SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

REELZ announced new programming for summer 2020 led by new series In My Own Words chronicling the lives of Valerie Bertinelli, Fran Drescher, Bo Derek and the late Bernie Mac with each sharing intimate stories about their life-changing experiences on their journey to stardom. The network will also premiere its 100th episode of original series Autopsy: The Last Hours of... with a look at showbusiness luminary Walt Disney with additional new episodes celebrating the lives and examining the untimely deaths of John Ritter, Gilda Radner, David Cassidy, Larry Hagman, Dick Clark, Billy Mays, Burt Reynolds, Marlon Brando and Debbie Reynolds. Summer 2020 premieres on REELZ also include four new original specials starting with Aaron Hernandez: Jailhouse Lover Tells All with the NFL star's former prison cellmate Kyle Kennedy sharing his story of befriending and ultimately having an intimate relationship with Hernandez. Rounding out summer 2020 premieres are three new original Behind Closed Doors specials with host Natalie Morales giving viewers a look at the real lives of beloved stars Olivia Newton-John, John Candy and Valerie Harper.

Some key highlights include: On Sunday, July 19 at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT it's Autopsy: The Last Hours of...John Ritter examining the life and tragic passing of the beloved TV and movie star whose relative youth and reputation as a fit physical performer is seemingly at odds with such a sudden death at just 54 years old. Sunday, July 19 also marks the series premiere of In My Own Words with Valerie Bertinelli: In My Own Words at 9pm ET/ 6pm PT featuring the multiple Emmy Award® winning actress in a candid and revealing interview about her stellar career and family life.

August premieres begin with two new episodes of Autopsy: The Last Hours of... on Sunday, August 2 exploring the lives and untimely deaths of two massively popular TV stars in David Cassidy and Larry Hagman. Autopsy: The Last Hours of...David Cassidy premieres at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT with the real story of The Partridge Family star whose acting and music for the show catapulted him from obscurity to popularity rivaling The Beatles but Cassidy's death would leave more questions than answers for his fans. Then at 9pm ET/ 6pm PT it's Autopsy: The Last Hours of...Larry Hagman about the biggest primetime soap star in the world on the hit show Dallas whose life of excess brought illness. Hagman battled back only to ultimately succumb to Leukemia shortly after diagnosis. August premieres wrap on Sunday, August 30 at 8pm ET/ 5pm PT with Valerie Harper: Behind Closed Doors about the star who TV audiences first fell in love with on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as her pitch perfect wisecracking sidekick character Rhoda became the high bar for supporting roles. Harper would parlay her strong performance into a successful spin off show and a long career in TV until a terminal cancer diagnosis rocked her world and led her to a new calling in life.

Finally, in Bernie Mac: In My Own Words premiering September 2020 (time TBD) see the powerful story of the late king of comedy with never-before-heard personal recordings from Mac himself discussing his childhood, family, marriage and his relentless drive to make it big in comedy. Enriched by interviews with Mac's wife Rhonda McCullough, daughter Je'Niece McCullough and friend Cedric the Entertainer among others the story of Bernie Mac comes to life with rare footage of his open-mic performances as well as his triumphs headlining comedy shows and writing and starring in the hit sitcom The Bernie Mac Show.

The original creators of Unsolved Mysteries and the Producers of Stranger Things invite you to solve new mysteries. Follow the clues. Solve the cases. Only on Netflix July 1. Fusing signature elements from the original series with contemporary immersive, character-driven storytelling, the six new episodes are rooted in the experiences of ordinary people who have lived the unthinkable - from the trauma of a loved one's unexplained disappearance or horrific death, to the shock of a bizarre paranormal encounter. Alongside detectives and journalists, family members offer clues, present theories, and identify suspects, hoping one viewer holds the key to solving the mystery.



AT&T AUDIENCE Network announces upcoming original programming dates. Season 6 of sports original Undeniable with Dan Patrick to premiere Jan. 30 at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Season 4 of the poly-romcom You Me Her to premiere Apr. 9 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. And season 3 of Stephen King's trilogy adaptation Mr. Mercedes to begin production Feb. 19. In the comedy, You Me Her, John Scott Shepherd continues as showrunner and executive producer. Alta Loma's Peter Jaysen and Alan Gasmer also serve as executive producers with Jonathan Schwartz producing. Jem Garrard directs all 10 episodes of season 4. The comedy is produced and distributed worldwide by Entertainment One (eOne). At the end of last season, the "throuple" pulled together their happy ending - a surprise poly commitment ceremony in a pizza joint. Now, they're settling back into the 'burbs to live a tweaked version of the conventional "married with children" life. But are the "accidental polyamorists" trying to jam a triangular peg into a round-hole world? Will they break the neighborhood, their peculiar romance, or both? The series stars Greg Poehler as Jack, Priscilla Faia as Izzy Silva, Melanie Papalia as Nina Martone and Rachel Blanchard as Emma.

