Random clicking of news and tidbits on current and past television programming in the U.S., as well as what's happening in the TV-on-DVD market. Pop culture on the tube. Reliving our childhood one disc at a time.
The Fall 2013 hasn't even started yet and there are already casting shake-ups and rumblings being felt on the television landscape.
Parks and Recreationfans will only have 13 episodes left to enjoy the Chris Traeger and Ann Perkins coupling. Rob Lowe and original cast member Rashida Jones will be departing the NBC comedy midway through the season, their last episode will most likely air in February. Last spring's season finale saw Chris and Ann trying hard to have a baby. From all indications, that storyline will be the set up for the first half of the upcoming season and will hopefully set up the off-again, on-again couple on a shared ride into the sunset. The exits aren't necessarily too surprising since both actors have other projects in the works; Jones is penning a script for her development deal with Warner Bros. Television and Lowe is focusing on the impending release of Killing Kennedy, a movie set to premiere on Nat Geo where the actor tackles the lead role of John F. Kennedy.
Oliver Hudson sure knows how to land on his feet and find new work. The former star of CBS' surprisingly long lasting comedy Rules of Engagement wasn't left in limbo too long after the show's cancellation last May. The actor has been picked up for a recurring role on ABC's Nashville. Hudson will play a record label executive who will be thrown into the Deacon/Rayna storyline for the show's sophmore season. It's no secret that the two lead characters will survive the car accident cliffhanger from last season and the show will jump forward several months when it starts up again on September 25.
Keep it locked to Stay Tuned for future updates of anything and everything television!
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous was a syndicated show (and closest version of reality TV at the time) that aired from 1984 to 1995. Host Robin Leach led viewers through the wealthy and extravagant lifestyles of famous entertainers and athletes, as well as famous business dominating corporate America at the time. Lifestyleshighlighted the excess and wealth that characterized the 1980s, and viewers gobbled up each second. Robin Leach ended each episode with his trademark closing "Champagne wishes and caviar dreams," of course with a glass of bubbly and some deliciously expensive finger food in hand.
The Style Network tried rebooting the series in February 2013 with literally zero results. News today, however, indicates that the network is looking to create a more noticeable presence for the show. Nick Cannon has been tapped to host the reboot series with production beginning sometime in the fall. While no premiere date has been set, Cannon hopes to increase his hosting repertoire with a revamped Lifestyles. The premise of the show will pretty much remain the same.
Keep it locked to Stay Tuned for future updates on anything and everything television.
If you thought Sharknado was horrifically bad odd and you were left wanting a little more cheesy shark fun then today is your day. Syfy has released the trailer for its next original horror movie, Ghost Shark.
"If you're wet, you're dead"...that's the tagline for Syfy's newest movie. So what the hell is exactly a ghost shark? Well the premise of the new shark thriller is that a great white shark (we'll call him Jabberjaw just for kicks) is hunted, tortured, and killed by a fisherman. Unfortunately for him, and the entire human race, Jabberjaw returns from the dead and gets revenge on all humans. Yeah basically the shark becomes the Freddy Krueger of the waterworld. The dead shark can appear in basically anything that has water, and from the looks of the trailer, that includes the ocean, pool, bathtub, car wash, and slip-n-slides. Hell, we're pretty sure the ghost shark can pop up in your toilet and gobble you up while handling your business.
Ghost Sharkstars Mackenzie Rosman (remember little Ruthie Camden from 7th Heaven?...we won't even start on her Maxim spread that came out) and Richard Moll (Bull from Night Court). Ghost Sharkis scheduled to premiere on August 22 as part of Syfy's month of original movies. We think the network is aiming to break its recent Twitter record when Sharknadooriginally aired.
Keep it locked to Stay Tuned for future updates on anything and everything television!
It's New Release Tuesday and there are very few TV-on-DVD releases this week. We'll briefly list the highlights you can own on DVD.
Kid (or Kid-at-Heart) Pick of the Week
The Angry Beavers - Complete Series
The Angry Beavers was an animated series that aired on Nickelodeon in the late '90s/early 2000s. The episodes typically followed the adventures of two beaver brothers who left their family home for their own place in the forest. All 63 episodes of the four seasons are presented in the complete series set by Shout! Factory.
