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.