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LAFF, the country's first-ever, over-the-air broadcast television network devoted to comedy around-the-clock, launched yesterday, Weds. April 15 and in time for its' debut has licensed the broadcast television rights to all six seasons and 145 episodes of the popular sitcom Spin City from Paramount Worldwide Television Licensing & Distribution. Michael J. Fox headlines Spin City, which takes a hilarious look inside the New York City mayor's office. The series also features Heather Locklear, Barry Bostwick, Richard Kind, Alan Ruck and Connie Britton, with Charlie Sheen joining the cast for the series' final two seasons. Spin City was nominated multiple times for the Golden Globe(R) for Best TV Series - Comedy/Musical and Michael J. Fox won three Golden Globe(R) Awards and an Emmy(R) for his portrayal of Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty.

The addition of Spin City brings LAFF's tally to nearly 1000 episodes of popular contemporary sitcoms, including The Drew Carey Show, Night Court, Ellen DeGeneres' first sitcom Ellen, Empty Nest and Grace Under Fire. So when do these sitcoms air? Empty Nest airs weekdays 10-11am, 2-3am and 5-6am. Ellen airs weekdays 11am-12pm and 5-6pm. Spin City airs weekdays 4-5pm and 8-9pm. Grace Under Fire airs weekdays 6-7pm and 1-2am. And The Drew Carey Show rules primetime with airings weekdays from 7-8pm, 9-10pm and 12-1am. Movies air in the remaining timeslots on weekdays. On weekends, Empty Nest airs 6-7am on both days, Spin City airs Saturdays 7-8pm, followed by The Drew Carey Show in prime from 8-9pm and Drew Carey's Improv-a-ganza from 9-10pm. On Sundays Empty Nest airs 7-8pm, followed by Ellen from 8-9pm and Grace Under Fire from 9-10pm. Like weekdays, movies air in the remaining timeslots. Night Court hasn't been scheduled yet.

LAFF is available to half the country -- including in 18 of the top 25 markets - with even more markets to be added shortly. LAFF is now seen in: New York (WABC-TV), Los Angeles (KABC-TV), Chicago (WLS-TV), Philadelphia (WPVI-TV), San Francisco (KGO-TV), Boston (WFXT-TV), Atlanta (WSB-TV), Houston (KTRK-TV), Phoenix (KNXV-TV), Detroit (WXYZ-TV), Tampa (WFTS-TV), Seattle (KIRO-TV), Denver (KMGH-TV), Orlando (WFTV-TV), Cleveland (WEWS-TV), Pittsburgh (WPXI-TV) Charlotte (WSOC-TV), Raleigh (WTVD-TV), Baltimore (WMAR-TV), Indianapolis (WRTV-TV), San Diego (KGTV-TV), Kansas City (KSHB-TV), Cincinnati (WCPO-TV), West Palm Beach (WPTV-TV), Buffalo (WKBW-TV), Fresno (KFSN-TV), Tulsa (KJRH-TV) and Dayton (WHIO-TV).

Netflix announced that there will be a season four of Orange Is the New Black, coming exclusively to Netflix in 2016. #SorryNotSorry - But first, your favorite inmates from Litchfield Correctional Institution are back for an all new season (season 3) exclusively on Netflix beginning Friday, June 12. Piper, Red, Crazy Eyes, Taystee, Poussey, Sophia, Nicky, Daya, Gloria, Big Boo, Pennsatucky and all of Litchfield's ladies are back for more drama and laughter...as Alex makes her return and a new inmate, Stella (Ruby Rose) joins the gang. Orange Is the New Black has garnered more than 20 awards including three Emmy Awards, two SAG Awards, two AFI honors, three Critic's Choice Television Awards, one NAACP Image Award, one PGA Award, two GLAAD Media Awards, and is a recipient of a Peabody Award and a Television Critics' Association (TCA) Award.

LAFF, the country's first-ever, over-the-air broadcast television network devoted to comedy around-the-clock set to launch on April 15, 2015, made the first in what-will-be a series of programming acquisition announcements, landing the broadcast television rights to more than 800 episodes of some of the most popular sitcoms in contemporary television. In the three individual, multi-year licensing agreements, LAFF licenses: all nine seasons of both The Drew Carey Show (233 episodes) and Night Court (193 episodes) from Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. Two series from The Disney/ABC Television Group: Ellen DeGeneres' first sitcom Ellen (109 episodes) and all seven seasons of Empty Nest (170 episodes). And finally, Grace Under Fire (112 episodes) starring Brett Butler from Carsey-Werner Productions. LAFF will feature a mix of contemporary off-network sitcoms and popular theatrical motion pictures, with a target audience of adults 18-49. The LAFF brand will cross multiple platforms, with the linear network carried on the signals of local broadcast television stations and corresponding cable carriage while a selection of companion digital content will be available at LAFF.com and via the LAFF app.

The newly-announced LAFF already has two major distribution agreements in place. The ABC Owned Television Stations will carry LAFF in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh and Fresno. The E.W. Scripps Company will also launch LAFF on its stations in Detroit, Phoenix, Tampa, Denver, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Baltimore, San Diego, Kansas City, Cincinnati, West Palm Beach, Buffalo and Tulsa. These initial agreements will make LAFF available to more than 35% of the country, with more distribution additions expected to be announced shortly. Stay with us for continued updates, along with a launch schedule!

Moving on to some network news. The third season of fan favorite drama Beauty and the Beast will begin its 13-episode run on Thursday, May 21 at 8:00pm ET on The CW Network, following the conclusion of The Vampire Diaries season. In addition, The CW announced that Beauty and the Beast has also been renewed a fourth season, which will air later the 2015-2016 season. As season three begins, Cat (Kristin Kreuk) and Vincent (Jay Ryan) are able to focus on their love, finally free from Muirfield, manhunts and beasts.