Kid (or Kid-at-Heart) Pick of the Week - Part 2
Power Rangers - Seasons 4 through 7
Fans of the early Power Rangers series may have already picked up this set when it was exclusively released through Time Life/StarVista last Fall. That release was a bulk set with the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers show included, and at a hefty price. Now Shout! Factory has released this set separately, which includes Power Rangers ZEO, Power Rangers Turbo, Power Rangers in Space, and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. There is some incentive to hold off purchasing this set, however, now that a definitive 98-disc set covering all 20 years of Power Rangers will be released later this year.
Sci-Fi Blu-ray Pick of the Week
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 4
Paramount continues to convert its DVD library into Blu-ray and offers the next set of the '90s science fiction drama. The appeal of this release is pretty much limited to Trekkies who are converting their old DVD sets with an upgraded, visually crisper set.
Family Pick of the Week
Touched by an Angel - Season 8
Touched by an Angel was a drama about an angel and her supervisor crossing paths with different individuals who needed some help and a little guidance over a specific dilemma. Touted as the female version of Highway to Heaven, this CBS drama is nearing the end of its release on DVD.
Are there any releases you are looking forward to purchasing? We know the variety is very limited this week but join us again next week when we review the latest TV-on-DVD releases.
Keep it locked on Stay Tuned for future updates of anything and everything television.
It appears that The CW wants to capitalize on the superhero momentum its currently experiencing in its programming line-up. News has leaked out that the network is interested in expanding the DC Comics universe by bringing The Flash back to the small screen. The network generated great ratings (at least in The CW terms) when it originally aired Smallville, and last year's sleeper hit Arrow has proven that they can attract a key demo with the right product.
Arrow presents the story of Oliver Queen, and his superhero persona Green Arrow, combating crimes and injustice in Starling City. The show was presented last year in attempts to fill the void left when Smallville ended its 10-year run on The CW. While Arrow has deviated from the origins of the comic books, it retained the darker, grittier tone that is characteristic of the Green Arrow. During the first season run, Arrow introduced other DC Comics characters that are involved in the Green Arrow universe. It is precisely using this gimmick that the network wants to bring The Flash into the fold.
The CW has green-lighted the planned Flash series, which co-creators anticipate will take place after The Scarlet Speedster is introduced in an episode (and possibly multi-episode arc) on Arrow. While it's too soon to tell who may be potentially cast, the same writing team behind Arrow will helm Flash along with DC Entertainment's Geoff Johns (a name most comic book fans will be familiar with...we believe). More information should be provided at The CW's TCA presentation today.
If this project succeeds in taking off, it wouldn't be the first foray into live-action television for The Flash. In 1990, CBS premiered The Flash starring John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen a.k.a The Flash. The premise of the short-lived series was Barry Allen adapting to his superhuman powers after a lab accident and becoming The Flash to avenge his brother's murder. Considered a series before its time, the show's high costs and frequent pre-emptions from its regular time slot were factors in its cancellation. The Flash had a similar gritty tone to today's Arrow and midway through the season began incorporating villains from the superhero's rogues gallery.
We've included an episode from the 1990 show where The Flash faces off against Captain Cold. When the new Flashseries materializes next year we just hope that the powers-that-be consider bringing back our pal John Wesley Shipp for a cameo. You know...just because.
Oh, and the complete series is available on DVD if you want to check it out. We recommend it.
Keep it locked to Stay Tuned for future updates of anything and everything television.
Update: 7:52 PM
We have learned that The Flash will be introduced in episodes 8 and 9, which will set up his origin story. Barry Allen/Flash will return in episode 20 to launch the spin-off. Everything indicates that the show is a go. In other news, The Wonder Woman plans have been paused indefinitely.
Reviving cancelled television shows is always a risk and The CW hedged its bets when it decided to bring back Whose Line Is It Anyway? from the graveyard. The show originally aired from 1998 to 2004 on ABC, and from 2005 to 2007 on ABC Family. The CW was able to reunite most of the original cast members (Wayne Brady, Ryan Stiles, and Colin Mochrie) for the revival and introduced the wonderfully talented Aisha Tyler into the fold.
