SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Many TV Classics Coming to Online Station; Remembering George Carlin and Dody Goodman

The TVS Television Network, the fourth oldest commercial TV network in the USA, has launched NTV Tele.Net, an advertising supported full time streaming video internet channel, short for the Nostalgia Television Network. NTVTele.Net is a streaming video channel that programs classic TV programs and movies 24 hours daily. While all of the classic programming is of a vintage nature, TVS plans an aggressive slate of new programs that capture the historic nature of NTVTele.Net programs.
NTVTele.Net features top classic TV shows from the past 60 years of television including Bonanza, Andy Griffith, Robin Hood, Jim Bowie, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Dobie Gillis, My Favorite Martian, Sea Hunt, Peter Gunn, Checkmate, Beverly Hillbillies, Ozzie and Harriet, Dick Van Dyke, and many other classics.
TVS is scheduled to roll out 16 more fulltime streaming channels in 2008, most under the legendary TVS banner. TVS began in 1961 telecasting to independent TV stations and has been a premiere occasional network for 47 years.
NTVTele.Net is currently running marathon classic TV programming in its Beta stage, and will convert to a classic schedule of programming in August.

We have lost two more sitcom stars. George Carlin, who was one of the best stand-up comics, and Dody Goodman, more known for her Broadway work.
Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday at about 6pm PT. Known for his edgy, provocative material, Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine about seven dirty words you could not say on television. A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of his "Filthy Words" routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and was also the first person to host Saturday Night Live back in 1975...he hosted an episode again in 1984.
George Carlin got his own sitcom in 1994 on Fox called The George Carlin Show. The show only lasted 27 episodes and was about George playing New York City cab driver named George O'Grady.
His other sitcom credits include guest shots on Welcome Back Kotter, That Girl and The Simpsons. Children best know him for his work on Shining Time Station as the conductor, which he spoofed in 2000 on an episode of MADtv. He was also the narrator for many years on the children's series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.
His film credits include Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (which he also appeared on the animated TV series), Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Americathon, Prince of Tides, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jersey Girl, Scary Movie 3 and Cars.
Stand-up comedy was of course what he was best known for. He hosted about 14 HBO comedy specials and is known as one of the best stand-up comics of all-time.
The Kennedy Center just said it will posthumously award the Mark Twain Prize to the late George Carlin at this year's annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He died a week after being named the 2008 recipient of the Twain Prize. He will be remembered at the Nov. 10 ceremony.
Mr. Carlin will certainly be missed. We are all probably saying the seven dirty words he was known to use today as we heard about his passing. Mr. Carlin was 71.

We have also lost Dody Goodman. Dody Goodman died Sunday (June 22) at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital and Medical Center. The actress had been ill for some time and had lived in the Actors Fund Home in Englewood since October. Goodman gained a measure of newspaper column space for her dancing solos in such '40s Broadway musicals as High Button Shoes and Wonderful Town. In 1955, she stopped the show in Off Broadway's Shoestring Revue with the novelty song "Someone's Been Sending Me Flowers."
She came to the attention of nighttime talkshow host Jack Paar, who after becoming enchanted by Goodman's ditzy persona and seemingly spontaneous malaprops, invited the lady to become a semi-regular on The Tonight Show. As Goodman's fame grew, she became difficult to handle on the show, and Paar was not happy with her upstaging habits. So she left show and appeared on other talk shows such as The Merv Griffin Show. She returned to Broadway in 1974 to appear in Lorelei with Carol Channing.
Then in 1975 she played Louise Lasser's mother on the comedy-soap Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Her high-pitched voice could be also heard announcing the show's title at the beginning of each episode. She appeared on the spin-off Forever Fernwood as well. She was also famous in the '80s for her recurring role as Aunt Sophia on the '80s sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. Goodman also provided the voice of Miss Miller on the animated series Alvin & the Chipmunks and various specials and movies such as The Chipmunk Adventure. She also had a role in the '80s daytime soap Texas. Her other TV credits include her first role as a waitress on The Phil Silvers Show, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Mary Tyler Moore Hour, CHiPs, Just Our Luck, St. Elsewhere, Punky Brewster, One Life to Live, Crazy Like a Fox, Bustin' Loose, Murder She Wrote, Here and Now, and Boston Common. She also appeared in the TV movie I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later. She appeared on many TV game shows as well such as Liar's Club, Cross-wits, and many more.
She appeared in such popular films as Grease, Grease 2, playing Blanche (the principal's assistant), and in the movie Splash and Splash, Too. Both movie franchises are very memorable and she was a big part of them.
She will certainly be missed by Broadway fans, TV fans, and movie fans as she had big roles in each. Dody lived a long life and was 93.