SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

MeTV has announced its fall lineup, with some new additions and some shows leaving as a result. Coming this September to MeTV are In the Heat of the Night, Green Acres, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Shows leaving are Batman, Star Trek, and The Odd Couple. The only change to weekdays is In the Heat of the Night replacing The Big Valley at noon Eastern. The other changes are to weekends with timeslot changes primarily to morning sitcoms and sci-fi evenings on Saturdays. Changes for Saturdays are Petticoat Junction replacing Gomer Pyle at 5AM, The Beverly Hillbillies replacing Petticoat Junction at 6AM, Green Acres replacing The Beverly Hillbillies at 7AM, Lost in Space replacing Batman at 10PM, Buck Rogers replacing Star Trek at 11PM, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea replacing Lost in Space at 2AM, Land of the Giants replacing Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea at 3AM, and Swamp Thing replacing Land of the Giants at 4:00 and 4:30AM.

Sundays will have more ALF in the morning, with ALF replacing Swamp Thing at 5 and 5:30AM, so ALF is now 5-7am. Gilligan's Island gets a Three-Hour Tour from 2PM-5PM replacing sitcoms like Mama's Family, The Facts of Life and Diff'rent Strokes, and following The Brady Bunch Brunch from 12-2pm. And the final Sunday change is M*A*S*H* replacing The Odd Couple at 7 and 7:30PM.

Multi-talented young actors Dakota Lotus and Ruby Rose Turner lead the ensemble cast of Coop & Cami Ask the World, Disney Channel's new live-action multi-camera comedy. The series follows the antics of middle-school siblings Coop and Cami Wrather, who co-host a popular online show while balancing life, family and friendship, premiering Friday, October 12, on Disney Channel at 8:30pm EDT, in the DisneyNOW app and on Disney Channel VOD (12:01 a.m. local). The second episode will be available immediately following the series' premiere (9:00 p.m. EDT) in the DisneyNOW app and Disney Channel YouTube.

Made for kids and families, the live-action comedy follows Cooper (Lotus) and Cameron (Turner) Wrather, two middle-school siblings who co-host Coop's online show Would You Wrather. With the help of their little brother Ollie and Coop's best friend Fred, the duo present out-of-the-box questions and results to the show's millions of followers (aka Wratherheads) who help them solve life problems - both mundane and madcap. Every day is an adventure in the Wrather's hectic household, which also includes their older sister Charlotte and mom, Jenna. Whatever the question or result, Coop and Cami tackle adolescence and everyday family situations with humor and heart.

Also starring are Olivia Sanabia (Just Add Magic) as their older sister Charlotte; Albert Tsai (Dr. Ken, Trophy Wife) as Coop's best friend Fred; Paxton Booth (The Toy Box) as their little brother Ollie and Rebecca Metz (Better Things) as their mom Jenna. In the premiere episode, Cooper and Cami are preparing for their school dance when they learn their mom is ready to start dating again, now that it's been two years since their father passed away. Much to their chagrin, her first date happens to be with their principal. Not sure what to do, they turn to the Wratherheads for advice, asking "Would you Wrather have your mom date the principal or take your mom to the school dance?"

WGN America announced the acquisition of Murder She Wrote, the classic crime drama starring Angela Lansbury, set to launch on the network Monday, January 1, 2018 at 9:00am ET / 8:00am CT. Kicking-off with the first four episodes from season one, and airing all 265 episodes throughout the 2018 year, the cherished series is the latest addition to WGN America's lineup. WGN America is the leader in crime drama and the Murder She Wrote episodes will air in chronological order, every weekday at 12:00pm-3:00pm ET / 11:00am-2:00pm CT, replacing In the Heat of the Night, which moves to 9am-12pm. Walker Texas Ranger will be off the line-up.

Murder She Wrote follows mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) - a down-to-earth, middle-aged widow – who ferrets out the criminals in idyllic Cabot Cove, Maine, which apparently is the murder capital of the United States for the show's 12-season run. Though while traveling, she uncovers a fair number of killers as well. WGN America also airs Blue Bloods, Elementary, In the Heat of the Night, Person of Interest, Bones and Cops, and sitcoms such as M*A*S*H, Rules of Engagement, How I Met Your Mother and Raising Hope.

Deck the halls with a boughs of jolly with Game Show Network's Fa La La La Feud Marathon! Beginning Saturday December 23, 2017, gather your friends and loved ones to watch Steve Harvey and the Feud families face off in 4 binge-worthy marathons through New Year's Day. Survey says your family will be filled with holiday cheer!

Saturday, December 23rd:
2:00pm – 7:00pm ET

Christmas Eve, Sunday, December 24th:
2:00pm – 1:00am ET

Christmas Day, Monday, December 25th &
Boxing Day, Tuesday, December 26th:
2:00pm – 11:00pm ET

New Year's Day, Monday, January 1st:
2:00pm – 10:00pm ET

FA LA LA LA Feud from Game Show Network on Vimeo.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas on getTV, as the network celebrates the season with its second annual "The Most Wonderful Month of the Year" event. The channel turns over its daily schedule during primetime all month long in order to focus on a mixture of rare and classic Christmas-themed variety specials, TV series episodes, and films, starring some of entertainment's biggest names, from Sunday, November 27 through Sunday, December 25, culminating in a week-long 24-hour-a-day yuletide mega-marathon kicking off at 12 noon on Sunday, December 18 and running through Christmas day. The event launches at the tail end of the Thanksgiving weekend at 7:50 p.m. ET on Sunday, November 27 with getTV's network premiere of 1998's The Christmas Wish starring Neil Patrick Harris as a young man who sets out to grant his grandmother's (Debbie Reynolds) wish in The Christmas Wish, which also features an early appearance by Naomi Watts.