Whose Line Is It Anyway?has barely been on for three weeks and news today has broke that The CW will be renewing the show for a full 24-episode second season. Apparently fan response of the improvisational show has been mostly positive and The CW wants to capitalize on the success in order to bring back the comedy genre to its line-up. Currently The CW has garnered a reputation for producing hour-long dramas and action-adventure series.
No date has been set for the second season return of Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Keep it locked to Stay Tuned for future updates on anything and everything television.
Fans of CBS' summer series Under the Dome can breath a sigh of relief now that the network has renewed the show for a second season. The kicker, however, is that only a 13-episode season was ordered and it won't premiere until Summer 2014.
Based on a Stephen King novel, Under the Dome centers on the small town of Chester's Mill that one day finds itself surrounded by an impenetrable barrier. The isolation begins to take its toll on the townspeople and madness ensues.
Under the Dome has maintained decent ratings so far this summer and viewership has even increased. So far it has become the most successful summer show presented by the main three networks.
The Fall 2013 television season is still about a month and a half away from really taking off, give or take a few shows, but Stay Tuned has already fallen in love with NBC's new show The Michael J. Fox Show. And strangely enough we haven't even seen one full episode yet.
How can you love a show if you haven't seen it? Elements my dear Watsons...elements. We don't know if it's our love for Michael J. Fox in general, or if it's about his return to primetime television, or the fact that the show isn't going to hide his Parkinson's disease that has us all geared up to watch the show.
In 1982 we were introduced to Alex P. Keaton on NBC's Family Ties, as well as his portrayer Michael J. Fox. Throughout the show's seven year run, audiences fell in love with America's favorite Republican yuppie whose interest in economics and wealth provided a comedic foil to his parents Steven and Elyse, who were heavily liberal Democrats. Alex Keaton personified the 1980s "Me" generation to a tee. He wore blazers, sweater vests, and neckties pretty much all the time, read The Wall Street Journal just for kicks, and even carried a briefcase for school. While representing a young adult in the 1980s wasn't necessarily a challenging feat, Fox humanized his unlikeable character by demonstrating the side B all people keep hidden within themselves. Whether he secretly loved rock music, sacrificed his interests for the sake of family (remember when he blew off his Princeton University entrance interview just to help his sister Mallory), or mourned the death of a friend, Fox delivered the characteristics that made us overlook Alex Keaton's greedy flaws and helped place him in the company of the greatest TV characters of all time. We've included the season six premiere episode The Last of the Red Hot Psychologists, which also includes the introduction of pre-Friends Courteney Cox as Lauren.
Fox filmed several movies after Family Tiesended and by the mid-1990s he decided to return to sitcom television and star in ABC's Spin City. This time around he played Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty, the principal man in charge of all the mayor's affairs, which usually consisted of spinning the truth into flattering lies. Flaherty was a genius at his job but disastrous when it came to his personal life. Unlike Alex P. Keaton, Mike Flaherty was a womanizer and often discarded women quicker than the pages in his notepad. While Mike was a polar opposite from Fox's previous TV character, he never achieved the same popularity and distinction. It was during the show's third season that Fox disclosed to the cast and crew that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. He continued to work through the remainder of the third and all of the fourth season before retiring from the show. The symptoms from Parkinson's had progressively worsened and Fox decided to leave Spin City in order to be with his family and treat his illness. During his final two seasons on the show, ratings had rebounded as viewers were curious to see Fox perform with his illness, which gradually became noticeable on camera. His character was eventually replaced by Charlie Sheen and production had relocated to Los Angeles. Even though Fox returned for three episodes in the final season, Spin City was never the same after his departure. We highly recommend the two-part finale where Mike Flaherty leaves City Hall to become a lobbyist and happens to run into a senator named Alex P. Keaton. Hmmm, sounds familiar. In the meantime, enjoy this funny episode from the first season.
