SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

SitcomsOnline Digest: Charlie Sheen to Appear in New Chuck Lorre Comedy; NewsNation Goes 24/7 on Weekdays

 Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! This week, we're hearing about a new Chuck Lorre comedy that Charlie Sheen will appear in, more South Park streaming drama, and more. Let's get going!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

• Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre have gotten over their disdain for one another and will now be working together on a new HBO Max series. (Hollywood Reporter)
• The South Park streaming drama involving HBO Max and Paramount is still on-going, and now, Paramount has filed a countersuit against HBO Max. (Variety)
• It's a little bittersweet (even though the WGN name was already dropped anyway), but we're closer to seeing the last step of the evolution of what used to be the superstation WGN (a home for TV favorites from the past) to NewsNation, as programming on NewsNation goes 24/7 on weekdays starting Monday. (Deadline)
• Dick Van Dyke is 97 years old, and now he has an upcoming guest starring role on Days of Our Lives. (Deadline)
• If you're sharing Netflix password, you should know that time is (almost) up. (Deadline)
• Act Your Age returns June 3 on Bounce. (SitcomsOnline)

WEEKLY PLANNER (APRIL 22 - APRIL 28)

• Catchy Comedy has a binge of All in the Family this weekend.
• Antenna TV and Rewind TV are both celebrating Earth Day with aliens today, with a marathon of My Favorite Martian on Antenna TV and a marathon of Mork & Mindy on Rewind TV.
• The Late Late Show comes to an end after 28 years and four hosts on Thursday night with a primetime special, then the final episode airing later that night (Friday morning).

Posted by Skees -- SitcomsOnline.com at 1:00 PM

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Labels: Act Your Age, Dick Van Dyke, HBO Max, Netflix, NewsNation, SitcomsOnline Digest, South Park

Act Your Age Returns June 3 on Bounce with More Episodes; High Desert Launches May 17 on Apple TV+

Bounce, the popular broadcast and multi-platform entertainment network serving African Americans, announced that its new hit series Act Your Age will return on Saturday, June 3 with two all-new episodes back-to-back starting at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT. The premieres kick off the second half of the 16-episode first season of Act Your Age, running weekly on Saturday nights through the summer. Bounce will air the first seven episodes in double-features every Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT starting April 29. A spring season marathon is set for Saturday, May 27 starting at 5:30 p.m. The multiple-camera, half-hour comedy tells the story of three vibrant, successful Washington D.C./Northern Virginia-area women in their 50s who are each at a personal crossroads and who decide the best way forward in life is together.

Act Your Age stars Kym Whitley (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Next Friday, Young and Hungry) and Tisha Campbell (Uncoupled, My Wife and Kids, Dr. Ken) with special guest star Yvette Nicole Brown (Community, The Mayor, Big Shot). Whitley plays Bernadette, a successful, no-nonsense real estate developer. Campbell plays Keisha, the wild card of the group who is always up to something, and Brown plays Angela, the former First Lady of Norfolk, Virginia, who is looking to redefine her life after being widowed by her husband, a revered career politician. The multi-generational sitcom also features Mariah Robinson (The Wrong Valentine) and Nathan Anderson (black-ish, Richie Rich) as the 20-something children of Angela and Bernadette, respectively. Bounce premieres new episodes on Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET, with a primetime play for the west coast at 8 p.m. PT. They are added to Bounce's streaming service Brown Sugar on Sunday mornings.

Apple TV+ unveiled the trailer for High Desert, the new eight-episode dark comedy starring Patricia Arquette, who also serves as executive producer, Matt Dillon, Christine Taylor, Weruche Opia, Brad Garrett, Bernadette Peters, Rupert Friend and Keir O'Donnell. Directed by Emmy Award-winner Jay Roach, created by Nancy Fichman, Katie Ford and Jennifer Hoppe, and executive produced by Ben Stiller, the half-hour series will make its global debut on Apple TV+ with the first three episodes on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, followed by new episodes weekly, every Wednesday. High Desert follows Peggy (Arquette), an on-again-off-again addict who decides to make a new start after the death of her beloved mother, with whom she lived in the small desert town of Yucca Valley, California, and makes a life-changing decision to become a private investigator.

Posted by Pavan -- SitcomsOnline.com at 12:00 PM

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Labels: Act Your Age, Apple TV+, Bounce TV, High Desert

Act Your Age Opens as Biggest Launch in Bounce History; Starz Comedy Blindspotting Returns April 14

Act Your Age becomes the most-watched half-hour series launch in Bounce history. The series premiere episodes of the newest Bounce original series Act Your Age were seen by 2.14 million viewers in their debut telecasts. The first two episodes of Act Your Age premiered back-to-back on Bounce on Saturday, March 4 from 8 to 9 p.m. ET, and their initial airing burst within 24 hours included a special presentation on Bounce's sister network ION. The premieres kicked off the two-part, 16-episode first season of Act Your Age, with the first seven episodes running weekly on Saturday nights throughout the spring and the second half premiering over the summer.

