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Mini-DVD Review: Tiny Toon Adventures - Season 1, Volume 1

Welcome to a special Friday edition of mini-DVD reviews! Today we look at Warner Home Video's Tiny Toon Adventures - Season 1, Volume 1. Tiny Toon Adventures was created and produced as a collaborative effort between Steven Spielberg's company Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It premiered in as a syndicated cartoon in 1990. See Seth's mini-DVD review of Tiny Toon Adventures - Season 1, Volume 1:



Tiny Toon Adventures - Season 1, Volume 1 (Warner Home Video, $44.98) is finally on DVD. I love this show. I really do. I watched this show when I was young and absolutely loved it. Loved it in reruns as I got older. It’s a great show that’s enjoyable no matter what your age. It’s time to finally join Babs and Buster Bunny (no relation), Plucky Duck, Hamton Pig, and all of the other residents of Acme Acres on DVD. Contained on this set are the first *35* episodes of the first season. I know many of you may have cringed when you saw “Volume 1”, but for a cartoon who had 65 episodes it’s first season splitting it was a must. There are some absolutely great cartoons in here, and some fairly good ones. Sometimes one cartoon in an episode may be weaker than the others, but this is to be expected.

This DVD set contains the first 35 episodes, which means the episodes included start at the series premiere, “A Looney Beginning” and run through “A Ditch in Time”. A full episode list is (at least as of the time of this writing) available on Wikipedia for your reference. Because of the number of episodes in the release, Warner was faced with a tough choice – either deal with a large number of discs, use double-sided discs entirely, or place quite a few episodes per disc. The end result is 4 discs, the first three of which are single-sided, the final disc being double-sided. The first three discs and the first side of the fourth all contain 8 episodes each, while the reverse side of the final disc contains the last three episodes and the disc’s special feature. I’m not sure if this was the ideal or optimal layout, but it works well enough. Packaging is a clear-plastic case with two swinging plastic panels in the center containing the discs. The discs themselves feature a variation on the orange colors used on the cover art, with a central cast member on each of the first three discs.

I really wanted to just launch into an overly positive stream of consciousness, as I got to do with Freakazoid’s DVD set, but that’s not entirely possible here. Placing 8 episodes per disc *has* led to some compression issues, which are particularly evident against solid colors. The colors themselves appear duller and less vivid than they should be, though it could just be a result of the age of the episodes. The audio, however, IS spectacular – 5.1 is available! This is great considering the orchestral bits used as background music, scene transitions, everything. It’s great. Chapter stops are placed at the end of each individual cartoon. Runtime for the pilot is just over 23 minutes; average for the rest is around 21:45 – for a cartoon series from the early 90s this IS normal.

There IS a great special feature in the set: Looney Tunes to Tiny Toons, a Wacky Evolution: Features an outright plethora – yes, a plethora – of interviews, clips, etc. that detail the origin of the series and how the show launched off the shoulders of the classic Looney Tunes franchise. Runs a bit over 23 minutes, and is a great extra feature. It’s great to see well-done sets like these for shows I enjoy.

Of course, *my* favorite episode of the series isn’t on the DVD set as it’s the 51st episode of the season – Tiny Toons Music Television. It features re-done videos for several songs using the Tiny Toons cast, including TWO songs by They Might Be Giants, a take on Respect by Aretha Franklin, and more. It’s great stuff, and I can’t wait for the next volume for this very reason. Ultimately, though, future sales depend on the success of the initial release. It’s a great cartoon, and recommended not just for cartoon fans but fans of comedy as well. STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.

-- Reviewed by Seth Thrasher
(4.5/5 stars)

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Spike TV Fall 2008 Schedule; TV Land Edits September Sked; Network Notes

We gave you a little taste of Spike TV Fall over a month ago, but now we have full details! This Labor Day, catch a Labor Day CSI Marathon on Monday, Sept. 1 from 9a-10p, including a whole new season of CSI episodes, for the first time on Spike. Then, spin-off CSI: NY will air 5 days a week! Because one hour a week wasn't enough, CSI: New York moves to a Monday-Friday strip, a prime-time block, and a late night strip, all beginning the week of Sept. 22. Spike TV is kicking it off with a week- long, all-day marathon the week of Sept. 22 (Monday-Friday that week from 9a-9p, Tuesday from 9p-12am, and Mon-Fri at 12m) including 2 new seasons of CSI: New York episodes for the first time on Spike. Starting week of Sept. 29, CSI: NY will be regularly scheduled Mon-Fri at 8pm, Tuesdays from 9p-12am, and Mon-Wed at 12am.
Married with...Children comes to Spike TV, beginning Saturday, September 27! Spend some time with Al, Peg, Kelly and Bud all-week long during Spike TV's "Monday thru Bundy" marathon! Saturday, September 27 and Sunday, September 28 from 9am-11am and 1a-2am! The marathon kicks into full gear on Monday, September 29 through Friday, October 3 from 9am-3pm each day! Also on Thursday, October 2 you can catch it in the late night from 12a-2a and the same goes for on Friday, October 3 from 12a-1a. Married...with Children will settle into its regular time periods of Mon-Fri 11am-1pm & Thursdays 1a-2a starting October 6 and Saturday and Sunday mornings 9am-11am beginning right after the marathon ends on Saturday, Oct. 4.
Then in October another new show is coming! Unsolved Mysteries explores unsolved cases in which you, the viewer, can help solve a case. The show includes cases from a variety of categories: Murder, Missing Persons, Wanted Fugitives, UFOs, Ghosts, Fraud, Legends, Science/Medicine, among others. The new Unsolved Mysteries programs will consist of re-creations of the events, along with interviews with the subjects, participants and authorities, documentary footage and news footage. Entirely new graphics, special effects, music and title sequences were created for the Spike broadcasts, along with new narration and host stand-ups by Dennis Farina. The show will air Monday-Friday from 5pm-7pm starting Monday, October 13 and Sundays from 1pm-6pm!
Check out the full Spike TV Fall 2008 schedule.

More fall schedules will return Monday as I am headed for a short vacation. Todd will take over the next few days with mini-DVD reviews from our review team. See you all Monday and come back this weekend as well to see those reviews and our Sunday ratings wrap-up! Off to the Catskills I go!

TV Land has made a chance to its line-up starting Aug. 25. The 9-11PM marathons will be removed starting Aug. 25, thus the evening line-up from 4pm-1am will be altered a bit. And the late night line-up that started this week, will remain intact this week and hereafter in September. This new 4pm-1am line-up will also carry over into September. Hogan's Heroes, Beverly Hillbillies, and Andy Griffith all move an hour earlier from 5-9pm to 4-8pm, as The Cosby Show moves into 8-9pm earlier than planned...as it was slated for mid-September. The Jeffersons follows from 9-10pm that week, but that will change to Scrubs starting a week later when Scrubs joins. From 10pm-12am it is a block of M*A*S*H and more Cosby Show in the midnight hour. Everything else will remain the same as the changes that happened Aug. 4. To view the full list of changes starting Aug. 25, click HERE. Also, you might want to see how TV Land September 2008 schedule looks now with these new changes. It seems Just Shoot Me and Murphy Brown will be totally gone in September with these new changes that happened Aug. 4 and Aug. 25. At least Three's Company and Brady Bunch will air every morning in the 4am hour!

Fox has announced a slight change to its fall line-up on Thursdays. Hole in the Wall, the body-bending, mind-twisting, global game show phenomenon from American Idol producers FremantleMedia North America, will now air Thursdays at 8PM ET/PT starting Thursday, Sept. 11 on Fox. The show was previously not scheduled in a slot, but was likely coming mid-season. The game show The Moment of Truth which was previously scheduled in the Thursday 8:00 PM time slot, will now premiere mid-season for its second season.
ABC's wildly popular new hilarious competition series, Wipeout, has been picked up for a second season. Twenty-four thrill-seekers will compete in the world's largest extreme obstacle course designed to provide the most spills, face plants and wipeouts ever seen on television. A hit summer series for ABC, Wipeout dominates Tuesday's 8:00 PM hour in Total Viewers and across each of the key Adult demographics (AD18-34/AD18-49/AD25-54). In its six telecasts to date, Wipeout has consistently ranked as the No. 2 show of the week in both Total Viewers and Adults 18-49. Four new episodes remain in the first season and they will air starting Tuesday, Aug. 26 once the Olympics are over. The first season concludes on Sept. 16. There is no word yet how many episodes were ordered for season two and when we can expect them to air...possibly in mid-season or next summer, if I were to guess! Big Balls and Jill Wagner!
In other ABC news, game show Wanna Bet? is scheduled to move from its Mondays at 9PM slot to Tuesdays at 9PM on Tuesdays, August 12, 19, 26 and September 2, 2008 at 9:00 PM ET/PT following Wipeout (which returns with new episodes on Aug. 26). Thus, Samantha Who? encores will now air move to Mondays at 9:00 & 9:30 PM ET/PT for the rest of the summer. Though, on August 18, the movie Bewitched will air from 9-11PM ET/PT.
Finally, America United: In Support Of Our Troops is scheduled to air on Sunday, September 7, 2008 from 9:00-11:00 PM ET/PT on ABC. A star-studded "Bob Hope USO" style variety show featuring heart-warming profiles of families overcoming obstacles, top-tier performances, sexy celebrity cameos, hilarious comedy and touching acts of wish-fulfillment all with the positive, non-controversial message of "thanks" for our troops and their families.

