ABC Family July 2008: That '70s Show and Nanny 911 Join; WPIX Announces 60th Anniversary Bash

ABC Family Channel has announced its July 2008 schedule and it will see the launch of sitcom That '70s Show and reality series Nanny 911. That '70s Show will launch on Friday, July 4 with a 4th of July marathon from 11am-7:30pm, leading into a Harry Potter weekend marathon. The sitcom will then air weekdays starting Monday, July 7 from 7pm-8pm, replacing Grounded for Life. The sitcom will also air on a Friday primetime block from 8-10pm and 12-1am starting July 11. Grounded for Life will air Fridays 10-11pm starting then, too. Grounded for Life will also continue to air weekdays 10-11am, but the 11am Saturday airing will be That '70s Show starting July 12. So this means That '70s Show will be on three cable networks after it joins ABC Family. It will air in primetime on The N starting later this month (9-10pm and 12-1am weeknights) and will continue to air on FX in the daytime and late nights. Is there no time restrictions for this show on these channels? Seems odd since other shows with shared cable deals can only air at certain times. Anyway, Thursday nights in primetime starting July 17, ABC Family will air the canceled Fox reality series Nanny 911 from 8-11pm every Thursday.
New original series The Secret Life of the American Teenager will premiere July 1 and air Tuesdays at 8PM and new episodes continue of original series The Middleman Mondays at 8PM. ABC Family also has an original movie called Picture This! on Sunday, July 13 starring Ashley Tisdale and Kevin Pollack.
For more on ABC Family July 2008, I urge you to click HERE.

A few weeks ago we announced WPIX is doing a 60th anniversary marathon and special on Saturday, June 14. Now today they made the official announcement.
The year was 1948, the price of a stamp was 3 cents, a subway ride 10 cents, and a gallon of gas a whopping 16 cents when WPIX hit the air on June 15 as New York City's first independent television station.
For 60 years, the award-winning WPIX-TV has been New York's home for groundbreaking television, and to celebrate, WPIX will air WPIX at 60 Birthday Bash, a special marathon of classic programming on Saturday, June 14 (from 12 noon to 9pm) followed by a one hour retrospective hosted by News Anchors Jim Watkins and Kaity Tong. Beginning at noon, the PIX at 60 Birthday Bash will feature 9 hours of vintage programs: The Little Rascals, Abbott & Costello, The Three Stooges, The Adventures Of Superman, Get Smart, My Favorite Martian, I Dream Of Jeannie, The Odd Couple and The Honeymooners. 9 hours...19 episodes...and all the nostalgia you can cram into a day. Did you know Abbott and Costello were the first non-baseball players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame (for Who's On First?) or that Jeannie's bottle in I Dream of Jeannie was actually a bottle of Jim Beam painted gold? Interstitials will run throughout the Birthday Bash and will feature PIX program trivia and fun facts.
At 9 pm, WPIX will air a 60th Anniversary Special hosted by Jim Watkins and Kaity Tong. The hour-long program will take a look back at WPIX from 1948 to 2008. Today, WPIX is the CW11, the home for great programs like The CW11 News, America's Next Top Model, New York Mets baseball and many first run and syndicated hits. In the last 60 years, WPIX has celebrated many milestones including the first instant replay (July 17, 1959 Yankees vs. White Sox) and The Rolling Stones' first New York TV appearance on WPIX's Clay Cole Show (1964). From the Giants to the Yankees to the Mets...from Cap'n Jack McCarthy to Officer Joe Bolton to Bozo the Clown...From Dawson to Buffy to Serena, the WPIX 60th Anniversary Special will track the stations' growth from a small independent station to the powerhouse it is today.
Remember playing the PIX PIX PIX game? Did you warm your hands over The Yule Log fire? Do you long for Peanut Butter and Jelly Time? WPIX is inviting viewers to share their favorite memories at cw11.com/60 which will also feature expanded online coverage of WPIX's rich history.
In addition, WPIX has created a commemorative insert which will run in Newsday and amNewYork on June 13 featuring a comprehensive timeline of PIX's greatest moments with vintage photographs.
For more details, including episode info for the vintage programming on June 14, click HERE.