The Hallmark Channel will remove the Richard Mulligan sitcom Empty Nest from its schedule effective this weekend. The sitcom has been airing on weekend mornings and weekend late nights but Hallmark Channel will completely remove it for now. It will likely return at some point, as they still have rights to air the series. Beginning Saturday, July 2, 2011, weekends will now have more I Love Lucy from 7am-9am replacing Empty Nest. The sitcom won't be airing during the 4th of July All-American Laugh-a-thon either. The weekend marathon of sitcoms begins Saturday and runs through Monday, as we mentioned before. It has been changed to mostly Frasier on Saturday, I Love Lucy on Sunday and The Golden Girls on Monday. Anyway, back to the regular schedule changes, weekends will change starting Saturday, July 9. The Golden Girls will move up to 11pm-1am, shifting Frasier to 1am-3am. And 3-5am will now be Cheers, replacing Empty Nest.
One other note is that Hallmark will air a M*A*S*H marathon during the last weekend of July. The marathon airs Saturday, July 30 from 9am-5pm and Sunday, July 31, 2011 from 9am-8pm. The'70s series hasn't aired on Hallmark in a while, so we shall see if it airs more in August or not. Stay tuned...

CBS has announced its premiere dates for Fall 2011. This means we now have premiere dates set for Fox, The CW, ABC and now CBS. NBC is the only network yet to announce premiere dates, so stay tuned for their dates. CBS will air majority of their premieres during premiere week (Sept. 19-25), but there are some exceptions. The new season of Survivor (in the South Pacific) will open up on Wednesday, September 14 at 8pm. Then during premiere week CBS is all-new on Monday, Sept. 19 with two episodes of How I Met Your Mother from 8-9pm leading into Ashton Kutcher's debut on Two and a Half Men at 9pm followed by a special premiere of new comedy 2 Broke Girls at 9:30pm. 2 Broke Girls will move to its regular time period of 8:30pm the following week (Sept. 26), while Mike & Molly makes its season premiere at 9:30pm on that night as well. On Tuesday, Sept. 20, CBS will have its NCIS and NCIS: LA premieres from 8-10pm, followed by new series premiere of Unforgettable. On Wednesday, Sept. 21, Criminal Minds has its season premiere at 9pm leading into the new night and time for CSI at 10pm.
Moving on to Thursday, on Sept. 22, The Big Bang Theory will have a two-episode premiere from 8-9pm to lead into new drama Person of Interest at 9pm, followed by the season premiere of The Mentalist at 10pm. New comedy How To Be A Gentleman will have its series premiere the following week on Sept. 29 at 8:30pm. On to Fridays, all three series will launch on Friday, Sept. 23 with the series premiere of new drama A Gifted Man at 8pm, then season premieres of CSI: NY at 9 and Blue Bloods at 10. CBS will air a scripted series on Saturdays, as comedy Rules of Engagement will move to Saturdays at 8pm starting Sept. 24. 48 Hours Mystery has its season premiere later in the night at 10pm. And finally the Sunday premieres all happen on Sunday, Sept. 25 with 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race, the new night for The Good Wife at 9pm and CSI: Miami at 10pm.
View our new day-by-day schedule for CBS that we will update when changes occur.

The Hallmark Channel has announced its June 2011 schedule and highlights. There is no change to the regular line-up, but there are plenty of stunts. Back on the May 2011 highlights, we gave you details on the Memorial Day weekend marathon. There are now changes to the Monday portion of the three-day stunt. Instead of an assorted series marathon, we will get a Frasier marathon on Memorial Day itself from 3pm-11pm. If that's not all, a two-hour block will air from 9-11am in its normal morning slot (instead of the planned Empty Nest block) leading into the Martha at Home block. Regular airing of The Golden Girls, Cheers and more The Golden Girls will follow from 11pm-5am.
New stunts for June 2011 will have a marathon of The Waltons on Sunday, June 5 from 2pm-10pm. Saturday, June 25 will have an all-day sitcom stunt starting at 6am with two hours of I Love Lucy leading into Empty Nest from 7am-11am. The Golden Girls will follow from 11am-2pm, with Frasier airing from 2pm-5pm. And if you want more The Golden Girls, you got it from 5pm-8pm leading into a primetime delight of Frasier from 8pm-11pm. Cheers will also get in on the act with a stunt from 11pm-2am leading to the overnight Empty Nest from 2am-5am.
Finally, we have a preview of the first week of July, which will feature a three-day sitcom event for the Fourth of July weekend! It's the same sitcom stunt schedule we mentioned above with the same times and shows. This is for Saturday, July 2 and Sunday, July 3. What will air on Monday, July 4? We'll let you know in a few weeks in our July 2011 highlights, because well that is part of the July line-up. So stay with us for that!

BET has some sitcom stunts in the works for us sitcom fans! A week-long Everybody Hates Chris marathon is coming in June! The marathon airs during graduation week from Monday, June 13 through Friday, June 17 from 1pm-6pm each afternoon! The sitcom regularly airs weekdays in the 8am hour. And in time for Father's Day, BET will air a a Father's Day stunt with episodes from The Steve Harvey Show on Saturday, June 18 from 12pm-6pm as we get ready for Father's Day the next day! This sitcom regularly airs on sister network Centric every weekday.
Elsewhere, for Memorial Day (May 30), they will have a marathon of The Game from 8am-7:30pm showcasing the second half season three and all 13 episodes from the fourth season! This is a good way to catch-up, if you missed anything this season. On Saturday, June 4, catch the complete fourth season of Girlfriends in a 12-hour block from 8am-8pm with all 24 episodes from that season!

May 2011 kicks off on The Hallmark Channel with a 24-hour marathon of I Love Lucy on Sunday, May 1, 2011 starting at 6am. The regular weekday and weekend schedule will remain unchanged, as of now, so expect the current schedule to go into May as well. The schedule can be found here, if you have forgotten.
No changes to the schedule doesn't mean there won't be any marathon stunts! Other stunts in May 2011 besides the Lucy marathon has a 24-hour Little House on the Prairie marathon on Saturday, May 21, 2011 starting at 6am and a Memorial Day Weekend sitcom stunt! The sitcom stunt lasts three days and starts at 5am on Saturday, May 28, 2011. It's a three-hour tour for three days for Memorial Day Weekend! The laughs begin at 5am with a three-hour block of I Love Lucy, followed by three hours of Empty Nest from 8am-11am. The Golden Girls will air also for three hours starting at 11am and running to 2pm. The triple play marathon continues with three-hours of Frasier beginning at 2pm, then more The Golden Girls at 5pm, and more Frasier starting at 8pm. Cheers gets in on the three hour act starting at 11pm and then Empty Nest closes out the night from 2am-5am. This schedule repeats on Sunday, May 29, 2011 as well! On Memorial Day (Monday, May 30) itself, the marathon is interrupted by the regular Martha Stewart Home block from 10am-3pm, so that is the only change, as the rest of the day will be identical to the previous two days' blocks.


