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

Wednesday, August 17

Abbott Elementary - "Pilot" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
In this workplace comedy, a group of dedicated, passionate teachers — and a slightly tone-deaf principal — are brought together in a Philadelphia public school where, despite the odds stacked against them, they are determined to help their students succeed in life. Though these incredible educators may be outnumbered and underfunded, they love what they do — even if they don’t love the school district’s less-than-stellar attitude toward educating children.

Abbott Elementary - "Work Family" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
After Jacob reveals a detail about his personal life, Janine realizes she doesn’t know the other teachers as well as she thought. Meanwhile, as Gregory’s stern teaching approach is causing his whole class to underperform, Barbara and Melissa teach him how to relax and make his lessons more fun.

Abbott Elementary - "Step Class" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Janine is thrilled when Ava asks to help her teach the after-school step class, but the two don’t see eye to eye on how to run the program. Later, when Barbara, Melissa and Jacob plan an “eat-off” to decide who makes the best pizza in Philadelphia, Gregory is forced to reveal a secret.

Abbott Elementary - "Desking" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When the students start participating in a new online trend that causes disruption to the school, the teachers band together to put an end to it. Meanwhile, Mr. Johnson provides comforting life advice to Gregory; and later, the teachers finally meet Jacob’s boyfriend, Zach, who joins in to help stop the students “desking”.

Wellington Paranormal - "Mobots" (The CW, 9:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Officer Minogue meets Officer O'Leary's mom when they use her house for a stakeout to investigate why a mass quantity of obsolete electronics goes missing.

Wellington Paranormal - "The Invisible Fiend" (The CW, 9:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
Minogue and O'Leary investigate a mysterious home invasion with no visible signs of entry, managing to arrest an invisible creature and bring it back to the station for questioning.

grown-ish - "You Don't Know Me" (Freeform, 10:00PM ET/PT)
The girls enlist Junior's help to find their shady roommate, Lauryn, who has a habit of mysteriously disappearing; Junior wonders if Annika is starting to catch feelings for him; Aaron suspects that Doug isn't being honest with him.

Everything's Trash - "Rom-Coms Are Mostly Trash" (Freeform, 10:30PM ET/PT)
After Phoebe suddenly sees Michael in a new light, she attempts to set him up with Malika, who already has her eye on an old flame; Jayden worries that he and Jessie have lost their spark, so they decide to spice things up.

Complete TV Listings

Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of August 15)

Wednesday, August 17

Alison Brie (GLOW/Community) - Watch Alison Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Sasheer Zamata (Home Economics/Woke) - Sasheer appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Nicole Byer (Grand Crew/Loosely Exactly Nicole) - Nicole guest hosts Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
Demi Lovato (Sonny with a Chance) - Demi co-hosts The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Kenan Thompson (Kenan/Kenan & Kel) - Kenan will be on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
Zazie Beetz (Atlanta) - Zazie appears on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
Simu Liu (Kim's Convenience) - Simu chats with the ladies of The View on a repeat on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
Susan Walters (Dear John/The War Next Door) - Susan is a guest on a repeat of The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
Blair Underwood (The New Adventures of Old Christine) - Blair will be on LIVE! with Kelly and Ryan, so check your listings.
Kel Mitchell (Game Shakers/Kenan & Kel) - Kel appears on a repeat of The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
Sherri Shepherd (Mr. Iglesias/Trial & Error/Sherri/Less Than Perfect/Suddenly Susan) - Sherri guest hosts a repeat of The Wendy Williams Show, so check your local listings.
Josh Peck (Grandfathered/Drake & Josh) and Rhea Perlman (Cheers/Pearl/Kirstie) - Josh and Rhea talk about Netflix's 13: The Musical on Access Daily, so check your local listings.
Murray Bartlett (Physical/Looking) - Murry talks about White Lotus on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm.