Saturday, February 08, 2014
SitcomsOnline Digest: New Amazon.com Pilots; New Donna Reed Show DVD Rumors; April Mill Creek DVD Releases
- Pilot season has returned to amazon.com! Once again, the website has introduced ten new pilots for potential Prime series that fans can watch, and ultimately choose which ones will be produced as new series to be streamed exclusively through the website. Last year, this introduced both Alpha House and Betas. Among the current batch, there are three comedy pilots, so check them out and let them know what you think. (New York Times)
- Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup is getting even bigger, and will soon include all of primetime hours as the start time for the lineup moves to 8 PM beginning March 31. The lineup launched in September 2001 with a start time of 11 PM and has slowly been adding time over the years. King of the Hill will kick off the lineup in the 8 PM hour, a role that it currently serves in the 9 PM hour. (Multichannel News)
- Last week was a great week for showrunner Chuck Lorre. Lorre, who has four primetime sitcoms that he can call his own on CBS, managed to have all four of his sitcoms land in the Nielsen Top 20 last week among adults last week, a feat that hasn't been accomplished by any showrunner since the introduction of electronic ratings measurement in 1991. (Deadline)
- Of course, not everybody is a fan of Chuck Lorre. Charlie Sheen, in particular, is not a fan of Lorre, nor is he a fan of Ashton Kutcher, who replaced him on Two and a Half Men. This week on Twitter, Sheen apologized to Kutcher for some of the things he has said about him on Twitter... but then followed up with another tweet that was a lot less pleasant. (Deadline)
- Good Times turns 40 years old today, and you can celebrate the anniversary with the 12 hour marathon airing today on Antenna TV. (SitcomsOnline)
HOME MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
- We've posted plenty of very credible rumors about releases of The Donna Reed Show on DVD over the years (thanks to a poster on Home Theater Forum who has been regularly communicating with Mary Owen, Donna's daughter), and this week, it seems that this source has some new inside scoop regarding re-releases of the first three seasons. MPI is now working on plans to re-release the first three seasons, which were released by another studio and are now out-of-print, and fixing many of the technical problems that plagued those releases. Not all of the news is great, though. MPI has been trying to negotiate releasing the final three seasons of the series as well, and the rights for these seasons are held by Sony. Negotiations are still going on here and there really hasn't been any progress in getting this accomplished, but there seems to be some hope that something can be worked out in the future.
- Mill Creek has a few more re-releases in the horizon. On April 1, they will release The Cosby Show - Seasons 3 and 4, I Dream of Jeannie - Seasons 1 and 2, Married with Children - Seasons 3 and 4, and Newsradio - Seasons 1 and 2. Each will come at a $14.98 MSRP, but as usual, expect to find nice discounts on all of them.
- For those who didn't get the complete series release of Mama's Family (but would still like the series), Mama's Family - The Complete Fourth Season is on the way on June 24 from StarVista Entertainment. The four disc set will come at a $29.95 MSRP.
- Shout! Factory is already preparing to bring fans another season of L.A. Law, announcing it even before the upcoming release of L.A. Law - Season One. On May 20, L.A. Law - Season Two arrives on DVD at a $29.93 MSRP.
FEBRUARY 11 HOME MEDIA RELEASES
- Newhart - The Complete Second Season (DVD, $29.93): Shout! Factory puts together the second season of this classic Bob Newhart sitcom (review).
Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Tuesday, June 24
none scheduled
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of June 23)
Tuesday, June 24
- Tiffany Haddish (The Last O.G./The Carmichael Show) - Catch Tiffany on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Alan Tudyk (Suburgatory) - Alan appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Jay Pharoah (White Famous/Champaign ILL) - Jay is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Frankie Grande (Henry Danger/Danger Force) - Frankie stops by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Jason Mantzoukas (Big Mouth/No Activity/The League) - Jason appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Jason Ritter (Another Period/The Class) and Joel Kim Booster (Loot/Shrill) - Jason and Joel are guests on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Matty Matheson (The Bear) - Matty chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Brandy Norwood (Zoe Ever After/The Game/Moesha/Thea) - Brandy and Monica talk about The Boy is Mine Tour on ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis at 7pm.
- Allison Williams (Girls) - Allison talks about M3GAN 2.0 on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
- Niecy Nash-Betts (Reno 911!/Getting On/The Soul Man/Do Not Disturb) - Niecy guest co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
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)
07/08 - 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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