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

Thursday, May 22

Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage - "Diet Crap" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Tensions rise when Georgie intrudes on Mandy’s new sales gig. Meanwhile, Audrey’s conflicted when Jim makes it a point not to coddle Connor.

Ghosts - "Sad Farnsby" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When Sam accidentally creates a rift between Sam and Jay’s neighbors, the Farnsbys, Henry Farnsby moves into Woodstone B&B. Also, Isaac and Nigel battle over a belated wedding present.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of May 19)

Thursday, May 22

Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) - Catch Miley on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Chloe Fineman (Big Mouth/Search Party) - Chloe appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Ronny Chieng (Young Rock/Ronny Chieng: International Student) - Ronny hosts Comedy Central's The Daily Show at 11pm. Featured host Vlad Duthiers sits down with Ronny on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am.
Elizabeth Banks (30 Rock/Scrubs) and Amanda Peet (Brockmire/Togetherness/Bent) - Elizabeth and Amanda are guests on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen at 10:15pm on Bravo.
Cynthia Nixon (And Just Like That.../Sex and the City) - Cynthia talks about ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am and on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
Hugh Jackman (Human Resources) - Hugh chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Bill Bellamy (Mr. Box Office/Men, Women & Dogs/Cousin Skeeter) - Bill brings the laughs to the third annual cookout on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
Finola Hughes (Blossom) - Finola dishes on General Hospital on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
Jason Schwartzman (Blunt Talk/Mozart in the Jungle/Bored to Death) - Jason talks about Mountainhead on NBC's Today in the 10am hour.
Sterling K. Brown (Starved) - Sterling is telling Drew all about playing a secret service agent in the thrilling new show Paradise on a repaet of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
Midori Francis (The Sex Lives of College Girls) - Midori is a guest on New York Living on WPIX in New York at 10:05am.