The new fall TV season is upon us it’s time for some last minute entertainment news. But first a word or two about a couple of movies…

I saw Star Trek: Beyond in IMAX 3-D. Depending on how you number them this was either the third or 13th Star Trek film. In either case it was an odd number which are notoriously bad movies. This one was pretty good so I think it may have broken the odd numbered curse however it wasn’t nearly as good as the most recent previous Star Trek which I thought was possibly the second best Star Trek film ever.

I also had a chance to see Suicide Squad in IMAX 3-D. Highly recommended for comic book fans only. It was kind of bizarre. I describe it as a combination of The Dirty Dozen, Ghostbusters, and Escape from New York. While the prerelease hype suggested that either Jared Leto or Will Smith were the stars of the show, it turns out that Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn steals the show. Very funny stuff.

I also want to recommend a film currently showing on Showtime called “Chappie” is sort of a different version of Short Circuit in that is a story of a cute robot that comes to life. This particular robot was a damaged police robot that was destined for the junk heap however was recovered and upgraded to make it self-aware. Unfortunately it gets stolen by a ragtag band of criminals who convince the robot that he’s doing good by helping them with their criminal activities. The film was made by the same people who made District 9 and Elysium both of which are pretty good sci-fi films I recommend as well.

Also have to give a shout out to Mr. Robot on USA Network which is approximately halfway through its second season. It’s about a schizophrenic guy named Elliott who is a leader of a group of hackers that take down a mega corporation called Evil Corp. and disrupt the world economy. If you have not been watching it you almost need to go back and watch all of season 1 before catching up on season 2. Beware of episode 207 because it will hit you with a plot twist that will make your head spin.

Meanwhile I’m still getting caught up on some shows from last season and summer shows. I got even further behind schedule while watching 17 days of Olympics. Looks like I’m going to be binge watching a lot of stuff to get ready for the new season. And if you are already caught up in looking for something to tide you over until the new shows start you might want to check out “Stranger Things” on Netflix. Although I’m not seen it yet, it’s getting rave reviews. Some describe it as if Steven Spielberg made a Stephen King TV series in the 1980s. I still haven’t started on Daredevil season 2 so I’m way behind on Netflix.

Here are links to articles that may be of interest followed by bunches of other items of interest.

Printable PDF of the fall TV schedule courtesy TVoholic.com (Unfortunately missing many premiere dates. See below)

Premiere Dates of new and returning TV shows (not exactly in a format I like but the best I could find)

Here is a better version of a fall premiere calendar from TVline.com.

Postmortem Interview with producer of Outlander on season 2 finale and upcoming season 3

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated July 15

HBO Boss on Game of Thrones End Date and Possible Spinoff, Deadwood Revival, Curb Season 9 Timetable

Postmortem interview with producer of Preacher about season 1 ending and season 2

Interview with producers of The Strain about upcoming season 3

Spoilers from Inside Line dated August 12

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated August 16

In Memoriam

We begin with the sad news that Gene Wilder has passed away of complications of Alzheimer’s at age 83. I would have to say that Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, and Silver Streak are three of the five best comedy movies ever made. (I would have to throw in Christmas Vacation and Home Alone to round out my top five list but I can’t really put them in order). At least he is reunited with his late wife Gilda Radnor whom we still mourn years later.

RIP producer director Gary Marshall creator of Happy Days and original The Odd Couple TV series. Age 81.

RIP comic actor Jack Riley who appeared in Bob Newhart Show as psychiatric patient Elliot Carlson and appeared in several Mel Brooks films. Age 80

RIP actor Jerry Doyle who played Babylon 5’s security chief Garibaldi. One of my favorite characters from that series. He was age 60. In recent years he has been a libertarian talk radio host.

RIP character actor Barry Jenner who played Adm. Ross in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine age 75

RIP actor Kenny Baker who was the little person inside R2-D2 in the original films. He was 81

RIP Sagan Lewis who played Dr. Jacqueline Wade on NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere has died at age 63 of cancer

side to RIP political commentator John McLaughlin who has hosted syndicated political talks show The McLaughlin Group since 1982. He was 89. The show will not continue without him.

RIP director Arthur Hiller who directed Love Story among others. Dead at 92

RIP actor Stephen Hill who played a district attorney on Law and Order in the 90s. He was 94

RIP Oscar nominated author Eric Bergman wrote the screenplay for The Elephant Man he was 62

RIP character actor David Huddleston who portrayed The Big Lebowski in that film.  He was 85

RIP Jonathan Krane produced “Look Who’s Talking” films. Husband to Sally Kellerman. Was 65

RIP Darrell Ward was a featured driver on History Channel reality show Ice Road Truckers who died in a single injured plane crash. He was 52

Finally from the “I wonder if she saw it coming” department Ms. Cleo self-described psychic of TV infomercials has died at age 53.

Cancellations and/or final season announcements

Winter is coming later than expected. Game of thrones season 7 will have only seven episodes and will not come until summer 2017 because of a winter imposed production delay. So winter made winter come in the summer. Also season 8 will definitely be the last.

Starz announced that it pirate series Black Sails season 4 consisting of 10 episodes in 2017 will be its last.. I really enjoyed season 1 but season 2 was so boring I decided to skip season 3.

Producers of Bones say that 2 recurring characters will die in its final short 12 episodes season.

NBC announced season 6 of Grimm will be its last. It will premiere January 6 for a short 13 episodes

AMC network has renewed Turn: Washington Spies about Revolutionary war era espionage for a fourth and final season. I watched season 1 but it wasn’t enough to make me check out season 2.

Comedy Central has canceled the Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore which was the replacement for their old Stephen Colbert show.

Caitlin Jenner’s reality show “I am Cait” has been canceled by E! Network after 2 seasons. She will return to the Kardashians

Fox will not renew Houdini & Doyle after one season

Amy Schumer’s “Inside Amy Schumer” has not been canceled but will go on a long hiatus while she does other things.

MTV’s Teen Wolf will be ending after season 6.

Pretty Little Liars will end after season 7. I was surprised to learn this show is not about politics 🙂

TV renewals and newly announced shows

Netflix has ordered 20 half-hour episodes of a new marijuana comedy called Disjointed starring Kathy Bates.

Documentary series Making a Murderer has been renewed for season 2 on Netflix

After the success of AMC’s The Night Manager another John le Carre novel is being adapted for TV. Paramount is planning on a TV version of 1963’s “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold”

Mystery Science Theater is being reboot for Netflix. Will include Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt along with veteran cast members Bill Corbett, Mary Jo Pehl and Kevin Murphy.

Hulu streaming service is adapting dystopian future thriller The Handmaid’s Tale. Will star Joseph Fiennes and Yvonne Strahavski.

The new Star Trek TV series which will be available only on CBS online streaming will be titled “Star Trek Discovery”.

TNT announced “The Last Ship” has been renewed for a 13 episode season 4 in summer 2017

HBO’s sports comedy/drama Ballers with Dwayne Johnson has been renewed for season 3. I could not make it through one episode.

Stephen Colbert got a nasty phone call from Comedy Central lawyers after reviving his conservative talk show persona that he used on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. This is reminiscent of the way NBC tried to stop Letterman from using his Top 10 List after moving to CBS. Like Letterman, Colbert completely ignored the threats I went ahead and did another sketch a few days later. He scoffed at the idea that Stephen Colbert could not play a character named Stephen Colbert. We agree.

Jennifer Lopez is developing a dance competition series for NBC

Olympic gold medalist figure skater Tara Lapinski is teeming with producer Michael Schaumburg friend to drop a series about figure skating for Hulu streaming service.

Starz network has renewed its series Power for season 3 and 4. I’ve never watched it.

SyFy Channel has renewed Wynonna Earp for season 2 of 10 episodes. I’ve only seen a couple of episodes of season 1 but it was kind of fun.

CW network will not renew Vampire Diaries beyond eighth season. I never watched it.

NBC is planning a special to celebrate Tony Bennett’s 90th birthday

USA network has renewed Suits for season 7.

Showtime announced that Homeland with returns for season 6 on January 15 has been picked up for seasons 7 and 8. Also Ray Donovan renewed for season 5.

Talks are underway for another season of X-Files to be 8-10 episodes rather brief 6 we got last year

Stephen Colbert will anchor an election night special on Showtime (which happens to be owned by CBS) by doing it on Showtime the content will be according to producers “unfettered”.

CBS, Investigation Discovery, Lifetime and A&E are preparing documentaries about the JonBenet Ramsey case this being the twenty-year anniversary.

Creator of NBC’s family drama Parenthood says the question about a revival of the series is more about when rather than if.

Marvel comics The Runaways has been ordered to series by Hulu

Morgan Freeman’s Documentary series “The Story of God” has been renewed for season 2. I really liked it but lost the last three episodes in a DVR crash.

HBO has renewed Real Time with Bill Maher through the 2018 season

Film News

The Divergent film series adapted from the young adult novels will conclude with a TV movie followed by a TV series. After two theatrical films everyone expected another one or two theatrical films to finish out the series.

The price of average movie ticket is now $8.73 which is an all-time high.

The 1984 children’s classic film Never-Ending Story will have special engagements in theaters the first week of September.

Universal studios has ordered Secret Life of Pets 2.

Will Ferrell and John C Reilly are making a film titled Holmes & Watson for Sony pictures

The big-screen remake of Ben Hur open to horrible ratings. I never really thought it needed to be remade. Apparently I was right.

Jennifer Lawrence repeats as Forbes highest paid actress. $46 million this year down from $52 million last year.

Sony pictures is remaking Jumanji starting Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Nick Jonas and former Dr. who companion Karen Gillan.

Casting News

Big surprise Thomas Gibson has been fired from Criminal Minds where he has played agent Aaron Hotchner for all 12 season. There was some sort of physical fight onset with a writer/producer. He will be written out of the show. In the aftermath of that Paget Brewster was scheduled to return to the series for a few episodes has now been promoted back to series regular.

Maks is back! Maksim Chmerkovskiy is returning for the next season of Dancing With The Stars. Also Julianne Hough returns to the judging table with the other three regulars. And her brother Derek will be one of the dancers. Also Olympic swimmer and graduate of the Brian Williams school of public storytelling Ryan Lochte is among the “celebrities” on the upcoming season of Dancing with the Stars. However he’s already proven he can’t dance his way out of a tough situation 🙂 Although we just learned that he has been partnered with returning pro Cheryl Burke who we are happy to see returned after a year off. Other notable contestants was former presidential candidate Rick Perry and former Marcia Brady herself Maureen McCormick

Jennifer Esposito formally of Blue Bloods is joining NCIS filling the void left by Tony DeNozzo. Also Sarah Clarke who had a recurring role in NCIS will not be back this season.

Benedict Samuels who played one of the “Wolf” bad guys in The Walking Dead is joining the cast of Gotham as The Mad Hatter.

Former Grey’s Anatomy doctor T.R. Knight will have a recurring role in season 2 of The Catch

Thomas Jefferson joins black-ish. Actually Daveed Diggs who played Jefferson on Broadway in Hamilton is joining the cast of black-ish in a recurring role as Bow’s brother.

Katie Sehgal will appear on Big Bang Theory as Penny’s mom this season. The two previously played mother/daughter in “8 Simple Rules” previously.

Whoopi Goldberg has signed for another year on daytime talk show The View

Rick Springfield has joined the cast of CW’s Supernatural as a minion of Lucifer

Virginia Madsen will be a returning character in Kiefer Sutherland’s new series on Fox “Designated Survivor”

Nichelle Nichols will guest star on upcoming episodes of daytime soap The Young and the Restless to celebrate if 11,000th episode.

Elizabeth Marvel who played presidential candidate Kathryn Dunbar on House of Cards has been cast as President-elect Elizabeth Kean of the upcoming season of Showtime’s Homeland which will debut January 2017 and will be based in New York.

VP Joe Biden will guest star as himself on an upcoming episode of Law and Order:SVU

Calista Flockhart will return to Supergirl but not as a series regular. Production has been moved from Los Angeles to Vancouver where the other CW superhero shows are filmed. She does not want to move to Canada or a brutal family so they have agreed to fly her North for brief periods to film multiple scenes for multiple episodes at a time. A new character will take over the day-to-day operations of the CatCo magazine where Supergirl works.

Jimmy Fallon will host the 2017 Golden Globe Awards

Jason O’Mara has been cast as the new director of SHIELD in the upcoming season of Agents of SHIELD

Nathan Filion will guest star in several episodes of Modern Family

Mariah Carey will guest star in season 3 of Empire and will not play herself

Comedians Taran Killam, Jay Pharoah and Jon Rudnitsky will not return to Saturday Night Live next season. Killam and Pharaoh both immediately got their own comedy pilots on Showtime.

Dolph Lundgren will guest upcoming episodes of Arrow as a Russian bad guy.

Scheduling News

If you missed out on FX network American Crime Story: The People Versus O.J. Simpson you will soon be able to get it and any subsequent seasons of the anthology series on Netflix.

TNT announced that The Librarians season 3 will return November 20

Look for a four-way crossover among Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow in the upcoming season. Also look for a musical crossover between Supergirl and The Flash.

CW has ordered 22 episodes of Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow and kept supernatural. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Legends of Tomorrow will get 13 episodes with Legends having an option for more episodes later.

ESPN and ABC will air a record 100 NBA games this season

ESPN coverage of the World Series of Poker. September 11

Fox TV’s new production of Rocky Horror Picture Show will air on October 20 at 8 PM

Potpourri

Although I don’t generally report on entertainment gossip news such as marriages, divorces, who is cheating on who I did it was interesting that Amber Heard is donating her $7 million divorce settlement from Johnny Depp to charity in its entirety.

USA network postpone the premiere of Shooter a sniper themed drama after the Dallas police ambush. And then delayed it again after the Baton Rouge police shootings.

The free streaming portion of Hulu is being discontinued. Only paid from now on. $7.99 includes commercials and $11.99 commercial free.

The U.S. Postal Service has issued 4 stamps featuring Wonder Woman. A number of punchlines come to mind but none of them are fit to print 🙂

National Geographic channel adaptation of Bill O’Reilly’s “Killing Reagan” is omitting the book’s controversial claim that Reagan suffered a mental decline after the assassination attempt.

I never write these entertainment news blogs as frequently as I would like. This particular one is probably the latest I’ve ever done considering it’s currently mid-July and my previous one was late March. But since then I have been adapting to a new motorized wheelchair, spending a week in the hospital with a UTI and surgical implantation of a G-tube, and getting sued for copyright infringement. So I’ve had a full plate lately. Perhaps we ought not to call this “entertainment news” as much as it should be called “entertainment recent history”. So basically the probably won’t be many “spoilers” and there will be lots of end of season postmortem interviews with cast and show runners. And at some point along the way we will actually get some news about next season.

First a couple of notes about movies. Batman v. Superman was pretty good. Any concerns about whether or not Ben Affleck could play the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman I think are pretty much ancient history. It is confirmed he will be directing himself in that sequel which we look forward to. I liked Batman v Superman better than the most recent Superman movie which kind of got boring with Superman and Zod spending so much time throwing each other through skyscrapers. So this was a step up for the DC universe.

Then I went to see Capt. America: Civil War and I realized that DC has a long way to go before they ever get in the same league (no pun intended) as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This latest installment from Marvel was probably the best comic book movie I’ve seen in many, many years. Maybe the best ever. One critic of CA:CW complained that it didn’t really resolve anything. That might be its only plot flaw. I’m not saying we can’t leave some loose ends. I guess I’m just saying the ending wasn’t that satisfying. But everything else about it was well worth seeing. Some very memorable and iconic moments throughout.

