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
Thursday, April 18
Young Sheldon - "An Ankle Monitor and a Big Plastic Crap House" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Sheldon studies to be Meemaw’s lawyer when she is put on house arrest, and the Coopers have a plumbing emergency.
Ghosts - "Holes Are Bad" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT)
When Sam and Jay leave the ghosts home alone for the weekend in an attempt to have a romantic getaway, shocking revelations are made about two of Woodstone’s beloved spirits.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of April 15)
Thursday, April 18
- Zendaya (K.C. Undercover/Shake It Up) - Catch Zendaya on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Sandra Oh (Arliss) - Sandra is a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS. She talks about Sympathizer on NBC's Today in the 9am hour.
- Reid Scott (Veep/My Boys/It's All Relative) - Reid appears on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Daniel Radcliffe (Miracle Workers) - Daniel will be on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Joel McHale (Animal Control/The Great Indoors/Community) - Joel is a guest on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Dulcé Sloan (The Great North) - Dulcé hosts Comedy Central's The Daily Show at 11pm.
- Chris O'Dowd (The Big Door Prize/Family Tree) - Chris appears on CBS Mornings some time between 7-9am. He chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Tony Danza (Taxi/Who's the Boss?/Hudson Street/The Tony Danza Show) - NBC's Today catches up with Tony in the 10am hour.
- Jurnee Smollett (On Our Own) - Jurnee talks about We Grown Now on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Jay Hernandez (Hang Time) - Jay discusses his new film The Long Game on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
- Lil Rel Howery (Rel/The Carmichael Show) - Lil Rel talks about We Grown Now on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
- Michaela Watkins (Dinner with the Parents/Search Party/The Unicorn/Casual/Trophy Wife) - Michaela is a guest on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
New on DVD/Blu-ray
12/05 - Father Knows Best - The Complete Series
12/05 - The Odd Couple - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
12/12 - The Dick Van Dyke Show - The Complete Series
12/12 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
12/12 - That Girl - The Complete Series
12/15 - Letterkenny - Season 11
12/19 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - The Official Restored Complete Series
12/22 - Three's Company - The Official 40th Anniversary Collection (includes The Ropers and Three's a Crowd)
01/09 - South Park - Seasons 11-15 (Blu-ray)
01/16 - Ghosts (UK) - Season Five
02/13 - Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/27 - The Really Loud House - Season One
03/12 - Ghosts (UK) - The Complete Series
03/12 - Looney Tunes Collector's Choice - Volume 3 (Blu-ray)
03/12 - Rick and Morty - Season 7 (Blu-ray Steelbook) (Blu-ray) (DVD)
04/03 - Too Close for Comfort - The Complete Series (VEI)
04/08 - Check It Out! - The Complete Series (VEI)
More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD Releases / DVD Reviews Archive / SitcomsOnline Digest
Recent SitcomsOnline.com News Blog Posts