One Day at a Time Coming to Comcast's On Demand Service; I Dream of Jeannie, The Doris Day Show, and A Different World DVD Updates

Monday, January 02, 2006

One Day at a Time Coming to Comcast's On Demand Service; I Dream of Jeannie, The Doris Day Show, and A Different World DVD Updates

One Day at a Time is set to be available on Comcast's On Demand Service on January 4th. It looks like the first four episodes will be available at the start with another episode added each week. Comcast currently offers Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, and The Three Stooges on the free service to Digital subscribers in their TV Entertainment/Tubetime section. They generally rotate the episodes every 4-6 weeks or so. Currently, they have Season 3 of Diff'rent Strokes and Season 2 of The Facts of Life. You can search for shows here. It looks like they might be taking off Barney Miller. They've previously offered shows like The Partridge Family, Maude, and S.W.A.T.. This is a great service offered by Comcast as most of the episodes are completely unedited. I'm not sure if it varies from cable system to system, but the On Demand service is available on Channel 1 in my area. You can watch the episodes whenever you want. You can even fast forward, rewind, and pause them. Will this be good news for possible DVD releases of The Facts of Life and One Day at a Time? The shows they offer are all from Sony. It seems like they could be gauging interest for these series.

TVShowsonDVD.com has reported on Sony's announcement of I Dream of Jeannie - The Complete First Season coming to DVD on March 14th. There will be two versions available. One will be colorized and the other in the original black & white. Bewitched's first two seasons were also available on DVD in these two versions. Extras for I Dream of Jeannie will include commentaries by Larry Hagman, Barabara Eden, and Bill Daily on the pilot plus new interviews in a featurette. Check out their news item for more details and artwork for the colorized version.

The third season of The Doris Day Show will be released on May 30th according to TVShowsonDVD.com . A separate release of "The Doris Day Special", which aired in 1971 on CBS as The Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff Special, will be available on the same date. Read their news item for more information. The first two releases for The Doris Day show were excellent and offered a lot of special features. Check out our reviews for Season 1 and Season 2.

A Different World - Season 2 will be released on May 30th according to TVShowsonDVD.com . All 22 episodes will be on the set for a suggested retail price of $24.99. You can pre-order it now at Amazon.com at 28% off. UrbanWorks Entertainment used syndicated prints for the first season like they did for the first season release for The Cosby Show. They told us back in September that they will use the original network versions for seasons 2-6 of A Different World. They will do the same for The Cosby Show staring with season 2.

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Friday, July 3

The Dick Van Dyke Show - Now in Living Color! - (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
CBS will honor the memory of legendary actor, producer, director, writer, comedian and Emmy Award winner Carl Reiner with THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW – NOW IN LIVING COLOR! A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO CARL REINER, featuring two colorized back-to-back classic episodes of the beloved 1960s series, Friday, July 3 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. As series creator and co-star, Carl Reiner personally supervised the original colorization of the episodes.

The special features “Coast to Coast Big Mouth,” which ranked #8 on TV Guide’s list of the “100 Greatest TV Episodes of All-Time,” and “October Eve,” which Mr. Reiner considered to be one of the series’ funniest episodes. Both were written by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff.

In “Coast to Coast Big Mouth,” Laura Petrie blurts out a top secret on a national television quiz show, revealing that comedian Alan Brady wears a toupee. The episode, which was the show’s fifth and final season premiere, was originally broadcast on Sept. 15, 1965. “Coast to Coast Big Mouth” won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 1966.

In “October Eve,” a painting of Laura returns to haunt her when, despite her having posed fully clothed, the artist (played by Carl Reiner) takes the liberty of “undraping” her. The episode was first presented on April 8, 1964, during season three.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of June 29)

Friday, July 3

Kevin Hart (The Big House/Undeclared) - Watch Kevin on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 12:35am on ABC.
Tina Fey (30 Rock) - Tina appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Laura Dern (Enlightened) - Laura is a guest on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Mark Duplass (Togetherness/The Mindy Project/The League) - Mark appears on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly/Samantha Who?) - Melissa guest hosts a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Brett Gelman (Camping/Fleabag/Love/Married/Go On) - Brett appears on a repeat of A Little Late with Lilly Singh at 1:35am on NBC.
Tika Sumpter (mixed-ish/The Game) - Tika talks about the season finale of mixed-ish and her latest project helping new moms on a repeat of Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
Peter Gallagher (Grace and Frankie/The Secret Lives of Men) - Peter talks about Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist and Grace and Frankie on a repeat of Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.