Other highlights of note to us include, Tuesday evenings will highlight back-to-back holiday episodes of getTV's latest acquisitions, The Jeff Foxworthy Show, co-starring Haley Joel Osment, and The Bill Engvall Show, co-starring Jennifer Lawrence, followed each week by a classic Christmas film. And Wednesdays, as part of the channel's "Get Lost in TV" block, will feature Christmas-specific episodes of rare and classic television series, including a unique evening of 'action/crime' Christmas episodes from The Equalizer, Hardcastle and McCormick, Riptide and more (Nov. 30), an evening of yuletide Westerns featuring The Restless Gun, Cimarron City, The Tall Man and more (Dec. 7) and a night featuring back-to-back holiday hours of In the Heat of the Night (Dec. 14).

CW Seed has added two series to its streaming line-up. Two former ABC series: 666 Park Avenue and V. Both series are available now on CW Seed, with all 13 episodes of 666 Park Avenue. The drama starred Rachael Taylor, Dave Annable, Vanessa Williams, and Terry O'Quinn and followed a couple who learned that the Manhattan apartment building that they just moved into, including its upscale tenants, might have been possessed by a mysterious demonic force. The series aired in 2012-13 on ABC. CW Seed has the first season of ABC's V revival available right now, which is the full 12 episode first season. The revival chronicled the arrival on Earth of a technologically-advanced alien species which ostensibly came in peace, but actually had sinister motives. The series starred Elizabeth Mitchell and Morena Baccarin, with other stars like Morris Chestnut, Joel Gretsch, Laura Vandervoort, Charles Mesure and Scott Wolf.

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

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

• Warner Archive has been steadily releasing Eight is Enough on DVD, so it should come as no surprise that they would release the fifth (and final) season of the series on DVD. This week, we got some confirmation from the studio that it is not only on the way, but in fact, work is being completed for this release. The studio responds to a Facebook post with the message "We are finishing up work on S5 at the present time. Thanks." We can't wait! No word on any of the post-series movies, though.
• In The Heat of the Night has had a very unusual DVD release history, and TGG is about to release the rest of the series (technically, you can put an asterisk or 28 asterisks next to that) on March 11. On this date, the studio will release In the Heat of the Night - Seasons 2 and 3, In the Heat of the Night - Season 6, and In the Heat of the Night - Seasons 7. This trio of releases means that all eight seasons of the series will be represented on DVD. However, it does not mean that all 142 episodes of the series will be available on DVD. While seasons 1 and 8 (which was technically a series of four movies that followed the show rather than another season in proper terms) are completely available, six episodes were missing from the last two sets of releases (seasons 4 and 5) due to music releases, and a lot more will be missing this time: 16 episodes from the season 2 and 3 set, one episode from season 6, and 5 episodes from season 7. So, in the end, about 114 of the 142 episodes (roughly 80%) will be available on DVD with these newest releases.
• Mill Creek is best known for budget re-releases, but budget doesn't always mean lower quality, and it appears that the studio is bringing fans something a little better than what Sony brought fans (at about 1/6 of the original price even) as they prepare to bring Married... with Children - Seasons 3 and 4 to DVD. Not only will the release contain the original theme song (something that was difficult/impossible for Sony to obtain), but the episodes are expected to be unedited as well. We eagerly await this release!

• Dr. Kildare - The Complete Second Season:  Warner Archive brings together another release of one of TV's first medical dramas to leave a true legacy in a virtually flawless nine disc release, including one episode that was filmed in color as part of a special week of color programming on NBC that season.

• Starsky & Hutch - Season 1 (DVD, $9.98): Mill Creek brings the classic detective duo together again for re-release of the first season on DVD.

• It seems very rare that we hear about a big surprise release of a lesser known classic TV series from one of the major studios, but CBS did just that this week with their announcement of Joanie Loves Chachi - The Complete Series. Every single episode of the Happy Days spinoff will be available on DVD on February 4.
• Joanie Loves Chachi isn't the only Happy Days spinoff headed to DVD on February 4. On the same date, fans will also see more of a well-known Happy Days spinoff with Laverne & Shirley - The Seventh Season.
• TGG has been releasing a lot of episodes of the series In the Heat of the Night on DVD in various forms, and now after releasing the first season, a "best of" release from seasons 2-7, and the eighth season (in that order), they are now skipping around yet again to release In the Heat of the Night - Season 4 and In the Heat of the Night - Season 5. However, neither of these are complete seasons, as season four will be missing two episodes and season five will be missing three episodes (both due to clearance reasons, likely involving music). Still, the releases are better than nothing.

RECENT HOME MEDIA REVIEWS ON SITCOMSONLINE

• The Carol Burnett Show - Christmas with Carol: Another collection of two episodes of The Carol Burnett Show that aired with Christmas sketches is certain to please diehard fans of the series.
  
• Flo - The Complete Series: Warner Archive's latest sitcom release gives fans of the spinoff of the classic sitcom Alice a fan to see Flo on her own.
• Heathcliff - Season One, Volume Two: Mill Creek's latest release of the '80s cartoon cat provides a great value for fans, old and new.