SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! We have more TV actor deaths this week, sadly, but we're also hearing about an update on a CBS pilot starring Patricia Heaton, an episode of The Simpsons that is being pulled from syndication, and more. Let's get going!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

TeleXitos, the national Spanish-language multicast network that delivers action-adventure series and feature films without subtitles, announced that Airwolf and Knight Rider will air on the network for the first time beginning Monday, January 2, 2017. Airwolf will kick off TeleXitos' primetime hour at 8 PM ET / 7 PM CT and Knight Rider will follow at 9 PM ET / 8 PM CT. Making their Spanish-language debut in the United States, Airwolf tells the story of "Stringfellow Hawke," a renegade pilot that makes a deal with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to find his missing brother. Originally aired in 1984 and starring Jan-Michael Vincent, the show's major player is the high-tech military designed helicopter, "Airwolf" operated by Stringfellow Hawke and his operatives on their espionage missions.

The 1980's classic show, Knight Rider, starring David Hasselhoff in his breakout role as a crime fighter, features the fan-favorite artificially intelligent Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, KITT. The series made its original debut on NBC in 1982 and aired for four years. Viewers can tune in to TeleXitos to watch Michael Knight and KITT take down criminals who operate above the law. Launched in December 2014, TeleXitos features action-adventure programming in Spanish-language, without subtitles. The network is available in 21 markets, including Los Angeles (KVEA), New York (WNJU), Miami (WSCV), Houston (KTMD), Dallas-Fort Worth (KXTX), Chicago (WSNS), San Antonio (KVDA), San Francisco Bay Area (KXTX), Phoenix (KTAZ), Harlingen (KTLM), Sacramento (KCSO), Fresno (KNSO), Philadelphia (WWSI), Denver (KDEN), Boston (WNEU), Atlanta (WKTB), Las Vegas (KBLR), Tucson (KHRR), Hartford (WRDM), Salt Lake City (KTMW). Additionally, viewers in West Palm Beach (FL) market will be able to watch the new TeleXitos programming over-the-air or on Xfinity channel 229.

TBS's hit comedy series The Detour is making its way back for its second season, slated to launch with back-to-back episodes on Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT). Created, written and executive-produced by Jason Jones and Samantha Bee, The Detour stars Jones, along with Natalie Zea, Ashley Gerasimovich, Liam Carroll and Daniella Pineda. During the second season of this all-too-honest look at the family dynamic, Nate (Jones) receives a promising job opportunity, and the family moves to New York City for a fresh start. Everyone is excited except for Robin (Zea), who knows that a move to the big city means her mysterious past may catch up with her. While Nate and Robin adjust to new jobs, new neighbors and old flames, Jared (Carroll) and Delilah (Gerasimovich) dive headfirst into the awkwardness of adolescence. Despite questionable parenting and terrible decisions, the love the Parkers have for each other will keep the family intact as they endure another disastrous adventure.

The second season of The Detour will feature a number of special guests, including series executive producer and co-creator Samantha Bee, as well as James Cromwell, John Oliver, Laura Benanti, Jeffrey Vincent Parise and Max Casella. The second season of The Detour is executive-produced by Jason Jones, Samantha Bee, Brennan Shroff and Tony Hernandez.

Beginning today (Monday, May 2), getTV (American digital multicast television network that is owned by the Sony Pictures Television Networks subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television) is drastically changing their lineup this week, adding a bunch of classic sitcoms and classic dramas to the schedule. The network is reducing the number of movies they air by a lot, too. Among the series being added include classic sitcoms The Jimmy Stewart Show at 7:35AM. That is followed by Nanny and the Professor at 8:15AM and then The Ghost & Mrs. Muir at 8:50AM. The westerns will air from 9:30am-12pm with A Man Called Shenandoah, The Restless Gun and Laredo. Dramas are being added later in the afternoon with Tour of Duty at Noon, S.W.A.T. at 1PM, Airwolf at 2PM, Riptide at 3PM, Hardcastle & McCormick at 4PM, The Equalizer at 5PM and then back-to-back In the Heat of the Night at 6 & 7PM

