Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: Cable Day 2; More Family Matters on Nick at Nite
Among off-network programming, WE tv has acquired: The Golden Girls (March 2009), Ghost Whisperer (Fall 2009) and the last three seasons of Girlfriends (TBD date).
Moving on to the MTV Networks, Comedy Central is launching a new version of The Gong Show starring Dave Attell and a new comedy starring David Alan Grier titled Chocolate News.
Gone Country returns to CMT featuring more antics from an eclectic cast of mainstream celebrities who move to Nashville with the hopes of writing and recording a country hit, under the guidance of host John Rich. The series returns in August. Also in August, popular cast favorites from season one of Gone Country return for a new foray into country living in Outsiders' Inn. Maureen McCormick is among the celebs returning.
TV Land is touting its original series Family Foreman, launching July 16. This six episode series gives viewers an intimate look at George Foreman, the former heavyweight boxing champ who reinvented himself as a successful businessman and pitchman. Viewers will get a rare glimpse into his home life as a minister and father of ten children, five of whom are also named George Edward Foreman.
Off-network wise, TV Land will add Scrubs, sharing it with sister station Comedy Central, this September, while also returning The Cosby Show.
VH-1 has two all-new series in the works starring celebs. Vivica A. Fox, actress, producer and fashion luminary, is bringing her celebrity style to a new competition show ripped from the pages of fashion magazines. This new series searches for the next great celebrity stylist who has what it takes to become the stylist to the stars through their ability to create a chic masterpiece using the three key elements of fashion - hair, make-up and wardrobe. The series is called Glam God and will be hosted by Fox herself. VH1 is also going to air a show called The Cho Show. This series follows the irrepressible Margaret Cho and her eccentric entourage as she fights to be herself in an industry that in the past wanted her to be something other than herself.
Meanwhile, MTV is promoting its new series From Gs to Gents, which launches next Tuesday. From executive producer Jamie Foxx, this series showcases a group of guys competing to become gentlemen.
National Geographic Channel will have an "Expedition Week" in November. This first annual Expedition Week embarks on seven straight nights of daring missions, from the ancient pyramids to the ocean depths, and from lost cities to outer space with the latest generation of intrepid explorers. Premieres include: Unlocking the Great Pyramid, Live from the Moon, Shipwreck! Captain Kidd, The Real George Washington, Explorer: Lost City of the Amazon, Egypt Unwrapped, and Herod's Lost Tomb.
But before that, in September Nat Geo will premiere two series, one is a returning series. Dogtown returns for another season, but this time they will be saving the Michael Vick dogs! Also, they will premiere World's Toughest Fixes. This new series takes viewers around the world and inside some of the most daunting repair jobs imaginable.
Moving on to the A&E Networks...first up is A&E itself. A&E is launching a new drama next Tuesday titled The Cleaner. Inspired by the true story of a real life "extreme interventionist," Benjamin Bratt stars as William "The Cleaner" Banks who, after hitting rock-bottom from his own addictions after the birth of his daughter, strikes a tentative deal with God.
Biography Channel (aka Bio) announced the pickup of Shatner's Raw Nerve, an offbeat celebrity interview series hosted by Boston Legal and Star Trek star William Shatner. It will premiere August 19 at 10pm. Among his guests will be ABC's Jimmy Kimmel, Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy, Valerie Bertinelli, Jon Voight, Judge Judy, Jenna Jameson and Kelsey Grammer. Also in development at Bio are The Chris Isaak Hour (Isaak talking to music celebs), Female Forces (a female version of Cops), Why I Ran (police chases).
History will have two series coming in the fourth quarter. Sandhogs and Einstein. Working in extremely hazardous conditions, Sandhogs toil underneath the streets just as they have for the past 150 years. Having built nearly every underground project in New York City, they are an instrumental part of the development of the city. This new "American Original" series Sandhogs puts the spotlight on a world rarely seen, but one that is integral to the lifeblood of America's largest city.
Einstein is the extraordinary history of Albert Einstein's quest, lasting two decades, to prove his universe-shattering Theory of General Relativity. Einstein asked the world's astronomers to chase a solar eclipse, and photograph the elusive ripple in space. Eventually, he became a global icon unlike any other before or since. Today, Einstein's ideas continue to push scientists farther, and deeper, into the Universe than even he could have imagined. Filmed in the U.S. and Europe, the special is enriched by interviews with leading physicists, astronomers, astrophysicists, science historians and Einstein scholars.
Nick at Nite has made more overnight changes to its line-up. The changes will occur on weekend late nights. Late Friday nights (early Saturday morning), from 4-5am will be more Fresh Prince replacing The Cosby Show and 5-6am will be more Family Matters replacing Roseanne on this night. On Saturday nights (early sunday morning) Nick at Nite gives us a third hour of Family Matters airing 3-4am replacing an hour of Roseanne. Finally, on Sunday nights (early Mondays) we get an hour of Family Matters airing 2-3am replacing yet another Roseanne hour.
Confused? Then I suggest you head on to our message boards to see how the full line-up will be after these changes. Here is the Family Matters airing scorecard: Sun-Thurs 8:30 & 11pm (encores 4-5am), Fridays 12am & 5-6am, Saturdays 12-1am, 2-3am, & 3-4am, and Sundays 11pm-12am & 2-3am ET/PT. I am still updating the upcoming episodes list for you fans out there, since these changes are hard to follow. The Urkeman is certainly back in style in primetime!
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Summer 2008 TCA Press Tour: Cable Day 1
TV One was the first network to present. Among the announcements they made were details on their original series Black Men Revealed which launches its second season on July 20. It is the series that brings together males from all walks of life to frankly discuss and often explode the myths and truths surrounding black men. TV One will offer live, nightly primetime coverage of the Democratic Convention in Denver, followed by TV One Live: DNC Afterparty, a smart, irreverent and engaging hour that includes a uniquely African American cultural perspective on the events of the day. The special will air August 25-28. TV One also has a documentary special titled Murder in Black and White airing October 5. Murder In Black and White is a series of four documentary specials that explore unsolved civil rights murders from which information uncovered will be shared with the FBI's Cold Case Unit in an effort to bring to justice murderers who may still be alive.
Among the acquired series TV One will launch this fall is the previously announced sitcom Living Single in September from the Warner Bros. Television deal.
The Hallmark Channel was up next and they announced they have 30 TV Movies in the works with many familiar stars. Among the stars are Jane Seymour in Dear Prudence, Mark Consuelos, Chandra West and Corbin Bernsen in For the Love of Grace, Florence Henderson and Donna Mills in Ladies of the House, Ed Asner and Alex Black in Generation Gap, Daphne Zuniga and Greg Evigan in Mail Order Bride, Tom Arnold, Candace Cameron and Barbara Niven in Moonlight & Mistletoe (November), Cicely Tyson, Eriq La Salle, Michael Michele and Michael Beach in Relative Stranger, Lesley Ann Warren and Meredith Baxter in Bound by a Secret, Chandra Wilson, Ben Vereen, Kathleen Munroe and LAPD Sgt. Tami Baumann in Accidental Friendship (Nov. 15), Jacqueline Bisset in An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving (Nov. 22), Jason Priestley, Teri Polo and Cheech Marin in Expecting a Miracle (Jan. 3), and Cloris Leachman and Haley Duff in Love Takes Wing (early 2009). A holiday movie titled The Christmas Choir will air Dec. 6.
Among the reruns they will add are Cheers this fall and I Love Lucy & The Golden Girls in 2009.
Other networks went like HDnet announced a Sneak Preview series. It is partnered with HDNet's "Ultra Video On Demand" offering, allows cable subscribers access to movies PRIOR to the movie's theatrical premiere.
