SitcomsOnline.com News Blog

The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations; Spike TV's Friday Married with Children Marathons

The 61st Annual Emmy Nominations were made just moments ago. Here are the nominees for the main categories:

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
Weeds (Showtime)
The Office (NBC)
How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
30 Rock (NBC)
Entourage (HBO)
Family Guy (Fox)
Flight of the Conchords (HBO)
SURPRISE OMISSIONS: Two and a Half Men maybe. Surprising to see Family Guy.

OUTSTANDING LEAD COMEDY ACTOR
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)
Tony Shalhoub, Monk (USA Network)
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Steve Carell, The Office (NBC)
Jermaine Clement, Flight of the Conchords (HBO)
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
SURPRISE OMISSIONS: No one really...maybe David Duchovny. Surprised that Clement got nominated, though.

OUTSTANDING LEAD COMEDY ACTRESS
Sarah Silverman, The Sarah Silverman Program (Comedy Central)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Old Christine (CBS)
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who? (ABC)
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds (Showtime)
Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC)
Toni Collette, United States of Tara (Showtime)
SURPRISE OMISSIONS: No America Ferrera? Very surprising to see Sarah Silverman here. Nice to see Christina Applegate once again.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTOR
Kevin Dillion, Entourage (HBO)
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Rainn Wilson, The Office (NBC)
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
Jack McBrayer, 30 Rock (NBC)
Tracy Morgan, 30 Rock (NBC)
SURPRISE OMISSIONS: Jeremy Piven. Wow that is big. Last two on the list were sort of surprising.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTRESS
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Kristin Chenoweth, Pushing Daisies (ABC)
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock (NBC)
Amy Poehler, SNL (NBC)
Kristin Wiig, SNL (NBC)
Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds (Showtime)
SURPRISE OMISSIONS: Jean Smart. She won last year, too. SNL shouldn't be on this list. Nice to see Chenoweth get recognition again despite her show being canceled.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Lost (ABC)
House (Fox)
Damages (FX)
Big Love (HBO)
Mad Men (AMC)
Dexter (Showtime)
Breaking Bad (AMC)
SURPRISE OMISSIONS: Grey's Anatomy. But these seven were no surprises. Cable ruling here.

OUTSTANDING LEAD DRAMA ACTOR
Hugh Laurie, House (Fox)
Simon Baker, The Mentalist (CBS)
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)
Gabriel Bryne, In Treatment (HBO)
Michael C. Hall, Dexter (Showtime)
Jon Hamm, Mad Men (AMC)
SURPRISE OMISSIONS: James Spader. Thought he would get nominated one last time. Can't believe Simon Baker got nominated.

OUTSTANDING LEAD DRAMA ACTRESS
Glenn Close, Damages (FX)
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer (TNT)
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU (NBC)
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace (TNT)
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men (AMC)
SURPRISE OMISSIONS: None, but Evangeline Lilly should be here. Hargitay again?

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTOR
Christian Clemenson, Boston Legal (ABC)
William Shatner, Boston Legal (ABC)
William Hurt, Damages (FX)
John Slattery, Mad Men (AMC)
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad (AMC)
Michael Emerson, Lost (ABC)
SURPRISE OMISSIONS: Zeiko Ivanek. He won last year, too. Some Boston Legal final year love here.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTRESS
Cherry Jones, 24 (Fox)
Ross Byrne, Damages (FX)
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Hope Davis, In Treatment (HBO)
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Diane Wiest, In Treatment (HBO)
SURPRISE OMISSIONS: Elizabeth Mitchell! Come on! I thought Heigl had a better year than Oh on Grey's.


View the full list of nominations. The 61st Annual Emmy Awards air Sunday, September 20 at 8pm on CBS.


Married...with Children is now getting marathon treatment on Spike TV! Starting tomorrow until at least the end of August, Spike TV will air Married...with Children marathons every Friday from 9am-7pm ET/PT! Yes, 10 hours of Bundy fun! Spike TV will still air the show weekdays 9-11am and Sunday mornings as well.
Still no word if it will pop-up again on sister network TV Land, as it did very well for them there. We do have some sister network news though and it is sort of regarding Married...with Children. Viacom-owned MTV Tr3s (Spanish language network) is now airing a show the entire family can enjoy -- a Columbian remake of Married... with Children. Viewers will be engaged by the hilarious situations the Rocha (Bundy) family gets themselves into! The show is called Casado Con Hijos and airs weekdays at 4PM & 7PM ET/PT on MTV Tr3s with English subtitles! It aired from 2004-06 in Columbia on Caracol TV. Al Bundy is now Paco Rocha! The only same names we know are Kelly and Jefferson D'Arcy.

Are We There Yet?: The Sitcom Coming to TBS; Our Emmy Nominations Picks

TBS, using the unique model created by Debmar-Mercury with Tyler Perry's House of Payne and Meet the Browns, is teaming with Joe Roth and Ice Cube for Are We There Yet?, a sitcom starring Terry Crews (Everybody Hates Chris) and based on the hit Revolution Studios film of the same name starring Ice Cube.
TBS has ordered 10 episodes of the new sitcom, slated to premiere in June 2010, with the option for an additional 90 episodes. The series is produced by Cube Vision and distributed by Debmar-Mercury. Revolution's Joe Roth and Cube Vision's Ice Cube and Matt Alvarez serve as executive producers, along with award-winning show-runner Ali LeRoi, who has won an Emmy® for his work on The Chris Rock Show and an NAACP Image Award for Everybody Hates Chris. In addition to executive-producing, Ice Cube will have a recurring role on the sitcom version!
Debmar-Mercury's association with TBS began in 2006, when the company devised a groundbreaking distribution strategy for Tyler Perry's House of Payne. Debmar-Mercury offered a 10-episode experiment in select markets that produced strong ratings, leading TBS to order a full-fledged series with an unprecedented 100 episodes. In January 2009, TBS premiered 10 episodes of Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns to strong ratings, leading the network to order additional episodes for a total of 80. So far this year, the two series have ranked as the top television programs in delivery of African-American viewers. Debmar-Mercury has also ordered 10 episodes for a Comedy Central comedy, as we mentioned, with an option to order 90 more, just like Are We There Yet?
The movie Are We There Yet?, a breakout 2005 hit, told the story of Nick (Ice Cube), a smooth operator who is trying to land a date with Suzanne, a divorcee stuck working out of town over New Year's and miserable because she misses her kids. Nick gallantly offers to make her New Year's wish come true – and his own in the process – by driving her two children to be reunited with their mom. What Nick doesn’t know is that Suzanne's children, whom he's never met, hate every man their mom dates on sight. The movie grossed more than $82 million at the box office and was followed in 2007 by a sequel, Are We Done Yet?
In the sitcom Are We There Yet?, Terry Crews will star as Nick, the character Ice Cube played in the film.

Today we will give our preview of what we think the nominations for the Emmy's will look like. The real nominations will be announced tomorrow (Thursday) morning at 8:30am ET, so we will give you those then. But for now...here are our predictions for the main acting categories for the 61st Annual Emmy Awards airing Sept. 20 on CBS:

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
Weeds (Showtime)
The Office (NBC)
Two and a Half Men (CBS)
30 Rock (NBC)
Entourage (HBO)
Better off Ted (ABC)
MY THOUGHTS: 30 Rock has won it the last two years and is probably the favorite. The first 5 on this list are probably locks for a nomination.

OUTSTANDING LEAD COMEDY ACTOR
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock (NBC)
Tony Shalhoub, Monk (USA Network)
David Duchovny, Califorinication (Showtime)
Steve Carell, The Office (NBC)
Zach Braff, Scrubs (ABC)
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
MY THOUGHTS: Baldwin won it last year and could repeat. I think Braff will get a nomination this year for his final full year with Scrubs with Charlie Sheen not getting one as a result. Expect Jim Parsons to be nominated for his work on Big Bang Theory.

OUTSTANDING LEAD COMEDY ACTRESS
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Eva Longoria-Parker, Desperate Housewives (ABC)
Christina Applegate, Samantha Who? (ABC)
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds (Showtime)
Tina Fey, 30 Rock (NBC)
Toni Collette, United States of Tara (Showtime)
MY THOUGHTS: Fey won it last year and is the favorite again. Eva Longoria deserves a nomination for once. She is hysterical.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTOR
Kevin Dillion, Entourage (HBO)
John Cryer, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
Rainn Wilson, The Office (NBC)
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
Jeremy Piven, Entourage (HBO)
Michael Urie, Ugly Betty (ABC)
MY THOUGHTS: Jeremy Piven wins every year. Maybe host Neil Patrick Harris will win this year?

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING COMEDY ACTRESS
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty (ABC)
Andrea Anders, Better off Ted (ABC)
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock (NBC)
Jean Smart, Samantha Who? (ABC)
Jenna Fischer, The Office (NBC)
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men (CBS)
MY THOUGHTS: Jean Smart won last year, but it will be interesting if she will be nominated this year due to Samantha Who? not getting picked up for a third year. Who cares, right? She deserves it.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Lost (ABC)
House (Fox)
Damages (FX)
Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Mad Men (AMC)
Dexter (Showtime)
MY THOUGHTS: Mad Men won last year but seriously Lost needs to take it this year! Grey's deserves a nomination at least, for its outstanding second half of the season.

OUTSTANDING LEAD DRAMA ACTOR
Hugh Laurie, House (Fox)
James Spader, Boston Legal (ABC)
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)
Gabriel Bryne, In Treatment (HBO)
Michael C. Hall, Dexter (Showtime)
Jon Hamm, Mad Men (AMC)
MY THOUGHTS: Cranston surprised and won it last year. Will Emmy recognize Boston Legal one last time and give it back to Spader? My bet is on Jon Hamm.

OUTSTANDING LEAD DRAMA ACTRESS
Glenn Close, Damages (FX)
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer (TNT)
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU (NBC)
Holly Hunter, Saving Grace (TNT)
Evangeline Lilly, Lost (ABC)
MY THOUGHTS: Close won it last year. Not sure why Hargitay keeps getting nominated, but she probably will again. Evangeline Lilly needs to be nominated finally. Close or Field will take it.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTOR
Zeljko Ivanek, Damages (FX)
William Shatner, Boston Legal (ABC)
Kevin McKidd, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
John Slattery, Mad Men (AMC)
Josh Holloway, Lost (FX)
Michael Emerson, Lost (ABC)
MY THOUGHTS: Ivanek surprised last year with the win. I think we will have a different winner this year. Shatner one last time? Or finally Michael Emerson?