The wildly successful and first-of-its-kind mystery docuseries Unsolved Mysteries is being revived by the original creators (Cosgrove/Meurer Productions) along with the producers of Stranger Things (21 Laps). This modern take on the classic series will maintain the chilling feeling viewers loved about the original, while also telling the stories through the lens of a premium Netflix documentary series. Each episode will focus on one mystery and once again will look to viewers to help aid investigators in closing the book on long outstanding cases. Terry Dunn Meurer is showrunning this all-new version of the show she co-created with fellow EP John Cosgrove. Shawn Levy and Josh Barry are executive producing for 21 Laps. The original Unsolved Mysteries ran for 11 seasons and 260 episodes chronicling over 1,000 stories, and received six Emmy nominations. Netflix has ordered 12 episodes.

Welcome to SitcomsOnline Digest! It's looking like a very snowy holiday weekend for a big chunk of the northeastern US, so it's a great time to sit at home and enjoy lots of sitcoms, including some new streaming options! Let's get going!

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SITCOMSONLINE.COM AND AROUND THE WEB

TBS will be airing a month's worth of episodes of the first season of the current CBS sitcom Mom. The series stars Anna Faris and Allison Janney and follows Christy Plunkett (Anna Faris), a single mother who, after dealing with her battle with alcoholism and drug abuse, decides to restart her life in Napa, California's wine country working as a waitress and attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It just completed its 22-episode first season last season and you can now relive 20 episodes over a course of a month on TBS. Mom will air weekdays at 7:30pm for a limited time from Monday. Aug. 25 to Friday, Sept. 19. This will be of course just in time for the second season on CBS, which premieres Monday, Sept. 29. The Big Bang Theory will lead-in at 7pm for a month to give Mom a good lead-in. Not to worry Seinfeld fans, the 6-8pm block will return come Sept. 22, but from Aug. 25-Sept. 19, Seinfeld will air 6-7pm only.

As for the rest of the TBS line-up, we will let you know soon how the Fall will shape-up. There are no big acquisitions coming, but something will be replacing The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air starting Sept. 15 in daytime, as that series heads exclusively to BET/Centric this fall. Stay with us on that and the rest of TBS this fall!

Escape, the nation's first-ever over-the-air broadcast television network for women, has acquired the rights to 538 episodes of three popular true crime series in three individual licensing agreements: Snapped (150 episodes) from NBCUniversal Television & New Media Distribution, U.S. & Canada; Unsolved Mysteries (175 episodes) hosted by Dennis Farina from Cosgrove/Meurer Productions; Forensic Files (213 episodes) from Trifecta Entertainment & Media. Escape will target women 25-54 with a mix of off-net series and theatrical motion pictures which will emphasize heroines and heroes that slip away from pursuit or peril. The network, set to launch later this summer, is part of Katz Broadcasting, a new company established by current Bounce TV founder/COO and former Turner Broadcasting executive Jonathan Katz, who serves as President and CEO. Escape's brother-network Grit will be the first-ever over-the-air broadcast television network for men and will also launch later this summer. Escape and Grit are both currently cleared to be seen in 50% of the country, with more distribution to be announced shortly. The networks will be seen in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Houston, Miami, San Francisco and other major markets.

Lifetime has announced its September schedule and there aren't many changes. Will & Grace is missing from the schedule starting Sept. 3, but as we announced a few years ago, it is coming to WE tv this fall. We'll have more on that soon, but WE tv doesn't have exclusive rights. After a movie marathon on Labor Day (Sept. 2), Lifetime's daily schedule kicks-off on Sept. 3 with back-to-back episodes of The New Adventures of Old Christine at 8am & 8:30am. Then from 9am-12pm, it's three hours of Frasier. At 12pm and 12:30pm, Lifetime will air two episodes of How I Met Your Mother. From 1pm-4pm, Grey's Anatomy is back to three episodes a day. Then at 4pm & 5pm, Wife Swap is back-to-back leading into the rotating block of shows from 6-8pm. On Mondays, Trading Spouses will air, while on Tuesdays encores of original reality series will air. On Wednesdays, Lifetime will air Unsolved Mysteries, while on Thursdays they air more Wife Swap. And on Fridays, marathons of Hoarders will air from 6pm-3am. In primetime, we have a mix of movies and original series, and the same goes true in late night with encores of those. On weekends, it is all original series originals or encores and movies. Except on Saturdays at 11am we have Unsolved Mysteries and in the late night from 4-5am an hour of Old Christine.