BBC America announced BBC World News America news. It provides a unique, international perspective on matters at home and abroad. Ted Koppel is joining the series as a contributing analyst. Also, BBC America announced Primeval, new series launching August 8. The past and present collide when evolutionary zoologist Nick Cutter (Douglas Henshall) discovers prehistoric creatures alive and well in the present day. Launching August 26, is Gavin & Stacey. This double BAFTA award-winning comedy from Steve Coogan's production company, Baby Cow, tells an endearing story of true love and human relationships. Gavin is an ordinary boy from England, Stacey is an ordinary girl from Wales. The two are obsessed with each other, yet they've only ever spoken on the phone. And Britz, coming in November, is a two-part thriller about a young brother and sister, Sohail and Nasima, and how they are pulled in radically different directions in the post 9/11 world.
style Network announced Ruby, a new unscripted series premiering November 9. It takes viewers inside the life of Ruby Gettinger, a 500-pound young woman living in Savannah, Georgia.
E! and G4 didn't announce anything really but further promoted E!'s The Soup and G4's Attack of the Show.
Stay tuned tomorrow for day two coverage of the summer TCA press tour as more networks go tomorrow, such as TV Land.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Summer 2008 TCA Cable Tour - July 8-11; NBC Universal Buys The Weather Channel; ION Reminds Us of Cooper
Up on Tuesday is: TV One, The Hallmark Channel, HDnet, BBC America, and Comcast's E!, style, & G4. Wednesday we have AMC, WE tv, MTV Networks (such as CMT, MTV, TV Land, VH1), National Geographic Channel, and A&E Networks (such as History and A&E). Thursday up at the panel are Discovery Networks (such as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC), ESPN, Sundance Channel, HBO, and GSN. Finally on Friday up are Turner Broadcasting (CNN, Cartoon Network, TNT, TBS), Fox Reality Channel, Starz, Lifetime, and IFC.
NBC Universal, Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire The Weather Channel properties from Landmark Communications. The Weather Channel will be operated as a separate entity, based in Atlanta, with management services to be provided by NBC Universal.
The transaction includes The Weather Channel Networks, the third-most-distributed cable network, seen in more than 97% of cable television homes in the U.S.; The Weather Channel Interactive, which includes weather.com, the nation's leading weather website, with nearly 40 million unique visitors per month, and a leading mobile business; and Weather Services International, a global leader in weather forecasting, with more than 5,500 clients worldwide. The transaction is expected to be completed by year-end, and is subject to receipt of customary regulatory approvals. NBC Universal, Bain Capital and The Blackstone Group announced on June 13, 2008, that they had entered into exclusive negotiations to purchase The Weather Channel properties.
NBC Universal will probably have much more details when they are up at the 2008 summer TCA press tour in a few weeks.
Of course there is still no new deal for the SAG (the actors). So there could be a chance the broadcast portion of ther TCA tour could be scratched. The last statement SAG released was on July 2:
The Screen Actors Guild national negotiating committee met with AMPTP negotiators today to present a series of substantive questions on the employers' proposed package. Guild negotiators and staff will further analyze and review the AMPTP's responses over the next several days in order to prepare a response to management's proposal.
Let's hope they can settle this because I sure don't want to cover another strike. The recent WGA strike is still fresh in my mind.
Finally, ION issued a reminder press release today on something we have known for a long time. ION Television announced today that, through a deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, it will launch the sitcom Hangin' with Mr. Cooper on its weeknight schedule beginning with two back-to-back episodes, airing July 7th (tonight) from 5 p.m.–6 p.m. (ET/PT). The popular series, in a branded "Laugh Attack" hour, will then continue in this timeslot Mondays through Fridays.
More info.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Summer Week 6 Sitcom Ratings; Coming Week Preview
Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of June 23-29)
- The Simpsons (Fox) - Preempted for a movie.
- Family Guy (Fox) - Preempted for a movie.
- American Dad! (Fox) - Preempted for a movie.
- Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) - Just 750,000 viewers this week for a repeat, but that was a tad up actually from the week before.
- The Game (The CW) - 940,000 viewers for a repeat...built from lead-in and exactly the same from previous week.
- Girlfriends (The CW) - 1.04 million for a repeat...better than previous week and the only show on The CW this week to go above a million...and this show is canceled now.
Summer Week 6 (June 30-July 6)
Monday Sitcoms
- The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 5.47 million for a repeat...a bit up from the previous week. Next two weeks the show will also repeat at 9:30pm starting tomorrow.
- How I Met Your Mother
- Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 8.48 million for a repeat, down week to week.
- Rules of Engagement (CBS) - 6.88 million for a repeat ... down as well from previous week...now this show is on hiatus.
Tuesday Sitcoms
- None...watch Wipeout on ABC, very funny show that is not a sitcom. There will be a Facts of Life reference soon.
- Under One Roof (MyNetworkTV) - 4th of July weekend, so we don't have final numbers yet for Wednesday and Thursday.
Thursday Sitcoms
- None.
Coming Week Preview (Summer Week 7) for Broadcast (With Some Cable Notes):
So what is new or notable this week that you might want to catch? Tonight CBS will air a new 60 Minutes I believe at 7pm followed by the season finale of Million Dollar Password at 8pm with guests Monique Coleman and Damien Fahey and NBC's U.S. Olympic Trials will air from 7-9pm, followed by a new Dateline from 9-11pm. A pretty quite night and dare I say it boring?
On Monday, ABC will be all-new with the two-hour finale of The Bachelorette followed by the After the Final Rose special, The Mole returns next week. NBC has American Gladiators at 8pm, followed by the trimmed down Nashville Star at 9pm and yet another Dateline at 10pm. Quiet night...ABC will bring in good ratings with that finale. Read yesterday's blog for all those July 7 reminders on cable.
On Tuesday Fox will be all-new with The Moment of Truth at 8pm and Hell's Kitchen at 9pm. ABC has the hilarious new hit Wipeout, I Survived a Japanese Game Show & Primetime: The Outsiders 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. This is the best night of the summer, as Wipeout is the perfect show to air in 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 and an all-new episode of the low-rated Celebrity Circus at 10. 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 episode three of the well liked ABCNews' Hopkins series at 10pm. Fox will also be new all-night with Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? followed by So You Think You Can Dance-Thursday. CBS will launch a new show at 8pm called Greatest American Dog, which to me seems like a show that will be a big bomb, and another episode of the summer scripted series Swingtown at 10pm, which has gone down each week. And NBC will air a new episode of the low-rated Last Comic Standing from 9-11pm following a repeat at 8pm. Low rated drama Fear Itself will return next week. On cable, TBS will air new episodes of sitcoms The Bill Engvall Show and My Boys from 9-10pm.
On Friday, ABC will be all-new, all-night on Friday with Dance Machine at 8 followed by the addictive game show Duel and the news magazine 20/20 closes the night at 10pm. NBC will be new from 9-11pm with another edition of Dateline. CBS will launch a new scripted drama actually at 10pm titled Flashpoint. Don't expect big numbers. The CW of course will have WWE Smackdown.
Saturday will have Cops and AMW on Fox and a two-hour 48 Hours on CBS from 9-11pm.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
July 7 Reminders; Remembering Lilyan Chauvin
First, WGN has an '80s week with ALF, Family Ties, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial and The Cosby Show all this week from 8-10pm ET (5-7pm PT). Read our original story for more details.
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper joins the ION Television line-up this Monday, July 7 airing weeknights at 5:00pm & 5:30pm ET/PT. Read our original story for details.
The Steve Harvey Show launches this weekend from 4-5pm, but it will officially join the line-up on Monday airing weekdays 4-5pm and weekends 12-1pm. Read our original story for details.
Remember starting Monday, July 7, we get two Family Matters airing a night now and also an overnight encore from 4-5am on Nick at Nite. Read our original story for more details.
Popular sitcom That '70s Show is now also on ABC Family as it launched this 4th of July with a marathon but it will regularly start on Monday airing weeknights 7-8pm, in addition to other slots. Read our original story for the complete details on that.
Classic TV western Maverick also launched with a 4th of July marathon but it officially joins the regular line-up on Monday airing weeknights at 6pm and Saturdays at 8am. Read our original story for all the details.
Finally, well this isn't a July 7 premiere, but it is a week of July 7 premiere, as we mentioned yesterday that drama Joan of Arcadia is coming to the Sci Fi Channel airing Fridays at 8pm starting July 11.
