SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

WGN America Fall 2008 Schedule Sees Lots of New Shows; TV Land Changes for August

Today we will reveal WGN America's Fall 2008 schedule! They will be adding a lot of new and returning series, but there will be a few series expiring/leaving as well. The other day we mentioned Coach marathons on August 29 and August 30, and we hinted the series would also join the line-up this fall. We will get to Coach's slots in a bit, but first we want to tell you all the new or returning series! You'll see Moesha, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, In The Heat of The Night, 7th Heaven, Jury Duty, NewsRadio, Coach, The Bob and Tom Show, and the new syndicated weekend series Legend of the Seeker! Of course, since new stuff is coming or returning, there will be shows leaving and expiring as well. Those departing are Happy Days, Even Stevens, Lizzie McGuire, 24, American Idol Rewind, Soul Train, and DaVinci's InQuest.
Now let's get to the schedule. The new weekday line-up primarily will start Monday, September 8. The first change will occur September 1 though, with Happy Days' contract expiring, so its slot of 4:30am and 5am ET will be replaced by Sister, Sister and Moesha, which returns after a year off on hiatus. Then starting Sept. 8, the bulk of the changes are happening on weekdays, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie join the WGN America line-up airing weekdays at 9 and 9:30am ET, as Matlock will slide to 10am ET. The 11am ET slot will be Nash Bridges, but it will change a week later on Sept. 15, as WGN America brings back In The Heat of the Night after a three year absence, as the show is reacquired. Nash Bridges will air at 12 noon starting Sept. 8, followed by the WGN News at Noon at 1pm ET. Homicide: Life on the Street will slide to 2pm ET starting Sept. 8, followed by back-to-back The Cosby Show episodes at 3pm and Funniest Pets & People from 4-5pm. America's Funniest Home Videos will move to 5pm ET replacing Sister, Sister which will now be airing in the overnight from 4-5am ET, as we mentioned (more on this a bit later). At 6pm and 7pm, WGN America brings back family drama 7th Heaven for two back-to-back hours a night as WGN America welcomes back the Camdens! Primetime will remain the same as it is now until later in the month when Tuesdays from 8-10pm will be Nash Bridges starting Sept. 30 instead of a block of Funniest Pets & People. In the late nights, we mentioned already the Sister, Sister and Moesha slots starting Sept. 1, but Even Stevens/Lizzie McGuire was sharing the 4am slot, and now it will be another Sister, Sister starting Sept. 15, as those series are expiring.
Weekends will not see any real changes until after baseball season is over. So, starting Saturday, October 4, weekends will get a major overhaul--for the good, too! Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie will also air on weekends now. Bewitched will air Saturdays 12-1pm and Sundays 11am-12pm, while I Dream of Jeannie will air from 1-2pm on Saturdays and 12-1pm on Sundays. Great to see classic TV! After two movies on Saturdays, we head to the new 6-8pm Saturday block, where you'll see two new sitcoms! Back-to-back episodes of NewsRadio from 6-7pm on Saturdays followed by the aforementioned Coach from 7-8pm on Saturdays, starting Oct. 4. The rest of Saturday is basically intact, but 24 will be leaving and will be replaced by a movie and Matlock will be added to late night. On Sundays after Bewitched and Jeannie, there aren't many changes. The Outta Sight Retro Night featuring WKRP, Newhart and The Honeymooners will remain intact from 7-10pm ET. In the late nights, some shows are expiring like American Idol Rewind and DaVinci's Inquest, so two Matlock episodes will replace them at 3am and 4am.
Then the week of October 6, WGN America will change their weeknight late night line-up a bit. Corner Gas and Becker will slide to 1-2am ET on Sun-Thurs starting Oct. 6. The Friday late night line-up will be back-to-back Reno 911 at 1am ET and back-to-back Chappelle's Show at 2am ET. Reno 911 will also air Saturdays from 11pm-12:30am ET.
Finally, the last change for the fall is the first-run new syndicated series from Disney/ABC Television Group called Legend of the Seeker. WGN America will air it Saturdays at 4 and 5pm starting November 1 and also Wednesdays at 9pm ET starting Nov. 5, replacing Corner Gas/Becker.
Wow, that is A LOT of changes! I think many will be happier than before with these changes. I advise you to see the full WGN America Fall 2008 line-up on our message boards, where you can also discuss the line-up. Remember this is the national WGN schedule, and not the Chicago local line-up.
Future Outlook: You can expect Classic TV marathons on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve/Day, and New Year's Eve/Day. We will tell you more about that in the coming months, as it is way too early to talk about that. It is not even August yet!

TV Land has made some last minute changes for August starting Monday, August 4. First off, the primetime marathons will now be 9-11pm rather than 9pm-12am. The Tuesday marathon of The Beverly Hillbillies will now be The Jeffersons from 9-11pm, leading into two encores of Family Foreman at midnight. And as we told you yesterday about The Cosby Show being used to be wrapped around Family Foreman, now TV Land has confirmed it will air The Cosby Show every Wednesday from 8-10pm and 11pm-1am ET/PT leading in and leading out of Family Formeman. Because the primetime marathons are now 9-11pm, M*A*S*H moves from 12-2am to 11pm-1am weeknights (well except Wednesdays and Fridays). TV Land has removed the 2-5am marathons, thus we get more variety in the late nights. From Sun-Fri, TV Land will now air back-to-back episodes of Sanford & Son, The Jeffersons and The Beverly Hillbillies from 1-4am, and at 4am Three's Company returns followed by another returnee in The Brady Bunch at 4:30am! So nice to see those two return!
Check out our TV Land August 2008 thread for updates and to discuss this.

Lifetime Fall 2008 Schedule; Last Minute Updates for TV Land and BET

It's time for another fall 2008 schedule! Today we will give you Lifetime's Fall 2008 line-up, which begins Tuesday, September 2. They will be adding Desperate Housewives repeats to the weekday line-up! The series up until then was airing once a week on weekends. Desperate Housewives also will be coming to local syndication this fall starting weekend of Sept. 20 in a two-year deal for weekend play, look for it on Fox-owned MyNetwork TV stations. On Lifetime, the series will air weekdays at 8:00am & 12pm ET/PT. The 8am airing will replace two episodes of The Nanny, while the 12 noon airing will replace the start of the movie, which slides to 1-3pm. The Nanny will now only air at 2am. Starting in October, Lifetime will repurpose the latest episode aired of Desperate Housewives on ABC about a week or two later on Lifetime. We don't have information on October yet, so we will let you know if it is in a slot other than 8am or 12pm.
Also, coming to Lifetime this September is the ABC reality series Wife Swap. Wife Swap will air weekdays at 3:00pm & 4:00pm ET/PT. At 3pm it will replace a movie and the 4pm airing will replace an hour of The Golden Girls. Golden Girls will still remain in the 9am hour and 1am hour. It was originally announced for October, but it will air earlier. There will be an Army Wives marathon on Labor Day from 11am-9pm. There are no other real changes, but I adivse you to view the full Lifetime September 2008 line-up!
Stay tuned tomorrow for another Fall line-up!

TV Land has made some one-time changes for this week, for more promotion for the original series Family Foreman. They will wraparound the series with The Cosby Show tonight from 8-10pm and again from 2-4am. Then on the weekend, Family Foreman encores will get a boost from The Jeffersons on Saturday from 1pm-4:30pm, while The Cosby Show will air out of the encores from 6pm-8:30pm and again from 1am-6am. Finally, this Sunday Cosby Show will be used from 11pm-6am following encores of Family Foreman. Check our TV Land July thread, for details. We'll keep you up to date, if TV Land does something similar for next week.
We mentioned before that BET now has a rotating sitcom wheel from 9-11am each weekday morning beginning this week, with Thea, Diff'rent Strokes, The Parkers, Girlfriends, and Sanford airing each day. BET aired Thea on Monday and Diff'rent Strokes on Tuesday this week, but now they have made a change. Diff'rent Strokes will air Wed-Fri mornings this week instead of the other three shows. No reason was given for the change. So what about next week? As of now, Thea is slated for Monday and Friday and Diff'rent Strokes Tuesday through Thursday. So it seems they are not going to air Girlfriends, The Parkers and Sanford in this wheel afterall. Check out the episode information for the remainder of this week and next week, if you want to know the episodes.