I also saw “Finding Dory” which was the first Pixar movie I managed to catch in the theater since Toy Story 3. Reviewers have said it was better than Finding Nemo but I’m awfully fond of the original so I will say it’s a worthy sequel every bit as good. Of course as a CGI enthusiast I find myself looking at the technical details. It’s been reported that Pixar spent 2 years trying to figure out how to get the Octopus character to move realistically. Most of the time he moved so quickly that it was hard to tell if his movement was natural or not. But everything else about the film was visually well-crafted. And the opening short subject was not only very funny but had some amazing photorealistic rendering that blew my mind.

As for summer replacement TV shows, you can skip “”Feed the Beast” featuring David Schwimmer as a restaurant owner whose brother has mafia problems. If you like over the top, ridiculous, sci-fi humor with a healthy dose of political sarcasm that you definitely need to check out “Brain Dead”. It’s a political comedy where politicians brains are being eaten by insects that came from a meteor from outer space. Especially funny are the recaps of previous episodes that appear at the beginning of each new episode. They are set to music and very funny. They also did a really good job of recapping the previous episodes. This show is pretty stupid but there’s nothing much else to watch during the summer and it does have its funny moments.

If you did not see the AMC spy thriller miniseries “The Night Manager”, definitely try to catch it on demand or streaming if you can. Absolutely awesome.

Also on AMC the new supernatural comedy based on a graphic novel “Preacher” is well worth watching if you’re into that particular genre. Chris Hardwick had a special “Talking Preacher” after the first episode and will have another one after the finale. The current season will run 10 episodes and season 2 has already been ordered for 13 episodes.

Speaking of after shows…  we have seen that Chris Hardwick has managed to spawn a whole new genre of TV shows with “Talking _whatever_” as other shows have developed their own similar talkshows. However imitators are having a difficult time matching the quality of what Hardwick does in his after shows. They tried it with “Sons of Anarchy” and did an abysmal job. The latest additions are “After the Black” for fans of “Orphan Black” and “After the Thrones” for “”Game of Thrones”.

The actual talkshow portion of After the Black is watchable but not great. It consists of 2 hosts typically 2 guest cast members. The problem is you have one actress playing about a third of the roles of the series and you can’t have her on every week.  The best part of the show are the behind-the-scenes features that show some of how it was filmed. The show is watchable but definitely not up to the quality that Hardwick in his shows.

For fans of “Game of Thrones” we want to highly recommend “After the Thrones”. The formula is little bit different than Hardwick/Anarchy/Black. There are no cast members or show runners as guests. It only consists of extremely knowledgeable hosts discussing the finer details of the episodes. Most useful is a regular segment called “Who the fuck was that?” in which they remind you of the back story behind some minor character you haven’t seen since season 2 but who pops up in the current episode. These people know their episodes and the books inside out and when the regular hosts need help they call in other fan experts who have an even deeper understanding of the back stories. Because the show is politically complex and has so many characters it’s really great to have this analysis to point out some of the more subtle parts of the plot. Because this season uses flashbacks is especially helpful. If you have already watched the entire season of Game of Thrones but have not seen After the Thrones, you might want to go back to your HBO on Demand or HBO go and catch up on this.

Late word is that USA Network’s Mr. Robot will also have an after show for its season premiere July 13. The show will be hosted by Andy Greenwald who is one of the hosts of After the Thrones. Additionally season 2 has been expanded from 10 episodes up to 12.

Normally at this point I would say “In the links below read about…” And then list a bunch of topics. But to see the actual articles you would have to jump to be in the blog to actually click on the links. I did this because often I wanted to describe the link in my own words rather than the headline of the actual article. But my particular description wasn’t significantly different from the headline itself so this time I’m just going to give you the links right here. After we do that, there was typically a section which would begin with “Also of interest but not linked…” And then there would be a lengthy list of news bits that were one or two sentences each. They were in the order in which I discovered them while browsing through the various websites that I follow using an RSS reader. This time were going to try to organize things a little bit and put news items into various categories.

So here we go. Linked articles that you might find interesting. Note that there were other “spoiler” articles I did not include because they weren’t really spoilers because we’re so far behind.

‘The 100’ Showrunner: “Knowing What I Know Now I Would Have Done Some Things Differently” With Lexa’s Death — Wondercon

‘Supergirl’-‘Flash’ Crossover: EP Andrew Kreisberg On How It Came Together & What Else The Multiverse Might Bring  Note: this article was before it was announced that Supergirl was moving to CW network.

Shameless Boss on Fiona’s Wedding Day Shocker, Lip’s Spiral and More

‘The Walking Dead’ EP Gale Anne Hurd On Negan, Season 7, ‘Fear The Walking Dead’ & ‘Hunters’

The Walking Dead EP Defends Cliffhanger Ending, Teases Season 7’s ‘Boundary-Pushing’ Death Scene

Legends of Tomorrow Boss Talks About Team’s Latest Loss, JSA Member’s Intro

Grimm Finale: EPs Talk [Spoiler]’s Death, Rosalee’s Secret, [Spoiler]’s ‘Complex’ Return and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on The Flash, Chicago Fire, Outlander, Gotham, Bones, Grimm, UnREAL, Empire and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Once, Grey’s, Walking Dead, Supernatural, Legends, Suits, TVD, Blindspot and More

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Once Upon a Time, Legends, POI, Rizzoli & Isles and More

Academy OKs New Rules On Oscar Qualifying Runs, Campaigning

Renewals and Cancellations

We’ve already reported many cancellations and renewals that were done early in the renewal season but there have been some last-minute renewals and cancellation that we are going to mention here. For an overall look at what’s been canceled or renewed as always we refer you to these links from TVline.com.

Broadcast TV renewal scorecard from TVline.com

Cable TV and Streaming renewal scorecard from TVline.com

And if you want to be ahead of the new fall schedule follow the next link to a graphic showing the entire schedule. If it comes up small on your screen try clicking on the image again after it comes up.

Fall TV schedule from TVline.com

We will have a more in-depth look at the new TV schedule in a later blog installed.

Here are some specific renewals and cancellation of interest as well as news about changes for upcoming seasons

Supergirl was canceled by CBS and then almost immediately picked up by CW network. CW will rerun entire season 1 beginning August 1. Before season 2 premieres on October 10.

CBS finally decided to renew Criminal Minds for season 12 long after other renewals announced.

CBS has renewed sitcom Life in Pieces. I tried it for a short piece and didn’t care for it.

Apparently “Limitless” didn’t live up to its name. Canceled by CBS after one season and definitely will not be picked up by any other network or streaming service. The show was barely watchable. It tried to play up the comedy too much compared to the serious of the movie upon which was based.

Producers of Arrow admit that season 4 flashbacks didn’t really work very well. Season 5 will continue to have flashbacks but probably that will be the end of them as we finally catch up to the start of the show.

BBC has announced Sherlock season 4 is definitely coming

Fox has renewed Lucifer which I really liked and Rosewood which I didn’t care for.

Fox has canceled Grinder, Grandfathered, Bordertown, and Cooper Barrett. I only watched Grinder and I was surprised it wasn’t canceled midseason.

To my surprise Sleepy Hollow has been renewed for season 4. I like it okay but I’m just surprised.

After spending all of last season in Europe and the Middle East, Showtime’s “Homeland” season 6 will take place back at home specifically New York City.

ABC first announced Stana Katic would not return for next season of Castle.  This wasn’t a surprise because she appeared to want out last season. It was also no surprise that a few weeks later they canceled the show altogether because the final season was barely watchable and without Detective Beckett to play off of there was nothing for Castle to do. Their relationship was the heart of the show.

ABC canceled the Muppets and Galivant

ABC’s Scandal will not return until midseason because of Kerry Washington’s pregnancy

Agents of Shield spinoff series to feature agents Bobbi and Lance has been on again off again many times. Currently off.

ABC has canceled Nashville after 4 seasons. Also has canceled midseason comedy Uncle Buck after 1 season.

ABC’s Once Upon a Time will have a single storyline throughout its 22 episodes rather than having 2 story arcs split over 2 half seasons of 11 episodes each.

MTV has renewed fantasy series Shananara Chronicles for season 2. This was a pretty good fantasy series except for the really bad makeup effects on the elves pointed ears.

NBC announced that Grimm season 6 will only be 13 episodes instead of the usual 22. I still watch it but it has lost much of its appeal. Would not be surprised if season 6 was the last although that’s not yet official.

NBC canceled Game of Silence after one season. Never saw it.

NBC has canceled sitcoms Crowded and Undatable. And medical drama Heartbeat

NBC has renewed sitcom The Carmichael Show for season 3. I kind of like it.

FX series “The Americans” has been renewed for a 13 episode season 5 to show 2017 and a 10 episode final season 6 in 2018.

Outlander has been renewed for season 3 and 4 Starz and were very well pleased.

TNT’s Major Crimes season 5 has been increased from 13 to 21 episodes for season 5

TNT has renewed Animal Kingdom about a family of criminals for season 2.

HBO has reversed its decision to renew rock ‘n roll series Vinyl. Now officially canceled.

SyFy Channel has renewed 12 Monkeys for a season 3.

Supernatural show “Hunters” has been canceled from SyFy Channel after one season. I tried one episode did not care for it.

CW network will not renew Containment for a second season

New TV and Movie Productions

There will be a new Dr. Who spinoff series for kids called “Class”. Is about the students of the Coal Hill School which has been featured in various Dr. Who episodes since 1963.

NBC will air a live presentation the play “A Few Good Men” written by Aaron Sorkin with was the basis of the movie of the same name. Coming in 2017

Warner Bros. is considering an animated feature “Speedy Gonzales”

After FX success with the OJ story CBS is developing a true crime anthology series that will start out with JonBenet Ramsey story.

Spike TV has ordered a 10 episode series based on Stephen King’s “The Mist”

James Cameron reveals that there will be 4 sequels to Avatar but who knows how many of us will live to see them all. Currently scheduled for 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023.

TNT is rebooting Tales of the Crypt for 10 episodes.

Warner Bros. is making a movie version of the 80s TV show CHiPs scheduled for summer 2017.

ABC has ordered a series “Time after Time” based on the film which pits HG Wells versus Jack the Ripper

EPIX network has ordered a 10 episode series “Get Shorty” based on the Elmore Leonard novel which was famously made into a movie with John Travolta.

Netflix is working on obtaining series based on Marvel’s Iron Fist.

There will be a spinoff series of The Good Wife based on the Diana Lockhart character played by Christine Baranski. It will only be on the CBS streaming service however in the spring of 2017.

Netflix has ordered a 10 episode reboot of “Lost in Space” in 2018

Disney announces a sequel to Wreck It Ralph set for 2018

Casting News

Much to no one’s surprise Caitlyn Jenner will join the cast of Amazon transgender themed series “Transparent”. Also show has been renewed for season 4.

Actor Echo Kellum who plays the tech whiz Curtis Holt on Arrow has been promoted to series regular for next season.

Joanne Kelly a.k.a. agent Myka Bering on Warehouse 13 will be a regular on season 2 of CBS’s Zoo

Clara Renée a.k.a. Hawkgirl is leaving DC Legends Tomorrow because she beat the bad guy in the season finale.

Wonder Woman is joining Supergirl. Not the character the actress. Lynda Carter has been cast as the president for the upcoming season of Supergirl. Also we will finally meet cousin Superman in the first two episodes next season.

Ewan McGregor will play twins in season 3 of FX series Fargo in 2017

Helen Mirren has joined the cast of Fast and Furious 8.

Archie Panjabi a.k.a. Kallinda on The Good Wife has joined the cast of NBC’s Blindspot

William Fichtner played the paraplegic boyfriend Allison Jannery on CBS sitcom Mom has been promoted to series regular for the next season.

Tom Felton a.k.a. Draco Malfoy is joining the cast of The Flash as a series regular. Will play a CSI who is suspicious that Barry Allen has a secret.

As expected Jeffrey Dean Morgan is now officially series regular on The Walking Dead along with Tom Payne who plays “Jesus”.

Kiefer Sutherland will appear in a reboot 1990 movie Flatliners

John Barrowman is now considered a series regular on all of the CW/DC comic book shows.

Sara Ramirez a.k.a. Dr. Callie Torres is leaving Grey’s Anatomy after 10 seasons.

General Entertainment News

Comcast and NBC Universal have purchased DreamWorks animation for $3.8 million

Production on season two of Amazon series “The Man in the High Castle” has been suspended because the showrunner made an abrupt exit.

After the Orlando mass shooting the cast of Hamilton decided not to carry prop guns during their Tony awards performance. Also the season premiere of TNT’s “The Last Ship” was delayed one week because it featured a shoot out in a nightclub.

Stephen Colbert will broadcast live episodes the reefs of the Cleveland and Philadelphia political conventions but will still be based in New York. Also Seth Myers will be live after the night in which Donald Trump accepts his nomination.

Winter isn’t coming fast enough. Production on Game of Thrones final season has been delayed so that their shooting locations will have less sunny weather.

It is been revealed that in the new Star Trek movie we will find out that Sulu is gay. Strangely actor George Takei who previously played the character in the original series and who he himself is gay is opposing the move. Claims that he lobbied Gene Roddenberry for a gay character in the original series although not that his own character should be gay. Roddenberry was sympathetic but said the world wasn’t ready for it yet and he was probably right. Takei wanted the new film to include gay characters but not Sulu because “that wasn’t Roddenberry’s vision”. He forgets that this is a rebooted universe in which a number of details about characters have significantly changed for example the romance between Spock and Uhura. I don’t understand his opposition to the move given that he such a vocal LGBT advocate. Various cast members have expressed their disappointment to Takei’s opposition.

In Memoriam

RIP Oscar winner Patty Duke at age 69

RIP James Noble who played the goofy governor on “Benson” dead at 94

RIP Erik Bauersofeld who was the voice of fish-headed Adm. Ackar in the Star Wars films with his famous “it’s a trap” has died at age 93.

RIP 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer age 84. He had just retired from the show a few weeks earlier after 46 years.

RIP actor Alan Young who played Wilbur on the 60s talking horse show Mister Ed. He was 96

RIP actor Michu Mezaros who was the voice of alien puppet ALF in the 80s TV show. He was 76.

RIP actress Janet Waldo who was the voice of Judy Jetson on the animated series. Age 98

RIP actor Anton Yelchin who played Ensign Checkoff in the latest Star Trek movies. Car accident age 27

RIP Oscar winner director Michael Cimino known for The Deer Hunter and Heaven’s Gate. Age 77

RIP actress Noel Neill who played Lois Lane in the TV series Adventures of Superman from 1953-1958 she was 95. Had cameo parts in a variety of Superman films.

We start off this installment of our entertainment news by mourning the death of keyboard virtuoso Keith Emerson of the 60/70’s rock group Emerson Lake and Palmer. He was a classically trained pianist who produced rock versions of classical music such as Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”, the British hymn “Jerusalem” and a very funky Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies from the Nutcracker retitled “Nut-rocker”. Their album Brain Salad Surgery was considered a masterpiece and included the much sampled “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends…” phrase. However the true masterpiece was Works volume 1 and 2. This featured solo pieces by each of the trio and combine pieces by the group. Most notably was Emerson’s piano Concerto number 1 which showed what a phenomenal composer he really was. In it you will hear influences from such modern composers as Aaron Copeland and George Gershwin. The song “Pirates” could’ve easily been the centerpiece of a Broadway musical had they chosen to go that route. It was enough to make you want to grab your parrot and your peg leg and hit the high seas. While groups like The Moody Blues were the first to record rock music with a full Symphony Orchestra accompanying them, Emerson Lake and Palmer actually went on the road for the Works tour with a full symphony. Each instrument in the orchestra at its own microphone connected to a giant mixing board that was controlled by the conductor of the orchestra. I was privileged to see the concert at Market Square Arena when they came to Indianapolis and it was a concert I will never forget. Unfortunately it was so expensive to tour with a full orchestra that they needed to sell out every venue just to break even. While it was well attended it did not meet that goal. The acquaintance of mine had tickets to see them at Indiana State in Terre Haute later that week but the rest of the tour was canceled when they did not perform there. I felt so lucky that they did not cancel the tour a day earlier. The group reunited for a 40^th anniversary concert but had not been any new music in years. Sadly Emerson’s death was ruled a suicide.

