SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! This week, it is all about goodbyes, as we say goodbye (maybe?) to ABC's Cristela, goodbye to the longest running variety series in the world, and goodbye to a (relatively new) game show host. We also have news of some new DVD re-releases and the launch of a new digital broadcast network. Let's get going!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

HOME MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

• We had news about The Simpsons last week that wasn't necessarily positive (that there may be no future home media releases of the series), but for King of the Hill, things are looking pretty good for the remainder of the series. This week, TVShowsOnDVD.com uncovered that plans are in the works to have the entire series finished by the end of the year.
• Mill Creek isn't giving up on The Cosby Show, and will in fact be re-releasing the final two seasons with The Cosby Show - Seasons 7 and 8 on June 16.
• Mill Creek is also bringing the entire series of Soap back together on DVD, with a June 2 release of Soap - The Complete Series.

Who to Follow: Ernest Lee Thomas (Twitter)

Claim to Fame: Ernest Lee Thomas began his career on stage, and made it onto Broadway in 1974 at age 25. He went into TV with a role on The Jeffersons, and it wasn't long until he got the role of Raj on the TV series What's Happening!!, where he played a character almost ten years younger than he was in real life. He later returned to that same role on the follow-up series, What's Happening Now!! While he mostly does work on stage now, he most recently had a recurring role on the UPN/CW series Everybody Hates Chris.

My Wife & Kids is now on MTV2. As of yesterday, MTV2 quietly added the comedy to its line-up and will air in stacks, with no set timings. It will continue to air on sister Viacom network Centric still as well. My Wife & Kids has previously been on Viacom's Nick at Nite, BET and more recently on MTV, but now it is on Centric and MTV2. The series of course stars Damon Wayans as Michael Kyle. In the series, Michael Kyle has been used to having his wife at home, taking care of him and the kids. Now that Jay wants to put her college degree to work, he has trouble accepting the fact that she wants to return to work. Watch for the show today from 9am-1pm on MTV2 and also in late night. Check your local listings for timings, as it varies on a particular day. My Wife & Kids joins the MTV2 line-up filled with sitcoms like Martin, The Jamie Foxx Show, The Wayans Bros., Everybody Hates Chris and Saved by the Bell. Keep it right here for continued scheduling updates!

Love is in the air when Cristela's Cristela Alonzo will make a guest star appearance on General Hospital as a part of a special Valentine's Day episode on Friday, February 13. On General Hospital, Cristela plays Assistant District Attorney Natalia Rodriguez, who works for District Attorney Scott Baldwin. While at the PCPD, she has some questions for Det. Nathan West regarding a recent break-in. Realizing it is Valentine's Day, they later open up about their loved ones. As previously announced, Baby Daddy's Derek Theler and Melissa Peterman will also guest star on the GH Valentine's episode. Derek plays a colleague of Dr. Patrick Drake, and Melissa plays an old friend of Olivia Falconeri from Bensonhurst.

The new COZI TV January 2015 schedule started yesterday, but of course we already told you about all of the new additions...now we have the timeslot info. Murder, She Wrote, starring the beloved Angela Lansbury, made its triumphant debut on COZI TV on January 2 and is airing Monday through Friday, 3PM-5PM, Friday nights 8PM-11PM and Sundays 7PM-9PM. Daytime gets a big makeover with Bronco (weekdays 8AM), Wyatt Earp (weekdays at 9AM), Zorro (weekdays 11AM-12PM) and Adam-12 (weekdays at noon). There are some additions to late primetime as well, with Dragnet (weeknights 11PM-12AM) and It Takes a Thief (Mondays 10PM). To make room for these new additions, the current daytime and primetime lineups will see significant shifts in air times. Sitcoms will air weekdays from 5-8pm, with an hour each of The Dick Van Dyke Show, Here's Lucy and Make Room for Daddy.