The best dinner parties are filled with good food, great company, and lots of laughs. That holds especially true when Andy Richter (Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Conan, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Andy Barker P.I.) is the host, famous foodies and chefs are on the guest list, and crazy culinary games are on the menu. At this ultimate dinner party, as each course is served, so is a new round of the competition where stars are paired up to compete in fast-paced trivia games and food-themed challenges. The team that earns the most points will win the coveted Golden Dinner Plate, while the losing team will have to wash the dishes. Catch all the action unfold on Celebrity Food Fight, with double episodes premiering on Sunday, May 29th at 10pm & 10:30pm ET/PT on Food Network. Joining the fun in the 10 half-hour episode season are Tom Arnold, Jonathan Bennett, Richard Blais, Anne Burrell, Kim Coles, Scott Conant, Coolio, Andy Dick, Graham Elliot, Bill Engvall, Jennie Garth, Duff Goldman, Greg Grunberg, Alex Guarnaschelli, Penn Jillette, Kristen Johnston, Kevin Jonas, Christopher Knight, Katie Lee, Tara Lipinksi, Antonia Lofaso, Carlos Mencia, Damaris Phillips, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Caroline Rhea, Melissa Rivers, Aaron Sanchez, Jean Smart, Ruben Studdard, and Kendra Wilkinson. Two teams of two, each consisting of a chef and a celebrity, will compete in a variety of unique food-related games designed to test their culinary knowledge. From Cooking The Books, where the teams must find the fake cookbook title, to Talking With Your Mouth Full, where contestants read the names of entrées with their mouths full, while their teammates must correctly guess what they said, to Finger Foods, where the contestants must put their hands in a box and use their fingers to correctly identify each edible item, playing with food has never ever been this fun!

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! This week, there are plenty of renewals in the works (it seems that the 2015-2016 season produced more stable series than past seasons as networks are renewing entire lineups), some news of some Mill Creek releases of some Universal library series, and more. Let's get started!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

HOME MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

• Mill Creek, which was known for years as a low-budget outlet for public domain DVD releases, has been getting very serious about the DVD business in recent years and releasing much more high profile stuff from major studios (while still managing to keep low price releases). This week, they announced a deal with Universal, which will bring series including Miami Vice, Knight Rider, Coach, Necessary Roughness, Friday Night Lights, and Airwolf back to DVD. But there's more: some of these will also be released on Blu-ray for the first time ever. We do not yet know if Coach will be completed on DVD (it is the only series of the six announced that has not been completely released by Universal), but we hope to find out more soon.

TUESDAY (MARCH 15) HOME MEDIA RELEASES

• The Nanny - The Complete Final (Sixth) Season (DVD, $34.99): Shout! Factory wraps up the Fran Drescher sitcom on DVD with this release.
• Sister, Sister - The Complete Collection (DVD, $166.99): Technically set for a March 18 release date, this series might be coming out on DVD on that date... though it has already been delayed at least once, so it may be again.

Who to Follow: Tahj Mowry (Twitter), "I ♥ Jesus. // BABY DADDY Weds. @freeformTV (new name for ABC Family) 8:30/7:30c // 2 Corinthians 4:18 †"

Claim to Fame: Last week, we featured Essence Atkins, who appeared on the series Smart Guy. Now, we're featuring the person who played her brother on that series (and actually was the title character), Tahj Mowry. He is the younger brother of Tia and Tamera Mowry, best known for their role on Sister, Sister, but he got his start on television just a few months before even they did with a 1990 episode of Who's the Boss? and eventually landed the recurring role of Michelle's friend Teddy on Full House. After Smart Guy, he landed a voice role on Kim Possible, and today he is one of the main characters in the series Baby Daddy.