Last Sunday on Palm Sunday fonts that were presented a “Live” musical event titled “The Passion”. Narrated by Tyler Perry and set in outdoor set in a park in New Orleans it took modern music strategically placed in a retelling of the passion and death of Jesus. It took songs that were not really intended to illustrate that story and tried to make them fit the story, Basically they took a bunch of songs about peace and love and a couple about betrayal or alienation and tried to put them in the context of the story. In some instances it worked but in others the connections were minimal. I tried to set aside the fact that I am an enormous fan of Jesus Christ Superstar and just judge it on its own merits. It should be no surprise that I would prefer listening to or watching Superstar than this particular performance. For me the only way I can appreciate it is to just enjoy the performances of the individual songs and not try to criticize how well they fit the story they were trying to tell. In that sense the performances were well done, and often quite moving. Tyler Perry’s narration that was supposed to link the songs into the story didn’t really add a whole lot. I was a bit surprised at the way he talked about the resurrection itself. He was sensitive to the fact that not everyone believes in the resurrection. His narration included many sentences like “no matter what you believe” and then went on to say that the message of Jesus is universal even if your belief in the resurrection may not be. I thought that was an amazing and wonderful concession for what was presumably a religiously motivated presentation. It set a tone that made it in no way preachy or proselytizing. I put the word “Live” in quotes because you could hardly call it a live performance throughout. I’m estimating three fourths of it had been taped in advance at various locations around New Orleans. The audience at the stage in the park viewed those scenes on giant video screens. I have to wonder if they felt cheated being told they were going to a live musical event and then standing around and watching it on TV screens. A few of the musical numbers were presented on the stage live as well as the final few numbers. It appears that the taped segments were accompanied by live musicians and backup singers on stage but it was still stretching things to call it “live”. There was also this whole subplot of people carrying a 20 foot long electronic illuminated cross through the streets of New Orleans starting at the New Orleans Superdome and ending in the park at the concert venue. Along the way they interviewed people who were accompanying the cross talking about New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, and whatever else. That really added nothing to the event and in fact distracted from it in my opinion. The program is still available on demand and they are no doubt selling DVDs and Blu-rays of it. If you watch it at all, do so for the musical performances themselves and not for any kind of inspirational telling of the story of the passion. The performances by Tricia Yearwood as Mary the mother of Jesus were especially good as well as Seal as Pontius Pilate singing “Mad World”.

Normally the cancellation of a TV show gets a one line mention on this blog perhaps with an extra comment of my reaction pro or con. But there is a recent cancellation that deserves special note. Typically the cancellation of a long-running show when canceled midseason is news that trickles out bit by bit. For example one of the stars of Mike and Molly send out a tweet midseason that the show is not going to be renewed beyond the current running season. Sometimes an iconic show will announce in advance that this is going to be the final season. Shows like Sons Of Anarchy, Breaking Bad, and True Blood just to name a few have in advance announced and promoted “Be sure to catch the final season”. But a midseason decision to not renew is the kind of thing you generally announce quietly. That is except for the case of the CBS legal drama “The Good Wife” they decided to announce midseason that this was the final season of the biggest stage available to them. The cancellation was announced during a Super Bowl ad. I guess this is the biggest exception to prove the rule ever created 🙂 Not only is the cancellation itself a surprise but the big stage way they did it is unprecedented.

Speaking of cancellations and renewals. Here are links to Tvline’s scorecards on what is being renewed, canceled, and those shows pending with speculation on the odds

Broadcast Cancellation Scorecard

Cable and streaming shows Cancellation Scorecard

Now on to our regularly scheduled entertainment news. In the links below see…

Spoilers by Michael Ausiello dated February 6

Interview with The Walking Dead show runner about romance in the apocalypse

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated March 1

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated March 17

Spoilers from Inside Line dated March 25

Not in the links below but also of interest

Jane Pinkett Smith will return to Gotham for a couple of episodes this season as Fish Mooney

Gilmore Girls in getting a revival on Netflix

Louis CK has released a new TV series available for download on his website for $3-$5 per episode. Like his previous stand up special he’s cutting out the middleman and selling it directly himself.

SyFy Channel has ordered 13 episodes of a futuristic thriller titled “Incorporated” typical everything is run by corporations in the future (like five notes from now)

WGN America has canceled “Manhattan” after 2 seasons. The show was about the building of the atomic bomb in the Manhattan project. I watched four or five episodes of the first season and didn’t really care for it.

“Colony” has been renewed for season 2 by USA Network. I’m well pleased.

The Flash is doing a crossover episode to Supergirl despite the fact it is on a different network

NBC has renewed Shades of Blue starring Jennifer Lopez for season 2

CBS is canceled the Jane Lynch sitcom Angel from Hell after just a few episodes

Disney is making a holiday special featuring characters from Frozen scheduled for 2017

The History Channel remake of Alex Haley’s “Roots” will premiere memorial day weekend just sneaking in the deadline for a 2016 Emmy nomination

Unforgettable which was previously canceled on CBS and picked up on A&E has been canceled again.

Rock ‘n roll is here to stay. HBO has renewed “Vinyl” for season 2

ABC announced renewals of Grays Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Agents of Shield[, blackish, Once upon a Time, Quantico, The Goldbergs, Fresh off the Boat, The Middle, Modern Family, Shark Tank, Dancing With The Stars and America’s Funniest Home Videos. Still undecided Castle, Nashville, Last Man Standing, Doctor Ken, the Muppets, American crime, Gallivant, and Agent Carter.

Jimmy Kimmel will host the 2016 Emmy awards in September

Amazon prime announced that Victorian crime drama Ripper Street fifth season will be its last

Martial arts fantasy series Into the Badlands has been renewed for season 2 at AMC. I’m not really a kung fu fan but I like this one.

USA announced Royal Pains will end after season 8

CW network has renewed Arrow, The Flash, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, iZombie, Legends of Tomorrow, Supernatural, The 100, Jane the Virgin, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and Reign. It’s top three rated shows are The Flash, Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow in that order.

Maya Rudolph and Martin Short will have a live comedy variety series on NBC starting May 31^st at 10 PM. Will also feature Kenyan Thompson.

Netflix has announced that Marvel’s Luke Cage will premiere September 30^th

Switched at Birth will end after season 5 consisting of 10 episodes in 2017.

The new legal spinoff of Chicago PD, Chicago Fire and Chicago Med will not be called Chicago Law after all. Instead it’s going to be Chicago Justice.

Peter Dinkledge will host SNL on April 2

Patrick Warburton has been cast Lemony Snicket in the upcoming series for Netflix

Cinemax has announced “Outcast” the new demon vs. humanity series from walking dead creator Robert Kirkman has been renewed for season 2 even though season 1 will not premiere until June.

The final season of Person of Interest which starts May 3. Cancellation is official.

CBS will have a summer series titled BrainDead premiering June 13. Set in Washington DC a young Capitol Hill staffer played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead discovers that the government has stopped working and bugs are eating the brains of Congress members. Sounds like a reality series to me 🙂

ABC has canceled “Of Kings and Prophets” after just two episodes. I watched about five minutes which was apparently typical 🙂

Drew Barrymore And Timothy Oliphant Will Start a Sitcom for Netflix

Elijah Wood will star in a 8 episode adaptation of Dirk Gently Detective Agency for BBC America

RIP comedian Gary Shandling age 66

Fox network has renewed Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Last Man on Earth, Gotham, Empire, Screen Queens, And Bones. Still undecided The Grinder, Grandfathered, Rosewood, Lucifer, and Sleepy Hollow. Also New Girl is considered a sure bet.

CBS has renewed Blue Bloods, Elementary, Hawaii 50, Madam Secretary, Mom, all three NCIS, Two Broke Girls, Survivor, Amazing Race, and Big Bang Theory. No word yet on Supergirl, Limitless, Criminal Minds or others.

HBO has canceled comedy series “Togetherness”

There will be a “Talking Dead” after each episode of “Fear The Walking Dead” however it will be delayed till 11:30 PM on the first episode to allow for the premiere of new series “The Preacher”

Vin Diesel has said there will be new Fast and Furious movies in 2017, 2019, and 2021. Apparently the first seven installments left lots of unanswered questions 🙂

RIP Bob Elliott part of the Bob and Ray comedy team and father of comedian Chris Elliott. He was 92.

Netflix has ordered Orange Is the New Black renewed for 3 additional seasons

Bob Costas will be the anchor of NBC Olympics coverage from Brazil. This is his 11^th time which is a record.

History Channel has renewed “Vikings” for season 6.

Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell will star in the film titled “Deepwater Horizon” about the oil well disaster.

RIP former Today Show host and baseball player Joe Garagiola age 90

RIP SAG-AFTRA President and actor Ken Howard 871

Lady Gaga has announced she is returning for another season of American Horror Story.

It has been confirmed that Steven Spielberg will direct Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones 5

Shemar Moore has left Criminal Minds after a recent episode.

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Gilmore, Grey’s, Arrow, Castle, Walking Dead, Good Wife, The Flash and More!

Walking Dead: EP Scott M. Gimple Reveals Why He Finally Went There With [Spoiler] and [Spoiler]

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Bates Motel, Once, S.H.I.E.L.D., The 100, Big Bang, NCIS, Nashville, Castle and More!

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Flash, Bones, Gilmore Girls, Legends, NCIS, Five-0, Outlander, PLL, S.H.I.E.L.D. and More

Matt’s Inside Line: #SuperFlash Scoop, Plus Criminal Minds, Blindspot, Once, Prison Break, B99, Jane and More

With the holidays, Christmas cards to design, and a variety of other projects keeping me busy we are again way overdue for an entertainment blog entry.

Of course the biggest story since our last installment is the release of Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens. We saw at approximately a week after it opened. Keep in mind that I never had any problems with Episode I Phantom Menace or any of the other reviled episodes of Star Wars. So my endorsement of the new episode probably isn’t very weighty. But a number of other people who did not like episodes I through III have given big thumbs up to VII so even if you are picky about which Star Wars you do or don’t like, this one is probably a good one for you as well.

As you know this blog is 90% spoilers anyway but I will give you the obligatory spoiler warning for this particular review. Consider the following…

A young person who lives on a desert planet encounters a cute robot. They go off on an adventure with a bunch of resistance fighters to fight an evil empire. Along the way they had exciting battles in spaceships, meet an evil guy in a black suit and helmet, hang out in a cantina full of aliens, encounter an elderly mentor who (I told you spoilers) ends up getting killed. In the end they go on to seek a master of the force to train them for future adventures. Quiz time: did I describe Star Wars IV: A New Hope or Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens… Answer: Yes both. Basically it’s the same plot with different characters but despite the fact that we see that all before, it still works very well. To quote the mythology of Battle Star Galactica “All of this has happened before and all of it will happen again”. The basic story is that Luke Skywalker has gone missing and we are looking for the pieces of a map to figure out where he is. We end up encountering Hon Solo and his fuzzy sidekick and their iconic spacecraft The Millennium Falcon. Harrison Ford beautifully re-creates his character. He’s exactly as you would expect that character to be after aging all these years. His brief scenes with Carrie Fisher actually show more chemistry between them than it did in the original series. They look exactly like you would expect an old grumpy couple who had gone their separate ways to behave. The seam between bad guy Kylo Ren and our new hero Rey where they are using mind Force games against one another is probably the best bit of acting you will find in any Star Wars film ever. Luke Skywalker does not appear until the very final scene of the film. The camera dwells on his face to let you soak it in there is plenty to soak. He looks AWESOME. He looks like an old Jedi ought to look. He still is the somewhat boyish looking Luke yet wrinkled with Obi-Wan style beard. It was definitely worth waiting for. One disappointing aspect of the film. Some of the more iconic images from the trailer were actually from a Force Dream hallucination that Rey has. And the voiceover narration from Skywalker about “The force was strong in my family… My father had it, I had it…” etc. appears nowhere in the movie. That is one of my biggest pet peeves is when something that appears in a trailer appears nowhere in the film itself. If you’re looking for space battles, there aren’t any. All of the ship to ship and ship to ground battles take place in the atmosphere of the planet’s. It gives a whole new look and feel to the aerial battles which is new and refreshing. I saw it in IMAX 3-D I do recommend seeing it in 3-D if you can’t get to IMAX 3-D go for normal 3-D vs. IMAX non-3-D. The plot leaves plenty of unanswered questions. Some of them have fairly obvious answers while others are a total mystery. The upcoming two sequels have been set up beautifully. We can’t wait.

On the TV side of things we want to recommend the new USA series Colony. It’s the story of a family lives in Los Angeles in the near future. The world has been invaded by aliens and they had divided LA up into three or four occupations zones separated by a 300 foot tall wall. The husband, a former police officer is refuted by the local human governor who has been put in place by the aliens. His job is to infiltrate the resistance and bring them to justice. He doesn’t realize his wife is one of the leaders of the resistance. I’ve only seen one episode but it looks pretty good.

Also check out Billions a new series on Showtime. Damien Lewis (the red haired guy from Homeland) plays a billionaire Donald Trump like character. Paul Giamatti is the federal prosecutor trying to catch him in illegal dealings. His wife is a psychologist consultant who works for the billionaire creating an interesting conflict of interest. Again we’ve only seen one episode but it looks good so far.

The jury is still out on NBC’s Shades of Blue sky Jennifer Lopez as a dirty cop who is recruited by internal affairs to rat out her fellow dirty cops. It takes a while to think of like Lopez who you would think would play a good guy to be such a crooked cop. It remains to be seen if he can pull off the role credibly or not. Again we only have one episode under our belts.

Next we had a new series on SyFy Channel called “The Expanse”. It bills itself as “Game of Thrones in outer space”. While I’m not sure quite rises to that level, it is an interesting space sci-fi story with lots of complicated political back stories driving the whole thing along. There’s plenty of action and the special effects are of exceptional quality for a TV series. Also on SyFy Channel “The Magicians”. I’m calling it Harry Potter meets The Breakfast Club with a touch of Chronicles of Narnia thrown in. A young graduate student who is socially inept and withdrawn Andrew is obsessed with a series of fantasy novels that are a ripoff of Narnia suddenly finds himself recruited into a Hogwarts like school for magicians along with a female friend of his. She gets rejected by the school and was supposed to get her memory wiped the event but somehow she retain the memories. He goes on to enter the school where he meets a bunch of other equally socially maladjusted misfits. Of course there’s some big evil force out there and it’s his destiny to fight it. The instructors at the school no more than they are saying. You will have to decide if it’s of your liking or not.

Finally we had the six episode return of The X-Files. I never watched the original series for some reason. I guess I just didn’t care for UFO plot lines. I did see the feature film and liked it okay. I will stick with these 6 episodes but I’m not very impressed. I realize that our two heroes basically very laid-back low-key characters but I thought the acting in the first new episode was horrible. Mulder was supposed off the rails obsessed with his latest conspiracy theory and Agent Scully was trying to calm him down but neither one of them seemed to have any passion in their right set of. She was trying to calm down a guy who wasn’t at all manic. It almost seemed like they were just cold reading their lines off a few cards. I also expected with just six episodes that it would be one big story spread over the entire season but as we got to the second episode it seemed as though the events of the first episode never occurred. It’s still going to be week by week. Presumably they will get back to main plot line at some point but it was much more episodic than I expected for such a short season. That tells me that the purpose behind it was to create a one-off miniseries but to perhaps test the waters for a longer come back. I will probably watch them all but I can’t call myself a big fan. At this point no regrets for missing the original series.