Plus, every weekend, COZI TV us bringing you Stunt Sundays (1PM-5PM EST), giving you more of your favorite shows with back-to-back episodes, changing weekly. COZI TV kicks off Stunt Sunday on January 11 with four episodes of It Takes a Thief. Anyway, view the full COZI TV January 2015 schedule.

This Friday (January 9), actresses who portrayed iconic moms from two of ABC's history-making series will make guest star appearances back-to-back on current sitcoms Last Man Standing and Cristela from 8-9pm ET/PT. On Last Man Standing, Patricia Richardson is reunited with Tim Allen, where she played his wife on the acclaimed series Home Improvement. In the Last Man Standing episode entitled "Helen Potts," Mike butts heads with his new but noisy neighbor, Helen Potts (Patricia Richardson), for waking up the neighbors with her power tools and fix-it projects. But when Vanessa and Helen become fast friends, Mike decides to interfere. On Cristela, Roseanne Barr plays the soon-to-be ex-wife of Cristela's boss. In the Cristela episode entitled "Veronica," Trent and his wife Veronica (Roseanne Barr) are going through some marital problems and look to soon be separating. Veronica takes an immediate liking to Cristela and offers her a job at her law firm, which specializes in cases that entice Cristela, but will she be able to abandon her loyalties to Trent? Tune in for these two classic '90s moms returning to ABC for one night only!

Spend the holidays with your favorite sitcom stars as Antenna TV, Tribune Broadcasting's multicast broadcast network, airs holiday episodes on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Antenna TV, which airs in 93 television markets across the U.S. reaching 74% of TV households, will be airing special holiday themed episodes beginning at 5am ET on Wednesday, December 24 and running through 3am ET on Friday, December 26. Programs include holiday episodes of: Father Knows Best, Hazel, Mister Ed, The Patty Duke Show, McHale's Navy, Green Acres, Bewitched, Diff'rent Strokes, Good Times, All in the Family, Maude, WKRP in Cincinnati, Barney Miller, The Burns and Allen Show, Dennis the Menace, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, The Flying Nun, The Monkees, The Partridge Family, Three's Company, Too Close for Comfort, Sanford and Son, Barney Miller, Married...With Children, and The Nanny. Antenna TV will also air the original Yule Log uninterrupted from 5-9am ET on Christmas morning. We will have more details, such as the full schedule, on the marathon as we get closer to the event! We will also have the new Antenna TV schedule that launches in January, with the new acquisitions. Stay tuned!

ABC has picked-up the back nine episodes for freshman sitcom Cristela. The Friday night sitcom, airings Fridays at 8:30pm, will now produce 22 total episodes this season. This is only the second new comedy to get a full season order, behind only ABC's black-ish. The multi-camera sitcom has done decent in the ratings behind the veteran Tim Allen sitcom Last Man Standing. In her sixth year of law school, Cristela (Cristela Alonzo) is finally on the brink of landing her first big (unpaid) internship at a prestigious law firm. The only problem is that her pursuit of success is more ambitious than her traditional Mexican-American family thinks is appropriate. She's stuck straddling the old culture she's trying to modernize at home with her working-class family and the modern world she's trying to embrace in her professional career. Breakout comedian Cristela Alonzo stars in this hilarious comedy about laughing your way down the path to the new American dream.

Cristela - Fridays at 8:30PM ET/PT on ABC
Premieres Friday, October 10, 2014 at 8:30PM ET/PT

by Skees

Comedian Cristela Alonzo makes her TV debut in the new ABC sitcom, Cristela, a semi-autobiographical series about a woman trying to fulfill her dreams, in spite of her own family. Alonzo plays Cristela, a Mexican-American woman who is trying to finish up an unpaid internship after constantly dropping and and dropping out of law school, while her mother would rather just see her daughter settle down and find a husband. Meanwhile, her home life forces her to also have to deal with her sister and brother-in-law, as well as their two kids, all under one roof. How can she handle it all? That's what you'll find out in this new sitcom.