Fall Schedules Central: ABC Family September 2008; WGN's Mork and Mindy and Coach Marathons; Nick at Nite Gets Original Animated Series for 2009

It's that time of year again where we give you the fall line-ups for the cable networks. TV Land September 2008 is the only one we have given thus far...but now more will be posted. We start off our consecutive fall line-ups with ABC Family September 2008 today. As we mentioned a lot already, ABC Family will be adding reruns of the popular ABC 2001-2005 sitcom My Wife & Kids starring Damon Wayans. Now we have the full details. The show will launch on Monday, September 1 with a Labor Day marathon from 12pm-10pm. Then effective Tuesday, September 2 My Wife & Kids will join the regular ABC Family line-up airing weeknights at 6:00pm & 6:30pm ET/PT replacing 8 Simple Rules, which will move to 3:00pm & 3:30pm replacing the second Full House hour, which is now gone. Full House will remain at 12 noon and 12:30pm ET/PT. My Wife & Kids will also air Sunday mornings at 10:00am & 10:30am. There will be no other schedule changes to the line-up. To see how the full regular schedule looks, I advise to you view our ABC Family September 2008 thread. Other ABC Family September highlights include the six-hour mini-series Samurai Girl airing Friday, September 5 through Sunday, September 7 at 8pm-10pm each night, with the whole six-parter airing back-to-back 4-10pm on Sunday. The Secret Life of The American Teenager concludes its first half of the season on Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 8pm, but before that a marathon will air from 11am-8pm. Finally, Lincoln Heights returns for an all-new season the following week on Tuesday, September 15 at 8pm, but before that catch-up with memorable episodes from 11am-8pm earlier in the day. In the coming days you'll see the September line-ups for Lifetime, WGN America, TV One, FX, TBS, WE tv, ION Television, Nick at Nite, BET and The Hallmark Channel. Broadcast wise, we will do WPIX's fall line-up, and possibly WNYW and WWOR, since I'm in New York. We will also do a Canadian fall lineup on one day with all the notable Canadian Cable stations such as TV Land Canada and DejaView. We recently gave you details on WGN America's Golden Oldies Week (Aug. 4-7), now WGN America has released that it will have a Mork & Mindy slot on Tuesday, August 19 from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT)! It is sort of strange that Mork & Mindy will be isolated on its own for this one-time-only marathon. Other shows usually aired during a theme week. There will be many new shows coming to WGN America this fall that I will reveal sometime this week in our ongoing fall 2008 series reports. One of the series that will air this fall is the '90s ABC sitcom Coach. We will have more on its regular slot later in the fall schedule, but in August Coach will get a block on Friday, August 29 from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT). It will also get a full-fledge marathon the following day, Saturday, August 30 from 12 noon to 7pm ET (that's 9am-4pm PT). Coach is coming just in time for the football season! We don't have episode info for the Coach marathons yet, but we do have the episodes for the Mork & Mindy block on Aug. 19...head on over to our message board to view that. Nick at Nite will bring in another original animated series. They had one some years back called Fatherhood, from Bill Cosby, now they will have another come in summer 2009. As TV's home for the modern-day family comedy, top-rated Nick at Nite has green-lit Glenn Martin DDS., the first television series from Michael Eisner's Tornante Animation, cuing production on 20 episodes of the original, stop-motion primetime program. Giving the American family a whole new look, the 'trailblazing' series buckles up with the Martins in their toothbrush-topped dental mobile as they leave suburbia behind in the rear-view mirror and embark on a cross-country adventure. Eisner and the newly formed division of The Tornante Company -- Tornante Animation, have enlisted Eric Fogel -- the creative force behind MTV's hit Celebrity Deathmatch -- to help design the series. Nick at Nite will promote the series a lot leading up to the premiere in Summer 2009. This will also give them an extra promo push for the hit comedy Everybody Hates Chris, from co-creator and narrator Chris Rock and inspired by his real-life childhood experiences, which will launch in September 2009.

RTN's New Line-Up and Answers To Fan Questions; New Digital TV Channel Coming Nationwide With MGM Classics

As many of you with Retro Television Network (RTN) affiliates already know, RTN changed their line-up last week (July 21). They primarily had CBS-Paramount shows on their line-up such as Perry Mason, Happy Days, The Beverly Hillbillies, Family Ties, Gomer Pyle, Get Smart, etc. But they also had other studio shows mixed in such as NBC Universal and Stephen J. Cannell. They also seem to have a few Sony shows on some affiliates still, such as The Monkees and The Partridge Family. Now the CBS-Paramount deal has expired, so those shows are gone, and RTN currently has Universal and Cannell shows only. Some of these shows were already airing on many RTN affiliates, but now more are added such as Leave it to Beaver, Adam-12, Dragnet, Kate & Allie, McHale's Navy, and That's Incredible! With of course the classics like The A-Team, Knight Rider, Magnum P.I., Rockford Files, Ironside and many others remaining.
After this new schedule started, all the affiliates are almost the same (more uniform than before) as RTN is trying to air a nationwide line-up, as this might help them. This NBC Universal and Stephen J. Cannell line-up can let them do that, as some of the CBS-Paramount shows were also in syndication on another station in other markets (such as Matlock), that's why some shows weren't available in some markets. That is not to say the CBS-Paramount shows will ever return, but if this works, you can see them return. Also, RTN is not ruling out by signing more studio deals, such as Sony and Warner Bros. They are all for the viewers and classic TV.
Also, many of your local RTN affiliates have some rare programs listed on your local RTN TV listings such as Bachelor Father and Operation Petticoat listed but they haven't actually aired yet and more Leave it to Beaver is airing instead. Why? Because some of these shows have been stuck inside Universal's vault for many years and they are just now getting them out. Honestly, can you think of the last time Bachelor Father was aired? Also, if you recall there was a fire at Universal a few months ago, so that is a cause for this delay, too. RTN has told me they will indeed air these shows not airing yet. They will most likely start by this weekend (if not sooner), so keep checking! If not by this weekend, for sure at the latest by sometime next week. They will air! So get those DVRs/VCR's ready for rare Universal stuff like Operation Petticoat, Wagon Train, Run For Your Life, The Bold Ones, and Bachelor Father. Kudos to RTN for trying and bringing out the classics from the vault that have been barely seen in the last few decades.
Many of you also asked how come there hasn't been more announcements for some new RTN affiliates? Well, they were recently bought by another company (as we mentioned), and they are just settling in. You will see more announcements of new stations in the near future! If you don't have an RTN affiliate yet, don't worry, you could be next! RTN is very happy to note that Washington, D.C.'s RTN has gone live today! A big step! Nothing for New York yet, but those of you in the NY market, e-mail WCBS, WABC, WNBC or WNYW (Fox) and suggest to add RTN to their digital broadcasts.
So how can YOU help RTN? RTN says if you really like RTN, e-mail/call your local affiliates and tell them you love RTN and watch it everyday. This is the best way to help RTN as this shows the affiliates that viewers are happy and tuning in. The comments about RTN are then sent to RTN themselves, so they get each comment you make to your local affiliate. So go to your local station's website or call them (if you don't know your RTN's website, email me and I'll tell you!)!
Head on over to our RTN thread where you can see/post RTN schedules, see press releases, post your comments and more! It is 22 pages so far and growing!

From the people who brought you Me-TV and Me-Too in Chicago will bring you "This TV" coming nationwide to a digital channel near you in October! Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) is rolling out "This TV," a new ad-supported around-the-clock linear digital channel designed for broadcast stations' digital spectrum. The new network, a partnership with Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting (Me-TV, Me-Too, WCIU owners), will launch this fall. It gets immediate carriage with Weigel stations in Chicago, Milwaukee and South Bend, Ind. The idea is for MGM is to leverage its library of more than 4,100 films and 10,000 hours of television programming, but also to give stations the chance to localize the look.
This TV will offer stations programming all day every day, but stations signing on have the right to a certain number of pre-emptions so that they can localize the channel with sports, news and weather if they want.
The lineup will be film-heavy, with possible MGM titles including 12 Angry Men and Class, starring Rob Lowe. It also will have some MGM classic television shows mixed in there ranging from The Addams Family to Thirtysomething. We're working on a full list of shows they will air, so come on back...but beware the channel will mainly be a film network.
The line-up will also feature children's programming from Cookie Jar Entertainment, with shows such as Johnny Test, The Doodlebops and Caillou.
The goal for the network is at least a 40% clearance across the country within the first year.
We will have more on This TV for sure soon! So stay tuned!

Summer Week 9 Sitcom Ratings; Coming Week Preview

The dog days of summer continue. Only repeats and reality series are airing, but there have been some scripted originals for the summer as well. We are just looking at the sitcom ratings, but we will be back in the fall with our normal weekly reports. Here is week 9 for the summer for sitcoms:

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of July 14-20)

• 'Til Death (Fox) 2 episodes - Just 1.71 and 2.03 million for two repeats...ouch.
  
• The Simpsons (Fox) - 3.57 million for a repeat...not good.
  
• King of the Hill (Fox) - 3.46 million for a repeat...but decent retention from lead-in at least.
  
• Family Guy (Fox) - 4.41 million for an encore telecast, jumping about a million from the lead-in. Where would this block be without this show?
• American Dad! (Fox) - 3.95 million for a repeat...OK retention, but still the second highest rated show of the block.
  
• Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) - 1.04 million this week for a repeat, not bad, but nothing to write home for.
  
