, died Tuesday (May 26) in Los Angeles from complications of a stroke and heart attack. Ross, along with business partners Don Nicholl & Bernie West, made his mark in the 1970's with the breakout CBS TV sitcom, All in the Family, for which he won a writing Emmy in 1973. They were nominated two other times, another one for All in the Family and one for Three's Company. The trio were known as "NRW" until the death of Don Nicholl in 1980. So now only Bernie West remains from this historical team.
Mickey also was part of the creation for ABC's Three's Company spin-offs The Ropers and Three's a Crowd. He also wrote for Maude, another All in the Family spin-off. In 1976 NRW also created and produced the short-lived sitcom The Dumplings for NBC starring James Coco. Mickey also directed many episodes of Three's Company. NRW also wrote the pilot episode for Chico and the Man.
Before all of his hit series were born, he was a part of many shows in the '50s and '60s such as The Garry Moore Show, The Perry Como Show, Sid Ceasar's Hour and The Martha Raye Show. The latter is how he developed a relationship with Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, later forming All in the Family. And decades later in 1998, Mickey appeared on screen for an interview on the E! True Hollywood Story for Three's Company.
Aside from his TV work, Ross and his wife founded the Michael and Irene Ross Program in Jewish Studies at The City College of New York -- Ross's (and Bernie West's) alma mater. Memorial service will be held this Sunday (May 31) at 11 a.m. Mount Sinai Hollywood Hills on 5950 Forest Lawn Dr. in Los Angeles, CA.
Mickey will certainly be missed and my good friend and author of the Three's Company book Chris Mann tells me he loved farce comedy and that's how he viewed Three's Company with John Ritter as the ultimate farceur. Mickey rejoins Don Nicholl now up in the heavens recreating TV comedy. Rest in Peace, Mickey and you'll be deeply missed. Mickey Ross was 89.

TV Land June 2009 Has Roseanne; ABC/Disney Now on Hulu

This June on TV Land they will launch sitcom Roseanne in TV Land PRIME, launch the second season of reality series She's Got The Look on a new night and time, and spend Father's Day with TV Land Rough n Rugged.
TV Land PRIME welcomes Roseanne to the network with a week long, primetime marathon beginning Friday, June 5. The marathon will air 8pm-1am each night and encore 1am-6am each night through Friday, June 12, before the series joins the regular schedule on Saturday, June 13. Roseanne is the quintessential sitcom about a working class family that put the "Real in TV" long before reality television became the norm. Travel back in time with the "Queen of Comedy" as TV Land PRIME chronicles the Conner family's ups and downs, laughs and love, and dreams - both real and imagined.
Roseanne will air Saturdays from 9pm-11pm & 2am-4am; Sundays from 12am-2am; Mon-Tues & Thurs 11pm-2am; Tues-Fri from 8pm-10pm (except 9-10pm on Thursdays); and Wednesdays & Fridays 1-2am. That's a whole lotta Roseanne! And good news for classic TV fans because Leave it to Beaver is renewed and on the June schedule airing Saturdays from 12-2pm. Three's Company is unfortunately off the line-up for now with the addition of Roseanne, as will be Hogan's Heroes & Green Acres. The other big change is late nights on weeknights. 2am-6am all get changed, with The Cosby Show airing in the 2am hour, 3rd Rock from the Sun will only air now at 3am, followed by the return of Scrubs at 3:30am, followed by M*A*S*H at 4am, Sanford & Son at 4:30am, The Jeffersons at 5am, and Good Times at 5:30am. So this does mean M*A*S*H is just once a night on weeknights, but it will still air on Sunday nights, but now 9pm-12am. We have the full schedule for you to click on below...so keep reading!
They're back again... and this time the stakes are bigger and better as 12 gorgeous women 35-and-over grace TV Land PRIME in season 2 of the modeling competition series that's like no other...She's Got the Look! For one very lucky winner, a second chance for a supermodel career, a life changing contract with the world famous Wilhelmina Modeling Agency, and a spread in Self magazine awaits. Watch the nationwide search, follow the drama as the number of contestants dwindles, and root for your favorite to win it all. Join in on the fun on a new night and time starting Thursday June 11, 2009 at 9pm for eight straight weeks through July 30. Encores of the show will air Thursdays at 10pm & 1am; Fridays at 12 midnight; Saturdays 10am & 1am; Sundays 3am; Mondays 11am; Tuesdays 2am; Wednesdays 10pm; and the next Thursday at 12 noon.
But before the premiere on June 11, catch a sneak peek at She's Got the Look season two on Wednesday, June 3 at 11pm following the finale of The Cougar.
It's Dad's Day and TV Land has 12 hours of rough rugged entertainment planned that will keep dad glued to his seat. Starting with a 7-hour block of movies featuring fights and sports, a classic Mel Brooks comedy and a 4 hour western block featuring popular episodes of Bonanza and Gunsmoke, Dad is sure to appreciate that you've kept him busy doing his most favorite thing: sitting on the couch and watching good manly TV! Catch the movies Slapshot 2, Slapshot, and History of the World Part 1.
Other TV Land PRIME movie premieres for the month are Another 48 Hours and Driving Miss Daisy.
View the full TV Land June 2009 schedule, with full highlights and one-time adjustments.

Hulu and The Walt Disney Company announced that Disney, through a subsidiary of ABC Enterprises Inc., has agreed to join NBC Universal, News Corporation and Providence Equity Partners as a joint venture partner and equity owner of Hulu, a leading online aggregator of video content. Upon closing, the agreement will enhance Hulu's programming lineup through the expanded online distribution of Disney's most popular current and library primetime series and library feature films. In particular, full-length episodes of hit current and library programs like Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Private Practice, Ugly Betty, Scrubs, Greek, Hope & Faith, Less than Perfect, Wizards of Waverly Place, Phineas and Ferb, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, General Hospital, The View and The Secret Life of the American Teenager will soon be streamed on Hulu on an ad-supported basis.
· Full-length episodes of ABC primetime programs like Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty, Samantha Who?, Scrubs, Private Practice and popular late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!
· Full-length episodes of hit ABC Family series like The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Greek
· Popular series from ABC Daytime and SOAPnet like General Hospital and The View
· Classic series from ABC's library like Hope & Faith, Less than Perfect, Commander in Chief, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and past seasons of the megahit Dancing with the Stars
· Select hit programs from Disney Channel like Wizards of Waverly Place and Phineas and Ferb which can be easily accessed from a new DISNEY location in the Channel section of Hulu.com
· Popular library titles from The Walt Disney Studios
· Short-form content including webisodes, sneak peeks and episode recaps from ABC Entertainment, ABC Family and SOAPnet
That is a lot and this is huge! ABC/Disney has bought 30% of Hulu. There is no date yet when all of this will appear, but we will let you know.

Stay tuned tomorrow for our regular blog DVD review and a look at what we think will be picked-up by NBC for both new and returning series. NBC has their "infront" on Monday and will announce what they will pick-up, but an actual schedule won't be announced until upfront week (week of May 18). NBC continues to be the oddball with this "infront" stuff.

Remembering Bea Arthur, Kim Weiskopf; Hallmark Channel, WE tv, TV Land, Me-Too All To Air Tributes for Bea

Today we will cover everything Bea Arthur (with a tribute to Kim Weiskopf as well). As you all I'm sure know by now, Bea Arthur has died. Beatrice Arthur, the tall, deep-voiced actress whose razor-sharp delivery of comedy lines made her a TV star in the hit shows Maude and The Golden Girls and who won a Tony Award for the musical Mame, died Saturday (April 25). Arthur died peacefully at her Los Angeles home with her family at her side. She had cancer but that is the only detail we know. Arthur first appeared in the landmark comedy series All in the Family as Edith Bunker's outspoken, liberal cousin, Maude Finley. She proved a perfect foil for blue-collar bigot Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), and their blistering exchanges were so entertaining that producer Norman Lear fashioned Arthur's own series, known of course as Maude. Maude scored with television viewers immediately on its CBS debut in September 1972, and Arthur won an Emmy Award for the role in 1977. The show ended in 1978, as Bea thought it was time for the show to end after six seasons. Then came The Golden Girls from 1985-1992, and it was another groundbreaking comedy, finding surprising success in a television market increasingly skewed toward a younger, product-buying audience. She played Dorothy Zbornak, one of four older friends living in Miami. The show moved to CBS in 1992-93 and was titled The Golden Palace, but Bea didn't sign on for it. Bea did guest star in a two-part episode. In 2003, Lifetime reunited the cast for the special The Golden Girls: Their Greatest Memories. And in 2008, the cast reunited again on the 2008 TV Land Awards accepting the Pop Culture Award.
Even before television, Bea had a major career in plays on Broadway. Arthur's biggest Broadway triumph came in 1966 as Vera Charles, Angela Lansbury's acerbic friend in the musical "Mame," directed by Tony-winning director Gene Saks, who was also her husband of 28 years. They divorced in 1978. During 2001 and 2002 she toured the country in a one-woman show of songs and stories, ... And Then There's Bea.
In between Maude and The Golden Girls, Bea had a failed sitcom. In 1983, she starred in the ABC sitcom Amanda's, an Americanized version of John Cleese's hilarious Fawlty Towers. She was cast as owner of a small seaside hotel with a staff of eccentrics. It lasted a mere 10 episodes, with three episodes unaired.
She was also in films. Among the movies she graced were That Kind of Woman (1959), Lovers and Other Strangers (1970), Mel Brooks' The History of the World: Part I (1981), For Better or Worse (1995). Her TV movies include the ABC TV movie My First Love in 1988 and the NBC TV movie P.O.P. in 1984.
Among her guest appearances on television are the The Golden Girls spin-off Empty Nest, Ellen, Beggars & Choosers, Dave's World, a.k.a. Pablo, Laugh-In, and she appeared on a rare special recap episode of Soap as an "angel." In recent years, Arthur made guest appearances on shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm, Futurama and Malcolm in the Middle. The latter was very popular.
Bea will certainly be missed by millions and millions fans around the world. TV Land has created a 30-second on-air and online promo remembering her. TV Land will air both of her appearances on All in the Family on Tuesday and Wednesday at 9am, the episodes "Cousin Maude's Visit" on Tuesday and the back-door "Maude" pilot that aired as an All in the Family episode on Wednesday. Too bad TV Land isn't airing regular Maude episodes as a tribute. Me-Too in Chicago will air Maude, though! All this week in the 9-10pm CT hour, Me-Too Chicago airs "Remembering Maude: A Tribute to Bea Arthur." View the episode schedule. Lucky fans in Chi-town.
Hallmark and WE tv air The Golden Girls regularly multiple times a day. Hallmark will pay tribute to Bea with a Memorial Day marathon and WE tv pays tribute to Bea tonight and Thursday, see below for more details on both. Watch a video celebration of her life and career. Bea lived a long life and was 86.

Hallmark Channel has announced it will pay tribute to legendary star Bea Arthur with an all-day Golden Girls "Memorial Day Marathon" on Monday, May 25 from 6:30am-2:30am, featuring episodes focusing on Arthur's character Dorothy Zbornak, a gruff, wise-cracking divorcée who shared her Miami home with her mother and two loopy friends. Golden Girls plays daily on Hallmark Channel: Monday-Friday, 8-10 a.m., 7-9 p.m., 12-2 a.m., Saturdays 6-9 a.m., and Sundays 8:30-10 a.m. View their press release. UPDATE: We get marathons SOONER now on Hallmark! At the Studio City, CA home of Hallmark Channel, fans of the classic comedy Golden Girls flooded the network's Viewer Services department today with parenthetical appreciation for the channel's announcement of a Memorial Day Tribute to Bea Arthur. The qualifier to the announcement included these sentiments: more, sooner, please. And now Hallmark has listened! Hallmark Channel responded by hand-selecting the "Best of the Dorothy Zbornak Episodes" which begin running Tuesday, April 28 (7-9pm) and continue, Wednesday, April 29 (7-9pm), and Thursday, April 30 (7-9pm) in the normal Golden Girls timeslots, but also on Sunday, May 3 (8:30am-3am) a full day event is planned! This is all in addition to the previously announced Memorial Day marathon on, Monday, May 25 (6:30am-2:30am.). We don't have episode info yet for the Memorial Day stunt, but Hallmark has released the 5 day stunt episodes for this week! Thank you for being a friend, Hallmark!
WE tv airs the show weeknights from 5-7pm ET, with primetime marathons from 6pm-12am on Monday nights, so that includes tonight. They also air the show sometimes on Thursday late nights. WE tv announced today two special nights of programming to honor Bea Arthur. "WE Remember Bea" will feature a marathon of favorite The Golden Girls episodes both Monday, April 27 from 5pm-12am ET and Thursday, April 30 from 9:30pm-1am ET. The acclaimed actress, known for her quick wit and willingness to embrace controversial issues was the centerpiece of the comedic series, which won more than 38 awards during its run. "WE Remember Bea" will be comprised of episodes which center on Bea Arthur's colorful character Dorothy Zbornak and key related storylines from the series. See the episode info for tonight's marathon.
WE tv already had a scheduled Golden Girls Memorial Day marathon from 10am-6am, so we have two networks airing a marathon on The Golden Girls on May 25.

We also have lost Kim Weiskopf, a TV comedy writer whose credits included Three's Company and Married...with Children, died of pancreatic cancer Wednesday (April 22) at his home in Encino. He launched his career in the early 1970s, with longtime writing partner Michael S. Baser, he wrote for series such as One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Melba, Carter Country, We Got It Made, and Good Times, the latter show leading to their first staff-writing position.
The writing duo went on to write and produce three seasons of ABC's Three's Company before being hired to create the TV series 9 to 5 for ABC, which was based on the movie. They then developed an updated, syndicated version of the '70s series What's Happening!! called What's Happening Now!!, though he had never worked with the original series.
Weiskopf's also wrote and produced for Rachel Gunn, R.N., Full House and Married...with Children, without Baser. Kim appeared in interviews for the E! True Hollywood Story episodes of both Three's Company and Married...with Children. He had an uncredited appearance on Married...with Children on an episode playing Lucky the Dog in a 1996 episode.
He is going to be missed, especially by fans of Three's Company and Married...with Children. Kim was 62.

Lifetime Networks 2009 Upfront; Network Notes; Remembering Wendy Blair

Lifetime Networks unveiled its 2009-10 program slate that encompasses the most powerful line-up of original series and movies in Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Network's history, headlined by the sixth season of cable's hottest unscripted competition series, Project Runway.
Project Runway, featuring host Heidi Klum, mentor Tim Gunn and judges Michael Kors and Nina Garcia, is set to make its long-awaited return to television on Thursday, August 20, at 10:00 PM (ET/PT) with 14 hour-long episodes. The series, the highest-rated unscripted competition show on all of cable, will seamlessly lead into Models of the Runway at 11:00PM (ET/PT), beginning August 20, an all-new, half-hour companion series will center around the drama, anxiety, tears and joys of Project Runway's models as they compete for money and a major magazine cover shoot. In other unscripted news, new shows Cook Yourself Thin debuts on May 4 at 5:00 PM (ET/PT), and DietTribe is scheduled to return for its second season later this year.
As we mentioned, Lifetime's hit drama series Army Wives returns for its third season at 10:00 PM (ET/PT) on Sunday, June 7. Joining Army Wives this summer will be Drop Dead Diva, the spirited new comedic drama, starring newcomer Brooke Elliott (Hairspray, Wicked) and Margaret Cho (17 Again). It will air at 9:00 PM (ET/PT) starting Sunday, July 12. Lifetime has many original dramas in development. However, they have not been picked-up as series just yet. In development are: Mona Lisa Smile, based on the feature film of the same name; Mystic Pizza: Another Slice, a two-hour, back-door pilot based on the hit film; Marry Me, a limited-run anthology series that starts with a couple who meets in the pilot and concludes with a wedding in Episode 13; Queens of the Rodeo, a comedic drama with the exciting and dangerous rodeo circuit as the backdrop; The Fallen (working title), based on T. Jefferson Parker's novel of the same name; and Murder in Suburbia, formatted from the popular British series.
Rita Rocks, its first original comedy in a decade, stars Nicole Sullivan as an overworked wife and mother trying to find time for herself, will return for its second season in the Fall. Lifetime has three other original comedies in the works, but have not been picked-up as a series yet. In production for pilots are Sherri, loosely based on Sherri Shepherd's (The View) personal family experiences; The Valerie Bertinelli Project (working title) is about a newly divorced mother (Bertinelli) who must maintain a balance between her family and running her ex-husband's struggling hardware business; Alligator Point, is from Kelsey Grammar and stars Cybill Shepherd following the life and times of an eccentric group of Floridians whose lives change when a "Yankee" becomes part of their disjointed family. We will let you know if any of these three gets picked-up as a series joining Rita Rocks.
As for daily strip schedule, this fall Lifetime will begin airing two high-profile, off-net properties nightly, the popular dramas Grey's Anatomy and Medium. Currently, they both air once a week. They join a strong schedule that already features such top acquired product as Wife Swap, Desperate Housewives, Reba, Will & Grace and Frasier. Cybill joins the daytime line-up on May 4. Finally, in September 2010, Lifetime will also begin stripping the hit off-net comedy How I Met Your Mother, which currently fills one hour of the network's schedule per week on Mondays.
View more on Lifetime and LMN's upfront, which includes all the original movies they have in the works for 2009 and 2010.

