SitcomsOnline Digest: Undateable Renewed for Second Season; Facts of Life Complete Series Coming to DVD

Saturday, August 02, 2014

SitcomsOnline Digest: Undateable Renewed for Second Season; Facts of Life Complete Series Coming to DVD

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! This week, we've got news of a late renewal for an NBC series, a cancellation for a TV Land series, news about The Facts of Life on DVD, and more. Let's get going!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

Summer premieres for a sitcom are usually seen as a dumping ground, and even Undateable executive producer Bill Lawrence acknowledged that before the show premiered. However, it was renewed. (Deadline)
The TV Land original sitcom Kirstie has been canceled after just one season. (TVLine)
This is our third week reporting it, and The Big Bang Theory cast still hasn't signed new contracts, but it looks like there is a good chance that will be taken care of by Sunday night. (Boston Herald)
A critic at The New York Times shared his negative views on retro TV this week in an opinion piece this week, and we think you'll disagree (as we do). (New York Times)
Musicals seems to be one of the latest trends in specialty programming for the broadcast networks, but NBC and Kathie Lee Gifford may be taking that a bit too far with their musical version of Today, which will actually air on the morning show sometime later this year.. (Huffington Post)
Bewitched is almost 50 years old, and Antenna TV will mark that anniversary with a 50 hour marathon in September. (SitcomsOnline)

HOME MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

Shout! Factory dropped a huge surprise last week, when they announced that they would be releasing The Facts of Life - The Complete Series on DVD sometime next year.
It seems like we can't go more than one week without an update on new special features for The Wonder Years - The Complete Series, and this week, TVShowsOnDVD.com announced a few more.
Mill Creek has a pair of complete series releases in store for November 11, including Highway to Heaven - The Complete Series and Starsky & Hutch - The Complete Series.
For those who aren't necessarily interested in making the big investment into one of the Batman complete series releases, Warner Home Video will also be releasing Batman - The Complete First Season on November 11.
We mentioned in the past that MPI has plans to right some of the wrongs done with The Donna Reed Show on DVD, and part of the plan appears to be to re-release the first three seasons on DVD, beginning with The Donna Reed Show - Season One on September 30.

AUGUST 5 HOME MEDIA RELEASES

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00K31RCCA/ref=nosim/happydaysonline5-20

Dennis the Menace - Lights! Camera! Menace! (DVD, $12.98): The animated version of the comic book page character comes to DVD once again with 32 "new" episodes, almost all of which available on DVD for the very first time.
Mad About You - Seasons 1 and 2 (DVD, $14.98): A Mill Creek re-release of a set previously released by Sony (also available in configurations of just the first season or second season).
The Nanny - Seasons 1 and 2 (DVD, $14.98): Another Mill Creek re-release of a set previously released by Sony (also available in configurations of just the first season or second season).
Perry Mason Movie Collection - Volume 3 (DVD, $59.99): This six movie collection brings more the 80s and 90s movies based upon the classic series to DVD, leaving only twelve more of the movies unreleased (eight of which starred Raymond Burr).

FOLLOW ME

Who to Follow: Bill Lawrence (Twitter), "UNDATEABLE, Cougar Town, Scrubs, Spin City, Clone High, Ground Floor, Surviving Jack, finds himself boyishly handsome, is not boyishly handsome"

Claim to Fame: You may not know his name, but you know his work. You may not know his first work, though, which was as a writer on the short-lived Head of the Class spinoff, Billy (it never dawned on me that the series even had a spinoff), but shortly thereafter, he went on to write for series such as Boy Meets World, Friends, and The Nanny. But it was in 1996 where he really made a name for himself, when he created the series Spin City. He followed up on that success with the series Scrubs. His most recent work has been as co-creator of Cougar Town, and executive producer of Undateable, which was recently renewed for a second season.

Pick of the Tweets: "For some of us, every day is national Tequila day." (July 25, 2014)

Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows

Monday, December 15

St. Denis Medical - "A Waste of Time and Marble" (NBC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
With the threat of a nurse walkout, Alex is caught between her colleagues and Joyce; Ron and Bruce go above and beyond to help an unexpected patient.

The Paper - "Churnalism" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Ned takes over Esmeralda's advertorials and assigns the staff to test products themselves, but Esmeralda retaliates and covers one of Ned's stories and finds a scandal; Ken turns Adam into a lab rat; Oscar and Adelola compare pain tolerances.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of December 15)

Monday, December 15

Simu Liu (Kim's Convenience) - Watch Simu on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC. He also talks about The Copenhagen Test on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am and in the 10am hour.
Paul Rudd (The Shrink Next Door/Living with Yourself/Wild Oats) - Paul appears on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Maria Bamford (Lady Dynamite/Benched) - Maria is a guest on Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen at 12:37am on CBS.
Kerry Washington (UnPrisoned) - Andy Cohen interviews Kerry on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen at 11pm on Bravo.
Odessa A'zion (I Love LA/Fam) - Odessa talks about Marty Supreme on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.
Patti LaBelle (Out All Night) - Patti treats us to an EXCLUSIVE festive performance of It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
Kate Hudson (Running Point) - Kate talks about Song Sung Blue on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am.
Rosie Perez (Human Resources/Search Party) - Rosie co-hosts NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
Hank Azaria (The Simpsons/Brockmire/Free Agents/Herman's Head) - Hank and The EZ Street Band stop by for a chat and performance on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
Ana Gasteyer (American Auto/People of Earth/Lady Dynamite/Suburgatory) - NBC's Today catches up with Ana in the 10am hour.
Connie Britton (SMILF/Lost at Home/The Fighting Fitzgeralds/Spin City) - Connie tells Sherri about starring in The Family McMullen, the sequel to The Brothers McMullen, on a repeat of Sherri, so check your local listings.
Ashley Park (Emily in Paris/Only Murders in the Building/Girls5eva/Nightcap) - Ashley talks about the highly-anticipated fifth season of Emily in Paris on Netflix on a repeat of Sherri, so check your local listings.
Glen Powell (Chad Powers/Scream Queens) - Glen talks about The Running Man on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
William H. Macy (Sports Night) - William talks about Netflix's Train Dreams on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
Andy Richter (Andy Barker, P.I./Quintuplets/Andy Richter Controls the Universe) - Andy talks about ABC's Dancing with the Stars on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.