Weigel Broadcasting Co. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) announced that MeTV (Memorable Entertainment Television) Network, the new digital classic television network, will be cleared as primary signals on Newport Television's full power stations KFTY-TV50 serving San Francisco (DMA 6) and KVOS-TV serving Seattle (DMA 13). Both stations have full market distribution with cable and satellite carriage and are scheduled to premiere as MeTV affiliates later this spring. Currently, both KFTY and KVOS are independent stations, so they will be changing to be MeTV affiliates.
These two stations join WBME-TV49, serving the Milwaukee area, as MeTV primary station clearances. Since its 2008 launch, MeTV Milwaukee has experienced impressive triple digit growth across key time periods. MeTV Chicago was where the concept began on primary station WWME-TV23. And now it is available on many digital stations in the United States, with Chicago, Milwaukee and the upcoming San Francisco and Seattle stations being primary stations (meaning on a dot one!). The rest are on digital stations like Raleigh (WRAZ-TV50.2) and Louisville (WLKY-TV32.2).
Me-TV is now cleared in more than 45% of the country on leading station groups including: Hearst Television, Raycom Media, Cox Television, Newport Television, Media General, Capitol Broadcasting, Bahakel Communications, Gray Television, Quincy Newspapers, New Age Media, MPS Media, London Broadcasting Group, Bonten Media Group, and Titan Broadcast Management. We will announce more official clearances when available, whether it is on primary or digital stations. See an unofficial list for now.

Maybe the third time is the charm? For the third time, The Hallmark Channel has edited their April 2011 schedule before it has even started. Effective Monday (April 4), there will be changes in the evenings and late nights from the second revision, which we gave you about ten days ago. An extra airing of The Waltons will air weekdays at 5pm replacing an airing of Little House on the Prairie. This means The Waltons will now air for three hours from 3-6pm every weekday. At 6pm, Little House on the Prairie remains, but it was going to be replaced at 7pm by The Golden Girls, but this will no longer happen. The 8pm hour was also going to be The Golden Girls, but now Hallmark has scheduled another Little House on the Prairie, so the drama will air weeknights from 6-9pm. The other changes are in late night. Cheers will remain in the 1am-3am block now, as it was going to be replaced by Empty Nest. Then from 3am-5am will now be a late night block of The Golden Girls, as Cheers was planned in this block in the previous revision. The Golden Girls will now air from 11pm-1am and 3am-5am, if you're keeping score. The changes will be made on weekdays/nights only. The weekend schedule will remain the same as the previous update. This means Empty Nest will be just on weekends for an hour in the mornings (anytime between 7-9am) and a late night block on weekends from 3am-5am. View the the UPDATED Hallmark Channel April 2011 schedule. If anything changes AGAIN, we will let you know. Stay tuned!

CBS recently announced their season finales for this season (2010-2011). Some of these finale dates were already known to us. The first finale will be on Sunday, May 1 at 9pm as Undercover Boss ends its second year. Then a week later, The Amazing Race will close out its season with a special two-hour episode from 8-10pm followed by the season finale of CSI: Miami. On Sunday, May 15, as we knew, will be the Survivor: Redemption Island finale from 8-11pm, with the reunion show. On Thursday, May 12, CSI will end a week early at 9pm, as the following week (May 19) will have a two-hour The Mentalist season finale. Friday dramas CSI: NY and Blue Bloods wrap up their seasons on Friday, May 13 starting at 9pm. It is unclear what will air on the final Friday of the season (May 20). The CBS Monday line-up will wrap up their seasons on Monday, May 16, which is also a week before the season. Comedies How I Met Your Mother, Mad Love, Mike & Molly and drama Hawaii Five-0 will also end on this night. As of now, it looks like Two and a Half Men repeats will continue to air. We will let you know if this changes. The Thursday comedies end on the last Thursday of the season with The Bang Theory and Rules of Engagement airing before The Mentalist finale on May 19. The Tuesday drama line-up of NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, and The Good Wife will end their seasons on Tuesday, May 17, which is a week before the final Tuesday of the season. The same goes true for Criminal Minds on Wednesday, with the finale airing on May 18 rather than the last day of the season. Spin-off series Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior will however end its season on the last day of the season on Wednesday, May 25 at 10pm. As of this writing, it is unclear what CBS will air on Friday, May 20 from 9-11pm; Monday, May 23 and Tuesday, May 24 from 8-11pm and Wednesday, May 25 from 8-10pm, as their regular series on those days and times end their seasons a week before. Could some specials be in the works? Stay tuned!

As we suspected, The Hallmark Channel has revised its April 2011 schedule. As we mentioned on Friday, The Waltons will be starting today at 3pm & 4pm every weekday. That will continue into April as well, so that means changes to the original April schedule will be made. First up, the full day Cheers marathon on Sunday, April 3, 2011 is no longer happening. This marathon was to promote spin-off series Frasier joining the line-up the following day. Instead, Hallmark will showcase all of its shows this Sunday. Each sitcom will air in blocks on this date: I Love Lucy from 6am-8am, The Golden Girls from 8am-11am, Empty Nest from 11am-3pm, more The Golden Girls from 3pm-6pm, more I Love Lucy from 6pm-11pm, yet more The Golden Girls from 11pm-2am, and Cheers from 2am-5am.
Now that is just for one day, the regular April schedule starts on Monday, April 4. Going through it from the original plan, I Love Lucy remains from 5am-8am, Frasier still remains from 8am-10am leading into the Martha at Home block. The Waltons will remain in the 3pm and 4pm hours, replacing the planned Touched by an Angel airings. The evening line-up also remains intact with Little House on the Prairie at 5pm & 6pm leading into a block of The Golden Girls from 7-9pm and Frasier from 9pm-11pm. Now the original post-primetime line-up had Cheers from 11pm-1am, but now Hallmark will keep The Golden Girls from 11pm-1am instead of moving it to 1am-3am. And as we revealed on Friday, Empty Nest will be back after a two week break and will air weeknights from 1am-3am, pushing Cheers to 3am-5am. Who's the Boss? is still missing from the April schedule, but we think it was a one-year deal and the contract has expired. That is not certain though and we will let you know as soon as we find out.
As for weekends, it will remain as planned from the original weekend plan. There are a few marathon changes, though. The Touched by an Angel marathon planned for Saturday, April 9 is now scrapped and the regular schedule will air instead. If you noticed, Touched by an Angel is also missing from the regular schedule as well. On Sunday, April 10, Hallmark will give a full day marathon for its newest series Frasier starting at 6am for 24 straight hours! One other marathon note, the full-day Little House on the Prairie marathon scheduled for Saturday, April 23 is now removed in favor of a full-day with The Waltons starting at 6am!
View the full and updated Hallmark Channel April 2011 schedule.