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING DRAMA ACTRESS
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers & Sisters (ABC)
Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men (AMC)
Elizabeth Mitchell, Lost (ABC)
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy (ABC)
Diane Wiest, In Treatment (HBO)
MY THOUGHTS: Wiest won it last year. Will Emmy give Heigl a nomination after bowing out last year? She as superb this year. But the Emmy goes to Elizabeth Mitchell!

Nominations are announced tomorrow morning. Come on back here and we will give you the official nominations and you can compare those to our picks!

Nick at Nite Replaces Fresh Prince in Primetime with Family Matters; 10 Things...Premiere Solid for ABC Family

Nick at Nite made a very last minute change late yesterday. They have replaced The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the Mon-Thurs 10pm hour with Family Matters effective yesterday (July 13). If you all recall, Family Matters was in the original schedule to air in the 10pm hour, but Nick at Nite changed their mind. Family Matters will still air Sundays at 10pm as well, so the 10pm hour is Sun-Thurs for Steve Urkel and the gang. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is now only Mon-Thurs in the 4am hour. Nick at Nite has not updated their schedule for next week (week of July 20) and beyond, so it is still showing Fresh next week in the 10pm hour. It is unclear what will air Fridays at 11pm since Fresh Prince of Bel-Air airs there and this week the Friday schedule is preempted. I would guess Family Matters will get to replace that hour as well.
This weekend Nickelodeon & Nick at Nite celebrate the SpongeBob 10th anniversary with a 50-hour marathon starting Friday at 8pm through Sunday at 10pm, preempting Nick at Nite on Friday, Saturday and for two hours on Sunday. Due to this marathon, George Lopez will air in the 1am hour this Sunday since it is preempted in the 9pm hour.
Stay tuned for the latest on this change and to see what will happen beyond this week. Looks like Fresh Prince did bad last week when it started airing at 10pm? Looks like Malcolm in the Middle did decent for premiere week? We shall see soon if anything changes. View the Nick at Nite July 2009 schedule thread to keep up with the up-to-the-minute details.

Last week's premiere of ABC Family's original comedy series 10 Things I Hate About You did solid in the ratings. ABC Family's newest original series launched as the net's No. 1 comedy series debut on record in Total Viewers (1.6 million), Adults 18-34 (509,000), Women 18-34 (396,000), Adults 18-49 (734,000) and Women 18-49 (574,000). The series stood as cable's No. 1 program in the time slot in Women 18-34 (396,000/1.2 rating), Women 18-49 (574,000/0.9 rating tied on rating), Viewers 12-34 (936,000/1.0 rating) and Females 12-34 (762,000/1.7 rating), and TV's No. 1 program in prime overall in Females Teens (367,000/3.0 rating) for Tuesday.
The comedy out-delivered the ratings for the now canceled comedies Sophie and Roommates. Roommates launched to 1.5 million viewers but that was out of the season finale of Secret Life of the American Teenager which did 4.49 million that night. 10 Things I Hate About led off the night in primetime and did 1.6 million on its own, making this more impressive.
10 Things I Hate About airs its second episode tonight and needs to do similar to the premiere's ratings. Because by episode two Roommates was down to just 440,000 viewers, and this show doesn't want to drop that much. Sophie was dead on arrival.
A second original sitcom Ruby & the Rockits will launch next Tuesday at 8:30pm following 10 Things I Hate About. Watch the second episode of 10 Things I Hate About tonight at 8PM ET/PT on ABC Family!

Comedy Central, USA Network Sitcoms Reduction; RTV's Emergency King in Phoenix

Comedy Central has dropped Just Shoot Me! from its line-up already. It was airing weekdays at 3:30pm and 4pm and weekends during mid-morning since June 1. It looks like ratings must have been pretty low for it to be dropped totally. It was dropped last week. No word on when or if it will return to Comedy Central, or on any Viacom-owned network for that matter. It had bombed on TV Land already. Now Comedy Central only airs Scrubs, sitcom wise. And as we mentioned on Friday, they have an original sitcom coming soon with a 10-episode order.
Meanwhile, USA Network has quietly removed Becker and Wings from its weekday morning line-up. They were airing most weekdays in the 6am hour. Now they are starting marathon stacks at 6am of their dramas like Monk and Law & Order: SVU. Becker and Wings will next air together during late night on Friday, July 24 (early July 25) in the 3-4am hour. In August, they will also air in the 3-4am hour together on Saturday nights (early Sundays). Becker will get filler plays during the week sometimes in the late night as well in both July and August. Check your listings. Becker is also airing in marathon blocks on Universal-owned network Universal HD, airing in HD and weeknights on WGN America as well. Wings is only on USA Network.
We will have more on these two shows on USA Network very soon when we announce the fall line-up in our annual fall schedules barrage here on the blog!

Retro Television's KAZT (7.2) in Phoenix is killing the competition at 3PM. At 3PM RTV's KAZT airs Emergency! and they are doing very well with it in the A25-54 demo. Last Monday (July 6), Emergency! posted a 0.7 A25-54 rating beating Oprah's 0.6 on KTVK. It also beat many other Phoenix airings throughout the day in A25-54 such as The Doctors, Dr. Phil, Rachel Ray, Fox's (KSAZ) primetime House, and The CW (KASW) primetime.
That's not all! The very next day (Tuesday, July 7) it was #1 in Men 25-54 in its 3PM timeslot in Phoenix beating not just Oprah at 3pm, but everything at 3pm! Emergency! posted a 1.2 M25-54 rating, beating Oprah's 0.8, Yes Dear on TBS's 0.8, Ellen DeGeneres Show on KPNX's 0.6, and so many other shows such as Gunsmoke on TV Land's 0.2 in Phoenix.
Emergency! aired originally from 1972-79 and was produced by Universal. The series followed the early years of the Paramedic program in the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) with the focus on the personnel of Fire Station 51, in particular Firefighter/Paramedics. Robert Fuller stars.
View more on Retro Television on their official website.

Summer Week 7 Sitcom Ratings; Blog DVD Review Special: Hotel - The First Season (July 21)

Summer continues and everything is still pretty light. We will be back with our normal weekly report with the first four nights numbers and analysis in the fall, but we still will have our regular how the sitcoms did all summer long, along with last year's summer favorite, the coming week preview! Here are our summer ratings:

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of June 28-July 5)

• Til Death (Fox) - A repeat at 7pm only mustered 1.53 million.
• The Simpsons (Fox) 2 episodes - 3.67 million for a repeat in its regular 8pm slot and 4.31 million for a special 9:30pm repeat. Both episodes did a solid summer 1.7 and 2.0 18-49 rating.
• King of the Hill (Fox) - The 8:30 repeat did only 3.24 million, but an acceptable 1.5 18-49 rating for summer.
• Family Guy (Fox) - 4.33 million for a repeat is OK for summer, but a 2.1 18-49 rating was good enough to win its timeslot.
• American Dad! (Fox) - Only 1.96 million for a repeat at 7:30.

Summer Week 7 (July 6-12)

Monday Sitcoms

• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - 5.48 million for a repeat airing, doing better the last few weeks. 1.8 A18-49 rating is solid for summer. How times have a changed...
• Rules of Engagement (CBS) - 5.48 million for a repeat airing, lower than previous week when it did 5.76 and built from the lead-in. It did do a 1.9 A18-49 rating.
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 9.41 million for a repeat, going up the last few weeks. 2.8 A18-49 rating is better than solid for summer.
• The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 8.34 million for a repeat is also going up the past few weeks. 2.8 18-49 rating is excellent, holding 100% from the lead-in. That is what CBS would like to see!

Tuesday Sitcoms

• Better Off Ted (ABC) - preempted for Michael Jackson Memorial coverage. Only 1.76 million the previous week (June 30).

Wednesday Sitcoms

• Old Christine (CBS) - Just 3.9 million for a repeat...after going up slowly the previous weeks, it goes back down below 4 million and only a 1.0 A18-49 rating.
• Gary Unmarried (CBS) - Just 3.78 million for a repeat and only a 1.0 A18-49 rating.

Thursday Sitcoms

• The Office (NBC) 2 episodes - Only 2.9 and 2.89 million for repeats at 8:30 and 9...it was a it better news in A18-49 rating with a 1.3 each.
• 30 Rock (NBC) 2 episodes - Only 3.17 and 2.48 million for repeats at 8 and 9:30pm, and only a 1.1 A18-49 rating for each. So the 9:30pm skewed younger since it did lower in viewership bit did the same 1.1 18-49 rating.
• Samantha Who? (ABC) 2 episodes - Two new episodes did 3.43 and 3.11 million, very similar to previous week's 3.4 and 3.18 million. This show should have returned...and I hope ABC does change its mind very soon.

Friday Sitcoms

• Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) - A repeat at 9pm did a prelim 797,000 viewers. That was up a bit from previous week's FINAL ratings of 610,000 viewers. Let's see if the 797,000 holds up.
• The Game (The CW) - A repeat did 766,000 prelim viewers for this canceled sitcom as well...also up from previous week's FINAL ratings of 630,000 viewers. Again let's see if the 766,000 holds up.
• Surviving Suburbia (ABC) - Prelim numbers show only 2.23 million for an all-new episode at 8pm, but up from previous week's FINAL ratings for a repeat which did 2.11 million.
• The Goode Family (ABC) - Prelim numbers were even worse for an all-new episode of this show with 1.49 million, but still up some from previous week's FINAL numbers of 1.37 million. This week's episode was my favorite one.
• According to Jim (ABC) 2 episodes - 2 repeats did a prelim 2.02 and 2.22 million, a bit better than previous week's FINAL ratings of 1.73 and 2.08 million. As always, check out final numbers for Friday for these shows and all the Friday shows on our message board tomorrow.

Saturday Sitcoms

• None.

Tonight you can catch encores of Fox's 'Til Death and animated comedies from 7-10 tonight. Elsewhere CBS has 60 Minutes at 7pm. NBC will have a new Dateline in the 7pm hour, leading into Merlin at 8, and part one of the mini-series Meteor at 9.


Coming Week Preview (July 13-19):

We are preempting this week's preview so we can you bring you a special blog DVD review on a special day! So enjoy that below.

Welcome to a special edition of the Blog DVD Review. Today we take a look at CBS DVD's Hotel - The First Season. Hotel is set at San Francisco's St. Gregory Hotel and aired on ABC from 1983-88. It was one of many Aaron Spelling shows in the '80s. See skees53's Blog DVD Review of Hotel - The First Season:

Hotel: The First Season (CBS, $49.99) brings the glitz and glamour of San Francisco's St. Gregory Hotel to DVD in a six-disc collection. Hotel is the story of the people that run the St. Gregory as well as the guests that come and go through the hotel each and every week. Sometimes the stories are bizarre, some have potentially deadly possibilities, some are stories of love and romance, some are loaded with controversy, and some are just light-hearted. And sometimes, you'll find several of the above stories contained within the same episode. It hit the airwaves in fall of 1983 on ABC.
The series stars Anne Baxter as Victoria Cabot, the sister-in-law of the hotel owner (the actual owner of the hotel was played by Bette Davis in the pilot episode, who was supposed to be a regular, but became ill and was unable to fill the role) and James Brolin as Peter McDermott, the general manager of the hotel. Hotel employees include promotions manager Christine Francis (Connie Sellecca), security director (and ex-con) Billy Griffin (Nathan Cook), and receptionist Julie Gillette (Shari Belafonte). And then of course, there are the guest stars, which were a regular feature on every episode every week! The series was created by Aaron Spelling, and in many ways resembles his previous series such as The Love Boat or Fantasy Island, except this series has more drama and isn't afraid to touch upon more serious issues.

The series begins with a two-hour pilot film, which actually has not been part of the syndication package, but is included on this set, where Christine Francis wants the job as Peter McDermott's Executive Assistant, and will do anything to get that job. Bette Davis appears is the star of the series in this pilot, even though she would be replaced by the first episode of the series, "Blackout," where her sister-in-law Victoria Cabot takes over the reigns of the hotel. The whole hotel is on edge when a delegation from the Israeli ministry comes to the hotel, along with FBI warnings of an assassination, in "Charades." A man and woman discover that their child has been a victim of child molestation in "Secrets," and Peter has to intervene to determine the truth about her molester. Peter's ex-wife is back and wants to rekindle the relationship in "Flashback," but is this what he wants too?
A group of white supremacists are having a convention at the hotel in "Confrontations," and it is up to the African-American employees to protect them from the protesters. Peter has to ponder his future at the St. Gregory when given a nice offer in "The Offer." It's Christmastime at the hotel in "Christmas," but is it also the beginning of a new relationship for Peter and Christine? Peter goes to a society event in "Designs," and finds a girl that he likes--and she kind of forgets to tell him she is married. Peter is the object of infatuation of two personalities that happen to be one person in "Reflections," and she is crazy enough to commit murder.
A Holocaust survivor sees somebody that he'd rather not see in the hotel lobby in "Passages." A young couple is set to have their wedding at the hotel in "The Wedding," but will family money issues and the bride having an affair spoil that wedding plan? A man can't remember his own identity in "Memories," but he is sure that he committed murder and robbery at a jewelry store. Peter receives a visit from a former lover in "Encores," but the big surprise is that the four-year old son that she brings with her is allegedly Peter's son! Mrs. Cabot and Peter are held hostage and put on trial in "Trials."

The season offers plenty of guest stars, including Erin Moran, Mel Torme, Shirley Jones, Morgan Fairchild, Heather Locklear, Peter Marshall, Nanette Fabray, Dick Van Dyke, Robert Vaughn, Robert Reed, Charlene Tilton, Vic Tayback, Donna Pescow, Diana Canova, Martin Landau, Scott Baio, Barbara Parkins, Tori Spelling, Jane Wyatt, McLean Stevenson, Barnard Hughes, Robert Stack, Vera Miles, Jan Smither, Eva Gabor, Markie Post, Shelley Winters, Lew Ayres, Ted Shackelford, and Melissa Sue Anderson. And that isn't even close to a complete list!

Like many other CBS DVD sets, we really don't have fancy packaging on this set. All we have is the traditional DVD case, which holds all six discs and has episode descriptions, airdates, and guest stars inside the case. There really isn't any artwork at all on the discs, just the standard gray CBS DVD artwork. Each disc contains four episodes, except for Disc 1, which contains the pilot movie and two additional episodes. Similarly, the menus are not that impressive, with a main menu that simply has a cast snapshot and has a list of the episodes on the disc, along with a Play All option. There are chapters placed within each episode at all of the appropriate places.

Still, not all is lost on the set. The video and audio quality of the set is, while not necessarily over-the-top impressive, more than just adequate, and with the exception of some grain and debris, the episodes look decent. The audio levels on the DVD are fine, and the audio, being presented in mono (right near the "end of the road" for series being presented in mono, as stereo audio was soon to become the standard) sounds fine. There are no subtitles or alternate languages, but each episode is closed-captioned. The set does have the standard CBS DVD disclaimer about edited episodes, but I don't see any real cause for concern on any of the episodes, as each one runs around 48 minutes. Some episodes contained music (usually instrumental versions of hit songs from the era), and it seems that these songs have been left intact.

Sadly, the set is lacking on special features. There isn't a single special feature anywhere on the set. A retrospective to look back on the series would have been nice, although it seems as if most of the people involved with the series have since moved on or passed away--even though it was only about 25 years ago.

This is my first experience of ever watching the series, and I found it to be a surprisingly pleasant series to watch. It kind of brings in the best parts of a series like The Love Boat with series like Dynasty... although you won't find any catfights here. It is kind of nice to see the guest stars that come to stay just for the week turn out to be the "bad guy" every now and then. Admittedly, there are some episodes in this batch that are just plain rotten, but that is what you get when you have a series like this, and besides that, there are too many interesting ones to balance those episodes out. My advice? Check in for this set if you are a fan of dramas which prominently feature guest stars.

-- Reviewed by skees53
(4/5 stars)

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Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
Hotel TV.com Page

Blog DVD Review: Peanuts 1960's Collection

It is Saturday, so that must mean it is time for the weekly Blog DVD Reviews. Today week we take a look at Warner Home Video's Peanuts 1960's Collection. We get all six remastered TV specials on DVD including a few for the first time ever! See my Blog DVD Review of Peanuts 1960's Collection:

Peanuts - 1960's Collection (Warner, $29.98) brings us all six 1960's TV specials on DVD digitally remastered...and it is really worth it! These are the first six TV specials that have ever aired, too. We get A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charlie Brown's All-Stars, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, You're in Love Charlie Brown, He's Your Dog Charlie Brown, and It Was a Short Summer Charlie Brown. I believe the latter two have never been released on DVD, so we get those here for the first time. Charlie Brown All-Stars wasn't released digitally remastered previously, so it looks much better here.
Among the stories on these six specials are: Charlie Brown has the holiday blues; new baseball team uniforms and memberships; being invited to a Halloween party; being smitten with the little red-haired girl; mischief Snoopy tries everyone's patience; and summer camp rivalries between boys and girls.
Let's now move on to the packaging. Like all the previous sets, we have a thin outer box that holds a very thin case, that is movie style. I never understood the reason for the thin box that holds a thin case...again what's the point? It doesn't need protection really. Also, both the back and front of each are exactly the same, except the box is shinier. The cover art is white in color, and has a shot of Snoopy sleeping on top of his red dog house. The title of the special is on the roof of his dog house in yellow, with a mention that this is a remastered deluxe edition on the top with a Snoopy Peanuts logo! It also says we get all six remastered TV Specials. To the back we go, we get a nice shot of nearly the entire gang on top with the wording "It's a Cool Collection Charlie Brown." The back also has a disc-by-disc breakdown on what specials to expect. When we open the case, we get nice artwork and details on each special on each side. The first disc is in a plastic holder, that we can flip back and forth like a page on a book. Disc two is actually on the right panel. Disc art has a white background, with artwork of Charlie Brown and Snoopy on disc one and Linus and Sally on disc two.
The menu screen has options of Features, Trailers, Special Features, and Languages. We get that white background again, with the theme song playing in the background. We also have the same artwork as the cover art with Snoopy lying down on the roof of his dog house. Anyway back to the menu, Trailers is just on disc one and we get some for the Woodstock movie and The Jetsons DVD. We also get auto-trailers on each disc before the main menu for items like Scooby Doo Cartoon Network movie, Saturday Morning 60s/70s DVD, Tiny Toons/Freakazoid DVD, and Snoopy's Reunion DVD. For Languages, we can have either have English, Espanol, Portuguese or Japanese. For subtitles we have those four again and also French and Thai! The Features section has the specials listed, we can also select Play All to play them consecutively. Finally, Special Features is on disc two only and lists the featurette.
The video and audio is tremendous once again. These specials are all so good ever since they stated the Remastered Collection sets. They have never looked better or sounded better ever. I am very impressed yet again; what more can I continue to say about these digitally remastered sets?. Warner continues to do a great job on this remastering of all these classic specials. Each special has 5 chapter stops and runtimes are all between 25:05-25:25. So, yes of course it is unedited!
As for special features, we get a nice featurette! It is titled "Vince Guaraldi: The Maestro of Menlo Park" and runs 36:54. We find more about the composer behind the classic music on this show. We get insight from colleagues and more. Interviewed are Lee Mendelson (executive producer), Seward McCain (former bassist), David Guaraldi (son of Vince), David Benoit (composer/pianist), Vince Lateano (former drummer), George Winston (solo pianist), Dean Reilly (former bassist), Eddie Duran (former guitarist), Kitty Margolis (jazz-vocalist), Colin Bailey (former drummer), Jim Zimmerman (former drummer), Peter Woodform (Doc's Band on The Tonight Show), and Mark Rosengarden (former drummer).
I once again highly do recommend this set for any Charlie Brown-Peanuts fan and classic animation in general. Continue your collection, because we get two specials we never had on DVD before. This is worth it! It is now safe to say we have the first 6 specials all remastered! Warner continues to do a wonderful job with the remastering and the behind the scenes extras for each set. Let's hope they continue to release more Peanuts specials and eventually we get them all remastered in our personal libraries! So head back to the '60s and relive the first six classic specials all over again! Charlie Brown says "good grief" but there is no grief in watching these specials!
-- Reviewed by Pavan
(4/5 stars)

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ION Television August 2009 Highlights; Comedy Central Orders Original Sitcom

This August on ION Television, there will be no regular changes, so August 2009 will look the same as July 2009 in terms of the regular schedule. So for weekdays starting at 4pm we have M*A*S*H, Boston Legal, Family Feud, and Reba leading into primetime with Ghost Whisperer and NCIS on Mondays, Boston Legal on Tuesdays, and movies the rest of the week.
The movie premieres for August on ION are Dave, Cocktail, Hard to Kill, Blazing Saddles, End of Days, Suspect, Matrix Revolutions, Wyatt Earp, The Specialist, and four movies in the Clint Eastwood Weekend on August 29 and 30: The Gauntlet, Magnum Force, Dead Pool and The Enforcer.
Encores movies airings are Unlawful Entry, Batman, Soldier, Double Impact, Tango & Cash and Assassins. It looks like the full M*A*S*H Sunday airings are preempted this month for movies in primetime, but we still do get M*A*S*H in the early part of the evening usually.
View the complete ION Television August 2009 Highlights.

