Thursday, April 21, 2011
BET 2011 Upfront; Remembering Sol Saks and Jon Cedar
We won't repeat ourselves, but we do have more details and casting for the upcoming new comedy. In Reed Between the Lines, Alex is an English professor. Carla's a psychologist. Theirs is quite the contemporary blended Black family, and the couple's hands are beyond full parenting teenage twins and an outspoken 7-year-old daughter. Watch as the couple navigates modern family life and marriage with warmth, wit and humor. Tracee Ellis Ross (Girlfriends), Malcolm-Jamal Warner (The Cosby Show), Anna Maria Horsford (Amen) and Melissa De Sousa (The Best Man) star in this new BET original scripted comedy series.
Sol Saks, a veteran comedy writer who created the classic ABC sitcom Bewitched, died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia on April 16 in Los Angeles at the age of 100. He began his career as a radio actor as a child. Saks would later write for radio comedies such as Duffy's Tavern and early television sitcoms including My Favorite Husband, Mr. Adams and Eve and I Married Joan. In addition to his writing work for radio and television, he wrote the screenplay for Cary Grant's final film in 1966, the comedy Walk, Don't Run. In 1985, he wrote The Craft of Comedy Writing.
In 1964, he created the long-running and successful Bewitched for ABC. According to harpiesbizarre.com, Saks drew inspiration for the story about a witch who weds a mortal man from two films: I Married a Witch (1942), starring Fredric March and Veronica Lake, and Bell Book and Candle (1958), with James Stewart and Kim Novak. He would write only the pilot episode of the series that was titled, "I, Darrin, Take This Witch, Samantha."
You can view an extensive 2009 interview with Saks at the Television Academy Foundation’s Archive of American Television at www.emmytvlegends.org . We thank Mr. Saks for bringing us the classic Screen Gems sitcom Bewitched. Unfortunately, Bewitched is currently off the TV Land schedule. He will be missed.
Veteran character actor Jon Cedar died April 14 at Providence Tarzana Medical Center in Los Angeles after a brief battle with leukemia. He was 80.
His career began as a youngster on the stage. He would travel across the country with his family and appear off-Broadway and in national tours in shows including The Deputy and South Pacific.
Cedar is probably best known for his regular role as the lovable Corporal Langenscheidt on the 1965-71 sitcom Hogan's Heroes. He played one of Sergeant Schult'z guards. Some of his many television guest appearances included Ben Casey, Mission: Impossible, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Kojak, Starsky and Hutch, The Rockford Files, The Incredible Hulk, The Greatest American Hero, Dynasty, Hardcastle and McCormick, Diff'rent Strokes, Moonlighting, Murder, She Wrote, and Matlock. He wrote, produced and appeared in the 1978 Tony Curtis film The Manitou. Some of his other feature film roles included Foxy Brown, Death Hunt, Capricorn One and Murder in Mind.
Cedar is survived by his actor brother George, actress daughter, Loren Thompson, his producer son, Michael Cedar, and his longtime companion, Elynore Leigh. Mr. Cedar will be missed.
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Wednesday, December 25
The Conners - "Yard Sale, Phone Fail and a College Betrayal" (The CW, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Louise starts to move into the Conners' home; Dan decides to sell the furniture set he bought for Roseanne when they were first married; Dan soon finds parting with the furniture harder than he thought it would be.
The Conners - "The Dog Days of Christmas" (The CW, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Dan meets his in-laws for the first time when Louise's family comes to visit; Darlene helps Becky with a parenting problem.
Bob Hearts Abishola - "A Big, White Thumb" (The CW, 9:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Abishola invites Bob to an intimate part of her life -- church; Kemi fights with Ogechi to be Chukwuemeka's favorite.
Bob Hearts Abishola - "Sock Wife!" (The CW, 9:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Bob's past and present collide when his ex-wife is admitted to Abishola's hospital; Christina recruits Kofo for a project to rename the sock colors.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 23)
Wednesday, December 25
- Martin Short (Only Murders in the Building/Mulaney/I'm a Big Girl Now/The Associates) - Watch Martin on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Mark Duplass (Big Mouth/Togetherness/The Mindy Project/The League), Kate Micucci (Raising Hope/Scrubs) and Pete Holmes (How We Roll/Crashing) - Mark, Kate and Pete are guests on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Deon Cole (grown-ish/Angie Tribeca/black-ish) - Deon sits down to chat about his new comedy special and touring with Martin Lawrence on a repeat of Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
- Hilary Swank (Camp Wilder) - NBC's Today catches up with Hilary in the 9am hour.
- Pamela Anderson (Stacked/Home Improvement) - NBC's Today catches up with Pamela in the 10am hour.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
09/10 - Rick and Morty - The Complete Seasons 1-7
09/10 - The Ropers - The Complete Series (VEI)
09/10 - Ted - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
09/17 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - Video Scrapbook
09/17 - Top Cat - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
09/24 - Friends - The Complete Series (4K UHD)
09/24 - Young Sheldon - The Complete Seventh Season (DVD) / The Complete Series (DVD) (Blu-ray)
10/08 - Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete Twelfth Season / The Complete Series
10/22 - Veep - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
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)
02/04 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
More Recent and Upcoming TV DVD and Blu-ray Releases / TV Shows on DVD, Blu-ray and Prime Video / DVD Reviews Archive
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