If you are a fan of fantasy adventure such as Lord of the Rings suggest you check out MTV’s New Fantasy Series The Shannara Chronicles. Is a 10 episode series based on the books by Terry Brooks. Pretty good stuff.

One last item… The comic book TV series currently showing are all maintaining exceptionally high quality. Arrow and The Flash are at their usual high standards. Gotham consistently amazes me. And even the new Supergirl has much to recommend. Of course the big problem with Superman or Supergirl has always been how can you really disguise yourself with just a pair of glasses at a different hairdo. But much to my surprise Melissa Benoist does an amazing job of changing her personality between the mild-mannered Kara Danvers and the powerful sophisticated Supergirl. That times it almost looks like a different actress playing the part. The stories go well beyond the typical monster of the week and have a lot of heart and depth to them. Her boss played by Calista Flockhart initially appears to be a very shallow one-dimensional character but of course in the series they flash her out to be someone really interesting, complex, and nuanced. One more comic book hero to discuss. Netflix’s Jessica Jones is every bit as good or even better than Daredevil. We are only a couple of episodes into it but it is well worth checking out. If you’ve not seen it yet, I’m going to give you one spoiler that will help your understanding of the early episodes. The bad guy played by David Tennant as the ability to mind control people. Had not known that going into the series it might’ve been a little bit difficult to follow the first episode. So that’s not so much of a spoiler as a helper to set up series. Highly recommend all of these comic book shows. We’ve not yet seen the new DC series Legends of Tomorrow but we will cover it next time.

When more or less last item. There seem to be a lot of death notices in this installment of my blog but 2 of them definitely deserve broken out into this lead paragraph section. I have to admit I was never a big fan of David Bowie but I did like Space Oddity and a couple of other of his hit songs. I know he was a great talent but I’m sorry to say I doubt I will miss him. Alan Rickman on the other hand will be very sadly missed. As many others who had eulogized him, I can’t imagine any other actor being able to pull off Professor Snape as brilliantly as he did. It wasn’t until we got to the final episodes that we really got to see the depth of that amazing character and thus to appreciate the brilliance of his performance throughout the 8 Harry Potter films. His other performances which have been eulogized I have to admit I had forgotten about but in retrospect do recall that they were brilliant. A great voice has been silenced. Be sure to check out the first of our links listing other memorable Alan Rickman performances.

Now onto the news bits…

In the links below read…

10 Alan Rickman movies to watch besides Harry Potter as recommended by USA Today

Doctor Who show runner Stephen Moffat stepping down after season 10

Read about the new “Dark Knight III” series of graphic novels from Frank Miller

Interview with Scott Gimpel EP producer of The Walking Dead about the rest of the season

Interview with producer of Gotham about the midseason finale and what’s coming next

Article describes the struggle to find 70 mm theaters to show 70 mm film version of Quentin Tarantino’s “Hateful 8”

Interview with “The Leftovers” EP about season 2 finale and season 3 preview

Spoilers (such as they are) from Michael Ausiello dated December 8. A little bit out of date aren’t they 🙂

Interview with EP of Quantico about midseason finale

Spoilers from Inside Line dated December 15

Interview with EP of Fargo after season 2 and looking forward at season 3

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated December 17

Interview with cast of Netflix series Jessica Jones

Spoilers from Inside Line dated January 19

Not in the links below but also of interest…

In addition to the news that Stephen Moffat is leaving Doctor Who, we also learn there will be no new episodes in 2016 except for the Christmas special. Season 10 will be in the spring of 2017

Sonia Braga has joined the cast of the upcoming Marvel’s Luke Cage series from Netflix. She will play Soledad Temple mother to Claire Temple (played by Rosariro Dawson as she was in Daredevil). The series will drop sometime later this year.

Kevin Bacon is trying to develop his or film series Tremors into a TV show. No network attached yet.

ABC has renewed Dancing with the Stars to premier March 21st. Curmudgeon head judge Len Goodman will return.

RIP soap opera actor David Canary 77 who played on All My Children

Wanda Sykes has joined the cast of blackish

So far the only appearance of Superman on Supergirl has been a silhouette however may have a casting call out for someone to play Kal-el. However it will be at age 13. Will explore the relationship between him and Kara.

Amazon’s series Man in the High Castle is an alternate history series speculating if the Nazis had won World War II. Promotional posters featuring swastikas were pulled from New York City subways after people complained.

RIP Al Markim age 88. Played Astro in the nineteen fifties TV series Tom Corbett, Space Cadet

In case you missed it Gotham has added a new classic Batman villain. Mister Freeze has arrived.

ABC Family Channel has renewed “the Fosters” for season 4

Journalist Linda Ellerbe who was the inspiration for the character Murphy Brown is retiring after 44 years of broadcasting. I first fell in love with her on her late late night show NBC News Overnight but for the past 20+ years she has been doing a news program for kids on Nickelodeon.

RIP John “Cha-Cha” Ciarca at 69. Played Albie Cianflone on the Sopranos

“The Wiz Live” was the first live TV program to include an audio track on the SAP channel describing the program for visually impaired viewers. Several scripted programs especially those on USA Network such as Suits have been featuring description tracks. If you see a big letter D))) symbol in the upper right corner that indicates audio narration for visually impaired. Of course even though this was a live program, it was totally scripted so it was easy to create the descriptive track in advance.

David E Kelly is producing a new legal drama for Amazon prime streaming. In most Billy Bob Thorton, William Hurt, and Molly Parker among others. It was ordered straight to series without a pilot and will drop sometime this year.

FXX has renewed “You’re the Worst” for season 3

Former Superman from Smallville Tom Welling will starting a new series for CBS titled Section 13. It is an action spy drama.

Jay Leno’s Garage has been renewed for a second season on CNBC

After season 2 of Fargo went back to the 70s it has been announced that season 3 will be set in present-day.

RIP Oscar nominated actor Robert Loggia age 85. Known for dancing with Tom Hanks on a giant keyboard in “Big”. Also had memorable roles in Scarface and Independence Day

NBC announced The Blacklist has been renewed for season 4

Showtime has announced it is renewing Homeland and The Affair for an additional season

Although billed as a one time 10 episode event series, “Wayward Pines” has been renewed for season 2. Options on all the actors have run out so it will probably have a new cast but will pick up approximately where the first series left off.

HBO has renewed “The Leftovers” for a third and final season despite the fact that me and three or four other people the only ones watching.

RIP Donna Douglas played Ellie Mae Clampett of the Beverly hillbillies. She was 81.

Chicago Med has an order of 5 new episodes brings the total to 18.

RIP actress Rose Siggins. She lost both legs at age 2 and played Legless Suzi on American Horror Story: Freak Show. Died of complications of kidney surgery at age 43.

Mystery Science Theater 3000 has raised $6.3 million on Kickstarter for a 14 episode revival

Mike and Molly is not being renewed by CBS after the end of the current season.

Kiefer Sutherland has been cast as president United States for the upcoming series for ABC titled “Designated Survivor”.

TNT announced it is canceling Legends, Agent X, and Public Morals.

TNT announced it is renewing Major Crimes for season 5 and The Librarians for season 3.

NBC has canceled Neil Patrick Harris’s “Best Time Ever”. It most definitely did not live up to its name. I couldn’t get through half an episode.

Natalie Portman will play Jacqueline Kennedy in the upcoming movie titled “Jackie” about her life shortly after the JFK assassination

Fox is interested in starting a Latino drama series that is described as a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. duh didn’t we already have West Side Story?

Vin Diesel is working on a development deal to bring his Riddick character to TV

“Fuller House” the Full House reunion show for Netflix will premiere 13 episode on February 26. The show picks up 21 years after the original but this time without the Olsen twins.

Sean Penn is scheduled to play Andrew Jackson in the upcoming HBO miniseries American Lion.

History Channel’s “Vikings” season 4 opens February 18 for a whopping 20 episodes.

Amazon series “Hand of God” has been renewed for season 2

Clint Eastwood will direct Tom Hanks in “Sully” about airline pilot Sully Sullenberger who landed an airplane in the Hudson River. Set to premiere September this year.

Sometime before season ends, Supergirl will battle her crazy doppelgänger Bizarro-Girl

RIP soap opera actress Patricia Elliott 877 played in One Life to Live.

RIP actor Brooke McCarter who played a vampire in the eighties movie “The Lost Boys”. He had a genetic liver condition and was 52.

From the “Did I already report this?” Department… ABC Family Channel is changing its name to Freeform.

Forbes magazine named Leonardo DiCaprio the most overpaid actor of the year.

RIP screenwriter George Clayton Johnson at 86. Cowrote Logan’s Run and the first episode of Star Trek

SyFy Channel has renewed “The Expanse” for season 2 and we are well pleased.

Un-aired episodes of ABC’s canceled after two weeks 80s crime drama “Wicked City” are now available online.

RIP actor Wayne Rogers 82. Played Trapper John on the TV series MASH.

RIP character actor Jason Wingreen age 95. He auditioned to play the voice of Yoda but ended up dubbing the voice of bounty hunter Boba Fete instead. He also played at bartender friend of Archie Bunker in All in the Family and Archie Bunker’s Place.

Michael Bay will direct Transformers 5 but says it will be his last time to direct the franchise.

No more DiNozzo . Michael Weatherly is leaving NCIS at the end of the season.

Inside Amy Schumer has been renewed for season 5 at Comedy Central

HBO series Girls premieres it’s fifth season. Announced season 6 will be at the last.

Hugh Laurie a.k.a. House M.D. will star in a 2 season 20 episode drama for Hulu Streaming. The show is titled “Chance” he plays the title character a forensic neuropsychiatrist.

Neil Degrasse Tyson talkshow “Star Talk” has been renewed for season 3 by National Geographic Channel

Daredevil season 2 will be released to Netflix on March 18

RIP actor Pat Harrington Jr. played handyman Dwayne Schneider on “One Day at a Time”

TNT announced Rizzoli and Isles will end after season 7

Gerald McCranie will join the cast of Castle for a multi-episode arc

The new season of Game of Thrones will premiere April 24. Talks are underway with HBO for season 7 & 8.

BBC America will have a Doctor Who Related six part series called Prey. It will be a pair of three episodes stories.

BBC America will be new series Dirk Gently’s Holistic Defense Agency based on the comic by Douglas Adams.

AMC announced that Fear The Walking Dead will premiere April 10 with a half season of seven episodes. The remaining 8 episodes will air later in 2016. AMC series “Turn: Washington Spies” and miniseries “Night Manager” a spy thriller will also premiere in April.

As if Michael Stranahan didn’t have enough to do on TV, he will host a reboot of $100,000 Pyramid game show for ABC

Hulu says that 11.22.63 based on Stephen King’s novel will have significant but authentic changes from that novel.

BBC America will air “Adele: Live in London” on Valentine’s Day.

Supergirl to appear on Supergirl. Laura Vandervoort who played Kara Zor-el in Smallville will play DC character Indigo in episode 15 of the CBS series Supergirl.

Showtime announced Shameless has been renewed for season 7.

Showtime series Penny dreadful season 3 will premiere May 1 and run nine episodes.

Showtime comedy” Episodes” season 5 will probably be its last

RIP character actor David Margulies at 78. You will remember him as the mayor of New York in Ghostbusters but he had a distinguished career in film and on Broadway as well.

Showtime’s Homeland season 6 will be set in New York City

Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival has been narrowed down to “early 2017”. Sherlyn Fenn is officially on board to reprise her character. Also one of David Lynch’s favorite actresses Laura Dern has joined the cast.

Simon Cowell is replacing Howard Stern for season 11 Of America’s Got Talent. Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum and Nick Cannon will return. The show is moving back to LA.

Jimmy Fallon will have a Tonight Show Valentines Day special in prime time and then he show will be in LA from February 15-19.

NBC announced Seth Myers contract for Late-Night with Seth Myers has been extended through February 2021

NBC is considering yet another Chicago spinoff series this time Chicago Law. We already have Police, Fire, and Med. Perhaps after that garbageman or meter maids.

USA Network announced Playing House is being renewed for season 3. I’ve never heard of it.

Fox has renewed “Empire” for a 3rd season and “Scream Queens” for a 2nd season.

RIP actor Dan Haggerty who played Grizzly Adams on TV. Age 74

Season 4 of “the Americans” will premiere March 16. Actress Keri Russell is pregnant in real life and will have to hide her baby bump in the latter part of the season.

After Jon Bernthal plays The Punisher in season 2 of Daredevil he may have more work to do. A Punisher spinoff series is under development at Netflix.

Netflix has announced season 2 of Unbreakable Kimimy Schmidt will arrive April 15. Season 3 has been approved.

Fox’s developing a new round of the TV series “24” which will not feature Jack Bauer/Kiefer Sutherland

RIP Rutledge and Glenn Frey one of the founders of the Eagles age 67.

After Playboy announced recently there would be no more nude photo spreads or centerfolds, Penthouse has also announced it’s getting out of the print magazine business altogether and going strictly digital.

Fox Frankenstein themed series Second Chance has been moved to the rating doldrums Friday night after just two episodes. Friday is where bad shows go to die.

We can expect more Bernie Sanders sketches on SNL. Larry David will be hosting the February 6 show

For Doctor Who Matt Smith will play controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe with Girls star Zosnia Mamet to plate Patti Smith

RIP veteran actor Abe Vigoda who played Lieutenant Fish on Bernie Miller

Netflix announced House of Cards has been renewed for season 5. Season 4 will premiere in March.

10 Alan Rickman movies to watch besides ‘Harry Potter’

Doctor Who Boss Steven Moffat Quits

Frank Miller returns to his ‘Dark Knight’ world

‘The Walking Dead’ EP Teases Rest Of Season 6, Negan, Glenn’s Fate & Ratings

Gotham Boss Weighs In on Gordon’s ‘Bad Deed,’ the Big Freeze Tease and ‘Horrendous’ Reveals to Come

How Weinstein Co. Distribution Chief Erik Lomis Rescued 70MM Cinema For Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight’

The Leftovers EP Damon Lindelof Answers Burning Finale Questions, Drops Big Season 3 Clue

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on The Flash, HTGAWM, Gilmore Girls, Walking Dead, Castle, S.H.I.E.L.D. and More

Quantico EP on the Bomber’s Identity, Ryan’s Sad Love Song and the Reveal That [Spoiler] ‘Definitely Is a Terrorist’

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on The 100, The Flash, NCIS, Castle, The Strain, Galavant, Supergirl, POI and More

Fargo Boss Talks Hanzee’s Season 1 Identity, Defends the Use of UFOs and Narrows Down Setting for Season 3

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Good Wife, Nashville, Big Bang, Gilmore Girls, Madam Secretary, NCIS and More

Jessica Jones’ Graphic Sex Scenes: Krysten Ritter, Mike Colter Kiss and Tell

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Scandal, Sleepy Hollow, Castle, The Flash, Once, Supernatural, Grey’s, Reign and More

I’ve been too busy watching TV to write about it.

The first official cancellation of the final season is a big disappointment to me. FX has canceled the new Kurt Sutter series “The Bastard Executioner” or rather it has failed to pick it up for a second season. The first season just wrapped and I really really liked it. I am highly disappointed. The show failed to get even 1 million viewers. I thought it was great and was anxious to see where it went from here. It did go out with a big episode but it was hardly a satisfying ending.

Executioner wasn’t so much canceled as it failed to be renewed. But the winner of the first to be canceled award goes to ABC’s “Wicked City” which was dropped after just three episodes with terrible ratings. It was about a man and woman who are lovers and serial killers get their sexual kicks by killing. It was also about the cops chasing them. Set in the 1980s Los Angeles. I only got to see the first episode and I thought it was a bit interesting if not great.