• Aliens in America (The CW) - 880,000 viewers for a repeat...it's about time they dump this and start double pumping Chris to get ready for the fall.
  
• The Game (The CW) - 830,000 viewers for a repeat, needs to repeat better than this.
• Girlfriends (The CW) - 850,000 viewers for a repeat...needs to do better, but this show is not returning anyway.

Summer Week 9 (July 21-27)

Monday Sitcoms

• The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 5.47 million for a repeat...normal encore levels of late.
  
• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - 5.75 million for a repeat airing, decent for building from the lead-in.
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 9.76 million for a repeat, as nearly all the sitcoms of today can't even get that for a new episode.
• Old Christine (CBS) - 7.4 million for a repeat...best numbers in the half-hour in a while.
  

Tuesday Sitcoms

• None...watch Wipeout on ABC, very funny show that is not a sitcom. Big Balls and Jill Wagner, what more can you ask for?
  

Wednesday Sitcoms

• Under One Roof (MyNetworkTV) - Repeat did 970,000 viewers. You know these sitcoms and shows on MNT and The CW are doing terrible compared to cable networks like Nick at Nite where shows like Family Matters and George Lopez do 2 million or more regularly.
  

Thursday Sitcoms

• None.
  

Friday Sitcoms

• None

Saturday Sitcoms

• The Office (NBC) 2 episodes - Two repeats on a special night did terrible averaging a prelim 1.56 million...what do you expect on a Saturday? The previous two weeks My Name is Earl aired and it did terrible as well...one of them did like a 1.1 rating.
  

Tonight you can catch encores of The CW sitcoms from 8-10pm and Fox's animated comedies (and 'Til Death repeats from 7-8pm) are encoring.

Coming Week Preview (Summer Week 10) for Broadcast (With Some Cable Notes):
So what is new or notable this week that you might want to catch? Tonight CBS will Big Brother at 8pm out of a new 60 Minutes at 7pm. NBC has yet another Dateline from 9-11pm. ABC will air the west coast auditions of High School Musical: Get in the Picture at 8pm. A pretty quite night and dare I say it boring? Cable is the way to go with Lifetime's Army Wives and USA's In Plain Sight at 10p, and tonight is the second season premiere of Mad Men on AMC, also at 10pm. Can these three beat the networks at 10pm?
On Monday, ABC will be new with High School Musical: Get in the Picture at 8pm that will reveal the west finalists before next week the show goes live with the east and west finalists, followed by week two of Wanna Bet? (Tom Bergeron guests), and a new The Mole at 10pm. NBC has American Gladiators at 8pm, followed by Nashville Star at 9pm and Dateline at 10pm. Quiet night with just ABC and NBC airing new programming...but cable again will be the best draw with The Closer and Saving Grace on TNT from 9-11pm. ABC Family also has a new Middleman at 10pm.
On Tuesday ABC has the hilarious hit Wipeout, I Survived a Japanese Game Show & a Primetime special from 8-11pm. NBC has Celebrity Family Feud at 8pm leading into the summer hit America's Got Talent which is now only an hour. And the Tuesday edition of Big Brother at 9pm on CBS. Two new Jail episodes on MyNetwork TV will air at 8pm. Cable wise ABC Family's Secret Life of an American Teenager is doing well and will air at 8pm and at 10pm on Lifetime it is How To Look Good Naked. Best night of the summer!
On Wednesday Fox will air a new two-hour episode of So You Think You Can Dance. NBC will have an all-new Baby Borrowers at 9pm following a repeat at 8pm. CBS has the recently moved Greatest American Dog at 8pm. ABC will be new at 10pm with Primetime: Crime. Maybe this is the worst night for the summer (not counting Friday/Saturday).
On Thursday ABC will air ABCNews' Hopkins series at 10pm. Fox will also be new all-night with the return of Don't Forget the Lyrics! followed by So You Think You Can Dance-Thursday. CBS at 8pm now has Big Brother and another episode of the summer scripted series Flashtown at 10pm, which will air the second time on its new night. And NBC will air a new episode of the low-rated Last Comic Standing from 8-10pm followed by low rated drama Fear Itself at 10. On cable, TBS will air new episodes of sitcoms The Bill Engvall Show and My Boys from 9-10pm and USA Network has Burn Notice at 10pm.
On Friday, NBC will be new from 9-11pm with another edition (two hours again, too) of Dateline. CBS has the summer drama Swingtown at 10pm which is on its last legs. The CW of course will have WWE Smackdown.
Saturday will have Cops and AMW on Fox and WWE Saturday Night Main Event special on NBC at 9pm, while ABC will counter program with two repeats of the high rated Wipeout from 8-10...which is worth watching more than once as always.

Mini-DVD Review: Freakazoid! Season 1 (July 29)

It is Saturday, so that must mean it is time for mini-DVD reviews! Today we have we take a look at Warner Home Video's animated series Freakazoid! The Complete 1st Season. Freakazoid! was an animated series on Kids' WB. See Seth Thrasher's mini-DVD review of Freakazoid! - The Complete 1st Season:

Freakazoid - The Complete 1st Season (Warner, $26.98) is finally on DVD. Featuring the craziest hero in all of cartoons, Freakazoid ran for a year and a half on Kids WB in the mid 90s -- right smack dab in the middle of the huge wave of great cartoons of the mid 90s. In 1995 -- the year of Freakazoid's debut, you had on the air dozens of cartoon series all of whom were equally good, if not vastly different series on the air. Lost in the shuffle was this crazy cartoon. Freakazoid starts out as mild-mannered geek Dexter Douglas. After a string of nonsense gets typed into his keyboard while surfing around in cyberspace he gets zapped into the internet where he gains every last bit of information on the internet. Stop and really think about just about every superhero origin story. They ultimately make about as much sense as this one does. Come on, aliens from an exploding planet send their kid here, and he happens to react *really* well to our sun, giving him super-strength, flying, and other powers? Doesn't make much sense either when you think about it THAT way. Anyway, one of the effects of this is that the superhero that results, while very fast, strong, and blue -- is that when he's in Freakazoid form he's pretty much completely insane. It's this insanity that drives much of the show.
Presented here are the first 14 episodes of the series. Considering I was under the assumption that there were only 13 actual episodes in season one, I checked. Included in the set is not only all 13 regular episodes from season one, but one of the compilation episodes (with two acts from previous episodes thrown together) from Summer 1996 as well. This compilation episode is the sixth on the DVD, and features The Cloud (from the later 11th episode), and Candle Jack (from the previous 2nd episode). Redundancy -- neat! Freakazoid used a lot of pop culture references -- and as a result led to guest stars appearing. In addition, a couple of names you might recognize played recurring characters. See if you can spot who voices what – it's incredibly easy! Special guests include Mark Hamill, Ricardo Montalban, Ben Stein, Rose Marie, Bebe Neuwirth, and of course, TV's Craig Ferguson, whose Late Late Show I'm a huge fan of.
I think you can tell when I love a show when I spend so much of a mini review talking about the show. I really wish I could've given this show the full review treatment -- but due to space concerns we now move ahead in the review to the technical side.
This is probably a good time to mention that while disc 1 is one-sided disc 2 is dual-sided. Warner wasn't willing to put more than 6 episodes per disc/side, and so as a result the final two episodes and the features spill over to the next side. The video quality is just fine -- perhaps a bit soft, but that's really not out of the ordinary for animation from the mid 90s. Audio is just fine – And by just fine I mean Dolby 5.1! Yes, for a cartoon from the mid 90s that isn't as remembered as its counterparts, Warner still gave it 5.1 audio. Says so right on the box. In fact, this cartoon got a lot of extra little things put into the release -- there are even several special features! There’s commentary! on three of the fourteen episodes with senior producer Tom Ruegger, writer John McCann, and the voice of Freakazoid Paul Rugg. But wait, there's more! We also have Freakazoid-less Freakazoid promos. The network wanted footage, and they didn't have anything to give them. So, inspired in part by Carnival Cruise Lines, they created some crazy promos for the show. There’s about a minute introduction by the staff to explain just how these incredibly oddball promos came to be, and then the 4 minutes of promos. There's also a feature detailing how Freakazoid went from a super-legitimate hero to the comedy series it became. One day, you wake up and you're in the middle of a colonoscopy...
As if what may be the longest "mini" review in history didn't already tell you, I love this show. Even if the technical side were crap, I’d still tell you to buy it because the show's good. But the technical side is really *really* good too! I was going to give it a solid 4.5, but after having seen what I've given 4's to around here, it deserves the half-point for the full five. 5.1 Audio! Commentary! Promos! Freakazoid! Buy it!