Highlights wise, we have original series finales and premieres. The season finale of Dance Moms is Sept. 10 at 8pm, with a reunion special the following week. The second season of Lifetime's popular series, Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition is set to come back on Tuesday, Sept. 3 at 9pm. Another reality series will have its season finale as well, as Double Divas concludes its season on Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 10pm. Project Runway won't conclude its season until Thursday, Oct. 14 from 9-10:30pm. Struggling reality series Supermarket Superstars will have its finale on Thursday, Sept. 26 from 10:30-11:30pm. Scripted series wise, red-hot freshman drama Devious Maids has its season finale on Sunday, Sept. 22 at 10pm. The back half of the fifth season of Drop Dead Diva will return on Sunday, Oct. 6 at 9pm leading into the new drama The Witches of East End at 10pm. And finally, original movies will air Saturdays at 8pm, as in September the stars include Kelly Rutherford, Natasha Henstridge, Peyton List, Gail O'Grady, Julie Benz, Jamie Luner, Bruce Thomas and Max Carver. Stay with us for continued updates on Lifetime and if Will & Grace returns to Lifetime.

TBS has ordered third seasons of its hit original sitcoms Sullivan & Son, starring popular comedian Steve Byrne, and Men at Work, starring Danny Masterson, Michael Cassidy, Adam Busch, Meredith Hagner and James Lesure. TBS has also ordered a second season of the hit series Deal With It, from Howie Mandel's Alevy Productions. TBS has ordered 13 episodes of Sullivan & Son, which airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. (ET/PT) and is set to wrap up its second season Aug. 22. The series is averaging 2.4 million viewers in Live + 7 delivery this summer, including 1.3 million adults 18-49. Season three of Sullivan & Son is slated to launch in summer 2014. TBS has also ordered 10 episodes for the third season of its popular workplace sitcom Men at Work. This past spring, the second season of the series averaged 1.9 million viewers and 1.2 million adults 18-49. The third season of Men at Work is slated to launch in early 2014. And TBS has renewed Deal With It with a 10-episode order for season two. Hosted by Theo Von (Primetime in No Time, Last Comic Standing), season one of the series has averaged 2.3 million viewers in Live + 7 delivery, including 1.2 million adults 18-49. From Howie Mandel's Alevy Productions, the second season is slated to launch in 2014.

TBS's renewals come as the network prepares to launch three new series during the second half of 2013. Beginning Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), D.L. Hughley and Michael Ian Black will headline the new game show Trust Me, I'm a Game Show Host. TBS will expand its late-night lineup with the The Pete Holmes Show, which will follow Conan Monday-Thursday at midnight (ET/PT), beginning Oct. 28. And in November, TBS will launch Ground Floor, the new sitcom created by Emmy(R) nominees Bill Lawrence (Cougar Town, Scrubs) and Greg Malins (2 Broke Girls, How I Met Your Mother), and starring Skylar Astin (Pitch Perfect), Briga Heelan (Cougar Town) and John C. McGinley (Scrubs). Ground Floor is set to premiere Thursday, Nov. 14, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT).

A couple of weeks ago we gave you the Lifetime March 2011 schedule that will start on March 7, but now they have really changed the schedule and it will start a week earlier, TODAY (Feb. 28)! First off, Frasier is still expiring but it will air this week only. It will remain in the 9am hour this week then Grey's Anatomy will replace it starting next week (March 7). Frasier will also air in the 1am hour this week and then will be replaced by Will & Grace starting March 7. Also as a reminder, Frasier will be leaving national broadcast syndication starting the week of March 7, but local stations can still buy the show separately...it is just not available nationally anymore and is a library product now instead of regular syndication.
Back to Lifetime, the entire schedule is basically changed. Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy will now be only weekday mornings at 8am and 9am. The Friday airings will still be repurposed episodes from ABC's current episode. Then from 10am-2pm, it is now a sitcom block of back-to-back Will & Grace and triple shots of Old Christine and How I Met Your Mother. Maybe afternoon airings will be better suited for the latter two, as they have struggled. Wife Swap is now off of the schedule. From 2pm-9pm we have a mix of crime reality and reality. American Justice and Cold Case Files joins the schedule at 2pm & 3pm leading into Unsolved Mysteries at 4pm & 5pm. Then at 6pm, it is Intervention leading into thee return of Pawn Stars in the 7pm hour. The 8pm hour will be a mix of American Justice and American Pickers on Tuesday and Wednesday (movies on Monday), but on Thursday and Friday nights we have Reba. From 9-11pm will also be mixed everyday, with a movie on Monday, American Pickers/One Born Every Minute on Tuesday, original specials on Wednesday and more Reba on Thursdays & Fridays. How I Met Your Mother remains in the11pm hour, but will now lead into back-to-back The New Adventures of Old Christine instead of Frasier. Back-to-back Will & Grace will air in the 1am hour leading into a half-hour of Reba at 2am.
View the updated Lifetime March 2011 schedule.