Moving on to some network notes, as you all know there were special airings of Shark Tank and Detroit 1-8-7 last night on ABC on special nights, but there are more notes. On Tuesday, March 29, ABC will air the special Dancing With The Stars: The Story So Far at 8pm, highlighting the first two dances for each star leading into the first Results Show of the season. This means No Ordinary Family will be preempted on March 29. Instead, the episode will air on a special night and time on Saturday, March 26 at 10pm following a repeat of the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars. That is the second to last episode of the season, as the season finale as of now will air Tuesday, April 5. The series returns with the first of three all-new episodes tomorrow (Tuesday, March 22) at 8pm.
Elsewhere, ABC has announced it will air a two-hour episode of Sunday drama Brothers & Sisters on Sunday, April 10, which is its next airing, from 9-11pm. The series will then air every Sunday until its season finale tentatively scheduled for Sunday, May 8. Desperate Housewives will be preempted at 9pm on April 10, but the show will be all-new on April 3 and will be all-new every week until its finale starting April 17.
And finally, The CW will move America's Next Top Model to 9pm starting April 20 in order to avoid Survivor and American Idol at 8pm. Repeats of Top Model will lead into new episodes, as Shedding for the Wedding has its finale on April 13 at 9pm.

The Hallmark Channel and GMC (Gospel Music Channel) have both acquired the cable rights to the '70s family drama The Waltons. The Hallmark Channel previously aired the series on and off from 2001-2009, renewing it a few times. Now after two years off the line-up, they have re-acquired it in a new deal, as we hinted on the Hallmark April 2011 schedule. The drama will air weekdays at 3pm and 4pm starting Monday (March 21) replacing Empty Nest. No other changes will be made to the line-up, except the Martha at Home Monday block from 6pm-10pm will be removed in favor of the regular weeknight schedule (Little House and Touched). As for Empty Nest, it will return in two weeks when the April 2011 schedule starts on April 4. The April schedule that was announced will have changes made, though. Originally Empty Nest was slated to move to 3-5am starting April 4. That will no longer happen, as that April schedule was made prior to the Empty Nest launch on March 8 and the series has done decent in the ratings. In fact, Empty Nest will air immediately after The Golden Girls on weeknights from 1am-3am starting April 4. So that means The Golden Girls isn't moving to 1am either. We don't have the full UPDATED April 2011 schedule just yet, but as soon as we do, we will let you know. So stay tuned, as The Waltons will be in that too.
And if Hallmark isn't enough, GMC has also acquired the rights to The Waltons! America's favorite TV family comes to the network for uplifting entertainment on Sunday, April 3, 2011 with a full-day marathon starting at 11am and lasting into the late night. This will include an airing of the 1997 TV movie A Walton Easter at 7pm and 9pm. GMC has never aired the actual The Waltons series before, but they have aired a few of the Thanksgiving movies this past Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, GMC hasn't announced its regular April 2011 weekday schedule, so we don't know where (or if) The Waltons will air on it. We will bring that to you as soon as we know.
The Waltons started airing on the cable network INSP back in October and will continue to do so, too, as the deals made were not exclusive. INSP airs the series weekdays at 1pm and 8pm. So you have three places to watch The Waltons now, if you get all three cable networks. The Waltons will join family dramas Little House on the Prairie and Touched by an Angel on Hallmark and family dramas Highway to Heaven, Dr. Quinn, Promised Land, Sue Thomas and Doc on GMC. On INSP, it airs with family dramas Our House, Highway to Heaven and Canadian drama Wind at My Back.
Stay with us for the updated Hallmark April 2011 schedule and the GMC April 2011 schedule.

Duh, winning! Bio Channel presents the one-hour original special Charlie Sheen: Bad Boy on the Edge on Sunday, March 20 at 9PM ET/PT. Charlie Sheen: Bad Boy on the Edge takes viewers through the near 30-year career of Charlie Sheen who has made a living following his own bliss. After his very public firing from the CBS hit series Two and a Half Men, Sheen went on the offensive, and the public was given a front row seat to a career and lifestyle that seemed to teeter on the edge of oblivion. In what to many seemed like a bazaar new chapter in the actor's life, to those who know him, these recent events are just part of the logical progression of a rock star lifestyle pushed to its limit - with celebrity marriages, substance abuse, controversies and scrapes with the law.
The special includes footage from his films, personal family photos and news footage cut with original interviews with ABC News 20/20's Andrea Canning, adult film actress Capri Anderson, close friend and rock star Bret Michaels, TV personality/radio host, Danny Bonaduce, and journalists who have covered Sheen's career as well as drug rehab experts who weigh the gravity of Sheen's current state of affairs to determine whether he's in control, off the rails or simply on the brink of a major disaster.