Employing the same unique formula used for the launch of Tyler Perry's two successful sitcoms, Debmar-Mercury, the television distribution and syndication arm of Lionsgate, announced that Comedy Central has ordered an initial run of 10 episodes of a new, untitled sitcom starring Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite, Blades of Glory) from Gary Sanchez Productions and Debmar-Mercury.
The production company led by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy, and distributed by Debmar-Mercury, the untitled, multi-camera sitcom for Comedy Central will star Heder as an out of work computer IT specialist who leaves the big city and returns to his small home town, where he moves back in with his parents and younger brother. Ferrell, McKay and Henchy will write and produce the series.
They have initially ordered 10 episodes of the Heder sitcom and will then have the option to order an additional 90 episodes upon a successful first-season run. Debmar-Mercury would retain the rights to take the series into syndication after its run on Comedy Central.

Old Christine Coming to Lifetime in Fall 2010; 30 Rock Heads Locals in Fall 2011, ION Q2 Ratings Growth

Lifetime Television has acquired the cable rights to air reruns of The New Adventures of Old Christine starting Fall 2010 every weekday. Lifetime has reportedly paid $350,000 per episode to air the reruns.
It will join the Lifetime line-up with such off-net series such as How I Met Your Mother, Grey's Anatomy, Will & Grace, Desperate Housewives, Medium, and Wife Swap.
Old Christine is about a divorced mom who has got a handle on her career and motherhood, and a pretty good relationship with her ex-husband. Until, that is, he introduces her to his new girlfriend, a younger woman also named Christine.
As we previously reported, Old Christine will also air in local broadcast syndication starting in Fall 2010 airing on such stations such as WPIX in NY, KTLA in LA, and WCIU in Chicago.

Yesterday we mentioned 30 Rock was bought by Comedy Central and WGN America for a cable rerun deal beginning fall 2011, now Universal has sold the comedy to local broadcast syndication beginning in fall 2011 as well!
30 Rock has been sold to the Fox Television Stations and Tribune Broadcasting stations in the nation's top markets, including WNYW-TV New York (Fox), KTTV-TV Los Angeles (Fox), WGN-TV Chicago (Tribune) and WPHL-TV Philadelphia (Tribune).
Additional Fox stations include KDFW-TV/KDFI-TV Dallas, KRIV-TV/KTXH-TV Houston, KSAZ-TV/KUTP-TV Phoenix, WOFL-TV/WRBW-TV Orlando and KMSP-TV/WFTC-TV Minneapolis. Tribune stations that have also acquired 30 Rock include WDCW-TV Washington D.C., KCPQ-TV/KMYQ-TV Seattle, KRCW-TV Portland, WSFL-TV Miami, KSWB-TV San Diego, KTXL-TV Sacramento, WXMI-TV Grand Rapids, WPMT-TV Harrisburg and WNOL-TV/WGNO-TV New Orleans.

ION Television announced across the board viewership growth during the second quarter 2009. Overall, ION Television's household delivery in primetime increased 59%, while primetime delivery for adults 25-54 shot up by 74% year over year. In addition, June 2009 attracted the highest viewership in primetime of any month since ION officially re-launched in 2008, with year over year viewing doubling in the demo.
The popularity of ION Television's off-net series and its movies has resulted in this successful viewership growth trend. NCIS continued its solid performance with a quarterly average of over 1 million households for the first time.
This fall, in addition to the off-network debut of Criminal Minds, ION will launch their first ION Television original series, Durham County.

30 Rock Reruns Coming to Comedy Central, WGN America in Fall 2011; NY's WWOR Makes Historic Change

30 Rock is heading to off-network syndication in fall 2011 and has already sealed a cable deal. Both Comedy Central and WGN America have acquired the off-network cable rights to the critically acclaimed but ratings challenged comedy. They both will share the cable rights to the sitcom airing weekdays starting fall 2011 and have paid a combined $800,000 an episode, approximately speaking. That is similar in price to FX's buy of Two and a Half Men, but that was only FX buying it and not a shared deal. FX starts Two and a Half Men in fall 2010.
30 Rock will be coming to cable the same time it starts local broadcast syndication as well. That usually doesn't happen, as usually it takes 3 years or more for a show to hit cable after it hits local broadcast syndication, as is the case with Two and a Half Men. So far 30 Rock has not had any local station clearances for fall 2011, but that is still a while away. If the series gets canceled after next season, that might not even happen anyway.
Comedy Central currently airs only two actual sitcoms--Scrubs and Just Shoot Me. 30 Rock would make a nice pair with Scrubs, but Scrubs' deal would be over by fall 2011, unless they renew it. As for WGN America, they are trying to be an all-around network, as they have also acquired Entourage for fall 2010 and South Park for this fall, both as we previously announced. This type of programming is geared for their late night line-up. Classic TV will still be a big part of WGN America's line-up as well, so don't fret!
30 Rock is entering its fourth season on NBC this fall, airing Thursdays at 9:30pm ET/PT. We will certainly have more on the syndication deal as we get more information.

WWOR (My9) in New York is making some drastic and historic changes starting next week. Historic because they are moving the long time 10pm newscast to 11pm and removing the weekend newscast totally! We first reported this on our message boards on Monday, but we wanted to do a story on this as well. WWOR will air The Wendy Williams Show now weeknights at 10pm following MyNetwork TV programming, replacing the hour-long 10pm newscast with Brenda Blackman and Harry Martin. The Wendy Williams Show is a encore from earlier in the day from sister station WNYW (Fox5), which will air it at 10am. So the WWOR news moves to 11pm, and will now only be 30-minutes but will be continued to be anchored by Blackman and Martin. Law & Order: Criminal Intent shifts from 11pm to 11:30pm weeknights as a result of this change. On weekends, the news hour is completely gone--so on Saturdays we now get The King of Queens at 10pm and on Sundays the second run of House at 10pm.
There are tons of other changes during the day on weekdays starting July 13 as well, most notably are sitcoms now from 1pm-2:30pm with One on One, Scrubs, and That '70s Show. WWOR is preparing for the fall as they are cutting the double-runs of canceled shows to just one airing like Family Court with Judge Penny and Trivial Pursuit. WWOR will also have a big hole to fill in the fall when Tyra Banks Show moves from syndication to The CW Daytime.
Sister station WNYW is also making changes. This week they added a test-run of Beyond Twisted, which is an eight-week trial run on Fox owned stations (WNYW New York, KTTV Los Angeles, KDFW Dallas, WJVK Detroit, KSAZ Phoenix and KMSP Minneapolis) at 12am. Then starting next week, Good Day NY expands into the 9am hour as well, bumping the canceled Morning Show with Mike & Juliet to 12 noon for now. As we mentioned, The Wendy Williams Show will air weekdays at 10am on WNYW. And the second run of Everybody Loves Raymond moves from WWOR to WNYW, airing weeknights at 12:30am. WWOR will air the first run but will move it to weekdays at 6:30pm. Finally, starting July 20, another test run show will air on WNYW. Weekdays at 11am Deadlock or Wedlock (a sort of a Divorce Court spin-off) will get a six-week trial run on Fox owned stations in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa, Phoenix, Orlando and Memphis.
View the full changes for WWOR and WNYW in a list form. We will have more on WWOR and WNYW later this month (along with cable networks and other NYC market stations) in our annual fall schedules barrage blog posts! So stay tuned!

Sci Fi Changes to Syfy Today; Jackson Memorial Special Tonight; Hallmark Primetime Changes

We told you back in March that Sci Fi Channel was renaming to Syfy starting July 7, and now that day has come. Syfy also has a tagline saying "Imaging Greater." They will launch original series Warehouse 13 tonight at 9 with a two-hour premiere.
As for the regular schedule, there are no changes. The rest of this week Syfy is airing more movies than usual though, as there is no daytime rotation marathons. The regular schedule will return July 13, that includes Lost at 4pm and 1am weeknights. And speaking of the daytime rotation marathon, in August we will see Early Edition finally air on this network. It was set to join the schedule in March, but it never happened, as we mentioned. Early Edition will air on Tuesday, August 4 from 8am-4pm and Friday, August 21 from 8am-4pm as well. Other daytime rotation notables in July and August include Joan of Arcadia, 7 Days, Friday the 13th: The Series, and The Sentinel.
Ghost Whisperer joins the Syfy schedule this fall. That show was acquired from part of their CBS-Paramount deal. I think everything from that deal has now aired at least one time (if Early Edition ends up airing this time!), except Charmed and I believe The Invaders. We are not sure when those will turn up. We are still hoping for another Mork & Mindy marathon! Anyway, stay tuned in the coming weeks for Syfy's Fall 2009 schedule.
Check out their new website www.syfy.com!

If you don't get a chance to watch the Michael Jackson Memorial live this afternoon (on ABC, CBS, NBC, and many other networks including Hulu on the Internet) from approx. 1pm-3pm ET (10am-12pm PT), then the broadcast networks will all have specials on Michael Jackson tonight. ABC will have s Special Edition of 20/20: Remembering Michael Jackson tonight at 9pm, preempting scheduled Better off Ted and Scrubs repeats. That's not all, ABC will air a special episode of Primetime: Family Secrets focusing on Michael Jackson's children at 10pm, instead of the regular story. So, it's two-hours of Jackson on ABC primetime tonight. CBS will have a special 48 Hours tonight titled 48 Hours - Michael Jackson: The Last Dance at 10pm, preempting regularly scheduled segments. And finally NBC will preempt an encore of Law & Order: SVU at 10pm for a Dateline special on Michael Jackson titled Dateline: A Farewell to Michael Jackson.

Finally, The Hallmark Channel has announced that they will preempt five primetime movies in favor of Touched by an Angel at 9pm and an hour of The Golden Girls at 10pm. The movies will be preempted on Thursday, July 9 and the week of Monday July 13 through Thursday, July 16 from 9-11pm. No reason why, but due to this, Cheers will air also in the 1am hour since Golden Girls is airing at 10pm.
This is not a permanent primetime change, it is just for these five dates...as of now. View this in a list form.