-- Reviewed by Seth Thrasher
(5/5 stars)

To purchase the DVD, click below and help support SitcomsOnline.com:
Amazon.com

Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
Freakazoid! TV.com Page

Nick at Nite August 2008 Sees Wedding Themed Week; Remembering I Dream of Jeannie Director Claudio Guzman

This August on Nick at Nite will see no schedules changes, as of now. However, they do have a week-long stunt in the 9pm hour for Aug. 3-7! It's "Wedding Unveiled Week" on Nick at Nite from Sunday, August 3 through Thursday, August 7 each night in the 9pm ET/PT hour! Nothing brings a family together like a wedding. Nick at Nite invites viewers to a week of matrimony madness with your favorite Nick at Nite families. So get ready to celebrate with singing preachers and bad wedding singers as Nick at Nite lets you tie the knot from the comfort of your own couch, without all the stress ... with episodes of Family Matters, Fresh Prince, George Lopez and Home Improvement! See Mother Winslow get married to Fletcher on Family Matters and George Lopez renewing his vows with Angie...or is he?
For episode details and more on Nick at Nite August 2008, head on over to our Nick at Nite August 2008 thread.

We have another death to report. Claudio Guzman, director and producer of the '60s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie passed away July 12 of pneumonia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a long illness. He was the main director of the Barba Eden-Larry Hagman sitcom I Dream of Jeannie and also served as producer for that NBC series. He helped create Villa Alegre, a half-hour show in the tradition of Sesame Street.
In a career that spanned four decades, Guzman directed almost 30 TV shows, including several episodes of The Patty Duke Show in the mid-1960s and Harper Valley P.T.A. in 1981, reuniting him with Barbara Eden. His other directorial work included an episode or two of The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Partridge Family, The Fugitive, Love on a Rooftop, The Flying Nun, The Good Life, California Fever and Here's Boomer.
He was also an art director for many series such as The Lucy Show, Date with the Angels, The Real McCoys, Where's Raymond, December Bride, and Make Room for Daddy.
He was nominated twice for a Daytime Emmy for Villa Alegre and once for a Primetime Emmy for art direction on Where's Raymond?
Mr. Guzman will be missed. He was 80.

More TV Classics Come to CBS.com; ION Switches Slots for Cooper and Harvey Starting in August

CBS Interactive announced it has released three more of its classic television programs and related clips, all available now across the CBS Audience Network, such as at CBS.com/Classics. The new shows that are available for viewing include Dynasty Seasons 1 and 2, Beauty and the Beast Season 1, and Have Gun, Will Travel Season 1. These newly added shows will join the other Television Classics that were made available online earlier this year, as we announced.
These new shows are in addition to the other Television Classics previously added to the CBS Audience Network and CBS.com including: The Love Boat, Beverly Hills 90210, Twin Peaks, Family Ties, Perry Mason, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, MacGyver, Hawaii Five-0, and Melrose Place.

ION Television has announced a slight schedule change for August. We gave you their August highlights already and yesterday we confirmed the Friday slots for two new short series, but now they have announced a change to the regular line-up. Weekdays 5pm and 6pm will be switched now. So that means Hangin' with Mr. Cooper goes from the 5pm hour to the 6pm hour, while The Steve Harvey Show goes from the 6pm hour down to the 5pm hour. This will start Monday, August 4. Everything else will remain intact.
Now their September schedule they announced at their upfront might change a bit we think, but we will let you know when September is officially announced in a few weeks with the additions of Boston Legal and M*A*S*H, so stay tuned!

TidalTV.com Adds Classic Sony TV Series Episodes; ION Confirms RHI Series on Fridays

TidalTV, Inc. (www.tidaltv.com), a new online service which offers free access to programming from television and the web, announced today the addition of Sony Pictures Television's popular television series to the TidalTV channel lineup.
Over 500 full-length episodes from the series that defined American television, including Married... with Children, Party of Five, Bewitched, The Facts of Life and more, are now playing on TidalTV. See George Clooney on The Facts of Life, Alyssa Milano on Who's the Boss?, Christina Applegate on Married... with Children all over again!
TidalTV also features "The Minisode Network," which offers the Sony shows you love -- only shorter! These pint-sized programming portions are the perfect snack during your lunch hour at the office or while relaxing at home.
Coming up in July, viewers can catch TidalTV's famous guest stars programming block with appearances from Mr. T, Ben Stiller, Jason Bateman, Milla Jovovich and more on shows including Who's the Boss?, Diff'rent Strokes and Silver Spoons. In addition, TidalTV will air its "Battle of the Blondes" programming special featuring action-packed episodes of Charlie's Angels, V.I.P. and T.J. Hooker.
Currently you can see full episodes of Battledome, Dilbert, Jack Chan Adventures, One Day at a Time, Party of Five, T.J. Hooker, The Facts of Life, plus the Minisode Network featuring more Sony classics!
That's www.tidaltv.com, please check it out and visit it everyday for your favorite classic Sony TV shows!

About two weeks ago we gave you ION Television's August 2008 highlights & line-up and we mentioned Flash Gordon and The 10th Kingdom coming to Fridays. Now ION has confirmed that. Two of RHI Entertainment's most popular productions will be seen on the ION Television Network's RHI Movie Weekend beginning Friday, August 1 (7/6c). Flash Gordon, a 22-hour adventure series, and The 10th Kingdom, a 10-hour fantasy saga, will be featured weekly in a two-hour Friday evening programming block. The special broadcasts begin August 1 with Episodes 1 and 2 of Flash Gordon. Starting August 8, ION Television will pair one hour of Flash Gordon with one hour of The 10th Kingdom each week from 7-9pm ET/PT.
Flash Gordon scored with viewers when it originally aired on Sci Fi Channel in the summer of 2007, delivering the network's best series premiere telecast for 2007. Flash Gordon is produced by Reunion Pictures. The producers are Matthew O’Connor and Tom Rowe.
John Larroquette, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Ann Margret, Rutger Hauer, Camryn Manheim, Ed O'Neil, and Dianne Wiest are among the Emmy, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning talent headlining an all-star cast in The 10th Kingdom, a 10-hour miniseries that premiered on NBC in February 2000. The upcoming broadcast on ION Television marks the first time the series has ever been seen in one-hour segments in the U.S.

FX Schedule Changes; Remembering Golden Girls' Estelle Getty, Lifetime Honors Estelle with Marathon on Friday

FX made some last minute schedule changes last week (effective July 14) but we didn't have time to inform me as we were swamped with so much other stuff. FX has removed Married...with Children, Dharma & Greg and Buffy the Vampire Slayer from its line-up. The first two were airing weekdays in the daytime while Buffy was airing weekends at 7am. The Practice was only airing weekends 8am but now it seems to be airing more. It is airing weekdays at 8am and weekends 7 & 8am. Also, FX will bring back disgusting reality series Fear Factor back from the dead starting July 28. It won't be airing in set slots, though. Look for it airing Monday afternoons around 1pm, Tuesday nights around 1am, Wednesday afternoons around 1pm & late nights around 1am, and some Thursday afternoons around 1pm.
As for the rest of the schedule, after 1pm the schedule is not really constant, but here is how it looks generally:
Weekdays - 7-8am Malcolm in the Middle, 8am The Practice, 9-10am Spin City, 10am Movie, 12-1pm Spin City, 1-6pm various back to back slots of King of the Hill, That '70s Show and Malcolm in the Middle (with some Fear Factor mixed in around 1pm on some days), 6pm-11pm movies/originals, 11pm-2am usually marathons of That '70s Show or King of the Hill (with an episode of Fear Factor on a few days days around 1am).
Weekends - 7am The Practice, 8am The Practice, 9am-10am Spin City (on some weekends), Movies otherwise, 10am-2am Movies/originals.
These changes are probably temporary (as of now through 9/1, but could be a bit more beyond that) and we will let you know the fall line-up as soon as we know. Married...with Children of course is expiring at the end of August, but we have seen the last of it on FX already (last airing was July 13 at 1am)...it'll be coming to Spike TV and TBS this September, as we have mentioned many times already. No idea if Buffy or Dharma are expiring, though, but we will try to find out. Dharma & Greg will still air on WE tv weekdays 11am-12pm. Bernie Mac is coming this Fall to FX we know in a four-year-deal...more info on that soon. Stay tuned!