The Hallmark Channel has announced their April 2011 schedule. As we already told you, Frasier is joining the line-up starting April 4. Now we have the full details for the month. Frasier will air weekday mornings after I Love Lucy (6-8am) from 8am-10am replacing a Golden Girls block, leading into the Hallmark Martha Stewart Home block. After that block is over, two episodes of Touched by an Angel will air from 3pm-5pm replacing a block of Empty Nest. Then from 5-7pm, two hours of Little House on the Prairie remains, but the 7pm hour will be The Golden Girls, as will be the 8pm hour, replacing Touched by an Angel. So the ladies of Miami will air from 7-9pm leading into a block of Frasier from 9-11pm, which replaces two episodes of Touched by an Angel. Then the Frasier Crane block continues as we see him before he moves to Seattle, in Cheers from 11pm-1am, replacing The Golden Girls. The ladies of Miami will however air from 1am-3am now replacing Cheers. So as a recap, The Golden Girls will air 7-9pm and 1-3am. Then from 3am-5am, we have a two-hour block of Empty Nest in its new time period, replacing an hour each of Cheers and Who's the Boss? The 5am hour will now be more I Love Lucy replacing Who's the Boss? This means Tony Micelli and company will be off the schedule completely, while I Love Lucy will air weekdays from 5am-8am.
How about weekends? There continues to be stunts on most Saturdays. A Touched by an Angel 24-hour marathon will air on Saturday, April 9 starting at 6am. The following week will have a "Love" movies marathon starting at 7am leading into the premiere of new movie Beverly Lewis' The Shunning from 9pm-11pm with an immediate encore 11pm-1am. And on Saturday, April 23, Hallmark will have a 24-hour marathon of Little House on the Prairie beginning at 6am. As for the weekend schedule, I Love Lucy remains from 6am-8am. Empty Nest will now air for an hour at 8am leading into a block of The Golden Girls from 9am-11am. One daytime movie has been pulled for a block of Frasier from 11am-1pm. The movies now start at 1pm and will last through 11pm. Another Frasier block replaces a movie from 11pm-1am. As weeknights, The Golden Girls will air from 1am-3am, Empty Nest from 3-5am and I Love Lucy in the 5am hour.
Now, this schedule was made prior to the launch of Empty Nest on March 8 (weekdays 3pm-5pm), so this schedule is subject to change. Also, Hallmark has announced that they have acquired The Waltons to air starting Monday, March 21...but as of now, it isn't scheduled. As soon as it is, we will let you know and what this will mean for April 2011. So come on back.
View the Hallmark Channel April 2011 schedule and stunts.

TV Rebels is back with another book! We posted 12 exclusive excerpts from the book previously and reviewed the first volume, but now another volume is here! TV Rebels: People and Programs that Shaped the Medium, Volume 2 has been released as the second in a series of chapbooks by The Last Automat Press. Innovators like Stephen J. Cannell, Nancy Dickerson, Dick Clark, and Jack Webb and series such as An American Family, Perry Mason, The Heidi Game, and That Girl are honored in this collection of essays as significant contributors to the growth of television.
To achieve "rebel" status is to have presented something new, innovative, and thought provoking. It was to have set a standard that those who followed were inspired by and in turn looked to emulate. The people and programs in this volume as in the previous TV Rebels collection have done just that. In so doing they have become part of our collective pop culture consciousness. We quote them, we laugh at them, we cry for them, and here, we remember them.
Contributing authors to this volume are Oscar De Los Santos, Brett Glatman, Kelly Goodridge, Mark Misercola, Lou Orfanella, JJ Sargent, and William Suesholtz. Copies may be ordered for $10 each, plus $1 shipping per order.

Order:
The Last Automat Press
P.O. Box 35
Patterson, NY 12563.
Mention SitcomsOnline.com and your copies will be signed by at least two of the contributing authors!

We will post one excerpt from the book today as a sample:

Dick Clark: Perennial Teenager and Media Mogul
by Lou Orfanella

Who would want to watch a bunch of teenagers dancing on television while a radio disc jockey hawked pimple cream? That no doubt is a question that dogged executives and critics alike. American Bandstand premiered on Philadelphia's local ABC station in 1952 with Bob Horn hosting but he had been replaced by young clean-cut disc jockey Dick Clark by the time the show went national in 1957. Though originally conceived as little more than an inexpensive afternoon time filler it went on to become a phenomenon and the linchpin in Dick Clark's massive production empire. "The Bandstand show was originally created because it was less expensive than old English movies for daytime programming, but its rapid ascent brought prestige and a host of imitators (Diehl 165)."
The premise of American Bandstand was simple and changed little through the decades. Guest musicians would lip sync to their hit records while teenagers danced on stage and Clark oversaw the proceedings with his genial style and ever youthful persona. Bandstand ran until 1989, mostly on ABC but with syndicated and USA (cable) Network versions toward the end, with Clark hosting all but the final year. To Clark, the simplicity with a nod to human nature is what made the show work. "People-watching. You just can't beat it. It's been going on since folks just sat in the railroad station. All it needs is a personality to head it up who will subjugate himself to the audience, and that's me." The emcee told TV Guide in 1970 (Lasswell 25). Bandstand was a veritable who's who of recording stars and in the pre-MTV years, exposure on the show was a valuable marketing tool for record companies. While the stars certainly helped attract viewers, "it was the teenagers' insatiable urge to study one another's personal style with an anthropological intensity-while the benign chaperon Clark looked on-that made Bandstand classic viewing for more than 30 years (Lasswell 25)."
American Bandstand wove its way into the fabric of Americana largely by reflecting and presenting the music that was popular at the time, but in other subtle ways as well. It brought rock and roll music into the mainstream and in so doing helped integrate the black music and culture from which much of it was derived into the mainstream as well. In 1957, years prior to Bill Cosby and Diahann Carroll playing lead roles on weekly network series Bandstand was integrating the races from coast to coast. "Up until that time, the dancers on Bandstand had one thing in common-they were all white. You didn't see a lot of black people on TV in the fifties, or other minorities, either...So in 1957, we were charting new territory. I don't think of myself as a hero or civil rights activist for integrating the show; it was simply the right thing to do (Clark 19)."
While Clark's legacy will likely always include a reference to his being "the world's oldest teenager" his list of television hosting and producing credits is one of the longest in the business. From award shows like The American Music Awards to TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes to numerous versions of his Pyramid game show to decades of ringing in the new year on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, he was a ubiquitous presence and force in television from the 1950s through the turn of the century, for a time even hosting shows on all three networks and in syndication simultaneously.