When we heard last spring about Michael J. Fox's return to television, we were curious...then we got excited...and now we are stoked. The previews of the new show have been small potatoes but when we heard about the premise our ears immediately perked up. Unlike Spin City, which did not address the issue of Parkinson's disease (most likely due to Fox still trying to understand and cope with the illness), NBC's The Michael J. Fox Show is loosely based on Fox's real life and the illness will be included in the show. Just to be clear, the new show first and foremost is a family comedy where the main character, Mike Henry, is diagnosed with Parkinson's and leaves his career as a news anchor to be focus on his health and family (just like real-life, huh?).
Flash-forward several years and you'll find the meat of the show. After spending years taking control of his health, Mike decides to return to work and struggles to find the balance between family (being a husband and father of three kids) and career. Parkinson's will be present but Fox assures that it won't be the focus of the show. The comedy will focus on his character's perspective and how having Parkinson's can sometimes be frustrating and humorous. It's something that is just there and cannot be controlled, and Fox hopes to present that reality in his character's main juggling act of balancing work and home life. Eventually everybody on the show will have their own version of a type of Parkinson's (though not officially), which Fox asserts as each character having his or her own things to deal with in life.
We absolutely love the fact that Parkinson's will not be the primary focus of The Michael J. Fox Show. While it is important to address the disease and make people aware of the cause and symptoms of Parkinson's, we would like to share Michael J. Fox's perspective and treat it as just a particular trait of a character. Showing that life, and the expectations and frustrations associated with it, does continue after diagnosis is the message Fox wants to relay in his new show. Dealing with it is the new normal, and if anybody can look at Parkinson's with humor and light-heartedness, it's Michael J. Fox.
We've included the trailers that have been released in the past months. The Michael J. Fox Show is scheduled to premiere on September 26.
(Michael J. Fox delivers his trademark comedic timing on the mis-dialing of 917 and the rolling chair scenes)
Share your thoughts on our blog. Are you looking forward to seeing Michael J. Fox back on primetime television?
Keep it locked to Stay Tuned for future updates on anything and everything television.
"This is the theme to Garry's show. The theme to Garry's show. This is the theme to Garry Shandling's show."
It's Garry Shandling's Show ran from 1986 to 1990 on the Showtime network and then picked up by FOX from 1988 to 1990. At the time it was unique for a cable show to be picked up and re-broadcasted on network television but FOX was breaking new ground and marking its place among the main three networks. Considered a sitcom, It's Garry Shandling's Show felt more like a reality show with the frequent use of breaking the fourth wall and Garry interacting with the studio audience. Half the fun of the show was Garry speaking to the camera and poking fun at some random subject. Garry usually began each show with a monologue followed by the cleverly written theme song while Garry, and sometimes cast members, pretended to be look busy over the opening.
The principal cast consisted of Garry's friends and neighbors, Nancy Bancroft and the Schumacher family. Other cast members that dropped by were Garry's mother Ruth, annoying condo association president Leonard Smith, and Nancy's boyfriend/husband Ian McFyfer. Pretty much all of Garry's friends knew he was on a TV show being taped in front of a studio audience, and they worked around it. Whatever shenanigans Garry had lined up each week was almost always poked fun at or parodied. Shandling was a genius in making fun of conventional plot devices. Whether it was particular looks into the camera, spit takes, or cliffhangers, It's Garry Shandling's Show would take the idea and run with it. The video below parodies the ending device for two-part episodes. 'To be Continued' is frequently used in sitcoms but it wasn't typical for this show since every episode resolved the issue within the 24 minutes.
It's Garry Shandling's Showwould cross into other shows and genres just for the laughs. One particular episode was when the show entered the universe of the soap opera General Hospital. The story originated with a fight between Garry and his mother over advertising her store on his show. After he refuses, Ruth ends up going to General Hospital to advertise and Garry and pals witness it while watching the afternoon soap. Garry and pals enter the hospital and its the actual hospital with actual characters, not actors playing those characters. Using the typical soap opera music, camera work, and stares, Garry Shandling succeeded in making the audience laugh at the parodies. Aside from its purpose to mock lightheartedly, the show wanted to take advantage of Ian Buchanan's (Ian McFyfer) previous ties to the soap opera and actually had him reprise his role of Duke Lavery and reunite with his GHon-screen love Anna (played by Finola Hughes). Buchanan was really able to display his comedic chops thanks to Garry Shandling and shake off that shroud of soap opera drama. The scene is provided below.