We have yet another TV related passing to tell you. This time it is fan favorite Estelle Getty. Estelle of course is best known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on the sitcom The Golden Girls. She died this morning (Tuesday, July 22 at 5:35am PT) in Los Angeles. Estelle had been suffering from Dementia with Lewy bodies for the last 8 years or so.
Estelle had been nominated for an Emmy seven times for her role on The Golden Girls, winning in 1988. She was also nominated three times for a Golden Globe, winning in 1986.
Before The Golden Girls, her acting career started in 1978. She got her start in the Yiddish theater, and her most important early role was playing Harvey Fierstein's mother on Broadway in the play Torch Song Trilogy. She then moved on to films, with her most famous ones such as Tootsie (1982) and Mask (1985). She also guest starred on some series such Cagney & Lacey, Hotel, One of the Boys, and Newhart before getting The Golden Girls in 1985. During the run of The Golden Girls, she played Sophia Petrillo on other series as well. She guest starred a few times on the spin-off series Empty Nest. She also guest starred as Sophia on the sitcom Blossom in 1991, an NBC series at the time of The Golden Girls. After The Golden Girls ended in 1992 on NBC, CBS did a follow-up series called The Golden Palace, where the girls work at a hotel. Everyone came back except Bea Arthur (she did guest star a few time though). The sitcom lasted one season and also starred Don Cheadle and Cheech Marin. She once again played the role of Sophia on an episode of the Empty Nest spin-off series Nurses in 1993.
She guest starred on many series not playing Sophia as well. She played herself on episodes of sitcoms such as The John Larroquette Show, The Nanny, and It's Like You Know. She also guest starred on series such as City, The Fanelli Boys, Touched by an Angel, Hollywood Squares, Brotherly Love, Mad About You, and Ladies Man. She continued on film as well with movies such as Stuart Little and The Million Dollar Kid.
Estelle will be deeply missed by not only Golden Girls fans but by all sitcom fans.
UPDATE: This Friday, July 25, Lifetime Television will pay a special on-air and online tribute to Estelle Getty. July 25 is also her birthday. From 12-5PM (ET/PT), Lifetime will air 10 episodes showcasing 'Sophia' in all her blustering, sarcastic splendor, beginning with the show's pilot. The last episode at 4:30PM (ET/PT) will be the #1 favorite "Sophia episode" as decided through a vote of her legion of devoted fans at myLifetime.com.
Estelle would have been 85 on Friday, so she passed away three days before her 85th birthday. I'm sure many of you don't know this, but Bea Arthur is actually a bit older then Estelle, despite Bea playing her daughter on The Golden Girls.
The following was stated on her website:
"To all of Estelle's Fans,
Sadly, today July 22, 2008 at 5:35 a.m. Pacific Time, we said our last good-byes to our little friend Estelle, who passed away and made her journey to the great beyond. Although it was a trip that she never wanted to take, she went gracefully, in the comfort of her own home, surrounded by her family and her very loving care-givers.
Estelle's legacy will live on and on through the comedy and laughter she gave to us all, which will forever keep us laughing out loud."

Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: NBC, Day 2; Remembering Dave Powers; Retroality.TV Officially Launches!

Today is the last day of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. NBC is up for the second and final day of its portion. Tomorrow the TCA tour concludes with a set visit where critics will visit the sets of series such as Pushing Daisies and ER.
Today's docket has a session on the summer Olympics, Election 2008 with NBC News and MSNBC, NBC Executive Session (more on that below), on the panel with sophomore dramas Chuck, Life, & Lipstick Jungle, followed by panels of Deal or No Deal, Kath & Kim, Knight Rider, The Office, My Own Worst Enemy, Kings, and NBC Sunday Night Football/Super Bowl.
NBC has adjusted its primetime premiere schedule for Fall 2008.
Returning drama Life will follow Heroes on two special Monday broadcasts (10-11 pm. ET) in addition to its regularly scheduled timeslot on Fridays (10-11 pm. ET) giving Life four hours of originals in two weeks on September 29, October 3, October 6 and October 10.
After Life's two-week Monday trial, new drama My Own Worst Enemy will make its series debut on Monday, October 13 (10-11 p.m. ET) and remain in all originals in its regular timeslot (Mondays, 10-11 p.m. ET) through December.
In other scheduling changes, new comedy Kath & Kim and 30 Rock will switch time periods on Thursday nights. Kath & Kim moves to 8:30 p.m. (ET) starting October 9 after My Name is Earl (8-8:30 p.m. ET), which will allow for a strong audience flow for these two compatible shows. 30 Rock will settle into the 9:30 p.m. (ET) starting with its season premiere after The Office on October 30. Remember SNL Thursday will air October 9, 16, and 23 at 9:30 p.m.
The Biggest Loser: Families premieres on Tuesday, September 16 (8-10 p.m. ET). Likewise, summer hit America's Got Talent returns after the Olympics on August 26 (8-10 p.m. ET) and runs through to its season finale on Wednesday, October 1 (9-10 p.m. ET).
Other series' premieres remain unchanged from NBC's original premiere announcement.
At the executive session, NBC did a copy cat of ABC by having Jay Leno impersonate a reporter asking a question about his future, just like Jimmy Kimmel did last week when Kimmel asked is ABC interested in Leno? Leno impersonated a bald reporter and asked: When is Leno's final show? Will he be paid for the rest of the year? Is it true you've offered Jay Leno a fifth hour of the Today show? Will Manimal come back? What about Brett Favre's retirement/unretirement? What if Jay changes his mind? Silveman answers, "Everyone's entitled to change their mind, but I imagine that puts management in an impossible situation."
If NBC is getting rid of Leno, why make him do that? So maybe they do have plans for him in some shape or form. NBC announced Leno's last night on the Tonight Show will be Friday, May 29, while Conan O'Brien takes over on Monday, June 1. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will launch first as online series before moving to 12:35am in March or April, so Conan's last night on Late Night will be before May 29.
Amy Poehler has officially signed on to star in a possible a new Thursday-night comedy series from Office exec producer Greg Daniels. Ben Silverman says however this will NOT be a spin-off of The Office. The spin-off is pretty much dead right now, but if it goes forward it will have "existing Office characters."
We'll be back with more...so keep coming back and refreshing!

We have some sad news to report. One of the best TV directors of all-time has passed away. Dave Powers passed away on July 3, 2008, in Rancho Mirage, CA, after a hard fought battle with skin cancer. He began his career in television in 1951, when he was employed by CBS as an usher at KNXT, working on the Dinah Shore Show. In 1956, while working in the cue card department on The Bob Crosby Show at CBS Television City, he was promoted to Stage Manager and joined the Director's Guild of America, where he would be a Guild member for the next fifty-seven years.
Dave got his biggest break when he became the director of The Carol Burnett Show in 1968. During that time, he was nominated eleven times by the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences and won four primetime Emmy Awards for "Best Director" in 1974, 1975, 1977 and 1978. In addition to directing The Carol Burnett Show for ten years he was also the director on Three's Company for six seasons starting in 1978 and Mama's Family for four years, reuniting himself with Vicki Lawrence (and Carol Burnett a few times).

We got word on July 9 of Dave's passing from my friend and author of Come and Knock on Our Door: A Hers and Hers and His Guide to Three's Company (and now of Retroality.TV) Chris Mann, that Dave had passed away on July 3. It wasn't officially released until last Wednesday. Chris heard from Joyce DeWitt (Janet on Three's Company) who heard from Priscilla Barnes (Terri on Three's Company). Chris had some very nice things to say about Dave that I must share with you all, "He was a good man, very beloved and enormously talented. Not only is he responsible for so much of Three's Company's under-appreciated signature slapstick style, he was rightly hailed in the industry for his work with Carol Burnett and company. He was always a gentleman during his Three's Company book and DVD interviews, and he clearly loved the Three's Company "kids" -- John Ritter especially -- as much as they loved him."
Chris also said, "In his home office he displayed autographed photos of Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence and Suzanne Somers in a classic Chrissy pose. "Those are my three ladies," he told me proudly. Also, John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt, Richard Kline, Don Knotts, Norman Fell, Audra Lindley et al always sang his praises. He will be deeply missed."

Dave also directed many episodes of both of the Three's Company spin-off shows, The Ropers and Three's a Crowd. After Mama's Family and a Carol Burnett Reunion Show, Dave retired from the business in the late '80s/early '90s. After retirement Dave and his wife Georgette made a fun and rewarding hobby of owning and restoring antique and classic wooden boats which they housed and used at their Big Bear Lake home.
A "Celebration of Life" will be held for Dave on August 2, 2008 at the Four Seasons Resort, Aviara, in Carlsbad, CA. He will be deeply missed as he directed the best comedic stars ever in Carol Burnett, John Ritter, Don Knotts, Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, and Vicki Lawrence. Dave was 75.


If you all recall in late May we made the announcement that Chris Mann had launched Retroality.TV. Now it has officially fully launched! Chris has interviewed '80s bombshell Heather Thomas (The Fall Guy, Zapped!) to lead off his site's official launch this month! Heather is the author of the hot new novel Trophies. Chris has an in-depth, provocative interview with Heather, who expresses her views on everything from being an '80s sex symbol-turned-writer to becoming a socio-political activist. Her controversial comments on the Bush administration, oil and 9/11 will surprise many. She'll be on NBC's Today show today, but Retroality and Chris Mann had her first!
Chris says, "So far we've featured retro stars about to make a very current media splash. Soon after we posted our May/June cover story on Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman), CNN reported she found a dead body floating in a river. And after we posted our Q&A with the fun-loving Susan Olsen (Cindy of Brady Bunch), every media outlet in America reported that she almost threw up on live radio. Coincidence? Methinks not!"

