SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

by Vincent

Now that another calendar year is upon us, what can we expect from sitcoms in the year of 2019? 2018 was a year where a lot of sitcoms continued to surprise me. I'd expect shows like Superstore, The Good Place, Bojack Horseman and One Day at a Time will continue to impress with their 2019 batch of episodes. But what are some other, less covered shows that could take off in 2019, and what else is going on in the world of sitcoms?

Personally, I'm interested to see how things shape up on these sitcoms coming to an end: You're the Worst, Broad City, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. All of these shows are poised to reach their conclusions this season, and I'm really sad to see them go but also feel that it might be the right time for many of them to wrap up, and am interested to see just how they wrap things off. All of these shows will certainly be very missed in the sitcom landscape.

And how about new shows, or shows that haven't quite taken off yet? I'll be keeping an eye on Comedy Central's Corporate, a riotously funny show that I hope doesn't go the way of recent Comedy Central projects. I'm also interested in AP Bio on NBC. I wasn't a big fan of the first season, but I saw potential for greatness, and now that it's getting another shot, I'm interested to see if it can build on its potential in its second season. Elsewhere, I'm interested to see if Netflix has any more interesting comedies in the pipeline. It feels as if sitcoms have taken a bit of a backseat on that platform, and I'd love to see some more great, original comedies come out of the streaming service.

2019 will surely bring some surprises, as well, just as 2018 did with shows like Corporate. Still, I feel 2018 was somewhat of a quiet year for sitcoms (and even for TV in general) - let's hope 2019 brings them back with a vengeance.

Better Things, the acclaimed and award-winning comedy series directed by, produced by and starring Pamela Adlon, will return to FX for its third season on Thursday, February 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Better Things is the story of Sam Fox (Pamela Adlon), a single mother and working actor with no filter, raising her three daughters, Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Alligood) and Duke (Olivia Edward) in Los Angeles. She also looks after her mother, Phil (Celia Imrie), an English expat with questionable faculties who lives across the street. Whether she's struggling to keep her daughters close or trying to push one of them out of the nest, Sam approaches every challenge with fierce love, raw honesty and humor. At the end of the day, Sam's just trying to earn a living, navigate her daughters' changing lives, survive her family, have fun with a friend or two, and also - just maybe - squeeze in some private time.

Season three will welcome several new faces as guests: Sharon Stone, Matthew Broderick, Doug Jones, Glynn Turman, Judy Reyes, Cree Summer, Charlie Robinson, Janina Gavankar and Marsha Thomason to name a few. Additionally, recurring players Diedrich Bader, Greg Cromer, Rebecca Metz, Kevin Pollak and Alysia Reiner will return this season, inhabiting their familiar roles. Adlon, who directs all 12 episodes of the third season, also serves as writer, executive producer and showrunner. Better Things is produced by FX Productions. In its first season, Better Things was one of seven entertainment programs to be honored with a Peabody Award. Additionally, in the first and second seasons, Pamela Adlon was nominated for an Emmy(R) Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe(R) Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy in season two.

CBS is building a strong roster of reality programming at midseason with the premieres of two new unscripted competitions and the return of three fan favorites. Big Brother: Celebrity Edition returns for a second season Monday, Jan. 21 from 8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT. Following the premiere, Big Brother: Celebrity Edition will air on multiple nights each week for three weeks, with the two-hour finale on Wednesday, Feb. 13 from 9-11. On Sunday, Feb. 3, immediately following Super Bowl LIII from 10:00-11:00 PM, ET/7:00-8:00 PM, PT (time is approximate after post-game coverage), the new competition series The World's Best debuts with host James Corden and judges Drew Barrymore, RuPaul Charles and Faith Hill. After the post-Super Bowl premiere, the show moves to Wednesdays beginning Feb. 6.