In its four-year run, Garry Shandling was able to find and maintain an audience following. The adult humor on the show was a refreshing change for the television landscape, which was slowly exiting from primetime soap operas and dramas, and bringing the sitcom back on the front burner. The show was also heralded for lining up big named guest stars to pop over to Garry's house for a quick cameo. Rob Reiner and Tom Petty were frequent guest stars of the show, and Garry Shandling was the last show Gilda Radner was on before succumbing to ovarian cancer. Garry even got Jeff Goldblum to wish his little buddy Grant Schumacher a happy birthday.
Garry Shandling has a different sense of humor that attracts a range of audiences. Some get it, others don't. His shows have always been types of mockumentaries, as seen with these clips of It's Garry Shandling's Show and in HBO's The Larry Sanders Show. Garry is able to grab the television entertainment medium, poke holes at it, and slowly open each one wider.
The good people over at Shout! Factory released the complete series set of It's Garry Shandling's Show back in 2009. The release was an instant winner for the company as fans rushed to purchase the sets, at $100 a pop. The complete series set release helped establish Shout! Factory's credibility in the expanding TV-on-DVD market and most likely set the standard on how complete sets should be produced. Additionally, the company became the model of studios releasing complete series sets before individual season sets. Shout! took the risk and found out successfully that fans are willing to shell out the cash in order to get their whole shows on one set. You can purchase the complete series or individual seasons from Shout! Factory's website.
Well that about wraps up our trip down the world of Garry Shandling. If you haven't caught an episode of It's Garry Shandling's Show, we highly recommend that you do. You won't regret it, and most likely, you'll end up watching the next episode...and the next one...and the next one...and the next one.
Keep it locked to Stay Tuned for future updates of anything and everything television.
Tonight's season finale of Celebrity Wife Swap is either going to be colossally bad or will be horrendous but with trademark tunes. The "celebrities," and we use that term loosely in this post, are none other than recording artists Gerardo Mejia and Sisqo. Well just who in the hell is Geraro Mejia? '90s kids may recognize him when he only went by his first name and sang this one-hit wonder.
Not necessarily one of our proudest moments but we get caught up in the trends and fads of the time, am I right? Well he will trade his wife for Sisqo's girlfriend and live in borrowed bliss for a whole week. So what was Sisqo's trademark theme? I think we all the Thong Song from the late 90s.
Wow, we can't wait to see how Gerardo and Sisqo live their post-15 minutes of fame lives! No but wait...I think we can. The only great thing we can say about tonight's episode of Wife Swap, we just couldn't bring ourselves to type "Celebrity" again, is that its the last episode of the season, and hopefully series (fingers crossed!), and one Sunday less until the fall TV season begins.
If you care for it, this monstrosity of a reality show begins at 8 PM on ABC.
Keep it locked to Stay Tuned for future updates of anything and everything television!
The latest reality show victim to be given the ax is NBC's Fashion Star. The couture reality show featuring amateur designers vying to sell their clothes in major department stores will not be returning for a third season as indicated by NBC Entertainment president Bob Greenblatt at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. Despite a creative retooling of the show, Fashion Star failed to generate a substantial audience. In fact, it just adds to the list of reality show failures NBC has recently suffered. Back in the winter and spring of this year, the network released Take it Alland Ready for Love, both shows bombing right out of the starting gate and quickly erased from the network's schedule. The Celebrity Apprentice had a weak season compared to previous years and this summer's offerings of Siberia and Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls have been downright flatlining.
Thank goodness for The Voice and The Biggest Loser, right?
Keep it locked on Stay Tuned for future updates of anything and everything television!
Could a Lost reunion be in the works for next year's San Diego Comic-Con?
Actor Michael Emerson, who played wickedly smart 'Others' leader Ben Linus on the show, hinted that next year's Comic-Con might be the setting for a reunion to mark the show's 10-year anniversary. There have been mumblings throughout the show's former ensemble cast and given the success of reunions at this year's Comic-Con, highlighted by the eventful The X-Files panel session, some actors are game to give what the fans want.