And that's not all! Chris has much more than that on the website! The Heather Thomas interview is just the "cover story." Chris also has items such as an interview with the sexy Stacy Keibler that was published in this month's Muscle & Body. Chris also has a Muscle & Body cover-story on several Olympic hopefuls coming in August, along with an interview with gold medalist swimmer-turned-Celebrity Circus performer Janet Evans. Wow! What a busy guy Chris is! I'm so glad he is doing well because he is a good person and truly deserves it!
And he even gets busier! This week he'll be off interviewing Olivia Newton-John and Fran Drescher, both cancer awareness advocates, for future health magazine cover stories! What a lucky guy! Again head on over to Retroality.TV because it is one website that you should bookmark and visit because it will get bigger and bigger everyday and soon it will be a website everyone knows by name! It'll be like the Cheers of the internet!

2008 TCA Awards Winners; Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: NBC, Day 1

Our normal ratings report and coming week preview will return next week, as we are focused on the TCA tour. Last night at the summer 2008 TCA press tour was the annual TCA Awards. The 24th annual event saw Mad Men dominate the night. 2008 TCA Award recipients are as follows:

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR: Mad Men (AMC)
OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM: Mad Men (AMC)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: 30 Rock (NBC)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Mad Men (AMC)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION: The War: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick (PBS)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING: WordGirl (PBS)
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN MOVIES, MINI-SERIES & SPECIALS: John Adams (HBO)
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY: Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC)
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA: Paul Giamatti, John Adams (HBO)
HERITAGE AWARD: The Wire (HBO)
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Lorne Michaels

Related:
2008 Nominees
2007 Winners
2006 Winners

We are nearing the end of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. NBC has the final two days including today. Today NBC will mainly showcase its cable networks while NBC itself will go tomorrow. NBC did have a few announcements to make today, however. Tuesday is a TCA set day visit, so nothing really will be covered then.
Up at the panel today were after lunch were Friday Night Lights (NBC/DirecTV), Tabatha's Salon Takeover (Bravo, The Real Housewives of Atlanta (Bravo), Coolio's Rules (Bravo), qubo TV shows, then The Starter Wife (USA Network), Sanctuary (Sci Fi), Caprica (Sci Fi), and then closing it out were SNL (NBC) and America's Toughest Jobs (NBC).

NBC's popular game show Deal or No Deal and the all-new extreme reality competition series America's Toughest Jobs will premiere with four special Monday night episodes beginning August 25. Deal or No Deal will return with the exciting Million Dollar Mission from 8-9 p.m. (ET), and America's Toughest Jobs will air from 9-10 p.m. (ET) before moving to Fridays at 8 p.m. ET beginning September 19. Deal will debut its Wednesday and Friday night episodes in October.
Saturday Night Live will make an early return this fall to capitalize on the hotly contested Presidential race, extending its traditional 20-episode season to 22, in its 34th season to premiere on Saturday, September 13. In addition, after making a splash this spring during the Democratic primaries, Saturday Night Live will return to the air with 10 new live broadcasts this fall with a Presidential Bash special prior to Election Day, Monday, November 3 (9:30-11 p.m. ET). And as we announced already, SNL is ready for primetime with Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday. Three live primetime half-hours will air October 9, 16 and 23 at 9:30 p.m. ET.

In Plain Sight, USA Network's newest original scripted series, will return for a second season with series star Mary McCormack (The West Wing, Private Parts) returning. The series, created/written/executive produced by David Maples and executive produced by Paul Stupin, has been given a 16-episode order and will start production in October.
USA Network will advance the 'Characters Welcome' brand by inviting a CIA linguist, an inner city trauma surgeon and a salesman turned morgue investigator among others to join the ambitious development slate for the 2008-09 season. A slate of three new pilot scripts, Covert Affairs, Operating Instructions and Stiffs, were announced today.
USA's previously announced project Royal Pains (working title) is being produced as a pilot starring Mark Feuerstein and directed by Jace Alexander and White Collar (working title) is a cast-contingent pilot.
USA Network's award-winning hit series, Monk, will air its 100th episode this summer during its seventh season on the network. The special episode will feature an all-star guest-cast, including many who have previously appeared in some of the show's most memorable episodes. Guest-stars include Eric McCormack, John Turturro, Howie Mandel, Sarah Silverman, Andy Richter, Brooke Adams, Sharon Lawrence, Ricardo Chavira, Kathryn Joosten, Jarrad Paul, Tim Bagley, David Koechner and Angela Kinsey. The landmark episode will air on Friday, September 5 at 9/8c on USA Network.
The Emmy Award-winning hit original series, The Starter Wife, starring Debra Messing will return on Friday, October 10 at 10/9c for 10 episodes on USA Network as a series after premiering as a mini-series in 2007.

Moving on to Sci Fi Channel, this fall, Sci Fi Channel is the ultimate destination for all things Halloween, featuring all-new episodes of Ghost Hunters, the 3rd annual Ghost Hunters Live Halloween event and the all-new 31 Days of Halloween programming extravaganza! Beginning October 1, this marathon will serve up the spookiest fare that Halloween has to offer, concluding with Ghost Hunters Live on Halloween night. Speaking of Ghost Hunters, the series was renewed for a fifth season. 25 episodes of spine-tingling investigations will air when the show returns in 2009.
Sci Fi's original movie franchise promises more action, thrills, cataclysmic disasters and mythological adventures in 2009 with an unprecedented 36 original action movies - up from 2008's slate of 24. The Channel's high-octane, entertaining original movies have made Sci Fi Saturday: The Most Dangerous Night of Television a destination for viewers, bringing in an average of 1.8 million viewers so far in 2008. In addition to the Saturday offerings, Sci Fi will also present its original movie fare on Sunday evenings beginning next year. Movies include Hellhounds (directed by Rick Schroeder), Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon starring Shannen Doherty, and Lake Placid 3, sequel to Sci Fi's original movie Lake Placid 2. Also, Sci Fi Channel has greenlit Mirabilis, (working title) a 4-hour fantasy adventure miniseries where heroes battle the forces of darkness set against a backdrop of knights, sorcerers and dragons. Set to star in the movie are David James Elliott as protagonist John Serrogoth and Natassia Malthe as Perfidia.
Sci Fi Channel is also developing new series and mini-series. Projects include an original miniseries in development with Bryan Singer, a documentary drama called What If? as well as a slew of exciting alternative reality projects.
Sci Fi Channel has picked-up three original reality series for this fall. Six one hour episodes each that will premiere in November for Cash or Capture and Estate of Panic. Outer Space Astronauts will be a half-hour series and five episodes have been ordered, but no launch date as of yet.

Bravo announced a number of new and returning programs in the food, fashion, beauty, design and pop culture affinity groups, as well as various projects in development. From producer Sarah Jessica Parker, her production company Pretty Matches, comes American Artist (wt), an hour-long creative competition series in development between aspiring contemporary artists who will create and compete in a range of disciplines including sculpture, painting, photography and industrial design. Based on the British format and show of the same name comes Fashion House (wt), a creative competition series in development where teams of designers replicate the workings of the fashion business through a fashion house by designing an entire, cohesive line with the opportunity of having their line mass marketed. And Top Chef: Masters, a spin-off of the Emmy-nominated Top Chef produced by Magical Elves also in development, featuring world-renowned chefs competing against each other in a series of weekly challenges.
The network also unveiled a number of pick-ups for its returning series, and premiere dates for upcoming fall series and specials. Pick-ups include second season orders for Make Me A Supermodel and The Real Housewives of New York City, which boasts a new housewife for season two designer, model, author and fashion editor Kelly Bensimon. Additionally, the network announced that the upcoming fifth season of the No. 1 food show on cable, Top Chef, will be set in the culinary mecca of New York City.
The Rachel Zoe Project will premiere on September 8 at 11 p.m. ET/PT following the finale of Date My Ex: Jo & Slade (which launches Monday, July 21 at 10 p.m.), before moving to its regular time period on September 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The Real Housewives of Atlanta will premiere on Tuesday, September 16 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, and the special Tommy Hilfiger Presents: Ironic Iconic America will premiere on October 3 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Newly owned NBC Universal cable network Oxygen also announced programming. Oxygen brings dance, diet and divas together with the pick-up of the new reality competition series Dance Your Ass Off. In this unique show, talented, full-figured contestants who struggle with their weight will dance to unleash their inner thin. Scheduled to premiere on Oxygen in 2009.
Oxygen's hit series The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency will return for a dramatic and sizzling new season on Tuesday, August 26 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.
Oxygen has ordered a third season of The Bad Girls Club, the network's highest-rated original series ever to date. For the first time, the show's format has been expanded from half-hour to one-hour, giving new episodes even more drama, more conflict and more outrageous laughs.