The multiple-camera, half-hour comedy tells the story of three vibrant, successful Washington D.C./Northern Virginia-area women in their 50s who are each at a personal crossroads and who decide the best way forward in life is together. Act Your Age stars Kym Whitley (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Next Friday, Young and Hungry) and Tisha Campbell (Martin, Uncoupled, My Wife and Kids, Dr. Ken) with special guest star Yvette Nicole Brown (Community, The Mayor, Big Shot). Whitley plays Bernadette, a successful, no-nonsense real estate developer. Campbell plays Keisha, the wild card of the group who is always up to something, and Brown plays Angela, the former First Lady of Norfolk, Virginia, who is looking to redefine her life after being widowed by her husband, a revered career politician. The multi-generational sitcom also features Mariah Robinson (The Wrong Valentine) and Nathan Anderson (black-ish, Richie Rich) as the 20-something children of Angela and Bernadette, respectively.

STARZ unveiled the trailer and key art for season two of its half-hour comedy series Blindspotting which returns with a special two-episode premiere on Friday, April 14 at Midnight ET on the STARZ app, all STARZ streaming and on-demand platforms in the US and Canada. On linear, it will debut at 9:00 pm ET/PT on STARZ in the U.S. and Canada, immediately followed by episode two at 9:30 pm ET/PT. All subsequent episodes will be available to stream Fridays at Midnight ET on the STARZ app, all STARZ streaming and on-demand platforms in the US and Canada and will air linearly on STARZ Fridays at 9:00 pm ET/PT.

Blindspotting is co-created by Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs, with Casal also starring in the series alongside Emmy® winner Jasmine Cephas Jones and Academy Award®- winner Helen Hunt. The new trailer brings viewers right back to Oakland, CA where Ashley (Jones) is trying- with mixed results- to adjust to her "new normal," raising her son Sean (Atticus Woodward) alone while Miles (Casal), her partner of 12 years and new husband, is serving time in San Quentin Prison. The sophomore season maintains a lighthearted and fun tone while simultaneously tackling complex issues with a comedic and innovative twist, spotlighting the hilarious hijinks Ashley and family get into as she attempts to navigate the crazy chaos of her life in the Bay Area. 

Posted by Pavan -- SitcomsOnline.com at 12:00 PM

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Labels: Act Your Age, Blindspotting, Bounce TV, Starz

Bounce Launches New Sitcom Act Your Age on March 4; Hallmark's Latest New Series Premieres March 26

Bounce, the popular broadcast and multi-platform entertainment network serving African Americans, announced that its newest original series, Act Your Age, produced in partnership with MGM, will premiere on Saturday, March 4, with the first two episodes back-to-back starting at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT. The premieres kick off the two-part, 16-episode first season, with the first eight episodes running weekly throughout the spring and the second half running over the summer.

The multiple-camera, half-hour comedy tells the story of three vibrant, successful Washington D.C./Northern Virginia-area women in their 50s who are each at a personal crossroads and who decide the best way forward in life is together. Act Your Age stars Kym Whitley (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Next Friday, Young and Hungry) and Tisha Campbell (Uncoupled, My Wife and Kids, Dr. Ken, Martin) with special guest star Yvette Nicole Brown (Community, The Mayor, Big Shot). Whitley plays Bernadette, a successful, no-nonsense real estate developer. Campbell plays Keisha, the wild card of the group who is always up to something, and Brown plays Angela, the former First Lady of Norfolk, Virginia, who is looking to redefine her life after being widowed by her husband, a revered career politician. The multi-generational sitcom also features Mariah Robinson (The Wrong Valentine) and Nathan Anderson (black-ish, Richie Rich) as the 20-something children of Angela and Bernadette, respectively.

Hallmark Channel offers viewers a special event night with a double dose of primetime drama on Sunday, March 26. The night kicks off with the highly-anticipated finale of its critically acclaimed, hit multigenerational family drama series The Way Home which travels to an earlier time slot of 8 p.m. ET/PT. Then hold on to your cowboy hats for the debut of an all-new original series Ride at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following the intertwined lives of a rodeo family dynasty.