That sure is a slot of shows launching on July 7! Lucky 7 indeed! I hope I didn't miss anything we covered already. I think this reminder was needed, in case anyone forgot something. Happy watching on lucky July 7!
We leave you today with another TV passing. Lilyan Chauvin passed away at her Studio City home on Thursday, June 26, 2008 after a 40 year battle with breast cancer complicated by recent onset of congestive heart disease. She was not just an actress, she was also a host, DGA director, WGA writer, former VP of Women in Film, author, teacher and private coach.
Nominated for the Emmy Award in The Young and the Restless her dedication to the arts won her recognition to for Excellence in moral quality media. She was also a series regular on Days of Our Lives.
She held recurring roles on Mission Impossible, General Hospital and Falcon Crest. She guest starred on many series as well such as Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, One Day at a Time, Magnum P.I., Baywatch, Hart to Hart, Fantasy Island, The Bob Newhart Show, Dragnet, Adventures of Superman, Perry Mason, Friends, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, ER, Malcolm in the Middle, Alias, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The X-Files, Murder She Wrote, Frasier, USA High, The Pretender, Shashta McNasty, and recently on Ugly Betty.
On the big screen, she is known for her roles in Steven Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can, the Coen brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There, Stephan Hopkins' Predator 2 and she is also widely recognized for her role as Mrs. Tremont in Private Benjamin.
She will certainly be missed. She was 82.
Friday, July 04, 2008
Happy 4th of July...Marathon Time; Sci Fi Channel Schedule Updates
If you're staying indoors to beat the heat, then there are some marathons on TV for you!
Sci Fi will bring its Twilight Zone 4th of July marathon once again. It actually started Thursday and will run until early Saturday morning! TNT has what else, an all-day Law & Order marathon starting at 8am. USA has a JAG and the spin-off NCIS marathon starting at 10am until 11pm. TV Land has quite a few marathons, starting with original series She's Got The Look from 9am-2pm, followed by the classic sitcom I Love Lucy from 2pm-7pm and again from 1am-2pm the next day, followed by Hogan's Heroes on Saturday from 2pm-7pm and again Sunday from 1am-4pm. They will also run the movies National Lampoon's Vacation and National Lampoon's European Vacation this weekend. BET launches The Steve Harvey Show this weekend with hour slots from 4-5pm all weekend. FX will be king of the hill this 4th of July with a King of the Hill marathon from 9am-6pm. Encore Westerns will launch Maverick at high noon until midnight, pardners. ABC Family will launch That '70s Show with a marathon from 11am-7:30pm, leading into a Harry Potter weekend.
If you like more movies, TBS has some action movies starting at 10am while Lifetime brings Christmas to July with holiday movies starting at 9am. Fox Movie Channel will air an all day marathon of ID4, that's Independence Day starring Will Smith. Spike TV also has some movies on tap.
If you're in the Los Angeles, CA area, KTLA will air a cool sitcom marathon. Hang out and hang ten with the California surfer chick Gidget in The 4th of July Gidget Marathon on Friday, July 4 from 10am-3pm PT. Surfs up!
Other marathons include Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel, Predator related documentaries on MSNBC, Cheaters on G4, Comedy Central Presents on Comedy Central, America's Next Top Model on MTV, Chowder on Cartoon Network, Paranormal State on A&E, I Love New York on VH1, Family Reunion on TV One, Raw Nature on Animal Planet, What Not To Wear on TLC, The Next Food Network Star on Food Network, The Revolution on History, and more. Some weird stuff.
We mentioned like two months ago or so that Sci Fi Channel has struck a deal with CBS Paramount to air many shows. As you all know, Star Trek: The Next Generation has already started airing in a block on Mondays starting at 7pm. Slowly other shows will be incorporated. The should haven never been canceled drama Joan of Arcadia starring Amber Tamblyn, Joe Mantegna, Mary Steenburgen, and Jason Ritter is coming to Sci Fi next Friday (July 11) airing Fridays at 8PM. That is a nice tribute to the series, as the show originally aired Fridays at 8PM on CBS for its two seasons. Then in August, the drama series The Sentinel will be airing in the daytime rotation marathon (10am-4pm) in many spots starting in August. And in September, the drama Seven Days will get the weekday treatment, airing weekdays at 4pm starting September 2. So far no other news on the Paramount shows like Mork & Mindy and Highlander, but stay tuned, as soon as we know, we will post!
In other Sci Fi news, Lost reruns will air Mondays 7-11pm starting September 15, which means Star Trek: The Next Generation will be on the move to Tuesdays at 7pm.
Enjoy the fireworks and don't forget to come on back tomorrow to see the blog!
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Nick at Nite Overnight Change, 2nd Quarter Ratings, Family Matters Doing Well; Remembering Henry Beckman
Nick at Nite has issued their second quarter ratings. With its strongest showing in more than two years, Nick at Nite is total day's number-one basic cable network with Adults 18-49 (tied with TNT) and ranks second only to sister-channel Nickelodeon among total viewers in the just-completed second quarter 2008 (NMR: 3/31/08-6/29/08). Driven by George Lopez and Home Improvement, Nick at Nite has soared this quarter with high double-digit gains among its A18-49 and total viewer (P2+) audience.
With A18-49 this quarter in total day, Nick at Nite is ranked number one, averaging a 0.6 rating (676,000 viewers) and up 50% over last year. Among total viewers, the network delivered 1.5 million total viewers, up 22%.
Nick at Nite also ranks as the number-one basic cable network for W18-49 in total day this quarter. (0.8 rating (426,000 viewers), up 33% over last year). In prime time, Nick at Nite averaged a 0.7 rating (1.7 million viewers) in W18-49 -- up 40% over last year.
- George Lopez is the network's highest-rated program, and the network has experienced ratings growth each month since the show launched in October 2007. George Lopez averaged a 0.7 rating (773,000 viewers) A18-49 at 10 p.m. this quarter, up 75% over last year's time period. Launch to date, the program has grown 34% in the demo. George Lopez ratings have grown significantly since joining the Nick at Nite schedule in September 2007, and launch to date the show has grown +40%.
- Home Improvement also is a growth engine, averaging a 0.6 rating (683,000 viewers) A18-49 total day rating, and program ratings have grown 20% since it joined Nick at Nite in September 2007. In Prime, Home Improvement ratings are up 33% this quarter vs. last year.
- The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air continues to earn strong ratings for Nick at Nite. For the quarter, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air averaged a 0.6 rating (716,000 viewers) A18-49 total day rating, up 20% over last year.
- Original programming coming to Nick at Nite this year include the original TV family movie Gym Teacher, premiering Friday, Sept. 12 and starring Christopher Meloni; My Family's Got Guts, a family game show airing Monday, Sept. 15; Worldwide Fido Awards, a canine competition in October. Also coming in 2009 is the hit comedy Everybody Hates Chris, from co-creator and narrator Chris Rock and inspired by his real-life childhood experiences.
Although they haven't released a press release yet, Family Matters has done very well on the network since launching on Sunday. The launch marathon on Sunday from 9pm-4am did pretty well, especially from 10pm-3am, with big growths from the 9pm hour. The marathon delivered a full family audience averaging 1.9 million total viewers.
Then in the first two night in its regular timeslot of 11pm, it did a 0.7 rating in A18-49 on Monday and a 0.6 A18-49 on Tuesday, on par with its top guns George Lopez, Fresh Prince and Home Improvement. The Monday airing was one of the best for Nick at Nite for the night overall, if not the best, in households it did a 1.9 rating (which probably comes out to around 2.5 million viewers)! The 1.9 household rating for Monday's airing also beat the highest rating from the Sunday launch marathon which was a 1.7 household rating at 10:30pm. The Tuesday 11pm airing also did a solid 1.6 household rating. It looks like Urkel is here to stay!
Character actor Henry Beckman died Tuesday, June 17 in Barcelona, Spain. Beckman appeared in hundreds of TV shows, films and commercials in the U.S. and Canada, often playing heavies or roles requiring accents or foreign languages. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he served in the Canadian military during WWII and survived the Normandy invasion.