With many of the former Lost actors currently working on shows featured at Comic-Con like Person of Interest, Once Upon a Time, and the upcoming Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, it wouldn't be a difficult feat to reunite the cast, producers, and creators for a celebratory anniversary.
If you grew up in the 1980s then more than likely you remember the action series The A-Team, and in particular its big, bad star Mr. T. Well did you know that Mr. T had his own action cartoon on Saturday mornings?
From 1983 to 1986 Mister T was on NBC's Saturday morning cartoon line-up. In the toon, Mr. T coaches a gymnastics team that travels the world and, apparently, solve mysteries during the down time. Who doesn't like to solve mysteries in their spare time? Well we've provided an episode of the show for our Saturday Morning Serial.
The first season of Mister T is available through the Warner Archive Collection, the made-to-order library from Warner Bros. Though 13 of the 30 episodes are only included in this set, it hits the spot for any Mister T fan. You can purchase the set by clicking on the following link: Mister T: The Complete First Season (Animated Series) | Shop.WarnerArchive.com
Keep the channel locked to Stay Tuned for future updates on anything and everything television!
Remember little Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years? The girl with the big rim glasses and wore those jumper dresses.
Yeah well it wasn't too hard to believe that her portrayer Danica McKellar would turn out to be a real-life math genius. After spending her post-Wonder years conquering the academic world and surviving a divorce, McKellar has been attempting in recent years to restart her acting career. Providing voice work to Young Justiceand appearing in ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager are just some of the work McKellar has done lately. But now she can add an Avril Lavigne music video to those credits.
McKellar was spotted on the set of Lavigne's new single 'Rock N Roll' sporting this crop top and fishnet hose, among other things. We're not complaining one bit and we know which former Wonder Years star gets our vote for Best Aged!
Keep it locked to Stay Tuned for updates on anything and everything television!
Talking dinosaurs became the hit of the town in the early '90s and ABC's Dinosaurs successfully helped usher the sitcom back to popularity. The idea was outlandish. Who would watch a show featuring talking puppet dinosaurs? Well it turned out to be a whole lot of people. The short first season generated enough buzz and ratings to merit a full-order second season.
Dinosaurs was based on an original concept by Jim Henson (Fellow UMD Terp!), and takes place in Pangaea around 60,000,003 BC. The show focused on the daily trials and tribulations of the Sinclair family, a typical, normal dinosaur family with 2.5 children. The head of the household was Earl Sinclair, a tree pusher for the WESAYSO Corporation. His wife, Fran, was the happy homemaker keeping the house in order and raising two teenagers and a baby. Does her voice sound way to familiar? Well Fran Sinclair was voiced by none other than actress Jessica Walter, recently best known for her loving maternal roles of Lucille Bluth in Arrested Developmentand Malory Archer in FX's Archer. Robbie and Charlene are the teenage brother and sister duo that face the normal adolescent pangs of growing up. But the real star of the show was Baby Sinclair (and yes, that was his legal name). Baby became the fan favorite of the show with his catchphrases "I'm the baby!," "Gotta love me," and "Not the mama."
Even though it was a family show on the TGIF line-up, Dinosaurs didn't avoid topical issues and dealt with sexual harassment, civil rights, drug abuse, racism, women's rights, and peer pressure, as well as environmentalism and endangered species in its four season run. In fact, the final episode of the show was probably the most dark and somber sitcom series finale ever in television history. The Sinclairs signed off in the midst of the beginning of global cooling that would last tens of thousands of years...and ultimately wipe out all dinosaurs.
But we want to provide you with a happier tone for TGIF. So Stay Tuned has provided the video of the first season of Dinosaurs. Only consisting of five half-hour episodes, the season begins with the origin story of Baby's birth and ends with Robbie's right of passage when he turns 15.
8:00 - 10:30 PM - Dinosaurs (We added a bonus half hour just because it was included in the video)
Well that does it for another Retro-TGIF and we hope you enjoyed the show! Remember to check back next Friday for another 2-hour comedy block of past TGIF shows.
Keep it locked to Stay Tuned for anything and everything television!