Nancy Travis (Last Man Standing, The Kominsky Method), Tiera Skovbye (Riverdale, Nurses), Beau Mirchoff (Good Trouble, Hidden Gems), Sara Garcia (The Flash, Reign), Jake Foy (Designated Survivor, A Little Daytime Drama) and Tyler Jacob Moore (Barry, Shameless) star in the new, multigenerational family ensemble following the lives of the McMurrays, part of a rodeo dynasty going back a generation, as they struggle to keep their beloved ranch afloat. After a tragic loss, each character embarks on an empowering journey of transformation and self-discovery while also uncovering a twisted web of secrets, threatening to tear the family and their small Colorado town apart at the seams.

Posted by Pavan -- SitcomsOnline.com at 12:00 PM

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Labels: Act Your Age, Bounce TV, Hallmark Channel

Bounce Orders New Sitcom for Spring 2023; Remembering Hogan's Heroes Star Robert Clary, The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi Co-Creator David Davis, and Head of the Class Co-Creator Richard Eustis

Bounce, the popular broadcast and multi-platform entertainment network serving African Americans, announced a partnership with MGM to produce a new original series, Act Your Age. The multiple-camera, half-hour comedy tells the story of three vibrant, successful Washington D.C./Northern Virginia-area women in their 50's who are each at a personal crossroads and who decide the best way forward in life is together. Act Your Age stars Kym Whitley (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Next Friday, Young and Hungry) and Tisha Campbell (Uncoupled, My Wife and Kids, Dr. Ken, Martin) with special guest star Yvette Nicole Brown (Community, The Mayor, Big Shot).

Whitley plays Bernadette, a successful, no-nonsense real estate developer. Campbell plays Keisha, the wild card of the group who is always up to something, and Brown plays Angela, the former First Lady of Norfolk, Virginia, who is looking to redefine her life after being widowed by her husband, a revered career politician. The multi-generational sitcom also features Mariah Robinson (The Wrong Valentine) and Nathan Anderson (All About the Washingtons, Richie Rich) as the 20-something children of Angela and Bernadette, respectively. Alyson Fouse (Big Shot, Everybody Hates Chris, The Wanda Sykes Show) created the series and serves as showrunner and executive producer. The series is produced by Mark Burnett, Barry Poznick and Bradley Gardner (Hot in Cleveland) and co-executive producer Ken Ornstein (Everybody Loves Raymond). The 16-episode first season of Act Your Age has begun production in Los Angeles and will premiere on Bounce in the spring of 2023.

French-born American actor Robert Clary, who was best known for his role as Corporal Louis LeBeau on Hogan's Heroes, has died. He died at his Los Angeles home on November 16. Mr. Clary was 96.

Clary starred as Corporal Louis LeBeau on the 1965-1971 CBS sitcom Hogan's Heroes. The series was set in a German prisoner of war (POW) camp during World War II, and Clary played a French POW who was a member of an Allied sabotage unit operating from inside the camp. Corporal Louis LeBeau is a gourmet chef, and patriotic Frenchman, frequently referred to as "the cockroach" by both Colonel Wilhelm Klink (Werner Klemperer) and Sergeant Hans Schultz (John Banner). The cast included Bob Crane, Richard Dawson, Ivan Dixon (1965-1970), Kenneth Washington (1970-1971), Larry Hovis, Cynthia Lynn (1965-1966) and Sigrid Valdis (1966-1970).

Some of his sitcom guest appearances included Love, American Style (1969), Arnie, Love Thy Neighbor and The Munsters Today. Some of his other television guest appearances included Appointment with Adventure, Play of the Week, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre, The High Chaparral, Fantasy Island (1978) and The New Adam-12 (1990).

He starred as Robert LeClair on Days of Our Lives from 1972–1973, 1975–1983 and 1986–1987. He played Pierre Jourdan on The Bold and the Beautiful from 1990 to 1992. He appeared as Pierre Roulland on two episodes of The Young and the Restless in 1974.

Clary was a survivor of the Holocaust. He published a memoir, From the Holocaust to Hogan's Heroes: The Autobiography of Robert Clary, in 2001. He describes his childhood in Paris, the German occupation in 1940, and his deportation in 1942 at the age of sixteen to the infamous transit camp Drancy. He recounts his nightmarish, two-and-a-half-year incarceration in Nazi concentration camps like Ottmuth, Blechhammer, Gross-Rosen, and Buchenwald. He played himself in the 1982 NBC TV movie Remembrance of Love.

Mr. Clary was the last surviving main cast member who starred in all six seasons of Hogan's Heroes, with only Kenneth Washington who played Sergeant Richard Baker in the final season left. He was funny and memorable as Corporal Louis LeBeau. We thank him for the laughs and entertainment that he brought us during his career. He will be greatly missed.