WPIX's 60th Anniversary Marathon and Special, Sex and the City Movie Special/Stunt; KTLA Celebrates Graduation with Classic TV

New York City station WPIX (CW11) is turning 60 this June and WPIX will celebrate it with an on-air marathon featuring some of the most notable shows WPIX has ever aired along with a brand-new special showcasing WPIX's 60 year history! Official announcement will come soon, but I thought I'd give a heads up ahead of time for fans.
On Saturday, June 14, WPIX will showcase various TV shows/sitcoms that they have aired the last 60 years with a retro day marathon! The festivities start at 12 noon and end at 9pm. We will see back-to-back episodes each of Little Rascals, Abbott & Costello, The Three Stooges, The Adventures Of Superman, Get Smart, My Favorite Martian, I Dream Of Jeannie, The Odd Couple, and the station's all-time favorite The Honeymooners.
We will confirm all that when the official announcement is made, so this is all tentative until then. We will bring you more details, such as episode info, when it is official.
Finally, a retro marathon is not all that will be done! WPIX will create a new one-hour special looking back at the history of WPIX. The WPIX 60th Anniversary Special will be hosted by Jim Watkins & Kaity Tong, of WPIX news. Among the items on the special are: WPIX's sign-on and early years, sports & children's programming, news & local events, movies & syndicated reruns, The Yule Log, promotions campaigns, the web, and The WB & The CW.
KTLA (CW5) in Los Angeles also celebrated their 60th anniversary last fall. They had a much bigger retro marathon, featuring 60 hours of classic TV that they have aired. I don't think they had an on-air special, though.

Continuing news on WPIX, they will have a Sex and the City special and the top three episodes voted by viewers stunt this coming Saturday (May 24) in anticipation of the new movie coming out May 30. Join CW11/WPIX for a special night of sizzle, sex, and the city that inspired it all. At 8pm, get an in-depth look at Sex and the City the Movie with the women (and men) who changed the way we look at fashion, relationships, sex and New York City.
Then watch the 3 most popular episodes of Sex and the City when WPIX counts them down starting at 8:30pm. Visit cw11.com to vote for your favorite episodes then watch the 3 with the most votes immediately after the 8pm airing of the special Bringing Sex Back.
Sex and the City episodes air regularly Monday-Saturday at Midnight on WPIX.

We mentioned KTLA earlier, now we have some current news on KTLA! KTLA (CW5) will celebrate graduations on Memorial Day with a classic TV marathon! On Monday, May 26, 2008, KTLA (CW5) is celebrating Graduation with a Commencement Marathon from 10am-3pm PT of classic TV stars such as The Beaver, Balki, Alex P. Keaton, Greg Brady, and Theo Huxtable!
You're invited to the Commencement Ceremonies of:
Jethro Bodine The Beverly Hillbillies at 10:00am PT
Theodore Cleaver Leave It To Beaver at 10:30am PT
Balki Bartokomous Perfect Strangers at 11:00am PT
Greg Brady The Brady Bunch at 11:30am PT
Betty Anderson Father Knows Best at 12:00pm PT
Mallory Keaton Family Ties at 12:30pm PT
Mike Seaver Growing Pains at 1:00pm PT
Alex P. Keaton Family Ties at 1:30pm PT
Theodore Huxtable The Cosby Show at 2:00-3:00pm PT

You all can get WPIX and KTLA via satellite if you're not in the New York or Los Angeles area.