We have a lot of network notes for you today. First off, ABC will air a repeat of Grey's Anatomy this Thursday (April 23) at 8pm leading into the return of all-new episodes at 9pm. The repeat will be the last original episode that aired, so fans can remember what happened, if they need refreshing. This means In the Motherhood and Samantha Who? will not return to the slot now since yesterday we announced Ugly Betty was coming back a week earlier than planned (April 30). So updating my story from yesterday, Motherhood will now have three episodes still remaining to air, as it will have 4 of its 7 aired (though they had only planned to air 6 anyway). Samantha Who? looks like will only air 13 of its 20, with seven still left in the can, but ABC could certainly use those next season, which is more than likely to happen despite the ratings falter on Thursdays.
In other ABC notes, ABC has announced the celebs and athletes for the new summer series The Superstars! The eight athletes are Jennifer Capriati (tennis), Brandi Chastain (soccer), Robert Horry (basketball), Jeff Kent (baseball), Kristi Leskinen (X Games), Lisa Leslie (basketball), Bode Miller (skiing) and Terrell Owens (football). The eight celebrities are David Charvet (actor), Maksim Chmerkovskiy (Dancing with the Stars), Dan Cortese (host/actor), Paige Hemmis (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition), Julio Iglesias, Jr. (singer), Joanna Krupa (model), Ali Landry (model/actress) and Estella Warren (actress). The series is based on ABC's classic Wide World of Sports, which pitted athletes from all different sports against each other to determine the best athlete in the world. The Superstars pairs the celebrities with the athletes to compete in varying sporting events. Participants found out who their selected partners were only when they met for the first time at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. The six-episode series premieres Tuesday, June 23 at 8:00PM on ABC. The team pairings for The Superstars will be Terrell Owens & Joanna Krupa; Jeff Kent & Ali Landry; Robert Horry & Estella Warren: Bode Miller & Paige Hemmis; Kristi Leskinen & Maksim Chmerkovskiy; Lisa Leslie & Dan Cortese; Jennifer Capriati & David Charvet; and Brandi Chastain & Julio Iglesias, Jr. Every week a team will be eliminated until one team is ultimately crowned the winner. Competitors' athletic prowess and strategy will be put to the test to excel in events including swimming, biking, running and kayaking, in addition to other head-to-head athletic challenges everyone must try to conquer. Find out more on the celebs and athletes.

Moving on to NBC, they have pulled drama Kings from Saturdays even after just one airing. Repeats of Law & Order: SVU will air instead at 8pm (it was at 9pm), with Southland encores moving to 9pm (from 10pm), and now Law & Order repeats will close out the night at 10pm. Then after May sweeps ends, Law & Order: Criminal Intent repeats will air for a few weeks at 8pm before Kings returns. 7 episodes of Kings remain and NBC promises to return the series on Saturday, June 13 at 8pm to finish them off. That date was originally the plan to end the series, now that will be the return date. The series will last through July 25, bearing any more changes of course.
Finally Fox has changed its summer schedule a bit again. New series Mental will now air Tuesdays at 9PM starting May 26 following summer repeats of House. Mental was previously scheduled to launch on Friday, May 29 at 9PM. It will still air Fridays, but now they will be encores of the Tuesday episodes. However, the Tuesday airings will only last through June 23. The Friday encores will become the new night for new episodes for Mental starting July 3 through August 14. Fox has also announced that it will return reality show The Moment of Truth on Wednesday, July 29 airing Wednesdays at 9PM, following So You Think You Can Dance. Dance ends its season in early August (Aug. 5 & 6), though, so Truth will then have repeats of Bones as its lead-in starting Aug. 19. August 12 will see two episodes of Moment of Truth from 8-10pm. View the complete Fox summer schedule.

Finally, we leave you today with some sad news. Wendy Blair died of cancer on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 in North Hollywood. Blair enjoyed a long career in the entertainment industry, having served as the first female junior executive at CBS Television City in the mid-1950s. Known for being analytical and extremely organized, she worked as an associate producer and producer on a number of popular television series. Among the series she worked on as an associate producer are Three's Company, and both of its spin-off series The Ropers and Three's a Crowd, as well as several variety shows and specials for companies including Dick Clark Productions and Sid and Marty Krofft Enterprises, such as Dr. Shrinker.
Her other producer credits include pilots and series such as What a Country! in 1986, I Married Dora in 1987, Mutts in 1988, and Where's Rodney? in 1990. She later segued from working in production to serving as the manager of business operations for The Smothers Brothers and was active in this role until the beginning of 2009. Now, Joanne McCracken has taken over. Blair was a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America and was a founding member of the Association of Associate Producers (which later merged with the PGA). Blair was devoted to her family and family traditions. She will be deeply missed, especially by Three's Company fans and The Smothers Brothers followers. She was only 70.

Nick at Nite April 2009: Whole Lotta Lopez Week; New Three's Company Features on Retroality.TV Includes News on a Biography Episode

This April on Nick at Nite, there won't be any changes to the regular line-up...but they do have have "a whole lotta George Lopez." Yes, the week of April 6, is "Whole Lotta Lopez" week! From Mon-Thurs that week from 9:00pm-6:00am ET/PT and Friday of that week from 10:00pm-6:00am ET/PT it's non-stop George Lopez, all-night long!
Nick at Nite is bringing you George Lopez for five full nights! Join Nick at Nite for the kind of laughter and excitement as only George can provide. Watch out!
Catch the first 103 episodes of this hilarious show (but not counting holiday episodes, which means Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Super Bowl, and Valentine's Day.) So the following episodes are skipped: 8, 13, 15, 17, 18, 35, 38, 40, 52, 61, 63, 64, 66, 85, 91 (#52 is actually not a holiday episode but the 3D Disneyland episode).
So if you have never seen the show, now is your chance to get in on the action from the beginning! It is quite funny, too. I got this, as George would say. Sabes que, just watch and see yourself!
And coming this May to Nick at Nite will be The Nanny joining the regular schedule. So stay tuned for news on that very soon! But for now view the Nick at Nite April 2009 schedule and highlights.

About ten days ago Chris Mann posted his interview with Three's Company's Joyce DeWitt and also an interview with me...and now Chris has more Three's Company updates! March 2009 is all about Three's Company at Chris' Retroality.TV as Three's Company celebrated 32 years on the air. Chris is labeling all this as the Three's Company 32nd Anniversary Retrospecial!
First up, on his very creative Quit Yer Kitschin' blog section, Chris sums up all of the "Retrospecial" coverage while offering some "extras" about me, Andy Hermann and a person named Ryan Mooney, who wrote a new Internet sitcom pilot called Something About Ryan that's a bit of a contemporary take on Three's Company's comedy of misunderstandings and sexual innuendo, Chris says.
Chris also use this blog entry to break news about a new, in-the-works Biography episode on Three's Company. Believe it or not, Biography has never done a full special on the show, but they have done Biography episodes on John Ritter and Suzanne Somers. We will keep you up to date on this breaking news. It'll likely air on the Biography Channel instead of A&E, as most of the Biography episodes do now.
Chris also pays tribute to John on this blog entry and shares his journey with him where his book Come and Knock on Our Door is concerned (including all the publicity he did and the documentaries that resulted). It is a great story! I urge you to read this creative, informative and interesting blog story!
And that is not all! Remember our good friends Nick Digilo and Andy Hermann of WGN Radio? Chris also interviews them for the Three's Company Retrospecial! If you don't know, Nick is a host of a popular radio show on WGN Radio on weekends and is a big pop-culture fan. Andy is the producer of that show and is a big Three's Company buff. He even does a semi-regular Three's Company Trivia Throwdowns on-air! He is good! I even sent him questions many times, and he has done good. They have interviewed Priscilla Barnes (Terri from Three's Company) and Richard Kline (Larry from Three's Company) on-air on separate occasions, so they were fun to hear! They also did interviews with Chris Mann on-air a few times. Good stuff! You can hear all that on their website, if you missed it. But first be sure to check out the interview Chris does with both Nick and Andy in the Retroality Radio Q&A!
Wow, that's "a whole lotta Company!" We started the blog today with "a whole lotta Lopez" and end with "a whole lotta Company!"

Retroality.TV Interviews Joyce DeWitt and...Me; CBS/Warner Bros. Officially Renew Big Bang, Men for Multiple Seasons; Sci Fi Renames to Syfy

Our buddy Chris Mann of Retroality.TV has put up his March 2009 cover story and it is a great one, like usual. This time he goes one-on-one with Joyce DeWitt...yes, Janet Wood from Three's Company! Chris talks to Joyce about a lot of different things and they are all interesting. See what Joyce has to say about John Ritter, when she last saw him, her feud with Suzanne Somers, friendship with Priscilla Barnes & the late Don Knotts, her stage roots with Richard Kline, the NBC Three's Company tell-all movie, her spiritual journey, and her upcoming projects (which includes stage work and two upcoming movies). And she talks in detail about those topics and much more topics. It's a nice three-part interview and you will find yourself reading every word and the time will just breeze by. It is a great read, and I urge you all you to read it. It starts off on the cover page on Retroality.TV, and continues on part two and part three.
That is not all for March! Chris has a few other new features and interviews, including an interview with ME! He interviewed me for my Jack's Bistro Three's Company website. How odd does it feel going from Joyce to me? But I am honored to be in great company! I talk to Chris about how I started the website, what my inspiration was, my favorite Three's Company episodes, John Ritter, the Suzanne-Joyce feud, and more! Check out me being interviewed by the great Chris Mann! And if you missed it back in October, both Todd and I were interviewed by Chris for SitcomsOnlline, so check that out, too, if you missed it.
All this is just in time for Three's Company's 32nd anniversary, which was on Sunday (March 15). Has it really been 32 years? I remember the 25th anniversary in 2002 and that didn't feel like too long ago. Chris says "more coming soon" so we cannot wait for that! We'll let you know what that is when he posts it! So 'Come and Knock on Retroality.TV's Door' today!

CBS Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television have reached a multi-year broadcast agreement for the hit comedy series Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. The agreement renews television's Number One comedy, Two and a Half Men, through the 2011-2012 season, and one of television's fastest-growing series, The Big Bang Theory, through the 2010-2011 season.
The ratings success of Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory has helped establish CBS's Monday night as the Number One comedy block on television. This season, CBS's Monday night comedy lineup is up 13% in viewers, 11% in 18-49 and 9% in adults 25-54, so far.
Two and a Half Men, currently in its sixth season, is the Number One comedy in both viewers and adults 18-49, averaging 15.09 million viewers (up 14%), 5.1/11 in adults 18-49 (up 13%) and 6.3/13 in adults 25-54 (up 11%), so far.
The Big Bang Theory, in its sophomore season, is averaging 10.05 million viewers (up 20%), 3.7/10 in adults 18-49 (up 12%) and 4.4/10 in adults 24-54 (up 10%), so far.

Building upon sixteen years of water cooler programming and soaring ratings growth following its most-watched year ever, SCI FI Channel is evolving into Syfy on air and online beginning Tuesday, July 7.
By changing the name to Syfy, which remains phonetically identical, the new brand broadens perceptions and embraces a wider and more diverse range of imagination-based entertainment including fantasy, paranormal, reality, mystery, action and adventure, as well as science fiction. It also positions the brand for future growth by creating an ownable trademark that can travel easily with consumers across new media and non-linear digital platforms, new international channels and extend into new business ventures.
"Imagine Greater" will become the new brand message and tagline, inviting both consumers and advertisers into a new era of unlimited imagination, exceptional experiences and greater entertainment. Syfy more clearly captures the mainstream appeal of the world's biggest entertainment category, and reflects the network's ongoing strategy to create programming that's more accessible and relatable to new audiences. Syfy will continue to celebrate the traditional roots of the genre, while opening the brand aperture to accommodate a broader range of imagination-based entertainment.
The premiere of the new scripted drama, Warehouse 13, and the return of breakout summer series Eureka, will be launched in tandem to this new evolution. An aggressive trade marketing campaign will kick off this spring. Scifi.com will assume the URL Syfy.com at that time. As long as we see some more Mork & Mindy, who cares, right?

TV Land Changes Late Afternoons; TCA Winter 2009 Tour: Cable; 66th Annual Golden Globe Winners

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)

View the FULL list of television nominees and winners...and to discuss this.

TV Land February 2009 Highlights; The PJs and King of the Hill Come to Adult Swim

This February on TV Land will see the return of High School Reunion on TV Land, with its second season on TV Land! High School Reunion is back for an unforgettable second season airing Wednesdays at 10pm starting February 18. This year friends will be reunited, enemies will confront each other, and a secret will be revealed that could forever change the legacy of the Chandler High School Class of 1988. But first...counting down to that big February 18 second season premiere, TV Land PRIME will bring you all of the action from season one every Wednesday at 10p starting on January 7 through February 11. A marathon of the entire first season will also air in a President's Day event on Monday, February 16th.
The weekend of February 12-15, TV Land will celebrate Valentine's Day and President's Weekend with a marathon of The Cosby Show! Tough teachers, school projects, homework, getting your driver's license, dating, parties, Prom, graduation, etc... Going to class wasn't all bad and TV Land PRIME is taking viewers back to school during the "Cosby Show Old School Marathon" from Feb. 12-15, 8pm-2am each night. Walk down memory lane as Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy experience the growing pains of approaching adulthood and give Cliff and Clair more than one reason to look forward to an empty nest. Your assignment is to tune in each night at 8pm all Presidents Day Weekend on TV Land, and then go online to test your Cosby family skills with the Cosby Show trivia game. Class dismissed!
Other TV Land February 2009 highlights include a couple of overnight marathons of Three's Company on a few Saturdays (Feb. 14, 2am-6am and Feb. 21, 12-5am). TV Land PRIME movies for Friday nights include the premieres of Broadcast News and Revenge of the Nerds, along with an encore of Jewel of the Nile.
There will be no regular schedule changes, as of now, so the schedule in effect for January will remain. View the complete TV Land February 2009 highlights.

The other day we told you Adult Swim (late night block on Cartoon Network) has picked up a live-action British comedy for Sunday nights, now we have more Adult Swim news. Adult Swim has picked-up the rights to two animated series...The PJs (short lived Fox/The WB series starring the voice of Eddie Murphy) and King of the Hill. The PJs will premiere tonight (Monday, December 29) and will air in the 10pm hour (encores in 2am hour) for the next three nights before the long-running series King of the Hill takes over the slot starting January 1 everynight. The PJs will then will move to Saturday nights at 12 midnight starting January 3. And I know I will get asked this, so I will say it...yes, The PJs will remain on TV One and King of the Hill will NOT remain on FX but will remain on local stations. Both deals for Adult Swim are not exclusive, but King of the Hill is exclusive for cable. King of the Hill's last airing on FX is Wednesday at 4:30pm.
King of the Hill will lead-into episodes of Family Guy five nights a week at 11pm. Now all Adult Swim needs to acquire is The Simpsons! It is amazing how that series has still not gotten a cable home. Even American Dad! (Fridays 11pm & 3am) is on Adult Swim for crying out loud. Other acquired series on Adult Swim are The Oblongs (1:30am) and Clerks: The Animated Series (Fridays 12am and 4am).

2008 Network TV Holiday Specials; TV Land Schedule Changes Includes Paid Programming?; NBC Kills Crusoe to Saturdays

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.

Hallmark and TV Land Make Schedule Changes; ABC and Fox January News

Hallmark Channel has made a schedule change that will start this coming Monday (November 10). Cheers will leave the line-up from 4-5pm and be replaced with more Little House on the Prairie. So, this means Cheers only lasted two weeks in its weekday slot with a second Little House returning to the hour. As of now, Cheers is totally off the line-up, because if you all recall when Cheers started on weekdays, its weekend airings were removed.
We will keep you up to date if anything else comes out of this, but as of now, no more Cheers on Hallmark. If I were to guess, it could return in January when they launch I Love Lucy. This network has had trouble launching sitcoms besides M*A*S*H, which is a shame because they have two coming in 2009 (I Love Lucy, Golden Girls).

As for TV Land, we already told you about the late afternoon change that started this past Monday (Nov. 3) with Hogan's Heroes at 4pm and Leave it to Beaver at 5pm, now more changes are happening next week. Originally we stated, Scrubs was set to move Nov. 10 from 9-10pm to 10-11pm, but it seems that is not happening. Now on that week, we will get a week-long Cosby Show marathon! The Cosby Show Marathon airs Monday, November 10 through Thursday, November 13 form 8pm-2am and Friday, November 14 from 8pm-10pm and 12am-4am (it is preempted Wednesday, Nov. 12 from 10p-10:30p for Myths & Legends).
A few changes are also coming starting that week for at least the rest of November. In the 7am hour, back-to-back episodes of Scrubs will replace two episodes of M*A*S*H. So, Scrubs is out of primetime. In the weekdays at 1pm hour, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will replace Beverly Hillbillies for the rest of the month at least. And in late nights, for the week of November 10 from 2-3am will be Sanford & Son replacing Extreme Makeover: Home Edition encore (weeks of Nov. 17 and 24 it will be more Cosby Show in the hour). Finally, Three's Company is back regularly starting Nov. 10, at least for the rest of November, airing weeknights from 3-4am ET/PT!
So what will happen to TV Land PRIME after Cosby Show's marathon week? Cosby Show will now air 8-10pm from Mon-Sat for at least through the end of November, with 3rd Rock from the Sun now staying in its 10-11pm Mon-Thurs slot. Replacing Extreme Makeover: Home Edition at 11pm will be ... CSI, from sister station Spike TV (which airs it at 3pm and 8pm weekdays)! CSI will also air at 12 midnight, replacing M*A*S*H. This is for at least the rest of November (weeks of Nov. 17 and 24), we do not know yet if CSI will still be airing in December. For the final two weeks in November at least, this is how TV Land PRIME looks: 9PM Cosby Show, 10PM 3rd Rock from the Sun, 11PM CSI. With more Cosby Show leading in at 8PM and more CSI leading out at 12AM, as Scrubs and Home Edition are relegated to daytime...again for at least the end of the month.
So it seems M*A*S*H is not airing AT ALL the final two weeks of November and Beverly Hillbillies has been reduced to weekend blocks and in the Thanksgiving marathon. I don't expect CSI to air beyond these two weeks, but we'll see. Will these changes be in effect in December? We shall soon find out!
For now, view the full updated TV Land November 2008 schedule, so you don't get confused.