Works Cited
Clark, Dick with Fred Bronson. Dick Clark's American Bandstand. New York: Collins, 1997.
Diehl, Digby. "The Oldest Living Teen-ager." TV Guide: The First 25 Years. Ed. Jay S. Harris. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978. 164-166.
Laswell, , Mark. TV Guide: Fifty Years of Television. New York: Crown, 2002
We will review Volume 2 at a later date, so stay with us!

As you all know, The Hallmark Channel aired an Empty Nest marathon this past Saturday (Feb. 26) that they called a "premiere" marathon. There were no regular schedule airings planned, as we reported, but now in a last minute schedule change, the show will indeed be joining the regular schedule starting next week! Perhaps the series did well in the ratings? We're not sure actually (we will try to find out), but you can assume it did. Richard Mulligan and company will join the schedule on Tuesday, March 8, 2011 and will air for two-hours every weekday from 3-5pm ET. The sitcom will start from the pilot episode and go in order. So, since it is airing four times a day and 20 times a week (16 times the first week), it should go pretty fast. The "premiere" marathon on Saturday aired all 22 first season episodes, but now the rest of the series will be shown, too. The second season will begin on Tuesday, March 15, if you want to get your DVR's ready, especially if you recorded all 22 first season episodes in the marathon.
Empty Nest will replace Little House on the Prairie from 3-5pm, but Little House will remain at 5pm and will now air from 6-8pm as well, replacing Who's the Boss? So, it is Empty Nest from 3-5pm and Little House on the Prairie from 5-8pm every weekday late afternoon/evening. Who's the Boss? will remain airing on the schedule in the late night/early morning times of 4-6am every single day. Let's hope it returns to a good time slot soon, though, but at least it is still airing. One more piece of bad news is the Who's the Boss? full-day 24-hour marathon for this Saturday (March 5) has been canceled. No reason for the change was given. The regular Saturday line-up will air consisting of I Love Lucy and Golden Girls in the mornings, then movies the rest of the day with Golden Girls and Cheers in late night. The Cheers 24-hour marathon the following day (March 6) will remain on the schedule.
There are no other schedule changes, but view our March 2011 schedule for more info and to discuss these changes!

We have many network notes to recap for you. First, last night's 20/20 special with Charlie Sheen had to preempt Detroit 1-8-7 at 10pm, as you know. ABC will now bump that episode to next week, as expected, and the following episode will air on March 15, but the season finale will air on a special night on Sunday, March 20, preempting a Brothers & Sisters repeat. The Charlie Sheen interview last night did big ratings and won its 10pm hour easily.
Yesterday we gave you the celebrities appearing on Dancing with the Stars Season 12, today we have the pro pairings! Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy (who is back for his tenth season), "Psycho" Mike Catherwood and "Racey" Lacey Schwimmer (who is back for her fourth season), Chris Jericho and Cheryl Burke (who is back for his eleventh season), Chelsea Kane and Mark Ballas (who returns for his eighth season), Sugar Ray Leonard and Anna Trebunsakaya (who returns for her seventh season), Ralph Macchio and Karina Smirnoff (who returns for her eighth season), Petra Nemcova and Dmitry Chaplin (who returns for his third season), Romeo and Chelsie Hightower (who returns for her fifth season), Hines Ward and Kym Johnson (who returns for her ninth season), Kendra Wilkinson and Louis van Amstel (who returns for his eighth season), and finally Wendy Williams and Tony Dovolani (who is back for his eleventh season). Missing from this last from last season are Derek Hough, who will be back for season 13, and Corky Ballas, while Dmitry Chaplin returns. The season premiere is Monday, March 21 at 8pm.
Meanwhile, Grammy Award winner Cee Lo Green and fellow Grammy Award winner Adam Levine (Maroon 5) have been named as two of the four musician coaches on NBC's new musical competition series The Voice, a show about real vocal talent that will premiere on Tuesday, April 26 from 9-11 p.m. ET. Following the premiere, The Voice will also air on Tuesday, May 3 from 9-11 p.m. ET and then move to its regular time period beginning May 10 from 8-9 p.m. ET that will last through at least Tuesday, June 28. This means The Biggest Loser will be reduced to one-hour on April 26 and May 3, then it will be back to two-hour episodes, but it will move to 9-11pm instead. 10pm drama Parenthood will wrap up its 22-episode season on Tuesday, April 19. The Biggest Loser season finale is on Tuesday, May 24, so it is unclear what will air from 9-11pm starting May 31, but of course NBC has America's Got Talent coming back but no schedule has been announced yet. Last season it returned on this same Tuesday (June 1, 2010) from 8-10pm, so it is likely it returns this season on this night.
Finally, beginning Monday, March 7, The Hills repeats will be airing on TV Guide Network every weekday at 5:00 p.m. ET and 5:30 p.m. ET, as the series finds a cable home in syndication. Encores will also air at 1:00 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. The series will move Punk'd to 4 p.m. & 4:30 p.m., as Curb Your Enthusiasm is replaced. Ugly Betty will remain at 12 noon, 6pm & 7pm. Curb Your Enthusiasm will now only air in its Saturday morning schedule of 1:00am & 11:30am. Weeds will remain Thursday and Saturday nights and an airing on Sunday nights. The Hills, which aired on MTV, follows budding fashion designer Lauren Conrad and her friends as they navigate life, love and friendships. In addition to Conrad, The Hills launched the careers of reality stars such as Audrina Patridge, Whitney Port, Brody Jenner and Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. Audrina Patridge appeared on season eleven of Dancing with the Stars this past fall.