Network Notes, Includes More According to Jim; WPIX Brings Back Honeymooners; Oprah Talks to Shatner and Winkler

We have some network notes for you today. ABC announced its post-strike schedule and series already, but now we could have two more series return this season with new episodes! ABC will have 6 more According to Jim episodes this season! 12 episodes were shot of the sitcom before the strike ended now 6 more will be shot following the strike (taping resumes March 7)! So, the show will fullfill its 18 episode order for the season. Currently, the show is airing Tuesdays at 9PM on ABC but after March 11, the show will be on the move to another timeslot, as Dancing with the Stars: The Results will take over in that slot. By March 11, 11 of the 12 episodes would have aired. We will let you know when ABC will air the remaining episodes of the season when they announce it. This will likely be the final episodes, so be sure to tune in to Jim and the gang. And as a heads-up, this week the show will announce a major storyline plot...so tune in!
The other ABC show that could return this season with new episodes following the strike is the new hit drama Women's Murder Club. The drama has been a decent hit on Friday nights and ABC has found a new showrunner and thus 3 new episodes will be produced and could be on the air by April. No word when they will launch yet, but I am assuming it will remain Fridays at 9, as ABC certainly needs help 8-10pm on Fridays as repeats of other series are doing nothing there. We will let you know as soon as ABC announces!
Moving on to NBC, they have all but confirmed that Las Vegas will not return this season with new episodes or next season. So, the finale that aired a few weeks ago, could be the series finale. NBC also will not return new series Bionic Woman and Journeyman, as we stated previously. However, we might have some good news for the struggling Lipstick Jungle. NBC has ordered 6 more scripts, so that is a good sign. Maybe NBC will order those scripts to episodes and have it air in the summer, as NBC is going for a 52-week season rather than Sept-May only.

Last week we announced what will happen to WPIX, WWOR and WNYW in New York when Everybody Loves Raymond moves from WPIX to WWOR. There was one TBA timeslot that I couldn't announce until today. The TBA slot was for Sunday nights from 1-2am on WPIX. So, the TBA slot will be...The Honeymooners!
For over 30 years, the WPIX-TV (CW11) has been New York's home for The Honeymooners. Now, the CW11 will begin a year-long Honeymooners Viewer's Choice Hour to run every Sunday night. See all 108 episodes of hamana-hamana-hamana hijinks with Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), Ed Norton (Art Carney), Alice Kramden (Audrey Meadows) and Trixie Norton (Joyce Randolph) in a weekly viewer's choice hour commencing Sunday, March 16 from 1-2 am.
Beginning on March 7, Honeymooners fans can visit CW11.com to vote for their favorite episodes. Each week, the two episodes with the most votes will air in the Viewer's Choice Hour on the CW11 on Sunday nights.
Can't remember the title of your favorite episode? CW11.com will feature a short clip from all 108 Honeymooners episodes (with title, cast and summary information) on the voting page. Each week, viewers can log on and vote for the two episodes they want to see on air that weekend. On Sunday nights at 1am the CW11 will air back-to-back-episodes of the top two vote-getters. Once an episode has aired it will be removed from the polls and all episodes will air only once.
Great news and start voting on March 7! To discuss this news with other fans, click HERE!

Oprah gave us a Cosby Show kids reunion a few weeks ago, and she has talked to classic TV stars such as Phylicia Rashad and Valerie Bertinelli about their current projects in the past few days, but now she will have a legends episode with two classic TV legends and a music legend tomorrow (Tuesday, February 26, check local listings for time and channel in your area).
Here is what Oprah says: Our viewers have been asking for him, and now he's rocking out on our stage. It's rock legend Rick Springfield! Watch as Rick makes one unsuspecting fan's big dream come true! Then, Oprah chats with one of the most recognized people on planet Earth, beloved TV icon William Shatner (Star Trek)! He shares what it has meant to him to be loved by millions as Captain Kirk and how he has been able to reinvent himself again and again over his half-century career. Plus, Oprah talks to TV's "coolest" legend..."The Fonz!" Henry Winkler (Happy Days) talks about his place in TV history and how he has managed to use his celebrity to help children with learning disabilities.

Stay tuned tomorrow for some big news (everyday is a big day now it seems, Oprah must be proud of us)...the launch schedules for ME-Too in Chicago and ME-TV in Milwaukee! Lots of Classic TV!

