SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

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).