A couple of weeks ago we told you about Empty Nest getting a marathon on Saturday, Feb. 26 on the Hallmark Channel, now we have the episode info for the marathon. We broke the news on our message board on Friday that the complete first season will air (all 22 episodes), with each episode being encored (the first four episodes will air three times, though). View the episode schedule for the Empty Nest marathon this coming Saturday.
We also have the updated March 2011 schedule for Hallmark. And it seems Empty Nest is NOT being added to the regular schedule just yet. So, for now, it will be only the marathon on Saturday, Feb. 26. I'm sure if the marathon does well in the ratings it will be added soon...so don't give up hope yet. Just make sure you WATCH most or all of the episodes!
As we mentioned previously, there will be plenty of 24-hour marathons on Hallmark in March. In addition to Empty Nest and The Golden Girls this coming weekend (Feb. 26-27), Hallmark has added more sitcom marathons! The Little House on the Prairie marathon that was scheduled for Saturday, March 5 will now be a 24-hour marathon of Who's the Boss? starting at 6am! Then the very next day on Sunday, March 6, Hallmark will present a 24-hour marathon of another '80s classic...Cheers, again starting at 6am (but this one is through 4am). The weekend of March 12-13 will actually be two days worth of I Love Lucy! It's all Lucy, all weekend long! This means the scheduled Touched by an Angel stunt on March 13 is no longer happening. And the final marathon for March will be a 24-hour marathon of drama Little House on the Prairie on Saturday, March 26 starting at 6am!
View the updated March 2011 marathons and the full schedule. Stay with us for more as we will keep you up to date on Empty Nest scheduling info and the upcoming April schedule with Frasier being added.



Finally, Fox is getting mobbed on Thursday, March 31 at 9pm. The new unscripted special Mobbed will premiere Thursday, March 31 at 9:00 PM ET/PT following American Idol on Fox (Bones will be preempted for a week). Host Howie Mandel puts a hidden-camera spin on the "flash mob" concept. Mandel and hundreds of strangers will help special guests plan extraordinary surprises for friends, family members, loved ones or co-workers. These unknowing participants will be shocked and stunned by surprise performances that lead up to fantastic reveals that include a husband learning that his wife is pregnant, an applicant finding out that she got the job and a marriage proposal, among others.
This will be the only scheduled airing of this series, as of now. Mobbed replaces the previously announced preview of the Untitled Jamie Foxx/Affion Crocket Project (wt), which will still premiere this June. It is likely Mobbed, could be paired with this in the summer. Stay tuned.

Traffic Light - Tuesdays at 9:30PM ET/PT on Fox
Premieres Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 9:30PM ET/PT

By skees53

Love and friendship can be full of red lights, yellow lights, and green lights, and that is exactly what you get in Fox's newest sitcom, Traffic Light, premiering Tuesday on Fox. The series takes three guys who were friends since college into their young adulthood, much like the drama thirtysomething did decades ago, but with a light-hearted and much more comedic approach. Mike (David Denman) finds himself spending his free time in his man cave (his car) watching DVDs to avoid the responsibilities that come with adulthood. Adam (Nelson Franklin) has just moved in with his girlfriend, and is finding that things may be changing in his life, much faster than he'd like. And Ethan (Kris Marshall) is just trying to keep his life straightened out as he moves from one girl to the next every week. The lives of these three guys always come to a stop light at the same intersection in Traffic Light.

Cast Details:

* David Denman as Mike
* Nelson Franklin as Adam
* Kris Marshall as Ethan
* Aya Cash as Callie
* Liza Lapira as Lisa

David Denman (Mike) plays the married father who finds it almost impossible to get time for himself. Denman's best-known role is perhaps his recurring role on the NBC series The Office, where he played Roy Anderson, Pam's ex-fiance who could never commit to marriage. He has also played in many other series, including guest roles on Brothers & Sisters, Grey's Anatomy, Gary Unmarried, C.S.I.: Miami, Angel, Bones, and Drop Dead Diva. He received formal training in acting through the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, as well as by earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in acting from Julliard.

Nelson Franklin (Adam) plays the guy who is just starting to settle down into a stable relationship, and moving in with his girlfriend. Much like Denman, Franklin is also known for a recurring role that he had on The Office, as "Nick the IT Guy" (who ended up leaving the series to because the character took a job through Teach for America). He has also had guest roles on the short-lived Fox series Dollhouse, as well as a number of smaller independent productions.

Kris Marshall (Ethan) is the British guy in the trio who can't seem to find any stability at all in his life. Marshall guest-starred in an episode of Human Target on Fox, but much of his fame comes from his roles that he is played in Great Britain, including his role of Nick Harper in the UK sitcom My Family, produced by DLT Entertainment and Rude Boy Productions. He has also had significant roles in the UK series Murder City and Funland. He grew up all around the world, though he currently lives in Windsor, Berkshire.

Aya Cash (Callie) plays the girl that Adam just recently moved in with. Much of her fame comes from the stage, but she has had guest roles in series such as Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Mercy, and Brotherhood. She is an alumna of the San Francisco School of Arts.

Liza Lapira (Lisa) is Mike's wife and the mother of his son. The Filipino-American actress is best-known for her role in the film 21 and as Special Agent Michelle Lee in the CBS series NCIS. Her first major role was in the Showtime series Huff. She has also appeared in series including Dollhouse, Dexter, and Grey's Anatomy, among many other series. The Queens-born actress also had many roles on stage in New York prior to moving to Los Angeles in 2004.


Pilot Plot:

The first four episodes of the series were made available for review, so we were able to get a good grasp for the direction that the series is going in at the beginning.

The first episode of the series, "Pilot" (airing February 8) introduces us to the three college buddies, Mike (the married guy always seeking free time), Adam (the single guy who just moved in with his girlfriend), and Ethan (the perpetually single British guy). In the "Pilot" episode, Adam has just moved in with Callie, and is quickly discovering that his fun times with his buddies may come to a crashing end very quickly, and that he is no longer just Adam, but now "Adam and Callie." Meanwhile, Mike, who only seems to find time to talk to his friends while driving, is dealing with having to drive Lisa to work everyday and trying to avoid talking to his friends while she is in the car with him, naturally raising her suspicions.

The second episode, "En Fuego" (airing February 15), it is discovered that Adam is hanging on to a stuffed dog that he won as a carnival prize, and Ethan and Mike are determined to get rid of it for him. Unfortunately, Adam and Callie see this stuffed dog as a good luck charm, and Adam is determined to go through any means necessary to get a replacement for the dog, mostly just to satisfy Callie. Meanwhile, Lisa is paired with Ethan's ex-girlfriend in a charity tennis match, which is a recipe for awkwardness.