Share your memories on our Hogan's Heroes message board. View photos in our galleries.

MeTV remembers French actor and singer Robert Clary with special episodes of Hogan’s Heroes showcasing his memorable character, Corporal LeBeau. They will be celebrating Clary's life with some of the fan-favorite best episodes of Hogan's Heroes that highlight Cpl. LeBeau, Nov. 21-23 at 10P | 9C.

November 21st
10P | 9C - “Lebreau and the Little Old Lady" - LeBeau says that he keeps rendezvousing with a little old lady who is actually young and beautiful.
10:30P | 9:30C - “Gowns by Yvette” - Burkhalter's niece is getting married and by having LeBeau design her wedding gown, Hogan is going to contact an underground agent, and later free him after capture by the Gestapo.

November 22nd
10P | 9C - “Man in a Box” - Hogan is hot on the trail of capturing LeBeau, but not too quickly since he has a mission to complete.
10:30P | 9:30C - “Cuisine a la Stalag 13” - LeBeau wants to escape, leaving Stalag 13 without its resident chef.

November 23rd
10P | 9C - “The Scientist” - Corporal LeBeau pretends to be a visiting French scientist while Hogan smuggles out the real one.
10:30P | 9:30C - “The Gypsy” - LeBeau is passed off as a Gypsy fortune teller to help get a radar countermeasure device to London.

Emmy-winning producer and writer David Davis, who co-created The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi, has died. He died in Los Angeles on November 4. Mr. Davis was 86.

Davis and Lorenzo Music created the 1972-1978 CBS sitcom The Bob Newhart Show. Comedian Bob Newhart portrays a psychologist whose interactions with his wife, friends, patients, and colleagues lead to humorous situations and dialogue.

James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, Ed. Weinberger and Davis created the 1978-1983 sitcom Taxi, which aired on ABC for four seasons from 1978 to 1982 and the fifth and final season on NBC from 1982 to 1983. It focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher. Davis won a Primetime Emmy Award for his producing work on Taxi in 1979 when it won for Outstanding Comedy Series. Taxi also won Outstanding Comedy Series in 1980 and 1981.

Davis and Lorenzo Music developed the 1974-1978 CBS sitcom Rhoda. He met actress Julie Kavner (Brenda Morgenstern) on the set. They were partners from 1976 until his death.

Some of his other sitcom writing credits included Love, American Style (3 episodes) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (7 episodes). He worked as a dialogue supervisor for The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis from 1962 to 1963. He was an associate producer for O.K. Crackerby!, My Mother the Car, He & She and Get Smart. He worked as a production advisor for the 1993-1994 ABC sitcom Phenom.

Survivors include Julie Kavner, daughter Samantha Davis-Friedman, daughter Abigail, and grandsons Joshua, Jacob, Aden, Asher and Elijah.

Mr. Davis was a key player on the MTM Enterprises team in the 1970s. He also shot footage for the title sequences for The Bob Newhart Show and Taxi. We thank him for his work on The Bob Newhart Show, Taxi and Rhoda. He will be sorely missed.

Emmy-winning writer and producer Richard Eustis, who co-created Head of the Class, has died. He died on October 30 in Thousand Oaks, California. Mr. Eustis was 86.

Eustis and Michael Elias created and executive produced the 1986-1991 ABC sitcom Head of the Class. The series follows a group of gifted students in the Individualized Honors Program (IHP) at the fictional Millard Fillmore High School in Manhattan, and their history teacher Charlie Moore (Howard Hesseman).

They created and executive produced the short-lived 1992 ABC sitcom Billy. The spin-off of Head of the Class starred Billy Connolly as Billy MacGregor, a Scottish teacher who moves to America in order to build a new life for himself.

Eustis and Elias created and executive produced the short-lived 1993 CBS sitcom Tall Hopes. The series starred George Wallace, Anna Maria Horsford, Kenn Michael, Terrence Howard and Karla Green.

He wrote a Scrubs episode in 2004 and worked as a consultant for eight episodes from 2003 to 2004.

Eustis won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special - Comedy-Variety or Music for An Evening with John Denver in 1975.

Survivors include his wife, Tiana, sons John and Ronald, daughter Madeleine, son-in-law Marcel Samek, grandson Julian Eustis Samek and granddaughters Colette Eustis Samek and Linh Eustis.

We thank him for bringing us Head of the Class and his other work on sitcoms. He will be sorely missed.

Posted by Todd -- SitcomsOnline.com at 12:00 PM

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Labels: Act Your Age, Bob Newhart Show, Bounce TV, Head of the Class, Hogan's Heroes, MeTV, Obits, Taxi