He guest starred in just about every show during the 1960s including Dennis the Menace, Hennesey, Dr. Kildare, Father of the Bride, My Favorite Martian, My Living Doll, The Jack Benny Program, The Munsters, Perry Mason, Adam-12, Flying Nun, Andy Griffith Show, The Monkees, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Twilight Zone. He had larger roles as George Anderson on Peyton Place and Colonel Harridan in McHale's Navy. He was also known for his recurring role as Captain Clancy in Here Come the Brides.
Beckman later appeared in shows including The Rockford Files, Bonanza, Here's Lucy, Mannix, Gunsmoke, Marcus Welby, Ironside, Barney Miller, Happy Days, Welcome Back Kotter, Fantasy Island, Quincy ME, Check It Out, MacGyver, The Commish, Columbo, and MANY more. More recently, he played Detective Briggs on The X-Files and on the syndicated series Cold Squad.
You all have seen him in something probably. What a great resume! He will be missed. He was 86.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
TV One August 2008 Highlights; Comedy Central Revives The Gong Show
During Labor Day Weekend, TV One will be working hard for the viewers with four days of marathons:
On Friday, August 29, beginning at 10pm and through Saturday, August 30 at 10pm, it's a battle of the 'child star divas' pitting Janet Jackson's Penny from Good Times vs. Raven-Symone's Nicole from Hangin' With Mr. Cooper in a 24-hour 'Child-Star Megathon,' with episodes of the two sitcoms back-to-back alternating in a 24-hour TV One Megathon. Viewers can vote for their favorite at tvoneonline.com.
On Sunday, August 31, beginning at 3pm and running until 10pm (encores 2-6am), it's all about Black Men as TV One salutes Black Men in a day long event that starts with a marathon of the sitcom Between Brothers about two brothers and their two college buddies living and working in Chicago that stars Kadeem Hardison, Dondre Whitfield, Tommy Davidson, and Kelly Perine.
On Labor Day itself, Monday, September 1, beginning at 10am and running until 6am, TV One presents a "Martin 'Labor Day Cliff-Hanger' Marathon." Join Martin, Tommy, Gina, Cole, and Pam as TV One presents a Labor-Day marathon that will have viewers on the edge of their seats with multiple cliff-hangers in a day-long holiday even featuring some of the best and most memorable Martin continuing storylines and conclusions without the wait.
There are no schedule changes in August to the regular schedule.
First we had news of The Match Game being revived on TBS for possible premiere (pilot just taped with celebs like Sarah Silverman), now another '70s classic will be revived later this month. The 1970s classic The Gong Show is back with new episodes and who better to host the return of the legendary talent showcase series than boundary-pushing comedy all-star Dave Attell? Viewers won't be able to contain their laughter (and their astonishment) when The Gong Show with Dave Attell premieres Thursday, July 17 at 10:00 p.m. on Comedy Central.
Executive Produced by Doug Robinson of Happy Madison Productions and Andrew Golder in association with Sony Pictures Television, The Gong Show with Dave Attell will showcase seven to ten off-beat and diverse acts judged by a revolving panel of three celebrity judges. At the end of each show, the act with the highest score will be crowned the winner! The premiere episode features celebrity judges Brian Posehn, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Steve Schirripa.
Judges featured throughout the season include Adam Carolla (The Man Show, Dancing with the Stars), Kate Walsh (Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy), Andy Dick (NewsRadio, Less than Perfect), Ron White, Dave Navarro, Greg Giraldo, Jim Norton and JB Smoove.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Nick at Nite July 2008 Highlights; TV Land Orders 2nd Season for She's Got The Look; AmericanLife TV Honors George Carlin
As we mentioned previously, Nick at Nite will premiere The N's new series Queen Bees and The N's Student Body with two simulcast airings on Friday, July 11 at 9pm and 10pm.
For the full regular schedule and details on the Nick at Nite July 2008 stunts, head on over to our Nick at Nite July 2008 thread.
Following impressive ratings gains and steady growth in popularity, TV Land has announced today that it has renewed its original reality series She's Got The Look for a second season. Emmy Award-Winner Allison Grodner will return as executive producer.
Premiering in 2009, the second season of She's Got The Look will expand from six episodes to eight and will again set out to discover a sophisticated, beautiful and confident woman 35 or older destined for supermodel stardom.
Season one of She's Got The Look has been averaging 633,000 total viewers, an increase of 17% versus channel total day average with a median age of 46. Among Adults 25-54, it has been posting a 0.4 rating (409,000 viewers), up 63% in both rating and viewers over channel total day average. Among Adults 40-54 it is posting a 0.5 rating (262,000 viewers), up 33% in rating and 34% in viewers.
The first season finale airs Wednesday, July 9 at 10:00PM on TV Land.
AmericanLife TV Network, the cable network devoted to the Baby Boomer generation, will air a special tribute to legendary comedian, George Carlin on Monday, July 7, 2008 at 8:00pm ET and 10:00pm PT. The special includes footage from George Carlins' early days on the hit show, Tony Orlando and Dawn Rainbow Hour.
For a few minutes each week George had the stage to himself, sharing with the audience the humor he found in every day words and situations.
The special consists entirely of his segments from the series with only an introductory voice over. One of these segments, done over 30 years ago, now has a special meaning:
"In reviewing the shows" said Mark Ringwald, VP of Programming for ALN, "one of the segments contained a five minutes routine of his on death and comedians (when comedians do well, they "kill," when they do poorly, they "die"). It was so funny and yet now so poignant that we felt it would be fitting conclusion to the special."
"These were some of his funniest routines and since it was on Tony Orlando its all G rated and so it's a perfect way for the entire family to enjoy his unique sense of humor."
Monday, June 30, 2008
BET Picks Up Steve Harvey Show, July Highlights; Bad TV Shows Block Coming in Houston
Now Steve Harvey Show will still air on TBS in early morning slots (6-7am and other slots before that sometimes), so it seems BET has the daytime/afternoon rights, while TBS has the very late and early morning rights. ION Television also airs the show, weekdays 6-7pm, but ION is a broadcast channel, not a cable network. So the show will air on two cable networks and a national broadcast channel...so lots of exposure for this show!
Other July 2008 BET highlights include: the A Different World marathon for Sunday, July 6 has been trimmed from 6-11pm to 8-11pm because of this Steve Harvey addition. The marathons continue Sundays in July with a Diff'rent Strokes marathon from 1pm-6pm on Sunday, July 13. Two shows off the regular line-up, Thea and Sanford will get a five episode each marathon on Sunday, July 20 from 3pm-8pm, with Thea from 3-5:30pm and Sanford from 5:30-8pm.
Now this week, people have been asking is Diff'rent Strokes leaving the weekdays 3-4pm slot since it is not scheduled this week (June 30-July 4)? I sort of answered that already earlier in this story. No, it is not leaving afternoons, it is just not on this week. As of now, it is slated to air each weekday in both the 9-10am and 3-4pm weekday slots for all of July, with no preemptions. Of course, BET has a history of making last minute changes, so please keep checking back on our blog and on our message boards for the latest information!
We were informed by reader Michael Dudas that a Houston TV station is looking to create a "Bad TV" Saturday evening block. The TV station is Channel 55 in Houston called Houston's 55, or better known as The Tube.
"We're going to call it a night of Bad TV, and we're going to run it for three hours, maybe four, on Saturdays starting in October," said Channel 55 president Matt Reiff to the Houston Chronicle. "Whether it's three or four hours depends on how successful we are getting the rights to these shows. We're in the process of buying shows now for the fall. We're looking for the worst shows, I'm talking sitcoms and movies, in the history of television."
This is indeed a wonderful idea! I love it. If I were them I would add Small Wonder, Out of this World, Webster, She's the Sheriff, Harry and the Hendersons, etc. for shows that actually lasted a while but were bashed big time...some of those I actually do like, though! And some of the shows that didn't last a season and were terrible such as Emily's Reasons Why Not, Michael Richards Show, Mary (1985), Joanie Loves Chachi, Who's Watching the Kids?, Emeril, Bagdad Cafe, etc.