"All the Precedent's Men" (airing February 22) puts the guys in tough positions when Lisa encourages Mike to meet up with a younger female colleague, who seems to have quite a bit more in common with Mike than he expects, leading to quite a bit of meetings between the two. Adam's free time in the car is constantly being disrupted by Callie calling him every time during his morning commute for the most useless things, such as to inform him that she has run in to a traffic light. And Ethan is getting involved in a relationship that may very well break his three-week streak of being involved with women.

"Credit Balance" (airdate TBD) causes Mike to have to rise up to his paternal duties by having to take care of son Tommy in the morning, but he quickly finds that being the "coffee mom" is pretty awesome, and finds a new group of friends in other mothers. Callie is in serious debt financially, and explains to Adam (while the two take a bath together) what brought on the situation, leading Adam to worry if her debt will cause trouble in the relationship. And Ethan's new girlfriend is making it virtually impossible for him to break off the relationship.


Analysis:

Unlike many series that I have seen lately, I feel that this one does have some real potential if it finds an audience. I really liked how the series tried to focus on all three main characters as much as possible and create a story for each of them in every episode, although it seems that the character of Ethan could be used a little bit more. Mike and Adam seem to have much more depth and the major plots seem to focus on them, with Ethan as the other guy. But they could really step up his character to a more meaningful role, and hopefully they will do that in later episodes.

Unlike virtually ever other sitcom that Fox has ever aired--good and bad ones--the series doesn't really seem to jump into absurdities and outlandish plots. Everything on the series is down-to-Earth and "normal" for a sitcom. In a sense, I kind of like to see that in a sitcom. There's nothing that is done in the series to obtain any kind of shock value, or any big surprises. That can be a double-edged sword at times (that does, after all, make a series interesting), but I think that it works for this series, as it attempts to be a more "normal" series. Of course, as a result of this, there really weren't any laugh-out-loud moments in any of the episodes, which is somewhat disappointing, but it does offer room for the writers to focus on the actual plot development.

I found it rather interesting to see David Denman in the role as Mike, who was the responsible one that was settled down, married, had a child, and had a career. This is quite a change from his role on The Office as Roy, the blue-collared warehouse employee who was engaged to Pam for several seasons (before Jim got in the middle of that relationship, of course, and eventually married Pam) but could never settle down to the idea of marriage. But it is also nice to see that he hasn't been typecast into that type of role and can explore a bit of diversity in his roles.


Conclusion:

This isn't a bad series, the main struggle that it will have throughout the beginning (just like any new series) is finding an audience. It could be tough to do on Fox, as many (live-action) sitcoms that air on Fox indeed do not find an audience, and though they have mostly produced some bad sitcoms in the past few years, there have been a few gems along the way that just couldn't find an audience. The reality is that in the entire history of the network, there have really only been a handful of live-action sitcoms that have had any level of success on Fox, and really none in the past decade. The series really doesn't feel like a Fox sitcom at all, and perhaps that will work in its favor in drawing in a new audience. I think only time will tell where this series will go, and hopefully there will be some "kinks" in the relationships along the way to make the series more interesting (perhaps some continuing storylines), but I'd say that the series has a green light, for now anyway.


Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):

Watchability: 3.5/5
Funniness: 3/5
Overall: 4/5

Discuss the show after you watch it on Tuesday, February 8 on our message board.

Preview:



Related Links:

Fox.com Official Site

TV.com

epguides.com

Internet Movie Database

Wikipedia

Traffic Light Photo Gallery

Moving on the some news, we have some very cool news for The Hallmark Channel! They have added a 24-hour marathon for the 1988-1995 sitcom Empty Nest on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011! The sitcom was a spin-off of The Golden Girls, which also airs on Hallmark. The show revolves around pediatrician Dr. Harry Weston (Richard Mulligan), whose life is turned upside down when his wife, Libby, dies, and two of his adult daughters (Dinah Manoff and Kristy McNichol) move back into the family home in Miami. The series has not aired on U.S. television since local broadcast stations returned airing it between 1999-2001. The series was also last seen on cable briefly on TBS in 1996 and WGN stopped it in 1999. It never did well in the ratings in syndication, but it has never aired on the same network in reruns with The Golden Girls. The sitcom originally followed The Golden Girls on the NBC Saturday night schedule, so there is a chance Hallmark will re-create that.
The series is expected to join the regular schedule, but as of this writing, they have not released an updated March schedule with the timings. For now, enjoy the 24-hour marathon beginning at 6am ET on Saturday, Feb. 26! Episode info is not available just yet for the marathon. Empty Nest had a spin-off series as well titled Nurses, that lasted three seasons from 1991-94. Hopefully Hallmark can get that also, as that hasn't been seen since the mid-90s on Lifetime (in fact, it left the schedule in 1997 when Lifetime started airing The Golden Girls). There will be plenty of other 24-hour marathons on Hallmark this month and next month. But before we get to that, effective next Tuesday (Feb. 15), Touched by an Angel returns to the schedule! The series will replace the primetime airing of Little House on the Prairie at 8pm and the Hallmark movie from 9-11pm, so we get a three-episode block of Touched by an Angel in primetime. Little House on the Prairie will still remain in the afternoons from 3-6pm. Touched by an Angel gets a 24-hour marathon on Saturday, Feb. 19 starting at 6am ET to celebrate its return. We also have a 24-hour (actually 22) marathon of The Golden Girls on Sunday, Feb. 27 from 6am-4am, the day after the Empty Nest marathon. Every Sunday night at 4am, Hallmark will now air an ice skating special.
The March 2011 schedule is now tentative because we will likely be seeing Empty Nest added to the schedule, but they do have a 24-hour Little House on the Prairie marathon scheduled on Saturday, March 5 beginning at 6am. And the only other stunt, as of now, in March is a Touched by an Angel marathon on Sunday, March 13 from 9am-11pm. Looking further ahead, Hallmark Channel has already began airing promos for Frasier, which will air on the network starting in April. What does that mean for Lifetime, which currently airs the show? Stay with us later this week for info on that. And we will also have more on Frasier on Hallmark in the near future as well.
For now, view the UPDATED Hallmark Channel February 2011 schedule. And stay with us for details on when Empty Nest will be airing on the regular schedule.