TBS Fall 2008 Line-Up; RTN's New Slogan

A little over a month ago we told you Married...with Children is coming to TBS this September airing weekdays from 6-7am and sometimes between 4-6am as well. TBS only has rights to air the show between 2-7am, so they cannot give it a better slot, unfortunately. However, we also stated Spike TV has gotten the rights from 7am-2am starting September as well. We gave you two updates on that, one for the original story and the other with the schedules times. We will have more on Spike TV's part tomorrow in our Spike TV Fall schedule. But sticking with TBS, they are not really making any changes this fall. For Labor Day weekend they will have two marathons...on Sunday, August 31 from 8am-1pm they will showcase the hit sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for a marathon leading into their Sunday MLB Baseball Game of the Week. Then on Labor Day itself, (Monday, Sept. 1), TBS will showcase the number one sitcom of all-time for basic cable Tyler Perry's House of Payne with a marathon from 10am-8pm, leading into the Family Guy Monday block. They will air the premiere episode of TNT's original drama Raising the Bar on Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 11pm following two episodes of The Office. We will have more on TNT's fall line-up in the coming days. Then Tuesdays at 11pm, Frank TV is back with a second season as the late night comedy is back starting Sept. 9! Teen drama Dawson's Creek had been airing on some early morning slots on some days, and its last airing will be late Monday, Sept. 8 at 4:30am ET, as it is no longer scheduled in any other slot through the end of October, so I am not 100% sure, but it seems it might have expired.
Effective Monday, Sept. 15 Married...with Children joins the TBS morning line-up airing weekdays at 6:00am & 6:30am ET. The MLB Playoffs start on TBS on Wednesday, Oct. 1 airing in the afternoon and primetime, so the morning/early afternoon lineup will be a bit altered each day...so when the playoffs are on, you'll have to check your listings to see when the TBS sitcoms are airing. But starting Monday, Sept. 29, TBS will swap Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond's slot. So, Seinfeld will move from 5-6pm to 7-8pm, while Raymond goes from 6:30-8pm to 5-6:30pm, which means Friends is now 6:30pm starting Sept. 29. Also, the primetime blocks are altered a tad as well. Starting Monday, Oct. 20 everything will be back to normal as the MLB Playoffs are over and Fox will do the MLB World Series.
Check out the full TBS Fall 2008 line-up in a list form, and you can also discuss what you think.

Today RTN (Retro Television Network) announced its new slogan "Classic Television Hits All Day, Live Talk all Night." According to RTN spokesman Neal Ardman, RTN will begin to phase out paid programming over the next few months. The goal, said Ardman, is to provide the viewer with compelling programming 24 hours a day. RTN will begin inserting live news, general entertainment, and sports talk shows in the late night and overnight hours beginning in September. Not to worry, Classic TV will still air in the mornings, afternoons, evening and primetime!
Robin Leach has been tapped to produce and host one such, as yet unnamed, show to be produced LIVE in Las Vegas. Another show, Unreliable Sources, a news/talk show with viewer calls, already airs in over 30 markets and is produced at the RTN studios.
RTN is currently sold in 72 markets and last week went on the air in Washington, D.C. on WJLA-DT. RTN is the only network that is customized for each market.

USA Network Fall 2008 Schedule; Lionsgate To Release Many ABC Studios DVDs

Continuing our look at the fall 2008 cable schedules, we now take a look at USA Network's September 2008 fall schedule. They have been airing Navy NCIS and House once a week, but now they both will be available for daily play on the network. House will launch first with a marathon on Saturday, Sept. 6 from 9am-11pm and Sunday, Sept. 7 from 3pm-4am. House will air weeknights at 8pm, except on Tuesdays it will air9 and 10pm. Then NCIS will get a three day launch marathon the next three days, Sept. 8-10 from 6am-7pm ET/PT. USA Network will have a lot of marathons the first few weeks of September, as other ones are the countdown to the 100th episode of Monk continues, from Sept. 1-5, as the 100th episode airs on Sept. 5. A marathon of Burn Notice will air on Thursday, Sept. 11 from 6am-6pm, followed by a stack of House from 6pm-10pm leading into a new episode of Burn Notice. A Psych marathon will air on Friday, Sept. 12 from 6am-4pm leading into another House stack from 4-9pm which will lead into the season finales of Monk and Psych. The next day on Saturday, Sept. 13 a NCIS marathon will air from 4-11pm and a House stack again on Sunday, Sept. 14 from 7p-12a.
Then starting Monday, Sept. 15 the regular schedule finally begins. Changes include the 8am airing of JAG being replaced by Monk, as Walker Texas Ranger moves to 9am. Monk's afternoon airing is now 2pm, followed by back to back Law & Order: Criminal Intent at 3 and 4pm. Navy NCIS will air weeknights at 5 and 6pm, followed by Law & Order: SVU at 7pm. SVU will also air Tuesdays at 8pm, while House will air weeknights at 8pm except Tuesdays at 9pm, as we mentioned.
View the full USA Network September 2008 fall line-up and also discuss it.

Lionsgate, the leading independent filmed entertainment studio, and Disney-ABC Domestic Television have entered into an agreement where Lionsgate obtains the home entertainment distribution rights (DVD rights) to select primetime series and library titles from ABC Studios.
The first programs to be released under the new agreement – popular current ABC sitcom According to Jim: Season One, starring Jim Belushi and Courtney Thorne-Smith and one-hour current The CW series Reaper: Season One – will be available on DVD on October 21 and November 4, respectively. The agreement also encompasses other popular sitcoms and dramas including Hope & Faith (Kelly Ripa, Faith Ford), 8 Simple Rules...for Dating My Teenage Daughter (John Ritter, Katey Sagal, David Spade), Boy Meets World (Ben Savage, Rider Strong), October Road (Tom Berenger, Bryan Greenberg), Kevin Hill (Taye Diggs), My Wife & Kids (Damon Wayans), Six Degrees (Jay Hernandez, Bridget Moynahan, Erika Christensen), and more.
So what does this all mean? Well, first of all let me explain what ABC Studios is. ABC Studios is the studio that produces Touchstone Television/Buena Vista television shows, so it is not necessarily all ABC network shows. Reaper is produced by ABC Studios but airs on The CW. Kevin Hill was a drama on UPN but was produced by ABC Studios. Lionsgate has reached a deal for select ABC Studios series for DVD rights. No, that does not mean ABC Studios/Buena Vista Home Entertainment will not release any more DVDs, as they will still continue to release well over 40 ABC Studios series each year such as Desperate Housewives, Lost, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Samantha Who, Scrubs and many others. Lionsgate primarily will release the series that are not in production anymore, but of course a few are going to be released that are in production (like the aforementioned According to Jim & Reaper).
I don't have a full list of shows yet that Lionsgate acquired for DVD rights from ABC Studios other than those listed above like 8 Simple Rules, October Road and Boy Meets World. Speaking of those three, I am told Lionsgate will continue where Buena Vista Home Entertainment left off, so 8 Simple Rules & October Road will start with Season 2 and Boy Meets World with Season 4. I am hoping Lionsgate also acquired classic ABC Studios series not on DVD such as Empty Nest, Nurses, Blossom, and short lived stuff like The Golden Palace, Thunder Alley and The Sinbad Show. Notice most of those were not on ABC but they were produced by ABC Studios (Touchstone Television). Once I have a full list of what Lionsgate has acquired, I will let you all know, unless TVShowsonDVD.com posts it first. So stay tuned to us and/or TVShowsonDVD.com for details. Just to reiterate...if a show aired on ABC in the past like Family Matters or Step by Step, which were both produced by Warner Bros., that will not be available for Lionsgate because they were NOT produced by ABC Studios...only those series produced by ABC Studios/Touchstone Television could be available.

FX Fall 2008 Schedule; Save Mister Rogers' Neighborhood; Fox Renews Dance for 5th Season

Just a few weeks ago we gave you details on FX's summer changes...and now we have their fall schedule! As we have mentioned many times already, Bernie Mac is joining FX's line-up. The four-year deal starts Monday, September 8, 2008 with a launch marathon from 12:30pm-8pm ET. Bernie Mac will then join the weekday line-up on Tuesday, September 9 airing weekdays at 8:00am & 8:30am ET and 4:00pm & 4:30pm ET (although sometimes it will be 4:30pm ET & 5:00pm ET depending on the FX movies). The morning airings will replace The Practice, which will now just air weekends at 7:00am & 8:00am. We urge you to view the full FX September 2008 schedule so no confusion arises.
Other September higlights include a Labor Day (Sept. 1) marathon of That '70s Show from 7:00am-5:30pm ET. The Shield will have its season premiere the following night at 10pm on Tuesday, September 2. FX will launch their new series Sons of Anarchy starring Katey Sagal on Wednesday, September 3 at 10pm with a special 75-minute premiere until 11:15pm ET. FX will launch a new season of its comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Thursday, September 18 at 10pm.

