SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Yahoo and Mandalay Sports Media have confirmed that production has begun in Las Vegas, NV on Sin City Saints, a new half-hour comedy slated for release this winter. Conceived by Mandalay Sports Media, SCS follows the triumphs, travails and transgressions of Las Vegas' brand-new pro basketball franchise. Andrew Santino (ABC's Mixology) has been cast as Jake Tullus, the Saints' unpredictable and charismatic owner, who made his fortune as an internet disruptor in the field of Big Data. Malin Akerman (ABC's Trophy Wife) will star opposite Santino as Dusty Halford, a Stanford-educated lawyer who is the special assistant to the Commissioner, and Tom Arnold (Gardens of the Night, Hit and Run, Sons of Anarchy) will star as Kevin Freeman, a private casino host who happens to know all the city's secrets. The eight-episode run began production last week in Las Vegas at The Orleans Hotel and Casino. Mike Tollin will executive produce alongside Chris Case and Bryan Gordon who will also direct. Fred Savage (Modern Family, Happy Endings) is also on board to direct two episodes. Rounding out the cast is; B.K. Cannon (Switched at Birth), Justin Chon (Twilight), Keith Powers (Pretty Little Liars), Rick Fox (The Game) and former NBA player Baron Davis.

Shout! Factory announced that one of the most iconic and groundbreaking television shows from Sony Pictures Television, All in the Family, is now available on iTunes at iTunes.com/NormanLear from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. As of yesterday, Seasons 1 through 4 of Norman Lear's All in the Family are available on Digital HD for the first time, featuring all 85 original episodes from Seasons 1 through 4. iTunes will also offer Digital HD bonus content, including the original pilot, "Those Were The Days," along with the alternative pilot, and two featurettes on the history and making of the series. Simultaneously, Norman Lear's autobiography, "Even This I Get to Experience," is also available on iBooks at iTunes.com/NormanLear. The memoir, also available in an audio version, details never-before-heard stories about the development and creation of All in the Family. Find Norman Lear on twitter at @TheNormanLear.

Few television shows have left such a substantial and enduring footprint on American popular culture as Norman Lear's masterpiece, All in the Family. The revolutionary series looked at the state of the world through the eyes of an argumentative, but loving family and introduced some of the most fully-dimensional characters in television history. The jokes had a million targets, touching on race, politics, sex and human foibles, but the humor was firmly rooted in the characters of Archie, Edith, Mike and Gloria. Produced and developed by legendary TV producer Norman Lear (Sanford and Son; One Day at a Time; The Jeffersons; Good Times; Maude; Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman), All in the Family premiered on Jan. 12, 1971. The show focused on a middle-class family living in Queens, NY in the 1970's, starring Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker, Rob Reiner as liberal son-in-law Mike "Meathead" Stivic, and Sally Struthers as daughter Gloria. All in the Family was No. 1 in the ratings for most of its nine-season run and won multiple Emmy® Awards. The release of the show on iTunes is a long overdue celebration of the enormously influential series and delivers fans something to treasure for years to come. Forty-three years after its debut, All in the Family still resonates and continues to receive praise from critics. In 2012, television critic Tom Shales wrote that "All in the Family was a great contribution to television, and to the human race." That same year, Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times said "we can now see that it may also have been a high-water mark for television in terms of how much impact a single series can have in shaping American culture."