Lifetime Makes Late Afternoon Changes; Retroality.TV Posts July 2009 Features; Remembering Harve Presnell

Starting today (Monday, July 6), Lifetime will make some last-minute late afternoon changes. Weekdays at 4pm will now be another episode of Wife Swap, replacing an hour of Reba. And if that wasn't enough, Wife Swap will also air at 5pm replacing an hour of Still Standing. Still Standing will still air in its 8am hour on weekdays, so not to fret. If you're keeping track, Wife Swap now airs weekdays from 2pm-6pm, that's four straight episodes every weekday! And finally the 6pm hour will now be an hour of Reba, replacing Less than Perfect. Less than Perfect is now only weekdays in the 9am hour. Reba will air primarily weekdays from 6-9pm, with some preemptions such as How I Met Your Mother on Mondays in the 7pm hour. Less than Perfect fans, don't worry you'll get a better slot than just 9am come September. And as a reminder, Grey's Anatomy and Medium join the weekday schedule this September, so you can sure bet that Wife Swap four-hour blocks are just for the summer. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the Lifetime September schedule and many other fall line-ups in our fall schedule barrage blog posts. Don't you love that time of year?

The great Chris Mann has posted his July cover story and blog updates on his wonderful retro website Retroality.TV. This month's highlights includes a tribute to the incomparable Farrah Fawcett by Jack Condon, the author of the definitive Charlie's Angels Casebook that served as the basis of NBC's 2004 Behind the Camera TV movie about the series. Jack even has a whole room of Angels posters, which you can see on Retroality.
Chris will also post a Michael Jackson tribute on his blog, as well as part two of Holly Hallstrom's tell-all audio interview about Bob Barker and The Price is Right. This candid and no-holds-barred audio series will play out across several weeks this summer, Chris says. She even talks about working next door to the Three's Company stage during the late '70s/early '80s! She has some cool stories about working at CBS Television City during Price from the same era. She also talks about the showcase skits and how they made Price somewhat of a sitcom within a game show. We like sitcoms! Finally, she discusses Bob Barker's recent reported feud with Betty White, and his controversial appearance on GSN's recent Game Show Awards.
And soon he'll post an interview with tennis great Monica Seles (who was on Dancing with the Stars last fall), along with contributor Roselyn Sacco's review of Seles' new book Getting a Grip.
And Chris says he is planning exclusive video later this month, as well as lots of other goodies. Groovy! So check out Retroality.TV! Bookmark it!

Harve Presnell, whose booming baritone graced such Broadway musicals as The Unsinkable Molly Brown and Annie, and in many TV roles has died. The actor died Tuesday (June 30, 2009) of pancreatic cancer at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, CA.
He appeared in many TV series in his career. He was a regular on the series The Pretender, and guest starred in many series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Ryan's Hope, Nash Bridges, Grace Under Fire, Star Trek Voyager, George & Leo, Two Guys and a Girl, The Outer Limits, Payne, Dawson's Creek, Frasier, The Practice, Charmed, Monk, ER, and was Lois Lane's father on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. He also appeared on all episodes of the short-lived sitcom Andy Barker, P.I. He appeared on the original pilot of Hope & Faith as Hope and Faith's father, but it never aired. His final role was a guest shot on Cold Case this past March.
Although he was best known for his roles in musical theater, Presnell also is remembered as William H. Macy's father-in-law in the Coen brothers' 1996 film
Fargo. Among his other movies were When the Boys Meet the Girls, The Glory Guys, Paint Your Wagon, Saving Private Ryan, Mr. Deeds, Patch Adams, Face/Off, and recently on Evan Almighty. He also won a Golden Globe in 1965 for Most Promising Male Newcomer, shared with George Segal and Topol.
He will be deeply missed. He is survived by his second wife, Veeva, six children and several grand children. Harve was 75.

Blog DVD Review Special: The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky/Three For Two

Our summer weekly report will not be posted today due to the holiday weekend. Instead we bring you a special Blog DVD Review on a special day with The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky/Three For Two.

Today we take a look at MPI's The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky/Three For Two. These were two hour-long CBS specials that aired in the '70s. See skees53's Blog DVD Review of The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky/Three For Two:

The Lucille Ball Specials: Lucy Gets Lucky/Three For Two (MPI, $19.98) features two hour long specials from CBS starring Lucille Ball. After nearly a quarter century of starring in three different top-rated CBS sitcoms, Lucille Ball was ready to leave the weekly grind of producing and starring in new episodes, so after the 1973-1974 season, her third series, Here's Lucy, left the CBS lineup. But she wasn't quite ready to leave CBS, which brings us the Lucille Ball specials. These specials were much like a movie-of-the-week featuring Lucille Ball, and she was given a creative license to do pretty much whatever she desired on them. They began in 1974 with Happy Anniversary and Goodbye, which is not featured on this disc, but will be on the next disc. On this disc, we have the second and third special, Lucy Gets Lucky featuring Dean Martin and Three for Two featuring Jackie Gleason. There were ultimately eight specials total, ending with the 1980 special, Lucy Moves to NBC, which will also be featured on a future release from MPI.

The first of the two features on this DVD is Lucy Gets Lucky, an hour-long special from 1975 featuring Dean Martin. In this special, we have Lucy taking a trip to the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas to see Dean Martin perform, a show that everybody in "sin city" wants to see, but is forced to make reservations for eight since they won't take her reservation for one. When she shows up to claim her reservations, however, she finds that her scheme to get just one seat has failed, and she loses all eight of her seats. Determined to do anything to see Dean Martin, she discovers that employees of the hotel will have an opportunity to see him perform in a special employee show, and decides to turn her little vacation into a career as a blackjack dealer! Will she make it big in this job, or will typical Lucy antics cause her to fail? Jackie Coogan is also featured in this special, and Gary Morton (Lucille Ball's husband) plays a minor role.

The second feature is Three for Two, another hour-long special from 1975, where Lucille Ball stars with comedic legend Jackie Gleason. Here, we see what we get when two comedic legends come together: a comedy-drama (which leans heavily on the drama side) reminiscent of the TV series Love, American Style. There are three stories presented here about three different couples (all played by Ball and Gleason), beginning with "Herb & Sally." In this story, the couple is on a vacation in Rome to escape their problems at home, but Herb isn't prepared to escape them. This causes more marital unhappiness with the couple. "Fred & Rita" presents a story that resembles a plot that would be found on a soap opera. Fred is married, and so is Rita, and they are in love with each other. But they aren't married to each other, and must go to great lengths to cheat on their respective spouses. In the third installment, "Mike & Pauline," Ball and Gleason play parents of adult children that want to spend New Years' Eve out celebrating, instead of the usual family tradition of spending it. Mike has a man-to-man talk with his son about his relationship, and Pauline has a woman-to-woman talk with her daughter about her relationship.

Lucy Gets Lucky is enjoyable and has some great moments that will remind Lucille Ball fans of the slapstick routines that made her the biggest name on television in the '50s and '60s. Three For Two, in all honesty, proves that Lucille Ball and Jackie Gleason weren't quite made for the TV drama genre. There are many great moments in these, and the stories aren't bad, but one would tend to expect something hilarious with these two comic geniuses on one set. Instead, we have a sappy romantic drama that is reminiscent of an episode of Love, American Style, and a bad one at that. Still, die-hard fans of Lucille Ball will enjoy Three For Two, and it is also a rare opportunity to see these comedic legends on the same set.

The video and audio quality of the specials is not exactly spectacular, but that can somewhat be expected, as these have remained largely unseen since their original airings. Lucy Gets Lucky looks decent, but Three For Two does not look quite so good, with some significant grain and very dull colors. The audio is rather low on both specials (presented in mono, of course). There are English subtitles for both specials. Each special is unedited, running around 52 minutes each. In fact, Lucy Gets Lucky even has the original sponsor tags from Timex.

As we all know by now, of course, nothing related to Lucy can be released on DVD without a plethora of special features, and of course, we have that on this set! First, we have a short clip (10:51) from Art Linkletter's House Party dated February 24, 1965. On this, we get to see Lucy doing some special sound effects for a fake radio program. Next, we have two segments of a talk radio program that Lucy did in the mid-60s called Let's Talk to Lucy, both featuring Dean Martin as her guest. Basically, these were 10 minute shows where she would interview famous celebrities without playing any character actress herself, but instead simply being Lucille Ball. It is said that she wanted to do this as a change of pace from the ordinary and routine. In "Working With Lucy" (14:40), Gino Conforti (a frequent guest star on Lucille Ball's programs, particularly Here's Lucy) talks about his experiences of working with Lucille Ball. He talks about Here's Lucy, the specials on this set, and even talks about Bungle Abbey, a sitcom pilot about monks living in a monastery, which was directed by Lucille Ball. A series that never materialized from the pilot, of course, but perhaps this will be included as a bonus feature on one of the future Lucille Ball Specials DVDs. Finally, we see that nobody is perfect, as there are bloopers from Lucy Gets Lucky (5:43) featuring Dean Martin. Unfortunately, there are no bloopers featured from Three for Two.

This was a very interesting DVD to watch, and even though one of the specials was not as great as I expected, I still enjoyed watching it. It is interesting to see how much television evolved over a quarter century from the first episode of I Love Lucy on CBS (where Lucy and Ricky slept in separate beds) to where Lucy plays a woman that is cheating on her own husband. Lucy Gets Lucky is very reminiscent of classic Lucy in a more modern era, and I really enjoyed that one. According to an insert that I found on CBS DVD's The Official First Season of The Lucy Show (a full review of that set is coming very soon, Lucy fans!) MPI will be releasing a total of six specials on four releases, with the first two containing two specials each and the last two containing one special each. The most loyal fans of Lucille Ball, of course, are going to love everything on this DVD, but other fans will enjoy this DVD as well.