In June 2008, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) announced that it intends to soon change the way Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the beloved children’s television program, is distributed to member stations.
PBS will cease transmitting the program as part of their daily syndicated lineup beginning in September. Instead, PBS will provide member stations with a single Neighborhood episode on weekends. This unfortunate decision essentially silences the special nurturing voice of Mister Rogers in the daily lives of today's children.
Local public television stations, who make the final decisions about which programs to offer and when to air them, can still opt to broadcast Mister Rogers' Neighborhood each weekday, but they are much less likely to do so without the program being included in PBS's syndicated feed.
A campaign is underway for you to save Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on your local PBS station. It is sad if they just air it once a week on weekends. Many generations have learned from him since the 1960s and it has been tradition having it on daily on PBS. So save Mister Rogers by heading on to SaveMisterRogers.com!

Fox has ordered a fifth season of summer show, So You Think You Can Dance for next summer. Created by Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe, the original dance competition follows amateur dancers as they compete in everything from Hip-Hop, Krumping and Popping to Salsa, Quickstep and Jive to be named America's favorite dancer.

Summer Week 10 Sitcom Ratings; Coming Week Preview

The dog days of summer continue. Only repeats and reality series are airing, but there have been some scripted originals for the summer as well. We are just looking at the sitcom ratings, but we will be back in the fall with our normal weekly reports. Here is week 10 for the summer for sitcoms:

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of July 21-27)

• 'Til Death (Fox) 2 episodes - Just 2.05 and 2.2 million for two repeats...but both airs beat both airings the previous week.
  
• The Simpsons (Fox) 2 episodes - 3.96 million for a repeat in its normal 8pm slot, was up from the previous week but the special 8:30pm encore (maybe for the rest of the summer?) jumped big time to 5.0 million, the best numbers in the slot since the end of the regular season.
  
• King of the Hill (Fox) - preempted.
  
• Family Guy (Fox) - 5.12 million for an encore telecast, as a better lead-in gave it better numbers.
• American Dad! (Fox) - 4.41 million for a repeat, up week to week.
  
• Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) - 960,000 viewers this week for a repeat...they should start airing two episodes each week in time for the new season.
  
• Aliens in America (The CW) - 960,000 viewers for a repeat..., full retention, but I bet a second Chris would have built on. No point really in airing this show now since it was canceled.
  
• The Game (The CW) - 850,000 viewers for a repeat, up slightly from previous week. And as I said with Chris, they should start airing back to back episodes for the rest of the summer in anticipation of the new season.
• Girlfriends (The CW) - 770,000 viewers for a repeat, down from previous week's repeat. It is time they remove the encores since it is now canceled. Or CW should move the encores to another night like Wednesday where for some reason they are encoring two reality shows and are getting crushed in the ratings.
  

Summer Week 10 (July 28-August 3)

Monday Sitcoms

• The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 5.37 million for a repeat...down ab it week to week.
  
• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - 5.25 million for a repeat airing, down week to week and did not build this time on the lead-in.
  
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 9.35 million for a repeat, as with the previous two shows, also down from previous week.
• Old Christine (CBS) - 7.5 million for a repeat...BUT up a bit from previous week, so the only show to build from the block from previous week.
  

Tuesday Sitcoms

• None...watch Wipeout on ABC, very funny show that is not a sitcom. Big Balls and Jill Wagner, what more can you ask for?
  

Wednesday Sitcoms

• Under One Roof (MyNetworkTV) - Repeat did 870,000 viewers, down from previous week. New episodes will return in October in its new slot of 9pm.
  

Thursday Sitcoms

• None.
  

Friday Sitcoms

• None

Saturday Sitcoms

• The Office (NBC) 2 episodes - Two repeats on a special night did terrible averaging a prelim 1.64 million...what do you expect on a Saturday?
  

Tonight you can catch encores of The CW sitcoms from 8-10pm and Fox's animated comedies (and 'Til Death repeats from 7-8pm) are encoring.

Coming Week Preview (Summer Week 11) for Broadcast (With Some Cable Notes):
So what is new or notable this week that you might want to catch? Tonight CBS will have Big Brother at 8pm out of a new 60 Minutes at 7pm. NBC has Dateline at 7pm followed by an NFL Pre-Season game at 8pm...who watches pre-season? ABC will air final the Sunday edition of High School Musical: Get in the Picture at 8pm before airing only Mondays at 8pm from now on. A pretty quiet and boring night that will get quieter and more boring next week. Cable is the way to go with Lifetime's Army Wives, USA Network's In Plain Sight and Mad Men on AMC at 10pm with VH1 and A&E airing their reality series. And don't forget Law & Order: Criminal Intent at 9pm on USA Network and Factory on Spike TV. Cable is the way to go indeed!
On Monday, ABC will be new with High School Musical: Get in the Picture at 8pm, followed by week three of game show Wanna Bet? and a new The Mole at 10pm. NBC has a two-hour American Gladiators at 8pmthis week followed by Nashville Star at 10pm. Fox will air the 2008 Teen Choice Awards from 8-10pm. Cable again will be the best draw with The Closer and Saving Grace on TNT from 9-11pm. ABC Family also has a new Middleman at 10pm and VH1 with more new reality series such as I Want to Work for Diddy.
On Tuesday ABC has the hilarious hit (and my pick of the summer) Wipeout followed by the two-hour season finale of I Survived a Japanese Game Show. NBC has Celebrity Family Feud at 8pm leading into the summer hit America's Got Talent whch will be two-hours from 9-11pm. And the Tuesday edition of Big Brother airs at 9pm on CBS. Cable wise ABC Family's Secret Life of an American Teenager is doing well and will air at 8pm and at 10pm on Lifetime it is How To Look Good Naked. Best night of the summer!
On Wednesday Fox will air a new two-hour episode of So You Think You Can Dance. NBC will have a Baby Borrowers special at 9pm. CBS has the recently moved Greatest American Dog at 8pm. ABC will be new at 10pm with the special Primetime: China Inside Out. Maybe this is the worst night for the summer (not counting Friday/Saturday).
On Thursday ABC will air the finale of ABCNews' Hopkins series at 10pm. Fox will also be new all-night with Don't Forget the Lyrics! followed by So You Think You Can Dance-Thursday. CBS at 8pm has Big Brother and another episode of the summer scripted series Flashtown at 10pm, which is doing decent...however on this night, some local stations could preempt for a NFL pre-season game. And NBC will air the 90-minute finale of Last Comic Standing at 8pm followed by the first results show (and pre-Olympics finale) of America's Got Talent from 9:30-11pm...please note that some markets (like NY, will preempt programming for an NFL pre-season game). On cable, TBS will air new episodes of sitcoms The Bill Engvall Show at 9:30pm after a repeat and new My Boys at 10pm and USA Network has Burn Notice at 10pm, while Comedy Central has The Gong Show.
On Friday, NBC will be king with the start of the Summer Olympics. CBS has the summer drama Swingtown at 10pm which is on its last legs. The CW of course will have WWE Smackdown.
Saturday will have Cops and AMW on Fox and of course the Summer Olympics on NBC and their cable networks.

Mini-DVD Review: South Park Season 11 (Aug. 12)

It is Saturday, so that must mean it is time for the mini-DVD review! Today we take a look at Comedy Central/Paramount's South Park: The Complete 11th Season . South Park of course is the popular cable animated series that is full of laughs for all ages. See skees53's mini-DVD review of South Park: The Complete 11th Season:

South Park- The Complete Eleventh Season (Comedy Central DVD, $49.99) brings all fourteen episodes from the 2007 season of the Comedy Central hit to a three-disc DVD set. Like most animated series, the kids don't really grow up, but somehow, in each and every season, they do grow even more hilarious than in the past. The 2007 season contains perhaps some of the best South Park episodes produced to date, with many hilarious moments that will have you asking "did they REALLY just do that on TV?" And, to sweeten the pot, all fourteen episodes are presented uncensored, although many South Park fans won't notice that much of a difference--it is a rude and crude show to begin with.
Every single one of the episodes from this season can be viewed as memorable in one way or another, beginning with "With Apologies to Jessie Jackson," where Stan's dad uses the "N-word" on live TV, and somehow becomes the victim. Cartman pulls a prank on Butters that ultimately only serves to make a fool of Cartman (and ends up putting Butters into a special camp that is designed to "pray the gay away") in "Cartman Sucks." Kyle and Stan are out to determine the meaning behind Easter bunnies and eggs in "Fantastic Easter Special." Mrs. Garrison realizes that in her new life as a woman, she just so happens to be a lesbian (to clarify, Mrs. Garrison was originally a gay man, then got a sex-change operation to become a woman that liked men, now is a women that has decided she is a lesbian, and anybody watching season twelve knows that there is an even further twist to this bizarre story) in "D-Yikes." Cartman realizes that he can say anything he wants by pretending to have Tourette's Syndrome "Le Petit Tourette." Butters takes a scary trip into Imaginationland, where only he can save the world, in the three-part episode "Imaginationland." The boys want to become rock stars, or at least Guitar Hero champions, in "Guitar Queer-O."
The set is once again like all of the previous sets, in the standard digipak with the episode information on the two side panels. The episodes all look and sound great, as one would expect. And, it is worth noting that this DVD set, while from Paramount, is a Comedy Central DVD product, NOT a CBS DVD product, so there aren't any obnoxious disclaimers about things being edited or music being changed. In fact, as far as I could tell, any applicable music was intact (removing the Melissa Etheridge song "Come to My Window," for example, would have killed a great scene in the "D-Yikes" episode, so it was good to see all music intact).
Each episode has the mini-commentaries from Matt Stone and Trey Parker, which have always been slightly disappointing, as I'd like more than just mini-commentaries. There are a few Comedy Central Quickies on Disc 1, from 'Lil Bush, The Daily Show, Reno 911!, and The Colbert Report. Basically, these are just funny clips from these shows. I wish that these South Park DVD sets could be more impressive on the special features end, as many other animated series are on DVD.
This is a great set to own with some hilarious episodes, and any fan of South Park must own this one, even the casual fan. I can't think of any other season of the series that has had better episodes (including the current season), and some of the situations in this season are just outright hilarious, so much so that even those that don't watch the series on a regular basis will find them to be hilarious. It took me a long time to warm up to this series (I used to find it a little too out there and over the top for my sense of humor), but eventually it just got to me that this is a hilarious series that anybody that loves comedy and can accept rude and crude entertainment will love it.
-- Reviewed by skees53
(4.5/5 stars)

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TV One September 2008 Schedule and Highlights; TV Rebels: Bill Cosby

Our look at the fall 2008 season on cable continues with TV One's September 2008 line-up. This September TV One will be adding the hit '90s sitcom Living Single to its African-American line-up. Living Single premieres on TV One in a week-long marathon event that airs each weeknight from 7pm-12am ET/PT (encores 3-6am ET/PT). Each character will be showcased on various nights -- Khadijah on Monday, Synclaire on Tuesday, Regine on Wednesday, Max on Thursday, and The Boys (Overton and Kyle) on Friday. Living Single was a situation comedy that centered on the lives of a group of six African American friends living in (or near) a Brooklyn brownstone. The series focused on the personal and professional lives of each character, as well as their relationships with one another.
After the marathon, Living Single settles into its regular time-slot weeknights at 8:30pm & 9pm starting Monday, September 29, with an encore from 3-4am ET/PT.
Other changes include the fall 10am-4pm block. Beginning on Monday September 8 and continuing until further notice, the TV One daytime marathons which air weekdays from 10am to 4pm will have a steady schedule consisting of the following: Eve (Mondays), Movies (Tuesdays), Wanda At Large/Divorce Court/Between Brothers rotate (Wednesdays), TV One on One/Roc rotate (Thursdays) and All of Us (Fridays).
On Monday, September 29, the TV One fall schedule settles into place with changes taking place after 5pm. View the full TV One September 2008 line-up for complete details.
Moving on to other highlights, on Saturday September 20 beginning at 1pm, it's girl power time as TV One presents the "Eve-Sisters Doin' It For Themselves-Marathon" that showcases episodes of the sitcom Eve that feature the women taking charge while resolving their own problems and issues that will keep viewers laughing as well as fired up with emotion as Shelly (Eve) and her crew prove that new millennium women have it all together.
Future Outlook: TV One has also acquired the sitcom Half & Half for later in the fall...we will have details on that at a later date!
So, don't forget to view and discuss the TV One September Line-Up!


It's time for another edition of TV Rebels. We originally had special permission to publish the first 6 essays on TV shows and actors that will be featured in the upcoming book TV Rebels: 100 People and Programs That Shaped the Medium by authors Lou Orfanella and Oscar De Los Santos...and as we mentioned in April, we have now gotten rights to 6 additional essays (for a total of 12!), so we will be bringing you one each month until at least November! Upcoming TV Rebel columns coming soon are about Rod Serling and Desi Arnaz. The book is in the works and will be released in 2009.

So without further adieu, we bring you the eighth essay of TV Rebels:

Bill Cosby: Double Rebel
by Lou Orfanella

In 1965 standup comic Bill Cosby earned critical praise and the first of three consecutive Emmy Awards as outstanding lead actor in a dramatic series as he began his three year run as globetrotting government agent Alexander Scott on the NBC drama I Spy. More significant and media changing than his triple Emmy feat was that this was the first instance of a major dramatic starring role by a black actor on a network television series. The groundbreaking weekly adventure costarred white actor Robert Culp as Scott's partner Kelly Robinson. "Coinciding with the crest of the civil rights movements, the series' light touch was 'balm for the jangled American psyche of the time,' said the New York Times. It was a historic moment in casting when a black man was placed along side a white man as his equal and it created international interest in the show" ("Biography").
After I Spy ended in 1968, Cosby headlined the sitcom The Bill Cosby Show on NBC ffrom 1969-1971 as well as the variety shows The New Bill Cosby Show (CBS) and Cos (ABC) in 1972 and 1976 respectively. He entered the Saturday morning children's shows arena from 1972-1977 with the message filled animated offering Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. It was in 1984 however, that Cosby would achieve his greatest success and become a double TV rebel.
In 1984 with the situation comedy genre mostly left for dead by network executives, Cosby returned to weekly series duty as the unflappable dad Cliff Huxtable on NBC's The Cosby Show, a light hearted family sitcom that skyrocketed to the top of the ratings and rejuvenated the genre during its eight year run. In the process it became the anchor of what was to become NBC's Thursday night lineup of "Must See TV." The Cosby Show was the most watched show on the air for five of its seasons and is credited with reviving the viability and profitability of the situation comedy genre.
In many ways The Cosby Show allowed its star to extend the social changes he had been a part of with I Spy. Two decades after Alexander Scott showed that blacks and whites could be equal partners, The Cosby Show depicted the black family on equal footing with middle and upper class white families, rather than as low income ghetto dwellers such as in previous shows as Good Times and Sanford and Son. "The Cosby Show discontinued familiar sitcom formulas filled with disrespectful children and generational conflict and presented instead a two-parent family in which both partners worked as professionals. In the Huxtable household, viewers were exposed to the existence and culture of historically black colleges and universities" ("Cosby"). Black art and music as well as black history were all apparent in the Huxtable universe expanding the traditional and often stereotypical view of black families television had presented.
During the 1990s the man known widely as simply "Cos" would star in three additional series. First came the revival of the comedic quiz show You Bet Your Life with Cosby filling the legendary shoes of Groucho Marx. The Cosby Mysteries followed, and the Cosby (CBS, 1996-2000) sitcom closed the decade. He also hosted Kids Say the Darndest Things for CBS. While none of those efforts made an indelible mark on television history, Cosby's legacy had long been secured with I Spy and The Cosby Show, two series that helped change the face of television.

Works Cited
Biography of Bill Cosby. The Kennedy Center. 7 August 2007 http://www.kennedy-center.org.
Cosby, Bill. The Museum of Broadcast Communications. 7 August 2007 http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/humlC/cosbybill/cosbybill.htm.

WGN America Fall 2008 Schedule Sees Lots of New Shows; TV Land Changes for August