Get ready for your cable box to make space for one more channel this fall. Well actually if you had G4 then you already have the space. NBCUniversal will add another channel to its immense and mostly forgettable cable television line-up. The Esquire Network is set to debut September 23rd and will be geared towards, not surprisingly, men. But this channel will be different because it is aimed towards the sophisticated men...not the Joe Six-Pack type of men.
Details are still sketchy on its line-up of shows but it will be a mix of new, original programs and NBC reruns. According to its website, the original shows include Knife Fight (chefs battle each other in an underground cooking fight club), The Getaway (follow celebrities to their favorite travel destinations just to hate on them a little more), Brew Dogs, Risky Listing, and How I Rock It.
Reruns of Parks and Recreation, American Ninja Warrior, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and long-ago canceled Starz show Party Down, are also being advertised as part of the new network's schedule. We'll see how long this venture lasts before being re-branded into another channel.
Keep it locked to Stay Tuned for anything and everything television!
Could the upcoming fall season be the last for a major star of ABC's Grey's Anatomy?
Hints have been dropped at this year's Television Critics Association Press Tour that Patrick Dempsey may be leaving the medical drama after this season. After 9 years and almost 200 episodes, Dempsey is looking to his future and in particular, his new racing documentary series Racing LeMans. Dempsey appears to be losing interest in the role. Though no official word has been given, Dempsey is under contract until the end of season 10, which begins in September. He isn't alone since several other original cast members signed similar two-year contract extensions. Our bet, however, is that he will depart next spring.
Well July is slowly reaching its end but the weather continues to be hot and sticky in one part of the country or other. Growing up there was a simple solution to quenching your thirst. And no, it did not involve grabbing the 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola from the pantry. It involved a jar, wooden spoon, some sugar, water and ice, and a packet (yeah you read right, packet!) of some flavored substance: KOOL-AID!
Kool-Aid started off with just six original flavors: Cherry, Grape, Lemon-Lime, Orange, Raspberry, and Strawberry. As the decades rolled through, more mixed flavors were introduced and revolutionized the brand to fit with the changing times. Every afternoon was filled with anticipation to make a fresh jar of Kool-Aid with a different flavor. Oh and let someone in the house discover an empty jar left in the refrigerator. There would be hell to pay for the person that drank the last cup of Kool-Aid. Depending on the household, fights would even break out.
Kool-Aid is one of those products that you can't help but associated with a childhood memory. Whether you helped your mom or grandmother mix the Kool-Aid and serve it, or had a Dixie-cup full after the little league game, Kool-Aid has been part of your life. There were also the creative Kool-Aid inventions. Who else made popsicle sticks with different flavors? (*raises hand*). If anything has changed over the years with Kool-Aid is the advertising. Gone are the days of the creative commercials with the clever jingles. Now all we see are magazine advertisements like the shot below.
Well for #ThrowbackThursday, Stay Tuned has decided to revisit those vintage commercials that aired weekday afternoons after school and Saturday mornings during cartoons. Some have songs and others don't but we have chosen a wide selection to jog those memories. And no matter how much has changed since we were kids, we all have a soft spot for Kool-Aid.
We'll kick off with this 1950s commercial. The kids whistling and walking is something straight out of Children of the Corn but it has that song and dance advertising magic.
The 1960s started incorporating well-known pop culture icons of the time. This commercial features Bugs Bunny and The Monkees (sans Peter Tork who left the band), who were riding high off their successful music and television careers.
Around the same time, this commercial was released for The Bugs Bunny Show, which probably leads us to believe was the basis of the phrase "Who spiked the Kool-Aid?"
The 1970s commercials tried to bring a little humor for the kiddos, and even highlighted the age of neighborhood garage bands.
We can't even begin to explain this next video. How did two kids become prisoners on a pirate ship? Where are these kids parents? Nice message Kool-Aid.
Not to sound biased but the best Kool-Aid commercials have to be from the 1980s. The improvement of video and technology provided better quality commercials and with the bright colors of the '80s and making everything "Big," they became more memorable.
We didn't know what was more disturbing about this next video. The fact that it features a pre-Growing Pains Kirk Cameron, or that the kids worked up a massive sweat in the span of a minute as Mom made the Kool-Aid.
This video is from the early '80s and we were left wondering what in the hell are these kids doing at a castle with two knights.