On Wednesday, Feb. 20 from 8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT, the Emmy Award-winning Survivor returns for its 38th season. Emmy Award winner Jeff Probst returns as host. The new high-stakes competition series Million Dollar Mile premieres Wednesday, March 27 from 9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT), after the wrap of The World's Best. Tim Tebow hosts, along with play-by-play commentators Matt "Money" Smith and Maria Taylor. Finally, the multiple Emmy Award-winning The Amazing Race returns on Wednesday, May 22 from 8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT for its 31st season with Emmy Award-nominated host Phil Keoghan, following the wrap of Survivor's season. This season will feature a reality clash when fierce competitors from The Amazing Race, Big Brother, and Survivor race around the world for the $1 million prize. With all these moves on Wednesdays, drama Seal Team will move to 10pm starting Wednesday, March 13.

It's been a YEAR, amiright? Comedy Central feels you and is celebrating the light at the end of the tunnel with a full month of special programming to help you take a load off. In its first ever 31 Days of Holiday Survival extravaganza, the network will feature movies, specials and event marathons - in addition to regularly scheduled programming - to make folks laugh out loud, forget their troubles and celebrate the year ahead.

Themed programming encompasses Drunk History, South Park, BoJack Horseman, Futurama, The Office: Best of Michael Scott, Chappelle's Show, Reno! 911, Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special, Bad Santa and more. It all starts Saturday, December 1 with an Adam Sandler Movie Stunt and ends on December 31 with a Reno 911 Full Day New Year's Eve Marathon!

Are you ho-ho-hoping to see some Christmas episodes this season? Have we got an overstuffed sack of presents for you. For seven weeks, MeTV will present three hours of holiday episodes every Sunday, from 5PM-8PM Eastern time for their annual "A Very Merry MeTV" 2018. You'll see favorites like ALF, The Jeffersons, The Facts of Life, Diff'rent Strokes, The Love Boat and even the TV movie A Very Brady Christmas. The full Sunday holiday line-up is below!

Sunday, November 11, 2018
5:00pm The Jeffersons-Father Christmas
5:30pm The Facts Of Life-It's A Wonderful Christmas
6pm-8pm Little House on The Prairie-Bless All the Dear Children

Sunday, November 18, 2018
5:00pm Diff'rent Strokes-Thanksgiving Crossover 1
5:30pm Diff'rent Strokes-Thanksgiving Crossover 2
6:00pm The Love Boat-Man Of The Cloth
7:00pm M*A*S*H-Yalu Brick Road
7:30pm WKRP In Cincinnati-Turkey's Away

Sunday, November 25, 2018
5:00pm The Jeffersons-The Christmas Wedding
5:30pm The Jeffersons-All I Want for Christmas
6pm-8pm The Ed Sullivan Show-Holiday Greetings

Sunday, December 2, 2018
5:00pm The Jeffersons-984 W 124th Street Apt 5C
5:30pn The Jeffersons-George Finds a Father
6pm-8pm A Very Brady Christmas

Sunday, December 9, 2018
5:00pm ALF-ALF's Special Christmas 1
5:30pm ALF-ALF's Special Christmas 2
6:00pm The Love Boat-The Christmas Presence
7:00pm M*A*S*H-Dear Sis
7:30pm M*A*S*H-Twas The Day After Christmas

Sunday, December 16, 2018
5:00pm Happy Days-Guess Who's Coming To Christmas
5:30pm Happy Days-Christmas Time
6:00pm The Love Boat-The Christmas Cruise 1
7:00pm The Love Boat-The Christmas Cruise 2

Sunday, December 23, 2018
5:00pm Laverne & Shirley-Christmas Eve at Booby Hatch
5:30pm Laverne & Shirley-Oh, Come All Ye Bums
6:00pm The Love Boat-Santa, Santa, Santa
7:00pm M*A*S*H-Dear Dad
7:30pm M*A*S*H-Death Takes a Holiday

Netflix has picked up BoJack Horseman for a 6th season! Will Arnett voices BoJack, the failed legendary 90's sitcom star from the favorite family sitcom Horsin' Around, who has been trying to find his way through a muddle of self-loathing, whisky and failed relationships. Now, in the presence of his human sidekick Todd (Aaron Paul) and his feline agent and ex-paramour Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris), BoJack is primed for his comeback...