Other cancellations have not been as definite or obvious. Some ongoing shows have announced their final season and some new shows have had the number of scripts have had their number of scripts reduced and production has been shut down which means they are pretty much dead but just not yet officially canceled. TV Line refers to this as a “soft cancellation”. A few have already been picked up for a full season. We’ve included a renewal scorecard but there isn’t much new filled out yet except for some summer shows that will not be back next year. I didn’t write as many individual reviews as I had hoped to the season but here’s a brief we step of some winners and losers.

The new sitcom “Life in Pieces” did not hold my interest for even one full episode. Nothing to see here… Move along. The ER room drama “Code Black” had some potential but considering that I’m already watching too many shows to keep up with all of them, it was one that I had to drop. If you watch the classic “ER” TV series for 11 or 12 years you’ve seen everything that this show had to offer. In some ways it suffers from the same problems that the original ER had in its early seasons. Patients come and go so quickly that you never get into their stories at the doctor spend so much time treating them that you have trouble getting into their stories. It’s just a continuous stream of medical jargon and flying blood gauze bandages. And predictably at about the 40 minute mark of each episode they went into Code Black status as expected.

Another casualty to my watchlist was “Rosewood” about it private who works in Miami. First of all I didn’t buy the premise that a guy could be a private duty medical examiner in a major city like Miami when certainly they have city or county medical examiners on the job all of the time. While there were some nice looking women running around and it was great to see the sky driving around beautiful Miami in a fancy car, the stories weren’t that interesting, the love interest didn’t have much chemistry, and the subplot about his health issues was just boring. If it was a summer replacement show and nothing else was on I would probably watch it and Code Black.

The next to leave my watchlist that has not quite yet left is “The Grinder”. This is a sitcom with one running joke week after week. The premise is that Rob Lowe played a famous lawyer on TV and when his series is canceled he moves in with his brother who is a real life lawyer. He keeps trying to act like he can be a lawyer because played one on TV. I think the only reason I’m watching it is to see how long they can keep repeating the same story over and over again.

Speaking of “stupid premise” I’m going to continue watching “The Player” despite its stupid premise. It has enough action,, shootouts etc. to keep me interested. Some other brief comments… Quantico is slightly too soap opera in nature but I’m hooked on the story of who is responsible for a terrorist bombing. I’m hoping that the show was grossly unrealistic because if these characters are representative of who the FBI is recruiting these days, this country is a lot of trouble. They are all neurotic misfits.

Minority Report and Limitless are what I would call watchable but neither is as good as I had hoped they would be. The first couple of episodes of Heroes Reborn got bad reviews and it did take a while to get going however it eventually delivered big time and by the ninth or tenth episode it was everything that you ever liked about the original Heroes series. The characters that they brought back from the original series were fun to revisit and the new characters are very compelling. I really hope that even though this was supposed to be a limited event series I would love to see it picked up for more episodes next year. I would have to say it’s my favorite somewhat new show since it really is a continuation of the original series Heroes.

Returning favorites include all of the comic book shows Gotham, Arrow, and The Flash each of which has upped its game. And speaking of “open your game” the clear winner in that category is the new season of The Walking Dead. The action sequences get the first few episodes surpassed many action movies. To see such cinematic storytelling on a weekly series is amazing. And the plot and characters are every bit as wonderful as they have ever been perhaps better.

Also of special mention in returning series have been the incredible performances by Cameron Moynahan as the Joker -like character in Gotham. And the episode of Agents of Shield that told what happened to Simmons while she was trapped on alien planet was clearly the best episode they’ve ever done even if it was a ripoff of The Martian.

The only disappointing returning series is the new round of American Horror Story. For the first two or three episodes it was just wall-to-wall blood and gore with no story and no character. They are gradually starting to reveal a little bit of plot and we are getting to know the characters but it seems like the first half hour of the show is just a showcase of the grotesque and the real storytelling doesn’t get going until about halfway through the episode. They need to find some balance between the gross out and the storytelling.

The jury is still out on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I like the premise of a romantic comedy TV series where people break out into song like a Hollywood movie musical. The solos are extremely clever and are reminiscent of last year’s musical Galavant and the musical episode of Psych both of which I loved. But it’s just so so as a romantic comedy story. A little bit like The Grinder is a one joke story that they keep repeating over and over.

Longtime readers of this blog know that we occasionally issue an award titled “Chris Young’s sure sign of the coming Apocalypse award”. Fortunately we have not had one of those recently. One television event that narrowly missed apocalyptic status was the decision to have a crossover episode between Bones and Sleepy Hollow. Those episodes have aired and I still think was a bad idea. They did succeed in keeping the supernatural elements out of the Bones episode to a certain extent although they did have some s’plaining to do about Ichabod Crane’s handwriting appearing in a 200-year-old document. Overall it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been but it was still a bad idea.

However with this installment of the blog we have created a new award. The first recipient of “Chris Young’s OMG I can’t believe they did such a cool thing” award goes to Gotham. Reports say that Paul Rubens a.k.a. Pee-wee Herman has been cast to play the Penguin’s father in an upcoming episode.

In the links below read…

TV Line broadcast renewal scorecard

Postmortem interview with Cameron Monahan about his Joker -like character in Gotham

Postmortem interview with producers of The Strain about the end of season 2 and what to expect in 3

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated October 13

Spoilers from Inside Line dated October 18

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated October 22^nd

Interview with Neil Degrasse Tyson about season 2 of StarTalk and other topics

Spoilers from Inside Line dated October 29

Interview with Arrow producers about recent plot points

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated November 5.

Spoilers from Inside Line dated November 11

Interview with stars of Arrow and The Flash about crossover episodes December 1-2 which will launch new series Legends of Tomorrow

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated November 18

Interview with producer of Marvel’s Jessica Jones

Spoilers from Inside Line dated October 22

Calendar of fall finale and midseason returns and premieres

Not in the links below but also of interest

HBO is considering a series based on the Watchmen graphic novel and film

CW network has ordered 5 additional scripts for iZombie bringing it to 18 episodes for this season 2. Also additional scripts for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend however we don’t know how many total that is. The report didn’t say.

CBS is developing a series based on the Nancy Drew detective stories for kids.

Peter Sarsgaard will have a recurring role in the Showtime revival of Twin Peaks

ABC Family channel is changing its name to “Freeform” starting in 2016

Animated series Bob’s Burgers has been renewed for season 7 and 8.

Despite what TV line describes as “barely detectable ratings” series “Halt and Catch Fire” has been renewed for a 10 episode third season at AMC.

FX networks has renewed Tyrant for season 3

Fox’s ordered three additional scripts for Rosewood. Quite a full season pickup but still a vote of confidence from the network.

Former King of Queens Kevin James will write and star in a new sitcom for CBS with a 13 episode commitment for the 2016-17 season. It’s a family comedy about a retired cop.

CBS announced that sci-fi drama Extant has been canceled. The story had run its course.

Blindspot has been picked up for a full season. I should’ve mentioned it in my intro to this blog. It has enough action, story, and characters to keep my interest. I think I actually like it better than The Blacklist of which is a ripoff in some respects.

Late update Blindspot has been picked up for season 2!

Fox has cut the order for Minority Report from 13 episodes down to just 10 because of terrible ratings.

David Duchovny has hinted that he may show up in the Twin Peaks revival reprising his role as transgendered DEA agent Denise Bryson.

CW network announced Beauty and the Beast will end its run after season 4. This would never worked for me and I gave up after just a couple of episodes.

Look for Arrow bad guy Damien Darhik to cross over to The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow is future episodes.

Harry Connick Jr. is going to host a syndicated daytime talk/variety show.

Laura Spencer the redheaded gal who is Raj’s girlfriend on The Big Bang Theory has been promoted to series regular. However she will still occasionally guest star as an intern on Bones.

SyFy Channel has canceled its supernatural series Dominion. Although I watched it it really wasn’t that good.

When 2 Broke Girls premiered a couple of weeks ago it was ahead of schedule. That timeslot was supposed to be for a new Jane Lynch sitcom titled Angel from Hell. That show has now been pushed to February.

Showtime’s Homeland producers need to vet their art department better. They hired in Arabic speaking graffiti artist to tag a wall to appear in the background of a scene. He wrote “Homeland Is Racist” nobody noticed until it was too late.

Fox sitcoms Grandfathered and The Grinder have received orders additional episodes and then later were picked up for a full season.

SyFy Channel says that Defiance will not return. Season 3 left Nolan and Doc flying off into the universe. A fitting ending.

ABC has picked up sitcom Doctor Ken for a full season.

NBC Universo has acquired the exclusive rights to The Walking Dead dubbed in Spanish. Season 1-3 will begin airing in early 2016

Dr. Phil has signed a multi-year that keep him on the air through the year 2020.

It’s no myth… MythBusters has been canceled after 14 seasons, 248 episodes, 2950 experiments, 1050 myths and 900 explosions. The latest season really wasn’t up to their usual standards without the assistants that were cut from the show last year. It was fun while it lasted. The final season begins January 9, 2016.

Freeform channel formerly known as ABC Family has renewed Switched at Birth for season 5

ABC has canceled its summer supernatural series The Whispers

Lindsay Wagner will guest star on NCIS as Agent Bishop’s mother. No relation to Robert Wagner place Tony’s father.

CBS has picked up Limitless for a full season order of 22 episodes

NBC has cut The Player down to just 9 episodes.

Brian Fuller will reboot Steven Spielberg’s “Amazing Stories” anthology series for NBC

ABC has trimmed its order for evening soap opera Blood and Oil to just 10 episodes.

FX network has canceled Married

Ricky Gervais will return to host the Golden Globes Awards in 2016

Walking Dead producer Scott Gimpel refuses to say whether or not you-know-who is really dead or not but he did say that the injury to Rick’s hand was not serious and would not require amputation.

NBC sitcom Truth Be Told has been trimmed from 13 down to 10 episodes.

HBO has changed its mind after initially renewing The Brink a Jack Black comedy it has now decided not to renew it after all.

Despite my inability to get through a full episode, CBS has picked up a full season order new sitcom “Life in Pieces”

Starz has renewed Ash vs. Evil Dead for a second season before the first one even began. I need to check this one out.

Norman Reedus will star in a biker themed reality series AMC in 2016

Netflix has renewed Longmire for season 5

RIP Al Molinaro died at age 86 he was the driving owner Al on happy days and on the original odd couple he was Murray the cop

A new Star Trek series will premiere on CBS in 2017

SyFy Channel has acquired a 13 episode series titled Van Helsing with a female lead daughter Vanessa Van Helsing

Former Sons of Anarchy veteran Tommy Flanagan will play a bad guy in the upcoming Gotham

Jon Stuart has signed a deal with HBO to create original digital short form material for HBO Now and HBO Go As Well as for slick rights to some future TV and movie prospects.

The revival of Twin Peaks has been pushed until 2017

David Harvey will host a reality competition series called First Impressions for USA Network that will pit comic impressionists against each other.

BBC America will have a supersized one-off episode of Luther on December 17

NBC has renewed Chicago fire and Chicago PD for their next season. Very early to be doing so.

American Horror Story has been renewed for season 6 at FX. Producers have already invited Lady Gaga to return but no word on if you will accept and what the next story will be like.

Joel Hodgson has launched a kick starter campaign to revive Mystery Science Theater 3000

CBS will have a live addition of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert to air after the Super Bowl.

Bob Newhart will come back from the dead to guest star on an upcoming episode of Big Bang theory

ABC miniseries about Bernie Madoff starring Richard Dreyfus will air February 3-4.

TNT has renewed Murder in the First for season 3.

Former NYPD Blue start James McDaniel will play the Mills sisters father in an upcoming episode of Sleepy Hollow

As a result of the Paris bombings HBO has canceled a live U2 concert from Paris. Also Supergirl and NCIS: LA postponed terror related episodes because of the Paris bombings. The concert has been rescheduled for December 7 the Supergirl and NCIS LA episodes will air eventually. Additionally Undataable dropped its live episode in favor of a rerun and was criticized for it claiming that it was a publicity stunt. Other shows had special opening sequences including SNL and Stephen Colbert

Megan Boone a.k.a. Elizabeth Kean on The Blacklist is pregnant in real life. No word about what it means for her character.

Genifer Goodwin a.k.a. Emma Snow on Once upon a Time is pregnant in real life. No word about what it means for her character.

E! Network has canceled its pop-culture talkshow The Soup after 22 seasons

Original American Idol judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell will return to guest start sometime during the final season of American Idol.

Celine Dion will pay tribute to the victims of the Paris attack during Sunday’s American Music Awards.

Code Black has been given 5 more episodes to bring its total up to 18.

Colton Haynes will reprise his role of Roy Harper in upcoming episode of Arrow

Marvel’s Ant Man is definitely getting a sequel which will also feature The Wasp tentatively scheduled for July 2018

Composer John Williams will be the first ever composer to receive an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. Much-deserved.

Animated “Guardians of the Galaxy” has been renewed for a second season on Disney XD

RIP actress Maureen O’Hara who is 95. She played opposite John Wayne in several movies.

Mark Wahlberg will star as Steve Austin in a film version of Six Billion-Dollar Man to be released to theaters December 2017

A&E and documentary maker Vice Media will rename the H2 (History 2) Channel as Viceland in 2016

Amazon is developing a TV series based on Marion Zimmer Bradley’s fantasy/sci-fi books Darkover. Unlike Game of Thrones, they won’t have to worry about getting ahead of the novels. There are 25 books in the series.

RIP Melissa Masterson screenwriter who wrote ET The Extraterrestrial. She was 65.

Z Nation has been renewed for season 3 on SyFy Channel

Chloe Grace Moretz will star in a live-action film version of The Little Mermaid for Universal Studios

A remake of the 1965 series Lost in Space is coming to Netflix as a series

Disney XD announced Gravity Falls will end in 2016

FX network has announced Fargo has been renewed for season 3

Other GOP candidates are demanding equal time after Donald Trump hosted SNL if all 17 of them got their own episode it would probably extend past the election 🙂 NBC has offered candidates 12 minutes and five seconds of free advertising or promos as compensation instead.

AMC new series “Into the Badlands” earned the third-best debut ever for a cable show thanks to strong lead-in from The Walking Dead

Advanced sale tickets to the new Star Wars movie are predicted to reach $100 million by opening day

RIP Jim Perry game show host of Card Sharks and Sale of the Century was 82

Despite weak ratings CW has ordered additional episodes of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and iZombie bringing their totals to 18 and 19 respectively

RIP car designer George Barris who designed the Adam West sixties version of the Batmobile age 89

Pixar schedules Finding Dori June 2016, Cars 3 in 2017, Toy Story 4 2018 all sometime in June of those years

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have announced “Godzilla vs. Kong” will reach theaters in 2020

From the “I can’t remember if I already reported this department” Chris Rock will host this year’s Oscars

RIP Gunnar Hansen made 68 played the original Leatherface killer in Texas Chainsaw Massacre

CW announced premiere of Flash/Arrow spinoff series “Legends of Tomorrow” will be January 21. Also CW series “The 100” return same day.

TV Line Broadcast Renewal Scorecard

Gotham’s Cameron Monaghan Talks About Deadly Twist, His Animated Idol, Losing Sleep Over ‘Joker’ Role

Strain EPs Clear the Air on Nora’s Fate, Tease a ‘Different, Faster’ Season 3

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on NCIS, Looking, Vampire Diaries, Castle, Arrow, Scorpion, Once, S.H.I.E.L.D. and More

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Once, Scorpion, Quantico, Major Crimes, Castle, Blindspot, Supergirl and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Supernatural, X-Files, Empire, Grimm, Once, Gotham, Switched at Birth, Flash and More

Neil deGrasse Tyson on StarTalk Season 2: Cosmos, Comedy and Why Charlie Sheen (?!) Is a Dream Guest

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Arrow, Castle, Supergirl, Supernatural, Once, S.H.I.E.L.D., HTGAWM, H50 and More

Arrow EP Talks Oliver/Laurel Face-Off, Sara’s Future, Dig’s ‘Wound’ and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Arrow, Bloodline, Grimm, Supergirl, Scandal, TVD, Supernatural and More

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on POI, Castle, Arrow, The Originals, HTGAWM, Supernatural, Jane, P.D. and More

Arrow/The Flash Stars Preview ‘Bigger, Crazier’ Crossover Event — Plus: Who’s MIA? Which Reunion Didn’t Happen?