On January 1, CMT had a 10-episode Dallas marathon. Now in a last minute schedule move, they have scheduled a 6-hour marathon for today from 12pm-6pm ET. I know this is short notice, but CMT literally made the change last minute. Airing today are the last two episodes of season three and the first four episodes of season four. You'll see the historic Who Shot J.R.? episode and the stories leading in and leading out! Tune in to CMT today from 12pm-6pm!

Mr. Sunshine - Wednesdays 9:30PM ET/PT on ABC
Premieres Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 9:30PM ET/PT

Matthew Perry stars as Ben Donovan, a self-involved manager of a San Diego sports arena, the Sunshine Center, where curious mishaps and bizarre requests are nothing more than ordinary. Working alongside him is his boss and arena owner Crystal, attractive, powerful and highly erratic; Alice, the cute, tomboyish marketing director and Ben's friend with benefits; Alonzo, a former basketball player, handsome and unbelievably happy; Ben's assistant, Heather, pretty, sweet, but terrifying because she once lit a boyfriend on fire; and Crystal's son, Roman, sweet-faced, clueless and Ben's newest employee.


Cast Details:

* Matthew Perry as Ben
* Allison Janney as Crystal
* Andrea Anders as Alice
* James Lesure as Andy
* Nate Torrence as Roman
* Portia Doubleday as Heather

Matthew Perry (Ben) is the manager of operations at the Sunshine Center. His worldwide audience will be happy to know he is returning to series television as the star, co-writer and executive producer of Mr. Sunshine. Perry is perhaps best known for his Emmy-nominated role as Chandler Bing on Friends, and has shown his diverse talents in a range of projects since the series concluded after ten years. In 2006 Perry returned to series television to star in Aaron Sorkin's NBC drama, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, in a role that was written for him. Earlier, in 2005, he took his talents to the athletic arena as he hosted the 2005 ESPY Awards. The broadcast earned the highest rating in the 12-year history of the ESPYs. He also received an Emmy nomination in the category of Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role as Joe Quincy on The West Wing.

Allison Janney (Crystal) is the owner of the arena and the big boss. Displaying astonishing versatility with a wide range of roles in film, television and theater, Allison Janney has taken her place among a select group of actors who combine a leading lady's profile with a character actor's art of performance. Fans will remember her starring role as CJ Cregg in the award-winning NBC series, The West Wing, for which Janney won a remarkable four SAG and four Emmy Awards. She recently guest starred on ABC's LOST as a pivotal character in the mythlogy of the series. She has also appeared in many movies. She starred opposite Meryl Streep in The Hours, which received a SAG Award nomination for Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture. Other credits include the Academy Award-winning films American Beauty (for which she won a SAG Award for Outstanding Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture), Finding Nemo, Over the Hedge, Our Very Own, Strangers with Candy, Nurse Betty, How to Deal, Drop Dead Gorgeous, 10 Things I Hate About You, Primary Colors, The Ice Storm, Six Days Seven Nights, The Object of My Affection and Big Night.

Andrea Anders (Alice) is the marketing director for the Sunshine Center. Andrea most recently starred in ABC's critically acclaimed series Better Off Ted, and is known to television audiences for her roles as Nicole Allen on the sitcom The Class and as Alex Garrett in the Friends spin-off series Joey, opposite Matt LeBlanc. Additional television credits include guest starring on Law & Order, Tru Calling, Oz, Numb3rs and appearances on the daytime dramas Guiding Light and One Life to Live. Feature film credits include the road comedy Sex Drive and The Stepford Wives. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (from University of Wisconsin) and a Master of Fine Arts degree (from Rutgers).

James Lesure (Alonzo) plays a former basketball player and friend to Ben. James gives new meaning to the term Hollywood Hunk. His magnetic charm, both on screen and stage, complement a firmly grounded personality. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the suave, competitive head of surveillance, Mike Cannon, on the hit series Las Vegas, opposite legendary actor James Caan. Lesure made his series debut on the comedy For Your Love as attorney Mel Ellis, co-starring actress Holly Robinson-Peete. He has also appeared in recurring roles on the hits The New Adventures of Old Christine, Lipstick Jungle, The Division and Alias. Other television credits include guest-starring roles on ABC's LOST, Sherri, Seinfeld and a notable turn as a resolute military officer on the acclaimed series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which of course starred Matthew Perry.

Nate Torrence (Roman) plays Crystal's son and he is looking for work at the arena. Torrence began breaking into television with guest star appearances on several shows, including Malcolm in the Middle, How I Met Your Mother, House and many more. In 2006 he landed the recurring role of Dylan Killington on NBC's critically acclaimed Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, opposite Mr. Sunshine star Matthew Perry. Film appearances include Get Smart, Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control, My Best Friend's Girl and a major role in the Dreamworks comedy She's Out of My League. He is a master of improv and still finds time to perform sketch/improv shows in area theaters, including at The Second City Theater in Los Angeles.