Today we will reveal WGN America's Fall 2008 schedule! They will be adding a lot of new and returning series, but there will be a few series expiring/leaving as well. The other day we mentioned Coach marathons on August 29 and August 30, and we hinted the series would also join the line-up this fall. We will get to Coach's slots in a bit, but first we want to tell you all the new or returning series! You'll see Moesha, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, In The Heat of The Night, 7th Heaven, Jury Duty, NewsRadio, Coach, The Bob and Tom Show, and the new syndicated weekend series Legend of the Seeker! Of course, since new stuff is coming or returning, there will be shows leaving and expiring as well. Those departing are Happy Days, Even Stevens, Lizzie McGuire, 24, American Idol Rewind, Soul Train, and DaVinci's InQuest.
Now let's get to the schedule. The new weekday line-up primarily will start Monday, September 8. The first change will occur September 1 though, with Happy Days' contract expiring, so its slot of 4:30am and 5am ET will be replaced by Sister, Sister and Moesha, which returns after a year off on hiatus. Then starting Sept. 8, the bulk of the changes are happening on weekdays, Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie join the WGN America line-up airing weekdays at 9 and 9:30am ET, as Matlock will slide to 10am ET. The 11am ET slot will be Nash Bridges, but it will change a week later on Sept. 15, as WGN America brings back In The Heat of the Night after a three year absence, as the show is reacquired. Nash Bridges will air at 12 noon starting Sept. 8, followed by the WGN News at Noon at 1pm ET. Homicide: Life on the Street will slide to 2pm ET starting Sept. 8, followed by back-to-back The Cosby Show episodes at 3pm and Funniest Pets & People from 4-5pm. America's Funniest Home Videos will move to 5pm ET replacing Sister, Sister which will now be airing in the overnight from 4-5am ET, as we mentioned (more on this a bit later). At 6pm and 7pm, WGN America brings back family drama 7th Heaven for two back-to-back hours a night as WGN America welcomes back the Camdens! Primetime will remain the same as it is now until later in the month when Tuesdays from 8-10pm will be Nash Bridges starting Sept. 30 instead of a block of Funniest Pets & People. In the late nights, we mentioned already the Sister, Sister and Moesha slots starting Sept. 1, but Even Stevens/Lizzie McGuire was sharing the 4am slot, and now it will be another Sister, Sister starting Sept. 15, as those series are expiring.
Weekends will not see any real changes until after baseball season is over. So, starting Saturday, October 4, weekends will get a major overhaul--for the good, too! Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie will also air on weekends now. Bewitched will air Saturdays 12-1pm and Sundays 11am-12pm, while I Dream of Jeannie will air from 1-2pm on Saturdays and 12-1pm on Sundays. Great to see classic TV! After two movies on Saturdays, we head to the new 6-8pm Saturday block, where you'll see two new sitcoms! Back-to-back episodes of NewsRadio from 6-7pm on Saturdays followed by the aforementioned Coach from 7-8pm on Saturdays, starting Oct. 4. The rest of Saturday is basically intact, but 24 will be leaving and will be replaced by a movie and Matlock will be added to late night. On Sundays after Bewitched and Jeannie, there aren't many changes. The Outta Sight Retro Night featuring WKRP, Newhart and The Honeymooners will remain intact from 7-10pm ET. In the late nights, some shows are expiring like American Idol Rewind and DaVinci's Inquest, so two Matlock episodes will replace them at 3am and 4am.
Then the week of October 6, WGN America will change their weeknight late night line-up a bit. Corner Gas and Becker will slide to 1-2am ET on Sun-Thurs starting Oct. 6. The Friday late night line-up will be back-to-back Reno 911 at 1am ET and back-to-back Chappelle's Show at 2am ET. Reno 911 will also air Saturdays from 11pm-12:30am ET.
Finally, the last change for the fall is the first-run new syndicated series from Disney/ABC Television Group called Legend of the Seeker. WGN America will air it Saturdays at 4 and 5pm starting November 1 and also Wednesdays at 9pm ET starting Nov. 5, replacing Corner Gas/Becker.
Wow, that is A LOT of changes! I think many will be happier than before with these changes. I advise you to see the full WGN America Fall 2008 line-up on our message boards, where you can also discuss the line-up. Remember this is the national WGN schedule, and not the Chicago local line-up.
Future Outlook: You can expect Classic TV marathons on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve/Day, and New Year's Eve/Day. We will tell you more about that in the coming months, as it is way too early to talk about that. It is not even August yet!

TV Land has made some last minute changes for August starting Monday, August 4. First off, the primetime marathons will now be 9-11pm rather than 9pm-12am. The Tuesday marathon of The Beverly Hillbillies will now be The Jeffersons from 9-11pm, leading into two encores of Family Foreman at midnight. And as we told you yesterday about The Cosby Show being used to be wrapped around Family Foreman, now TV Land has confirmed it will air The Cosby Show every Wednesday from 8-10pm and 11pm-1am ET/PT leading in and leading out of Family Formeman. Because the primetime marathons are now 9-11pm, M*A*S*H moves from 12-2am to 11pm-1am weeknights (well except Wednesdays and Fridays). TV Land has removed the 2-5am marathons, thus we get more variety in the late nights. From Sun-Fri, TV Land will now air back-to-back episodes of Sanford & Son, The Jeffersons and The Beverly Hillbillies from 1-4am, and at 4am Three's Company returns followed by another returnee in The Brady Bunch at 4:30am! So nice to see those two return!
Check out our TV Land August 2008 thread for updates and to discuss this.

Lifetime Fall 2008 Schedule; Last Minute Updates for TV Land and BET

It's time for another fall 2008 schedule! Today we will give you Lifetime's Fall 2008 line-up, which begins Tuesday, September 2. They will be adding Desperate Housewives repeats to the weekday line-up! The series up until then was airing once a week on weekends. Desperate Housewives also will be coming to local syndication this fall starting weekend of Sept. 20 in a two-year deal for weekend play, look for it on Fox-owned MyNetwork TV stations. On Lifetime, the series will air weekdays at 8:00am & 12pm ET/PT. The 8am airing will replace two episodes of The Nanny, while the 12 noon airing will replace the start of the movie, which slides to 1-3pm. The Nanny will now only air at 2am. Starting in October, Lifetime will repurpose the latest episode aired of Desperate Housewives on ABC about a week or two later on Lifetime. We don't have information on October yet, so we will let you know if it is in a slot other than 8am or 12pm.
Also, coming to Lifetime this September is the ABC reality series Wife Swap. Wife Swap will air weekdays at 3:00pm & 4:00pm ET/PT. At 3pm it will replace a movie and the 4pm airing will replace an hour of The Golden Girls. Golden Girls will still remain in the 9am hour and 1am hour. It was originally announced for October, but it will air earlier. There will be an Army Wives marathon on Labor Day from 11am-9pm. There are no other real changes, but I adivse you to view the full Lifetime September 2008 line-up!
Stay tuned tomorrow for another Fall line-up!

TV Land has made some one-time changes for this week, for more promotion for the original series Family Foreman. They will wraparound the series with The Cosby Show tonight from 8-10pm and again from 2-4am. Then on the weekend, Family Foreman encores will get a boost from The Jeffersons on Saturday from 1pm-4:30pm, while The Cosby Show will air out of the encores from 6pm-8:30pm and again from 1am-6am. Finally, this Sunday Cosby Show will be used from 11pm-6am following encores of Family Foreman. Check our TV Land July thread, for details. We'll keep you up to date, if TV Land does something similar for next week.
We mentioned before that BET now has a rotating sitcom wheel from 9-11am each weekday morning beginning this week, with Thea, Diff'rent Strokes, The Parkers, Girlfriends, and Sanford airing each day. BET aired Thea on Monday and Diff'rent Strokes on Tuesday this week, but now they have made a change. Diff'rent Strokes will air Wed-Fri mornings this week instead of the other three shows. No reason was given for the change. So what about next week? As of now, Thea is slated for Monday and Friday and Diff'rent Strokes Tuesday through Thursday. So it seems they are not going to air Girlfriends, The Parkers and Sanford in this wheel afterall. Check out the episode information for the remainder of this week and next week, if you want to know the episodes.

Fall Schedules Central: ABC Family September 2008; WGN's Mork and Mindy and Coach Marathons; Nick at Nite Gets Original Animated Series for 2009

It's that time of year again where we give you the fall line-ups for the cable networks. TV Land September 2008 is the only one we have given thus far...but now more will be posted. We start off our consecutive fall line-ups with ABC Family September 2008 today. As we mentioned a lot already, ABC Family will be adding reruns of the popular ABC 2001-2005 sitcom My Wife & Kids starring Damon Wayans. Now we have the full details. The show will launch on Monday, September 1 with a Labor Day marathon from 12pm-10pm. Then effective Tuesday, September 2 My Wife & Kids will join the regular ABC Family line-up airing weeknights at 6:00pm & 6:30pm ET/PT replacing 8 Simple Rules, which will move to 3:00pm & 3:30pm replacing the second Full House hour, which is now gone. Full House will remain at 12 noon and 12:30pm ET/PT. My Wife & Kids will also air Sunday mornings at 10:00am & 10:30am. There will be no other schedule changes to the line-up. To see how the full regular schedule looks, I advise to you view our ABC Family September 2008 thread. Other ABC Family September highlights include the six-hour mini-series Samurai Girl airing Friday, September 5 through Sunday, September 7 at 8pm-10pm each night, with the whole six-parter airing back-to-back 4-10pm on Sunday. The Secret Life of The American Teenager concludes its first half of the season on Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 8pm, but before that a marathon will air from 11am-8pm. Finally, Lincoln Heights returns for an all-new season the following week on Tuesday, September 15 at 8pm, but before that catch-up with memorable episodes from 11am-8pm earlier in the day. In the coming days you'll see the September line-ups for Lifetime, WGN America, TV One, FX, TBS, WE tv, ION Television, Nick at Nite, BET and The Hallmark Channel. Broadcast wise, we will do WPIX's fall line-up, and possibly WNYW and WWOR, since I'm in New York. We will also do a Canadian fall lineup on one day with all the notable Canadian Cable stations such as TV Land Canada and DejaView. We recently gave you details on WGN America's Golden Oldies Week (Aug. 4-7), now WGN America has released that it will have a Mork & Mindy slot on Tuesday, August 19 from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT)! It is sort of strange that Mork & Mindy will be isolated on its own for this one-time-only marathon. Other shows usually aired during a theme week. There will be many new shows coming to WGN America this fall that I will reveal sometime this week in our ongoing fall 2008 series reports. One of the series that will air this fall is the '90s ABC sitcom Coach. We will have more on its regular slot later in the fall schedule, but in August Coach will get a block on Friday, August 29 from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT). It will also get a full-fledge marathon the following day, Saturday, August 30 from 12 noon to 7pm ET (that's 9am-4pm PT). Coach is coming just in time for the football season! We don't have episode info for the Coach marathons yet, but we do have the episodes for the Mork & Mindy block on Aug. 19...head on over to our message board to view that. Nick at Nite will bring in another original animated series. They had one some years back called Fatherhood, from Bill Cosby, now they will have another come in summer 2009. As TV's home for the modern-day family comedy, top-rated Nick at Nite has green-lit Glenn Martin DDS., the first television series from Michael Eisner's Tornante Animation, cuing production on 20 episodes of the original, stop-motion primetime program. Giving the American family a whole new look, the 'trailblazing' series buckles up with the Martins in their toothbrush-topped dental mobile as they leave suburbia behind in the rear-view mirror and embark on a cross-country adventure. Eisner and the newly formed division of The Tornante Company -- Tornante Animation, have enlisted Eric Fogel -- the creative force behind MTV's hit Celebrity Deathmatch -- to help design the series. Nick at Nite will promote the series a lot leading up to the premiere in Summer 2009. This will also give them an extra promo push for the hit comedy Everybody Hates Chris, from co-creator and narrator Chris Rock and inspired by his real-life childhood experiences, which will launch in September 2009.

