Friday, November 07, 2008

Fox 2008-09 Midseason Schedule; ABC Episode Cuts for Midseason; Interviews with Leonard Stern and Lydia Cornell On The Web

Fox has announced the winter portion of its 2008-09 midseason schedule. The wait is almost over as Fox announces premiere dates of new and returning series as well as revisions to its 2008-2009 midseason schedule.
January starts with the not-to-be-missed blockbuster premieres of 24 and American Idol. We announced already 24 would launch with a two night premiere. American Idol returns for Season Eight with a two-night, four-hour premiere event as well, on Tuesday, Jan. 13 and Wednesday, Jan. 14 from 8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT.
All-new episodes of House, Bones, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Hole in the Wall will air on new nights in midseason. Get real on Mondays with all-new episodes of House leading into real-time drama 24, as Emmy-winning medical drama House moves to Mondays 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT and has its time period premiere Jan. 19 followed by the time period premiere of 24 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT. It looks to me Fox is afraid how 24 would do with a rookie or a declining series like Sarah Connor as its lead-in, so Fox is moving House yet again to help (or save?) 24.
Fringe will air in its regular time period Tuesdays (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) after American Idol starting Jan. 20 to try and become a "real" hit.
Lie To Me, the compelling new drama from the producers of 24, debuts Wednesday, Jan. 21 from 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT after American Idol and stars Tim Roth as Dr. Cal Lightman, the world's leading deception expert who studies facial expressions and involuntary body language to discover not only if someone is lying, but why. Fox obviously believes in this show over its other new drama...and that drama was much highly touted at upfront, so something must have went wrong creatively.
Bones moves to Thursdays from 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT beginning Jan. 15 followed by the final two all-new episodes of the season of Kitchen Nightmares in its 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT time period. On Thursday, Jan. 29 from 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT, Chef Gordon Ramsay steps into another kitchen to serve up a fifth course of Hell's Kitchen, the unscripted series that puts wannabe restaurateurs through a rigorous one-of-a-kind culinary boot camp. Fox is moving Bones once again...what has moved more--Bones or House?
On Friday, Feb. 13, Fox presents a thrilling new action-packed lineup featuring the return and time period premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles from 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT and the highly anticipated series premiere of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse from 9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT. Dollhouse reunites Whedon with Eliza Dushku, who stars as a member of a highly illegal underground group of individuals who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas. Current game shows Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? and Don't Forget the Lyrics! will air on the night until Feb. 13.
Saturday remains the same, as does Sundays except Hole in the Wall will return and air Sundays 7:00 and 7:30 PM ET/PT beginning Jan. 18. Current batch of Animation Domination will remain the same this winter.
Fox has not announced when Prison Break and 'Til Death will return, but it is likely they will return sometime in Spring 2009. My bet is Prison Break will take over one of the Friday slots when returning for its final episodes. Also, Fox has yet to announce premiere dates for their two new animated series (Sit Down, Shut Up & The Cleveland Show), but that will also likely be in the Spring.
Check out the full Fox Winter portion of its 2008-09 mid-season schedule, it includes all dates for the BCS games.

Meanwhile at ABC, due to so many series coming this midseason on ABC, they have cut the episode orders for upcoming new procedual dramas Castle and The Unusuals from 13 episodes to 10 episodes. Nothing is wrong creatively wise, but ABC has a lot of stuff coming. Scripted series wise this winter, ABC has Lost as well as six new scripted series launching in midseason, the aforementioned Castle & The Unusuals, hourlong Cupid and comedies In The Motherhood, Better Off Ted and The Goode Family. Not to mention the return of long-running sitcoms Scrubs and According to Jim. They could be joined by the Bill Lawrence (Scrubs) produced comedy starring Courteney Cox (Friends), called Cougar Town, which was fast-tracked last week with a pilot order targeted for midseason. Unscripted wise look for The Bachelor to return and new reality series True Beauty and docudrama Border Security USA. ABC also could return Here Come the Newlyweds, or maybe they will save it for summer.
ABC has however canceled upcoming single-camera sitcom starring Alyssa Milano called Single with Parents and it won't launch this midseason due to creative reasons. ABC released the following statement: "Unfortunately, we could not agree on the creative direction for this show and have decided not to move forward with this project." That is too bad because I thought the cast was great and the clips they released were funny. They need to put Alyssa Milano on one of their current series, preferably a drama like Lost or Grey's Anatomy.