Pilot Plot:

#1 "Pilot" (Airs February 9, 2011)
On what would have been just a typical day at work -- trying to get rid of a hockey rink that won't melt so the circus can go on that night, looking for an elephant lost in the building and arranging an impromptu press conference to repair one of his boss's PR nightmares -- Alice ends her casual relationship with Ben to commit to another man. This happens on Ben's 40th birthday, just as he's realizing he doesn't want to be alone.

Recurring is Portia Doubleday as Heather. Guest starring are Jorge Garcia as Bobert and David Pressman as mascot. Co-starring Christopher Shea as Dan, Declan Beaty as kid, Jesse Bean as guy, Eric Winzenried as photographer, Harvey Ruffin III as executive, Rico Bueno as worker #1, Alejandro Patino as worker #2, Sam Brown as worker #3, Gene DeJoie as worker #4 and Peter Navy Tuiasosop as worker #5.
"Pilot" was written by Matthew Perry, Alex Barnow and Marc Firek and directed by Thomas Schlamme.


Analysis:

This pilot and the premise of the series in general is very unique. I'm surprised there has never been a comedy fully set at a sports arena and looking at the day-to-day operations of it. The pilot sets things up well. That is what a pilot episode should do. Usually the pilot episode is not the strongest episode, but it should catch the viewer's attention. And that's what this one does here. It is a single camera half-hour comedy starring Matthew Perry. Perry's character plays Ben, head of operations for an arena in San Diego called The Sunshine Center (actually filmed at the Forum in Los Angeles). He is the one who schedules everything and well does pretty much everything for the arena. They've got hockey games, rock concerts, the circus, lingerie football, dog shows and more...but lots can go wrong at any of these events and that is what this comedy will explore. Ben says San Diego lost their basketball team to Cincinnati because of something Alonzo did, so not sure if we'll see some basketball here.

Janney's character, Crystal, is the owner of the arena and is extremely eccentric, as proved when she makes up a hilarious song: "the blacks, the whites, the Asians and the Himalayans, too." That made me laugh...she seems to be a racist but doesn't know it. The entire team at the arena is pretty dysfunctional. The pilot has Ben turning 40 and he is sleeping with the marketing director of the arena, Alice. However, Alice is calling their "friends with benefits" relationship off. Ben doesn't seem to mind at first until he later finds out that she is about to start an actual relationship with his best friend, Alonzo, who used to be a basketball player and now works for the arena. Nothing gets Alonzo down, he is your Mr. Sunshine type of guy. Ben is not a very nice guy, but he shows signs of some humanity as we progress. The title of this comedy is Mr. Sunshine, but Ben is from that. The title is really a play at the arena name, since Ben is in charge of everything at the arena. It's a clever play at the title. Among the good things we see from Ben is trying to give Crystal's son Roman a job in the arena. He has no skills and is very strange and his mother doesn't seem to care much about him. It will be interesting to see if Ben can make something of Roman in future episodes. Ben is also trying to be more friendly to his staff, as we see in the pilot episode with the head of maintenance (played by Jorge Garcia) as Ben is trying to be more friendly towards him. But is his name really "Bobert?" Ben also has a new assistant named Heather and she is also very strange, setting people on fire in her past and now also oddly being attracted to Roman.

There are some funny bits in the pilot, but it isn't quite there yet. It has a ton of potential and I could see this comedy turning into the style ABC had with Better Off Ted, except this will be more mainstream and will have more appeal to everyone as it is set in an arena (rather than a research & development company). So my overall feeling is: it's a good set-up with much more to come.


Conclusion:

The series will be following the #1 comedy on television, Modern Family, so it will be certainly sampled. That is a good thing because this show has so much potential. It has a great setting and a great cast. It will be interesting to see how much Ben can better himself as a person as the series progresses. There should be a lot of hilarious challenges on the way. The cast isn't too big, so we will be invested in the characters immediately. One thing I found funny was when Jorge Garcia's character says Ben, as we saw Garcia's character say that name all the time on Lost (Ben Linus). That is a nice homage to Lost, I think, but probably just coincidental here. Garcia will be in a few episodes in this series.

I think the characters are all good and it will be fun to see them develop. If this comedy is even half of what Better Off Ted was, then it should be in good shape in terms of quality. Matthew Perry is good here. He may be unlikeable but you can tell he is trying to "better" himself and I think the show will get better and better, too. Andrea Anders is really stunning and Allison Janney will probably be nominated for many Emmy's for this role, I predict. You don't have to like sports to like this comedy. Events in arenas are more than just sporting events, as I'm sure you all know. Nick Jonas will be guest starring in week two as a singer. Tune in Wednesday at 9:30pm on ABC for some good arena fun because the arena staff might be dysfunctional, but that makes for good TV!


Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):

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

-- Reviewed by Pavan on 02/08/11

Discuss the show after you watch it on Wednesday, February 9 on our message board.

Related Links:

ABC.com Official Site

TV.com

epguides.com

Internet Movie Database

Wikipedia

Mr. Sunshine Photo Gallery

Preview:



As we briefly mentioned yesterday, Frasier is coming to Hallmark in April 2011! Hallmark Channel has acquired all eleven seasons and all 264 episodes of Frasier from CBS Television Distribution. Frasier, one of the most critically-acclaimed comedy series of all-time and one of television's most successful spin-off series ever will launch on Monday, April 4, airing Monday-Friday from 9:00-11:00 pm ET/PT. This means, Cheers and Frasier will now be reunited on one network, Hallmark Channel. Frasier, a spin-off of Cheers set in Seattle, starring Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce, John Mahoney, Jane Leeves, Peri Gilpin and beloved Jack Russell Terrier "Eddie," holds the record for the most Emmy wins (37), including five consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Comedy Series from 1994 to 1998.
Currently, Lifetime is airing Frasier but Lifetime will be losing the rights to the series next month. Frasier has been airing on Lifetime since March, 2006. Frasier airs weekdays 9-10am and 12am-1:30am, but starting Monday, March 7, Lifetime will move up Old Christine to 9am-10:30am from its current 10am-11:30am slot, then How I Met Your Mother moves from 11:30am to 10:30am. And the 11am hour will now have an extra Wife Swap leading into another episode at 12 noon. 1-4pm will remain as is with Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy, but now 4pm will be the series American Justice, pushing Unsolved Mysteries to 5pm & 6pm. Old Christine will no longer be in the 6pm hour and another hour of Reba is added in the 7pm hour replacing How I Met Your Mother. In primetime, Reba remains in the 8pm hour. Movies/originals air from 9-11pm. In late nights, How I Met Your Mother remains in the 11pm hour, but replacing Frasier from 12am-1:30am will be an episode of Old Christine and two episodes of Will & Grace. And two more episodes of How I Met Your Mother will now air at 1:30am & 2:00am replacing Will & Grace -- all starting Monday, March 7.
View the FULL Lifetime March 2011 schedule and come on back for more on Hallmark Channel's schedule in March (with the addition of Empty Nest) and April (with the addition of Frasier) when it is announced.

We have a lot of last minute schedule changes that start on Monday (Oct. 11). Earlier in the week we told you that Friday Night Lights was being move to late mornings and the 6pm hour would be My Wife & Kids, but now we have another schedule change. All the changes we mentioned are still happening, but weeknights in the 12am hour will now be another hour of My Wife & Kids, replacing Whose Line Is It Anyway? That series is now off the schedule totally. Also, there is a The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air sighting on ABC Family on Saturday, Oct. 23 in the 1am hour, but the only slot for it right now.

As for Hallmark Channel, there will be special primetime presentations of The Martha Stewart Show, Mad Hungry with Lucinda Scala Quinn and Whatever with Alexis & Jennifer from 8pm-11pm for the week of October 11 ONLY replacing the regularly scheduled primetime of Little House on the Prairie and a movie. The regular primetime returns the following week. Also of note, starting Saturday, November 13, all of Hallmark's sitcoms will be preempted everyday for holiday movies, as Hallmark gets into the holiday spirit. This means Who's the Boss, Cheers, I Love Lucy and The Golden Girls will NOT air for the rest of the month (and likely not until after Christmas, but we don't have the December schedule yet), as movies will air all day except during the "Martha Stewart Home" block from 10am-3pm. Little House on the Prairie will only air weekdays at 3pm during this time.

And finally the last, last minute change is for Lifetime. Starting Monday, they will add a morning hour of New Adventures of Old Christine airing in the 10am hour, shifting everything else up an hour. Wife Swap is now at 11am, Airline at 12 noon, Desperate Housewives at 1pm, Grey's Anatomy at 2pm & 3pm, and Unsolved Mysteries at 4pm & 5pm. Old Christine remains at 6pm, but its 7pm hour will now be How I Met Your Mother. At 8pm, Reba takes over the How I Met Your Mother hour. It's Reba to the rescue again for Lifetime. Then primetime airs from 9-11pm, with a movie on Mondays/Wednesdays, Wife Swap on Tuesdays, Project Runway/On The Road with Austin & Santino on Thursdays, and a block of Reba on Fridays. How I Met Your Mother remains in the 11pm hour, but the 12-2am block is now the same as what airs at 9-11pm. Frasier closes the night out in the 2am half-hour, as Medium is gone.


