'Soap' Coming to Comcast On Demand's Tube Time; TVThemesOnline.com Back?

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

'Soap' Coming to Comcast On Demand's Tube Time; TVThemesOnline.com Back?

The classic '70s ABC sitcom Soap is set to be available on Comcast's On Demand Service starting Wednesday, April 5, 2006. The service goes by the name of Tube Time. Comcast's Tube Time currently offers Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, One Day at a Time, Carson's Comedy Classics 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 4 of Diff'rent Strokes, Season 3 of The Facts of Life, and Season 2 of One Day at a Time. You can search for shows here. They've previously offered shows like Barney Miller, 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 is most areas. You can watch the episodes whenever you want. You can even fast forward, rewind, and pause them. The shows they offer are all from Sony. So hopefully we see more Sony sitcoms added in the future. Hopefully The Jeffersons, What's Happening Now!!, Silver Spoons would be nice to see. Let's hope the latter two head to DVD, too. Soap is already finished on DVD so it will be interesting if the DVD versions match these Tube Time versions.

If any of you were around some years back when Dan Smith of TVThemesOnline.com ran probably the most popular TV video opening/closing credits site. Well, now he is back! He is back with a brand new URL and some of his themes, too. He is working on bringing all the videos he had before. So start browsing and saving the videos, today! The website is now http://www.tvtalkforums.ca.

Premiering tonight at 9:30 p.m. is the new NBC sitcom Teachers. Unfortunately, we couldn't obtain the pilot in time for a review. The reviews for this series elsewhere has been mixed--so it will be up to you to determine if it is good or not. It is in a tough slot up against the second half of House and The Unit. The premiere should do better in the ratings against Sons & Daughters, but maybe next week it will be closer if the series doesn't draw that much of a crowd tonight, with maybe Sons & Daughters prevailing next week.

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.