Cast Details:

Cristela Alonzo as Cristela
Carlos Ponce as Felix
Maria Canals-Barrera as Danie;a
Terri Hoyos as Natalia
Andrew Leeds as Josh
Sam McMurray as Trent Culpepper
Justine Lupe as Maddie Culpepper
Jacob Guenther as Henry
Isabella Day as Isabella

Cristela Alonso (Cristela) is not only the star of the series, but she is also the co-creator and co-executive producer. The series marks her scripted series debut, but she has appeared on series such as Conan, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and Last Comic Standing. The series is based (in part) upon her life story.

Carlos Ponce (Felix) plays Cristela's brother-in-law on the series. The Puerto Rican born actor and singer has appeared in several Spanish language series, but has also appeared on American series including Beverly Hills, 90210, 7th Heaven, and Lipstick Jungle. He also served as a correspondent on Entertainment Tonight.

María Canals-Barrera (Daniela) plays Cristela's sister. She is best known for her role as Theresa Russo on Wizards of Waverly Place. She also had a starring role in the short-lived sitcom, The Tony Danza Show, and has appeared in George Lopez, The Loop, Popular, Veronica's Closet, Caroline in the City, and Almost Perfect.

Terri Hoyos (Natalia) plays Cristela's mother, who would just like to see her daughter settle down. The first series that she was cast in was the Fox sitcom The Ortegas, which was talked about a lot, but didn't even make it on the air before it was canceled. She has appeared in series that succeeded, though, including Cold Case, Bones, Criminal Minds, Without a Trace, Dharma and Greg, Parks & Recreation, and Modern Family, among others.

Andrew Leeds (Josh) plays Cristela's co-worker. While he has mostly worked on stage in performances such as Les Miserables, his television appearances have included Grey's Anatomy, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Veep, and Hot in Cleveland. He also has the distinction of being a writer for series pilots, and in fact, three of his pilots have been made by NBC.

Sam McMurray (Trent Culpepper) plays Cristela's supervisor. McMurray also filled the role of boss on the series The King of Queens, but has also appeared in Dinosaurs, Friends, and Freaks and Geeks, among other series. He has also played the role of Herman Munster in the made-for-TV movie The Munsters Scary Little Christmas.

Justine Lupe (Maddie Culpepper) plays Trent's daughter, and Cristela's other co-worker. She previously had a recurring role on Harry's Law, and has also appeared in Southland and Shameless.

Jacob Guenther (Henry) plays the son of Daniela and Felix. The young actor has a recurring role on Mad Men, and appeared on How I Met Your Mother and Sam and Cat, and has also appeared in skits on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Isabella Day (Isabella) plays the daughter of Daniela and Felix. She has done several commercials, and appeared last season on an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Pilot Plot:

"Pilot" – airs Friday, October 3rd, 2014 at 8:31PM ET/PT

In the pilot episode, we get to meet Cristela and her family. Cristela wants to be a lawyer and has been  attending law school off-and-on for years. Natalia, her mother, has other dreams for her: she would like to see her daughter get married and have a big house (but by "big house," she means a big house to work in as a maid). Things are looking up for Cristela, though, as she may be on the verge of landing an unpaid internship at a law firm (a dream at this point in her life)... even if that isn't quite what her mother had in mind for her daughter.

"Soul Mates" – airs Friday, October 10th, 2014 at 8:31PM ET/PT

In this episode, Cristela's family is determined to have her go out on a date, despite her own wishes. They even go so far as to create an online dating profile to find her the perfect soul mate. Determined to do whatever is necessary to have her family leave her alone, she agrees to meet with somebody and go on one of those dates, but she is in for a bit of a surprise when she finds out exactly who her mystery man is.


Analysis:

In what I saw of this series, it wasn't bad, but a big problem that I'm seeing is that it is supposed to be an autobiographical sitcom about somebody who we really don't know. We have seen a lot of this lately, and a lot of it has been marginally successful at best. In a sense, it reminds me of the Margaret Cho sitcom All American Girl that ran almost two decades ago on ABC. It's worth noting that at the time, Cho was also an unknown comedian (she is better known now), and the series even had a similar premise, about a young woman trying to live an American lifestyle against the ethnic traditions of her family. The main difference here (besides the ethnicity) is that Cristela is a more mature woman trying to start a professional career.