Two websites have announced new interviews. Legendary TV producer Leonard Stern talks about the classic TV series Get Smart and his participation in the DVD release of Get Smart: The Complete Series Gift Set, in an interview on the Internet radio show TV Time Machine (http://www.tvtimemachine.com/), hosted by TV historian Jim Benson. From 1965-1970, Leonard Stern served as executive producer and frequent writer and director on Get Smart, starring Don Adams as Maxwell Smart Secret Agent 86 and Barbara Feldon as Agent 99. Mr. Stern talks extensively about providing commentary for the current DVD release of Get Smart: The Complete Series Gift Set, his views on last summer's Get Smart movie starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway, and the amazing longevity of his classic TV spy spoof. So check out tvtimemachine.com for this interesting audio interview!
Last week if you all recall, we interviewed Lydia Cornell (Too Close for Comfort) on our Seven Questions feature, and now our buddy Chris Mann of Retroality.TV has also interviewed Lydia! The interview was posted in time for Election Day and covers lots of political questions for Lydia that we didn't go into. It is very interesting, and you can call it a "spin-off" of our interview! He also asks her lots of questions related to Too Close for Comfort. Chris does a great job, as usual! Go and check out his interview; it is the feature story on his website this month!


Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Monday, March 31

The Neighborhood - "Welcome to the Signature Service Loyalty Rewards Program" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Malcom receives an unexpected call from USC’s athletic director about a baseball head coach vacancy. Meanwhile, Calvin and Marty start a new signature loyalty rewards program at The Fuse Box.

Poppa's House - "Say Wha?!" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Junior’s fundraising effort for his film takes a dramatic turn when he discovers Poppa’s flea market purchase is worth a fortune. Vivica A. Fox guest stars as “Judge SayWha.”

Complete TV Listings


Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of March 31)

Monday, March 31

  • Jennifer Coolidge (2 Broke Girls/Joey) - Watch Jennifer on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
  • Britt Lower (Ghosted/Man Seeking Woman/Big Lake) - Britt appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
  • Nathan Lane (Mid-Century Modern/Only Murders in the Building/Modern Family/Charlie Lawrence/Encore! Encore!/One of the Boys) - Nathan stops by Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
  • Maria Bamford (Lady Dynamite/Benched) - Maria is a guest on After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
  • Jay Ellis (Running Point/Insecure/The Game) - Jay talks about Running Point and Freaky Tales on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am and on CBS Mornings Plus in the 9am hour.
  • Sara Gilbert (The Conners/Bad Teacher/The Big Bang Theory/The Class/Roseanne) - Sara chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT. She also talks about The Conners on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
  • Michelle Buteau (Survival of the Thickest/Bless the Harts/Enlisted) - Michelle talks about Survival of the Thickest on NBC's Today in the 10am hour and on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7pm.
  • Michael Angarano (Laid/I'm Dying Up Here/Will & Grace) - Michael talks about Sacramento on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7pm.
  • Olivia Munn (Perfect Couples) - Olivia guest co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
  • Eva Longoria (Only Murders in the Building/Telenovela) - Eva talks about Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip on Sherri, so check your local listings.
  • Valerie Bertinelli (Hot in Cleveland/Café Americain/Sydney/One Day at a Time) - Valerie is joining Drew and Ross to hit the headlines in an all-new Drew's News on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.


New on DVD and Blu-ray

I Love Lucy - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Seinfeld - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray) The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series Frasier (2023) - Season Two

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)
01/28 - Wait Till Your Father Gets Home - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/04 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
02/04 - The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series
03/11 - Frasier (2023) - Season Two
04/01 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Third Season

More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD and Blu-ray Releases / TV Shows on DVD, Blu-ray and Prime Video / DVD Reviews Archive


Recent SitcomsOnline.com News Blog Posts

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03/30 - Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of March 31, 2025)
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03/28 - Pat Sajak's Final Spin on Wheel and Return of Jeopardy! Masters; Remembering George Foreman and Wings Hauser
03/27 - IFC Renews SisterS for Season 2; Netflix Orders Live-Action Scooby-Doo Series
03/26 - Hulu Spring 2025 Slate; The Making of The Americas Special Narrated by Tom Hanks on NBC
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03/24 - Peacock April Highlights Include Three's Company; Antenna TV's 50 Years on the Beat Barney Miller Anniversary Marathon
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03/14 - NBC Comedy Pilots Wheeling & Dealing; Hulu's Got to Get Out
03/13 - Prime Video Comedy Series Overcompensating Premiere Date; Eric Stonestreet Joins Dexter: Resurrection
03/12 - Hacks Season 4 Premieres April 10; Nickelodeon Orders Wylde Pak
03/11 - The Neighborhood Renewed for Final Season; Max's The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast
03/10 - Netflix Renews Running Point for Season 2; Apple TV+ Trailer for The Studio
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03/07 - Trailer for Apple TV+ Comedy Government Cheese; Remembering Saved by the Bell and TV Producer Peter Engel
03/06 - The CW Spring Premiere Dates; Henry Winkler Heads to HISTORY Channel
03/05 - Hacks Brings Out the Stars in Season 4; NBC Orders Pilot with Tracy Morgan
03/04 - Apple TV+ Side Quest Launches March 26; Krysten Ritter Joins Dexter: Resurrection
03/03 - HBO's The Rehearsal Returns April 20; Sharon Horgan Signs Deal for HBO Comedy Series
03/02 - Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows; This Week in Sitcoms (Week of March 3, 2025)
03/01 - SitcomsOnline Digest: Premiere Date for Mid-Century Modern Set; Roseanne Remastered in High Definition