ABC has released part of their January plans. They have released Mondays. Originally it was supposed to be True Beauty (new Ashton Kutcher/Tyra Banks produced reality show) from 8pm-9:30pm followed by The Bachelor from 9:30-11pm. Now it will be The Bachelor from 8-9:30pm, followed by sitcom Samantha Who? staying put at 9:30pm despite no Dancing and True Beauty in the 10pm hour. This new night will launch Monday, January 5. On that date The Bachelor will have a two-hour premiere leading into the premiere of True Beauty. So, Samantha Who? will air in between those two starting Jan. 12. No other ABC January details are in yet, but we could expect Lost, as last night we saw promos saying "two-hour premiere in January." If I were to guess, Lost will air on Wednesdays. Also, last night promos for unscripted docudrama series Border Security USA started playing, and we could expect that in January as well, perhaps with Lost. ABC premiere of Scrubs and animated comedy The Goode Family are among the other items that could launch in January on ABC, with on the bubble shows like Eli Stone and Pushing Daisies perhaps benched. I want to clarify, that Scrubs is not coming Dec. 2 as I mentioned earlier in the week, the original plan of According to Jim remains starting Dec. 2.
As for Fox, they have announced they will launch 24 with its usual two-night/four-hour event on Sunday, January 11 and Monday, January 12 from 8-10pm. Then starting January 19, it will air in its 9-10pm slot. No word on what will air at 8pm, it could be new series Dollhouse though. American Idol obviously will return in January as well, perhaps Tuesday, Jan. 20. We will keep you up to date.

This TV Launches with Mr. Ed and Patty Duke; TV Land Changes; Samantha Who and Kath & Kim Renewed

Back in late July we told you new digital station "This TV" was launching in October, and as promised, they have launched! They launched on Halloween with a a marathon of scary movies like Amityville II & Amityville 3-D. This TV is owned by MGM and Weigel Broadcasting...Weigel also owns the popular Me-TV and Me-Too.
As of now, clearances are only in Chicago, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Columbus, Albany, Richmond, and Dayton, OH. They are primarily airing MGM movies like 12 Angry Men, Something Wild, & Great Balls of Fire, but a few MGM TV series have been mixed in as well such as the original Outer Limits, The Patty Duke Show and Mister Ed. They all air between 4-7am ET on weekdays, 4-10am on Saturdays, and 6-9am on Sundays. This TV also airs children's programming such as Miss Mallard Mystery, Paddington Bear, Flight Squad, Robinson Sucroe, Animal Crackers, Spider Riders and Ripley's Believe It or Not! ...these air weekdays 7-10am and Sundays 8am-11am. Another block airs on Saturday mornings from 10am-1pm with children's series such as Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures, Busy World of Richard Scarry, and Wimzie's House.
If you get this in your area right now, call yourself lucky to see Patty Duke & Mister Ed!

TV Land has made a schedule change starting late this afternoon (November 3). Hogan's Heroes goes from weekdays 5-6pm to weekdays from 4-5pm, replacing Beverly Hillbillies, which will remain 1-2pm. Now airing 5-6pm on weekdays is more Leave it to Beaver! Also, it seems 3rd Rock from the Sun is doing well for TV Land, in addition to its TV Land PRIME marathon this week (Nov. 3-7, 9pm-12am), it will get weekend plays from 12-7pm this Saturday and Sunday (Nov. 8-9). TV Land has also added a marathon of Three's Company this Saturday night (November 8) in the overnight from 2am-6am. Tune in!
View the full TV Land November 2008 highlights that we gave previously.

ABC has picked-up a full season of sophomore sitcom Samantha Who? It is no surprise, as the sitcom is a solid player for the network. It also is critically acclaimed with Christina Applegate winning a Golden Globe and Jean Smart winning an Emmy for the show. ABC will air 20 episodes this season, with three already have aired (fourth one airs tonight at 9:30pm ET/PT). Usually non-freshman shows already have 22 episode orders, but due to the strike last season, most second year shows got only 13 episode orders. The sitcom joins fellow ABC sophomore series Private Practice in getting picked up for a full season. They will not air the normal 22 for Sam, because they have a lot coming this mid-season comedy wise like The Goode Family, Single with Parents, Better off Ted...and returning series According to Jim and Scrubs. Speaking of those latter two, both could launch in December now. Previously as we stated, According to Jim was set to launch Dec. 2, Tuesdays 9-10pm, but I now hear that will be Scrubs. It is not official yet, but as soon as it is, I'll let you all know. Jim would air Tuesdays 8-9pm I think leading into Scrubs starting the following week, Dec. 9. Both shows have 18 episode orders.

Meanwhile, NBC has a fast trigger...in a good way though. They have picked-up nine more episodes of freshman sitcom Kath & Kim, despite low ratings. The last two airings have only been 4.99 and 5.44 million in its Thursday slot, but I guess NBC believes in the show and liked the little jump to 5.44 million after the series low? I cannot believe they picked-it up for a full 22 episodes already, but good news for fans of Molly Shannon and Selma Blair. The show has been blasted by critics.

SitcomsOnline.com Exclusive: Interview with Chris Mann; We're Interviewed As Well on Retroality.TV!; Network Notes

We have a very exciting interview for you today. We have an interview with Chris Mann...author of the Three's Company book and now pop-culture guru on Retroality.TV! As always with our interviews, it is in Seven Questions form!

We had the pleasure to interview Chris Mann, author, writer, and my friend. Chris Mann is a freelance entertainment and lifestyle writer and behind-the-scenes TV book author. He is best known for his marvelous work on the tell-all book Come and Knock on Our Door: A Hers and Hers and His Guide to Three's Company. He's also founder and editor of the pop culture webzine Retroality.TV. A former magazine art director, he sometimes produces and art directs cover and feature shoots for his celebrity health and fitness profiles. He also served as consulting producer on NBC's behind-the-scenes movie about Three's Company, and he's helped produce and write TV documentaries and DVD featurettes about the show and its late star, John Ritter. Chris is currently developing multiple media projects, including an in-depth biography about Ritter.

We thank Chris for taking the time to answer some of the most interesting questions we have for him...and his responses were so amazing. So it is time for another installment of SitcomsOnline's Seven Questions Series! We seriously STILL need a jingle. Any takers out there?

"Seven Questions with Chris Mann"

SitcomsOnline: Hello Chris! We thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do this interview with us! We sincerely appreciate it and are honored in talking to you. I've known you for years and I'm also a big Three's Company fan (as you of course know), but I don't think many people know how you got started on your Three's Company book, Come and Knock on Our Door - A Hers and Hers and His Guide to Three's Company. Can you share with us why you wanted to write the book and how it all got started?
Chris Mann: I'm honored to do this interview. The amazing energy and effort you and Todd put into Sitcoms Online and your other TV sites has truly encouraged me!
In the early to mid '90s, before the Internet exploded, I had only an inkling how many other people hungered for info about retro TV. Since age 5 or so, I'd had an unbounded love for Three's Company, along with deep admiration for John Ritter and a growing fascination with the show's emotional backstage break-ups. My behind-the-scenes curiosity grew in part out of my journalistic mind -- I guess I just couldn't take Three's Company at face value! While editing The University of Tulsa's student newspaper -- itself a huge undertaking, especially given my intensive class load -- I realized I needed a creative, escapist outlet beyond cracking jokes in class and at work and watching Company reruns in my dorm room.
I'd recently interviewed and met Suzanne Somers during her visit to Tulsa to share her uplifting story of surviving family alcoholism and abuse. After publishing the story in the student newspaper, I recrafted it and designed a Three's Company where-are-they-now fanzine around her Q&A. I sent "The Roomie Report" to all ten cast members, along with letters saying I hoped the fanzine would one day lead to a behind-the-scenes book about the show. Almost none of them responded -- except John Ritter.
Imagine at age 19 getting a call from John saying how "touched and flattered" he was by my efforts and my letter. I was elated and infinitely inspired. So I did three more "Roomie Reports" during my sophomore year at Tulsa University -- the second issue included an exclusive, extremely candid interview with John wherein he broke his silence about his bitter break-up with Suzanne. I retired the "Report" during my junior and senior years, but I kept in touch with John's office. The day after I finished college in '95, I moved to LA. A week later, I interviewed John in person for the book. Doors began opening, along with the casts' emotional floodgates. I knew I had a great story not only about the show but about the price of fame, fortune and ego.

SitcomsOnline: I got your book the second it came out back in 1998. You know I think your book really inspired me to do the Three's Company website (Jack's Bistro) back in 1998 and it is still going today. I wanted to thank you for the hard work on the book on behalf of all fans out there. Can you share with us some of your fondest memories shortly after the book was released to the world? Did fans come up to you and thank you? Did the entire cast embrace it?
Chris Mann: Thank you for your support! As you know, I've always loved your Three's Company site, so it's cool to know Come and Knock on Our Door in turn inspired you. 1998 was a whirlwind year. The book, along with Suzanne's accompanying biography After the Fall, led to heated interviews with Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne on Extra, Inside Edition, ET, The O'Reilly Factor, etc. Joyce promoted my book while disputing Suzanne's. What a hoot to get that kind of publicity -- and how weird to suddenly be in the middle of controversy. Suzanne formally thanked me for sending her the book -- and she told Inside Edition I was a "really nice" guy -- but the battle lines were again being drawn, and it was Suzanne vs. Three's Company Part II.
John also took the book onto a few shows, including Donny and Marie's talk show and a TV Guide Truth Behind the Sitcom Scandals special. He and Joyce offered resounding public support, which was unexpected and thrilling. Joyce, Don Knotts, Richard Kline, Norman Fell and even Priscilla Barnes (the only cast member who didn't interview) did book signings with me -- and we all went out to dinner and celebrated with a bottle of champagne John sent me. Fans expressed love and appreciation at the book signings. Howard Stern's show harassed Joyce about Suzanne at a couple of these media-frenzied events. Suddenly, my book had become part of the story. Saying this entire experience was surreal and exciting is a understatement.

SitcomsOnline: Being involved with this book has made you the Three's Company king. All of the entertainment shows on Three's Company and its stars like the E! True Hollywood Story and A&E Biography have interviewed you. Your book was turned into a TV movie by NBC. You also got to produce special features for the Three's Company DVDs. How cool is that! How did you like all of that, though? What was your favorite out of all this?
Chris Mann: The Three's Company king...that's funny! Most of this six-year journey was a joy, and all of it was enlightening. The E! True Hollywood Story was my favorite project, though, by far. In summer 1998, I pitched the documentary to E! as their first THS exclusively about the backstage story of a TV show. They bit. Not to be immodest, but my book, interview and extensive production work were the documentary's basis and backbone. The entire surviving cast participated and were asked questions to elicit the same responses they'd given for the first time ever in the book. The end product was a two-hour video version of Come and Knock on Our Door. My book was everywhere in the show. It seemed like the perfect promotional tool. The THS reran enough times to keep Three's Company in the pop culture consciousness for the next few years. And it helped established the THS brand and lead to behind-the-scenes TV movies about TV shows.
The Three's Company TV movie eventually followed. Though Entertainment Weekly had reported NBC was adapting my book for this movie, things beyond my control (and, at the time, beyond my awareness) transpired and my book didn't get a "based on" credit. I did, however, end up getting a Consulting Producer main title credit, and the book was mentioned in the end titles instead of the main credits. Ultimately, this was a victory for me. This telefilm was one of the highest-rated TV movies of the season. I've since met with one of the movie's executive producers, Stan Brooks. We had a very nice and illuminating conversation. I'm glad he and NBC experienced more success with subsequent Behind the Camera movies.
The A&E shows had excellent producers. And the DVD featurettes offered a bittersweet ending, as I interviewed surviving cast members (minus Suzanne) about John's passing, which deeply saddened us all. I applaud DLT Entertainment and Anchor Bay for giving John his due on these DVDs. But with this project, I felt I'd said everything I could about the show -- and John's death really did devastate me -- so it was definitely time for me to separate from the Company drama.

SitcomsOnline: So we obviously know you love Three's Company and that is your all-time favorite show but what other sitcoms/shows did you love and grow up with and what about of today's shows? I know you are fan of the game show The Price is Right and you're also working on a book on that series as well. What can we expect there and any tentative date on release?
Chris Mann: I loved Ellen (I always saw her as the female Jack Tripper), Roseanne and The Golden Girls. I also grew up watching Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Alice, Facts of Life, Diff'rent Strokes and One Day at a Time.
I thought Nell Carter was hysterical in Gimme a Break! Recently, I've thoroughly enjoyed Lisa Kudrow's HBO dramedy The Comeback and I like 30 Rock (Tina Fey is a genius) and, because of Molly Shannon, Kath & Kim. If someone would give SNL's Cheri Oteri a sitcom, I'd simmer down now and watch in a heartbeat.
The Price is Right story is utterly fascinating. So much more happened backstage than the public knows. I've talked to the people who lived it and survived it -- producers, longtime Barker's Beauty models, production assistants who molded and shaped the show's formula (including its classic comedic moments) but who were erased from Price history in the recent "official" book about the show. Their stories are so compelling. Bob Barker's memoir will be published in April '09 -- under the banner of a publisher that salutes "traditional, wholesome entertainment" -- so his version of events will likely continue to reign for a while. He's an iconic host, so he deserves his accolades as a performer.
I think much of the audience still needs to believe that Bob, at almost 85, is the gift-bearing, grandfatherly/avuncular figure we grew up believing him to be for 35 years on Price. But he's so much more interesting than the one-dimensional showman his PR and legal machine has long portrayed him to be. In fact, his flaws and vulnerabilities, which probably won't emerge in his book, make his status as a legendary TV survivor even more remarkable. I may start to preview my book on Retroality.TV in 2009. I haven't really had time lately to do much with the book, so I look forward to telling that story when the time is right.

SitcomsOnline: Now your writing for quite a number of magazines and publications. You're such a good writer and you make me look tame compared to you. Can you share with us all some of the magazines and publications you write for and also what were you favorite stories for these?
Chris Mann: Thank you! I've had the good fortune to write stories for TV Guide, Emmy magazine, their web sites and Radar Online. Most of my freelance work this year has centered on celebrity health and fitness. I write and art direct/produce cover stories regularly for Muscle & Body, Get Active! and a newly-launched CVS magazine called Great Health. My favorite interviews have been Lynda Carter, Maureen McCormick, Dara Tores and Apolo Ohno. I'm looking forward to profiling Misty May-Treanor and Antonio Sabato Jr., too.

SitcomsOnline: As readers of our news blog know, you wrote the Three's Company book and you are now running the popular website Retroality.TV. We must ask how you came up with that idea and what made you think it would work? The stars you interview are astounding from Heather Thomas to Stacy Keibler to Olivia Newton-John. Do you have any favorites so far?
Chris Mann: I've wanted to do my own pop culture magazine for years. Retroality grew rather organically out of my passions for retro pop culture and celebreality TV, along with my recent focus on celeb health and fitness. I love survivor stories, and pop icons and retro stars who're still standing are certainly survivors. How have they survived? What have they overcome and learned? Why are they reinventing themselves at age 30, 40, 50, 60? What would they do differently now? Retroality is designed primarily to share these stories while promoting other pop culture enterprises -- such as Sitcoms Online -- that keep retro alive and well.
I want to do the stories that many lifestyle and entertainment magazines often overlook due to their obsession with teenagers, twigs and trainwrecks. Who over age 25 really cares if some 19-year-old CW star needs to eat a hamburger, or if Britney managed to fill her tank up with gas for the eighth time this week? I'd rather know how Lynda Carter found the inner strength and peace to conquer alcoholism, despite her image as Wonder Woman. Or why Heather Thomas uses her celebrity and money to influence politics, and how she's channeling her political fundraising experiences into a fun new novel. Or what breast cancer taught Olivia Newton-John, and how she's inspiring other women, including her daughter.
All of these celebs were once 19 years old, and some succumbed to addiction, eating disorders and other troubles. But they all made it to the other side and have fascinating stories to tell. Maureen McCormick is another example. Look how well her book's doing. I want Retroality to reflect the pop culture and sociopolitical interests of the vast majority of people who could care less about Miley Cyrus and (my nephew's gonna kill me) The O.C. or any of its derivatives.