Created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg. The series is Executive Produced by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Steven A. Cohen and Noel Bright. Will Arnett (The Millers, Arrested Development) and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) also serve as Executive Producers. BoJack was designed by graphic artist Lisa Hanawalt and is animated by LA-based ShadowMachine. The show is a Tornante Production, brought to life by Michael Eisner's The Tornante Company. BoJack Horseman Season 5 premiered on Netflix on September 14, 2018.

by Vincent

This week, a minor announcement was made that was quietly a pretty big deal for sitcoms, and yet no one seemed to think much of it. It was announced that starting this fall, Netflix would be re-running Netflix's BoJack Horseman as the show had been sold into syndication, set to begin airing after South Park's upcoming season in September. This might not seem like a big deal to you, and frankly, if you already watch Bojack Horseman on Netflix, chances are you won't be rushing to the TV to catch four year old episodes of the show when the channel begins re-airing Season 1 this week. And yet, this is Netflix's first major syndication deal, which paints a fairly interesting picture for sitcoms going forward.

In the past, syndication has been a major selling point for sitcoms. Re-airing episodes of the series on cable networks has been a major way that studios make money off of television shows, and since sitcoms are shorter and typically not serialized, they were often a popular choice for sitcoms. Many of us who grew up watching older sitcoms that predate us did so because those shows were introduced to us in syndication. Syndication has been a dominant reason as to why sitcoms remain relevant. And yet, with the advent of Netflix and on-demand streaming services, syndication has largely fallen by the wayside, now that so many series can be available at any time. There was a question as to whether Netflix needed syndication – after all, it's already used by so many people, and its episodes are available to begin watching anywhere at any time. And yet, this deal for Bojack Horseman proves there is still a market for syndication, even for Netflix series. It's another way for these shows to remain profitable (after all, since it doesn't rely on ad revenue, it's hard to say exactly how Netflix makes money off of its original programming, although they seem to be doing just fine relying on subscription fees) and it paints a question: is this just the first of many more Netflix syndication deals? There were talks that Arrested Development's creator Mitch Hurwitz wanted the show's Netflix seasons to eventually be packaged into a syndication deal with the series’ original run (hence why the fourth season was re-edited to a more traditional sitcom format rather than its original inventive editing style.) Could other Netflix comedies that seem like a possible fit for syndication, such as Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, One Day at a Time, or Fuller House be next? Perhaps we could even see dramas being sold into syndication – it's hard to not see a cable network jumping at the chance to air Orange is the New Black (though it would have to be heavily edited) or Stranger Things. It's an interesting thought, and one that suggests perhaps the end for cable syndication isn't quite here yet after all.

Fox is up at the 2018 TCA Summer Press Tour and there were plenty of new series announcements for 2018-19, mainly for mid-season or later. And they have ordered the new celebrity competition series The Masked Singer, to premiere in January 2019. Based on an international hit, which already is a viral phenomenon with more than half a billion fans worldwide, and the No. 1 top-trending video of 2017 on YouTube, The Masked Singer features celebrities facing off against one another with one major twist: each singer is shrouded from head to toe in an elaborate costume, complete with full face mask to conceal his or her identity. Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke serve on the panel and play detective, alongside host Nick Cannon. Fox has also ordered Mental Samurai, a thrilling new competition series that pushes every aspect of human intelligence and mental agility. Hosted and produced by Rob Lowe, the show is the first-ever obstacle course...for the mind. Mental Samurai is produced by Warner Horizon Unscripted & Alternative Television and Arthur Smith's A. Smith & Co. Productions and is scheduled to premiere during the 2018-2019 season on Fox.

