BET 2011 Upfront; Remembering Sol Saks and Jon Cedar

Thursday, April 21, 2011

BET 2011 Upfront; Remembering Sol Saks and Jon Cedar

We mentioned details on BET's plans for comedy last Friday, but now BET officially announced plans to renew The Game and Let's Stay Together for next season and the new comedy Reed Between the Lines premiering this fall.
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

Monday, May 23

The Neighborhood - "Welcome to the Ring" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT)
As Marty prepares to propose to his girlfriend, Calvin and Tina work with party planner Chika (Gina Yashere) to throw a celebration that properly honors their future daughter-in-law’s Nigerian heritage.

Bob Hearts Abishola - "Beard in Her Pulpit" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT)
When a new charismatic pastor joins their congregation, Abishola is thrilled that Bob has renewed interest in church, but less so when her mother takes a new interest in the pastor. Also, when Dottie gives out bonuses to upper management, Bob must make sure he doesn’t lose his best employee.

Breeders - "No Body" (FX, 10:00PM ET/PT)
Ally and Paul learn the truth about a thing that has been terrifying them; for Ally, her job and for Paul, his MRI result; Ava and Luke both feel frozen out by the people they care most about.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of May 23)

Monday, May 23

D'Arcy Carden (Barry/The Good Place) - Watch D'Arcy on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Billy Crystal (The Comedians/Soap) - Billy appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory/8 Simples Rules/Ladies Man) - Kaley is a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Glen Powell (Scream Queens) - Glen will be on The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Max Greenfield (The Neighborhood/New Girl/Modern Men) - Max appears on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
Howie Mandel (Good Grief) - Howie is a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
Jennifer Lawrence (The Bill Engvall Show) - Jennifer will be on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
Sherri Shepherd (Mr. Iglesias/Trial & Error/Sherri/Less Than Perfect/Suddenly Susan) - Sherri guest hosts The Wendy Williams Show, so check your local listings.
Paul Rudd (Living with Yourself/Wild Oats) - Paul appears on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Jean Smart (Hacks/Samantha Who?/Center of the Universe/In-Laws/Style & Substance/Designing Women) - Jean is a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Carl Clemons-Hopkins (Hacks) - Carl will be on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
Jennifer Aniston (Friends/Muddling Through/Ferris Bueller/Molloy) - Jennifer appears on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
Susan Kelechi Watson (Louie) - Susan talks about This Is Us on Access Daily, so check your local listings.
Jay Ellis (Insecure/The Game) - Jay talks about Top Gun: Maverick on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm. NBC's Today catches up with Jay in the 9am hour.
Ron Howard (Arrested Development/Happy Days/The Andy Griffith Show) - Ron talks about We Feed People on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am.