SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

The Hub TV Network has announced some changes to its primetime line-up this Fall. This Labor Day, The Hub TV Network celebrates the holiday with the addition of three popular action-packed series for kids and their parents as well as a chance to win one of six $1,000 back-to-school shopping sprees. On Monday, September 3, the live-action series, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Sliders, and the critically lauded Superman: The Animated Series will premiere on The Hub, joining a special Labor Day marathon and sweepstakes for the popular original series The Aquabats! Super Show! The Labor Day marathon (Monday, September 3, noon-3 p.m. ET) will feature six back-to-back episodes of the outrageous comedy-adventure series that follows the greatest crime-fighting rock band ever assembled.

As for the new acquisitions, Sliders will air at 10pm (encore at 4am) from Mondays-Thursdays and features a young genius (Jerry O'Connell, Crossing Jordan) who invents a teleportation device allowing him and his friends to "slide" between parallel worlds, experiencing places that look familiar to their world, but with sometimes vast differences. The series aired from 1995-2000 on Fox (and then later on Sci-Fi). Then, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys will follow at 11pm (encore at 5am) from Mondays-Thursdays and it is an internationally beloved fantasy-action series that features the mythical hero Hercules (Kevin Sorbo, Andromeda) in a time when only one man dared to challenge the gods with a strength the world had never seen before. This series aired from 1995-99 in first-run syndication on weekends. Both Sliders and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys comes from NBCUniversal and New Media Distribution. As for the other acquisition, it will be in non-primetime: Superman: The Animated Series will air 9am every weekday with encores throughout the week (such as weeknights 6:30pm) and follows the legendary superhero in exciting new stories. The series aired from 1996-2000 on the Kids' WB block starring the voices of Tim Daly (Wings, Private Practice) and Dana Delany (Body of Proof, Desperate Housewives).

So what does this mean for The Wonder Years, Laverne & Shirley and Batman, since they currently air Mon-Thurs from 10pm-12am (with 4-6am encores)? They will be off the weekday line-up. In fact, The Wonder Years and Batman will be off the schedule completely. Laverne & Shirley will air late Friday and Saturday nights at 4:00am following an hour of Happy Days, which returns to the schedule, at 3:00am & 3:30am on Friday and Saturday nights. Mork & Mindy will follow and move to these two nights a week at 4:30am. Back to primetime on weeknights, the sitcoms will remain from 8-10pm (encores 2-4am) but Mork & Mindy will not be on Mondays anymore as a Movie will air instead. Sabrina the Teenage Witch will still be on Tuesdays, The Facts of Life on Wednesdays and ALF on Thursdays. On Sunday nights from 8pm-11pm (and an immediate encore from 11pm-2am), Lois & Clark will remain. That drama has done very well for the cable network and perhaps The Hub is banking on Sliders and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys to do the same. Doogie Howser and Family Ties will follow at 2 and 2:30am on Sunday nights, which will now be their only airings during the week. Sabrina will follow in the 3am hour on Sunday nights.

There you have it, the Fall schedule (so far maybe?) for The Hub. View the entire The Hub Fall 2012 schedule for primetime/late night. And stay with us for further updates, as hopefully Batman and The Wonder Years will return sometime soon (if they still have rights?). At least Happy Days, Mork & Mindy and Laverne & Shirley will get to air twice a week in late night and are not completely removed. Stay with us!

Dick Van Dyke, beloved actor, singer, dancer, writer and comedian, will receive SAG-AFTRA's highest honor – the SAG Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Van Dyke will be presented the performers union's most prestigious accolade, given annually to an actor who fosters the "finest ideals of the acting profession," at the 19th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, which premieres live on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2013, at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT. Holder of five Emmys®, a Tony® Award and a Grammy®, Van Dyke at 86 still possesses the zest for life that first propelled him into the limelight more than a half-century ago with the Broadway and film versions of Bye Bye Birdie, the seminal '60s situation comedy The Dick Van Dyke Show and the film classic Mary Poppins. Also, Van Dyke's crime solving physician, Dr. Mark Sloan, was introduced in a 1991 episode of Jake and the Fat Man and became the central character in three TV movies before evolving into the CBS series Diagnosis: Murder.