SitcomsOnline: Finally, so what is coming up in the future for Chris Mann? We know Retroality.TV will be still going strong...any new stories or new features you'd like to tell everyone about the site? We also mentioned you're writing the Price is Right book and a book on the late legendary John Ritter. Can you share with us what you expect to do with the book on John?
Chris Mann: From your fingertips to God's ears! I'm excited about Retroality's future. I've got a few stories in the works for late '08 -- our current cover story interview is Jaclyn Smith, and we should have a very Brady tell-all soon -- and I plan to add multimedia in the months ahead. Our video interview with Joyce DeWitt really sets the stage for what's to come in '09. She opens up about her spirituality, her splintered relationship with Suzanne and her final, healing experiences with John Ritter.
I also expect my book on John to be on the front burner in 2009. To this day, he still inspires me (as I know he does you), and it means a great deal to me to get the chance to tell his story. He'd be 60 this year, and I have to wonder what great things he'd be doing if he were still with us. He lives on, though, through his kids, his wives, his brother, his friends and his work. Many would argue he lived far more in not quite 55 years than some live in 85. Sadly, he didn't live long enough to win Lifetime Achievement awards, receive Hall of Fame inductions, make a trillion dollars or write a self-congratulatory memoir. But I really think he left the world a better, more light-hearted, richer place, and in the end, those contributions are priceless.

Our thanks to to Chris Mann we wish him continued success! Now I must go and do Chris' "show" in return...kind of like how Jimmy Kimmel and Jay Leno appeared on each other's talk shows on the same night earlier this year! Yes, Chris interviewed Todd and I for his wonderful website as well! So head on over to his website to see that as well! I hope we are interesting like he is! More info on us being interviewed is below.
Our apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time. For more information on Chris Mann, continue to stay with us for info and don't forget to view his website http://www.retroality.tv. So, stay tuned right here on the blog for continued news on Chris!


Who would of thunk it, but can you believe we were interviewed?? Both Todd and I have been interviewed by Chris Mann for his website Retroality.TV, as I mentioned above! I would have never imagined I would be interviewed for anything, and I'm sure Todd feels the same way! Thanks to Chris for suggesting this and I thank him for doing our "show" in return! Chris asks both Todd and I some interesting stuff, so I hope you all enjoy the interview and do learn something you didn't know about SitcomsOnline and to a lesser extent, about us. I know we're not stars, but after this interview we sort of feel like stars...just a lil' bit! So, I hope you all get a chance to read our interview. It is a proud moment for SitcomsOnline celebrating the last 10 years and the years to come!

Lots of network notes lately, as it is common this time of year. We have a full season order news for ABC's Private Practice. ABC has picked up the back nine episodes of the show, giving it 22 episodes this season. It was only ordered for 13 episodes originally for its second season. All of the shows that came back from the strike that didn't come back last season have suffered a bit in the ratings, but this show has done modestly better. The show's season premiere on Oct. 1was only at 8.16 million but jumped to 9.22 million when the seven-day DVR numbers came in and jumped from a 3.3 18-49 rating to a 3.8 18-49 rating, on par with its live+same day numbers for its finale last December. Still 9.22 million is not as much as the over 11 million the show was averaging last fall, but even still, it is not as big of a drop when you see these DVR ratings. Numbers for its second episode of this year in seven-day DVR will be known next week. But it seems after seeing the jump, ABC is invested in bringing us a whole year of Private Practice!
In other news, CBS has given two extra scripts for new sitcom Worst Week. The show has began to stabilize a bit and has gone up in the ratings the past two weeks, but still it is losing quite a bit of its Two and a Half Men lead-in. It is quite a funny show, though, my only concern is what will happen when the week ends? It's like on day four already.

TV Land October 2008 Sees Many Changes; Show Coming on ION This September Is...NCIS

Late last week we mentioned that TV Land will change their line-up a bit in October, and now we know the full details! We mentioned a lot already 3rd Rock from the Sun will join the TV Land line-up and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is now eligible for daily play on TV Land rather than just once a week, and now we know when they will air!
First, 3rd Rock from the Sun will replace Cheers weekdays at 8:30am starting Wednesday, October 1. 3rd Rock will then get more slots the week after, starting October 6 airing weekdays (except Wednesdays/Fridays) at 10:00pm & 10:30pm after Scrubs. The show will also air Saturday nights at 1:00am & 1:30am. TV Land will officially welcome the band of alien explorers posing as a typical "family" of four to observe human nature and relationships on the planet earth the weekend of Oct. 11-12 with a 6-hour marathon on Saturday night, October 11 from 11:59pm-6am and a 4-hour marathon on Sunday, October 12 from 12p-4pm, starting with the pilot episode on Sunday.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will get a seven-day primetime marathon as it now will air daily on TV Land! It's a makeover takeover on TV Land. From Monday, September 29 to Sunday, October 5 from 9pm through 1am each night, don't miss a week-long primetime marathon of the popular series. From the "After The Storm" specials (Hurricane Katrina) to the 2-hour episodes and all the laughter and tears in between, TV Land brings you all the best that Ty and his gang of hardworking homebuilders have to offer. Don't forget the Kleenex. The series will then air weekdays at 7pm & 11pm, Mondays at 11am, and on weekends the special two-hour episodes will air Saturdays 8-10am & 8-10pm and Sundays 8-10am & 6-8pm.
Other schedule changes starting Oct. 6 are Andy Griffith Show shifting from 6-8pm to 5-7p, as it makes room for Home Edition at 7pm. So the 5-6pm Hillbillies hour is gone. As we mentioned 3rd Rock replaces M*A*S*H at 10pm, Home Edition also replaces M*A*S*H at 11pm, while M*A*S*H moves to 1-2am replacing Sanford & Son. The weeknight late night block will get a huge makeover. 2-3am hour will now be an episode each of Hogan's Heroes and Beverly Hillbillies replacing The Jeffersons. The I Love Lucy/Leave it to Beaver hour now moves from 5am to 3am replacing two episodes of Beverly Hillbillies. Then from 4-6am, the shows that were dropped return after a short break. That's Designing Women, Mad About You, Murphy Brown and Just Shoot Me from 4-6am weeknights. So, Three's Company and The Brady Bunch will be off the line-up after two months of airing. During weekends, the changes as we mentioned were two-hour Home Edition episodes 8-10am on both days, replacing Green Acres on Saturdays, which is now also off the line-up. Andy Griffith Show will shift from 9-10am Saturdays to 10-11am. Saturdays from 6-8pm will be a block of Cosby Show, followed by a two-hour Home Edition from 8-10pm, encores of Myths & Legends at 10, Scrubs Saturdays shifts to the 11pm hour, followed by Cosby Show at midnight and 3rd Rock in the 1am hour. On Sundays, the Home Edition 8-10am, Scrubs Sundays from 5-6pm, and another Home Edition from 6-8pm. No other changes on Sundays. See the full schedule link below if you get confused.
To the highlights, Myths & Legends will return for a second season starting Wednesday, October 8 with two all-new episodes! Then the next 6 Wednesdays one half-hour episode will air each Wednesday at 10pm. TV Land Myths & Legends promises to go behind the scenes to investigate the mysteries that have grown up around some of Hollywood's most memorable stars, TV shows, films and music. In a town called the Dream Factory, where reality collides with wild imagination, there's a blurred line between truth and fiction. Did heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne bite the head off of a live bat? Was Jayne Mansfield decapitated in her fatal automobile accident? Was a comic book based on the rock band KISS printed with the blood of the band members? Is J.Lo's butt really insured for $1 billion dollars? TV Land will explore these infamous mysteries and more on TV Land Myths & Legends Season 2 as they set the record straight about some of the most confused and confounding moments in entertainment history.
TV Land's Movie Land Friday block for October will feature classic comedies such as Police Academy, Lethal Weapon and Easy Money!
View the full TV Land October 2008 schedule and highlights.

We told you yesterday ION's September 2008 highlights and we said a drama not yet announced will air Mondays and Tuesdays at 9PM starting Sept. 8, and now ION has announced it! And that drama is ... NCIS!
ION Television, a contemporary general entertainment network, today announced that it will add Emmy-nominated NCIS to its primetime lineup on Monday, September 8th at 9 p.m. ET. ION Media Networks, Inc., ION Television's parent company, has entered into a content agreement with CBS Television Distribution for the broadcast syndication rights to the first four seasons of the naval investigators procedural series. The top-rated, hour-long program will air on Mondays and Tuesdays in the 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET timeslot.
NCIS marks the 3rd show acquired from CBS Television Distribution, with the other two coming in Fall 2009 -- Criminal Minds and Ghost Whisperer.
NCIS, the hit spin-off of CBS's military legal drama, JAG, comes from acclaimed producer Donald P. Bellisario. Revolving around a fictional group of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service Major Case Response Team (MCRT) of the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps., NCIS is more than your average action drama. With liberal doses of humor, it focuses on the sometimes complex and always amusing dynamics of a squad forced to work together in high-stress situations. From murder and espionage to terrorism and kidnappings, these special agents travel the globe to investigate high-profile crimes involving persons and property associated with the Navy or Marine Corps. The popular show premiered on September 23, 2003, on CBS and enters its sixth season on the network this fall.

WGN America Fall 2008 Schedule Sees Lots of New Shows; TV Land Changes for August

Today we will reveal WGN America's Fall 2008 schedule! They will be adding a lot of new and returning series, but there will be a few series expiring/leaving as well. The other day we mentioned Coach marathons on August 29 and August 30, and we hinted the series would also join the line-up this fall. We will get to Coach's slots in a bit, but first we want to tell you all the new or returning series! You'll see Moesha, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, In The Heat of The Night, 7th Heaven, Jury Duty, NewsRadio, Coach, The Bob and Tom Show, and the new syndicated weekend series Legend of the Seeker! Of course, since new stuff is coming or returning, there will be shows leaving and expiring as well. Those departing are Happy Days, Even Stevens, Lizzie McGuire, 24, American Idol Rewind, Soul Train, and DaVinci's InQuest.
Now let's get to the schedule. The new weekday line-up primarily will start Monday, September 8. The first change will occur September 1 though, with Happy Days' contract expiring, so its slot of 4:30am and 5am ET will be replaced by Sister, Sister and Moesha, which returns after a year off on hiatus. Then starting Sept. 8, the bulk of the changes are happening on weekdays, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie join the WGN America line-up airing weekdays at 9 and 9:30am ET, as Matlock will slide to 10am ET. The 11am ET slot will be Nash Bridges, but it will change a week later on Sept. 15, as WGN America brings back In The Heat of the Night after a three year absence, as the show is reacquired. Nash Bridges will air at 12 noon starting Sept. 8, followed by the WGN News at Noon at 1pm ET. Homicide: Life on the Street will slide to 2pm ET starting Sept. 8, followed by back-to-back The Cosby Show episodes at 3pm and Funniest Pets & People from 4-5pm. America's Funniest Home Videos will move to 5pm ET replacing Sister, Sister which will now be airing in the overnight from 4-5am ET, as we mentioned (more on this a bit later). At 6pm and 7pm, WGN America brings back family drama 7th Heaven for two back-to-back hours a night as WGN America welcomes back the Camdens! Primetime will remain the same as it is now until later in the month when Tuesdays from 8-10pm will be Nash Bridges starting Sept. 30 instead of a block of Funniest Pets & People. In the late nights, we mentioned already the Sister, Sister and Moesha slots starting Sept. 1, but Even Stevens/Lizzie McGuire was sharing the 4am slot, and now it will be another Sister, Sister starting Sept. 15, as those series are expiring.
Weekends will not see any real changes until after baseball season is over. So, starting Saturday, October 4, weekends will get a major overhaul--for the good, too! Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie will also air on weekends now. Bewitched will air Saturdays 12-1pm and Sundays 11am-12pm, while I Dream of Jeannie will air from 1-2pm on Saturdays and 12-1pm on Sundays. Great to see classic TV! After two movies on Saturdays, we head to the new 6-8pm Saturday block, where you'll see two new sitcoms! Back-to-back episodes of NewsRadio from 6-7pm on Saturdays followed by the aforementioned Coach from 7-8pm on Saturdays, starting Oct. 4. The rest of Saturday is basically intact, but 24 will be leaving and will be replaced by a movie and Matlock will be added to late night. On Sundays after Bewitched and Jeannie, there aren't many changes. The Outta Sight Retro Night featuring WKRP, Newhart and The Honeymooners will remain intact from 7-10pm ET. In the late nights, some shows are expiring like American Idol Rewind and DaVinci's Inquest, so two Matlock episodes will replace them at 3am and 4am.
Then the week of October 6, WGN America will change their weeknight late night line-up a bit. Corner Gas and Becker will slide to 1-2am ET on Sun-Thurs starting Oct. 6. The Friday late night line-up will be back-to-back Reno 911 at 1am ET and back-to-back Chappelle's Show at 2am ET. Reno 911 will also air Saturdays from 11pm-12:30am ET.
Finally, the last change for the fall is the first-run new syndicated series from Disney/ABC Television Group called Legend of the Seeker. WGN America will air it Saturdays at 4 and 5pm starting November 1 and also Wednesdays at 9pm ET starting Nov. 5, replacing Corner Gas/Becker.
Wow, that is A LOT of changes! I think many will be happier than before with these changes. I advise you to see the full WGN America Fall 2008 line-up on our message boards, where you can also discuss the line-up. Remember this is the national WGN schedule, and not the Chicago local line-up.
Future Outlook: You can expect Classic TV marathons on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve/Day, and New Year's Eve/Day. We will tell you more about that in the coming months, as it is way too early to talk about that. It is not even August yet!

TV Land has made some last minute changes for August starting Monday, August 4. First off, the primetime marathons will now be 9-11pm rather than 9pm-12am. The Tuesday marathon of The Beverly Hillbillies will now be The Jeffersons from 9-11pm, leading into two encores of Family Foreman at midnight. And as we told you yesterday about The Cosby Show being used to be wrapped around Family Foreman, now TV Land has confirmed it will air The Cosby Show every Wednesday from 8-10pm and 11pm-1am ET/PT leading in and leading out of Family Formeman. Because the primetime marathons are now 9-11pm, M*A*S*H moves from 12-2am to 11pm-1am weeknights (well except Wednesdays and Fridays). TV Land has removed the 2-5am marathons, thus we get more variety in the late nights. From Sun-Fri, TV Land will now air back-to-back episodes of Sanford & Son, The Jeffersons and The Beverly Hillbillies from 1-4am, and at 4am Three's Company returns followed by another returnee in The Brady Bunch at 4:30am! So nice to see those two return!
Check out our TV Land August 2008 thread for updates and to discuss this.

Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: NBC, Day 2; Remembering Dave Powers; Retroality.TV Officially Launches!

Today is the last day of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. NBC is up for the second and final day of its portion. Tomorrow the TCA tour concludes with a set visit where critics will visit the sets of series such as Pushing Daisies and ER.
Today's docket has a session on the summer Olympics, Election 2008 with NBC News and MSNBC, NBC Executive Session (more on that below), on the panel with sophomore dramas Chuck, Life, & Lipstick Jungle, followed by panels of Deal or No Deal, Kath & Kim, Knight Rider, The Office, My Own Worst Enemy, Kings, and NBC Sunday Night Football/Super Bowl.
NBC has adjusted its primetime premiere schedule for Fall 2008.
Returning drama Life will follow Heroes on two special Monday broadcasts (10-11 pm. ET) in addition to its regularly scheduled timeslot on Fridays (10-11 pm. ET) giving Life four hours of originals in two weeks on September 29, October 3, October 6 and October 10.
After Life's two-week Monday trial, new drama My Own Worst Enemy will make its series debut on Monday, October 13 (10-11 p.m. ET) and remain in all originals in its regular timeslot (Mondays, 10-11 p.m. ET) through December.
In other scheduling changes, new comedy Kath & Kim and 30 Rock will switch time periods on Thursday nights. Kath & Kim moves to 8:30 p.m. (ET) starting October 9 after My Name is Earl (8-8:30 p.m. ET), which will allow for a strong audience flow for these two compatible shows. 30 Rock will settle into the 9:30 p.m. (ET) starting with its season premiere after The Office on October 30. Remember SNL Thursday will air October 9, 16, and 23 at 9:30 p.m.
The Biggest Loser: Families premieres on Tuesday, September 16 (8-10 p.m. ET). Likewise, summer hit America's Got Talent returns after the Olympics on August 26 (8-10 p.m. ET) and runs through to its season finale on Wednesday, October 1 (9-10 p.m. ET).
Other series' premieres remain unchanged from NBC's original premiere announcement.
At the executive session, NBC did a copy cat of ABC by having Jay Leno impersonate a reporter asking a question about his future, just like Jimmy Kimmel did last week when Kimmel asked is ABC interested in Leno? Leno impersonated a bald reporter and asked: When is Leno's final show? Will he be paid for the rest of the year? Is it true you've offered Jay Leno a fifth hour of the Today show? Will Manimal come back? What about Brett Favre's retirement/unretirement? What if Jay changes his mind? Silveman answers, "Everyone's entitled to change their mind, but I imagine that puts management in an impossible situation."
If NBC is getting rid of Leno, why make him do that? So maybe they do have plans for him in some shape or form. NBC announced Leno's last night on the Tonight Show will be Friday, May 29, while Conan O'Brien takes over on Monday, June 1. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will launch first as online series before moving to 12:35am in March or April, so Conan's last night on Late Night will be before May 29.
Amy Poehler has officially signed on to star in a possible a new Thursday-night comedy series from Office exec producer Greg Daniels. Ben Silverman says however this will NOT be a spin-off of The Office. The spin-off is pretty much dead right now, but if it goes forward it will have "existing Office characters."
We'll be back with more...so keep coming back and refreshing!