NBCUniversal has partnered with digital publisher Lion Forge Comics to develop licensed comic books based on popular TV shows from the 1980s and 90s. Under the agreement licensed through the NBCUniversal Television Consumer Products Group, Lion Forge will write, develop and publish digital comics based on five classic series. From hugely popular characters such as Crockett and Tubbs, Zack Morris and Punky Brewster to highly stylized music and clothing choices, these TV franchises have had a significant impact on pop culture. The five series are: Airwolf, Knight Rider, Miami Vice, Punky Brewster and Saved by the Bell. All of these shows are owned by NBCUniversal. Airwolf actually aired on CBS in its original run from 1984-87, while Knight Rider and Miami Vice aired on NBC in primetime. Punky Brewster aired on NBC in its first two seasons before moving to first-run syndication. The series also had a Saturday morning animated series that also aired on NBC. And finally Saved by the Bell was a staple for NBC Saturday mornings and of course spawned two follow-up series: Saved by the Bell: The College Years and Saved by the Bell: The New Class.

Well-known writers currently signed on to work on the projects include: Joelle Sellner (Teen Titans, Jackie Chan Adventures); Jonathan London (Geekscape); Geoffrey Thorne (Leverage, Ben 10) and David Gorden (Catalyst Prime: Accel and Catalyst Prime: Quincredible). Currently, Jason Johnson (Wetworks, Godstorm) and Lion Forge's own Carl Reed and Lorenzo Lizana are on board as artists. The comics are planned for distribution in Q3 and Q4 2013, and will be available through the Amazon Kindle Bookstore, Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble's The Nook Book Store and Kobo. Lion Forge executives will participate on a panel at Comic-Con International: San Diego from 6:30–7:30pm PDT on Saturday, July 20, in Room: 26AB (SDCC), where they will discuss these and other properties in development. So more information and a possible sneak peek will likely come then. Stay with us for continued updates!

ION Television has acquired two more cable dramas to their rotation. ION will now air reruns of USA Network's Burn Notice and White Collar. Both series will join the line-up this fall. These two will join other current or former USA Network series like Psych, Monk and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. They also have aired reruns of TNT's Leverage, but currently it is not on the schedule. ION also has reruns of popular broadcast dramas like Criminal Minds, Cold Case, House and Without a Trace, along with Canadian drama Flashpoint. In addition to all of this drama-rama, ION airs many movies, WWE Main Event and filler airings of the sitcom Married...with Children. But of course the bread and butter of this network now are these TV dramas. Burn Notice is currently airing its seventh and final season on USA, while White Collar will return for season five this fall on USA. Burn Notice is also airing in syndication currently on weekends on local affiliates, while White Collar is airing on Thursday nights on MyNetwork TV. However, White Collar will be off of the MyNetwork TV schedule this fall, replaced by new addition Bones, thus the reruns of Collar will move to ION.

Meanwhile, ION Television announced the acquisition option pick-up of season seven of USA's hit series Psych. The deal with NBCUniversal Cable & New Media Distribution adds all 16 new episodes to ION's existing library of seasons 1-6 of Psych and includes rights to future seasons. The series was just renewed for an eighth season. Stay with us for continued updates and the schedule timings for Burn Notice and White Collar as we get closer to the fall.

We have the Esquire Network launch schedule for you today. The network currently known as G4 (owned by NBC Universal), will re-brand and re-launch as Esquire Network next week (April 22), as we mentioned. The network will start the new schedule at 12 noon ET on Monday, April 22 with The A-Team starring Mr. T! The '80s action drama will air as a block to launch the network from 12-6pm (and will air every Monday after that from 1-5pm). A special airing of the Will Ferrell movie Semi-Pro will follow at 6pm leading into the Parks & Recreation block from 8-10pm. Parks & Recreation will air every Monday from 8-10pm leading into the short-lived comedy Party Down from 10-11pm. Both comedies will encore the next afternoon, on Tuesdays from 3-6pm with Party Down starting it off this time. In primetime on Tuesdays, original series Knife Life and The Getaway will air from 9-11pm.