-- Reviewed by skees53
(4.5/5 stars)

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2009 4th of July TV Marathons; Blog DVD Review: Matlock - The Third Season

As America celebrates its 233rd birthday, you can celebrate by watching television marathons of course! If you are not doing anything outdoors, what better way to celebrate? Among the marathons of course is the launch of Sister, Sister on BET, as we previously mentioned. The fun starts at 9am and runs all the way to 4am! TV Land will spend the day with classic marathons of Leave it to Beaver and Andy Griffith Show before its feuds and fireworks event with Roseanne for the night capper from 8pm-6am. TV One celebrates the holiday with Martin until 8pm. The N has over a 70-hour Degrassi marathon then continues today and tomorrow. So far all of these we have already announced in the past in our news reports. Hallmark Channel will celebrate with the Love's movie franchise all day today and tomorrow they will have Little House on the Prairie. On Friday they had M*A*S*H.
Elsewhere, what 4th of July would it be without The Twilight Zone on Sci-Fi? It started yesterday and will air all-day today until 6am Sunday morning! Reality is the way to go otherwise with Deadliest Catch on Discovery Channel and The Revolution on History. Movie lovers might like the James Bond movie marathon on USA Network, and the movies on ABC Family, Lifetime, FX, and TNT.
It's not as many marathons as usual since the holiday is on a Saturday this year it seems.

Now back to our regularly scheduled blog programming:

It is Saturday, so that must mean it is time for the blog DVD review! Today we take a look at CBS DVD's Matlock: The Third Season. Matlock of course is the very popular courtroom drama starring Andy Griffith that is often mentioned on The Simpsons as Grandpa Simpson's favorite show. See skees53's blog DVD review of Matlock: The Third Season:

Matlock: The Third Season (CBS DVD, $49.99) serves 20 episodes of justice to fans in a five disc DVD set. When you've been charged with a serious crime in Atlanta and you know you are innocent, you need the best. You need somebody that will play rough and dirty with the prosecutor. You need somebody that isn't afraid to go there. You need a man in a gray suit. You need Atlanta's finest, Ben Matlock (Andy Griffith).

The Third Season of Matlock is the season where we are introduced to a new neighbor and friend of Matlock, Les "Ace" Calhoun (Don Knotts). Knotts, of course, worked with Andy Griffith in the 1960s on the classic TV hit The Andy Griffith Show, and this reunion of Griffith and Knotts brings back a lot of the old chemistry that they had working together on that series. Knotts would make many appearances on the series in this recurring role for several seasons, until the series moved to ABC in the early 1990s. As for the rest of the cast, we still have Matlock's partner in his firm, Michelle Thomas (Nancy Stafford) and his private investigator, Tyler Hudson (Kene Holliday), who always seems to have to do the rough and dirty work on behalf of the law firm. Prosecutor Julie March (Julie Sommars) is there as Matlock's opponent, and although she simply can't win against the ruthless defense techniques of Ben Matlock, she isn't nearly as incompetent as the character of Hamilton Burger on the TV series Perry Mason. But Matlock is in it to win it, and you can't go wrong with him on your side.

We are introduced to Les Calhoun in the third season premiere, "The Lemon," when he buys a used car from a shady used car dealer (he buys a DeLorean, the same car used on the Back to the Future movies). But like every DeLorean, he ends up with a lemon and gets angry with the car dealer, and not long thereafter, the car dealer ends up murdered. It's Matlock to the rescue! Matlock must go to New York City to defend a British ambassador accused of murder in the two-part episode "The Ambassador." Matlock (reluctantly) agrees to take the case of a shock jock accused of murdering his competition in "The D.J." Matlock must take on a vigilante police captain in "The Captain." The entire office (sans Matlock) is being held hostage in "The Vendetta," but why are they being held hostage? And why isn't Matlock there to save the day?
Matlock has a client that is accused of a political assassination in Chicago in the two-part episode "The Mayor," but he simply can't find the evidence to acquit him. In "The Black Widow," a man is wrongly accused of murder after his wife fakes her own death, but after he serves his sentence and released she actually is murdered. Can Matlock exonerate him? The first runner-up in a beauty contest will never be called upon to fulfill her duties in "The Starlet" after she is murdered, but did the winner murder her? A psychic predicts a murder in "The Psychic," but was this truly an accurate prediction or did she have worldly knowledge?
Everything is complicated in the two-part episode "The Thief," where a coin shop owner is accused of killing one of his employees, and one of Matlock's suspects kidnaps the daughter of the female detective that he put on the case. A mentally challenged man is accused of murder in "The Thoroughbred," and Matlock has to do his best to defend him based upon his innocence. Matlock is determined to not give up on his client after being hit by a car in "The Model." In "The Cult," a man is accused of killing the cult-leader that brainwashed his son, and Tyler has to join the cult in order to do some undercover work to prove his innocence. The season ends with "The Priest," where a priest is murdered... or is he?

The set does not have any fancy packaging, which should be expected from a CBS DVD set. It is just the standard CBS DVD plastic case, containing five discs. The cover art has a very basic cast photo shot, and inside the case, we have a listing of all of the episodes, along with original airdates and brief descriptions. There are exactly four episodes on each disc. Of course, as this is a CBS DVD product, the menus are the same as every other CBS DVD set as well, with nothing more than a main menu that has a listing of all of the episodes on the disc, as well as a Play All option.

Once again, the episodes appear to be unedited, although it is important to note that the set DOES contain a disclaimer saying that some episodes may be edited from their original network versions. I did not notice anything significant. However, as was the case with the previous season, all of the episode previews have been removed from the episodes. This isn't significant, as these merely preview what is going to be on the upcoming episode, but if the producers saw it appropriate to include them on the TV broadcast, I can't understand why they should remove them on the DVD set. Still, they are not an integral part of the episode. Each episode runs around 48 minutes. Every episode is closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired. There are no special features at all on this set. It would have been nice to have seen something from the original cast, such as a cast reunion.

This set is a very basic set that isn't fancy or flashy, but then again, Matlock is a very basic series that isn't fancy or flashy. This is a great show to watch, even if it is unrealistic to think that there may actually be a defense attorney in the world that is as effective as Ben Matlock. My only hope is that future sets include something--anything really--along the lines of special features! The Second Season did include alternate endings to one episode, but other than that, we have seen nothing on these sets. This is a cult favorite (even if that cult consists of a lot of senior citizens, although the series is popular among younger people as well), and the fans want something extra on these sets! Still, it is nice to see that CBS DVD is releasing (what appears to be) unedited episodes with mostly decent video and audio quality. I will now rest my defense of this sufficient set of this excellent series and hope that you judge this DVD set the same way.

-- Reviewed by skees53
(4/5 stars)

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Hallmark Channel Cuts Lucy From Daytime; Amen and Good News Come to Gospel Music Channel

Hallmark Channel has made a last minute schedule change that will be in effect starting Monday (July 6, 2009). I Love Lucy will be removed again from daytime. So it will lose its two-hour weekday block of 11am-1pm and will be replaced by two episodes of Touched by an Angel. Touched will remain in its weeknights at 8pm slot as well, while I Love Lucy will now only air weeknights at 2:30am. It's been a bumpy ride for I Love Lucy on Hallmark Channel, as they want it to work, but it doesn't seem like it is doing ratings gold for them. They have tried it over and over again, and sometimes they have pulled it very fast, but this time they gave it a longer period before pulling it. Stay up until 2:30am and watch the show!

A few weeks ago we mentioned that The Gospel Music Channel has picked-up three dramas for their weekday schedule, now they have picked-up two sitcoms! They have picked-up '80s sitcom Amen starring Sherman Hemsley and the short-lived late '90s sitcom Good News. Good News as a spin-off of Sparks on UPN and lasted only 22 episodes. The series starred David Ramsey as a young acting pastor designated to South Central's African American Church of Life. Roz Ryan was also in it, and she of course was in Amen as well. Amen was of course the popular NBC comedy of the late '80s set at the First Community Church of Philadelphia and focusing on the comical differences between Deacon Ernest Frye (Sherman Hemsley) and the Reverend Reuben Gregory (Clifton Davis).
Amen will air Monday nights at 8:00pm, 8:30pm and 9:30pm with encores at 12:00am, 12:30am, and 1:30am, while Good News will also air Monday nights at 9:00pm with an encore at 1:00am.
Both of these shows can be found on TV One as well, so it isn't all that rare. Wow so the short-lived Good News is on two cable networks? That is pretty crazy, though TV One is now only airing the show from time to time, but Amen is airing every weekday morning.
Let's hope Gospel Music Channel brings in more sitcoms. If they want to focus on church comedies, then how about acquiring the short-lived late '80s sitcom Have Faith? The series was produced by John Ritter and starred Joel Higgins.

TV Land August 2009 Schedule; Bio TV July Premieres; Scrubs Joins MTV

This August on TV Land we will have more weekend Classic Marathons along with some schedule changes (primarily weekday mornings) and the premiere of two new original series. First let's start with the schedule changes. Cosby Show will get the primetime block of 8-11pm on Tuesday nights starting Aug. 4, replacing Roseanne, while Roseanne takes Wednesday nights now from 8-10pm replacing Cosby Show...a flip-flop basically. Roseanne also gains Thursdays from 9pm-12am since She's Got the Look's season will be over.
The weekday morning changes begin on Monday, August 10. Kicking off mornings now will be Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in the 9am hour replacing an episode of All in the Family and Sanford & Son. At 10am we get back-to-back Good Times replacing The Jeffersons. At 11am we get back-to-back Sanford & Son replacing Good Times. In the 12pm hour we now get an episode each of All in the Family and Leave it to Beaver replacing Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. So basically everything changes times only, but The Jeffersons is totally removed and Beaver is in. Why? Because The Jeffersons' contract is up after Aug. 31, and we don't have official word yet but it seems they will not renew since it is not listed on the regular schedule. More on The Jeffersons below. The only other change is Monday nights from 10pm-12am will now be M*A*S*H instead of Roseanne.
TV Land will have two all-new half-hour original series this August. They will air in the 10pm hour on Wednesdays starting Aug. 5. First up is How'd You Get So Rich? Sure, the economy is in the tank, but like it or not, there are still millionaires out there -- and they didn't all get rich by stealing your money (thanks for nothing, Wall Street). They made their fortunes by inventing Billy Bob Teeth and Butt Paste. Enter Joan Rivers and her money-obsessed new show, How'd You Get So Rich? Then we have Make My Day at 10:30pm. This comedic hidden-camera series provides a window into one day in the life of an unsuspecting participant. Tune in as cameras capture the action as they experience weird coincidences, extraordinary situations and surprise celebrity appearances for one whole day. Make My Day is a 30-minute series produced for TV Land by Embassy Row (Power of Ten, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?), Monkey Kingdom and Sony Pictures Television. Michael Davies serves as the executive producer.
As for the weekend Classic Marathons, they will continue in August! We get two marathons a day and Andy Griffith Show is always the second one. Joining Andy are shows like Leave it to Beaver, Bonanza, Beverly Hillbillies, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Green Acres, and The Jeffersons. The latter two could be farewell marathons since they are expiring at the end of the month. Tune in on Aug. 9 from 11am-5pm for The Jeffersons and Aug. 15 from 12pm-5pm for Green Acres (and a special block from 6am-8:30am on Aug. 22). They both seem gone to me, but that will be confirmed in September.
Next it's the M*A*S*H Flashback Weekend the weekend of Aug. 21-23 in primetime. TV Land PRIME is taking M*A*S*H fans back to where it all began. The event begins on Friday at 10pm in the PRIME Movie block, when PRIME looks back at the feature film that inspired the series. Relive all of the unforgettable moments, and enjoy extra M*A*S*H commentary and trivia in the breaks from TV Land's own PRIME Players. PRIME is even taking you all the way back to the series premiere as the Flashback Weekend continues with three nights of back-to-back episodes from the first season of the hit show. So for that weekend sit back, kick back, and flash back with TV Land's M*A*S*H Flashback Weekend!
Finally, the movies for the month are Clue, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, M*A*S*H, and Doc Hollywood.
View and discuss more on TV Land August 2009.