We have some sad news to report. One of the best TV directors of all-time has passed away. Dave Powers passed away on July 3, 2008, in Rancho Mirage, CA, after a hard fought battle with skin cancer. He began his career in television in 1951, when he was employed by CBS as an usher at KNXT, working on the Dinah Shore Show. In 1956, while working in the cue card department on The Bob Crosby Show at CBS Television City, he was promoted to Stage Manager and joined the Director's Guild of America, where he would be a Guild member for the next fifty-seven years.
Dave got his biggest break when he became the director of The Carol Burnett Show in 1968. During that time, he was nominated eleven times by the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences and won four primetime Emmy Awards for "Best Director" in 1974, 1975, 1977 and 1978. In addition to directing The Carol Burnett Show for ten years he was also the director on Three's Company for six seasons starting in 1978 and Mama's Family for four years, reuniting himself with Vicki Lawrence (and Carol Burnett a few times).

We got word on July 9 of Dave's passing from my friend and author of Come and Knock on Our Door: A Hers and Hers and His Guide to Three's Company (and now of Retroality.TV) Chris Mann, that Dave had passed away on July 3. It wasn't officially released until last Wednesday. Chris heard from Joyce DeWitt (Janet on Three's Company) who heard from Priscilla Barnes (Terri on Three's Company). Chris had some very nice things to say about Dave that I must share with you all, "He was a good man, very beloved and enormously talented. Not only is he responsible for so much of Three's Company's under-appreciated signature slapstick style, he was rightly hailed in the industry for his work with Carol Burnett and company. He was always a gentleman during his Three's Company book and DVD interviews, and he clearly loved the Three's Company "kids" -- John Ritter especially -- as much as they loved him."
Chris also said, "In his home office he displayed autographed photos of Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence and Suzanne Somers in a classic Chrissy pose. "Those are my three ladies," he told me proudly. Also, John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt, Richard Kline, Don Knotts, Norman Fell, Audra Lindley et al always sang his praises. He will be deeply missed."

Dave also directed many episodes of both of the Three's Company spin-off shows, The Ropers and Three's a Crowd. After Mama's Family and a Carol Burnett Reunion Show, Dave retired from the business in the late '80s/early '90s. After retirement Dave and his wife Georgette made a fun and rewarding hobby of owning and restoring antique and classic wooden boats which they housed and used at their Big Bear Lake home.
A "Celebration of Life" will be held for Dave on August 2, 2008 at the Four Seasons Resort, Aviara, in Carlsbad, CA. He will be deeply missed as he directed the best comedic stars ever in Carol Burnett, John Ritter, Don Knotts, Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, and Vicki Lawrence. Dave was 75.


If you all recall in late May we made the announcement that Chris Mann had launched Retroality.TV. Now it has officially fully launched! Chris has interviewed '80s bombshell Heather Thomas (The Fall Guy, Zapped!) to lead off his site's official launch this month! Heather is the author of the hot new novel Trophies. Chris has an in-depth, provocative interview with Heather, who expresses her views on everything from being an '80s sex symbol-turned-writer to becoming a socio-political activist. Her controversial comments on the Bush administration, oil and 9/11 will surprise many. She'll be on NBC's Today show today, but Retroality and Chris Mann had her first!
Chris says, "So far we've featured retro stars about to make a very current media splash. Soon after we posted our May/June cover story on Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman), CNN reported she found a dead body floating in a river. And after we posted our Q&A with the fun-loving Susan Olsen (Cindy of Brady Bunch), every media outlet in America reported that she almost threw up on live radio. Coincidence? Methinks not!"

And that's not all! Chris has much more than that on the website! The Heather Thomas interview is just the "cover story." Chris also has items such as an interview with the sexy Stacy Keibler that was published in this month's Muscle & Body. Chris also has a Muscle & Body cover-story on several Olympic hopefuls coming in August, along with an interview with gold medalist swimmer-turned-Celebrity Circus performer Janet Evans. Wow! What a busy guy Chris is! I'm so glad he is doing well because he is a good person and truly deserves it!
And he even gets busier! This week he'll be off interviewing Olivia Newton-John and Fran Drescher, both cancer awareness advocates, for future health magazine cover stories! What a lucky guy! Again head on over to Retroality.TV because it is one website that you should bookmark and visit because it will get bigger and bigger everyday and soon it will be a website everyone knows by name! It'll be like the Cheers of the internet!

TV Land Schedule Changes; Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: Cable Day 3

We will start today with some changes to the TV Land regular schedule. The changes will start Monday (July 14) and will be for weekday mornings and primetime/late night. There will be minor changes in the mornings between 7:30am-12pm. Just Shoot Me will be leaving the morning line-up and will be relegated to just weekend airings in the late night, and most of the time it will be preempted then for original series encores or sitcom marathons. In the mornings, Mad About You will join the morning line-up at 7:30am, followed by Designing Women & Cheers, both of which will be shifted a half-hour later. In the 9am hour, Sanford & Son and All in the Family will swap slots, so All in the Family will be at 9am followed by Sanford & Son at 9:30am. The Jeffersons remains at 10am, but the 10:30am episode will be replaced by Good Times. The 11am Good Times remains, but the 11:30am Good Times will be replaced by Leave it to Beaver, which is not going to air 1-2pm anymore, as The Beverly Hillbillies will take that slot. Gunsmoke will move to 2pm, followed by a double shot of Bonanza at 3pm & 4pm.
Then the schedule doesn't change until 9pm. Weekdays from 9pm-12am and 2-5am they will have marathons. Hogan's Heroes (Mon), The Beverly Hillbillies (Tues), Sanford & Son (Wed), The Andy Griffith Show (Thurs) and I Love Lucy (Fri). Lucy will be 8-10pm actually on Fridays and the late night marathon will be 2-6am. So Murphy Brown will be off the line-up, but will air sometimes on weekends, like Just Shoot Me. The Brady Bunch will just air weekends at 4:30am. M*A*S*H block will be 12-2am weeknights.
So, the changes that were happening before, with the summer marathons will not happen and these new marathon slots are the summer marathons.
These changes will be in effect until the end of August. In September, there will be more changes coming as Scrubs joins the line-up on September 1 and The Cosby Show on Sept. 15. Fans of Just Shoot Me and Murphy Brown take note that these shows will be back on the regular schedule airing late nights. The same goes for Designing Women and Mad About You, and those two will retain its current morning slots, as well. Unfortunately for Brady Bunch fans, the show will be off the line-up completely come September. Three's Company is returning, but it will just air once a week in he late night...but it will be three episodes in a row! We will have more on September in the next week or so. So stay tuned for that!
But anyway, for now look at the TV Land changes happening July 14 by clicking HERE!

Moving on to day three of the cable portion of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. Up first today were the Discovery Networks.
Animal Planet talked about its new series Whale Wars, which premieres in November. This new, thrilling and adrenaline-fueled mini-series follows the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society which uses unconventional and radical methods to eradicate alleged illegal whaling operations.
The Discovery Channel talked about series such as Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy, which launches in September. A team of amateur fossil hunters exploring the Montana badlands uncovered what many are calling the "Holy Grail" of paleontology -- the first fully intact dinosaur cadaver, with 90 percent of its body covered in skin. They also have a series coming in August titled Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein. It's a thrill ride filled with adventure and mystery, ancient riddles and modern day issues as international explorer Josh Bernstein travels the world on an epic quest of discovery.
The network Planet Green has hired Bob Woodruff for a series called Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff. The series launches this Saturday. As the definitive weekly eco-newscast, this series features seasoned ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff as he guides viewers on the green headlines of the week and provides them with a variety of hard-hitting, late-breaking, and top-of-mind issues facing the world today. Planet Green will also launch Battleground Earth: Ludacris v. Tommy Lee on August 3. Battleground Earth brings together hip hop superstar Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and rock god Tommy Lee to battle against the toxic forces destroying Mother Earth as they travel across the country on a 10-episode tour.
TLC President Angela Shapiro-Mathes gave an overview of TLC and the upcoming programming as well as the rebranding of the network. Two new Real Estate series are in the works and will launch in August. One of them will be hosted by Kirsten Kemp Becker and the other will be called Over Designed.

ESPN was also up today at the press tour. They have quite a few films and documentaries in the works. Spike Lee and Steve Nash are producing the documentary 30/30. Branch Rickey III, grandson of Jackie Robinson, is producing the Jackie Robinson/Branch Rickey project.

Sundance Channel was touting Architecture School, a new series launching August 20. This six-part series follows the students in the URBANbuild program at Tulane University's highly celebrated School of Architecture as they submit competing designs and build the winning design in the devastated city of New Orleans. Sundance/IFC will also premiere Spectacle: Elvis Costello with... in December. A series of 13 one-hour programs hosted by legendary singer/songwriter Elvis Costello and executive produced by Sir Elton John, this show is conceived to provide a forum for in-depth discussion and musical performance with a variety of musicians, artists and personalities.

HBO was next and they were talking about the special Ricky Gervais Comedy Special, coming this Fall. They also talked about Generation Kill, a mini-series launching this Sunday. Executive produced and co-written by David Simon and Ed Burns, the team behind the critically acclaimed HBO series, The Wire, this seven-part miniseries tells the true story of young U.S. Marines of the elite First Reconnaissance Battalion whose unit was part of the first wave of the American military assault on Baghdad in 2003. On August 18, they will air Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House. Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House profiles iconic journalist Helen Thomas, a tour de force in political reporting, who has covered the White House and every president since John F. Kennedy. In September, HBO will launch a new comedy series, Little Britain USA. Matt Lucas and David Walliams, the stars of the smash-hit BBC comedy Little Britain headline this new HBO comedy series set in contemporary America. This series will feature favorite Little Britain characters in new sketches, as well as brand-new American characters, and was shot on location in North Carolina and Los Angeles before a live audience. HBO will also launch a new drama series called True Blood on September 7. Based on the popular Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is created by Alan Ball, creator of HBO's Emmy-winning series, Six Feet Under. This series takes place in the not-too-distant future, when, thanks to the invention of synthetic blood, vampires no longer need humans for their fix, and can walk freely, if not yet comfortably, among their living counterparts.

Finally, GSN was promoting its new original game show Catch 21, which launches July 21 with a 40-episode order. Created by executive producer Merrill Heatter, Catch 21 melds pop trivia with the excitement of the classic card game, 21. Built from GSN.com's online game "Catch 21," the show, hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), will showcase three contestants competing to win larger-than-life playing cards and trying to build the closest hand to 21. With every card they are dealt, contestants gain the power to make their opponents hand worse by passing their card.

WGN America Schedules '80s Week; Remembering Mark Tuttle

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.

Chris Mann Launches New Website and New Projects; Remembering Harvey Korman

Our good friend Chris Mann has launched a new website and once again is back in full gear with lots of new updates! Chris of course is best known to TV fans as the author of the 1998 TV tell-all book Come on Knock on Our Door, a wonderful Three's Company book. Chris then went on to do many TV interviews regarding the book and various Three's Company related interviews and projects such as E! True Hollywood Story: Three's Company and the NBC 2003 film Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Three's Company. Chris served as a consulting producer in that movie. Since then Chris has done some great work in writing for TV Guide, emmy, and many other magazines & publications.
Now Chris has launched a website! It is a new retro-reality web zine located at www.Retroality.TV. The premiere "issue" includes exclusive and revealing interviews with the ever-ass-kicking Wonder Woman herself, Lynda Carter, as well as The Brady Bunch's "youngest one in curls," Susan Olsen.
The site also links to his recent health magazine interviews with Mario Lopez, Hulk Hogan, Leeza Gibbons, reality star/actor/fitness cover model Greg Plitt and his Bob Barker/Barker's Beauties Radar.com exposé.
And he attempts tongue-in-cheek humor in the feature "Ascot Hot," which salutes the "man scarf" as seen on TV adorning Mr. Howell, Mr. Furley, Scooby Doo's Freddy and Daphne, Bea Arthur, Ellen DeGeneres, Conrad Bain and, most recently, American Idol's rockin' (and oh-so-robbed) Michael Johns.
Chris says, "Wonder Woman, Maude, Michael Johns and Conrad Bain--on the same web site! Really, is there any reason to surf the web now? Methinks not."
The site will be fully functional by July, so please bookmark it and check back in coming weeks for more retroality fun!
The site also announces that Chris Mann has a John Ritter book in the works! It will be about the late actor's brilliant life and legacy with interviews with many of his family members and colleagues. The book sounds great and Chris will find a lot of success with it, I'm sure. I personally can't wait for it! In addition, Chris also has a Price is Right book in the works. Chris is certainly keeping busy and we wish him the best! We will keep you up to date on his various projects. Once again the website is www.Retroality.TV ... check it out, it is great (and interesting!) right now and will be even better when it fully launches in July!
And you can listen to Chris promote the website on WGN Radio AM720 in Chicago this Sunday night at 11:05pm CT (12:05am ET/9:05pm PT) or you can listen online if you're not in Chicago at www.wgnradio.com. He will be on Nick Digilio's show, produced by Andy Hermann. Both Nick and Andy are also friends of ours and Chris'. Andy is a big Three's Company fan.

Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to the sketch comedy The Carol Burnett Show from 1967-1978 and played a conniving politician to hilarious effect in the 1974 movie Blazing Saddles, died yesterday. Korman died at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago, his family said. He had undergone several major operations.
Before The Carol Burnett Show, Korman had guest appearances on various series such as Hennesey, The Danny Kaye Show, The Red Skelton Show, Surfside 6, Perry Mason, Dennis the Menace, Hazel, Gidget, The Lucy Show, The Jack Benny Show, F Troop, and The Munsters. In 1965 he landed the role as the voice of The Great Gazoo on the last season or two of The Flintstones. He appeared in the 1966 big screen movie The Man Called Flintstone as well, voicing various characters. Then in 1967 he signed on with CBS for The Carol Burnett Show. Korman's claim to fame was playing the perfect straight man to the outrageous slapstick comedy of the other actors in the cast, but mainly Burnett and fellow cast member Tim Conway. They, and the fourth member of the variety show's core ensemble, Vicki Lawrence, spoofed a number of iconic films and television series throughout the show's run. During the show, in 1976 Harvey appeared on the very first Love Boat movie in 1976. Guest stars included Florence Henderson, Tom Boslet, Don Adams, Hal Linden, Gabe Kaplan, Dick Van Patten and Cloris Leachman.
After Carol Burnett ended, he had his own show called The Harvey Korman Show in 1978 on ABC opposite Christine Lahti. It didn't last long. He joined his former Carol Burnett star Tim Conway on his show The Tim Conway Show in 1980. That show was also short-lived. In 1982 he played Ed in the CBS TV movie Eunice opposite Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence, both from Carol Burnett Show. Eunice was the film which led to the series Mama's Family in 1983. Vicki Lawrence starred in the series and Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman made a handful of guest appearances as Eunice and Ed. His other guest appearances include The Love Boat (4 times from 1982-85), The Golden Palace, Garfield & Friends, Burke's Law, Ellen, Suddenly Susan, ER, and Diagnosis Murder. In 1986 he returned to series television in the short-lived CBS comedy Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills. His big screen work includes Blazing Saddles, Huckleberry Finn, Americathon, Trail of the Pink Panther, Curse of the Pink Panther, The Flintstones, Jingle All the Way, and Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas.
He will be deeply missed. Let's hope there is a Carol Burnett Show marathon somewhere on TV soon. We will let you know if there is one or any Korman tributes. Mr. Korman was 81.

Urgent TV Land Schedule Changes Starting Monday (March 10), High School Reunion Scores; Remembering Two Sitcom Behind the Scenes Stars

TV Land has just announced some urgent schedule changes that will happen starting this Monday (March 10). Just to remind you last week, they changed the overnight schedule a bit, with mainly just time shifts and removing The Brady Bunch...but the Bradys will return! We will tell you when in a bit. Also returning will be All in the Family, airing weekday mornings at 9:30am, replacing Good Times which will move to 11am-12pm replacing Three's Company and I Love Lucy. Coming to the 10am hour now are The Jeffersons, replacing the second Good Times and Designing Women. TV Land Goes West airs Mondays from 12pm-4pm currently, but now it will move to 1-5pm and Gunsmoke will start the block off now from 1-3pm followed by Bonanza from 3-5pm. Weekdays 12-1pm will now be I Love Lucy rather than Beaver, as Leave it to Beaver moves to 1-2pm on Tues-Fri. 2-3pm will now be The Beverly Hillbillies as it moves up an hour. Gunsmoke airs at 3pm and Bonanza at 4pm Tues-Fri. Leave it to Beaver returns to early evenings from 5-6pm as it replaces I Love Lucy.
Then we move to every night. Just Shoot Me will be replaced from 12-1am by The Andy Griffith Show. I believe its ratings were not up to par here, but it will still be on the line-up in other slots such as 8:30am and 3:30am, replacing Three's Company in the latter slot. Designing Women moves up a half-hour to 4am, and yes, The Brady Bunch will return to its 4:30am slot after just a week off. And with Three's Company out of its 11am weekday and 3:30am every night slot, the show is not on the schedule at all now. So, it will be on a hiatus. I think they didn't want to waste airplays in the middle of the night. Hopefully it will return soon. We still have tonight (1-2am, 3:30am) to enjoy the show, though! Unfortunately they removed the 5:30-8pm marathon for Saturday in favor of The Beverly Hillbillies. So tonight is the last chance to see Jack Tripper and the gang until it returns at a later date. On weekends, the 7am hour will now be Bonanza, replacing the second Gunsmoke. Saturdays 10-11pm (whenever it is not preempted) will be I Love Lucy now instead of Three's Company. Finally, Little House on the Prairie will return on March 22 airing Saturday and Sunday late nights (early Sunday and Monday mornings) at 5am replacing Beaver/Lucy for weekends only.
And there you have it. To discuss these changes to to see these changes in a list format, click HERE!