Day 57: WGA's Strike; New Year's Eve/Day Marathons; According to Jim Returns Tuesday

Today is indeed day 57 of the strike. Late on Friday the WGA struck an independent deal with Worldwide Pants to bring writers back for CBS' The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson starting January 2. Here is the statement the WGA released:
"The Writers Guild has reached a binding independent agreement today with Worldwide Pants that will allow Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to return to the air with their full writing staffs. This is a comprehensive agreement that addresses the issues important to writers, particularly New Media. Worldwide Pants has accepted the very same proposals that the Guild was prepared to present to the media conglomerates when they walked out of negotiations on December 7.
Today's agreement dramatically illustrates that the Writers Guild wants to put people back to work, and that when a company comes to the table prepared to negotiate seriously a fair and reasonable deal can be reached quickly.
It's time for NBC-Universal to step up to the plate and negotiate a company-wide deal that will put Jay Leno, who has supported our cause from the beginning, back on the air with his writers."

New Year's Eve and Day gets a lot of marathons every year and this year is no different. We mentioned WPIX in New York will air a Honeymooners marathon tonight starting at midnight...in Boston WSBK will air a Three Stooges marathon. As for nationwide, we also mentioned The Drew Carey Show launches on ION Television tonight at 7/6 central with a marathon until 11pm ET. TV Land will re-launch The Beverly Hillbillies with a marathon starting tonight and lasting all day tomorrow.
As for other marathon, Sci-Fi Channel will do its annual The Twilight Zone marathon which has already started today at 8am and it will last until 10pm tomorrow, then again from 11pm-6am late on Tuesday. The entire first season of 10 Items or Less will air tonight on TBS and five episodes of South Park on Comedy Central to ring in the new year tonight. TNT has a Law & Order marathon which has started today at noon and will last until 10pm Tuesday. A Law & Order: Criminal Intent marathon has started today on USA Network and on New Year's Day a Monk marathon will start at 6am...a 21-episode run of the defective detective, including run-ins with a psychic and Dale the Whale, and trips to the circus, a ballgame and Mexico. Bravo has a Project Runway marathon today and a Biggest Loser marathon tomorrow with a 10-show block opens with the contestants facing the challenge of navigating up and down the aisle of a moving railroad car. Spike TV will have a 14 episode marathon today of CSI. On SOAPnet it is the Serial Bowl V: One Tree Hill Marathon...13 hours of the teen drama starting at 11am. VH1 will have an America's Next Top Model-thon starting tonight at 10pm. On GSN, we will have a marathon of the 100,000 Pyramid with host Dick Clark, and of course we will all ring in the new year with Dick Clark on ABC tonight at 11:35pm with Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.

We have gotten a lot of searches on this, so I will indeed mention it. According to Jim will be back in 2008 on ABC with new episodes starting January 1, 2008. We got searches on "According to Jim's new season, "According to Jim 2008, "According to Jim winter 2008, "According to Jim mid-season 2008," etc. It will air Tuesdays at 9 on ABC. On January 1, two back-to-back new episodes will air starting at 9/8 central, including a spoof on Bruce Almighty, titled "Jim Almighty," with Lee Majors as God!

Day 54: WGA's Strike; Honeymooners 2008 New Year's Marathon on WPIX; RTN Comes to Providence, RI

Well today is day 54 of the strike. 54...wow...but this is not fun like Studio 54. Unfortunately there is no end in sight right now for this strike. Fox's late night talk show on Saturdays, Talk Show with Spike Feresten, will now also return on the air with new episodes without writers starting Saturday, Jan. 12. I know what you're all thinking...Fox has a late night talk show on Saturdays? Still no word yet if Letterman or Ferguson will return on the air next week. I doubt the independent deal to get writers for those shows will be done in time and they will be on the air next week I bet without writers. Leno, O'Brien and Kimmel return on-air this Wednesday without writers.