On Wednesday, April 24, more acquisitions will launch. First up, '80s Tom Selleck drama Magnum P.I. will air every Wednesday from 1pm-5pm (but on this day it will be longer from 12-5pm). Magnum also will still air on the NBC-owned mutlticast digital station Cozi TV. The Tom Selleck drama will lead into reruns of USA Network series Burn Notice at 5pm & 6pm. The series will air weekdays at 5pm & 6pm (and an encore at 11pm & 12am in late night). Also launching April 24, are a week later airings of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at 7pm, as we mentioned. It will also air weekdays and air at 7pm with a next day encore at 12 noon. Movies will air in primetime on Wednesdays, with Shutter Island airing on April 24. As mentioned Burn Notice will air in late night at 11pm & 12am, leading into another off-network buy with the '90s drama New York Undercover. That series will air weeknights at 1am. It will also continue to air on Centric, so this is a shared deal between Esquire and Centric. On Thursdays, Parks & Recreation will encore two of its Monday airings and air 1-2pm and again from 8-9pm, as it will be good promotion for its first-run NBC airings at 9:30pm. The Wednesday primetime movie will encore on Thursday afternoons leading into Burn Notice and Fallon. In primetime on Thursdays, as mentioned Parks will air 8-9pm leading into encores The Getaway and Knife Life from 9-11pm. On to Fridays, we have another classic '80s drama airing from 1-5pm, this time it is Airwolf! In primetime, reruns of USA Network series Psych will air Fridays from 8-11pm. Mornings (9:30am-12am) and late nights (2am-4:30am) will continue to be Cops every weekday, as it was on G4.

On to weekends, we have a lot of encores and movies. Of note, Parks & Recreation will encore its Monday airings once again, this time Sundays 7-9pm leading into encore of Party Down from 9-10pm. Anyway, it's good to see The A-Team, Magnum P.I. and Airwolf join this network. Hopefully we see more classic '80s series join the line-up. As of now Knight Rider and Quantum Leap will not be on Esquire, as they have been airing on G4. Stay with us for continued updates on Esquire Network and for any scheduling updates.

Up next, TVGN announced that it will become the exclusive basic cable home for the #1 daytime soap, The Young & The Restless (Y&R). The acquisition of the top-rated daytime franchise from Sony Pictures Television marks the first TVGN programming announcement as part of the new CBS Corporation/Lionsgate partnership. Beginning this summer, Y&R will move from SOAPnet, where it has already been a basic cable ratings success, to TVGN, keeping the 7:00 PM, ET/PT time slot where it has built a loyal fan base, and will appear day-and-date with its broadcast on the CBS Television Network. One of the most popular franchises in daytime television history, Y&R recently celebrated 40 years on the air on CBS, where it has dominated the ratings in daytime. TVGN recently announced that is has changed its name from TV Guide Network to just TVGN. Currently, the TVGN line-up consists of reruns from 9am-8pm will series like Ugly Betty, Cybill, Designing Women, Early Edition and Who's the Boss? It is unclear what will happen now that CBS has partnered with Lionsgate to buy the network. There is speculation that same-day reruns of Entertainment Tonight, OMG! Insider and Inside Edition could pop-up on the network. Or perhaps CBS will also delve into the CBS Paramount library and air reruns of classic sitcoms from their library. It's too early to tell, but we will keep you up to date...for now you can still continue to enjoy the current slate of sitcoms/dramas. Stay with us.

Welcome to Digital Digest, your weekly source for news and reviews of all things related to home media and your favorite vintage TV series! It has been an incredibly slow week in the world of home media, but nonetheless, we are here to bring you the news that we do have, in addition to a review of the upcoming DVD release Airwolf - Season Four. Let's get going!