Can you think of sitcoms that were just plain bad that lasted a while and sitcoms that were so bad they were canceled within a season? Head on www.houstons55.com and leave them a message under "viewer comments."
Regularly Houston's 55 airs "good" shows such as Northern Exposure, Fantasy Island, Magnum P.I., Hawaii Five-0, 21 Jump Street, Star Trek, Married with Children, Steve Harvey, and Renegade.
And how will they present this night of Bad TV? "Each night, we'll have three lousy hosts introducing the lousy shows, and we'll let viewers vote off one of the hosts," Reiff said. "We don't know if we're going to vote off the best host or the worst host. "Oh, and we're going to give away prizes to viewers throughout the show. Prizes will be trips to exotic places, like Paris." Paris, Texas, that is. "And we won't send them to Paris without spending money. How's $55 sound? "Bad TV, bad hosts and bad prizes ... this is going to be great." I agree! Head on over to their website and think of bad TV shows that are so bad that you would want to watch...they could be so bad that you like them (like Small Wonder)! Houston fans are very lucky to have this! We will bring you up to date news as soon as we hear something, such as what shows they have acquired.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Summer Week 5 Sitcom Ratings; Coming Week Preview
Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of June 16-22)
- The Simpsons (Fox) - A repeat airing did 4.33 million viewers...but finally up previous week.
- Family Guy (Fox) - 5.5 million for a repeat up from previous two week's 5.15 million.
- American Dad! (Fox) - 4.47 million for a repeat is OK, but down from previous. Still the second highest rated animated comedy this week.
- Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) - Back down below a million after going over the previous week...710,000 viewers this week for a repeat.
- The Game (The CW) - 940,000 viewers for a repeat...built from lead-in but down a tad from previous week.
- Girlfriends (The CW) - 890,000 viewers for a repeat...not better than previous week.
Summer Week 5 (June 23-29)
Monday Sitcoms
- The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 5.21 million for a repeat is lower than the previous week.
- How I Met Your Mother
- Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 9.22 million for a repeat,up a bit week to week.
- Rules of Engagement (CBS) - 7.05 million for a repeat ... up a bit as well from previous week.
Tuesday Sitcoms
- None...watch Wipeout on ABC, very funny show that is not a sitcom.
- Under One Roof (MyNetworkTV) - The first repeat airing did 1.0 million, down a bit from the previous week's 1.19 million, which was new.
Thursday Sitcoms
- None.
Coming Week Preview (Summer Week 6) for Broadcast (With Some Cable Notes):
So what is new or notable this week that you might want to catch? Tonight CBS will air a new 60 Minutes I believe at 7pm followed by Million Dollar Password at 8pm with guests Sarah Evans and Steve Schirripa and NBC's U.S. Olympic Trials will air from 7-9pm, followed by a new Dateline from 9-11pm. A pretty quite night...watch the Family Matters marathon on Nick at Nite from 9pm-4am for the best time of the night.
On Monday, ABC will be all-new with a two-hour The Bachelorette followed by The Mole at 10. NBC has American Gladiators at 8pm, followed by a two-hour Nashville Star at 9pm. Quiet night.
On Tuesday Fox will be all-new with The Moment of Truth at 8pm and Hell's Kitchen at 9pm. ABC has the hilarious new hit Wipeout, I Survived a Japanese Game Show & Primetime: The Outsiders from 8-11pm. NBC has Celebrity Family Feud at 8pm leading into the summer hit America's Got Talent from 9-11pm. CBS has a new 48 Hours at 9pm in between repeats. This is the 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 and an all-new episode of the low-rated Celebrity Circus at 10. ABC will be new at 10pm with Primetime: Crime. MyNetwork TV has a new episode of the sitcom Under One Roof at 8pm.
On Thursday ABC will air episode two of the well liked ABCNews' Hopkins series at 10pm. Fox will also be new all-night with Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? followed by So You Think You Can Dance-Thursday. CBS will air the summer scripted series Swingtown at 10pm, which has gone down each week. And NBC will air a new episode of the low-rated Last Comic Standing from 8-10, leading into horror series Fear Itself at 10 which is getting horrific ratings. On cable, TBS will air new episodes of sitcoms The Bill Engvall Show and My Boys from 9-10pm...both saw season lows this past Thursday opposite the NBA Draft on ESPN.
On Friday it's the 4th of July and there is stuff to watch actually! ABC will be all-new, all-night on Friday with Dance Machine at 8 followed by the addictive game show Duel and the news magazine 20/20 closes the night at 10pm. NBC will also be all-new for the night with more U.S. Olympic Trials at 8pm, followed by the annual Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular and Dateline at 10pm. CBS will air fireworks at 10pm with Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. ABC should air some fireworks at 8pm, like from Disneyland or something. The CW of course will have WWE Smackdown.
Saturday will Cops and AMW on Fox, 48 Hours on CBS and more U.S. Summer Olympic Trials on NBC from 8-9pm.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
TV Rebels: The Andy Griffith Show
So without further adieu, we bring you the seventh essay of TV Rebels:
The Andy Griffith Show: Mayberry's Sheriff without a Gun
by Oscar De Los Santos
In many respects, The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968) was born out of the network womb of The Danny Thomas Show (1953-1964). A seventh season episode of Danny Thomas featured its star being stopped for speeding by Sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith). Soon, the sheriff, his deputy cousin, Barney Fife (Don Knotts), and the town of Mayberry, North Carolina made their network TV series debut on October 3, 1960. Other regular characters included Andy's Aunt Bea (Frances Bavier), who lived with the widowed sheriff and his small son, Opie (Ron Howard); Ellie Walker (Eleanor Donahue), Andy's first girlfriend in the series; Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut), the sheriff's later girlfriend; Thelma Lou (Betty Lynn), Barney’s girlfriend; Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors), who would eventually get his own spin-off show; Goober Pyle (George Lyndsey), who took his cousin's mechanic and gas-pumping job at Wally's Filling Station when Gomer enlisted in the Marines; Otis Campbell (Wallace Smith), the town drunk, Floyd Lawson (Howard McNear) the town barber, Clara Edwards (Hope Summers), Aunt Bea's closest friend and friendly rival, and a host of other charming Mayberry citizens.
The show was a sitcom that seemed to defy much of the sharper edged network offerings of its period. It showcased no murders and featured few sarcastic jabs, but rather good-natured humor and thoughtful moral lessons, many of them delivered by Sheriff Taylor via his folksy ruminations. For instance, one episode revolved around Andy teaching Opie to care for orphan birds after the boy kills their mother with a slingshot. Another focused on Andy teaching Opie to defend himself against a bully without stepping in and fighting his son's battles. Other shows featured the highs and lows of Barney buying his first car and Aunt Bea's competition with Clara to make the best pickles for the county fair.
In spite of the show's name and the fact that "Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas designed The Andy Griffith Show to fit the image of its star" (The Andy Griffith Show, The Museum of Broadcast Communications), this was much more than a comedy about a small-town sheriff. Each of the ensemble characters had his and her major episodes and/or significant roles in other stories. Indeed, it's arguable that the program was as much about Barney Fife as about Andy Taylor, since so many of the show's plots were either directly or indirectly focused on Andy's bombastic and braggart deputy.
Another way to view the success of The Andy Griffith Show is to consider the town of Mayberry as the main star of the show. Audiences were willing to tune in for eight years and 249 episodes of the series because they loved the region the characters populated as much as the characters themselves. Mayberry was quintessential small-town America: a gorgeous, clean, peaceful town where a citizen could count on two lawmen to keep the peace and diffuse any problems that arose -- and these were usually no more threatening than finding a way to tell Barney that he was singing out of key and ruining the church choir's performances or making sure that Otis got his breakfast and had sobered up enough to release him from jail and send him home the next morning. Do such ideal locales really exist? Maybe not on the level of TV's Mayberry, but according to Ken Beck and Jim Clark, "The fictional town of Mayberry was partially influenced by the town of Mt. Airy, North Carolina, Andy Griffith's hometown. Much of the show's realism drws from Andy Griffith's use of Mt. Airy as a model for Mayberry. The names of many of Mayberry’s townspeople, businesses, and streets, and landmarks can be found in and around Mt. Airy" (xv).
