SitcomsOnline.com News Blog: June 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014

Girl Meets World Premiere Does Big in Ratings; Remembering Meshach Taylor of Designing Women, Dave's World

It's back and it's off to a great start! The highly-anticipated premiere of the comedy series Girl Meets World (which reunites Cory and Topanga of Boy Meets World) delivered 5.2 million Total Viewers and ranked as the #1 series launch of 2014 among major target youth demographics: Kids 2-11 (2.3 million/5.7 rating), Kids 6-11 (1.8 million/7.7 rating) and Tweens 9-14 (1.7 million/6.9 rating). The premiere aired Friday night at a special time of 9:45pm, following the premiere of the Disney Channel Original Movie Zapped, starring Disney Channel and Disney XD favorites Zendaya and Spencer Boldman, which delivered 5.7 million Total Viewers. Girl Meets World will air regularly every Friday night at 8:30pm beginning next Friday (July 11) only on Disney Channel. Look for guest appearances from other former Boy Meets World stars throughout this first season (of 21 episodes).

Girl Meets World, from executive producer Michael Jacobs, tells the wonderfully funny, heartfelt stories that the nostalgic favorite ABC sitcom Boy Meets World is renowned for - only this time from a tween girl's perspective. It introduces Rowan Blanchard as Riley Matthews, the tween daughter of Cory and Topanga Matthews, while Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel reprise the roles of one of television's favorite couples. Sabrina Carpenter (Sofia the First and a Hollywood Records recording artist) plays Riley's best friend, Maya Hart. August Maturo plays younger brother Auggie Matthews, Peyton Meyer plays Riley's crush Lucas Friar and Corey Fogelmanis is Farkle, an intelligent and quirky classmate (and son of Minkus).

Meschach Taylor

Actor Meshach Taylor, best known for his roles as Anthony Bouvier in Designing Women and as Dr. Sheldon Baylor in Dave's World, has died. He died from cancer on June 28 at his home in Altadena, California. Mr. Taylor was 67.

Taylor's early television career included guest appearances in Barnaby Jones, The Incredible Hulk, The White Shadow, M*A*S*H, Barney Miller and Cagney & Lacey. He landed his first starring role as Tony in the 1983-84 NBC sitcom Buffalo Bill. The short-lived series starred Dabney Coleman, Joanna Cassidy, John Fielder, Max Wright, Geena Davis and Charles Robinson. The critically-acclaimed series received 11 Emmy Award nominations, including two for Outstanding Comedy Series.

Designing Women

Taylor starred as Anthony Bouvier in the 1986-93 CBS sitcom Designing Women. The popular series ran for 7 seasons. It starred Delta Burke, Dixie Carter, Jean Smart and Annie Potts. Anthony was an ex-con who worked as the deliveryman-handyman at the interior decorating business, Sugarbakers. He later became a partner of the design firm. Taylor received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1989. He reprised his role of Anthony Bouvier in an episode of the spin-off series Women of the House in 1995. In 2003, he appeared in The Designing Women Reunion on Lifetime.

Dave's World

He next starred as Dr. Sheldon Baylor in the 1993-97 CBS sitcom Dave's World. The series was based on the writing of Pulitzer Prize-winning Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry. It focused on the daily trials and tribulations of Barry and his family. The series starred Harry Anderson, DeLane Matthews, Shadoe Stevens, J.C. Wendel, Zane Carney and Andrew Ducote. Sheldon (Shel) was their neighbor and Dave's best friend from high school. He was a recently divorced plastic surgeon.

Taylor had a recurring role in the 2004-07 Nickelodeon sitcom Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. He played Alastair Wright, the social studies teacher and later school principal. Some of his other sitcom guest appearances included The Golden Girls, ALF, What's Happening Now!!, Punky Brewster, Caroline in the City, The Drew Carey Show, All of Us, Hannah Montana and Jessie. His best known film role was as Hollywood Montrose, a flamboyant window dresser in Mannequin. Some of his other film credits included Damien: Omen II, The Howling, Explorers, The Allnighter and Mannequin Two: On the Move.

Survivors include his wife of 30 years, Bianca Ferguson; his daughters Yasmine, Tamar and Esme; his son, Tariq; and four grandchildren. Mr. Taylor was a very talented actor. He added so much to Designing Women. We thank him for the laughter he brought us over the years. He will be greatly missed.

Share your memories on our Designing Women message board. View photos in our galleries.

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Summer 2014 Week 5 Sitcom Ratings

We are in the summer season in television. We will be back with our normal weekly ratings report with the first four nights numbers and analysis in the fall, but we still will have our regular how the sitcoms did all summer long! We have some new broadcast sitcom airings this summer, see below. Here are our summer ratings:

Summer Week 5 (June 23-29) How the Sitcoms Did
(Sun comedies are previous week and Fri/Sat are prelim ratings)
Sorted by 18-49 Rtg
Title	Network	Time	Day	Total Viewers	18-49 Rtg	Notes