But wait there's more! Fox has ordered Spin the Wheel, a high-stakes game show offering a chance to win over $20 million per episode. Executive-produced by Grammy and Emmy Award-winning musician and actor Justin Timberlake, and hosted by actor, director, writer and comedian Dax Shepard, the show offers life-changing opportunities to win fortunes each episode with the spin of a massive, unpredictable wheel. The show, created by Timberlake and Andrew Glassman of Glassman Media, is scheduled to premiere during the 2018-2019 season on Fox.

by Vincent

Is BoJack Horseman currently the best show on TV? Netflix released the fourth season of BoJack Horseman on Friday. BoJack was my favorite show of 2016 - its third season was a tour-de-force of original, offbeat comedy mixed with genuine exploration of dark human emotions such as depression, failure, and regret. Oh, and by the way, it's an animated Hollywood satire that takes place in a society where animals are sentient beings that look and act just like humans.

If you think all of that sounds unlikely to add up to a great television show, I understand. Frankly, much of BoJack's run has been an obvious attempt to balance these two extremely different television shows in one - the strange, Adult Swim-esque Hollywood satire starring animals mixed with an almost Mad Men or Sopranos-esque exploration of deep human darkness. And early on, the show didn't always strike the right balance - the first half of the first season oscillates sometimes uncomfortably between the two extremes, often relying too heavily on gross-out, Family Guy­­-esque gags to toe the line. But around the halfway point of the first season, the show began digging into its dark side more comfortably, exploring the regret and shame behind the life of its washed-up sitcom star BoJack and the "island of misfit toys" type figures that surround him in his personal life. In the excellent second half of the first season, the show transformed into one of the deepest, most meaningful series on TV, and that only continued throughout the astonishing second and third seasons. The fourth season continues to astound me at just how deep it's willing to go - without spoiling anything, I'll just say that this season dives into BoJack's past to explore themes such as loss, regret and the idea of how we inherit the trauma and pain of our parents and grandparents without even realizing it. It's heavy stuff that I rarely see any show on TV digging into, never mind an animated comedy starring a talking horse.

Even as it's gotten darker and darker, though, BoJack still remains a top-notch comedy, as well. Anyone who considers themselves a sitcom fan would dig the way the show pays tribute to sitcoms and television of years past and is in many ways informed by them. BoJack did get his start starring in a TGIF-esque '90s sitcom, after all, and the series often takes cues from those kinds of shows, only to spin them around on their head. (There's even a Christmas special made in between the show's first and second seasons that actually shows us a full episode of Horsin' Around, the family sitcom that BoJack got his start in.) That's what makes BoJack the best show currently airing on television - it has the very best that drama has to offer mixed with the very best that comedy has to offer, without any kind of sacrifice on either end of the spectrum. "Hilarious comedy about depression starring talking animals" may sound too ridiculous to be true, but it's not. It's just BoJack Horseman.

Showtime announced the pick-up of new half-hour comedy series Kidding, starring Golden Globe(R) winner Jim Carrey (The Truman Show) in his first series regular role in more than two decades and reuniting him with Oscar winner Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), who will direct the project with a 10-episode first-season order for Kidding, Carrey - one of the most beguiling, popular screen stars of his time - will executive produce with Gondry, Emmy(R) nominee Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Jim Garavente (Bad Words), Raffi Adlan (The Green Hornet) and Michael Aguilar (I'm Dying Up Here). Kidding was created by Dave Holstein (Weeds, Raising Hope), who wrote the pilot and will serve as showrunner.

In the comedy series, Carrey plays Jeff, aka Mr. Pickles, an icon of children's television, a beacon of kindness and wisdom to America's impressionable young minds and the parents who grew up with him - who also anchors a multimillion dollar branding empire. But when this beloved personality's family - wife, two sons, sister and father - begins to implode, Jeff finds no fairy tale or fable or puppet will guide him through this crisis, which advances faster than his means to cope. The result: a kind man in a cruel world faces a slow leak of sanity as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.