Today felt like the TCA cable portion yet again with all of this cable stuff...tomorrow it will feel more like broadcast again when NBC has many panels tomorrow with their own shows and not their cable networks. So come on back tomorrow!

Mini-DVD Review: The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas; Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: CBS/The CW, Day 2

It is Saturday, so that must mean it is time for the mini-DVD review. We also have The CW's portion of the TCA press tour below, so don't miss that either. But first it is the mini-DVD review. It's Christmas in July, as we take a look today at Universal Home Video's The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas. The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas is the 1996 TV-movie featuring the scary family during the holiday season. See skees53's mini-DVD review of The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas:

The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas (Universal Home Video, $14.98) tells the classic story of a child living in a new environment feeling homesick at Christmastime. The 1996 made-for-TV movie, based upon the classic TV series, begins with Eddie being bullied and picked on, because he is different. After all, he is a werewolf living among mortal children in Los Angeles. But the pain that Eddie feels becomes a bigger deal when it happens during the "most wonderful time of the year," so it is up to his family to do whatever it takes to cheer him up and get him in to the Christmas spirit. Everybody has their own ideas, from Lily's idea of getting Eddie involved in a Christmas decorating contest to Grandpa Munster's crazy experiments to Marilyn's plan to have a huge Munster family reunion just in time for Christmas. And to support it all, Herman is doing whatever he can do to make a buck, including nude modeling! In the end, it all comes together to create an old-fashioned Christmas that only a family from Transylvania could envision.
The video quality of the movie is fine for the most part, but the audio is very problematic. It is presented in full-screen, which is how it was presented when it originally aired. For some reason, the audio is out of sync with the video, so you see lips moving out of sync with the video. I don't know why this problem occurred on this DVD, as it is not a common problem wit h DVDs in my experience. It is somewhat obnoxious to see. The disc is lacking any special features, which isn't surprising, as this wasn't a big budget cinematic film or anything along those lines.
All in all, I think most observers wouldn't think of this is a great movie or anything like that, but rather just a mediocre movie based upon a great TV classic. It won't take too much of watching this movie to realize why it was a made-for-TV movie for Fox, as opposed to being a theatrical release or even one of the larger networks. There are some moments in the film that will SOMEWHAT remind fans of the hilarity of the original sitcom, but the overall plot of the movie is one of those plots that fans will find difficult to drag themselves into and fully enjoy. Still, if the DVD can be found cheap, fans may want to pick it up, just to check it out.
-- Reviewed by skees53
(3/5 stars)

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Amazon.com

Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
The Munsters TV.com Page


The CW is up at the summer 2008 TCA press tour today as well as CBS's syndication division, CBS Television Distribution. Up at the panel for The CW this morning will be 90210, Privileged and Stylista, followed by the executive session. In the afternoon, we have the CBS Television Distribution series, starting off Inside Edition which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and new series The Doctors, and Judge Jeanine Pirro. Then tonight there is a WGA reception followed by the TCA Awards! We will give you the winners either tonight or tomorrow.
From The CW side, we learned that Shannen Doherty will return to the zip code that made her famous when she guest stars in multiple episodes of The CW's spin-off, 90210, premiering Tuesday, September 2. Doherty will reprise her role as Brenda Walsh, who was last seen headed to London to study acting. As previously announced, Jennie Garth returns as Kelly Taylor, now a West Beverly guidance counselor; Tori Spelling returns as Donna Martin, now owner of an upscale boutique, and Joe E. Tata returns as Nat, owner of The Peach Pit.
The CW announced premiere dates for their Mon-Fri schedule (and MRC Sunday block, below):

Monday, September 1
8:00-9:00 p.m. Gossip Girl
9:00-10:00 p.m. One Tree Hill

Tuesday, September 2
8:00-10:00 p.m. 90210 (Two-Hour Premiere)

Wednesday, September 3
8:00-10:00 p.m. America's Next Top Model (Two-Hour Premiere)

Tuesday, September 9
9:00-10:00 p.m. Privileged

Thursday, September 18
8:00-9:00 p.m. Smallville
9:00-10:00 p.m. Supernatural

Friday, October 3
8:00-8:30 p.m. Everybody Hates Chris
8:30-9:00 p.m. The Game
9:00-10:00 p.m. America's Next Top Model (Encore Presentation)

Wednesday, October 29
9:00-10:00 p.m. Stylista

Couple of notes on these premiere dates: Wednesdays at 9pm until Stylista premieres on Oct. 29 will be encores of 90210. Mid-season premiere dates and times for The CW's returning drama Reaper and new reality series 13 - Fear Is Real will be announced at a later time.

As for Sundays, the MRC (Media Rights Capital) programming block will launch on September 21. The block will begin at 7pm and end at 10pm. Then starting November 2, the block will start at 6:30pm.
Laurie Metcalf (Easy Money), Judge Reinhold (Easy Money), Bob Saget (Surviving Suburbia), Jaime Murray (Valentine), Autumn Reeser (Valentine), Kristopher Polaha (Valentine) and Jeff Hephner (Easy Money) will star in this Sunday Night Block.
In the sitcom Surviving Suburbia, MRC is proud to announce the casting of Bob Saget. It follows Keith (Saget) and Anne Stevers, a seemingly normal couple who has been married for 20 years, have two children and a cookie cutter house in the idyllic suburbs. Full casting will be announced in the next several weeks.
Here are the premiere dates for this MRC (Media Rights Capital) block on The CW Sundays:

Effective Sunday, September 21
7:00-8:00 p.m. In Harm's Way (reality)
8:00-9:00 p.m. Valentine (romantic comedy/drama)
9:00-10:00 p.m. Easy Money (family crime drama)

Effective Sunday, November 2
(changes listed only)
6:30-7:30 p.m. In Harm's Way (New Timeslot)
7:30-8:00 p.m. Surviving Suburbia (sitcom)

Programming for the 5:00-6:30 p.m. time slots will be announced soon.

More coming ...check back keep and refreshing.

Schedules Galore - TV Land September '08, WGN Golden Oldies Week, BET Schedule Changes; Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: CBS, Day 1

It is a very big Friday today here at SitcomsOnline.com. We have many schedules and the CBS portion of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. So let's begin with the TV schedules ... TV Land, WGN America and BET.
First up, as promised the TV Land September 2008 schedule. It's a funny bone emergency as TV Land welcomes the Emmy winning sitcom Scrubs to its roster with an 7-hour Labor Day marathon from 4pm-11pm. Then the show will air Mon-Sat back-to-back at 9:00pm & 9:30pm ET/PT starting September 2. The other changes starting Sept. 2 include M*A*S*H moving to 10pm-12am and the late night marathons are now from 1am-6am.
Then starting September 15, TV Land celebrates the arrival of The Cosby Show to the network with a week-long marathon featuring the best of Cosby wit and wisdom each night starting at 8pm thru 11pm (with an encore from 1-3am). The marathon shifts into high gear that weekend when TV Land programs 20 hours of fan favorite episodes giving viewers even more quality time with the Cos from 8pm-3am both nights. Then starting Sept. 22, Cosby Show will air Mon-Sat from 8-9pm and 12-1am ET/PT. More changes will come as Cheers, The Addams Family and The Munsters are expiring and will leave starting the week of Sept. 15. Other changes include time shifting, such as Andy Griffith Show going from 7-9pm to 6-8pm, and Hogan's Heroes and Hillbillies move up an hour to 4-5pm and 5-6pm. Hogan's and Hillbillies will also still air in the late night 1-2am and 2-3am, which means the late night marathons will be now down to 3-6am.
I suggest you see our TV Land September 2008 thread for the complete schedule. There is a Three's Company sighting as well, three airings back-to-back-to-back from 3:30am-5am on late Thursday, Sept. 11. It was originally planned for every Thursday late night. Also, Just Shoot Me and Murphy Brown will now be just weekend late nights, and not weeknight late nights, like originally planned. The Brady Bunch is off the line-up completely.
Other TV Land September highlights include many movie premieres such as Back to School, Sister Act 2, Overboard, The Right Stuff, and See No Evil, Hear No Evil. Again see our September 2008 thread for complete details and you can also ask questions and make comments there.

Next up is WGN America! For the past two months they have aired an Outta Sight Retro Nights marathon. In June they had a '70s week and earlier this month we had an '80s marathon. Now they will move to the Golden Oldies era! It's the Outta Sight Retro Nights Marathon: The Golden Oldies! The marathon will be a four night look at the '50s and '60s. The marathon will be from Monday, August 4 through Thursday, August 7, 2008 from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT) on WGN America (not in Chicago, sorry!). Up first is the all-time '50s hit The Honeymooners on that Monday with four classic episodes. Then we move to the '60s as we strike it rich with The Beverly Hillbillies, ya here? Then the next two nights will be two shows that don't regular air on WGN America! On that Wednesday we twitch our way to Samantha and Darrin's house in Bewitched! Finally, on that Thursday we make a wish for I Dream of Jeannie with four wishful episodes. What a week that will be for fans of the golden oldies era. Four classics indeed! For episode info visit our WGN America Golden Oldies episode listing.