 

A positive about this series is that it fills a void that occasionally gets filled on broadcast TV (but never for long): it stars and mostly focuses on Hispanics. There is some stereotypical humor to be found in it, but it isn't overdone and isn't exactly over-the-top, and in that sense, reminds me a bit of the type of ethnic humor found on George Lopez. Of course, it wouldn't be complete if there wasn't at least one character who was a sort of over-the-top stereotype, and that would be the character of her mother, Natalia (Terri Hoyos). Luckily, she is a likeable character, and that makes it all a little bit better. The characters at "work" (or really, the internship), though, are the ones that I'm sort of expecting to see a bit more from as the series progresses.

Admittedly, I wasn't completely impressed with what I saw in the pilot episode, but "Soul Mates" (which airs on October 17th) was a much better episode than the pilot. Part of the problem with pilots in general, of course, is that they have to waste a lot of time building up the premise and introducing us to who each person is and why they are there, and trying to come up with small stories to make everybody fit in. That tether comes off once the show really begins, and the story in the second episode was a nice (though standard) sitcom episode. Between both episodes, I can't say that I laughed a whole lot, but there were certainly some funny moments. It seems, though, that the series is relying a bit more on stronger scripts, and I think that it has that potential, even if it hasn't quite been fully achieved yet. Also, I have to wonder where the series goes after the internship, assuming that it lasts that long... perhaps if the series works out well, she can be hired full-time? Or if not (but the series somehow manages to succeed in spite of that), could that be a good chance for a retooling? That's a bit off in the future, but it does leave some doors open.

Conclusion:

I honestly have to say that this wasn't quite as bad as I was expecting. A lot of what I read going into the pilot was by and large negative, but after watching it, it really wasn't bad. I think a big part of the problem that many people have difficulty with in a series like this (and there have been plenty more with the same issue in the past few seasons) is that it is a semi-autobiographical about a person that nobody knows. I had no idea who Cristela Alonzo was before watching this series, and even after watching it, it is hard to relate the series to who she is and what (if anything) this has to do with her life. This is a giant hurdle that the series is going to have to overcome, because to most people, this series will just be some random series about a Hispanic family. This may be a challenge since ABC has already put it on Friday night, which isn't exactly the "death slot" it was for ABC few years ago (in large part thanks to Shark Tank making people realize that there actually is a Friday night for the networks), but still poses some challenges to the success of a sitcom. It's hard to give a prognosis for this series since Friday is a bit of a wildcard, but I think it'll have plenty of time to prove whether or not it is worth of being a lasting hit.

Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):

Watchability: 3/5
Funniness: 2/5
Overall: 3/5

Discuss the show after you watch it on Friday, October 10 at 8:30PM ET/PT on our message board.

Related Links:

ABC.com Official Site

TV.com

epguides.com

Internet Movie Database

Wikipedia

Cristela Photo Gallery

Preview:

Borgasmord Productions' first project, a scripted, single camera comedy titled Life Interrupted officially launched via a Kickstarter Campaign on Tuesday (October 7). The project brings together several fan-favorites playing the non-traditional, and hilariously dysfunctional blended family of Mason Bell as he navigates what is shaping up to be a whopper of a midlife crisis. Bell will be played by Mason Reese, who uttered the spooner-ism "borgasmord" in a series of commercials for a canned-meat product in the '70s. Playing Mason's ex-wife is Alison Arngrim of Little House on the Prairie fame, and in the role of Alison's new wife is Erin Murphy who is best known as Tabitha from Bewitched. Mason's sassy former mother-in-law is the incomparable Dawn Wells aka Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island. The cast is rounded out with Dominican-American heartthrob Luis Jose Lopez (Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights) and Newcomer Robbie Allen. The show also features Robbie Rist (The Brady Bunch, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Brandon Cruz (The Courtship of Eddies Father), Julie Dolan (Gilmore Girls, Detention) and more.