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Chicago Fire, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Supernatural, Bones, Flash, Scorpion and More

‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones’ EP Melissa Rosenberg On Luke Cage, Season 2, ‘Supergirl’ & Gender Parity In Hollywood

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Castle, New Girl, Once, The Knick, Chicago Fire, Arrow, CSI: Cyber, Gotham and More

When Will Your Favorite Shows Return From the Holidays? Save These Dates!

Time for another entertainment roundup. If you missed some of my recent reviews of new shows you can always check them out on my blog here.

http://entertainment.cyborg5.com/category/tv-review/

Let’s move on with my usual entertainment news items. Lots to talk about with the new fall schedule in the middle of kicking off. In the links below you can read

Interview with Executioner creator Kurt Sutter about his new show.

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated August 12

Spoilers from Inside Line dated August 17

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated August 24

Interview with Ron Perlman about leaving Sons of Anarchy and his new Amazon series “Hand of God”

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated September 4

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated September 18

TV Line makes 30 predictions about the fall season including first cancellations and renewals

Interview with Muppets producer about controversial adult jokes (as I predicted there would be controversy)

Spoilers from Inside Line dated September 25

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated September 30

BBC announces new young adult Dr. Who Spinoff

Not in the links below but also of interest…

RIP former Monday Night Football host Frank Gifford who died of natural causes age 84

Netflix sci-fi series “Sense8” has been renewed for season 2

CBS executive says they will promote Supergirl during CW network’s Arrow and Flash but don’t expect any crossover stories

Parker Young of Fox “Enlisted” will play a new love interest for Thea Queen in the season of Arrow

TV Land has canceled divorce sitcom “The Exes”

Ellen Burstyn will have a recurring guest starring role in CBS sitcom “Mom”

Showtime announced Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex will return for season 4 age

Showtime has canceled Lisa Kudrow’s therapy comedy “Web Therapy”

TNT has renewed The Last Ship for season 3

NBC has renewed American Ninja Warrior for another season

Jimmy Fallon will remain post of the Tonight Show at least through 2021

Arnold Schwarzenegger will take over as host of Celebrity Apprentice. No word on whether he will replace the catchphrase “you’re fired” with “hasta la vista baby”. NBC says that Donald Trump will never return to the show regardless of his candidate status.

Revenge alum Gabriel Mann a.k.a. Nolan Ross will guest star on an upcoming mysteries of Laura

Charlotte Ross will return to Arrow to guest star as Felicity’s mom

SyFy Channel has canceled Haven. Upcoming half season in October will be the end.

Jill Hennessey from the old show Crossing Jordan will play a recurring part on Madam Secretary as Henry’s new CIA handler.

RIP Yvonne Craig who played batgirl in the 1960s Batman TV series. Died at age 78 complications of breast cancer

TNT announced Maj. crimes season 4 has been expanded to 23 episodes which is an increase above the usual 19

RIP Melody Peterson who played Wrangler Jane in the 60s comedy F Troop

Although Twin Peaks started shooting last month, it probably will not reach Showtime until 2016. Also late word that composer Angelo Badalamenti is on board to score the show. It wouldn’t be Twin Peaks without his creeping music. We are well pleased.

David Boreanaz a.k.a. Seeley Booth had a bad reaction to antibiotic over the summer which delayed his return to Bones. Producers accommodated by writing a story line in which he goes missing for the first couple of episodes. He is back at work as of late August and is okay.

Former 24 star Kim Raver will guest star on Bones to help look for Agent Booth

The Strain star Mia Maestro will guest star on an upcoming episode of Scandal

There are rumors there will be a spinoff from Sons of Anarchy based on the Mayans biker gang

Defiance star Julie Benz will have a recurring role on Hawaii 50 the season

USA Network has canceled Complications after one season.

Shohreh Aghdashloo (my favorite actress whose name I will never be able to pronounce) will guest star on Elementary this season

RIP horror movie legend Wes Craven creator of Nightmare on the Street and Scream. Dead at age 76… Or is he (du du dun creepy music)?

Tom Selleck will have another Jesse Stone movie on Hallmark Channel October 18

Jim Gaffigan show has been renewed on TV land

Under the Dome which wrapped up September 10 has been officially canceled. It was time. Perhaps overdue.

NBC has decided not to revive “Coach” starring Craig T Nelson after all. No word on why.

SyFy Channel has renewed Killjoys and Dark Matter for season 2. Still no word on Defiance

Eric Stoltz will guest star on Madam Secretary as Tia Leone’s brother

Falling Skies alum Sarah Carter will have a recurring role on Hawaii 50

America’s Got Talent will be back for another season

RIP Dean Jones famous for Disney’s Love Bug films has died at age 84

RIP Martin Milner star of Adam 12 and Route 66 dead at 83

RIP Judy Carne the “Sock-It-to-Me” girl from 60s comedy show “Laugh In” dead at age 76

Teri Hatcher is joining the cast of CBS sitcom The Odd Couple

NBC sitcom Mr. Robinson has been canceled but The Carmichael Show has been picked up for season 2

Amy Schumer will have an HBO comedy special October 17

The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore has been renewed at Comedy Central

Jenna Coleman will be leaving Dr. Who at the end of the current season.

Alex Kingston will return as the doctors wife for the Dr. who Christmas special

NBC is developing a TV series that will be a prequel to the “Taken” films however Liam Neeson probably will not play the character with a particular set of skills.

RIP Jackie Collins whose books made into many movies and TV shows. Died at age 77

Vanessa Williams will guest star in a recurring role in The Good Wife

TNT has canceled life after death series “Proof” after one season.

ABC has renewed “Mistresses” for season 4

RIP Catherine E Colson who played the Log Lady on Twin Peaks. Dead at age 71

USA Network has canceled Graceland after 3 seasons

One of my favorite villains Robert “T-Bag” Knepper will guest star in the Twin Peaks revival

Cinemax action series Strike Back may live on as a feature film.

Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson and Sigourney Weaver will make some sort of appearance in the new female Ghostbusters movie

Streaming service Hulu has announced its original series will be released on a weekly basis rather than all at once like Netflix

NBC has extended its English Premier League soccer contract for six years 2021-22 season

CW network is ordered more episodes of “Whose Line Is It Anyway” and “Penn and Teller Fool Us”

CW network executive regrets that they passed on Supergirl and but CBS take it

Tracy Morgan will host Saturday Night Live October 17

20^th Century Fox is making a feature film “Victor Frankenstein” with James McAvoy as Victor and Daniel Radcliffe as Igor

RIP Bud Yorkin producer of “All the Family” and “Good Times” dead at 89

RIP Dr. Oliver Sacks who is the real life doctor portrayed by Robin Williams in the film “Awakenings”. Cancer at 82

EPIX cable network is announced its films will be moving from Netflix to Hulu. Titles include Hunger Games and World War Z

AMC network has green lit “Preacher” a supernatural drama based on the graphic novels of the same name.

CBS has renewed “Zoo” for season 2. It was the summer’s most-watched scripted series

Woody Harrelson will play a bad guy in the next plan of the apes movie titled “War for the Planet of the Apes”

“Star Trek Beyond” the next film has been delayed two weeks from previously announced release date. I will be released July 22, 2016

Disgraced NBC anchor Brian Williams returned to the air on MSNBC anchoring the coverage of the Pope’s visit

Bill O’Reilly’s “Killing Reagan” will be produced for a docudrama for National Geographic Channel in 2016 as were his previous “Killing” books.

Google’s Chromecast device is adding Showtime and Sling TV streaming services to its repertoire

There will be a “Pitch Perfect 3” film to be released August 2017

A “Jack Ryan” TV series is being produced for Amazon streaming

Background actors for an orgy scene HBO series “Westworld” were paid $600 however the union scale pay for background extras is only $157 per day.

Quiz show “500 Questions” will return to ABC for season 2

HBO is in preliminary discussions for a “Watchmen” TV series based on the comic/film

Bastard Executioner Boss Kurt Sutter on Depicting ‘Colorful Brutality’ and FX’s Decapitation Mandate

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on NCIS, X-Files, Grey’s Anatomy, Arrow, Flash, Castle, Bones, Criminal Minds and More

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Once, Arrow, Castle, The Flash, Scandal, Gotham, Reign, Haven and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Arrow, NCIS, Good Wife, Grey’s, Once, Castle, Scorpion, Chicago Fire and More

Ron Perlman Talks Hand of God’s Take on Faith, Sons of Anarchy Series Finale: ‘When I Was Done, I Was Done’

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Walking Dead, Vampire Diaries, Castle, The Good Wife, Bones, Big Bang, Supernatural and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Good Wife, Castle, NCIS, Bones, Nashville, Vampire Diaries, Suits, Sleepy Hollow and More

Fall TV Predictions: First Cancellation, Mer’s New Grey’s Love, a Once Return, Super Bang, Chicago Gaga and More

Muppets Under Fire: EP Insists ‘Adult’ Jokes Will Always ‘Work on Two Levels’

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Once, Bones, Sleepy Hollow, Vampire Diaries, Arrow, S.H.I.E.L.D., The Flash and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Grey’s, Castle, Sleepy Hollow, Supernatural, Nashville, Modern Family, Leftovers and More

BBC Lauching ‘Doctor Who’ Young Adult Spinoff

I suppose it’s time to take a timeout from celebrating my 60^th birthday, playing with my new 3-D printer, and shopping for a new wheelchair. That means it’s time for a new entertainment blog. And with a lot of blockbuster movies under our belt in a few more to go this summer and with the new TV season looming on the horizon… This is way overdue.

Among the recent movies we’ve seen the new Mad Max movie was wall-to-wall action that included some kick ass female heroes in addition to Max himself who seems to be pretty much along for the ride most of the time. Some of it literally riding along tied to the front bumper of one of the bad guys vehicles. It’s gone from theaters but if you didn’t see it, you might consider renting a Blu-ray will be sure to catch it when it comes to cable. The recent Marvel movies have all been worth seeing. The new Avengers movie was everything you would expect in a big Marvel action movie. And Ant-man was surprisingly good given the idea of an insect sized superhero seems a little bit silly. While it lacks the giant set piece action sequences of something like Avengers, there was still plenty of action and great 3-D effects. Finally the new Terminator movie was absolutely a must see in 3-D if possible for any fans of the series. Although sort of a reboot using the alternate timeline excuse, it does logically fit in with the original series of movies unlike some of the plot points from the TV series Sarah Connor Chronicles which seem to only loosely fit into the cinematic universe. Suggest that you watch the first 20 minutes or so of the original Terminator before seeing this movie. Not because it’s necessary but because it will make the opening of this new movie more fun. Also Jurassic World was excellent in IMAX 3-D. Have not yet seen the new Mission Impossible but I plan to next week.

I use to create my own fault TV schedules to help me keep track of new and returning shows, schedule changes etc. The problem was each network had their own calendar but there was no way to put it all together. Now there are other entertainment websites which do a great job so we will just put a link to them. Here is the fall TV schedule from TVLine.com which is excellent. The calendar itself is an image in the middle of this article. If you click on it once you get just the image which is handy to print. If you click it again in your browser it will zoom in to make it easier to read.

Fall TV Grid 2015: What’s on When? And Versus What?

That calendar shows what the schedule will look like once everything has premiered but if you want to see day by day when new and returning series will premiere in their staggered rollout, check out this article which is a September calendar showing day by day premieres and a sneak preview of October and November as well. Similarly you should click on the image in the center of the article for a printable version. And you could click again to zoom in using your browser.

Fall TV 2015: Your Handy Calendar of 90+ Season and Series Premiere Dates

Two other TV news items which deserve comment…

It’s not unusual for a network to have what they call crossover episodes in which characters from different cop shows team up to solve a case together. You know how it goes, NCIS has a big case so they team up with NCIS New Orleans. Or maybe even crossover to an unrelated show such as Hawaii 5-0. CW network has had extensive crossovers between Arrow and The Flash. In fact they scheduled one hoping that Arrow fans would boost the ratings of The Flash when in fact the opposite happened and establish show Arrow a boost from newcomer The Flash. But it appears that Fox network is going to do a crossover the likes of which we have never seen.

The detectives from Bones and Sleepy Hollow are both going to investigate the same case together this season.

I like my superhero and my supernatural fantasy TV shows a lot but they are part of a particular genre that I think should remain to themselves. While police procedural shows occasionally border on the realm of sci-fi when they use technology that doesn’t really exist, you expect your average police drama to remain firmly rooted in reality. I don’t look down on supernatural or superhero shows as being a lesser form of entertainment. But taking what is supposed to be a reality-based show and doing a crossover with what is clearly fantasy based just seems like it takes away some of the legitimacy of the cop show and tries to add a false sense of legitimacy to the fantasy show. I am a fan of both Bones and Sleepy Hollow and I have to say I don’t like the idea at all. My guess is that people who are fans of one or the other but not both of the shows will disapprove as well. Would you watch an episode of Law and Order if Batman suddenly showed up to help solve a crime? Maybe Ambassador Mr. Spock could get his friends from the Starship Enterprise to do one of those time travel episodes and could negotiate a peace treaty in the Middle East for Madam Secretary or Homeland.

The other somewhat surprising but certainly less disturbing news is that NBC has ordered season 2 of “Aquarius”. It is a totally fictional account about a cop (David Duchoveny) chasing after cult leader Charles Manson. First of all we had excellent miniseries and books telling the real-life story of the cops chasing Manson so I can see why we needed one that was completely fictional. Also NBC allegedly in competition with Netflix decided to release the entire 12 part season online on the date of the first episode premiered broadcast. I took that (as did many) is an indication that NBC had pretty much given up on the series, knew in advance that they probably were not going to broadcast all the episodes. Typically when a show is doing badly these days (especially a summer series) they show about four or five episodes, give up, and dump the remaining episodes for online streaming just shut up the fans. I tried watching a single episode and was bored to death. While they canceled Hannibal after 2 season which I really liked. I understand why Hannibal didn’t appeal to everyone because it was very gory, stylized, artsy, over directed. But it was still intriguing to me. Oh well… Onward to the regular news…

In the links below you can read all about…

Spoilers from Inside Line dated June 29

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated July 1

Dr. Who news from Comic Con

Walking Dead news from Comic Con

Fear the Walking Dead news from Comic Con

Game of Thrones news from Comic Con

Big Bang Theory news from Comic Con

Agent Carter news from Comic Con

iZombie news from Comic Con

Grimm news from comic con

More Dr. Who news from Comic Con

The Flash news from Comic Con

More Walking Dead news from Comic Con

Once upon a Time news from Comic Con

Arrow news from Comic Con

Legends of Tomorrow Comic Con

Supergirl news from Comic Con

Gotham news from Comic Con

Supernatural news from Comic Con

American Horror Story news from Comic Con

Heroes Reborn news from Comic Con

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated July 21

Spoilers from Inside Line dated July 27

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated August 2

Not in the links below but also of interest

NBC has fired Donald Trump because of his presidential bid. Of course lots of other people are firing him because of his comments on immigration.

SyFy Channel has picked up season 3 of its werewolf series Bitten

RIP comedian Jack Carter died at age 93

USA network announced the Suits has been renewed for season 6

NBC will not have season 2 of “A.D. The Bible Continues”. I’m not sure where it left off but it seems they would run out of source material eventually wouldn’t they?

Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been added a series regular to The Good Wife

Harry Shearer has returned as a voice actor to The Simpsons after being fired during contract negotiations

Netflix announced casting of Daredevil’s Electra. It will be Elodie Yung most recently seen in G.I. Joe: Retaliation

ABC series Forever which was recently canceled is not being picked up by any other network or streaming service as hoped. This show about immortality is officially completely dead.

South Park has been reviewed for season 21, 22, and 23

Keith Olbermann has left ESPN… Again.

The revival of Twin Peaks on Showtime has been pushed back until 2017

Margo Martindale has been added to the cast of The Good Wife. I loved her characters on both Justified and The Americans so I can’t wait to see her in a new role.

Dr. Who returns September 19.

MTV has renewed Teen Wolf for season 6. Renewed Scream season 2

RIP British character actor Roger Rees known for playing Kirstie Alley’s boyfriend on Cheers and as a British foreign minister on The West Wing.

Peter Facinelli recently relieved of pharmacist duty on Nurse Jackie is joining the cast of Supergirl as Maxwell Lord

AMC network announced Turn: Washington Spies is been renewed for season 3. I gave up after one.

Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany FINALLY got an Emmy nomination!

RIP George Coe probably the least remembered character from SNL’s first season. More recently known as the voice of Archer’s Butler Woodhouse. Dead at age 86.

Former Crossing Jordan start Jill Hennessey returns to TV as a recurring character in Madame Secretary as Tim Daly’s new CIA handler.

HBO has renewed The Brink for season 2

Michael Chiklis a.k.a. Vic Mackey from The Shield will be a series regular in Gotham playing a cop.

FX has canceled The Comedians with Billy Crystal and Josh Gad. I could barely do one episode. It was awful.

SyFy Channel announced there will be a Sharknado 4 despite 30% drop in ratings between 2 and 3.

Former Star Trek Voyager Borg Jeri Ryan will guest star on the upcoming season of Arrow as a mayoral Candidate

TNT has renewed Rizzoli and Isles for season 7 of just 13 episodes for the summer of 2016

Showtime sitcom Happyish has been canceled

Happy 75^th birthday to Bugs Bunny

Longmire season 4 will drop on Netflix September 10 with 10 episodes

Cinemax announced Banshee will end in 2016

This week’s winner of “Chris Young’s Sure Sign of the Coming Apocalypse Award” goes to Discovery’s Destination America channel for their plans to televise the actual exorcism live.

Kalinda lives! Former Good Wife investigator Archie Panjabi will guest star on Brooklyn Nine-Nine

New AMC android series Humans has been renewed for season 2

Famke Jamssen a.k.a. Jane Gray from X-Men will guest star for multiple episodes of How to Get Away with Murder. Given her mind-reading abilities that may be difficult 🙂

Much to our disappointment Stephen Moffat has confirmed that Maisie Williams a.k.a. Arya Stark from Game of Thrones will not be playing a character from Dr. Who’s past. She will be a completely new character. Peter Capaldi has hinted that the Doctor’s granddaughter will return this season. She hasn’t been seen since the days of the first doctor. We were hopeful Maisie Williams had the part. Oh well at least we get to see her.

Starz network has renewed pirate drama Black Sails for season 4. I was a bit disappointed in the previous one.

RIP former pro wrestling Rowdy Roddy Piper age 61

Deadwood’s favorite bartender Ian McShane will have an important yet small role in season 6 of Game of Thrones. We can’t wait.

Fox has confirmed that the characters from Prison Break will come together for a sequel to episode event series.

FX has renewed The Strain for season 3 and we are very pleased.

Fantasy author Neil Gaiman will write scripts for the upcoming Starz series American Gods based on his novels.

Celebrity stunt show “I Can Do That” has been renewed for season 2 on NBC

RIP famous TV and movie producer Jerry Weintraub age 77

Regis Philbin will be an occasional contributor to The Today Show

After starring in the upcoming Batman versus Superman movie, Ben Affleck will write and direct himself in a standalone Batman movie.

RIP veteran after Omar Sharif known for Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago he was 83

Nathan Lane will play lawyer F. Lee Bailey in American Crime Story’s episodes on O.J. Simpson trial

George Lucas, Carole King, Cecily Tyson and Rita Marino are among the newest Kennedy Center Honorees

Carol Burnett will receive a SAG Lifetime Achievement Award

AMC network will produce another season of “Making of the Mob” documentary series.

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on The Flash, Teen Wolf, Bones, Once, Castle, Faking It, Wayward Pines, The Strain and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Nashville, Flash, Castle, Good Wife, Originals, CSI, Mistresses, Scream Queens and More

Doctor Who @ Comic-Con: Missy as ‘Frenemy,’ Maisie Williams as Guest Star and… a Woman in the Title Role?

Walking Dead @ Comic-Con: Naked Rick, Tested Morgan, Wily Wolves

Fear The Walking Dead @ Comic-Con: California Setting, Early Outbreak Vibe Yield ‘Incredibly Different’ Tone

Game of Thrones @ Comic-Con: Arya’s Blind Ambition, Stannis’ Fate and More

Big Bang Theory Boss Chuck Lorre Shoots Down Spinoff Chatter, Throws Shade at Fellow CBS Hit Scorpion

Marvel’s Agent Carter @ Comic-Con: Black Dahlia Mystery — and New Love Interests — on Season 2 Docket

iZombie @ Comic-Con: Liv & Blaine Will Make ‘Strange Bedfellows’ in Season 2

Grimm @ Comic-Con: Juliette’s Fate Confirmed, ‘Major Problems’ for Monrosalee and More Season 5 Scoop

Doctor Who Stars, EP on Season 9: A ‘Surprise’ Resurrection, Classic Monsters and an ‘Upside Down’ Twist

The Flash @ Comic-Con: Zoom, Earth 2 Characters Play Into Season 2

Walking Dead Cast Talk Season 6’s Big Decisions, the Carol-Daryl ‘Connection’ and Rick (Finally) on the Rebound

Once Upon a Time @ Comic-Con: Dark Swan’s Fate, a Brave Newcomer and More Season 5 Scoop

Arrow @ Comic-Con: Oliver Gets a Heroic New Look, Diggle (Finally) Suits Up, Anarky Reigns and More

Legends of Tomorrow @ Comic-Con: ‘Crazy Ideas’ Fuel the ‘Bonkers’ Spinoff

Supergirl @ Comic-Con: ‘Her Gender Doesn’t Matter — She’s a Badass’

Gotham @ Comic-Con: Season 2’s Rise in Villains Will Require New Heroes

Supernatural @ Comic-Con: The Winchesters Reunite, Fan Faves Return and More Season 11 Scoop

AHS & Scream Queens @ Comic-Con: Ryan Murphy Teases Kappa Killer, Familiar Hotel Guests and More

Heroes Reborn @ Comic-Con: Showrunner Tim Kring on Returning Favorites, 5-Year Time Jump and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Supernatural, Good Wife, Shameless, iZombie, Scandal, Supergirl and More

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Once, NCIS, Empire, Supernatural, NCIS: LA, B99, The Middle, H50 and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Big Bang, Arrow, Bates, Sleepy, Castle, Twin Peaks, UnREAL, Gotham, Dome and More

Before we go on with my usual entertainment blog we have the following trivia question…

What has more deaths than the average episode of Game of Thrones? Answer: this blog.

Seriously I generally report on celebrity deaths but for some reason it seems like there were an unusual number of them this time around. While everyone is screaming and crying over the passing of fictional characters in their favorite TV shows, how many fan tears were shed for these actual human beings? These were just the ones that I found and I left out some more obscure movie and TV producers, publicity people, behind-the-scenes people you never heard of. Here’s the list.

RIP composer James Horner whose film credits include Titanic, Braveheart, Avatar who died when the small plane was piloting crashed.

RIP actor Sir Christopher Lee known for Dracula and Saruman from Lord of the Rings. He was 93.

RIP comedian Anne Meara of comedy team Stiller & Meara and mother of Ben Stiller. She was 85.

RIP Suzanne Crough who played Tracy Partridge on The Partridge Family age 52 unreleased cause of death

RIP Sawyer Sweeten who played one of Ray Romano’s twin sons on Everybody Loves Raymond dead of apparent suicide at age 19.

RIP Grace Lee Whitney a.k.a. Yeoman Janice Rand from the original Star Trek dead at age 85.

RIP contestant on The Voice season 8 Anthony Riley died at age 28 of apparent suicide

RIP standup comedian/actor Rick Ducommun appeared in films The Burbs and Groundhog Day among others.

RIP Don Mankiewicz screenwriter who created Ironside and Marcus Welby. He was 93.

RIP Jane Meadows comedian actress who is married to the late Steve Allen. She was 95.

RIP mathematician John Nash who is the subject of the film “A Beautiful Mind” died in auto accident. He was 86.

RIP Betsy Palmer stage actress who is most famous for appearances on the 60s TV game show I’ve Got a Secret and as Jason’s mom in the original Friday the 13^th movie. Trivia question answer as well. What was the name of the killer in Friday the 13^th? It wasn’t Jason. It was his mom. Down

RIP actor Dick Van Patten who was the father in “Eight Is Enough”. He was 86.

The regular TV season wrapped weeks ago and summer series are in full swing. It’s time for another installment in my entertainment blog which is as usual long overdue. This blog actually took two days to compile I was so far behind. We’re going to talk about renewals and cancellations but if you want to skip all of my analysis you can just click on these links and see for yourself what’s renewed and what’s canceled. Or read my analysis and then click to see the shows I didn’t discuss.

Here is a link to TV Line’s Broadcast Renewal Scorecard

Here is a link to TV Line’s Cable Renewal Scorecard

It was a great season with outstanding new series such as The Flash, Gotham, and Daredevil all delivering strong stories for comic book fans and nonfans alike. Geek procedurals Scorpion and CSI: Cyber both got renewed and although not really inspired they are watchable. Surprisingly Sleepy Hollow got a third season. As did Agents of Shield and Agent Carter. I think the most pleasant surprise was the apocalyptic comedy “The Last Man on Earth”. I’ve decided it is the most realistic sci-fi series ever produced even though it is hilariously ridiculous. If there was a virus that wiped out all but a handful of people, I could totally believe everything that happened in those 13 episodes. I’m very pleased it will be back. Another improbable hit the musical sitcom Galivant was consistently funny will return next year. Other geek fair includes CW Network’s “The 100” which will be back along with iZombie which I enjoyed. The second season of Halt and Catch Fire is currently airing. FX Network vampire/virus show The Strain had its strong moments and will be back for a second season. SyFy Channel is bringing back 12 Monkeys and Z Nation for return seasons but will bid farewell to Haven and Continuum when they complete their current seasons. Falling Skies starts its final season this week.

I never did get into Parks and Recreation nor Mad Men so their passing didn’t really affect me. Speaking of it shows I never watched, I did check out season 1 of Breaking Bad streaming and now I understand why it was so popular. I intend to gradually catch up. Speaking of shows I never watched. The Simpsons has been renewed for season 27 and 28.

Madam Secretary had a strong first year and I’m pleased it has been renewed. The Mysteries of Laura had its funny moments but I’m surprised it’s getting a second season. Other female centric shows that didn’t make it include Bad Judge which I really liked and State of Affairs which was a total mess. I will say a fond farewell to Covert Affairs which I enjoyed but had probably run its course. Female centric newcomer How to Get Away with Murder which I originally did not like ended up changing my opinion and I’m looking forward to its second season.

The biggest cancellation that I’m bummed about is that Brian Williams will not be returning as anchor of NBC nightly news. Instead he will be covering “breaking news” on MSNBC. I guess that means he’s going to be sitting around the office all day waiting for something bad to happen. Such a shame.

None of the new romantic comedy sitcoms such as A to Z, Manhattan Love Story, and Selfie survived. Family comedy Blackish had its ups and downs but occasionally made me laugh and will be back. Other family sitcoms such as The Millers, Dads, About a Boy and The McCarthys got the axe.

Among canceled shows that I watched that will not return we say farewell to Revenge which was fun but had run its course. Helix which I watched on SyFy Channel but I probably won’t miss it. It was creepy and strange but it just never did really deliver. I will miss Forever about an immortal medical examiner in New York City. The Mentalist probably should’ve quit a year ago when they finally put the Red John storyline to rest. It was ready to go and it did.

Surprisingly the original CSI is wrapping up but will have a two hour movie to say farewell including the return of William Peterson and Marge Helgenberger. Also from the “beyond the sell by date” was the announcement that although American Idol will return next year, it will be its last season. The Following probably should’ve ended a year early as well but will not be back. Hell on Wheels will start the first half of its final season July 18. Broadchurch is getting a third season which I’m looking forward to. Luther will get a two part miniseries late this year. Of course we say very fond farewells to Justified and Sons of Anarchy. We will miss them.

Other cables shows of interest include Cinemax period medical drama The Knick was absolutely awesome and will be back for season 2. HBO’s bizarre departures series The Leftovers found an audience (me included) and will return. I will however greatly miss The Newsroom. History channel’s Vikings delivered a bloodied good season 3 and will be back for 4. Californication was fun for a while but had run its course. Episodes and Homeland and Penny Dreadful and Shameless will all be back on Showtime but we bid a fond farewell to Nurse Jackie. Starz pirate drama Black Sails was a real disappointment this year. Not as strong as its original season but it will be back for 3. Their new series Outlander a time traveling romantic drama put in an excellent first season and will be back.

We say a fond farewell to White Collar, Psych, and Necessary Roughness however USA will continue Royal Pains season 8 and we get more Suits later this month.

Many shows are finding new life on streaming networks. The Mindy Project is moving to Hulu. Longmire will have a new season on Netflix. River Street just wrapped up season three BBC America but Amazon Prime has ordered seasons four and five. Speaking of streaming… House of Cards gets a season 4. Daredevil and Grace and Frankie also are getting additional seasons as is Oranges the New Black and Marco Polo.

On PBS we get one more round of Downton Abbey and there will be a Sherlock special late this year followed by season 4.

For a complete grid showing the tentative fall schedule check out this link from TV Line.

In the links below read…

Season ending interview with executive producer Mom

Season ending interview with Will Forte about Last Man on Earth

Interview with Flash’s girlfriend Iris (actress Candace Patton) she’s glad Iris finally knows about Barry

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated May 7 (many may be out of date already)

Postseason interview with producer of Elementary

Interview with producer of Walking Dead spinoff series

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated May 19

Spoilers from Inside Line dated May 26

Season ending interview with producer of Outlander about intense finale and season 2

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated June 4

Spoilers from Inside Line dated June 11 and 22

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated today!

Not in the links below but also in the interest.

David Lynch has resolved his dispute with Showtime and is back involved in the renewal of Twin Peaks. The schedule has been expanded to more episodes and he will direct them all.

Former Fringe and Sleepy Hollow star John Noble has been cast as Sherlock’s father and will be a series regular in the next season of Elementary. We are very well pleased.

Orlando Jones will not be back for season 3 of Sleepy Hollow as Capt. Irving

SyFy Channel is developing a series with Amblin Entertainment based on Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World.

Hulu is developing a drama titled “Myst” based on the 90s computer game. I don’t think I ever did finish it.

Supergirl has been ordered to series at CBS for this fall. The pilot episode was leaked online and if I was the kind of guy who downloads illegal files I could tell you it was really cool. But I can’t tell you that… Wink Wink

Although season 3 of Orphan Black just wrapped, season 4 has been approved and we are very pleased.

Rosario Dawson a.k.a. nurse Claire Temple will return for season 2 of Daredevil and may cross over to other Netflix/Marvel series.

A possible spinoff series for Agents of Shield to center on Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter has died before it got started.

Mike Epps will star as Uncle Buck in an ABC sitcom based on the John Candy movie of the same name.

