Thursday, April 23, 2009
ABC Announces 12 Early Pick-Ups for 2009-2010, Returns Millionaire in Summer; GSN's Classic TV Airings
Meanwhile, Regis is back in ABC primetime! Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the smash hit Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? comes back to ABC this summer for a special two-week event. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? premieres Sunday, August 9, 2009 at 8:00PM ET/PT and will air for 11 nights from Sunday-Thursday at 8:00PM, with the finale on Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 8:00PM.
Can you believe it has been 10 years? The show launched on Aug. 16, 1999 at 8:30pm as a half-hour series and aired all seven days for two weeks. We will see an hour of course in this run and Sun-Thurs instead of all seven days. A few weeks ago I said ABC would do a two-week run like this in August, and I turned up being right. Now if this is a success, I can see ABC doing a similar two-week run in December. ABC usually airs repeats then and when hey air new episodes, they are usually lower anyway. So Millionaire would be a great option for December, especially following holiday specials. One week they can even have ABC stars playing for charity for the holidays. I would also schedule Millionaire once or twice a week in January and February, as ABC usually needs help then. But before we think that far ahead, right now this is just a two-week anniversary event in August.
Speaking of Millionaire, GSN is airing the classic TV edition from 2001 starting this weekend! If you've never seen this or need to record and save this, now is your chance! GSN will air all four nights of this edition on Sunday, April 26; Saturday, May 2; Sunday, May 3; and Saturday, May 9 all from 5-6PM ET. The classic TV stars appearing and playing for a million dollars for charity are Adam West (Batman), Kim Fields (The Facts of Life), Florence Henderson (The Brady Bunch), Cindy Williams (Laverne & Shirley), Melissa Gilbert (Little House on the Prairie), Danny Bonaduce (The Partridge Family), Valerie Bertinelli (One Day at a Time), Marion Ross (Happy Days), Sherman Hemsley (The Jeffersons, Amen), and Ted Lange (The Love Boat).
Elsewhere on GSN, we have some other noteworthy specials. On Saturday, May 9 from 9-10PM we have a special Mother's Day themed episode from 2002 of Weakest Link with Classic TV Moms! Pat Crowley (Please Don't Eat the Daisies), Karen Grassle (Little House on the Prairie), June Lockhart (Lassie), Jo Marie Payton (Family Matters), Janet Hubert (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), Carol Potter (Beverly Hills 90210), Beverly Garland (Lois & Clark), and Alley Mills (The Wonder Years).
On Mother's Day (Sunday, May 10) itself, GSN has a marathon of the Donny Osmond revival of Pyramid from 9am-4pm, and we have one episode from a Classic TV week in this marathon at 9:30am featuring Marion Ross and Erin Moran of Happy Days.
Sticking to our game show theme today, Chris Mann of Retroality.TV has posted a story on his take on Bob Barker's new book, Priceless Memories. See the real scoop on Bob and see video interviews with former Barker's Beauties models Holly Hallstrom and Dian Parkinson. It is quite an interesting read, and Chris has a book coming out on the drama behind the camera of the popular game show as well. We'll let you know more on that when available.
But for now, read his take on Barker's new book.
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Friday, September 19
Ghosts - "It’s the End of the World as We Know It and What Were We Talking About?" (CBS, 9:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Flower interferes with the opening of Jay’s restaurant based on a prophecy from her old cult leader.
Vampirina: Teenage Vampire - "First Dance" (Disney Channel, 8:00PM ET/PT)
In the lead up to the Wilson Hall Welcome Dance, Vee and Elijah struggle with power imbalances; Sophie searches for her DJ persona.
Vampirina: Teenage Vampire - "First Parents Day" (Disney Channel, 8:30PM ET/PT)
When Parents Day sneaks up on Vee and Elijah, they struggle to keep their parents from meeting; Demi learns how to disguise his ghostly form.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of September 15)
Friday, September 19
- Stephen Curry (Mr. Throwback) - Watch Stephen on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Eugene Levy (Schitt's Creek/Greg the Bunny/Hiller and Diller) - Eugene is a guest on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Julio Torres (Fantasmas/Los Espookys) - Julio appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Oscar Montoya (Minx) - Oscar is a guest on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Michael Chiklis (Daddio) - Michael talks about The Senior on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am and on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
- Patti LaBelle (Out All Night) - Patti talks about The Queens: 4 Legends, 1 Stage on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7pm.
- Brett Goldstein (Shrinking/Ted Lasso) - Brett talks about All of You on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7pm.
- Rosie Perez (Human Resources/Search Party) - Rosie co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Eugene Levy (Schitt's Creek/Greg the Bunny/Hiller and Diller) - Eugene talks about The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Emayatzy Corinealdi (Ballers) Emayatzy talks about Reasonable Doubt on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Valerie Bertinelli (Hot in Cleveland/One Day at a Time) - Valerie is covering the news sunny-side up with Drew and Ross on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
01/28 - Wait Till Your Father Gets Home - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/04 - The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series
03/11 - Frasier (2023) - Season Two
04/01 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Third Season
05/13 - The Drew Carey Show - The Complete Series* (missing 4 episodes and some music has been replaced or altered)
06/06 - Shoresy - Season 2
06/17 - Looney Tunes - Collector's Vault - Volume 1 (Blu-ray)
07/22 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
08/26 - The Huckleberry Hound Show - The Complete Original Series (Blu-ray)
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