It's Friday, so it is time for "Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows" for the coming week. This is where we list what sitcom stars are appearing on talk shows for the coming week, the stars are both current and past sitcom stars (but we won't cover movie stars like Tom Hanks or John Travolta, since they won't be talking about their past sitcoms likely), so this is for all sitcom fans of all eras!
For the week of Oct. 11-15, 2010, we have many current sitcom stars and past sitcom stars on TV talk shows! So get your DVR's (or whatever you use) ready! Ready? Here is all what you need to know for the coming week!

Monday, October 11, 2010

• Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) - Catch "Sheldon" on The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS at 11:35pm.
• Jay Mohr (Gary Unmarried) - Catch Jay on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC at 11:35pm.
• David Spade (Rules of Engagement/8 Simple Rules/Just Shoot Me!) - Watch David on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local station.
  
• Ken Jeong (Community) - Catch Ken on a repeat of Lopez Tonight at 11pm on TBS.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

• Ty Burrell (Modern Family/Back to You) - Catch Ty on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at 11:35pm on NBC.
• Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) - Watch Jim this time on CBS Early Show sometime between 7-9am.
  
• Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle) - Catch Bryan on a repeat of Lopez Tonight at 11pm on TBS.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

• Diedrich Bader (Outsourced/Drew Carey Show) - Catch Diedrich on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at 12:37am on CBS.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

• Kevin McHale (Community) - Catch Kevin on an all-new The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at 11:35pm on NBC.
• Wanda Sykes (Old Christine) - Watch Wanda also on Tonight Show with Jay Leno at 11:35pm on NBC.
• Drew Carey (Drew Carey Show) - Watch Drew on CBS Early Show sometime between 7-9am and then late night on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at 12:37am on CBS.
• Tony Danza (Who's the Boss?/Taxi) - Watch Tony on the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS, so check your listings.

Friday, October 15, 2010

• Ty Burrell (Modern Family/Back To You) - Catch Ty on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at 12:37am on CBS.
• Sara Gilbert, Leah Remini, Holly Robinson Peete - These past sitcom stars will be on CBS Early Show to promote their new CBS talk show.
• Marlo Thomas (That Girl) - Catch Marlo on The Wendy Williams Show on BET at 12am or your local affiliate.

Leave us comments on our message board or Tweet/Facebook us to let us know what you think of this Friday feature! We do listen!

It's time for another edition of the fall cable schedules barrage! Today we will take a look at Spike TV! Right before the fall schedule begins they will have a week-long marathon of the classic police drama Hawaii Five-0 from Aug. 30 to Sept. 3! We knew about this already from the TCA tour, but now the full details are in. In celebration of the new Hawaii Five-0 series premiering on CBS on Sept. 20, Spike TV will dig into the archives and air the original first season of the classic TV series Hawaii Five-0 starring Jack Lord! Hawaii Five-0 aired for 12 seasons from 1968-80 on CBS, now relive the first season all over again on Spike TV! The episodes will air from 9am-6pm each weekday the week of Aug. 30. Spike TV will air episodes 3-24, as they won't air the two-hour pilot movie ("Cocoon") and the season finale ("The Big Kahuna").
Let's hope it does well on Spike TV so they can air it on their daily schedule, as it has been years since Hawaii Five-0 aired nationally on cable. Maybe sister network TV Land could run it daily? If Five-0 goes anything beyond this week, we'll certainly let you know, so stay tuned!
As for the regular Spike TV fall schedule starting Sept. 7, it is pretty much the same as it is now with an hour of Married...with Children kicking it off in the 9am hour, followed by three airings of Walker Texas Ranger from 10am-1pm. Then CSI: NY airs at 1pm leading into a block of CSI from 2pm-7pm. Other notable programming includes Entourage on Fridays from 9pm-12am, CSI Mon-Wed at 1am, Star Trek: Voyager Mon-Wed at 2am, The Shield on Thursdays at 2am, and Unsolved Mysteries returns to the schedule airing Mon-Wed at 3am. So, yes, it will be on both Lifetime and Spike TV.
Weekends will have a mix of marathons or movies, with Married...with Children remaining Sundays 9am-11am. Spike TV will make more changes in October, as Entourage will be eligible to air five days a week! The comedy will air weekdays in the 6pm hour starting Oct. 4, replacing an hour of CSI. They will also air it during the 12am hour on Monday nights and expand the Friday airings to 6pm-12am (instead of 9pm-12am). Some minor changes to late night will also happen with Star Trek: Voyager moving up to 1am and Spike's Most Amazing Videos airs at 2am.
Book 'em Danno! View the FULL Spike TV Fall 2010 schedule and highlights and stay tuned tomorrow as we give an update to the WGN America fall schedule because they have acquired another new sitcom to air in the fall!