DIGITAL NEWS

It's been a very slow news week, but we have a few updates on some series from Shout! Factory. We'll start with the bad news. According to some message board postings on the Shout! Factory Community, Shout! Factory is having trouble with getting some of their series from the 20th Century Fox library released on DVD. Shout! Factory only licensed the earlier seasons of certain series when they originally obtained the home video rights, and are having significant difficulties with negotiating the rights for additional seasons, particularly Mr. Belvedere and Rhoda. Now what exactly does this mean? It doesn't exactly mean that fans should give up all hope, because from the statements made by Brian Ward, it appears that some effort is being made by Shout! Factory to get obtain the rights and get the series back on track (they had a similar issue with Punky Brewster a few years ago that was later resolved). But for the time being, future releases are not in the horizon due to these difficulties. You can read more about it in Brian Ward's response in this thread.

There is good news to come from Shout! Factory this week, although it isn't exactly something that would amount to an official announcement... but it does suggest a high likelihood that a release is indeed on the horizon. Another thread regarding the series All in the Family includes a response from Brian Ward regarding Brian Blum's intention to include a retrospective episode from the ninth season on a future release of the series. Now, to be clear, this doesn't necessarily mean that such a release is on the immediate schedule, nor does it even mean that it will definitely happen... but what it does mean is that Shout! Factory is indeed looking ahead to this season, and it is very likely that we will hear something about a release in the near future, meaning that the series should finally be completed on DVD.


UPCOMING WEEK PREVIEW

Tuesday (February 1) is a very slow day of releases, with the only release of note being Universal's Airwolf - Season Four. We have a review of this set today in Digital Digest.


BLOG DVD REVIEW

The 1980s was full of action dramas such as The A-Team, Knight Rider, Street Hawk, and others, but among those was the series Airwolf, a series about a high-tech military helicopter team that took on various missions--often those involving espionage in a Cold War era. The series ran for three seasons on CBS, and was revived (and completely recast) for a fourth and final season that aired on the USA Network in 1987. Here is our review of that final season (sometimes referred to as Airwolf II), Airwolf - The Fourth Season.

DVD Review - Airwolf - Season Four
by skees53

Airwolf - Season Four (Universal, $39.98) is the final chapter in the classic action espionage series on DVD. The fourth season is practically a completely new series from the previous seasons, with all of the original characters either being assigned elsewhere or killed off, and the action taking place with a new cast of characters, led by Stringfellow Hawke's long-lost brother, Saint John (Barry Van Dyke), with his new crew, including Jo (Michelle Scarabelli), Major Mike Rivers (Geriant Wyn Davies), Jason Locke (Anthony Sherwood), and Newman (William B. Davis).

In the first episode of the season, "Blackjack," Stringfellow (played by Jan-Michael Vincent in his final appearance in the series) is reunited with his M.I.A. brother, St. John (Barry Van Dyke), who ends up taking over as the Airwolf commander after tragedy strikes. Jo is in trouble when her airliner is forced down behind the Iron Curtain in "Escape." A survival course for troubled teens becomes chaos when a crime boss kidnaps his grandson in "A Piece of Cake." In "Deathtrain," an assignment to supervise the dumping of stockpiles of nerve gas goes all wrong when the assignment is hijacked. A young American teacher and her students are lost in the jungle in the midst of a potential nuclear crisis in the two-part episode "Stovograd."
In "X Virus," a deadly virus is about to be unleashed, and St. John has to stop it before he succumbs to it himself. Jo and St. John are taken prisoner by a Japanese client who is seeking revenge against a World War II officer (who happens to be St. John's father) in "Ground Zero." A group of radical pacifists get ahold of the nuclear missiles in an effort to force total disarmament in "The Key." In "Storm Warning," a corrupt general in a small republic disappears with million dollar in aid funds, and it is up to the team to track him down. Jo is determined to go on a mission to search for an old boyfriend who is reported dead in a plane crash in a Middle Eastern desert--with or without her team--in "The Golden One." In "The Puppet Master," Locke is unwittingly controlled by enemies during a brain implant surgery that occurs against his will. The team is chasing an opium shipment around the world in "Poppy Chain." St. John is lured into illegal drug trafficking by a woman he once loved in the series finale, "Welcome to Paradise."

