Has it really been three years since the end of The Shield? Fred and Ethel Mertz from I Love Lucy finally get some recognition and the Ab Fab ladies are back for the holidays. Check out these bits of TV news and and more…
The Today Show
A couple months ago, NBC pulled their late-night Poker After Dark show after the sponsor, Full Tilt Poker, was accused by federal prosecutors of fraud. The network’s been rerunning the fourth hour of Today, starring Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb, in its place at 2am. Interestingly, it’s been performing pretty well and drew about 683,000 viewers a couple weeks ago. With this extra airing, Today makes up 20% of NBC’s daytime schedule.
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
The organization has announced nine new inductees for the Academy’s Hall of Fame. They are reality show producers Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray, former Disney head Michael Eisner, Sabado Gigante game-show host Don Francisco, The Jeffersons’ Sherman Hemsley, lighting designer Bill Klages, sitcom creator Chuck Lorre, and I Love Lucy duo Vivian Vance & William Frawley. The 21st annual induction ceremony will be held on March 1st at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
House
It’s sure looking like the FOX medical drama is ending this season but there’s been no final announcement yet. Either way, Hugh Laurie says that, once House is finished, he won’t be returning to series television. He said that he feels, “extremely lucky to have had the one shot that I have had at it and I wouldn’t go looking for lightning to strike twice.”
The Shield
Last Friday marked the three year anniversary of the last episode of the FX series. If you put it in real time, that would also be the last day of Vic MacKey’s “sentence” of spending three years in a cubicle at a desk job. Creator Shawn Ryan said at the time that he’d be open to a reunion movie of some kind. No word if he still feels that way.
Absolutely Fabulous
The first preview for the new Christmas special has been released. It seems that Edna has certainly been keeping up with technology. The special will air on the BBC next month but there’s no word yet when it will be made available (legally) here in the States.
ON THIS DAY
2006: Loan shark Daunte Jones died on One Tree Hill
1993: The Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss movie aired on NBC.
1984: Bobby and Betsy Ewing were born on Knots Landing to Gary and Val. Bobby was named after the “late” Bobby Ewing on Dallas. After it was revealed on Dallas that Bobby’s death was all a dream, Knots didn’t mention the Dallas characters again. Were they stuck in Pam’s dream?
1980: The Breaking Away TV series, based on the popular movie, debuted on ABC.
1948: NBC premiered the long-running Kukla, Fran and Ollie kids show.
What do you think? Would you be interested in seeing a Shield reunion? Do you think that Laurie’s wise not to commit to another TV series? What do you think of the Academy’s choices?
They really need to release the Ab Fab special here in the states. I have 2 aunts that would absolutely DIE if they could get some fresh episodes of that show. It had to be their all time favorite show since Lucy went off the air.
It must be hard to find news for every day, heh. A friend of mine from high school absolutely loved Absolutely Fabulous! I always thought it was funny, but I wasn’t really into British TV back then. That’s pretty funny about the Knots Landing characters all being in Pam’s dream! I bet the Knots Landing writers weren’t very happy with the Dallas “dream” twist when they’d already based their show on it.