SitcomsOnline Digest: Rocko's Modern Life Movie Greenlit at Nickelodeon; Hulu to End Free Streaming

Saturday, August 13, 2016

SitcomsOnline Digest: Rocko's Modern Life Movie Greenlit at Nickelodeon; Hulu to End Free Streaming

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! It has been a busy week of news with Nickelodeon announcing a Rocko's Modern Life TV movie, Hulu announcing some major changes to their service, and more. Let's get going!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

Nickelodeon has given the green light to a one hour TV movie based upon one of the biggest cult favorite Nicktoons, Rocko's Modern Life. (Entertainment Weekly)
Hulu, which was a pioneer in online streaming when they began offering free ad-supported streaming of TV series almost a decade, announced this week that they will be shifting exclusively to a paid subscription service later this month, though some content (including recent episodes of broadcast network TV series) will remain available through partner deals. (Washington Post)
The producers of How I Met Your Mother have come together once again to develop a new comedy for CBS. (Variety)
This week, it was announced that neither Jay Pharoah nor Taran Killam will be back on Saturday Night Live in the next season, but not all is lost, as both have separate Showtime pilots in the works. (Yahoo!)
Chuck Lorre got off rather easy when Charlie Sheen left Two and a Half Men, it seems, as Thomas Gibson was fired from Criminal Minds this week following an incident in which he kicked a producer. (BBC News)
Barry Jenner, best known for his roles on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Knot's Landing, died this week. (Deadline)
In honor of the 10th anniversary of The CW, a trio of sitcoms that aired in those early days will be added to CW Seed. (SitcomsOnline)

TUESDAY (AUGUST 16) HOME MEDIA RELEASES

Lou Grant - The Complete Second Season (DVD, $26.99): The spinoff of The Mary Tyler Moore Show moves forward on DVD in this release.

FOLLOW ME

Who to Follow: Daryl Bartley (Twitter), "CG Artist, Avatar, Power Rangers, Child Actor, Small Wonder, Warren, Dad Jokes"

Claim to Fame: Daryl Bartley was a child actor didn't exactly get a lot of screen time as a child actor, but is very much memorable. He had appearances on Simon & Simon and Buffalo Bill, but his biggest and most memorable role was Small Wonder, where he played Warren Enright, Jamie's friend who always had a crush on Vicki. While his character was one of the more memorable ones on the series, he didn't even make a lot of appearances. He only appeared in six episodes. Luckily for him, though, the child acting phase was just the beginning of bigger and better things. While he is no longer an actor and has not done any TV roles (at least according to IMDb) since his last Small Wonder appearance in 1987 (almost 30 years ago), he found a bigger and better career working in CGI animation and visual effects, and his work can be seen on some of the biggest films in theaters today, such as Twilight, Avatar, Life of Pi, and many others.

Pick of the Tweets: "Spontaneous outburst from my wife while watching Good Wife - "Men are stupid, they're just so stupid"" (July 17, 2016)

Sitcoms Airing Tonight

Sunday, July 25

Where Have All the Theme Songs Gone? (CNN, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Don Lemon reviews the most popular TV theme songs in history with Gary Portnoy of "Cheers", Christopher Knight from "The Brady Bunch", Fran Drescher from "The Nanny", and composer Kurt Farquhar.

History of the Sitcom - "Working for Laughs" (CNN, 9:00PM ET/PT)
Work families can be even funnier than our biological ones, since the endless array of wacky sitcom characters on the job offers hilarious insights into the state of the American workplace.

Duncanville - "Crimes and Misters Demean Her" (Fox, 7:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Jack coaches Jing's little league soccer team, but when he feels he's too easy on the kids he calls on Duncan to yell at the team to get them to win; Annie takes Kimberly to work with her after she has a falling out with her friends.

HouseBroken - "Who's Going to the Vet?" (Fox, 7:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
After Chief eats Jill's vibrator, he's taken to the vet and ends up leading his own version of group therapy; Tabitha goes to live with The Gray One and learns she has to sing and dance if she wants to survive.

The Simpsons - "The 7 Beer Itch" (Fox, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When Marge and the kids take a seaside vacation, Homer is unwittingly tempted by a British femme fatale.

The Great North - "My Fart Will Go on Adventure" (Fox, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
While the family prepares for Wolf and Honeybee's wedding, an unexpected guest RSVPs.

Bob's Burgers - "Y Tu Tina También" (Fox, 9:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When Tina is forced to listen to Spanish audio lessons in the library to improve her grade, she develops an unexpected crush; Louise and Gene want to dunk Mr. Frond at the Wagstaff Spring Fair.

Family Guy - "The Marrying Kind" (Fox, 9:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Stewie gets a mail order bride and experiences domestic life; Peter and Chris become addicted to free hotel breakfast buffets.

Wellington Paranormal - "She-Wolf" (Fox, 9:00PM ET/PT)
Officers O'Leary and Minogue investigate what they believe are dog attacks, but stumble upon something more mysterious.

Dead Pixels - "The Chair" (Fox, 9:30PM ET/PT)
Alison becomes concerned over Meg's physical downturn and tries to sway her to a healthier regime; everyone worries about Nicky.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of July 19)

Friday, July 23

Wanda Sykes (The Upshaws/The New Adventures of Old Christine/Wanda at Large) - Wanda guest hosts a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Kim Fields (The Upshaws/Living Single/The Facts of Life/Baby, I'm Back) - Watch Kim on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso/Son of Zorn/The Cleveland Show) - Jason will be on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Christine Baranski (Happy Family/Welcome to New York/Cybill) - Christine appears on a repeat of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
Minnie Driver (Speechless/About a Boy) - Minnie is a guest on a repeat of The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
Sarah Levy (Schitt's Creek) - Sarah appears on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
Leah Remini (Kevin Can Wait/The Exes/Family Tools/The King of Queens) - Leah is a guest on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.