The Andy Griffith Show can be compared to Gunsmoke (1955-1975), another immensely popular program with its own streak of TV rebellion (see Gunsmoke in this volume). Like The Andy Griffith Show, Gunsmoke was as much about its ensemble cast and setting as about its main star. Early episodes often centered on Marshall Matt Dillon but as the Western's tenure on the air stretched on, its stories focused on Chester, Miss Kitty, Doc, Festus, and other characters. Moreover, just as Andy Griffith Show audiences fixated on Sheriff Andy Taylor's Mayberry, they focused on Marshall Matt Dillon's Dodge City; but while many viewers would have loved to trade their own hometowns for Mayberry, few dreamed of jumping into the squared electronic box and actually taking up residence in Dodge. After all, crime in Mayberry was so low that the town sheriff didn't wear a gun and his deputy carried his six-shooter's only bullet in his shirt pocket, but Dodge City was all about crime -- a rough Old West location where life was tough, the bullets flew frequently, and shot bodies dropped to the gritty earth each week. Two shows spinning their own historical mythos? Perhaps, but The Andy Griffith Show provided a more gentle wishful thinking for an increasingly jaded American populace.
Works Cited
Andy Griffith Show, The. Museum of Broadcast Communications.
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/A/htmlA/andygriffith/andygriffith.htm. January 15, 2008.
Beck, Ken and Jim Clark. The Andy Griffith Show Book. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. (Revised 35th Anniversary Edition.)
Works Consulted
The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club. http://www.mayberry.com/. January 15, 2008.
Friday, June 27, 2008
ABC Family Picks Up Weekend Rights to Fresh Prince; CBS Fall Premiere Dates
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air deal is pretty easy to figure out. ABC Family will be airing the series weekend evenings only starting Saturday, August 2. The show will air Saturday nights from 11pm-2am ET/PT and sometimes as well on Sundays back-to-back at 11 & 11:30pm ET/PT, if a movie doesn't go until midnight.
So, ABC Family will have weekend evening rights to the series. TBS has the daytime rights. Nick at Nite/The N (AKA Viacom portion of the deal) will now only have weekday evening rights (as they lose the seven days evening rights...what no more all-night seven nights Fresh marathons??), which means Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will not be airing on weekends anymore on both networks and that will be in effect starting next week (the deal starts in July actually). So the Nick at Nite schedule will change a bit. Family Matters, which launches this Sunday with a marathon from 9pm-4am, will get more timeslots because of this! Family Matters will take over the Saturday (early Sunday) slots at 12-2am and 2-3am and Sunday evenings 11pm-12am. Home Improvement will now air Saturdays 11pm-12am and 1-2am, while The Cosby Show will take over Sunday nights (early Monday) 1-2am. So Fresh Prince will only air weekdays...Mon-Thurs 11:30pm & 2-3am and Friday nights 12:30am & 3-4am. The N will air it weeknights at 8-9pm and 1-2am, as weekend airings for that network will also be removed. And TBS will continue to air it weekdays 9-10am.
For the full Nick at Nite schedule effective this Monday, head on over here. ABC Family won't be making any other changes in August when Fresh Prince comes.
If you're a Family Matters fan, then I have compiled an upcoming episodes list for Nick at Nite, that I thought might be handy. They are skipping season one because Urkel didn't become big until season two. Season one will air after this rotation finishes, which means we will have to wait until season nine ends. Tune in this Sunday for the launch marathon!
CBS announced premiere dates for the fall premieres of its new and returning series, which include a pre-season debut for Survivor: Gabon and the launch of its Thursday and Friday drama series in early October. CBS will introduce everything else from its schedule beginning Monday, Sept. 22, the official start of the 2008-2009 season. The only reason the premieres of the Thursday and Friday night dramas have been scheduled outside of premiere week is to accommodate the scheduled Presidential Debate on Sept. 26 and the Vice Presidential Debate on Oct. 2.
Here are the 2008-09 CBS premiere dates:
Thursday, Sept. 18
8-9 p.m.: Survivor (17th edition)
Monday, Sept. 22
8-8:30 p.m.: The Big Bang Theory (2nd season premiere)
8:30-9 p.m.: How I Met Your Mother (4th season premiere)
9-9:30 p.m.: Two and a Half Men (6th season premiere)
9:30-10 p.m.: Worst Week (series debut)
10-11 p.m.: CSI: Miami (7th season premiere)
Tuesday, Sept. 23
8-9 p.m.: NCIS (6th season premiere)
9-10 p.m.: The Mentalist (series debut)
10-11 p.m.: Without a Trace (7th season premiere)
Wednesday, Sept. 24
8-8:30 p.m.: The New Adventures of Old Christine (4th season premiere)
8:30-9 p.m.: Project Gary (series debut)
9-10 p.m.: Criminal Minds (4th season premiere)
10-11 p.m.: CSI: NY (5th season premiere)
Saturday, Sept. 27
8-9 p.m.: Crimetime Saturday
9-10 p.m.: Crimetime Saturday
10-11 p.m.: 48 Hours Mystery (season premiere)
Sunday, Sept. 28
7:00-8 p.m.: 60 Minutes (41st season premiere)
8-9 p.m.: The Amazing Race (13th edition)
9-10 p.m.: Cold Case (6th season premiere)
10-11 p.m.: The Unit (4th season premiere)
Friday, Oct. 3
8-9 p.m.: Ghost Whisperer (4th season premiere)
9-10 p.m.: The Ex List (series premiere)
10-11 p.m.: Numb3rs (5th season premiere)
Thursday, Oct. 9
9-10 p.m.: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (9th season premiere)
10-11 p.m.: Eleventh Hour (series debut)
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Equity's RTN Sold to Luken Communications; Me-Too in Chicago Airing Classic Movies Now, Too, More TV Shows Added
View the full press release for more details. So what does this mean? It is hard to tell. I have asked RTN to see what is up, so I'll let you all know what they say. I think it won't affect current RTN affiliates. It doesn't mean the network is on its way out or that it won't add more stations since it was sold to another group, but I don't know if this is good or bad. We'll have to see in the coming weeks.
Beginning Monday June 30 at 7:00pm, Me-Too (WMEU-TV) in Chicago rolls out the red carpet for "Me-Too Movie Classics," a showcase for a wide variety of Hollywood's greatest movies, stars and directors. From the classic to kitsch to cult, "Me-Too's Movie Classics" brings back classic films to free, over the air television with minimal content editing and only five minutes of internal commercial break time.
Theme weeks include a look at significant movies of the 1970s featuring Easy Rider, Bob, Carol, Ted & Alice and Butterflies Are Free. A week of screwball/classic comedies includes The Twentieth Century, Born Yesterday and the original Brewster's Millions. A week of Joan Crawford classics include the truly classic as well as campy Crawford performances from the 1950s and 1960s.
Adding classic movies to the schedule of Me-Too serves to further distinguish Me-Too as the snappy sibling of Me-TV, Chicago's beloved home of Classic TV, and provide a unique and uncluttered environment for advertisers seeking an engaged, loyal and receptive audience.
The movies will air weeknights at 7:00pm and Saturdays at 1:00pm with many other stars like Jack Lemmon, Jack Nicholson, Jackie Gleason, Jane Fonda, Carl Reiner, Peter Falk, Dick Van Dyke, Burt Reynolds and John Ritter. The movies for the summer are available in a list form on our message boards. You may also discuss the movie list and stars there, which also has a lot of classic TV stars in feature films.