Meanwhile, Wednesday night's premiere of TV Land's newest original reality series, High School Reunion, scored impressive gains across key demos over the same time period last year. The new series, which reunites classmates from a Texas high school more than 20 years after graduation, gave TV Land triple digit gains across the network's target demo, Adults 25-54, and double digit gains among the network's core audience, Adults 40-54.
High School Reunion posted a 0.4 rating (426,000 viewers) among A25-54, up 105% in rating and +113% in viewers over last year. The network averaged 735,000 total viewers, up +62% over a year ago, with a median age of 46. Among the network's core A40-54 audience, the premiere earned a 0.5 rating (260,000 viewers), an increase of +62% in rating and +69% in viewers over last year.

Today we will remember the lives of two sitcom veterans, but you never saw them on your TV screens. Director Herbert Kenwith and Writer Richard Baer.
Herbert Kenwith died Jan. 30 in Los Angeles of complications of prostate cancer, but it was just announced only recently. Working for Bud Yorkin and Norman Lear's Tandem Productions, he worked as producer and director on series including Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, Good Times, Sanford & Son, All That Glitters, One Day At A Time and Joe's World. He was mainly known for his directing and producing on Diff'rent Strokes and Good Times, but he also directed many other series such as Love American Style, Star Trek, Here's Lucy, Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Doctors, Temperatures Rising, Too Close for Comfort, Bosom Buddies, Brady Brides, 9 to 5, Private Benjamin, Gimme a Break!, It's Your Move and Amen. He directed the first episode of the soap opera The Young And The Restless. He did start his career as an actor on Broadway, but directing television shows was where he would end up. Mr. Kenwith had been retired from the business for quite some time. He will certainly be missed, but his work continues to air on TV every single day. Mr. Kenwith was 90.
Emmy-nommed writer Richard Baer wrote for TV shows including Leave It To Beaver, Bewitched, The Munsters, Barney Miller and M*A*S*H. He died Feb. 22 in Santa Monica, Calif. after suffering a heart attack in January.
He began his TV career on The Life of Riley, starting as an assistant and then writing several episodes. In 1960, he started working on the series Hennessey starring Jackie Cooper, earning an Emmy nomination and writing 38 episodes. Over the next 25 years, he wrote for more than 56 shows, including F-Troop, That Girl, Doris Day Show, Love on a Rooftop, Petticoat Junction, New Dick Van Dyke Show, Archie Bunker's Place, Who's the Boss?, and The Andy Griffith Show.
Mr. Baer will certainly be missed by sitcom fans as his writings will live on forever, whether it be Bewitched, The Munsters or Hennessey, or anything else he did. He will be missed. He was 79.

Day 53: WGA's Strike; TV Land February Highlights; George Lopez Marathon on Nick at Nite Friday

Today is day 53 of the writers' strike. Nothing new to report at all, as of now. The days after Christmas are always so slow. News will probably pick-up starting Jan. 2.

Well we wanted to give you TV Land February 2008 highlights last week, but we decided to hold it because one stunt still has a lot of TBD (to be determined) slots. I'll get to that in a bit. As we know Just Shoot Me launches on TV Land with a weekend marathon on Jan. 26-27 from 9pm-6am on both nights. The TV Land February schedule will start Jan. 28 with the addition of Just Shoot Me. The show will air weekday mornings at 8:30am, every night at 12 & 12:30am, and in the Thursday four in a row marathons from 9-11pm. Other changes include All in the Family being removed, an additional Three's Company being added to weekdays at 11am, The Munsters, Green Acres, and Addams Family are off of weekdays and only on weekends now. Brady Bunch will only be 4:30am now every morning.
Friday movies for the month include The Breakfast Club, Flashdance and Moonstruck.
TV Land is celebrating Valentine's Day with a "Ricky Loves Lucy Valentine's Day Event." Watch four episodes of I Love Lucy on Feb. 10 and again on Feb. 14 as Lucy and Ricky as they experience their happiest times together. Witness their vow renewal, celebrate the announcement and birth of their baby and toast them as they celebrate their wedding anniversary.
Now the stunt I have a lot of TBD slots is the "Big '80s Weekend." We still have a lot of TBD slots, but I decided to post this today anyway. This will air the weekend of President's Day--Saturday, Feb. 16, Sunday, Feb. 17 and Monday, Feb. 18. Right now only movies have been slated, but there could be some '80s series in there as well, along with some '80s retrospectives maybe. As soon as we know, we'll let you know! As of now slated are '80s movies such as National Lampoon's Class Reunion, Flashdance, The Breakfast Club, The Jerk, and Sixteen Candles. Three's Company and Designing Women are also slated for Monday, Feb. 18 to start off that day's block. Don't be surprised if we see series such as Knight Rider, The A-Team, and Miami Vice pop-up in here or '80s retrospectives. It is going to be a totally radical '80s weekend! We will confirm as soon as we know the TBD slots...check out the link below for the schedule SO FAR.
TV Land will have another Movie Week, the week of Feb. 25! Showtime is every night at 8p, starting with Monday's showing of Steve Martin as the lovably naive Navin Johnson in The Jerk. Tuesday, Gary Busey stars as the rock pioneer in The Buddy Holly Story. Wednesday, Molly, Emilio, Ally, and the rest of the Brat Pack star as a diverse group of teens stuck in Saturday morning detention in The Breakfast Club. Thursday, Clint Eastwood stars as a conflicted secret service agent in In the Line of Fire. Rounding out the week is Sixteen Candles starring Molly Ringwald as she deals with forgotten birthdays and secret crushes.
For COMPLETE February details, click HERE!

Nick at Nite will preempt its regular programming on Friday (December 28) to bring a marathon of one of its newest and highest rated sitcoms...George Lopez! This will be the first marathon for the show. The series launched in September and has been airing every night from 10-11pm. The series is doing excellent for the network and is doing much better in its slot against what aired last year. The show is also one of cable's top performers in 18-49 in primetime, not to mention total viewers. George Lopez marathon starts 10pm on Friday and will run until 5am (Fresh Prince will close the night from 5-6am). The marathon will have no repeats, so you can stay up all-night to watch new episodes all-night long!
Marathon episodes are:
10:00PM #73 "George Buys a Vow"
10:30PM #4 "Max's Big Adventure"
11:00PM #104 "George's House Has Two Empty Wombs" (Stacy Keibler guest-stars)
11:30PM #105 "George Nieces Needs a Media Room"
12:00AM #107 "Sabes Gay, It's George's Fantasy Episode"
12:30AM #108 "George Thinks Vic's Fiance Is Lion About Being A Cheetah" (Stacy Keibler guest-stars)
1:00AM #109 "George Helps Angie's Wha-Positive Self Image"
1:30AM #110 "George's Grave Mistake Sends Him To a Funeral, Holmes"
2:00AM #111 "George Joins the Neighborhood Wha-tcha and Raises the Vigilante"
2:30AM #112 "George Is Maid To Be Ruth-Less" (Barbara Eden guest-stars)
3:00AM #113 "George Is Lie-able for Benny's Unhappiness" (Jerry Springer guest-stars)
3:30AM #29 "Dubya, Dad, and Dating, Part 1" (Jimmie Walker guest-stars)
4:00AM #30 "Dubya, Dad, and Dating, Part 2" (Jimmie Walker guest-stars)
4:30AM #33 "Carmen's Dating"

Day 9: WGA's Writers' Strike; TV Land January Schedule and Highlights; Charles in Charge - The Complete Second Season DVD Giveaway

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.

Enter the contest.

Order it online at Amazon.com .

TV Land December 2007 Highlights; Heroes Reruns to G4 and Mojo

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!

JustMyShow.com Interviews Three's Company Bartenders

Our good friend Eric at JustMyShow.com has put a new show, this time for his Recurring Character Central segment. It is Friday night and what better night for a drink. He has brought back both bartenders from Three's Company for the very first time. This is the very first time they have spoken to each other as Paul Ainsley was the main bartenders from seasons 1-4 and Brad Blaisdell was for seasons 5-8. Join Eric as he talks to "Jim the Bartender" and "Mike the Bartender" about Three's Company, the greatness and niceness of John Ritter, inside stories, their careers, and much more. This is a very nice half-hour interview that even features trivia questions for both actors submitted by me! I think I stumped them, but you'll have to listen yourself!
To listen to this wonderful interview, click HERE!

We shall return if we have any other news. Come on back.

Mini-DVD Review: Man About the House - First Two Series; Solomon's Weekly Rant: ESPN Classic; Weather-Mania on Local News

Welcome to another edition of mini-DVD reviews. This week we take a look at BCI Eclipse's Man About the House: The Complete First and Second Series. Man About the House is the britcom that Three's Company was based on! See the similarities and the differences between the two series when you get this DVD. See my mini-DVD review of Man About the House:

Man About the House: The Complete First and Second Series (BCI, $29.98) brings the first 13 episodes of the Britcom that Three's Company was based on to America on DVD for the first time! In England, the seasons are usually very short. Also they don't call a season a season, they call it a series for some reason. "Series" one had 7 episodes and "series" two had 6 episodes. This britcom lasted for six series from 1973-1976. And like Three's Company here in the U.S., it gave away to two spin-offs...George and Mildred (The Ropers was the spin-off here) and Robin's Nest (Three's a Crowd was the spin-off here). This series starred Richard Sullivan as Robin Tripp (equivalent to Jack Tripper), Paula Wilcox as Chrissy Plummer (equivalent to Janet Wood), Sally Thomsett as Jo (equivalent to Chrissy Snow), Brian Murphy as George Roper (equivalent to Stanley Roper), Yootha Joyce as Mildred Roper (equivalent to Helen Roper), and Doug Fisher as Larry Simmonds (equivalent to Larry Dallas).
Most of the episodes in these first two series are similar to some episodes from Three's Company. Three's Company had based a lot of the episodes early on on Man About the House. Some of those episodes include the pilot called "Three's a Crowd" where Chrissy & Jo find Robin in the tub and he moves in. "And Mother Makes Four" where Chrissy's mother comes to town the day Robin moves in. In the U.S. it was Chrissy Snow's character whose mother came to visit...as Chrissy in this series is really our Janet Wood. "No Children, No Dogs" where Robin is lumbering a puppy, which is not allowed in the building. "It's Only Money" where the trio's rent money has disappeared. "Colour Me Yellow" is similar to the Three's Company episode "Jack the Giant Killer," where Robin battles a big bully at the saloon. So, all of Three's Company's first season episodes except for Roper's Niece were based on Man About the House episodes. Some other episodes that were similar were "In Praise of Older Men," which was similar to the season two episode of Three's Company titled "Chrissy's Date," where Chrissy dates an older man who later turns out to be married. And the episode "Two Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" was similar to the Three's Company episode from season two titled "The Baby Sitters," where Robin and Chrissy babysit.
Each episode has that Thames logo before each episode that runs like 8 seconds or so. The runtimes for each episode vary. The highest is 25:23 and the lowest is 22:20, but I doubt anything is edited. Most of the episodes run in the 23-24 min range. There are two chapter stops per episode. The first chapter is the first part of the episode and the second chapter is part two of the episode. This series had bumpers saying end of part one and start of part two...and they are intact on this DVD. The video looks good, but it isn't perfect! The audio is decent, nothing too bad about it and you can hear everything fine.
Packaging has a slip cover outer box that holds the actual case. I think that is pointless. The cover for the box has the trio with the show logo above them and above that we see Jo's pink panty, Robin's blue boxer, and Chrissy's pink bra. The color scheme is like a lime green. The back of the box has synopsis of the show with four small cool screenshots (two of them are familiar to Three's Company fans, the shaving of the balloon and Robin in that apron that looks like a bra). We also have a shot of the trio near the couch. The case's cover and back is the exact same as the box. What is the point of this slip cover box?? The case only would have been OK. Inside the case we have the two discs in a separate holder. The left side of the case has a episode guide booklet for us so we have the synopsis of the first two series. Disc one's artwork has Robin's blue boxers and disc two has the girls' pink bra and panty. The overall color of the discs is lime green, like the set.
The menu screen has Play all and Episodes. The main menu has the theme playing in the background (and it loops), with a photo of the trio in the middle and moving images above that. Episodes is where we can choose the classic episodes. They are listed in a separate sub-menu and the theme is also playing in the background there.
Unfortunately this set has no special features. Oh well, at least we can finally watch some episodes and compare them to Three's Company.
I highly do recommend any fan of britcoms or Three's Company to pick this set up. It is a fun show and hilarious, though it is not as good I think as Three's Company. It is cool to note the similarities and differences to the American version. Head on over to the Mucky Duck Saloon (their Regal Beagle) and have a blast watching this DVD!
-- Reviewed by Pavan
(4/5 stars)

To purchase the DVD, click below and help support SitcomsOnline.com:
Amazon.com

Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
Man About the House TV.com Page
Jack's Bistro: Three's Company Page


Solomon's Weekly Rant
Saturday, August 25, 2007
"ESPN Classic is the Sports Version of TV Land; Weather-Mania on Local News"
By Solomon Davis

ESPN Classic needs to take programming tips from The Golf Channel because that will allow viewers to see what they are supposed to on a sports classic network which is classic sports. I never see The Golf Channel air programming about swimming or horse racing because the programmers at that network know that they are supposed to air everything that has to do with golf. So if ESPN Classic can stop trying to become the sports version of TV Land by airing programs that has nothing to do with classic sports, the channel would actually become more watchable. ESPN Classic wants to air programs like American Gladiators, World Series of Poker, and sports movies instead of classic pro sports. The network has tried to stay somewhat in the neighborhood of classic sports by airing classic bowling but that's not really something most of us want to see when we think of classic sports. So just like TV Land, the network is trying to be too creative in grabbing more viewers that they actually forgot the name of their network. So maybe the actual goal of the network in the next year will be to change the title of the network to TVandSportsLand which would be a better fit for the type of programming they like to present to viewers.

Why does it seem like whenever there is a heatwave during this time of year our local news stations turn into The Weather Channel? The last time I looked at the calender I noticed that this is the month of August so a heatwave can't be that big of a story. I strongly believe that everyone on this site has experienced being outside when the temperature is over 90 degrees so for news like this to be the very top story as soon as the news comes on is very confusing. It's not deadly stuff like 105+. We don't need to see video footage of people walking down the street wiping sweat because that's what they are supposed to do this time of year. It's a shame that these news directors don't understand that a news story about a heatwave is only major news if it's in the month of December not August.

My TV Highlight of the Week: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 - Lauren Jones on the premiere of Fox's now canceled Anchorwoman.
My TV Lowlight of the Week: Monday, August 20, 2007 - Emmit Smith fidgeting and studdering on the air on his second show as a ESPN studio analyst.

Agree or disagree with Solomon? Discuss it here.