When was the last time you played roller hockey? Yeah, we couldn't remember either.
The author of this next video expressed it best, this one is whacked out!
This video is just 0:31 seconds of Surfin' Berry meth. Period.
We love this video just for the fact that the saxophone beat reminds us of 'Soul Glo'
Then the 1990s arrived and creativity just went downhill.
They ended up doing commercials with just parents reminiscing about drinking Kool-Aid. This video features Papa Walsh from Beverly Hills, 90210.
And then they tried to incorporate hip-hop into the fold.
Finally, we've arrived to the present day Kool-Aid commercial. What can we say? We absolutely love the "jug" life!
Well we've had a blast throwing it back to Kool-Aid in its heyday and Stay Tuned would like to thank our good buddy Gene Patrick Smith for giving us the inspiration to make this a #ThrowbackThursday topic.
What were some of the commercials or memories you had of Kool-Aid growing up? Share with us below and remember to keep it locked to Stay Tuned for future updates on anything and everything TV!
After more than a year of speculation and dodging questions over the summer, Jason Sudeikis will finally confirm that he has exited NBC's Saturday Night Live. Sudeikis announced his departure earlier today during his interview on Late Show with David Letterman. The episode is scheduled to air tonight on CBS.
Sudeikis has been a cast member of SNL for 10 years, and his departure is on the heels of Bill Hader and Fred Armisen's departures this past spring. Sudeikis has enjoyed a flourishing movie career as of late and was pretty much the basis for leaving the late night sketch comedy show.
So no more Devil. No more Running Man in the Adidas track suit. No more Joe 'Jamal' Biden. He'll be missed that's for sure.
Keep it tuned to Stay Tuned for further news on anything and everything TV!
CBS has released the marketing posters for four of its new fall sitcoms.
The Crazy Ones - Starring Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Being hyped as a single-camera comedy set in an advertising agency.
The Millers - Starring Will Arnett as a recently divorced man who is about to re-enter bachelorhood...until his parents complicate things. (Shades of the recently canceled How to Live with Your Parents?)
Mom - Starring Anna Faris and Allison Janney as a recently sober mother of two children, and her criticizing mom. (Shades of the canceled The New Normal?)
We are Men - Starring Tony Shalhoub, Kal Penn, Chris Smith and Jerry O'Connell as four single guys living in a singles housing complex and shot single-camera. Did we mention single?
The jury is still out on CBS' new comedies, and based on the new marketing posters, they'll be out for a little while longer.
Keep tuned to Stay Tuned for anything and everything TV!
Twin Peaks is making its way to Blu-ray. Ok fans, you can breath a sigh of relief now. Though the show only lasted for two seasons at the beginning of the '90s, Twin Peaks had built up and continues to retain a loyal cult following. The former ABC drama was the brainchild of the brilliant David Lynch and became a critical success for its tone, intricate plot lines, and (possibly the originator of) O.M.G. moments that occurred each week as viewers tried to solve the murder of Laura Palmer.
In 2007, a Definitive Gold Box Edition set of Twin Peaks was released on DVD. The set included both versions of the Pilot episode, all thirty episodes from both seasons, deleted scenes, and a bonus retrospective documentary with David Lynch and cast member Kyle MacLachlan. Fans gobbled up this set as it included versions not previously released in the U.S.
Now comes word that a complete Twin Peaks set will be released on Blu-ray. What makes this release unique, rather than just a studio double dipping marketing ploy, is not only a crisper and better quality of video but also the possibility that the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Mefollow-up movie will be included. Though the movie was released one year after ABC canceled the psychological thriller (and considered to be a box office flop at that), it actually served as a prequel to the series and documented the last days of Laura Palmer's life. Basically it sets up what was pieced together in the series.
No official word has been given if the prequel will be included in the planned Blu-ray set but fans are already saving up their money. The set will be released at the end of this year, or early next year.
We thought we would have a little fun with this news and share the two things that are forever etched in our minds regarding Twin Peaks. The first is the opening title sequence and music by Angelo Badalamenti.
The second is the dwarf dancing sequence in Agent Cooper's dream.
Keep it locked here on Stay Tuned for future updates on anything and everything TV!
.jpg)
