Saturday, July 19, 2008
Mini-DVD Review: The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas; Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: CBS/The CW, Day 2
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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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.
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Tuesday, December 10
Tyler Perry's Assisted Living "Baby Steps" - (BET, 9:30PM ET/PT)
Leah shocks Jeremy with some baby-making trends she wants to incorporate into their daily routine, but he finds them annoying and unnecessary. At the same time, Sandra and Philip take charge when a possible social media ban threatens their status quo.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 9)
Tuesday, December 10
- Monica Barbaro (FUBAR) - Catch Monica on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- John Mulaney (Mulaney) - John is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Linda Cardellini (No Good Deed/Dead to Me/Guys Like Us) - Linda appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project/The Office) - Mindy stops by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters/HouseBroken/Catastrophe) - Sharon appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Sasheer Zamata (Home Economics/Woke/Robbie), Vinny Thomas (Platonic) and Jeff Hiller (Somebody Somehwhere/Nightcap) - Sasheer, Vinny and Jeff are guests on After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Christian Slater (Breaking In) - Christian talks about Dexter: Original Sin on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am and on CBS Mornings Plus at 9am.
- Sarah Michelle Gellar (The Crazy Ones) - Sarah talks about Dexter: Original Sin on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your listings.
- Fortune Feimster (FUBAR/Kenan/Bless the Harts/Champions) - Fortune is sharing her hilarious take on the hottest headlines of the day and telling Drew about her latest Netflix standup special on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
- Christina Milian (Grandfathered) - Christina talks about starring in the new series Dexter: Original Sin on Paramount+ with Showtime on Sherri, so check your local listings.
- Jennifer Love Hewitt (Shaky Ground) - Jennifer talks about Lifetime's The Holiday Junkie on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Alexa PenaVega (Ruby & the Rockits) - Alexa talks about Great American Family's Love at the Kettle on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Vanessa Lachey (Truth Be Told/Dads) - Vanessa and Nick Lachey discuss their reality series The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
- Chris Diamantopoulos (The Sticky/Silicon Valley) - Chris discusses his television series The Sticky on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
09/10 - Rick and Morty - The Complete Seasons 1-7
09/10 - The Ropers - The Complete Series (VEI)
09/10 - Ted - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
09/17 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - Video Scrapbook
09/17 - Top Cat - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
09/24 - Friends - The Complete Series (4K UHD)
09/24 - Young Sheldon - The Complete Seventh Season (DVD) / The Complete Series (DVD) (Blu-ray)
10/08 - Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Twelfth Season / The Complete Series
10/22 - Veep - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
11/05 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
11/12 - The King of Queens - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (2024 Release)
11/19 - SpongeBob SquarePants - The Complete Fourteenth Season
11/26 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 4 (Blu-ray)
12/03 - Angel (1960-1961) - The Complete Series, Volume 1
12/17 - Seinfeld - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (4K UHD)
02/04 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
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