TBS has ordered an additional 90 episodes of the hit sitcom Are We There Yet? following this summer's highly successful 10-episode run. The series, which stars Terry Crews (Everybody Hates Chris) and Essence Atkins (Half & Half), is produced by Revolution Studios and Cube Vision and distributed by Debmar-Mercury. Revolution's Joe Roth and Vince Totino and Cube Vision's Ice Cube and Matt Alvarez serve as executive producers, along with award-winning show-runner Ali LeRoi. In addition to executive producing, Ice Cube plays a recurring guest starring role.
In Are We There Yet?, Crews and Atkins play Nick and Suzanne, a newly married couple whose blended family faces the challenges of everyday life. Teala Dunn and Coy Stewart co-star as Lindsey and Kevin, Nick and Suzanne's 14 and 10-year-old children. Keesha Sharp is Suzanne's best friend, who has a taste for men and the finer things in life. Comedian Christian Finnegan plays Nick's best friend and owner of a sports memorabilia store. Ice Cube plays a recurring guest starring role as Suzanne's brother.
Are We There Yet? premiered Wednesday, June 2 as part of TBS's enormously popular Wednesday lineup of original sitcoms that has House of Payne and Meet the Browns. The series went on to rank among ad-supported cable's Top 10 new series for the quarter, averaging 2.8 million viewers and 1.5 million adults 18-49. Are We There Yet? also scored as the #1 show on all of television in delivery of African-American adults 18-34 and 18-49 for the second quarter.

It was just this past Monday we gave you Lifetime's Fall 2010 schedule, but now they have added two more series to the schedule. These two series will actually start Monday, Aug. 30 instead of Sept. 13. The big news is that Lifetime is bringing back Unsolved Mysteries and will air it weekdays (except Thursdays) at 3pm and 4pm starting Aug. 30. The 2008 episodes with Dennis Farina are listed to air. The series last aired on Lifetime in 2007, but these 2008 episodes have never aired on Lifetime. The series moved to Spike TV in Fall 2008 in a 5-year deal and Spike TV it seems will still continue to air the series in late nights. Maybe now a shared deal it seems. We will have more on Spike TV's Fall schedule in the coming days, so stay tuned. And we will try to get more information on this Unsolved Mysteries situation on Lifetime, so stay with us. Also coming to Lifetime will be sister network A&E's original series Airline, which aired from 2004-05. The series had about 70 episodes and Lifetime will air it weekdays at 11am & 11:30am starting Aug. 30. Leading into Airline will be Wife Swap at 10am, replacing Desperate Housewives (which will be now just at noon). So for this week (Aug. 30) and week of Sept. 6, these are the only changes and everything else will remain the same as it is currently.
And it looks like these two series will be placed on the Fall 2010 schedule starting Sept. 13 as well! So some of the schedule we announced for the daytime will be altered. The 8am-5pm schedule for the Fall will be the same as it will be starting Aug. 30. This means Will & Grace from 8-10am is no longer happening and will remain just in the 8am hour leading into Frasier at 9am. Frasier's planned 10am hour will remain Wife Swap leading into an hour of Airline still, while Desperate Housewives' planned 11am hour is now 12pm. Grey's Anatomy was planned for 12pm & 1pm but will remain now 1pm & 2pm leading into Unsolved Mysteries at 3pm & 4pm. Reba was scheduled for 4-6pm, but now Reba will only get the 5pm hour. Everything else from 6pm on will remain the same as we announced on Monday.
View the UPDATED Lifetime Fall 2010 schedule and stay with us for more fall 2010 schedules as we still have plenty to come such as Nick at Nite, Hallmark, Spike TV, AmericanLife, FamilyNet, GMC, BET, Centric, and more!

TV Land announced it has picked up six episodes of the new original reality series Forever Young from Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg's Katalyst (Punk'd, True Beauty), and 3 Ball Productions headed by Executive Producers JD Roth and Todd A. Nelson (The Biggest Loser, Opportunity Knocks, MasterChef).
The producers have previously teamed on their long-running hit Beauty and the Geek, and they are known for creating series that challenge society's preconceptions about beauty, image and what people ultimately can achieve. Now, the six-episode reality competition Forever Young takes on ageism as it explores the generations' ideas and misconceptions about each other.
Part reality show, part social experiment, Forever Young bridges the generation gap as "Juniors" and "Seniors" work together to experience each other's point of view and find out just how much they do - or don't - have in common. When separated by five decades, six wars and 10 presidents, Forever Young explores how revealing and how funny it can be when youth and wisdom join forces, whether in appreciation of the past, understanding the present or preparing for the future.

TV Land has not yet announced when Forever Young will premiere, so stay with us for further information on when it premieres!