RTN's New Line-Up and Answers To Fan Questions; New Digital TV Channel Coming Nationwide With MGM Classics

As many of you with Retro Television Network (RTN) affiliates already know, RTN changed their line-up last week (July 21). They primarily had CBS-Paramount shows on their line-up such as Perry Mason, Happy Days, The Beverly Hillbillies, Family Ties, Gomer Pyle, Get Smart, etc. But they also had other studio shows mixed in such as NBC Universal and Stephen J. Cannell. They also seem to have a few Sony shows on some affiliates still, such as The Monkees and The Partridge Family. Now the CBS-Paramount deal has expired, so those shows are gone, and RTN currently has Universal and Cannell shows only. Some of these shows were already airing on many RTN affiliates, but now more are added such as Leave it to Beaver, Adam-12, Dragnet, Kate & Allie, McHale's Navy, and That's Incredible! With of course the classics like The A-Team, Knight Rider, Magnum P.I., Rockford Files, Ironside and many others remaining.
After this new schedule started, all the affiliates are almost the same (more uniform than before) as RTN is trying to air a nationwide line-up, as this might help them. This NBC Universal and Stephen J. Cannell line-up can let them do that, as some of the CBS-Paramount shows were also in syndication on another station in other markets (such as Matlock), that's why some shows weren't available in some markets. That is not to say the CBS-Paramount shows will ever return, but if this works, you can see them return. Also, RTN is not ruling out by signing more studio deals, such as Sony and Warner Bros. They are all for the viewers and classic TV.
Also, many of your local RTN affiliates have some rare programs listed on your local RTN TV listings such as Bachelor Father and Operation Petticoat listed but they haven't actually aired yet and more Leave it to Beaver is airing instead. Why? Because some of these shows have been stuck inside Universal's vault for many years and they are just now getting them out. Honestly, can you think of the last time Bachelor Father was aired? Also, if you recall there was a fire at Universal a few months ago, so that is a cause for this delay, too. RTN has told me they will indeed air these shows not airing yet. They will most likely start by this weekend (if not sooner), so keep checking! If not by this weekend, for sure at the latest by sometime next week. They will air! So get those DVRs/VCR's ready for rare Universal stuff like Operation Petticoat, Wagon Train, Run For Your Life, The Bold Ones, and Bachelor Father. Kudos to RTN for trying and bringing out the classics from the vault that have been barely seen in the last few decades.
Many of you also asked how come there hasn't been more announcements for some new RTN affiliates? Well, they were recently bought by another company (as we mentioned), and they are just settling in. You will see more announcements of new stations in the near future! If you don't have an RTN affiliate yet, don't worry, you could be next! RTN is very happy to note that Washington, D.C.'s RTN has gone live today! A big step! Nothing for New York yet, but those of you in the NY market, e-mail WCBS, WABC, WNBC or WNYW (Fox) and suggest to add RTN to their digital broadcasts.
So how can YOU help RTN? RTN says if you really like RTN, e-mail/call your local affiliates and tell them you love RTN and watch it everyday. This is the best way to help RTN as this shows the affiliates that viewers are happy and tuning in. The comments about RTN are then sent to RTN themselves, so they get each comment you make to your local affiliate. So go to your local station's website or call them (if you don't know your RTN's website, email me and I'll tell you!)!
Head on over to our RTN thread where you can see/post RTN schedules, see press releases, post your comments and more! It is 22 pages so far and growing!

From the people who brought you Me-TV and Me-Too in Chicago will bring you "This TV" coming nationwide to a digital channel near you in October! Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) is rolling out "This TV," a new ad-supported around-the-clock linear digital channel designed for broadcast stations' digital spectrum. The new network, a partnership with Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting (Me-TV, Me-Too, WCIU owners), will launch this fall. It gets immediate carriage with Weigel stations in Chicago, Milwaukee and South Bend, Ind. The idea is for MGM is to leverage its library of more than 4,100 films and 10,000 hours of television programming, but also to give stations the chance to localize the look.
This TV will offer stations programming all day every day, but stations signing on have the right to a certain number of pre-emptions so that they can localize the channel with sports, news and weather if they want.
The lineup will be film-heavy, with possible MGM titles including 12 Angry Men and Class, starring Rob Lowe. It also will have some MGM classic television shows mixed in there ranging from The Addams Family to Thirtysomething. We're working on a full list of shows they will air, so come on back...but beware the channel will mainly be a film network.
The line-up will also feature children's programming from Cookie Jar Entertainment, with shows such as Johnny Test, The Doodlebops and Caillou.
The goal for the network is at least a 40% clearance across the country within the first year.
We will have more on This TV for sure soon! So stay tuned!

Summer Week 9 Sitcom Ratings; Coming Week Preview

The dog days of summer continue. Only repeats and reality series are airing, but there have been some scripted originals for the summer as well. We are just looking at the sitcom ratings, but we will be back in the fall with our normal weekly reports. Here is week 9 for the summer for sitcoms:

Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of July 14-20)

• 'Til Death (Fox) 2 episodes - Just 1.71 and 2.03 million for two repeats...ouch.
  
• The Simpsons (Fox) - 3.57 million for a repeat...not good.
  
• King of the Hill (Fox) - 3.46 million for a repeat...but decent retention from lead-in at least.
  
• Family Guy (Fox) - 4.41 million for an encore telecast, jumping about a million from the lead-in. Where would this block be without this show?
• American Dad! (Fox) - 3.95 million for a repeat...OK retention, but still the second highest rated show of the block.
  
• Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) - 1.04 million this week for a repeat, not bad, but nothing to write home for.
  
• Aliens in America (The CW) - 880,000 viewers for a repeat...it's about time they dump this and start double pumping Chris to get ready for the fall.
  
• The Game (The CW) - 830,000 viewers for a repeat, needs to repeat better than this.
• Girlfriends (The CW) - 850,000 viewers for a repeat...needs to do better, but this show is not returning anyway.

Summer Week 9 (July 21-27)

Monday Sitcoms

• The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 5.47 million for a repeat...normal encore levels of late.
  
• How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - 5.75 million for a repeat airing, decent for building from the lead-in.
• Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 9.76 million for a repeat, as nearly all the sitcoms of today can't even get that for a new episode.
• Old Christine (CBS) - 7.4 million for a repeat...best numbers in the half-hour in a while.
  

Tuesday Sitcoms

• None...watch Wipeout on ABC, very funny show that is not a sitcom. Big Balls and Jill Wagner, what more can you ask for?
  

Wednesday Sitcoms

• Under One Roof (MyNetworkTV) - Repeat did 970,000 viewers. You know these sitcoms and shows on MNT and The CW are doing terrible compared to cable networks like Nick at Nite where shows like Family Matters and George Lopez do 2 million or more regularly.
  

Thursday Sitcoms

• None.
  

Friday Sitcoms

• None

Saturday Sitcoms

• The Office (NBC) 2 episodes - Two repeats on a special night did terrible averaging a prelim 1.56 million...what do you expect on a Saturday? The previous two weeks My Name is Earl aired and it did terrible as well...one of them did like a 1.1 rating.
  

Tonight you can catch encores of The CW sitcoms from 8-10pm and Fox's animated comedies (and 'Til Death repeats from 7-8pm) are encoring.