Adding movies is not the only thing happening on June 30. Me-Too will change their classic TV line-up a bit too. Me-Too launched back in March with this launch schedule, that has continued until today, but now some changes are coming. Gilligan's Island, Ozzie and Harriet, Rawhide, are among the new series coming to Me-Too. View the new Me-Too schedule.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
CBS Orders 6 More Password Episodes; NBC Salutes George Carlin with SNL Appearance
NBC will pay tribute to the late George Carlin in a great way this Saturday. As hilarious and heartfelt tributes pour in marking the passing of groundbreaking comedian George Carlin, Saturday Night Live pays tribute on Saturday, June 28 from 11:30 p.m.-1:00 a.m. ET/PT, re-airing its premiere episode that featured Carlin as host.
The episode is from 1975. Carlin was brought in as the first host of the groundbreaking comedy show. Carlin performed three individual monologues on the program that also introduced audiences to the now legendary "Not Ready For Prime-Time Players" Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Larraine Newman and Gilda Radner. The 1975 episode also features musical guests Janis Ian and Billy Preston as well as a landmark performance from comedian Andy Kaufman.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Married with Children Comes to TBS This Fall, In Addition to Spike TV; Spike TV Fall 2008 Update
We will have more on TBS fall in the coming weeks or in a month or so, so stay tuned. There could be some minor time changes here and there, however Married with Children is the only new show they are adding, I believe. Fall 2009 will be a different story when According to Jim comes and My Name is Earl and The Office can also be stripped rather than just once a week.
Moving on to Spike TV, as we mentioned, they have acquired Married with Children for September and Unsolved Mysteries for October. CSI: NY will also be available for five days a week play this fall, rather than just once a week. CSI: NY will have a week-long marathon Monday, September 22 to Friday, September 26 from 9am-9pm, before joining the weeknight evening line-up the following week.
Married with Children will launch on Spike TV with a weekend block on Saturday, September 27 and Sunday, September 28 from 9am-11am. Then it will get a week-long marathon from Monday, September 29 to Friday, October 3 from 9am-3pm. Then Married with Children will regularly air after that week weekdays from 11am-1pm, a two-hour block. There will be times Married will also air in the late night around 1-2am. Go Bundy, indeed!
Unsolved Mysteries will launch on Monday, October 13 airing weeknights at 5pm and 6pm! The weeks leading up to the launch they will have stunts to promote the show coming to Spike TV. More details on that at a later date.
Once Unsolved settles into its timeslot, Spike TV will look like this weekdays in the fall:
9am Star Trek: Voyager, 10am Whacked Out Sports, 10:30am Most Extreme Elimination Challenge, 11am-1pm Married with Children, 1-3pm Disorderly Conduct: Video on Patrol, 3-5pm Spike's Most Amazing Videos, 5-7pm Unsolved Mysteries, with CSI and CSI: NY rounding out the evening from 7-9pm. CSI: NY will also air at midnight, followed by CSI. Star Trek: Deep Space 9 & Seven Days will remain at 2 & 3am. We will have more details on Spike Fall when available. But for now, great news for Married with Children fans as two networks will air the show, and Unsolved Mysteries gets a nice two-hour block in the evenings on Spike TV!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Many TV Classics Coming to Online Station; Remembering George Carlin and Dody Goodman
NTVTele.Net features top classic TV shows from the past 60 years of television including Bonanza, Andy Griffith, Robin Hood, Jim Bowie, Petticoat Junction, Green Acres, Dobie Gillis, My Favorite Martian, Sea Hunt, Peter Gunn, Checkmate, Beverly Hillbillies, Ozzie and Harriet, Dick Van Dyke, and many other classics.
TVS is scheduled to roll out 16 more fulltime streaming channels in 2008, most under the legendary TVS banner. TVS began in 1961 telecasting to independent TV stations and has been a premiere occasional network for 47 years.
NTVTele.Net is currently running marathon classic TV programming in its Beta stage, and will convert to a classic schedule of programming in August.
We have lost two more sitcom stars. George Carlin, who was one of the best stand-up comics, and Dody Goodman, more known for her Broadway work.
Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday at about 6pm PT. Known for his edgy, provocative material, Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine about seven dirty words you could not say on television. A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of his "Filthy Words" routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and was also the first person to host Saturday Night Live back in 1975...he hosted an episode again in 1984.
George Carlin got his own sitcom in 1994 on Fox called The George Carlin Show. The show only lasted 27 episodes and was about George playing New York City cab driver named George O'Grady.
His other sitcom credits include guest shots on Welcome Back Kotter, That Girl and The Simpsons. Children best know him for his work on Shining Time Station as the conductor, which he spoofed in 2000 on an episode of MADtv. He was also the narrator for many years on the children's series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.
His film credits include Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (which he also appeared on the animated TV series), Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Americathon, Prince of Tides, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jersey Girl, Scary Movie 3 and Cars.
Stand-up comedy was of course what he was best known for. He hosted about 14 HBO comedy specials and is known as one of the best stand-up comics of all-time.
The Kennedy Center just said it will posthumously award the Mark Twain Prize to the late George Carlin at this year's annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He died a week after being named the 2008 recipient of the Twain Prize. He will be remembered at the Nov. 10 ceremony.
Mr. Carlin will certainly be missed. We are all probably saying the seven dirty words he was known to use today as we heard about his passing. Mr. Carlin was 71.
We have also lost Dody Goodman. Dody Goodman died Sunday (June 22) at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital and Medical Center. The actress had been ill for some time and had lived in the Actors Fund Home in Englewood since October. Goodman gained a measure of newspaper column space for her dancing solos in such '40s Broadway musicals as High Button Shoes and Wonderful Town. In 1955, she stopped the show in Off Broadway's Shoestring Revue with the novelty song "Someone's Been Sending Me Flowers."
She came to the attention of nighttime talkshow host Jack Paar, who after becoming enchanted by Goodman's ditzy persona and seemingly spontaneous malaprops, invited the lady to become a semi-regular on The Tonight Show. As Goodman's fame grew, she became difficult to handle on the show, and Paar was not happy with her upstaging habits. So she left show and appeared on other talk shows such as The Merv Griffin Show. She returned to Broadway in 1974 to appear in Lorelei with Carol Channing.
Then in 1975 she played Louise Lasser's mother on the comedy-soap Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Her high-pitched voice could be also heard announcing the show's title at the beginning of each episode. She appeared on the spin-off Forever Fernwood as well. She was also famous in the '80s for her recurring role as Aunt Sophia on the '80s sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. Goodman also provided the voice of Miss Miller on the animated series Alvin & the Chipmunks and various specials and movies such as The Chipmunk Adventure. She also had a role in the '80s daytime soap Texas. Her other TV credits include her first role as a waitress on The Phil Silvers Show, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Mary Tyler Moore Hour, CHiPs, Just Our Luck, St. Elsewhere, Punky Brewster, One Life to Live, Crazy Like a Fox, Bustin' Loose, Murder She Wrote, Here and Now, and Boston Common. She also appeared in the TV movie I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later. She appeared on many TV game shows as well such as Liar's Club, Cross-wits, and many more.
She appeared in such popular films as Grease, Grease 2, playing Blanche (the principal's assistant), and in the movie Splash and Splash, Too. Both movie franchises are very memorable and she was a big part of them.
She will certainly be missed by Broadway fans, TV fans, and movie fans as she had big roles in each. Dody lived a long life and was 93.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Summer Week 4 Sitcom Ratings; Coming Week Preview
Last Sunday Sitcoms (counts for week of June 9-15)
- The Simpsons (Fox) - A repeat airing did only 3.78 million viewers...down from previous week once again...
- Family Guy (Fox) - 5.15 million for a repeat again exactly the same from previous week.
- American Dad! (Fox) - 4.71 million for a repeat is OK, but can you believe this is the second highest rated animated comedy this week?
- Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) - 1.11 million for a repeat airing...up from previous week....over a million finally.
- The Game (The CW) - 1.11 million for a repeat...built from lead-in and up from previous week.
- Girlfriends (The CW) - 1.09 million for a repeat...better than previous week by a hair.
