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TCA Winter Press Tour: ABC; 'Silver Spoons' Coming to DVD; TV Land Schedule Changes

Cable's TCA tour is over for winter, but now the broadcast networks are up! It kicked off yesterday (Sunday, January 14) with ABC going up. The big announcement was the return date for Dancing with the Stars. The show will be in its 4th cycle and will return March 19 and air Mondays 8-9:30 and the results show on Tuesdays 9-10pm. The first two Mondays (March 19, 26) the show will be two-hours (8-10pm) long. To offer viewers two weeks to see the performers in action before voting, the first results show will air on week two, so the first results show will launch March 27 9-10pm. The show will not be facing American Idol. The new cast will be announced on Good Morning America closer to premiere, probably in February.
ABC hasn't mentioned thus yet on when the other mid-season shows will air. But it is safe to assume that new sitcom Notes from the Underbelly will air Mondays at 9:30 p.m. when Dancing goes to 90-minutes starting April 2. ABC will likely use the 2 two-hour editions to launch a new drama at 10pm, perhaps October Road or continue to try to build What About Brian, which will soon feature Stacy Keibler, who was on season two of Dancing with the Stars. ABC also has a great drama coming up called Traveler. That could air Tuesdays or Wednesdays most likely. ABC also has Set for Life, a game show with Jimmy Kimmel and The Big Give, a reality show from Oprah, that could air Tuesdays by February. The sitcom George Lopez (returns Jan. 24) will try to capitalize on the success of Dancing with the Stars, by having past contestants Mario Lopez, Stacy Keibler and Jerry Springer as guest stars on separate episodes. Television icons Barbara Eden (I Dream of Jeannie) and Adam West (Batman) will also guest star, as will Academy Award winner Rita Moreno.
ABC also stated that Six Degrees and The Nine could return to the schedule to finish off its episodes before the season ends. And ABC stated that Day Break will be coming back to finish its episodes online, on ABC.com in February.
The following shows has panel sessions today: Lost, In Case of Emergency, Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Men in Trees and Ugly Betty. The biggest discussion came from the Lost panel where were learned quite a bit. The producers of the show are talking to ABC executives on a period on when to end the show. The producers are saying they want to end around 100 episodes, which would be about 4 full seasons and maybe a short 5th season. They want to end on top and not 'jump the shark.' And next season, the series' 4th season, ABC might go with 22 straight weeks of all-new episodes rather than two batches of episodes. So, the show could debut in January and end in May, like 24 does on Fox, or start in the fall and end in late Feb. I would try to have a scheme where it could air in all three sweep months, so maybe start in early October and run it to end of November sweeps. Start it up again in mid-February and end in early May? I guess we can discuss that in the summer press tour or upfronts, it is way too early to talk about 2007-08 season. Winter press tour is about mid-season 2007.
As for the other panels, ABC announced for In Case of Emergency that Jane Seymour is coming on the show for three episodes. Seymour will play Jason's (David Arquette) mother, Donna and tries to get frisky with Harry (Jonathan Silverman). Her first episode will air Feb. 14 at 9:30pm.
Desperate Housewives panel released more on Marcia Cross' real-life bedrest. Dixie Carter will still be on the show quite a lot until April. And Nicolette Sheridan will have more time on episodes when Cross is on bedrest, and we might even see Edie's son finally by season's end.

I think that is all the noteworthy stuff. Come on back for updates, if any,

Here we are, face to face, a couple of Silver Spoons. Silver Spoons is finally going to come to DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment! Judith A. Moose, who wrote a book on the 80s sitcom, has informed us of this great news! She says special features are also being produced for this DVD set, including audio commentaries. Let's hope most (or even all) of the cast can participate. Judith says we can expect the first season to arrive before summer's end! Hopefully all the episodes will be unedited, and I'm sure Judith will check in on that for us, as Sony is sort of notorious on edited episodes on DVDs, especially multiple part episodes.
This is indeed exciting news and let's hope the plan works out and we do get this set in the summer. You can read Judith's little update and also post your thoughts and comments by clicking here. Together, we're going to find our way (on DVD)!

On Friday evening we announced on our message boards that TV Land will make some schedules changes to its line-up starting Monday. The changes on Monday will be for shows airing everynight between 7-11pm. Includes Gunsmoke coming to 7pm, M*A*S*H moving to 9-10pm and the return of The Jeffersons in primetime from 10-11pm. But that's not all. They will make some changes late Tuesday night (early Wednesday) at midnight with more M*A*S*H and Andy Griffith in the hour. That means Star Trek will be moved to 1:10am, followed by another M*A*S*H at 2:20am. Then on Wednesday, daytime changes will be made, with two I Love Lucy episodes now from 10:30-11:30am, followed by two Green Acres episodes, then an episode each of Brady Bunch and All in the Family. At 2pm Gunsmoke will air, The A-Team moves to 3pm, Miami Vice comes to weekdays airing at 4pm, and Bonanza & Little House round it off from 5-7pm. So, M*A*S*H is doing well, Beaver has been cut down a bit, Gunsmoke is now airing 4 times a day on weekdays, and Miami Vice goes from once a week to 6 airings a week.
To view the full list of changes click HERE. Confused? See the entire line-up here.