2008 starts next week and we all know what WPIX (CW11, formerly known as WB11) in New York will do to celebrate it! Yes, the annual Honeymooners New Year's Marathon!
Ring in the New Year with Ralphie Boy! A holiday tradition, the CW11/WPIX will air a marathon of 30 classic Honeymooners episodes (mix of the classic 39 and lost episodes!) beginning Monday, December 31 at midnight...just as we enter 2008. The CW11/WPIX will air 15-hours of hamana-hamana-hamana hijinks with Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason), Ed Norton (Art Carney), Alice Kramden (Audrey Meadows) and Trixie Norton (Joyce Randolph). The WPIX Honeymooners Marathon runs from midnight to 5am on New Year's Eve night (with a break for the CW11 Morning News from 5-9am) and returns at 9am on New Year's Day all the way until 7pm! For the complete schedule of episodes and to discuss this news, click HERE!
CW11/WPIX-TV is your home for The Honeymooners, with the marathon tradition beginning in 1976, and airing on New Year's Eve annually since 1996.

Retro Television Network (RTN) announced that it will partner with Media General to bring RTN programming to Providence, RI. The new affiliate, which is the 5th Media General station to sign with RTN, will launch early next year on a digital stream of WJAR, the NBC affiliate in Providence.
Among the shows they will see are Ron Howard and Henry Winkler in Happy Days, James Garner in Rockford Files, Peter Graves in Mission: Impossible, Jack Lord in Hawaii 5-0, Clint Eastwood in Rawhide, David Janssen in The Fugitive, Lorne Greene and Michael Landon in Gunsmoke and Raymond Burr in Perry Mason and Ironside.

New York Update: WNYW and WWOR Fall 2007 Schedules; RTN Adds Stations in Pittsburgh and San Fran

We gave you the Fall schedule for WPIX (CW11) in New York a few weeks back, now we finally have WNYW (Fox5) and WWOR (My9)!
Let's start with WNYW. Their new schedule for weekdays will start on Monday, Sept. 10. Not many changes, but the second run of Montel Williams will return back to the station and air weekdays at 10am. The first run will continue to air on sister net WWOR. WNYW will add the new first-run news magazine TMZ TV weeknights at 6:30pm and a second run at 12 noon. Not many sitcom changes, but they have Still Standing at 4:30am. This will be the second run, while the first run will continue to air on WWOR. Since TMZ TV is coming, The Simpsons' second slot will now be at midnight. Weekends will see various changes from week to week until early October. Right now we only have the schedule through Sept. 23, so we don't have any new additions except Saved by the Bell airing Saturdays at 7am starting Sept. 22. Comics Unleashed, The Outer Limits and Alias will be leaving WNYW and in syndication nationwide.
I suggest you view the full line-up for WNYW by clicking HERE!
Let's move on to WWOR. They have made more changes than WNYW, but not as much as WPIX did. WWOR's new weekday schedule will take in effect on Sept. 17, but there are some additions on Sept. 10 such as new court show Judge David Young back-to-back from 11a-12p, new game show Temptation back-to-back 2-3p and Girlfriends leaving the network and in syndication. On weekends, we see Star Trek come on Sundays at 11PM. The show has aired on WNBC this season. Then on Sept. 17, their full new weekday line-up begins with The Cosby Show leaving at 7:30-8:30a replaced by One on One and Half & Half. Half & Half will air its primary run at 4pm. Law & Order: Criminal Intent joins the weekday line-up starting this week and will air weeknights at 11pm, shifting the sitcoms from 12-2a only. We get Bernie Mac, Malcolm in the Middle, Still Standing and King of the Hill. For the weekends, Half & Half will air Saturdays also from 6-7pm and Law & Order: SVU joins the network airing Sundays at 8 & 9pm. As the case with WNYW, we don't have details on anything past Sept. 23, so the weekend schedule is being edited for each week until everything premieres. We have yet to see Baywatch scheduled, and that is coming back to syndie this year, but not sure if a local in NY has picked it up. My guess is WWOR or WNYW will have it starting the weekend of Sept. 29/30. I'll let you know.
Anyway click HERE for the WWOR Sept. 10 changes and Sept. 17 line-up.