Summer Week 4
Monday Sitcoms
- The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - 5.63 million for a repeat is OK, but that is lower than the 6.41 million special Bill Engvall CBS repeat the previous week.
- How I Met Your Mother
- Two and a Half Men (CBS) - 8.95 million for a repeat, down nearly two million week to week...odd.
- Rules of Engagement (CBS) - 6.66 million for a repeat ... like the lead-in down nearly two million week to week...I wouldn't expect that big of a drop until like mid-July when the summer effect really heats up.
Tuesday Sitcoms
- None.
- Under One Roof (MyNetworkTV) - A new episode did 1.19 million, on par really from the previous week's 1.2 million.
Thursday Sitcoms
- How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - Special Thursday encore at 8pm only mustered 4.05 million...CBS is better off encoring a crime drama in this slot.
- Rules of Engagement (CBS) - 4.33 million for a Thursday repeat ... built on the lead-in at least.
- The Office (NBC) - Repeat at 8pm only mustered 3.38 million, a bit better than previous week's My Name is Earl encore which did 3.28 million.
Coming Week Preview for Broadcast (With Some Cable Notes):
So what is new or notable this week that you might want to catch? Tonight CBS will air a new 60 Minutes I believe at 7pm followed by Million Dollar Password at 8pm with guests Steven Weber and Shanna Moakler and NBC's U.S. Olympic Trials will air from 7-9pm, followed by a new Dateline from 9-11pm.
On Monday, ABC will be all-new with a two-hour The Bachelorette followed by The Mole at 10 NBC has American Gladiators at 8pm, followed by a two-hour Nashville Star at 9pm.
On Tuesday Fox will be all-new at 9pm only as The Moment of Truth will be preempted at 8pm for a Hell's Kitchen repeat followed by a new episode at 9pm. ABC launches the much anticipated new Tuesday line-up of the looks to be funny Wipeout, I Survived a Japanese Game Show & Primetime: The Outsiders from 8-11pm. NBC will launch Celebrity Family Feud a week earlier than planned at 8pm leading into the summer hit America's Got Talent from 9-11pm.
On Wednesday Fox will air a new two-hour episode of So You Think You Can Dance. NBC will have an all-new Deal or No Deal at 8pm leading into the premiere of Baby Borrowers at 9pm and the low-rated Celebrity Circus at 10. ABC will be all new all night as well, with new episodes of Wife Swap, Supernanny and Primetime: Crime. And yes, Farmer Wants a Wife is still new on The CW at 9pm....when is this ending?
On Thursday ABC will launch the "real" Grey's Anatomy as ABC looks in at the drama at a real hospital in ABCNews' Hopkins at 10pm. Fox will also be new all-night with Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? followed by So You Think You Can Dance-Thursday. CBS will air the summer scripted series Swingtown at 10pm, which has gone down each week. And NBC will air a new episode of the low-rated Last Comic Standing from 8-10, leading into horror series Fear Itself at 10 which is getting horrific ratings. On cable, TBS will air new episodes of sitcoms The Bill Engvall Show and My Boys from 9-10pm...both have been less than spectacular so far. ESPN has the NBA Draft starting at 7:30pm ET.
On Friday ABC will launch a new Friday reality series actually with the launch of new dance show Dance Machine at 8 followed by the return of addictive game show Duel and the news magazine 20/20 closes the night at 10pm, which means all-new ABCNews specials will air Tues-Fri at 10pm this summer. NBC will have a two-hour Dateline from 9-11pm. The CW of course will have WWE Smackdown.
Saturday will Cops and AMW on Fox and more U.S. Summer Olympic Trials on NBC from 8-9pm.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Mini-DVD Review: Futurama - Beast With a Billon Backs (June 24)
Futurama - Beast With a Billion Backs (20th Century Fox, $29.98) is the second installment in Fox's series of movies based upon the Sunday night animated sitcom from the past. The feature film picks up where the previous feature, Bender's Big Score, leaves off, when they try to find a way to keep peace and joy in the galaxy. But all doesn't go so well when a beast... a beast with a billion backs... takes over the society and makes Fry the Pope! How will they get out of this mess? Or will we have to wait until one of the next two installments to find out?
The movie looks and sounds great on DVD, with Dolby Digital Surround Sound audio. Of course, you can't compare this to how it looks on TV, as this has yet to be shown on TV, but to put it simply, it looks great.
Of course, the DVD also contains a plethora of special features, which honestly are much better than the movie itself. For starters, there is a commentary track that includes commentary from all of the important people involved with the movie. The "Futurama: The Lost Adventure" featurette is actually a lost full-length episode of the original series—kind of. This was produced for a Futurama video game that never quite made it, but now we get that "episode" on this DVD... with commentary, of course! "Meet Yiyo!" gives you a look at Yiyo, the title character of the movie. "Blooperama: The Futurama Cast at Work" lets you get a behind the scenes look at the screw ups made along the way in the production of this movie. And of course, there are animatics and deleted scenes--what would a Fox animated series be without those on DVD? Finally, there is a short preview of the next movie in the Futurama movie series, Bender's Game.
Any true fan of Futurama is going to want to see this simply because it is another chapter in a series that they are a fan of, but even these true fans should prepare themselves to be disappointed. It seems that the idea of the series has changed quite a bit with these movies, and it has become less of a good animated sitcom and has gotten more into the realm of science fiction, which would be fine except it is still being written by comedy writers. I can't really think of any time where my real disappointment with a DVD has been about the content of what is on it as opposed to a bad DVD compilation. The compilation in this case is excellent, and fans will certainly appreciate that, and it is worth watching the movie anyway if you are a fan.
-- Reviewed by skees53
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Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Wednesday, November 4
Scrubs - "My Story" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
J.D. and Elliot reconnect while managing a difficult parenting conversation; the interns grapple with work-life balance.
Abbott Elementary - "Courtney" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Gregory and Melissa come together to address an issue with a teacher; Janine spends time with Courtney.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of November 2)
Wednesday, November 4
- Timothy Simons (Nobody Wants This/HouseBroken/Veep) - Watch Timothy on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Tracy Morgan (The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins/Crutch/The Last O.G./30 Rock/The Tracy Morgan Show) - Tracy appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Bill Hader (Barry) - Bill is a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC. He also talks about The Cat in the Hat on NBC's Today sometime between 7-9am and in the 10am hour.
- Sarah Paulson (Leap of Faith) and Niecy Nash-Betts (Reno 911!/Getting On/The Soul Man/Do Not Disturb) - Sarah, Niecy, Kim Kardashian and Naomi Watts talk about All's Fair on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am. Sarah will also be on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
- Denise Richards (Blue Mountain State) - Denise talks about All's Fair on ABC's GMA3 at 1pm.
- Valerie Bertinelli (Hot in Cleveland/Cafe Americain/Sydney/One Day at a Time) - Valerie is joining the Drew's news desk to hit the headlines with Drew and Ross on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
New on DVD and Blu-ray
01/20/26 - The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Golden Age Collection (Blu-ray)
01/27/26 - The New Fred and Barney Show - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
02/11/26 - Tom and Jerry - The Complete CinemaScope Collection (Blu-ray)
03/24/26 - Looney Tunes Collector's Vault - Volume 2 (Blu-ray)
04/11/26 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Fourth Season (DVD)
04/21/26 - Famous Studios Champion Collection (Blu-ray) (DVD)
05/19/26 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (DVD)
05/19/26 - Looney Tunes Cartoons - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (DVD)
06/16/26 - Difficult People - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
06/30/26 - Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
07/14/26 - The Office - The Complete Series - Superfan Extended Episodes (Blu-ray)
07/28/26 - The Bill Dana Show - The Complete Series (DVD)
07/28/26 - I Love Lucy - The Complete Series - 75th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)
07/28/26 - The Paper - Season One (Blu-ray) (DVD)
08/25/26 - Perfect Strangers - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (DVD)
09/08/26 - Looney Tunes Collector's Vault - Volume 3 (Blu-ray)
09/22/26 - Bridget Loves Bernie - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
10/20/26 - The Quick Draw McGraw Show - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
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