The episodes appear to be unedited, although the episodes "Salvage" and "On the Double" do seem to be a bit short. Those two episodes are also missing the "preview" at the beginning of the episode, so that likely accounts for some (hopefully all) of the missing footage. Runtimes are as follows:

Disc 1:
1. "Blackjack" (46:53)
2. "Escape" (46:42)
3. "A Town for Hire" (46:55)
4. "Salvage" (44:57)

Disc 2:
5. "Windows" (46:55)
6. "A Piece of Cake" (46:54)
7. "Deathtrain" (47:04)
8. "A Code of Silence" (47:02)
9. "Stavograd, Part 1" (46:01)

Disc 3:
10. "Stavograd, Part 2" (46:03)
11. "Mine Troupe" (47:05)
12. "X Virus" (46:21)
13. "Rogue Warrior" (46:54)
14. "Ground Zero" (46:38)

Disc 4:
15. "Flowers of the Mountains" (46:01)
16. "The Key" (46:31)
17. "On the Double" (44:55)
18. "Storm Warning" (46:30)
19. "The Golden One" (46:32)

Disc 5:
20. "The Puppet Master" (46:32)
21. "Malduke" (46:25)
22. "Poppy Chain" (46:38)
23. "Flying Home" (46:54)
24. "Welcome to Paradise" (46:55)

The packaging on the set is fairly standard, but there is one very positive note about it. Universal is still continuing to use slimcases, which (in my opinion) is one of the best packaging designs out there. The cover art for the set has a series of cast photos, along with a picture of the helicopter underneath them, with a purple color scheme. There are several episode snapshots on the back, along with a description of the season. Inside, there are three slimcases, with the first two slimcases containing two discs each and the third one only containing one disc. These have the same artwork as the cover art on the front, and a listing of all episodes with descriptions on the back. Disc 1 contains four episodes, while all of the rest of the discs contain five episodes each.

The menus on the set are basic, with a series of cast photos (the same ones seen on the cover art) on the main menu of each disc, with options of Play All, Episode Index, and Setup. The theme song plays in the background of the main menu. Selecting Episode Index takes you to a menu that lists the episodes, along with a small screen shot from the episode. Upon selecting an episode, it plays right away. There are chapters placed throughout each episode.

The video and audio quality on the set is OK, but definitely leaves quite a bit to be desired. It is clear that the budget for this season was lower than the previous seasons as the series moved from CBS to USA Network, and there is a lot of rough looking stock footage rehashed from previous seasons used in the episodes. Additionally, production was moved to Canada, another surefire sign of cutting production costs. The episodes really do look like a cheap non-network production of the 80s, with a not-so-sharp picture and less-than-stellar audio quality. Still, the episodes are perfectly watchable, and look about like they did at the time. English subtitles are available.

There are no special features on this set at all, perhaps what would have been nice would have been some featurette discussing the changes the occurred on this season. This season is so much different from the previous three, and new fans to the show are likely to be very confused about all of the changes.

I've seen this series many times, and have slowly gained a bit of interest in the series, though this is my first time ever seeing this season. It doesn't exactly have the charm or greatness of the previous seasons (and from what I've gathered, even the most diehard fans of the series feel that way), but it is interesting to watch as a "continuation" of the previous three seasons of the series. If you've never seen the series, this is definitely not the season to begin with. Any of the first three seasons are much better, and if you find yourself liking those, then perhaps you'll want to try out this season. That isn't to say that this season was a major disaster, as the existence of it was vital to ensure that the rest of the series could make it in to syndication, and there are even some great episodes in this season. But it is a major step down from the previous seasons.

(4/5 stars)

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Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com DVD Reviews Page
Airwolf on TV.com


LOOKING AHEAD

We hate these slow news weeks, so we hope that we'll have some more exciting news in the upcoming weeks. We have reviews coming up for The Fugitive, Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends, and more in the upcoming weeks. We also hope to have some Blu-ray Disc reviews for you in the upcoming weeks. Until then, keep it digital!