Borgasmord Productions is the brain child of Clio Award winning former child-actor Mason Reese and the multi-hyphenated, Emmy nominated Producer-Writer (et al) Steven Wishnoff. The pair has teamed up with some of the most respected production executives in the business to create, develop and deliver content across a broad spectrum of genres for all platforms. The Kickstarter campaign for Life Interrupted runs 10/7/14 – 11/10/14. Back this project today to see some of your favorite classic TV stars in a new comedy!

Yesterday was ABC's turn at the TCA summer 2014 press tour. The biggest announcement were the fall 2014 premiere dates. But first, we had panels for ABC Family's Chasing Life, followed by ABC's upcoming new series like How to Get Away with Murder, Selfie, black-ish, Forever, Manhattan Love Story and Cristela. Onto the fall 2014 premiere dates, new drama Forever will be kicking off premiere week with two new episodes, with a special sneak preview on Monday, September 22 at 10 after Dancing with the Stars, and a second, all-new episode on Tuesday, September 23 at 10, for its regular time period premiere. Dancing with the Stars will premiere a week before the official start of the TV season, on Monday, Sept. 15 from 8-10pm. In addition, there will be two special nights of Dancing with the Stars Results Show this season, airing on Tuesday, September 16 and Tuesday, September 23, from 8:00-9:00pm. Elsewhere, on Tuesday, September 23 Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. premieres its season at a new time of 9pm. ABC Comedy Wednesday returns on Wednesday, September 24 with The Middle at 8, The Goldbergs on its new night & time at 8:30, TV's most honored comedy Modern Family at 9, and the series premiere of black-ish starring Anthony Anderson at 9:30. And of course the night ends with the third season launch of Nashville at 10.

On Thursday, September 25, it's an all Shonda Rhimes Night (Thank God It's Thursday!) with the new timeslot launch of Grey's Anatomy at 8, Scandal anchoring the night at 9 and the series premiere of the Viola Davis drama How to Get Away With Murder at 10. On Friday, September 26, the new season of Shark Tank launches with a two-hour premiere from 8-10 into 20/20 at 10. ABC's powerful Sunday drama line-up starts on Sunday, September 28 with the season premieres of Once Upon a Time, Resurrection and Revenge from 8-11pm. Post premiere week premieres include Castle on Monday, September 29 at 10. Two new comedies launch on Tuesday, September 30 at 8:00 & 8:30pm: Selfie and Manhattan Love Story. Then on Friday, October 3 at 8:00pm we have the one-hour season premiere of Last Man Standing starring Tim Allen from 8-9pm into the regular timeslot premiere of Shark Tank at 9. On Sunday, October 5, an all-new season of America's Funniest Home Videos begins at 7pm (likely a Once Upon a Time special is airing in week one on Sept. 28). And finally, the third Friday of the season on Friday, October 10 sees the launch of new sitcom Cristela at 8:30pm.

The women of TV Land's Hot in Cleveland are officially animated! Melanie Moretti (Valerie Bertinelli), Joy Scroggs (Jane Leeves), Victoria Chase (Wendie Malick) and Elka Ostrovsky (Betty White) have come to life in cartoon form with the help of animation studio Titmouse, Inc. – and they're bringing along Steven Tyler. Tyler will guest star in the episode as himself, serving as a guide through their magical, animated adventure. "The Animated Episode," the first-ever for TV Land, is set to air Wednesday, July 30 at 10pm ET/PT. The episode starts with the women at Elka's apartment, which before now has been a mystery to them...and they soon find out why. From there, they will meet up with Steven Tyler (and some other special friends) and go on a psychedelic romp through pop culture hits, including scenes with homages to Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, The Walking Dead and Frankenstein. Plus, they'll also see what life in Cleveland would have been like if LeBron James had never left (check out the sneak peek).