Fox romantic comedy Undatable has been renewed for season 3 in which all episodes will air live. They tried it as an experiment earlier this year and decided to go with it permanently.

Fox has order to series Lucifer based on the DC/Vertigo comic of the same name and Minority Report based on the Tom Cruise film.

Fox’s hip-hop music series Empire will get 18 episodes for season 2 instead of the original 12.

Person of Interest season 5 has been reduced to 13 episodes which may mean the series is wrapping up although nothing official yet.

Browncoat’s rejoice! Morena Baccarin has been promoted to series regular for season 2 of Gotham as Jim Gordon’s favorite medical examiner/girlfriend. We are well pleased.

Gotham’s favorite coin flipping ADA Harvey Dent played by Nicholas D’Agmosto has been promoted to series regular for season 2.

Peter MacNichol will not return for season 2 of CSI: Cyber

Harry Shearer has been fired as voice actor for many characters on The Simpsons he was offered the same deal as other voice actors on the show and turned it down. His characters will be recast.

A proposed spinoff of TNT’s Major Crimes to be titled Special Operations Bureau did not get picked up.

Bill Murray will do a Christmas special for Netflix

It was touch and go to get the main characters of Castle back for another season with lots of last-minute signings however Penny Johnson Jerald will not be back as Capt. Gates next season.

Sendhil Ramamurthy will reprise his role as Mohinder in the upcoming Heroes Reborn on NBC in the fall. Also Christine Rose is returning as we could mother Angela Petrelli. One of our favorite villains of the series.

Fox is developing a limited series reboot of Prison Break

Jason George who plays Bailey’s husband on Grey’s Anatomy has been promoted to series regular next season. Also show runners are seeking an established male actor to replace Patrick Dempsey whom they killed off this season.

Former MASH doctor David Ogden Stiers will play Dr. Isles adoptive father on Rizzoli and Isles

Producers of Game of Thrones sure us that yes he really died in the end.

Former Dr. Who Matt Smith and John Lythgoe will star in a Netflix series about Queen Elizabeth II

Missing Justified? It’s EP is developing a Western for AMC based on Elmore Leonard’s novel “Gunsites”. Justified was also based on works by Elmore Leonard in case you didn’t know.

“Bombshell” which was the fictitious will musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe which was the centerpiece of the TV series Smash is indeed going to get produced for the stage. They did a charity performance of it in New York but now it’s going to really be produced as a stage musical. No word on whether it’s Broadway, off-Broadway, or touring company yet.

USA networks “Mr. Robot” which premieres tonight has already been picked up for season 2.

A&E Networks is renaming “H2” channel to “Vice” to be managed by the people who make the HBO documentary new series of the same name.

Warner Bros. is developing a film “The Forever War” possibly to be the first in a series. It will start Channing Tatum and is based on the classic sci-fi novel series by Joe Haldeman

Martin Freeman a.k.a. Bilbo Baggins The Hobbit has been cast in the new Capt. America movie. No word on which character.

Amy Schumer has taped her first in the special for HBO which will air later this year. Date unspecified as yet.

Samuel L Jackson will star in the remake of the 1958 sci-fi classic “The Blob”. No word on whether the script includes any lines like “Get this m…f… blob out of this m…f… town”.

ABC news man George Stephanopoulos has stepped down as a GOP debate moderator after it was revealed he had donated to the Clinton foundation.

Paramount announced that “World War Z 2” will be released in the summer of 2017.

Kurt Sutter’s “Bastard Executioner” has been picked up to series by FX channel for the full.

James Frain will be the next bad guy on Gotham season 2. He will play Theo Galavan brother to Tabitha a.k.a. DC comics character Tigress.

Amazon just gender series Transparent has been renewed for season 3 even before season 2 has been released.

Jimmy Smits will star in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming musical series for Netflix title “the Get down” set in 1970s New York about a bunch of South Bronx teenagers who live on the street. Smits will play a political boss.

Greg Kinnear will play Joe Biden in HBO docudrama about the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.

Despite rumors it turns out there will not be a Tron 3 after all.

Eddie Redmayne who recently portrayed Stephen Hawking has been cast as Newt Scamander in the Harry Potter prequel film “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”

Spanish-language network Univision has dropped the Miss Universe pageant after producer Donald Trump called Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists. Trump blames Mexican government as the “real cause”.

Disney Channel will make an animated series “Tangled” based on the film. Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi will return to add their voices.

Jon Bernthal a.k.a. Shane from The Walking Dead has been cast as Frank Castle/The Punisher for season 2 of Daredevil on Netflix and we can’t wait.

Starz series “Power” has been renewed for season 3 just days after season 2 premiered.

Showtime’s Matt LeBlanc comedy “Episodes” renewed for season 5.

Chris Hemsworth will play Ghostbusters receptionist in all-female remake. Basically he is Annie Potts. Cast will include was McCarthy, Christian Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones..

Chiwetel Ejiofor voted by Chris Young as the actor whose name is least likely to be understood by his dictation software. He’s also playing Baron Mordo in the upcoming Dr. Strange movie.

John Sayles is writing the script for “Soul Catcher”based on the novel by Dune author Frank Herbert. Story is about a Native American activist driven by ancient spirits and injustice against his people who seeks revenge.

Demi Lovato will voice Smurfette and Rainn Wilson the villain Gargamel in “Get Smurfy” film. Third in the series.

Disney is working on Maleficent 2.

Jurassic World (which is awesome by the way) is the fastest film to reach $1 billion in worldwide box office.

Verizon has purchased AOL for $4.4 million. Shocking. Who knew AOL still existed?

Tom Holland relatively unknown young actor cast as next Spiderman for 2017 release

Netflix shares reached over $700 per share before it’s 7 to 1 stock split.

Martha Stewart is selling her company for $353 million.

After just premiering last night, Mr. Robot on USA network has been picked up for season 2.

Howard Stern says this is last season of America’s Got Talent suggests Simon Cowell should replace him.

Producers hint recently canceled Hannibal TV series may find a home on Amazon or other streaming service.

Tommy Chong says his rectal cancer is a pain in the butt but at least he gets to use more medical marijuana. Hopes to be the disease.

Mom Season Finale Post Mortem: EP Chuck Lorre on Christy’s ‘Enormous Growth,’ Roscoe’s Surprising Move

Last Man on Earth Finale Post Mortem: Will Forte Talks Outta This World Twist

The Flash’s Candice Patton Talks Iris’ Epiphany (‘I Was So Relieved!’), Grodd, Barry vs. Eddie, Unexpected Finale

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Rookie Blue, Revenge, Once, Hannibal, S.H.I.E.L.D., Bates, Hawaii Five-0 and More

Elementary Boss on Sherlock’s Spiral, [Spoiler]’s Season 4 Arrival and More

Walking Dead Spinoff’s Showrunner Talks Possible Crossovers, Prequel-y Premise: ‘We Don’t Go Full-Zombie’

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Hawaii Five-0, Vampire Diaries, Supergirl, Arrow, POI, Chi Fire, Grey’s, NCIS and More

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Gotham, Major Crimes, Wayward Pines, Extant, Hannibal, Defiance, Lumen and More

Outlander Boss on Jamie’s [Spoiler], Season 2 in France and Why [Spoiler] Went Full-Frontal in the Finale

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Bones, iZombie, Fear TWD, Empire, New Girl, Major Crimes and More

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on The Flash, Teen Wolf, Once, Wayward Pines, iZombie, Major Crimes and More

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Castle, Arrow, Bones, Rookie Blue, Beast, Defiance, Falling Skies and More

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Bless me readers for I have sinned. It has been seven weeks since my last blog. I’ve been busy writing electronic project tutorials for Adafruit Industries and one of my cable boxes went out. Fortunately I replaced it with a new improved model that has 1 TB hard drive space (more than double the previous box) and allows me to record or watch up to 6 channels at once in HD. The extra hard drive space is nice however my theory is that you could fill up any size drive eventually. The real thing we are celebrating is the 6 channels at once. Our former box only allowed 2 and it was hard to schedule some recordings without getting conflicts. Speaking of Bright House cable. It seems that their merger with Charter Communications we may be dead after the failure of the merger between Comcast and Time Warner.. There was significant proposition that would’ve led to long court cases and in the end they’ve decided it wasn’t worth it. I guess we go back to the bright house motto “yesterday’s technology tomorrow”. Other cable systems have had advanced capacity DVR’s for years. We are just now getting them. Oh well. On to the news such as it is. Many of the “spoilers” may have already happened but if you are as far behind watching as I am, they can still be spoilers.

Each year TV line puts out a list of major events to occur during the May sweeps. They include weddings, deaths, sex for the first time, resurrections, firings and more.

Click this link to see their extensive list and see if you can guess what’s going to happen.

Also be sure to check again at the Renewal Scorecard. Note there are multiple pages and it also contains a link to cable renewal scorecard.

In the links below read…

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated March 3

Spoilers from Inside Line dated March 12

Spoilers from Inside Line dated March 19

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated March 24

Spoilers from Inside Line dated April 10

Spoilers from Michael Ausiello dated April 14

Postmortem Interview with producers of Justified about series finale

Postmortem (literally) interview about big plot twist in Gray’s Anatomy

Spoilers from Inside Line dated April 24

Interview with Walking Dead EP Gail Anne Hurd about finale and other projects she works on

Also of interest but not linked…

“Fear The Walking Dead” the spinoff of “The Walking Dead” has been greenlit for a second season even though the first hasn’t even aired. Season 1 will premiere sometime in the summer with just six episodes.

Former vampire slayer Sarah Michelle Geller will lend her voice to season 2 of animated Star Wars Rebels

Zachary Quinto will guest star in season 3 of Hannibal. Season 3 premieres June 4 on NBC.

Alec Baldwin will play the mayor of New York City in the upcoming HBO series

NBC canceled “Allegiance” it’s present-day ripoff of “The Americans” remaining episodes available online

Season 5 of Homeland will be set in Germany and will take place two and half years after season 4 left off

Episodes of “Between”, a six part drama about a virus that kills everyone over age 21, will air on Netflix in weekly installments beginning May 21 rather than the binge watching format they usually use.

CBS has renewed Mike and Molly, Mom and 2 Broke Girls

SyFy Channel has renewed 12 Monkeys for season 2.

Jamie Presley will be promoted to series regular for season 3 of Mom

Despite rumors it might not make it, Sleepy Hollow has been renewed for season 3 with a new show runner

Andrew Dice Clay is getting a sitcom on Showtime

X-Files is officially returning to Fox for six episodes Duchovny and Anderson will return. Shooting starts the summer.

The best thing about Showtime announcing Masters of Sex and Ray Donovan premiering on July 12 is that the subject of this message can now contain the words “sex on my birthday”.

History Channel has renewed Vikings for season 4 and we are very pleased

AMC announced “Halt and Catch Fire” season 2 will premiere May 31

Maisie Williams a.k.a. Arya Stark of Game of Thrones will guest star in the upcoming season of Dr. Who

Fox has renewed New Girl for another season

FX has renewed “the Americans” for another season and we are well pleased

Showtime has renewed House of Lies season 5

Netflix series Bloodline has been renewed for season 2

TNT announced Maj. Crimes and Murder in the First return June 8; Rizzoli and Isles and a new series Proof premiere June 16; The Last Ship returns June 21 with a two hour premiere; Falling Skies final season premieres June 28; new series Public Morals August 17; Legends August 25.

House of Cards has been renewed for season 4.

ABC plans to reboot The Muppet Show

Director David Lynch has quit the reboot of Twin Peaks. Status of the show is in limbo.

The Last Man on Earth which is way better than I thought it would be has been renewed for season 2.

Netflix has renewed Oranges the New Black for season 4

The storyline of NBC’s canceled Revolution will be wrapped up in a four part digital comic book

The Astronaut Wives Club will premiere on ABC June 18

Season 3 of Inside Amy Schumer just premiered and is already renewed for season 4. Very funny dirty comediane

Netflix series Daredevil has already been renewed for season 2 just a few days after first season dropped.

JK Simmons will star in a sci-fi drama for Starsz about travel to parallel dimensions

USA Network has canceled ambulance comedy/drama Sirens

Reese Witherspoon and Louis CK will host the final two episodes of SNL the season

Dave Letterman will get a 90 minute special hosted by Ray Romano May 4 to send him off to retirement

Tom Selleck will star in the ninth Jesse Stone movie for TV

Bruce Willis will make his Broadway debut in production of Stephen King’s Misery

RIP TV producer Harve Bennett produce several Star Trek movies and TV shows such as the Mod Squad, $6 million man. He was 84.

RIP Robert Maysles documentary filmmaker who did Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens, and others

RIP Sam Simon cocreator of The Simpsons from cancer at age 59

HBO film casts Elizabeth Banks as Billie Jean King and Paul Giamatti as Bobby Riggs

Fantasy author Terry Pratchett has died at age 66. Famous for Discworld novels

Andy Samberg will host the 2015 Emmy awards on Fox September 20

Emma Watson a.k.a. Hermione from Harry Potter, will play Belle in a live-action Beauty and the Beast film set for March 2017 release.

NBC sitcom and datable will have a live broadcast May 5

Steven Spielberg will produce Tom Hanks in a Cold War spy drama titled Bridge of Spies to be released in October

Greg Nicotero has signed a two-year deal with AMC network. Will continue to produce Walking Dead and spinoff Fear The Walking Dead but will also develop new projects for AMC.

RIP Alberto Watson of cancer at age 60. She is most famous for playing CTU director Erin Driscoll who fired Jack Bauer on 24. Also appeared in CW series Nikita

The NFL has officially eliminated the blackout rule. Non-sold-out games can now be broadcast in the hometown.

Showtime has ordered a series from Damien Lewis and Paul Giamatti called “Billions” about high finance

Downton Abbey sixth season will be its final

Former CSI William Peterson is joining the cast of Manhattan on WGN America Network

Craig T Nelson is coming back as Coach in a 13 episode NBC series

Hiro Nakamura lives! Masi Oki will guest star on “Heroes Reborn”. No word yet on if he will save the cheerleader and/or the world this time again.

Hugh Jackman says Wolverine 3 will be his last.

Arthur Darvill former husband to Amy Pond on Dr. who will play Rip Hunter in the new Arrow/Flash spinoff series.

From the “Why Was It There in the First Place” department WWE Smack Down is leaving SyFy Channel moving to USA Network.

Kathy Bates will return to American Horror Story for season 5

RIP Richard Dysart who played Leland McKenzie on LA Law in the 90s. He was 86

Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy have been renewed for two seasons

HBO is producing a miniseries about the Wright brothers

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Arrow, NCIS, Big Bang, Empire, Once, Good Wife, S.H.I.E.L.D., Glee and More

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Castle, Haven, Bones, Mad Men, Good Wife, Teen Wolf, Blue Bloods and More!

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Grey’s, Castle, Bones, Glee, New Girl, The Flash, Arrow, Shameless and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Arrow, NCIS, Empire, Game of Thrones, Grimm, Orphan Black, Bones, The 100 and More!

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Revenge, Once, Grimm, Gotham, The Blacklist, NCIS, S.H.I.E.L.D., B99 and More

Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Revenge, Castle, Scorpion, Outlander, NCIS, Chicago Fire, Brooklyn and More

Justified Series Finale Post Mortem: Show Boss Talks Big Twists, Easter Eggs, a Near-Resurrection and More

Grey’s Anatomy: Patrick Dempsey Leaves ‘Grateful and Humbled’; EP Shonda Rhimes Talks Unimaginable Loss, Teases ‘New Chapter’ for Show

Matt’s Inside Line: Scoop on Castle, Once, The Flash, Big Bang, SVU/P.D., POI, Originals, Stalker and More

‘Walking Dead’ Finale: EP Gale Anne Hurd Talks Season 6, ‘Fear’ Spinoff & That Kickstarter Campaign