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

Mini-DVD Review: South Park Season 10 (Aug. 21); Solomon's Weekly Rant: Anchor Bay Annoys Three's Company Fans By Not Releasing Spin-offs on DVD

Welcome to another edition of mini-DVD reviews! Today we take a look at Comedy Central/Paramount's South Park: The Complete Tenth Season. South Park of course is the popular cable animated series that is full of laughs for all ages. Join Cartman and the gang for all the fun. Get your hats & coats on! See skees53's mini-DVD review of South Park: The Complete Tenth Season:

South Park: The Complete Tenth Season (Comedy Central DVD, $49.99) presents all 14 episodes from 2006 season of the hit Comedy Central series. Kyle, Stan, Cartman, Kenny (he doesn't even die at all this season), and of course Butters join up for 14 great episodes of what may be the greatest season of the show so far. The season begins with "The Return of Chef," where Chef comes back from joining the Super Adventure Club and realizes that he wants to make love... with the children! The series takes on Family Guy (which the creators seem to hate; why can't they learn to co-exist?) in the two-part episode "Cartoon Wars," where Cartman decides to do whatever he can to get an episode of Family Guy banned. We get to see Cartman's mom trying to find a solution to solve his behavior issues (by using reality shows, including Nanny 911, Supernanny, and even The Dog Whisperer) in "Tsst." Cartman and Butters are decide to reveal who they think was responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks in "Mystery of the Urinal Deuce." The kindergarten teacher and one of her students are the main topic of "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy," which I think the title says exactly what it is about. Cartman wants a Nintendo Wii and Richard Dawkins comes to South Park to explain evolution in the episodes "Go God Go" and "Go God Go XII."
Once again, the special features are the mini-commentaries for every episode. They last less than five minutes each, and honestly, it is frustrating that they can't do full commentaries. But there really aren't any other special features aside from the Comedy Central Quickies (essentially just really good clips from current Comedy Central programs) and that is a little disappointing (but what we have come to expect from these South Park DVDs). The video and audio on the set is as good as we would expect, but there was one very unusual thing about the closing credits on the episodes... they used the Comedy Central version of the closing credits! Basically all they did was replaced the part of the screen that would show what is coming up next on Comedy Central with a brief scene from the episode. I guess it is only a minor annoyance (because it isn't like we ever saw original closing credits on Comedy Central in the first place), but it would look nice to have real closing credits presented on the DVD set. Still, there are many great episodes on this DVD set that any fan would want to own!
-- Reviewed by skees53
(4/5 stars)

To purchase this DVD, click below and help support SitcomsOnline.com:
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Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
South Park TV.com Page

Solomon's Weekly Rant
Saturday, August 18, 2007
"Anchor Bay Annoys Three's Company Fans By Not Releasing the Spin-offs on DVD"
By Solomon Davis

Anchor Bay (or now known as Starz Home Entertainment) has told Three's Company fans that they don't have the rights to release the Three's Company spin-offs (The Ropers, Three's a Crowd)on DVD which is why they are not released on DVD yet. So most fans accepted that explanation but what I won't accept is what I call "Sympathy DVD Releases." Sympathy DVD releases are DVD's that were released to make fans feel better about what they can't get while draining money from us at the same time. And that's exactly what Anchor Bay gave Three's Company fans when they released those un-entertaining Jack and Janet's best-of Favorites DVD's. They are nothing but a best-of Three's Company DVD which says to fans "we are sorry that we don't have the rights to the spin-offs, but here are the same Three's Company episodes again." So if Anchor Bay knows they don't have the right to the spin-offs, then why try and release something else connected to the show so that more money can be made? There is not one Three's Company fan who feels better about having a Jack and Janet's Favorites DVD over the spin-offs.
So what will Anchor Bay release Three's Company wise next before 2008 arrives for us to have in our collection? Maybe Mike the Bartender's favorites or Mr. Angelino's favorites?? I wish just Anchor Bay would stop trying to make us forget that we don't have the spin-offs with these so-called replacement DVD releases and give the fans what they really want. Anchor Bay is doing the same thing to Three's Company fans that Comcast did to NFL fans I think. Comcast knew they couldn't acquire the rights to the Sunday NFL Ticket so they offered NFL fans a college football package instead to make us feel a lot better. NFL fans had no interest in that crap and Three's Company fans have no interest in a Best of DVD, especially since all eight seasons are already out on DVD. And this really shows me that Anchor Bay is trying to take advantage of our love for the show and basically don't care about our spin-off DVD dreams. So enough with these sympathy DVD releases Anchor Bay because Three's Company is complete on DVD and I'm sure no fan wants to see Felipe's Favorites in 2008.

My TV Highlight of the Week: Sunday, August 12, 2007 - Flavor Flav being Roasted.
My TV Lowlight of the Week: Monday, August 13, 2007 - Enrique Iglesias wearing a baseball cap while guest hosting with Kelly Ripa on LIVE! with Regis & Kelly.

Agree or disagree with Solomon? Discuss it here.

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

TV Land August Schedule Changes; TCA 2007 Summer Tour: The CW; ABC August Change

Late on Friday, TV Land issued some schedule changes for August. The Summer Cocktail Party Marathons will continue now past August 3. It will likely go until the end of the month now. Some blocks of the marathons have changed along with some of the regular schedule. The changes start on August 4 with the weekends. Some minor changes here and there on weekends, such as double shot of Gunsmoke now from 6-8am rather than I Love Lucy and Green Acres, which were scheduled to start airing then. Green Acres will air 9am on weekends. Other changes on weekends include Gunsmoke from 5-8pm on Saturdays and Andy Griffith Show from 10pm-1:10am. TV Land Goes West on Sundays will be 12-6pm now, with more Andy Griffith from 6-8pm. Sundays will also have a M*A*S*H block from 10pm-12:05am. The late night block on both nights will also be altered a bit, with Three's Company (twice), The Jeffersons, Good Times (twice), Sanford & Son, All in the Family, and The Andy Griffith Show from 1:10am-6am.
That was just weekends, now let's go to weekdays. As we said before TV Land Goes West is also on Mondays, and that will not change. Bonanza from 8a-12p and Gunsmoke from 2-6p. Tues-Fri mornings and afternoons will get a bit of a makeover from the original August schedule. Cheers will return and air 8:30am. Sanford & Son will air 9-10am, Bonanza and Gunsmoke follow until noon leading into the Elvis movie, 2-5pm will see back-to-back episodes of Andy Griffith, I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver. Gunsmoke will air at 5pm. In primetime, Cosby Show replaces Good Times from 8-9pm and Sanford & Son will air 9-10pm instead of The Jeffersons. Then we have the marathons from 10p-4:30a. Changes to the marathons are: Mondays from 10p-12:05a is now The Jeffersons instead of Cosby Show. Andy Griffith Show marathon will air Tuesdays from 8-11p leading into Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, so no M*A*S*H marathon. Wednesday nights from 2:20-4a is now Three's Company instead of All in the Family.
So these changes are last minute, so the September schedule we posted might change now. We will let you know when we do. Munsters, Addams Family, Green Acres are reduced to just weekends in August. For now, please click HERE to view the changes in a list form.

The CW was up today at the TCA Summer Press Tour. Up at the panel were the cast & crew of various series and an Executive Session. The show that had a panel were: Aliens in America, Life is Wild, CW Now/Online Nation, Gossip Girl, Reaper. They announced the fall premiere dates for their series:

MONDAY
8:00-8:30 PM EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS [October 1]
8:30-9:00 PM ALIENS IN AMERICA (New Series) [October 1]
9:00-9:30 PM GIRLFRIENDS [October 1]
9:30-10:00 PM THE GAME [October 1]

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM BEAUTY AND THE GEEK [September 18]
9:00-10:00 PM REAPER (New Series) [September 25]

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL [September 19]
9:00-10:00 PM GOSSIP GIRL (New Series) [September 26]

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM SMALLVILLE [September 27]
9:00-10:00 PM SUPERNATURAL [October 4]

FRIDAY
8:00-10:00 PM FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN [September 21]

SUNDAY
7:00-7:30 PM CW NOW (New Series) [September 23]
7:30-8:00 PM ONLINE NATION (New Series) [September 23]
8:00-9:00 PM LIFE IS WILD (New Series) [October 7]
9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (Encore Presentation)

ABC will alter its Monday and Tuesday schedules for August. Mondays will now be Wife Swap, Fat March, and Supernanny. It was supposed to be Wife Swap, Supernanny, and i-Caught. Fat March was originally for Tuesdays at 9. Tuesdays will be back-to-back Just for Laughs, which ABC renewed for an additional 13 episodes (making it 19 in all now), followed by Primetime: Crime and i-Caught. Primetime: Crime was originally for 10pm.

I'm Back; TV Land September Highlights; TCA Summer Tour Cable Recap, NBC Day 1

I'm back! As Todd stated yesterday, I have returned from vacation. It was a nice 10 days off but when you love doing something, you tend to miss it. Anyway, Todd like usual did a wonderful job filling in when I was out relaxing in Jacksonville. He brought us nice bits of news and great features from skees53, Seth and of course Solomon's Weekly Rant.

TV Land released their September line-up to us early last week, but I was not home. I did check e-mail twice over there, but had way too much to go through, so I couldn't forward it to Todd in time. Anyway, to TV Land September, the schedule will indeed change a bit. There are no real new additions, but Knight Rider will return to the line-up and air Tues-Fri at 3 p.m. For those of you wondering, the contracts for mega TV Land hits Bonanza and Three's Company are expiring after August, but they have been renewed! So you will see both in September! I don't have full details on the contracts, but my Three's Company people tell me TV Land has rights "for years to come." There are minor changes here and there, some notable ones include Cosby Show off the regular line-up, but it will air in two weekly blocks (Fridays approx. 12-2am and Saturdays approx. 11pm-1am). Weekday mornings have changed a bit, M*A*S*H will also air in the mornings now from 7-8am, followed by What's Happening Now!! and The Jeffersons moving from 7-8am to 8-9am. All in the Family moves from 8-9am to 9-10am, Gunsmoke remains at 10am, followed by double shots of Leave it to Beaver, I Love Lucy and Green Acres from 11am-2pm. The Munsters/Addams Family hour is at 2-3pm.
Friday night movies this month include The Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Crocodile Dundee II (1988), and The Longest Yard (1974).
Saturday, September 15 through Monday, September 17, starting at 8pm. 35 years and the 4077 gang is still going strong. Join us as TV Land celebrates the 35th anniversary of this groundbreaking landmark television series with 3 nights of quintessential and favorite M*A*S*H episodes as well as the highly successful reunion specials. Don't miss the pilot episode which will air 35 years to the day and time of the series premiere on September 17 at 8pm!
Having dinner with the family helps everyone reconnect at the end of the day. The family table is often a place where families catch up on their days, share stories and problems – and eat. Whether Andy Griffith ends up eating three dinners in one night or Hawkeye tries to fly in ribs from Chicago to Korea, our TV Land families are definitely sharing more than meals at their tables! CASA Family Night airs Sunday, September 23, 8pm-10pm.
For COMPLETE details of the schedule changes and details of the specials & marathons, click HERE.

Unfortunately I was on vacation when the TCA Summer Tour started on July 12. The cable portion was July 12-15. I'll do a little recap of each network's announcements today, that is notable for us at least, at the end of today's blog. But right now I will to cover the first day of NBC's summer press tour. NBC is up today and tomorrow. Then CBS the next 2 days (July 18-19), The CW follows on July 20, the 23rd Annual TCA Awards night is on July 21, Fox follows July 22-23 and ABC caps it off July 25-26.
OK, here is NBC Day 1's notes:
NBC launches its season premieres the week of September 24. The network will adjust its schedule by moving the new comedic spy thriller Chuck to Mondays at 8 p.m. ET followed by switching the popular Monday version of Deal or No Deal to Fridays 8 p.m. ET, and shifting Friday Night Lights to an earlier new time of 9 p.m. (ET) and Las Vegas to 10 p.m. (ET).
In addition, NBC will expand The Biggest Loser to 90 minutes on Tuesdays from 8-9:30 p.m. ET and will have a special two-hour premiere on Tuesday, Sept. 11. Summer's newest hit, The Singing Bee (which premiered earlier this month), will have its Fall premiere on Tuesday, September 25 in the 9:30 p.m. ET half-hour.
NBC's premiere week will also feature one-hour season premieres each of sitcoms My Name Is Earl (8-9 p.m. ET) and The Office (9-10 p.m. ET) on Thursday, September 27 and a two-hour season premiere of Las Vegas on Friday, September 28 (9-11 p.m. ET).
So, it looks like game show 1 vs. 100 is off the fall schedule for now.
NBC Fall Premiere Dates:

Tuesday, SEPTEMBER 11
The Biggest Loser (8-10 p.m.)

Monday, SEPTEMBER 17
Deal or No Deal (8-9 p.m.)

Monday, SEPTEMBER 24
Chuck (8-9 p.m.)
Heroes (9-10 p.m.)
Journeyman (10-11 p.m.)

Tuesday, SEPTEMBER 25
The Singing Bee (9:30-10 p.m.)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (10-11 p.m.)

Wednesday, SEPTEMBER 26
Deal or No Deal Wednesday (8-9 p.m.)
Bionic Woman (9-10 p.m.)
Life (10-11 p.m.)

Thursday, SEPTEMBER 27
My Name Is Earl (8-9 p.m.)
The Office (9-10 p.m.)
ER (10-11 p.m.)

Friday, SEPTEMBER 28
Deal or No Deal Friday (8-9 p.m.)
Las Vegas (9-11 p.m.)

Thursday, OCTOBER 4
30 Rock (8-8:30 p.m.)

Friday, OCTOBER 5
Friday Night Lights (9-10 p.m.)

Thursday, OCTOBER 25
Scrubs (9:30-10 p.m.)

NBC press notes:
- Isaiah Washington (Grey's Anatomy) will play a mysterious person who is brought into the enigmatic scientific organization that is responsible for creating the bionics that turn Jaime Sommers (Michelle Ryan, EastEnders) into the Bionic Woman for 5 episodes at least.
- NBC has signed a series deal with legendary, Emmy Award-winning television producer Norman Lear (All in the Family) to join Reveille, Act III Productions, and Universal Media Studios in producing a one-hour dramedy focused on a mother who reenters the work force and is pitted against her late husband's ruthless partner in a money-charged battle of the sexes on Wall Street.
- NBC has renewed The Apprentice for mid-season with a creative twist. In a new celebrity version of the popular series, celebrity contestants will vie for Donald Trump's attention in what will be the highest-profile competition in the groundbreaking series' run. Celebrities will be announced at a later date.
- Jerry Seinfeld returns to NBC in a rare guest-star cameo when he appears as himself in the second-season premiere of NBC's critically acclaimed comedy 30 Rock on October 4 (Thursday, 8:30-9 p.m. ET).

As mentioned, the TCA Cable Summer Press Tour was July 12-15. On July 12 we had Lifetime, FX, Hallmark Channel, National Geographic Channel, HBO among the channels that went. July 13 was TV Guide, the MTV Networks, Travel Channel, BBC America, Discovery Networks, E!, style. On July 14 we had Disney Channel, SOAPnet, ESPN, Sundance Channel, GSN, and Showtime. The final day saw Turner Broadcasting, BET, Rainbow Networks, History Channel, NBC Universal Networks.
Among the programming Lifetime touted were the new series Side Order of Life and State of Mind, both of them debuted last night. The second season premiere of Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead will lead into the series premiere of the new reality competition show America's Psychic Challenge on Friday, October 12. Finally, 18 episodes of Army Wives have been ordered for the new season, which will premiere in the spring of 2008.
FX talked about a highly anticipated episode of nip/tuck titled "Gala Gallardo." They also talked about the new series Damages starring Glenn Close and Ted Danson.
The Hallmark Channel will create tons of TV movies with classic TV stars including Valerie Bertinelli, Dick Van Dyke, Tom Bosley, Dean Cain, Lea Thompson, Ernest Borgnine and Ernie Hudson.
HBO talked about some original series, movies, and documentaries. New original movie As You Like It premieres in August. A new drama series called Tell Me You Love Me premieres September 9. Also on that date a new documentary will premiere titled Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq. The huge night will also have the sixth season premiere of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Among the MTV Networks that went were TV Land and Spike TV. TV Land talked about its Elvis month this August as we have mentioned here many times. They also released details on a new special from EW. Oprah. Heather Locklear. Homer Simpson. Regardless of age, TV genre or life-form, there are select TV personalities whose work is timeless and whose popularity is endless due to the impact they have made through television. Entertainment Weekly and TV Land Present: The 50 Greatest TV Icons, a two-hour special premiering on TV Land on Friday, November 16 from 8-10pm ET/PT, counts down the iconic personalities who have made their indelible mark via the small screen. The list will also be revealed in the issue of Entertainment Weekly on stands that same day. TV Land Confidential launched its season season last week and TV Land will premiere Back to the Grind this Wednesday. High School Reunion launches in January.
Spike TV mentioned their new series The Kill Point launching July 22 and their unscripted crime drama series Murder coming July 31.
Nickelodeon will launch a new web cast type show for kids called iCarly and a new Chinese animated series called Ni Hao, Kai-lan coming October 22.
Salt-n-Pepa return with The Salt-n-Pepa Show on VH1 coming October 15. See VH1 follow their lives.
E! talked about their new series, Chelsea Lately, which premiered tonight. style Network will launch the first reality sitcom series, Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane takes viewers inside the compelling life of Kimora Lee Simmons.
Disney Channel announced that Wizards of Waverly Place will come in October. Mark down August 17 for the premiere of the new movie High School Musical 2. A High School Musical Documentary is also in the works for the fall. SOAPnet talked about General Hospital: Night Shift, which premiered Thursday and is SOAPnet's first one-hour original scripted drama.
A team of award-winning ESPN correspondents will serve as the reporters of a new series called ESPN Reporters coming October 16. Signed on are Tom Farrey, Rachel Nichols, Lisa Salters, Jeremy Schaap and Michael Smith.
GSN announced details of the new game show Without Prejudice? coming tomorrow. Also, the new game show Grand Slam, hosted by Ken Jennings! It launches August 4. That's The Question a half-hour series that combines word scrambles with a test of world history and pop culture trivia knowledge, returns for a second season on Sept. 10.
Showtime will launch the new season of Weeds in August. One of the most buzzed-about shows on television, Weeds will continue to grow and blossom with inspired new storylines and notable guest starts. The series follows a suburban mother (Mary-Louise Parker) who deals marijuana in order to make ends meet after her husband dies unexpectedly. Brotherhood and Dexter will return for new seasons this fall. A new sitcom called The United States of Tara has been greenlighted. The half-hour single camera comedy pilot revolves around a mother who has multiple personality syndrome.
Court TV announced details for The Star Jones Show coming Aug. 20. CourtTV will be rebranded truTV on January 1. TBS and TNT continued to talk about its upcoming originals The Bill Engvall Show (July 17 on TBS), Saving Grace (July 23 on TNT) and The Company (Aug. 5 on TNT).
BET has put together two of the funniest guys in the business to create an animated sketch comedy show for BET. Orlando Jones and Ali LeRoi have teamed up to create BUFU, in the tradition of Saturday Night Live and SCTV.
USA Network announced details about a new movie title In Plain Sight. Original episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent will air Thursdays at 10pm on USA starting Oct. 4. Sci-Fi Channel will create a new animated series called Flash Gordon coming Aug. 10. Bravo's TelevisionWithoutPity.com will create a Fantasy TV game. The game will allow players to create, name and program their own fantasy television networks using both new fall shows and returning series from the five broadcast networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and CW).