Coming Week Preview (Summer Week 10) for Broadcast (With Some Cable Notes):
So what is new or notable this week that you might want to catch? Tonight CBS will Big Brother at 8pm out of a new 60 Minutes at 7pm. NBC has yet another Dateline from 9-11pm. ABC will air the west coast auditions of High School Musical: Get in the Picture at 8pm. A pretty quite night and dare I say it boring? Cable is the way to go with Lifetime's Army Wives and USA's In Plain Sight at 10p, and tonight is the second season premiere of Mad Men on AMC, also at 10pm. Can these three beat the networks at 10pm?
On Monday, ABC will be new with High School Musical: Get in the Picture at 8pm that will reveal the west finalists before next week the show goes live with the east and west finalists, followed by week two of Wanna Bet? (Tom Bergeron guests), and a new The Mole at 10pm. NBC has American Gladiators at 8pm, followed by Nashville Star at 9pm and Dateline at 10pm. Quiet night with just ABC and NBC airing new programming...but cable again will be the best draw with The Closer and Saving Grace on TNT from 9-11pm. ABC Family also has a new Middleman at 10pm.
On Tuesday ABC has the hilarious hit Wipeout, I Survived a Japanese Game Show & a Primetime special from 8-11pm. NBC has Celebrity Family Feud at 8pm leading into the summer hit America's Got Talent which is now only an hour. And the Tuesday edition of Big Brother at 9pm on CBS. Two new Jail episodes on MyNetwork TV will air at 8pm. Cable wise ABC Family's Secret Life of an American Teenager is doing well and will air at 8pm and at 10pm on Lifetime it is How To Look Good Naked. Best night of the summer!
On Wednesday Fox will air a new two-hour episode of So You Think You Can Dance. NBC will have an all-new Baby Borrowers at 9pm following a repeat at 8pm. CBS has the recently moved Greatest American Dog at 8pm. ABC will be new at 10pm with Primetime: Crime. Maybe this is the worst night for the summer (not counting Friday/Saturday).
On Thursday ABC will air ABCNews' Hopkins series at 10pm. Fox will also be new all-night with the return of Don't Forget the Lyrics! followed by So You Think You Can Dance-Thursday. CBS at 8pm now has Big Brother and another episode of the summer scripted series Flashtown at 10pm, which will air the second time on its new night. And NBC will air a new episode of the low-rated Last Comic Standing from 8-10pm followed by low rated drama Fear Itself at 10. On cable, TBS will air new episodes of sitcoms The Bill Engvall Show and My Boys from 9-10pm and USA Network has Burn Notice at 10pm.
On Friday, NBC will be new from 9-11pm with another edition (two hours again, too) of Dateline. CBS has the summer drama Swingtown at 10pm which is on its last legs. The CW of course will have WWE Smackdown.
Saturday will have Cops and AMW on Fox and WWE Saturday Night Main Event special on NBC at 9pm, while ABC will counter program with two repeats of the high rated Wipeout from 8-10...which is worth watching more than once as always.

Mini-DVD Review: Freakazoid! Season 1 (July 29)

It is Saturday, so that must mean it is time for mini-DVD reviews! Today we have we take a look at Warner Home Video's animated series Freakazoid! The Complete 1st Season. Freakazoid! was an animated series on Kids' WB. See Seth Thrasher's mini-DVD review of Freakazoid! - The Complete 1st Season:

Freakazoid - The Complete 1st Season (Warner, $26.98) is finally on DVD. Featuring the craziest hero in all of cartoons, Freakazoid ran for a year and a half on Kids WB in the mid 90s -- right smack dab in the middle of the huge wave of great cartoons of the mid 90s. In 1995 -- the year of Freakazoid's debut, you had on the air dozens of cartoon series all of whom were equally good, if not vastly different series on the air. Lost in the shuffle was this crazy cartoon. Freakazoid starts out as mild-mannered geek Dexter Douglas. After a string of nonsense gets typed into his keyboard while surfing around in cyberspace he gets zapped into the internet where he gains every last bit of information on the internet. Stop and really think about just about every superhero origin story. They ultimately make about as much sense as this one does. Come on, aliens from an exploding planet send their kid here, and he happens to react *really* well to our sun, giving him super-strength, flying, and other powers? Doesn't make much sense either when you think about it THAT way. Anyway, one of the effects of this is that the superhero that results, while very fast, strong, and blue -- is that when he's in Freakazoid form he's pretty much completely insane. It's this insanity that drives much of the show.
Presented here are the first 14 episodes of the series. Considering I was under the assumption that there were only 13 actual episodes in season one, I checked. Included in the set is not only all 13 regular episodes from season one, but one of the compilation episodes (with two acts from previous episodes thrown together) from Summer 1996 as well. This compilation episode is the sixth on the DVD, and features The Cloud (from the later 11th episode), and Candle Jack (from the previous 2nd episode). Redundancy -- neat! Freakazoid used a lot of pop culture references -- and as a result led to guest stars appearing. In addition, a couple of names you might recognize played recurring characters. See if you can spot who voices what – it's incredibly easy! Special guests include Mark Hamill, Ricardo Montalban, Ben Stein, Rose Marie, Bebe Neuwirth, and of course, TV's Craig Ferguson, whose Late Late Show I'm a huge fan of.
I think you can tell when I love a show when I spend so much of a mini review talking about the show. I really wish I could've given this show the full review treatment -- but due to space concerns we now move ahead in the review to the technical side.
This is probably a good time to mention that while disc 1 is one-sided disc 2 is dual-sided. Warner wasn't willing to put more than 6 episodes per disc/side, and so as a result the final two episodes and the features spill over to the next side. The video quality is just fine -- perhaps a bit soft, but that's really not out of the ordinary for animation from the mid 90s. Audio is just fine – And by just fine I mean Dolby 5.1! Yes, for a cartoon from the mid 90s that isn't as remembered as its counterparts, Warner still gave it 5.1 audio. Says so right on the box. In fact, this cartoon got a lot of extra little things put into the release -- there are even several special features! There’s commentary! on three of the fourteen episodes with senior producer Tom Ruegger, writer John McCann, and the voice of Freakazoid Paul Rugg. But wait, there's more! We also have Freakazoid-less Freakazoid promos. The network wanted footage, and they didn't have anything to give them. So, inspired in part by Carnival Cruise Lines, they created some crazy promos for the show. There’s about a minute introduction by the staff to explain just how these incredibly oddball promos came to be, and then the 4 minutes of promos. There's also a feature detailing how Freakazoid went from a super-legitimate hero to the comedy series it became. One day, you wake up and you're in the middle of a colonoscopy...
As if what may be the longest "mini" review in history didn't already tell you, I love this show. Even if the technical side were crap, I’d still tell you to buy it because the show's good. But the technical side is really *really* good too! I was going to give it a solid 4.5, but after having seen what I've given 4's to around here, it deserves the half-point for the full five. 5.1 Audio! Commentary! Promos! Freakazoid! Buy it!

-- Reviewed by Seth Thrasher
(5/5 stars)

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Related links:
SitcomsOnline.com Full DVD Reviews Page
Freakazoid! TV.com Page

Nick at Nite August 2008 Sees Wedding Themed Week; Remembering I Dream of Jeannie Director Claudio Guzman

This August on Nick at Nite will see no schedules changes, as of now. However, they do have a week-long stunt in the 9pm hour for Aug. 3-7! It's "Wedding Unveiled Week" on Nick at Nite from Sunday, August 3 through Thursday, August 7 each night in the 9pm ET/PT hour! Nothing brings a family together like a wedding. Nick at Nite invites viewers to a week of matrimony madness with your favorite Nick at Nite families. So get ready to celebrate with singing preachers and bad wedding singers as Nick at Nite lets you tie the knot from the comfort of your own couch, without all the stress ... with episodes of Family Matters, Fresh Prince, George Lopez and Home Improvement! See Mother Winslow get married to Fletcher on Family Matters and George Lopez renewing his vows with Angie...or is he?
For episode details and more on Nick at Nite August 2008, head on over to our Nick at Nite August 2008 thread.

We have another death to report. Claudio Guzman, director and producer of the '60s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie passed away July 12 of pneumonia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a long illness. He was the main director of the Barba Eden-Larry Hagman sitcom I Dream of Jeannie and also served as producer for that NBC series. He helped create Villa Alegre, a half-hour show in the tradition of Sesame Street.
In a career that spanned four decades, Guzman directed almost 30 TV shows, including several episodes of The Patty Duke Show in the mid-1960s and Harper Valley P.T.A. in 1981, reuniting him with Barbara Eden. His other directorial work included an episode or two of The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Partridge Family, The Fugitive, Love on a Rooftop, The Flying Nun, The Good Life, California Fever and Here's Boomer.
He was also an art director for many series such as The Lucy Show, Date with the Angels, The Real McCoys, Where's Raymond, December Bride, and Make Room for Daddy.
He was nominated twice for a Daytime Emmy for Villa Alegre and once for a Primetime Emmy for art direction on Where's Raymond?
Mr. Guzman will be missed. He was 80.

