SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! This time of the year, we should be hearing about a busy pilot season and the new fall season and such, but we aren't for now. Still, we have some news for you, including a spinoff of Younger, an at home version of America's Funniest Home Videos, and more. Let's get going!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

MeTV is making some late summer changes to its Summer of Me lineup. The Facts of Life, Diagnosis Murder, T.J. Hooker, Hawaii Five-0 and Cannon are joining the lineup beginning Monday, August 21. Most of these are new to MeTV, such as The Facts of Life, while Hawaii Five-0 makes its return to MeTV. Effective Aug. 21, The Facts of Life will air weekdays at 6am. Diagnosis Murder will air weekdays at 11am. Early evenings will now be back-to-back dramas, T.J. Hooker at 5pm and Hawaii Five-0 at 6pm, as the sitcom block of Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island, Happy Days and The Odd Couple will be replaced. Cannon joins the late night line-up at 1am. With these changes and additions, the shows leaving for now are Mister Ed, Remington Steele, Gilligan's Island, Happy Days, The Odd Couple, Mayberry RFD and Ironside. View and discuss these MeTV Summer of Me changes.

SHOWTIME has announced the premiere dates for its fall comedy slate, including two new half-hour comedy series and the return of the hit hour-long comedy Shameless. First up, White Famous - starring Jay Pharoah (Saturday Night Live) and based on the personal experiences of Academy Award(R) winner Jamie Foxx - will debut Sunday, October 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, airing after the hit drama series Ray Donovan. Then Smilf, - starring Frankie Shaw (Mr. Robot) and based on her Sundance Film Festival Jury Award-winning short film of the same name - will launch Sunday, November 5 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, following the 9 p.m. ET/PT season eight premiere that night of the hit series Shameless. On November 5, White Famous will move to 10:30 p.m. ET/PT.

In White Famous, Jay Pharoah plays talented young comedian Floyd Mooney, whose star is rising, forcing him to navigate the treacherous waters of maintaining his credibility as he begins to cross over into the world of becoming "white famous." Jamie Foxx will executive produce and guest star in a recurring role. Utkarsh Ambudkar (The Mindy Project) plays Malcolm, Floyd's frustrated agent who wants his client to do whatever it takes to make it big. Cleopatra Coleman (The Last Man on Earth) plays Floyd's ex-girlfriend Sadie, the love of his life and the mother of his son, played by Lonnie Chavis (This is Us). Jacob Ming-Trent (Feed the Beast) stars as Ron Balls, Floyd's roommate - in the middle of the chaos, he remains the voice of reason. Stephen Tobolowsky (The Goldbergs) guest stars in the series' pilot. Additional guest stars this season will include Meagan Good, Jack Davenport, Michael Rapaport, Kendrick Sampson, Lyndon Smith and Natalie Zea. Smilf will take a raw and honest comedic look at a single, 20-something from Southie, Bridgette (Frankie Shaw), whose desires for relationships, sex, and a career collide with the realities of young, single motherhood. Adapting her Sundance Film Festival Jury award-winning short film, Shaw will star, write, produce and direct the semi-autobiographical comedy.

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! Early May is always the busiest time of the year for news as we learn which shows will be coming, going, and which ones will be abandoned before they could even be picked up, and this week is no exception! We have just a small taste of some of the bigger announcements here today (stay with us next week for full details as the networks finalize everything). Additionally, we have some major DVD news coming out of one studio that will bring nearly a dozen (if not more) abandoned or never released series, mostly from the CBS library, to DVD. Let's get going!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

HOME MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

• VEI announced a huge slate of DVDs this week, including (but not limited to) Angie, Cannon, Grace Under Fire, Hotel, The Parkers, and Petrocelli. They are saying that these will be coming later this year, although we anticipate there could be some delays in releasing this huge slate.
• Shout! Factory is moving ahead with their releases of the All in the Family spinoffs, with Maude - The Complete Second Season and The Jeffersons - The Complete Eighth Season on August 11.

Who to Follow: Chris D'Elia (Twitter), "The ONLY official twitter account for the movie Best Man Holiday starring Taye Diggs."

Claim to Fame: With the somewhat unusual renewal for NBC's Undateable, we're featuring the star of that series as our Follow Me this week. He plays the starring role of Danny Burton in that series which just got a third season (unusual for an NBC sitcom, also unusual since even executive producer Bill Lawrence didn't expect the series to really last) of all live episodes. This isn't D'Elia's first sitcom on NBC in recent years, though, as he was previously on the series Whitney. One of his first roles was as a teenager in the series Chicago Hope, and he has also appeared in Monk, Boston Legal, and Jennifer Falls.