We end our schedules galore with BET. BET will be making some sitcom changes. Next week (week of July 21), BET will have Diff'rent Strokes for four episodes in a row in the mornings. Its current 9-10am slot and 10-11am, replacing Malcolm & Eddie. Diff'rent Strokes has been preempted in its afternoon 3-4pm slot for weeks now and it will not be returning there now. It seems this morning change will be for the week of July 21 only. Because starting July 28, BET will turn the 9-11am block into rotating sitcoms. Mondays starting July 28 will be the short lived '90s sitcom Thea! Then Tuesdays starting the 29th it will be Diff'rent Strokes Tuesdays. On Wednesdays BET will showcase the UPN hit The Parkers. Thursdays spend mornings with your girlfriends while watching Girlfriends from 9-11am. And finally on Friday, end the work week with the hardest working man Fred Sanford in Sanford! So Thea and Sanford will return (remember they have a marathon this Sunday, July 20, too from 3-8pm), while Malcolm & Eddie gets the boot for now. We will keep you up to date if any more changes occur!
Future Outlook: This September BET has acquired reruns of Judge Hatchett and also repurposing rights to the upcoming new court series Judge Karen. More info will come soon.

Today is day one for the CBS portion of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. All of the CBS shows that are planned for the panel are actually all going today on the panel, with CW/CBS syndication for tomorrow. After the Executive Session this morning (details on that below after the summary), up at the panel were the CBS News division, followed by rookie sitcom Worst Week and new drama Eleventh Hour. Then after lunch, the afternoon sessions had all rookies again, new drama The Mentalist, and new Friday drama The Ex-List. Weird that no returning show was at the panel for CBS. New sitcom Gary Unmarried (previously known as Project Gary) was supposed to be doing a panel today in the afternoon, but star Jay Mohr is out of the country. Following CBS shows, CBS had premium cable network Showtime go up next late in the afternoon. They had their Executive Session followed by their Sho Stoppers Showcase session. Finally, in the evening CBS, Showtime, The CW and CBS Television Distribution presented their Stars Party with executives, talent and executive producers from CBS, Showtime, The CW and CBS Television Distribution.
From the CBS executive session we learned that William Petersen is indeed leaving CSI but they have planned new additions such as a serial killer type. Nina Tassler says CBS doesn't regret canceling Moonlight (ouch!). She also said Britney didn't save How I Met Your Mother and Sarah Chalke will return for multiple episodes next season.
From the CBS News session, Katie Couric said she will stay on with CBS Evening News despite the low ratings. There were rumors that CBS would give her the boot after the Election.
Moving on to Showtime, Edie Falco will return to television with the series Nurse Jackie. It will follow Falco's day-to-day life as a nurse with a drug problem. The series will begin production in the fall for a spring/early summer 2009 debut. The network also said it is developing a spin-off of The L Word, which is entering its final season. Meanwhile, comedy Weeds will get two more seasons for a total of 26 episodes. They also ordered six episodes of documentary series Lock 'N Load and a seventh season of Penn & Teller: Bull****! for 6 episodes, the longest-running series on the channel.
It seems we learned more about Showtime, than CBS today. Coming up tomorrow its CBS Day 2, but it will feature The CW and CBS Television Distribution (that's their syndication series).

60th Annual Emmy Awards Nominations; Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: ABC, Day 2

The 60th Annual Emmy Nominations were made just moments ago. Here are the nominees for the main categories:

BEST COMEDY SERIES
Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
The Office (NBC)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)
30 Rock (NBC)
Entourage (HBO)
SURPRISE OMISSION: Pushing Daisies & Ugly Betty. I had them in my predictions, but Curb and Men made it instead.

BEST COMEDY ACTOR
Tony Shalhoub, Monk (USA Network)
Steve Carell, The Office (NBC)
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Lee Pace, Pushing Daisies (ABC)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None. I had this category all right!

BEST COMEDY ACTRESS
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Old Christine (CBS)
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who? (ABC)
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds (Showtime)
Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC)
SURPRISE OMISSION: Ana Friel. I had her instead of Dreyfus.

BEST SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTOR
Kevin Dillion, Entourage (HBO)
John Cryer, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Rainn Wilson, The Office (NBC)
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
Jeremy Piven, Entourage (HBO)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None. I was all right again.

BEST SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTRESS
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Amy Poehler, SNL (NBC)
Jean Smart, Samantha Who? (ABC)
Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies (ABC)
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
SURPRISE OMISSION: Surprising Poehler is in this category and no Jenna Fischer this year.

BEST DRAMA SERIES
Lost (ABC)
House (Fox)
Damages (FX)
Boston Legal (ABC)
Mad Men (AMC)
Dexter (Showtime)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None really...no Grey's Anatomy though, I had that over Damages.

BEST DRAMA ACTOR
Hugh Laurie, House (FOX)
James Spader, Boston Legal (ABC)
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)
Gabriel Bryne, In Treatment (HBO)
Michael C. Hall, Dexter (Showtime)
Jon Hamm, Mad Men (AMC)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None, maybe Denis Leary. 6 made it instead of 5.

BEST DRAMA ACTRESS
Glenn Close, Damages (FX)
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer (TNT)
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU (NBC)
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace (TNT)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None, maybe no Elizabeth Moss of Mad Men. Why Hargitay again?

BEST SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTOR
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages (FX)
William Shatner, Boston Legal (ABC)
John Slattery, Mad Men (AMC)
Ted Danson, Damages (FX)
Michael Emerson, Lost (ABC)
SURPRISE OMISSION: None. I had this all right, but I had T.R. Knight instead of Ivanek.

BEST SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTRESS
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Candice Bergen, Boston Legal (ABC)
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Diane Wiest, In Treatment (HBO)
SURPRISE OMISSION: I had this all right except for two...Oh and Wiest were in instead, but that is not a surprise.

View the full list of nominations by clicking HERE. The 60th Annual Emmy Awards air Sunday, September 21 at 8pm on ABC.


Today is day two of the ABC portion of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. More ABC shows will be on the panel today along with ABC Cable Networks such as ABC Family and Disney Channel. But first, I want to say a few things I missed yesterday on day one. Lost will still fulfill its final 48 episode order. Due to the strike this past season, only 14 aired, so ABC is likely to tack on an extra episode for the next two seasons so 48 episodes will be there. Also, this is Zach Braff's final season on Scrubs, no matter if ABC continues it in 2009-10. Braff did say if ABC were to bring it back for a second season on ABC, then he would guest star or direct some episodes.
Anyway, today up at the panel were the cast and producers of Disney Channel's movie The Cheetah Girls One World, ABC Family's mini-series Samurai Girl, and ABC Daytime's soap opera One Life to Live, celebrating its 40th anniversary. Then after lunch it was all ABC at the panel with a great session with ABC Showrunners Greg Berlanti (Dirty Sexy Money, Brothers & Sisters, Eli Stone), Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives), Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof (Lost), Silvio Horta (Ugly Betty), and Shonda Rhimes (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice). Then after that it was back to shows itself with the stars and producers of Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice, and Desperate Housewives. Finally, ABC's portion of the TCA tour concludes with the All-Star party with the stars of ABC, Disney Channel, ABC Family and SOAPnet.
As for some details, ABC Family has ordered 13 more episodes of the hit drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager making its season order to 23. The current batch of episodes will conclude on Sept. 9 and the new batch will air starting in January, possibly with the return of its other hit show Kyle XY for its third season. Samurai Girl is a mini-series for now, but it could be a series in the future...Sept. 5-7 is when this three-part event will air. ABC Family will launch the second season of Greek on Tuesday, Aug. 26 and the third season of Lincoln Heights on Tuesday, Sept. 16. The Disney-ABC first run syndicated series Wizard's First Rule will appear on local stations on weekends starting the weekend of November 1.
On the Showrunners panel, the big questions were for Shonda Rhimes about Katherine Heigl. No Heigl is not leaving the show. No Heigl is not going to get killed off. And no Shonda didn't think Heigl withdrawing her name out of Emmy contention was a slap to the face to the writers! End of story on that! The media needs to MOVE ON! In Desperate Housewives news from this panel, Marc Cherry said he thought of the idea of the jumping ahead 5 years during a baseball game he attended with Steve McPherson. Lost wise we learned that Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) will indeed appear this season "in some form" without revealing any details. Ugly Betty wise, it is all but confirmed that there will no Henry in the picture for Betty.
Following that there were panels I mentioned for Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice and Desperate Housewives. I can't believe some reporter asked Lucy Liu how will it feel turning 40 in January.
I think that is about all that was noteworthy from today. Stay tuned for CBS tomorrow!