More TV Classics Come to CBS.com; ION Switches Slots for Cooper and Harvey Starting in August

CBS Interactive announced it has released three more of its classic television programs and related clips, all available now across the CBS Audience Network, such as at CBS.com/Classics. The new shows that are available for viewing include Dynasty Seasons 1 and 2, Beauty and the Beast Season 1, and Have Gun, Will Travel Season 1. These newly added shows will join the other Television Classics that were made available online earlier this year, as we announced.
These new shows are in addition to the other Television Classics previously added to the CBS Audience Network and CBS.com including: The Love Boat, Beverly Hills 90210, Twin Peaks, Family Ties, Perry Mason, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, MacGyver, Hawaii Five-0, and Melrose Place.

ION Television has announced a slight schedule change for August. We gave you their August highlights already and yesterday we confirmed the Friday slots for two new short series, but now they have announced a change to the regular line-up. Weekdays 5pm and 6pm will be switched now. So that means Hangin' with Mr. Cooper goes from the 5pm hour to the 6pm hour, while The Steve Harvey Show goes from the 6pm hour down to the 5pm hour. This will start Monday, August 4. Everything else will remain intact.
Now their September schedule they announced at their upfront might change a bit we think, but we will let you know when September is officially announced in a few weeks with the additions of Boston Legal and M*A*S*H, so stay tuned!

TidalTV.com Adds Classic Sony TV Series Episodes; ION Confirms RHI Series on Fridays

TidalTV, Inc. (www.tidaltv.com), a new online service which offers free access to programming from television and the web, announced today the addition of Sony Pictures Television's popular television series to the TidalTV channel lineup.
Over 500 full-length episodes from the series that defined American television, including Married... with Children, Party of Five, Bewitched, The Facts of Life and more, are now playing on TidalTV. See George Clooney on The Facts of Life, Alyssa Milano on Who's the Boss?, Christina Applegate on Married... with Children all over again!
TidalTV also features "The Minisode Network," which offers the Sony shows you love -- only shorter! These pint-sized programming portions are the perfect snack during your lunch hour at the office or while relaxing at home.
Coming up in July, viewers can catch TidalTV's famous guest stars programming block with appearances from Mr. T, Ben Stiller, Jason Bateman, Milla Jovovich and more on shows including Who's the Boss?, Diff'rent Strokes and Silver Spoons. In addition, TidalTV will air its "Battle of the Blondes" programming special featuring action-packed episodes of Charlie's Angels, V.I.P. and T.J. Hooker.
Currently you can see full episodes of Battledome, Dilbert, Jack Chan Adventures, One Day at a Time, Party of Five, T.J. Hooker, The Facts of Life, plus the Minisode Network featuring more Sony classics!
That's www.tidaltv.com, please check it out and visit it everyday for your favorite classic Sony TV shows!

About two weeks ago we gave you ION Television's August 2008 highlights & line-up and we mentioned Flash Gordon and The 10th Kingdom coming to Fridays. Now ION has confirmed that. Two of RHI Entertainment's most popular productions will be seen on the ION Television Network's RHI Movie Weekend beginning Friday, August 1 (7/6c). Flash Gordon, a 22-hour adventure series, and The 10th Kingdom, a 10-hour fantasy saga, will be featured weekly in a two-hour Friday evening programming block. The special broadcasts begin August 1 with Episodes 1 and 2 of Flash Gordon. Starting August 8, ION Television will pair one hour of Flash Gordon with one hour of The 10th Kingdom each week from 7-9pm ET/PT.
Flash Gordon scored with viewers when it originally aired on Sci Fi Channel in the summer of 2007, delivering the network's best series premiere telecast for 2007. Flash Gordon is produced by Reunion Pictures. The producers are Matthew O’Connor and Tom Rowe.
John Larroquette, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Ann Margret, Rutger Hauer, Camryn Manheim, Ed O'Neil, and Dianne Wiest are among the Emmy, Oscar and Golden Globe-winning talent headlining an all-star cast in The 10th Kingdom, a 10-hour miniseries that premiered on NBC in February 2000. The upcoming broadcast on ION Television marks the first time the series has ever been seen in one-hour segments in the U.S.

FX Schedule Changes; Remembering Golden Girls' Estelle Getty, Lifetime Honors Estelle with Marathon on Friday

FX made some last minute schedule changes last week (effective July 14) but we didn't have time to inform me as we were swamped with so much other stuff. FX has removed Married...with Children, Dharma & Greg and Buffy the Vampire Slayer from its line-up. The first two were airing weekdays in the daytime while Buffy was airing weekends at 7am. The Practice was only airing weekends 8am but now it seems to be airing more. It is airing weekdays at 8am and weekends 7 & 8am. Also, FX will bring back disgusting reality series Fear Factor back from the dead starting July 28. It won't be airing in set slots, though. Look for it airing Monday afternoons around 1pm, Tuesday nights around 1am, Wednesday afternoons around 1pm & late nights around 1am, and some Thursday afternoons around 1pm.
As for the rest of the schedule, after 1pm the schedule is not really constant, but here is how it looks generally:
Weekdays - 7-8am Malcolm in the Middle, 8am The Practice, 9-10am Spin City, 10am Movie, 12-1pm Spin City, 1-6pm various back to back slots of King of the Hill, That '70s Show and Malcolm in the Middle (with some Fear Factor mixed in around 1pm on some days), 6pm-11pm movies/originals, 11pm-2am usually marathons of That '70s Show or King of the Hill (with an episode of Fear Factor on a few days days around 1am).
Weekends - 7am The Practice, 8am The Practice, 9am-10am Spin City (on some weekends), Movies otherwise, 10am-2am Movies/originals.
These changes are probably temporary (as of now through 9/1, but could be a bit more beyond that) and we will let you know the fall line-up as soon as we know. Married...with Children of course is expiring at the end of August, but we have seen the last of it on FX already (last airing was July 13 at 1am)...it'll be coming to Spike TV and TBS this September, as we have mentioned many times already. No idea if Buffy or Dharma are expiring, though, but we will try to find out. Dharma & Greg will still air on WE tv weekdays 11am-12pm. Bernie Mac is coming this Fall to FX we know in a four-year-deal...more info on that soon. Stay tuned!

We have yet another TV related passing to tell you. This time it is fan favorite Estelle Getty. Estelle of course is best known for her role as Sophia Petrillo on the sitcom The Golden Girls. She died this morning (Tuesday, July 22 at 5:35am PT) in Los Angeles. Estelle had been suffering from Dementia with Lewy bodies for the last 8 years or so.
Estelle had been nominated for an Emmy seven times for her role on The Golden Girls, winning in 1988. She was also nominated three times for a Golden Globe, winning in 1986.
Before The Golden Girls, her acting career started in 1978. She got her start in the Yiddish theater, and her most important early role was playing Harvey Fierstein's mother on Broadway in the play Torch Song Trilogy. She then moved on to films, with her most famous ones such as Tootsie (1982) and Mask (1985). She also guest starred on some series such Cagney & Lacey, Hotel, One of the Boys, and Newhart before getting The Golden Girls in 1985. During the run of The Golden Girls, she played Sophia Petrillo on other series as well. She guest starred a few times on the spin-off series Empty Nest. She also guest starred as Sophia on the sitcom Blossom in 1991, an NBC series at the time of The Golden Girls. After The Golden Girls ended in 1992 on NBC, CBS did a follow-up series called The Golden Palace, where the girls work at a hotel. Everyone came back except Bea Arthur (she did guest star a few time though). The sitcom lasted one season and also starred Don Cheadle and Cheech Marin. She once again played the role of Sophia on an episode of the Empty Nest spin-off series Nurses in 1993.
She guest starred on many series not playing Sophia as well. She played herself on episodes of sitcoms such as The John Larroquette Show, The Nanny, and It's Like You Know. She also guest starred on series such as City, The Fanelli Boys, Touched by an Angel, Hollywood Squares, Brotherly Love, Mad About You, and Ladies Man. She continued on film as well with movies such as Stuart Little and The Million Dollar Kid.
Estelle will be deeply missed by not only Golden Girls fans but by all sitcom fans.
UPDATE: This Friday, July 25, Lifetime Television will pay a special on-air and online tribute to Estelle Getty. July 25 is also her birthday. From 12-5PM (ET/PT), Lifetime will air 10 episodes showcasing 'Sophia' in all her blustering, sarcastic splendor, beginning with the show's pilot. The last episode at 4:30PM (ET/PT) will be the #1 favorite "Sophia episode" as decided through a vote of her legion of devoted fans at myLifetime.com.
Estelle would have been 85 on Friday, so she passed away three days before her 85th birthday. I'm sure many of you don't know this, but Bea Arthur is actually a bit older then Estelle, despite Bea playing her daughter on The Golden Girls.
The following was stated on her website:
"To all of Estelle's Fans,
Sadly, today July 22, 2008 at 5:35 a.m. Pacific Time, we said our last good-byes to our little friend Estelle, who passed away and made her journey to the great beyond. Although it was a trip that she never wanted to take, she went gracefully, in the comfort of her own home, surrounded by her family and her very loving care-givers.
Estelle's legacy will live on and on through the comedy and laughter she gave to us all, which will forever keep us laughing out loud."