SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

TV Land Schedule Changes; Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: Cable Day 3

We will start today with some changes to the TV Land regular schedule. The changes will start Monday (July 14) and will be for weekday mornings and primetime/late night. There will be minor changes in the mornings between 7:30am-12pm. Just Shoot Me will be leaving the morning line-up and will be relegated to just weekend airings in the late night, and most of the time it will be preempted then for original series encores or sitcom marathons. In the mornings, Mad About You will join the morning line-up at 7:30am, followed by Designing Women & Cheers, both of which will be shifted a half-hour later. In the 9am hour, Sanford & Son and All in the Family will swap slots, so All in the Family will be at 9am followed by Sanford & Son at 9:30am. The Jeffersons remains at 10am, but the 10:30am episode will be replaced by Good Times. The 11am Good Times remains, but the 11:30am Good Times will be replaced by Leave it to Beaver, which is not going to air 1-2pm anymore, as The Beverly Hillbillies will take that slot. Gunsmoke will move to 2pm, followed by a double shot of Bonanza at 3pm & 4pm.
Then the schedule doesn't change until 9pm. Weekdays from 9pm-12am and 2-5am they will have marathons. Hogan's Heroes (Mon), The Beverly Hillbillies (Tues), Sanford & Son (Wed), The Andy Griffith Show (Thurs) and I Love Lucy (Fri). Lucy will be 8-10pm actually on Fridays and the late night marathon will be 2-6am. So Murphy Brown will be off the line-up, but will air sometimes on weekends, like Just Shoot Me. The Brady Bunch will just air weekends at 4:30am. M*A*S*H block will be 12-2am weeknights.
So, the changes that were happening before, with the summer marathons will not happen and these new marathon slots are the summer marathons.
These changes will be in effect until the end of August. In September, there will be more changes coming as Scrubs joins the line-up on September 1 and The Cosby Show on Sept. 15. Fans of Just Shoot Me and Murphy Brown take note that these shows will be back on the regular schedule airing late nights. The same goes for Designing Women and Mad About You, and those two will retain its current morning slots, as well. Unfortunately for Brady Bunch fans, the show will be off the line-up completely come September. Three's Company is returning, but it will just air once a week in he late night...but it will be three episodes in a row! We will have more on September in the next week or so. So stay tuned for that!
But anyway, for now look at the TV Land changes happening July 14 by clicking HERE!

Moving on to day three of the cable portion of the summer 2008 TCA press tour. Up first today were the Discovery Networks.
Animal Planet talked about its new series Whale Wars, which premieres in November. This new, thrilling and adrenaline-fueled mini-series follows the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society which uses unconventional and radical methods to eradicate alleged illegal whaling operations.
The Discovery Channel talked about series such as Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy, which launches in September. A team of amateur fossil hunters exploring the Montana badlands uncovered what many are calling the "Holy Grail" of paleontology -- the first fully intact dinosaur cadaver, with 90 percent of its body covered in skin. They also have a series coming in August titled Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein. It's a thrill ride filled with adventure and mystery, ancient riddles and modern day issues as international explorer Josh Bernstein travels the world on an epic quest of discovery.
The network Planet Green has hired Bob Woodruff for a series called Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff. The series launches this Saturday. As the definitive weekly eco-newscast, this series features seasoned ABC News journalist Bob Woodruff as he guides viewers on the green headlines of the week and provides them with a variety of hard-hitting, late-breaking, and top-of-mind issues facing the world today. Planet Green will also launch Battleground Earth: Ludacris v. Tommy Lee on August 3. Battleground Earth brings together hip hop superstar Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and rock god Tommy Lee to battle against the toxic forces destroying Mother Earth as they travel across the country on a 10-episode tour.
TLC President Angela Shapiro-Mathes gave an overview of TLC and the upcoming programming as well as the rebranding of the network. Two new Real Estate series are in the works and will launch in August. One of them will be hosted by Kirsten Kemp Becker and the other will be called Over Designed.

ESPN was also up today at the press tour. They have quite a few films and documentaries in the works. Spike Lee and Steve Nash are producing the documentary 30/30. Branch Rickey III, grandson of Jackie Robinson, is producing the Jackie Robinson/Branch Rickey project.

Sundance Channel was touting Architecture School, a new series launching August 20. This six-part series follows the students in the URBANbuild program at Tulane University's highly celebrated School of Architecture as they submit competing designs and build the winning design in the devastated city of New Orleans. Sundance/IFC will also premiere Spectacle: Elvis Costello with... in December. A series of 13 one-hour programs hosted by legendary singer/songwriter Elvis Costello and executive produced by Sir Elton John, this show is conceived to provide a forum for in-depth discussion and musical performance with a variety of musicians, artists and personalities.

HBO was next and they were talking about the special Ricky Gervais Comedy Special, coming this Fall. They also talked about Generation Kill, a mini-series launching this Sunday. Executive produced and co-written by David Simon and Ed Burns, the team behind the critically acclaimed HBO series, The Wire, this seven-part miniseries tells the true story of young U.S. Marines of the elite First Reconnaissance Battalion whose unit was part of the first wave of the American military assault on Baghdad in 2003. On August 18, they will air Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House. Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House profiles iconic journalist Helen Thomas, a tour de force in political reporting, who has covered the White House and every president since John F. Kennedy. In September, HBO will launch a new comedy series, Little Britain USA. Matt Lucas and David Walliams, the stars of the smash-hit BBC comedy Little Britain headline this new HBO comedy series set in contemporary America. This series will feature favorite Little Britain characters in new sketches, as well as brand-new American characters, and was shot on location in North Carolina and Los Angeles before a live audience. HBO will also launch a new drama series called True Blood on September 7. Based on the popular Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is created by Alan Ball, creator of HBO's Emmy-winning series, Six Feet Under. This series takes place in the not-too-distant future, when, thanks to the invention of synthetic blood, vampires no longer need humans for their fix, and can walk freely, if not yet comfortably, among their living counterparts.

Finally, GSN was promoting its new original game show Catch 21, which launches July 21 with a 40-episode order. Created by executive producer Merrill Heatter, Catch 21 melds pop trivia with the excitement of the classic card game, 21. Built from GSN.com's online game "Catch 21," the show, hosted by Alfonso Ribeiro (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), will showcase three contestants competing to win larger-than-life playing cards and trying to build the closest hand to 21. With every card they are dealt, contestants gain the power to make their opponents hand worse by passing their card.