Last week we mentioned a RTN affiliate was added in Raleigh-Durham, NC. Now we have updates for Pittsburgh and San Francisco! Retro Television Network (RTN) announced that it has entered into an agreement with COX Broadcasting to bring RTN programming to Pittsburgh. The new affiliate will launch Oct. 15 on COX's WPXI-DT, a station that reaches more than 1.1 million households in one of the nation's top-25 markets. Starting Oct. 15, WPXI will celebrate its 50th anniversary by launching a new "classic" TV station, featuring programs from the 60's, 70's and 80's. This Retro Television Network (RTN) will include shows like I Love Lucy, The Rockford Files, Mission Impossible, Magnum PI, Little House on the Prairie, Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days and Family Ties. At least 19 other TV markets nationwide offer or soon will launch RTN channels.
The new WPXI channel would be RTN's Pittsburgh affiliate. The local station would have more programming flexibility than WPXI already does with its NBC affiliation. For instance, RTN normally might offer Little House on the Prairie at 9 p.m., but if you wanted to run Mission Impossible instead, they can get you Mission Impossible while still offering Little House on the Prairie to everyone else, so, it's a neat way of using new technology!
RTN also announced that it has entered into an agreement with Young Broadcasting to launch an RTN affiliate in San Francisco. The new affiliate will launch Oct. 1 on the digital stream of KRON, Young Broadcasting's flagship station that reaches more than 2 million households in one of the nation's top-5 markets.
"KRON-TV and RTN are set to bring Bay area viewers a new network on our digital channel featuring classic shows from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s (such as Hawaii 5-0, Matlock, Mission: Impossible and Streets of San Francisco)," said Mark Antonitis, President and General Manager of KRON. "We believe that Bay Area viewers will love seeing these hit shows, in addition to the local programming and news that will complement the network."
This is sounding so good! I hope one in NYC gets turned into a RTN affiliate soon! We will have continued RTN updates right here on the blog.

WPIX Fall 2007 Schedule; Fox Revamps Fall Schedule

WPIX, the CW affiliate in the #1 market (New York City), has announced its Fall schedule to us. They will be adding quite a lot of new shows this fall, compared to other New York local affiliates. They will add repeats of new syndicated entries Two and a Half Men, Family Guy, George Lopez, and Reno 911 to the weekday line-up. Also coming are new first-run series Steve Wilkos Show and Jury Duty to the weekday line-up. Joining the Daytime CW lineup will be repeats of sitcom All of Us at 3pm. On weekends, they will add repeats of Chappelle's Show on Saturday nights at 12-1am and Degrassi: The Next Generation on Sunday mornings from 10:30am-1pm.
Some changes include Judge Mathis at 9am and 2pm, while staples Maury and Jerry will air 10 & 11am, leading into new talk show Steve Wilkos Show, which means Judge Lopez will move to 1-2pm. Sitcoms My Wife & Kids and According to Jim will be moving to 5-6pm, Friends at 6pm and Everybody Loves Raymond moving to 6:30pm. New sitcoms Two and a Half Men and Family Guy takes over 7-8pm. The same duo returns for more episodes from 11p-12am, but the half-hours are switched. Moving to midnight, we get the secondary episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, followed by Sex and the City at its new time at 12:30am. The secondary Friends is now at 1am, followed by Will & Grace, Frasier, and George Lopez will debut at 2:30am. Back to back South Park at 3am, the debuts of Reno 911 and Jury Duty in the 4am hour round out the night.
So what happened to the late night classic TV sitcoms? You know The Jeffersons, Good Times, Cheers. They will lose rights to Cheers after August, but the others are still under contract and will return when needed. The Honeymooners and Green Acres are also under contract still.
To view the full seven day schedule, click HERE.

Fox has made some changes to its fall line-up. The biggest move is Bones moving from Wednesdays at 9 to Tuesdays at 8 as of Sept. 25. Now airing Wednesdays at 9 (effect. Sept 19) is the new reality series Kitchen Nightmares, which was slated for Thursdays at 9, which will now be Don't Forget the Lyrics as of Sept. 6. Fox will also air another night of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader episodes for four weeks on Fridays at 8, before new reality series The Search for the Next Great American Band premieres in early October on Fridays at 8. New drama New Amsterdam, which was slated for Tuesdays at 8 will now be held for mid-season.