The Big Bang Theory	CBS	8:00PM	Thu	8,022,000	1.71	REPEAT
Family Guy	Fox	9:00PM	Sun	2,603,000	1.33	REPEAT
Modern Family	ABC	9:00PM	Wed	4,186,000	1.25	REPEAT
The Simpsons	Fox	8:30PM	Sun	2,580,000	1.21	REPEAT
The Millers	CBS	8:30PM	Thu	5,337,000	1.17	REPEAT
American Dad!	Fox	9:30PM	Sun	2,226,000	1.16	REPEAT
The Middle	ABC	8:00PM	Wed	4,545,000	1.13	REPEAT
Mike & Molly	CBS	9:00PM	Mon	5,410,000	1.10	REPEAT
The Goldbergs	ABC	8:30PM	Wed	3,968,000	1.05	REPEAT
The Goldbergs	ABC	9:30PM	Wed	3,383,000	1.01	REPEAT
Two and a Half Men	CBS	9:30PM	Mon	4,700,000	1.00	REPEAT
2 Broke Girls	CBS	8:00PM	Mon	4,712,000	0.98	REPEAT
Mom	CBS	8:30PM	Mon	4,656,000	0.96	REPEAT
The Simpsons	Fox	8:00PM	Sun	2,182,000	0.94	REPEAT
Undateable	NBC	9:30PM	Thu	2,448,000	0.81
Family Guy	Fox	8:00PM	Tue	1,900,000	0.81	REPEAT
Undateable	NBC	9:00PM	Thu	2,630,000	0.76
Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Fox	8:30PM	Tue	1,218,000	0.55	REPEAT
Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Fox	9:00PM	Tue	1,208,000	0.52	REPEAT
The Mindy Project	Fox	9:30PM	Tue	1,032,000	0.46	REPEAT
American Dad!	Fox	7:30PM	Sun	1,002,000	0.43	REPEAT
Enlisted	Fox	7:00PM	Sun	905,000	0.27	canceled
Comedytime (R)	CBS	8:30PM	Sat			preempted
Comedytime (R)	CBS	8:00PM	Sat			preempted
Bob's Burgers	Fox	7:00PM	Sun			preempted
Animation Domination	Fox	7:00PM	Sun			preempted
Animnation Domination	Fox	7:30PM	Sun			preempted
About a Boy	NBC	9:00PM	Tue			completed
New Girl	Fox	9:00PM	Tue			completed
Last Man Standing	ABC	8:00PM	Fri			completed
Parks & Recreation	NBC	8:00PM	Thu			completed
How I Met Your Mother	CBS	8:00PM	Mon			ended
Growing Up Fisher	NBC	8:00PM	Wed			canceled
Friends with Better Lives	CBS	8:30PM	Mon			canceled
Bad Teacher	CBS	9:30PM	Thu			canceled
Mixology	ABC	9:30PM	Wed			canceled
Suburgatory	ABC	8:30PM	Wed			canceled
Trophy Wife	ABC	9:30PM	Tue			canceled
Surviving Jack	Fox	9:30PM	Thu			canceled
Dads	Fox	8:00PM	Tue			canceled
Super Fun Night	ABC	9:30PM	Wed			canceled
Community	NBC	8:00PM	Thu			canceled
The Crazy Ones	CBS	9:30PM	Thu			canceled
The Neighbors	ABC	8:30PM	Fri			canceled
Raising Hope	Fox	9:30PM	Fri			canceled
Enlisted	Fox	9:00PM	Fri			canceled
Sean Saves the World	NBC	9:00PM	Thu			canceled
The Michael J. Fox Show	NBC	9:30PM	Thu			canceled
We Are Men	CBS	8:30PM	Mon			canceled
Welcome to the Family	NBC	8:30PM	Thu			canceled
Back in the Game	ABC	8:30PM	Wed			canceled

SOURCE: Nielsen Media Research

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Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Friday, July 3

The Dick Van Dyke Show - Now in Living Color! - (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
CBS will honor the memory of legendary actor, producer, director, writer, comedian and Emmy Award winner Carl Reiner with THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW – NOW IN LIVING COLOR! A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO CARL REINER, featuring two colorized back-to-back classic episodes of the beloved 1960s series, Friday, July 3 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. As series creator and co-star, Carl Reiner personally supervised the original colorization of the episodes.

The special features “Coast to Coast Big Mouth,” which ranked #8 on TV Guide’s list of the “100 Greatest TV Episodes of All-Time,” and “October Eve,” which Mr. Reiner considered to be one of the series’ funniest episodes. Both were written by Bill Persky and Sam Denoff.

In “Coast to Coast Big Mouth,” Laura Petrie blurts out a top secret on a national television quiz show, revealing that comedian Alan Brady wears a toupee. The episode, which was the show’s fifth and final season premiere, was originally broadcast on Sept. 15, 1965. “Coast to Coast Big Mouth” won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 1966.

In “October Eve,” a painting of Laura returns to haunt her when, despite her having posed fully clothed, the artist (played by Carl Reiner) takes the liberty of “undraping” her. The episode was first presented on April 8, 1964, during season three.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of June 29)

Friday, July 3

Kevin Hart (The Big House/Undeclared) - Watch Kevin on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 12:35am on ABC.
Tina Fey (30 Rock) - Tina appears on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Laura Dern (Enlightened) - Laura is a guest on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Mark Duplass (Togetherness/The Mindy Project/The League) - Mark appears on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly/Samantha Who?) - Melissa guest hosts a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Brett Gelman (Camping/Fleabag/Love/Married/Go On) - Brett appears on a repeat of A Little Late with Lilly Singh at 1:35am on NBC.
Tika Sumpter (mixed-ish/The Game) - Tika talks about the season finale of mixed-ish and her latest project helping new moms on a repeat of Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
Peter Gallagher (Grace and Frankie/The Secret Lives of Men) - Peter talks about Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist and Grace and Frankie on a repeat of Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.