Fox Moves 'King' and 'Dad' Slots, Keeps 'War' on Thursday; TBS Wants More 'Boys'; Remembering Joseph Barbera

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Fox Moves 'King' and 'Dad' Slots, Keeps 'War' on Thursday; TBS Wants More 'Boys'; Remembering Joseph Barbera

One of the longest-running comedies on television, King of the Hill returns for its 11th season at a new date and time, Sunday, Jan. 28 at 8:30 PM ET/PT on FOX (previously it was announced for Sunday, Jan. 21, 7:30 PM ET/PT). The animated comedy will be airing at 8:30 PM now because sitcom The War at Home will be moving to Thursdays at 8:30 PM until further notice after holding a good portion of 'Til Death's numbers this past Thursday. American Dad will now slide over to 9:30 PM on Sundays, meaning Fox Sunday will truly be now "Animation Domination." Fox will likely air encores in the 7 p.m. hour now.

TBS ordered nine more episodes of its original sitcom My Boys. The show has been a success so far, averaging more than 1 million adults 18-49 over six episodes. It will go back into production in early 2007, with the new episodes premiering this summer.
My Boys, which stars Jordana Spiro as a sportswriter with guy best friends, will finish its first batch of episodes over holiday weekend, with two new episodes on both Dec. 26 and Dec. 27 and the finale Dec. 28. No word yet if TBS's other original sitcom (10 Items Or Less) will get a similar additional episode order.

Legendary Hollywood animator Joseph Barbera, whose characters Fred & Wilma Flintstone and Scooby-Doo made generations of people laugh, died on Monday the Warner Bros. film studio said in a statement. Barbera founded Hanna-Barbera Studios with his partner William Hanna nearly 50 years ago, and it grew to become one of Hollywood's best known animation companies producing hundreds of cartoons and winning numerous awards. William Hanna died in 2001, so now both of them are together again up their in the heavens. They both produced or created over 300 animated series. Almost everyone, if not all, has seen at least an episode of one of their series. SOME of the classic series include The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo Where Are You?, Smurfs, Space Ghost, Superfriends, Top Cat, Jonny Quest, Tom & Jerry, and even sitcoms that turned into animated series like The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang and Laverne & Shirley in the Army. Barbera even produced and directed live action comedies such as Love American Style and Abbott & Costello.
Mr. Barbera lived a long and successful life and was 95.