Canada Stations Adds Rare Classics This Fall; Biggest Flintstones Marathon Ever on Boomerang

If you are one of our readers in Canada, then you'll love today's blog! We get quite a few hits from Canadians each day, so those of you are in for a treat today as we will detail fall schedules for some of Canada's biggest classic TV cable channels including TV Land Canada and DejaView!
On TV Land Canada, everything old is new again! New to the TV Land Canada schedule this September is Fantasy Island; Hart to Hart; Love, American Style; and It's Garry Shandling's Show. Also returning to TV Land Canada this fall are: Dallas, Happy Days, Lassie, 21 Jump Street, Petticoat Junction, Joanie Loves Chachi and Wiseguy.
None of those new shows are airing anywhere on cable in the U.S. currently.
We have the full schedule posted. To take a look, please click HERE.
Now let's move on to my personal favorite, DejaView! Starting September 10, they will be adding lots and lots of new shows! Coming to weekdays are: My Secret Identity, Roseanne, Cosby Show, Good Times, Maude, Miami Vice, and Magnum P.I.! On the weekends they will add: The Ropers, Three's a Crowd, Who's the Boss?, The Facts of Life and Square Pegs! Boy I would kill to have this channel. So many rare shows. Shows that will return include classic '70s sitcoms Three's Company and All in the Family. To view the full schedule, I urge you to click HERE!
Sister station TVtropolis, which was known as Prime some years back, will also add some new series. They have moved away from classic TV a bit, putting them on sister net DejaView, but they will still have some classics! First they will add Family Guy and Fresh Prince to the line-up. Returning are Mad About You, Grace Under Fire, The Nanny, Frasier, Seinfeld, Beverly Hills 90210, and Married...with Children. So not much new and not really anything that old.
SUN TV in Canada will also add some new shows. They will add My Secret Identity (wow, this sitcom will be on two channels there!) Wonder Woman, Incredible Hulk, America's Funniest Home Videos, among others. Leave it to Beaver will remain on the fall line-up! View the fall schedule HERE.
We haven't yet obtained CTS TV's Fall 2007 schedule. Currently they air shows like Facts of Life, Happy Days, Full House, Step by Step, and Fresh Prince. No idea what will leave and what will come yet. We'll try to let you know, when we do.

Back to the U.S., the station called Boomerang, will air a huge Flintstones marathon this 4th of July! It is so big that every single episode will air, and it will be commercial free!
Programming an Independence Day tribute it has never before attempted, Boomerang, Cartoon Network's 24-hour commercial-free sister network, brings true fireworks to the Fourth of July holiday weekend with a first-time presentation of every episode of television's first prime time animated series, The Flintstones, including its original pilot, entitled "The Flagstones." The three-and-a-half-day marathon-THE FLAGTONES TO THE FLINTSTONES, featuring all 166 episodes without commercial interruption-will kick off at 6 a.m. (ET) on Wednesday, July 4, and culminate on Saturday, July 7 at 5 p.m. In addition, Boomerang VOD offerings in July also will reflect the FLAGSTONE TO FLINSTONES theme to present several all-time favorite episodes via a "Flintstones Fourth of July" tab for the VOD menu.

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.

SitcomsOnline.com 2007-08 Upfront Preview: NBC; TV Land June Change

For NBC it will be all about starting the night off with a reality/game show to set up the dramas. NBC's Thursday comedy block is not what it used to be, but it has a cult audience and maybe another one of those shows will be launched this fall. NBC is looking for a drama hit as some of the older series are running out of gas.
Here is the SitcomsOnline.com NBC 2007-08 preview:

New Series Already Picked-Up: None.
New Series We Think That Are Almost Good To Go: Lipstick Jungle (drama), Journeyman (drama), Fort Pit (drama), and The I.T. Crowd (sitcom).
New Series Perhaps Picked-Up for Mid-Season: The Mastersons of Manhattan (sitcom), Life (drama), and Bionic Woman (drama)

OUR FALL 2007 PREDICTION:

Sundays
7:00PM Football Night in America
8:00PM Sunday Night Football

Mondays
8:00PM Deal or No Deal
9:00PM Heroes
10:00PM Journeyman (NEW)

Tuesdays
8:00PM 1 vs. 100
9:00PM Fort Pit (NEW)
10:00PM Law & Order: SVU

Wednesdays
8:00PM Thank God You're Here
9:00PM Medium
10:00PM Lipstick Jungle (NEW)

Thursdays
8:00PM My Name is Earl
8:30PM The I.T. Crowd (NEW)
9:00PM The Office
9:30PM 30 Rock
10:00PM ER

Fridays
8:00PM Deal or No Deal
9:00PM Friday Night Lights
10:00PM Las Vegas

Saturdays
8:00PM Dateline NBC
9:00PM Drama Repeats
10:00PM Drama Repeats

Comments: So what about Crossing Jordan, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order? I say they will be benched until January after the NFL ends and they will bring them to Sundays for a repeat free season...but maybe one will be a goner. The Apprentice might not be back until next winter either...I wish that would just die already. The Black Donnellys, Studio 60, Kidnapped, Identity, Raines, 20 Good Years, Andy Barker, and Real Wedding Crashers are all (or will be) canceled or ended. I really think NBC will only go with one comedy night once again, as we saw what happened to Wednesdays 8-9pm last year. Scrubs is probably gone from NBC, and on the way to ABC for next winter. There is a good chance that The Office will be an anchor show on Thursdays at 9, but I don't think it will do as well as it did at 8:30, but they have to move it to 9pm to try and launch another similar sitcom, as 30 Rock is not a strong show to anchor an hour. So NBC will be multi-camera sitcom-less in the fall, but I have them picking up The Mastersons of Manhattan for mid-season. Life and Bionic Woman could get orders for mid-season. Maybe another drama called Chuck could get in. NBC only has a total of eight drama projects, so that means maybe 1/2 or more could get picked up. NBC had a dismal season once again, but Heroes was a bright spot, as the high power project Studio 60 was a bust. Friday Night Lights was not a good either, but I see them bringing it back to try again. They can use Deal or No Deal on Fridays again as Sundays will be Football, and have 1 vs. 100 on another night, say Tuesday. Will NBC revamp the schedule they released at upfront once again after releasing it, like it did last year? We shall see.

Remember, next Monday (May 14) is the actual date when we will find out NBC's plans for the 2007-08 season. So, come on back next Monday and we will let you know the details and you can see how much we were right (or wrong). Stay tuned tomorrow for a preview on ABC's upfront.

TV Land has announced that it has changed its late night schedule starting for June. Starting June 4, each weeknight starting at 10pm will have three nightly mini-marathons lasting until 4:30am. Each marathon will consist of four episodes. Mondays will be The Cosby Show, Three's Company & Good Times; Tuesdays will be M*A*S*H, Sanford & Son, & The Jeffersons; Wednesdays will be Sanford & Son, M*A*S*H, & All in the Family; Thursdays will be The Andy Griffith Show, I Love Lucy & Leave it to Beaver; and Fridays will be the Friday Movie, M*A*S*H & Star Trek. Other changes include all Andy Griffith Saturday from 9pm-1:10am with a reairing on Sundays from 7-10pm. So, this means the current 10pm-4:30am line-up will only be on Sundays. The only other change is at 4:30am everynight with The Jeffersons taking over for Sanford & Son. There are no other changes in the daytime and will remain the same as it is now.
What's Happening Now!!, which is airing weekdays at 7am, will get more new episodes starting May 29, but we will let you know when we learn more.
For now click HERE for the list of changes for this nightly marathon changes.

We shall be back with more news, if any.

TV Land Changes May 2007 Schedule; Nick at Nite Schedules AFV for May

TV Land has edited their May line-up and mostly everything is moving to new timeslots. The new schedule will start on April 30 and will bring back All in the Family and The Cosby Show to regular airings, and also What's Happening Now!! will finally air as a regular (weekdays at 7am). Among the changes include a sitcom block from 7-9am with What's Happening Now!!, Sanford & Son, All in the Family and The Jeffersons. A note on What's Happening Now!!, they seem to be airing the 12 episodes that they have already aired in a marathon. So once the 12 episodes finish, they start again with the same 12. I hope they decide to air every episode...maybe this is a test. Gunsmoke has been removed from the weekday line-up, but will still air on the weekends. Sunday's encores will however air Monday mornings. The other notable changes include: Andy Griffith Show's four airings are all in early evening now at 5-6pm and 7-8pm, rather than 8-9pm and 1-2am. Good Times coming back in prime-time (8-9pm Mon-Thurs, 9-10pm Fri-Sun). Instead of M*A*S*H from 9-10pm and 12-1am, TV Land has decided to air a M*A*S*H block from 10pm-12am, so there is no breaks. Thus, Sanford & Son which was at 10-11pm will slide to 9-10pm and Three's Company was 11p-12a will move to 12-1am. Late nights will have encores and also Cosby Show from 2-3am. Star Trek has been cut to just 4 times a week in its 5a and 6a slots. See the full schedule starting April 30 by clicking HERE.

As we reported already, the Bob Saget years of America's Funniest Home Videos is coming to Nick at Nite on April 30. The timeslot originally was weeknights at 8:30pm. That has been changed to Sun-Thurs at 9pm and Fri-Sat at 10pm, replacing one episode of Full House each day. Full House will still air immediately following AFV.
The first week though, April 30-May 6, you can catch the show back-to-back all week-long (Sun-Thurs 9-10pm and Fri-Sat 10-11pm) to celebrate the show joining the network.

Anchor Bay Works on Fans Favorites DVD for 'Company', Lifetime Real Women Drops Two Favorites in June

Anchor Bay will continue to release Three's Company on DVD even though they have finished the series in complete season sets. So far we have gotten a best of set featuring John Ritter's favorite episodes and coming in May we have Joyce DeWitt's favorite episodes, handpicked by her. Remember when the official Three's Company website, ThreesCompany.com, was asking fans to vote for their favorite seven episodes some months back (If you don't, click HERE to refresh your memory)? Well now can reveal why they were doing that! Anchor Bay Entertainment will release a special "Fans' Favorites" DVD set. The episodes are handpicked by YOU. The episodes have not been revealed yet, but your top 7 or so will be on it. No word yet on when it will be released and if any extras will be on it.
Fans hoping to have complete series sets for both spin-offs The Ropers & Three's a Crowd, must persuade Anchor Bay or any other studio to pick up the rights. DLT Entertainment, the owner of the series, is trying very hard to put it on DVD, but so far no company is showing interest. Please show your case to Anchor Bay and other studios and also thank DLT for trying and keep telling them to keep trying. E-mail them: Anchor Bay: TVonDVD@anchorbayent.com and DLT: 3sco@dltentertainment.com
Besides Anchor Bay, I think studios like Shout! or S'more would be interested. E-mail them: Shout: info@shoutfactory.com and S'more: info@smoreent.com
It's not really that much work. Believe me, you will make a difference.

Lifetime Real Women (one of Lifetime's spin-off channels) currently airs a Laverne & Shirley block everyday from 3-5pm. Well, starting June 4 that is not happening anymore. So, if you haven't started taping the episodes, do it now as you still have two months before this change happens. The sitcom will be replaced by Strong Medicine, Missing and The Division from 3-5pm. Any Day Now will move from 6pm to 2pm, as Wild Card takes the 6pm slot. Providence fans don't have to worry as the show will remain at 7pm, but 10pm will be replaced by Angela's Eyes. And besides Laverne & Shirley, another show will be dumped. Unsolved Mysteries, which is airing weekdays at 11pm will be replaced by another Strong Medicine. The Friday and Saturday 4-6am block of Unsolved Mysteries will be replaced by Intimate Portrait. Start taping the next two months!

NBC, Fox, ABC, CW Notes, Includes '30 Rock' Renewal for 07-08 Season; Interview with Maureen 'Marcia Brady' McCormick

We have more schedule notes to tell you, but before I start on that, NBC has renewed rookie sitcom 30 Rock for the 2007-08 season, despite not that good ratings. The show is a critical hit and stars Tina Fey. The show returns Thursday, April 5, with a special super-sized episode from 8:40 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. ET before moving to its new 9:00 p.m. Thursday slot the following week.
Sticking with NBC, we mentioned a few days ago that they would cut The Black Donnellys short and will remove starting on April 23, but after this week's bad ratings, NBC has pulled it effective immediately. A second hour of the new NBC improv series Thank God You're Here will air instead. April 16 is still TBD, but if Thank God does well, NBC is likely to air that again.
And Fox has also pulled a show they promised to air until after its April 20 airing. Friday drama The Wedding Bells will be pulled two weeks earlier than expected. The show will be replaced by encores of Bones starting April 20. A movie will air next Friday. This Friday will be the last for this short lived drama. Meanwhile, Fox will bring back Trading Spouses to Thursdays at 9 starting April 12. April 12 & 19 will be encores and the season finale will be a two-part episode on April 26 and May 3.
The CW is saying that 7th Heaven will have its series finale on Sunday, May 13 at 8 p.m. This looks like it actually will be the series finale as the ratings haven't been that good on Sundays. 7th Heaven aired Mondays at 8 for years prior to this season. Over 7 million tuned in to last year's finale, which was labeled a series finale until The CW made a last minute renewal.
The CW's mid-season drama Hidden Palms finally has a date, but it will launch in the summer. The CW has slotted it for Wednesday, May 30 at 8 p.m. One Tree Hill will follow at 9 p.m. and will be new for the first three weeks Palms airs. The CW is expected to air eight episodes of Palms. The show focuses on Johnny Miller, a teen who is struggling to come to terms with two tragedies in the strange and artificial atmosphere of Palm Springs. The show is produced by Kevin Williamson.
Finally, ABC has confirmed to us that the final two Thursdays of the season following all-new Grey's Anatomy episodes will be the return of Men in Trees. Trees has five episodes left, but ABC will only air two of them (May 10 and May 17 at 10), and hold the other three over for next season likely.

For those of you who are Three's Company fans like myself, know all about the great Chris Mann. Mann of course wrote the wonderful book Come and Knock on Our Door, and Mann continues to write. He just did an article/interview for TV Guide. He interviewed Marcia Brady herself--Maureen McCormick! Maureen will be featured in the new season of Celebrity Fit Club, premiering on VH-1 on Sunday, April 22. Maureen will also be reunited with her fellow Brady Bunch gang in the 5th TV Land Awards airing also on April 22 (tapes on April 14), accepting the Pop Culture Award. Mann talks to Maureen about all of that, turning 50, her overcome of bulimia and much more! Click HERE to view this great piece! The Brady Bunch Complete Series DVD is on sale, but before you buy it, don't forget to read our review.
Mann will have another interview with Maureen in the May issue of Get Active! magazine, available nationally at Bally Total Fitness and several other health and fitness clubs. That story, will probably also will be posted on GetActiveMagazine.com sometime next month, will have more details of her Celebrity Fit Club experience and her inspiring personal transformation, as well as her fond memories of her mother. Mann also asked her if people still say, "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia" to her and she said, "Oh, yeah! All the time!"

Canada's DejaView Channel Salutes Three Sitcoms; Fox Expands 'Idol' Results Show, Ends 'Til Death' Early, 'Delays 'Standoff'

April on Canada's DejaView leaves no milestone unturned as the network pays homage to Hogan's Heroes, Three's Company, and M*A*S*H. with day-long marathons April 6, 7 and 8.
DejaView commemorates the 36th anniversary of Hogan's Heroes' last original episode ("Rockets and Romance," April 4, 1971) with a day-long marathon Friday, April 6 beginning at 6am ET.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of TV audiences' first encounter with Jack, Janet and Chrissy, the lovably loopy roommates of Three's Company (debut: March 15, 1977). The trio, along with Cindy, Terri, Larry, Mr. Furley and the Ropers, is feted with a special marathon featuring 16 hilarious episodes specially chosen from the series' 174-episode run on Saturday, April 7 beginning at 6 am ET.
The laughter's a-surgeon as M*A*S*H* celebrates its 35th year in 2007 (debut: September 17, 1972). With an army of the most memorable characters to ever grace television - Hawkeye, Trapper, Hot Lips, Radar, Klinger – M*A*S*H* finds the humour and pathos in everything from minor abrasions to Major Burns. Fans can spend the day with them all as DejaView presents 16 episodes of the gold-standard sitcom Sunday, April 8 beginning at 6am ET.
To see the line-up for all three marathons, click HERE.

The American Idol Results Show, continuing to feature performances by renowned musical artists who mentor the contestants each week, will expand from 30 minutes to 60 minutes on the following dates: Wednesday, April 11 (9:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed); Wednesday, April 18 (9:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed); and Wednesday, May 2 (9:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) on FOX.
'Til Death, the comedy that looks at married life from the divergent perspectives of a long-married couple, played by Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher, and their neighbors who've been married for just a year, played by Eddie Kaye Thomas and Kat Foster, will conclude its first season with a special one-hour finale episode Wednesday, April 11 at a special time 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT on FOX, leading into an expanded American Idol Results Show.
Ted McGinley, Joely Fisher's sister Tricia Fisher, Krysten Ritter and Tim Sharp guest-star on the Webby's Not Happy/Summer of Love season finale of 'Til Death.
Meanwhile, freshman drama Standoff was slated to return April 6 on Fox in its new Fridays at 8 slot, but that will not happen now. Fox will continue to air encores of House on Fridays at 8 until further notice. Standoff might be now burned-off in the summer. Sorry!