Bio TV this July will have all-new Biography episodes of your favorite series. On Tuesday, July 7 at 10PM we get an all-new Biography on Full House. It was one of the most popular family sitcoms of the late 80s and early 90s. Over the course of eight wildly entertaining seasons, Full House enthralled audiences, created iconic teen idols, and launched the ever-expanding Olsen Empire. In this hour, Bio TV steps behind the scenes and hear from former cast members what it was like to grow up in one of TV's wackiest, most unconventional families. Join us as Bio TV opens the doors and go on a special tour of the Tanner Family's Full House.
We get the Biography premiere on David Letterman at 10pm on Wednesday, July 29. A former TV weatherman who once predicted hail stones "the size of canned hams," David Letterman was a struggling stand-up comic and TV writer when guest shots on shows such as The Gong Show caught the attention of Johnny Carson. As a result, he eventually became the permanent substitute host for the The Tonight Show. When Carson retired, however, Letterman lost a mano-a-mano battle for the coveted seat to Jay Leno and he left NBC, landing at CBS and his own late night show. Along the way, Letterman has overcome a determined stalker, emergency quintuple bypass surgery, and several failed relationships, before finding a measure of happiness in his marriage to his longtime girlfriend and the birth of their son.
These are just the premieres, there will be plenty of other TV/sitcom related Biography encores such as Diff'rent Strokes, Facts of Life, The Partridge Family, John Stamos, Bob Saget, Dana Plato, Bill Cosby, Mackenzie Phillips, Valerie Bertinelli. The Truth Behind the Sitcom Scandals airing for the month is an episode with The Jeffersons & One Day at a Time. They will also the reunion A Cosby Show: A Look Back.
Coming in August, three all-new Biography episodes of three classic sitcoms and more! Stay tuned in the coming weeks!

Finally, it looks like Scrubs is joining MTV beginning Monday (July 6, 2009). Scrubs will air weekdays in the 4pm hour on the Viacom owned network. MTV also recently began airing reruns of Degrassi weekdays in the 10am hour (from Viacom's The N) and recently aired Futurama in the 4pm hour for a few weeks (from Viacom's Comedy Central). Talk about Viacom sharing! This is getting crazier everyday. Because of the MTV addition, Comedy Central will remove the weekday afternoon slots of Scrubs (2:30-3:30pm), but it will still air weekdays 7-8pm.
Scrubs was supposed to join the weekday line-up on Viacom's Spike TV starting July 6, but maybe because of this change it didn't happen. Scrubs is airing for at least until end of July on MTV. There is word Scrubs will appear on Spike TV at a later date, so stay tuned for that. Spike did air a few Thursday late night airings and Sunday morning airings for a few weeks.

ABC Pulls Motherhood, Doubles Up On Samantha Who; Me-Too July Marathons; Nick at Nite's 2nd Quarter Ratings

We were the first ones to mention yesterday (on our message board) that ABC has pulled In The Motherhood after just one episode since its return. The canceled sitcom has two more burn-off episodes left, and only aired once this summer. ABC will now double-pump Samantha Who? instead. Samantha Who? is now scheduled to air new episodes on Thursdays at 8:30 PM ET/PT on July 2 and 9 with the season finale airing on Thursday July 23, 2009 at 8:30. Just to be clear, Samantha Who? will also still be all-new in the 8:00 PM ET/PT time period on these three nights as well, as the series has 6 episodes left (on July 16, ABC has an ABC News special on J.K. Rowling scheduled). Don't forget Samantha Who? fans, to DVR or watch the entire 8pm hour tomorrow!
No word if In The Motherhood will burn-off its final two episodes on another night, but we will certainly let you know. In other ABC updates, ABC has confirmed that the final two scheduled Sunday airings of Just for Laughs will also be at 7:30pm ET/PT on Sundays (July 5 and 12) like it was this past week. An abbreviated repeat of AFV will serve as its lead-in, before going back to its full-hour on July 19. Not sure how many episodes Just for Laughs has this third season, but only four were scheduled to air even before it started airing.

The daily classic TV summer marathons continue on Chicago's Me-Too this July. Continuing this July, Chicago's Me-Too will feature all-day marathons of classic shows! Me-Too, sister station of Chicago's Me-TV and WCIU-TV, showcases a different classic show every weekday from 10AM-10PM. One day you could be arrested by Kojak, the next you could be cruising in the Batmobile through Gotham City!
The schedule for the month in order starting today is: The Greatest American Hero is today, followed by The Adventures of Superman, Black Sheep Squadron, Magnum P.I., Hawaii Five-0, In the Heat of the Night, The Untouchables, Kojak, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Batman, The Green Hornet, Get Smart, Eight is Enough, Family Ties, Diff'rent Strokes, The Cosby Show, Little House on the Prairie, Wild Wild West, Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, and Rawhide closes the month.
As you can see, each week there is a theme. First week is super heroes, then dramas, crime solving, family, and westerns.
View the schedule section on their website for episode info.

Nick at Nite closes second quarter as the number-one basic cable network with Women 18-49 in total day, averaging a 0.8 rating in this demo (448,000 viewers W18-49). Driven by hits like George Lopez, Nick at Nite also ranks as the number-two cable network with Adults 18-49 (behind only USA Network) for the quarter, averaging a 0.6 rating in this demo (668,000 viewers A18-49) and 1.5 million total viewers.
George Lopez is the network's highest-rated program in second quarter, and has posted ratings growth since the show launched in September 2007. George Lopez averages a 0.6 rating in A18-49 (678,000 viewers A18-49) at 10 p.m. for the quarter and has posted gains of 20% with Adults 18-49 launch to date. George Lopez can be seen on Nick at Nite everynight at 10 p.m. and it will be moving to weeknights at 9 p.m. next week.
In prime time (9-11 p.m. ET/PT), Nick at Nite averages a 0.6 A18-49 rating and 1.6 million total viewers for the quarter. Nickelodeon recently announced that it is extending the Nick at Nite programming block to encompass all three hours of prime time (8-11 p.m. ET/PT), providing viewers with a slate of family programming including the upcoming Nick at Nite premiere of Malcolm in the Middle on July 5.
Year to date, Nick at Nite is averaging 1.5 million total viewers, a 0.6 A18-49 rating (679,000 viewers A18-49) and a 0.8 W18-49 rating (442,000 viewers W18-49).

Stay tuned tomorrow for TV Land August 2009! So come on back for that tomorrow!

Barney Miller Coming to WGN America on Sundays' Outta Sight Retro Night; The N Schedule Changes for July 2009

As I promised, we will reveal what classic TV sitcom is joining WGN America in a few weeks! The '70s ABC sitcom Barney Miller is joining WGN America's Sunday night line-up, part of Outta Sight Retro Night. Barney Miller will air Sundays back-to-back from 9-10pm ET (6-7pm PT), replacing an hour of Newhart. Newhart will still remain in the 8-9pm ET (5-6pm PT) time slot, so fans of that have no need to worry.
We still have lots more to cover on WGN America in the coming months, and it is promising! They will add more series to the Outta Sight Retro Night block in September and they will also add a Wednesday '80s night with classic '80s movies and TV comedies from time to time. Radical! We also mentioned one show will be celebrating an anniversary this September, and WGN America will celebrate with a marathon on both the Wednesday '80s night and the Sunday Outta Sight Retro Night block. There's clue #2 for that one! We will have more on WGN America soon, so keep checking back as always!
View more on Barney Miller on our mini-page.

Last week we told you that Growing Pains was returning to The N schedule starting July 6, but now that isn't happening "actually." The N has altered that schedule quite a bit now and Growing Pains isn't returning to the schedule as a regular but it WILL be a part of a rotating wheel on Sunday nights at 5:30am. Airing first on Sunday, July 12 at 5:30am is Sabrina the Teenage Witch, then Clueless on July 19, and Growing Pains on July 26. Then the cycle starts over, for example Sabrina on August 2. This is a three-week cycle. It is too bad Growing Pains is being wasted like this. Why not try it on sister network TV Land? It wouldn't hurt them to try.
Also leaving the schedule totally for now is Saved by the Bell. It was airing weekdays in the 4pm hour, but after this coming Thursday it seems to be gone for now. It was removed once before but it eventually returned, so it could return. Also the return of Kenan & Kel will now be just the 8-9am hour every morning and it won't have an afternoon airing now, since Degrassi is taking over afternoons from 3-5pm. Degrassi is getting lots of airings it seems. Among the other changes are The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's 10pm hour being replaced by another hour of What I Like About You, since sister network Nick at Nite will be airing it in that hour starting July 6 from Mon-Thurs. Fresh Prince will remain in the 11pm hour on Mon-Thurs on The N and will also gain 2-4am on Mon-Thurs on The N. Nick at Nite will air it in the 4am hour on late nights Mon-Thurs, so that won't interfere with The N either.
View the full updated The N July 2009 schedule.

TV Land Classic Marathons on Weekends Continues; Remembering Gale Storm

We have some minor TV Land schedule changes to tell you about. First off, Married...with Children is indeed airing tonight from approx. 8-11pm ET/PT for its last "scheduled" airing on TV Land. We have said that many times before, too, though and it always returns. Starting next Monday (July 6), TV Land will air another night of PRIME movies from 8-10pm, with Roseanne getting the 10pm hour. PRIME Monday movies scheduled for July are the premiere of History of the World and encores of Doc Hollywood, National Lampoon's Vacation, and National Lampoon's European Vacation.
Now as we all have seen the last few weekends, TV Land is having marathons on weekends during the day and now they will continue in July as well now. This past weekend was Married...with Children, but it was abbreviated because of the Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson tributes. These marathons are called "Classic Marathons" and will consist of a classic show followed by an Andy Griffith Show marathon, so yes, Andy will still be on weekends only. The first show airs usually from 11am-5pm, with Andy from 5-10pm, but the times vary. The weekend of July 4-5 will be Leave it to Beaver and Andy (with the scheduled "Roseanne 4th of July Feuds & Fireworks" marathon from 8pm-6am both nights). July 11-12 it will be Hogan's Heroes and Andy. July 18-19 its The Brady Bunch and Andy on Saturday, while Bonanza gets the nod on Sunday with Andy. Finally on July 25-26 it will be The Jeffersons and Andy on Saturday, and Sanford & Son and Andy on Sunday. Those are classic shows indeed! We will have TV Land August 2009 soon, but it is expected these marathons on weekends will continue as well. Stay tuned for that.
For the full schedule and more, view our updated TV Land July 2009 schedule & highlights.

We keep losing famous people. We have lost Billy Mays, the infomercial guru yesterday at the age of 50, but we won't cover his life here. We will however cover the life of Gale Storm, who passed away as well. Gale Storm, whose wholesome appearance and perky-personality made her one of early television's biggest stars on the comedy My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show, died Saturday (June 27, 2009) at a convalescent hospital in Danville, CA. My Little Margie debuted on CBS as a summer replacement for I Love Lucy in 1952. It quickly became an audience favorite and moved to its own slot on NBC that fall. The premise was standard sitcom fare: Charles Farrell was a business executive and eligible widower, Storm was his busybody daughter who protected him from predatory women. After the series ended its 126-episode run in 1955, she moved on to The Gale Storm Show, which lasted until 1960 on CBS and later on ABC. This time she played Susanna Pomeroy, a trouble-making social director on a luxury liner.
After her comedies, she moved on to become a singer basically, but she did have some TV roles as well. She guest starred on Burke's Law, The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote.
She will certainly be missed and let's hope one day My Little Margie is on DVD! Gale was 87.

Summer Week 5 Sitcom Ratings; Coming Week Preview

Summer has now started and everything is pretty light. We will be back with our normal weekly report with the first four nights numbers and analysis in the fall, but we still will have our regular how the sitcoms did all summer long, along with last year's summer favorite, the coming week preview! Here are our summer ratings:

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of June 15-21)

• The Simpsons (Fox) - 3.84 million for a repeat is again lower than the previous week's repeat...though a 1.8 18-49 rating is not bad for summer.
• King of the Hill (Fox) 2 episodes - A 7pm repeat did just 1.64 million and a 8:30 repeat did better with 3.3 million, but still both timeslots were down from previous week's repeats.
• Family Guy (Fox) - 4.19 million for a repeat...lower than the previous week again, but a 2.2 18-49 rating was good enough to win its timeslot.
• American Dad! (Fox) 2 episodes - Only 1.89 million for a repeat at 7:30, but the normal airing at 9:30pm did 3.61 million for a repeat, and up some from previous week. 1.8 18-49 rating is decent retention from lead-in.

Summer Week 5 (June 22-28)

Monday Sitcoms

• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - 4.72 million for a repeat airing, much lower than what Big Bang Theory repeats do here in the 8pm slot. An OK 1.5 18-49 rating.
• Rules of Engagement (CBS) - 4.66 million for a repeat airing, lower than previous week when it was Mother airing in the 8:30pm slot.
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 8.69 million for a repeat down close to two million from previous week's repeat. I guess they were watching Jon & Kate Plus Eight on TLC as that did 10.6 million.
• The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 7.23 million for a repeat is decent but down from previous week. 2.3 18-49 rating out of the 2.5 from the lead-in is great retention...everything else is similar to what Rules did in this slot so far.

Tuesday Sitcoms

• Better Off Ted (ABC) - A new episode following The Superstars didn't do well, with only 1.83 million and a 0.8 18-49 rating. Not good. Maybe it only works with Scrubs? Even with the low ratings, this is an excellent comedy.

Wednesday Sitcoms

• Old Christine (CBS) - Just 4.41 million for a repeat...but up a tad again from previous week.
• Gary Unmarried (CBS) - Just 4.23 million for a repeat, but also up some from previous week.

Thursday Sitcoms

• The Office (NBC) 2 episodes - Only 3.14 and 3.04 million for repeats in the 8pm hour...down some from previous week's repeat at 8:30 and 9.
• 30 Rock (NBC) - Preempted for Jackson/Fawcett specials.
• Samantha Who? (ABC) - A new episode did OK for summer doing 3.44 million, but 18-49 rating of 1.0 should be better. Still a mistake not bringing this show back...it would work in a good comedy block.
• In the Motherhood (ABC) - Only 2.46 million for a burn-off episode...all things considered, could have been worse. Well 0.7 18-49 is not good.

Friday Sitcoms

• Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) - A repeat at 9pm did a prelim 983,000 viewers. That was down a bit from previous week's prelim... but who cares, this show is canceled anyway.
• The Game (The CW) - A repeat did 971,000 prelim viewers for this canceled sitcom as well...but down from previous week's prelim.
• Surviving Suburbia (ABC) - Prelim numbers show only 2.76 million for an all-new episode at 8pm, but up from previous week's prelim.
• The Goode Family (ABC) - Prelim numbers were even worse for an all-new episode of this show with 1.81 million, but still up some from previous week's prelim numbers. Check out final numbers for Friday for these shows and all the Friday shows on our message board tomorrow.

Saturday Sitcoms

• None.

Tonight you can catch encores of Fox's animated comedies from 7-10 tonight. Elsewhere ABC will have the conclusion of the mini-series Impact from 9-11pm. CBS has 60 Minutes at 7pm. NBC will have a new Dateline in the 7pm hour, leading into a two-hour Merlin from 8-10. Cable wise, among the highlights are TBS's Comedy Festival at 10pm, Lifetime's new season of Army Wives at 10pm, Law & Order Criminal Intent and In Plain Sight on USA at 9 & 10, BET Awards on BET, Kendra and Denise Richards at 10 on E!, Daisy of Love & Brooke Knows Best on VH1, Gene Simmons Family Jewels & Hammertime on A&E, Jesse James is a Dead Man on Spike at 10, JONAS on Disney at 8:30, and Bridezillas on WE tv.


Coming Week Preview (June 29-July 5):

For Monday, on ABC, it's an all-new night with new episodes of The Bachelorette from 8-10pm and Here Come the Newlyweds at 10pm. NBC has yet another Dateline at 10pm. On cable among the highlights we have a new episode of Secret Life of the American Teenager and Make It or Break It on ABC Family starting at 8pm, new episodes of The Closer and Raising the Bar on TNT starting at 9, WWE Raw on USA Network, Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC, VH1's reality series Rock of Love Charm School & New York Goes to Work, and Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List at 10pm on Bravo.
On Tuesday, ABC has a 90-minute episode of The Superstars at 8pm followed by a new episode of the hilarious comedy Better off Ted at 9:30pm and an all-new episode of Primetime: Family Secrets at 10pm. NBC has a one-hour America's Got Talent at 9, while The CW is airing Hitched or Ditched. On cable, among the highlights are Deadliest Catch and After the Catch on Discovery starting at 9pm, TNT has dramas Hawthorne, and Saving Grace starting at 9pm, MTV has Paris Hilton's My New BFF at 10, TLC has new series 18 Kids and Counting & The Little Couple, BET has Tina & Toya at 10pm, Bravo has an all-new NYC Prep at 9pm, Oxygen has Tori & Dean Home Sweet Hollywood at 10, The Cleaner at 10 on A&E, and FX has an all-new Rescue Me at 10pm.
On Wednesday, the best show of the summer is Wipeout and it airs at 8pm, followed by I Survived a Japanese Game Show at 9pm, and at 10pm the third season premiere of the interesting Primetime: Crime. NBC will have America's Got Talent at 9 and a new episode of The Philanthropist at 10. Fox has a two-hour So You Think You Can Dance. On cable, among the highlights are new episodes of Meet the Browns on TBS starting at 10pm, Food has Bobby Flay at 9, Discovery has an all-new primetime including Pitchmen at 10pm, MTV has Real World Cancun at 10, The Fashion Show is on Bravo at 10, and also at 10pm is Tattoo Highway on A&E.
On Thursday, ABC will have new episodes of sitcoms Samantha Who & In the Motherhood at 8pm. NBC will have a new episode of drama The Listener at 10pm. Fox will have a new So You Think You Can Dance at 9pm. On cable, among the highlights are WWE Superstars on WGN America, new night for Wedding Day on TNT at 8pm, MTV has a new 16 and Pregnant at 10, TLC has a new American Chopper at 9, TV Land has She's Got the Look at 9pm and Southern Belles: Louisville at 10 on SOAPnet.
On Friday, ABC has new episodes of Surviving Suburbia and The Goode Family in the 8pm hour and later a new 20/20 at 10pm. NBC has a burn-off of Chopping Block followed by two-hours of Dateline. Fox will air a new Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader at 8 followed by the new night for Mental at 9. MNT is airing WWE Smackdown. Cable wise, among the highlights are The Soup at 10pm on E! and Degrassi on The N at 8.
On Saturday, it's slower than even usual with the 4th of July. NBC is airing a burn-off of Kings at 8 followed by Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular at 9. ABC has the a burn-off episode of Eli Stone at 10pm, while CBS has burn-off of Harper's Island 9pm and the Boson Pops Fireworks Spectacular at 10. Fox is new with Cops and AMW. Cable wise, CMT has Can You Duet & The Singing Bee at 8 and Nick has iCarly and True Jackson at 8.
And next Sunday, NBC will have a new Dateline at 7pm, leading into a an episode of Merlin at 8. Cable wise, among the highlights are TBS's Comedy Festival at 10pm, Lifetime's new season of Army Wives at 10pm, Kendra and Denise Richards at 10 on E!, Brooke Knows Best on VH1, Jesse James is a Dead Man on Spike at 10, Hannah Montana, Sonny With a Chance and JONAS on Disney starting at 8pm, and Bridezillas on WE tv.