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| This is a
collection of old news and obituaries from the Ask Morty TV
News page. Dates, where shown, represent the date the
story was originally posted on the web site. Because
these are old stories, links within the stories may no
longer be active. For current news and schedules, click
here. |
You Can Browse Old
News By Month...
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U-Pick
Nick |
| [June 30,
2002] "Batman" will air at 5:30PM
Monday thru Friday, the week of July 8th on Nickelodeon as
part of U-Pick Nick. The Batgirl episodes will be
airing, starting Monday with "Enter Batgirl, Exit
Penguin," Tuesday: "Ring Around the Riddler!"
Wednesday: "The Wail of the Siren"
Thursday: "The Sport of Penguins" Friday:
"A Horse of Another Color" |
|
China
Beach Returns July 7th |
 [June
30, 2002] The critically acclaimed Vietnam series, "China
Beach" will begin airing on The History Channel,
Sundays at 7:00AM. Unlike most History Channel programs
that repeat the same day, each episode will only be shown
once. "China Beach" was a popular ABC drama
that aired from April 26, 1988 to July 22, 1991 and was part
of the TV Land line-up several years ago. The show was about a
group of nurses just trying to do their jobs in Vietnam. |
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TV
Land August Schedule Changes |
| [June 26,
2002] Now don't get upset, it's still early, I don't
know that these changes mean that departing shows will not
return.
Effective
Monday, July 29th:
3 & 3:30PM Weekdays - "Father Knows Best"
(replaces "Dennis The Menace")
"TV Land
KitSchen New Schedule" Effective Friday, August
2nd:
12:00AM - "Fernwood 2Night" (Replaces "Mary
Hartman, Mary Hartman")
12:30AM - "Perfect Strangers" (Replaces "Mary
Hartman, Mary Hartman")
1:00AM - "Welcome Back Kotter" (Replaces "Fernwood
2Night")
1:30AM - "Square Pegs" (Replaces "The
Monkees")
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Hallmark
Channel for Sale? |
| [June 23,
2002] Friday's Wall Street Journal reported that
Hallmark Cards could dispose of all or part of its two-thirds
stake in Crown Media Holdings, which operates the Hallmark
Channel. The article reports that News Corp., Discovery
and MGM were among potential suitors. Hallmark denies it’s
looking to sell but says it has been approached to develop a
partnership.
A Crown Media spokesperson said, "Hallmark has been
approached by certain parties that may want to develop
strategic relationships." Crown Media would not
reveal details of those talks or say who they were with. |
|
Passings |
| [June 22,
2002] William D'Angelo, Television series
producer William P. D'Angelo, whose credits include "Room
222," "Love, American Style" and "The
Young Lawyers." He started as an assistant
producer on "Batman." in 1966. He went
on to produce the series "Barefoot in the Park,"
"Alice," "Big John, Little John" and "Turnabout"
and the special "The Nativity" in the 1970s.
Along the way, he worked for every major studio and helped
produce episodes of "Maverick," "Cheyenne,"
"Lawman" and "Hawaiian Eye." D'Angelo
died June 8 in Los Angeles of pancreatic cancer, the Los
Angeles Times reported Saturday. No other details were
given. D'Angelo was 70.
Ann Landers Advice columnist Ann Landers, who
gave the world the expression "wake up and smell the
coffee," died on Saturday at the age of 83, the Chicago
Tribune reported. The Tribune, which had been her home
base since 1987, said she died at home of a malignant tumor of
the bone marrow. Her real name was Esther Pauline Friedman
Lederer, and according to the Tribune her column was for 40
years the world's best read and most widely syndicated --
printed in 1,200 newspapers. Lederer along with twin
sister Pauline Phillips writing as "Abigail Van
Buren" under the "Dear Abby" flag, dominated
the advice-giving genre in U.S. newspapers during most of the
last half of the 20th century and beyond. The sisters
were the topic of a 1999 TV bio-drama, "Take My
Advice: The Ann and Abby Story"
starring Wendie Malick
James Luisi,
Emmy-Winning Character Actor. James
Luisi, a character actor adept at portraying hard-boiled
detectives and gangsters and remembered for his long-running
role as Lt. Doug Chapman on television's "The Rockford
Files," died of cancer on June 7th at age 73.
Other credits include playing Earl Johnson on "Days of
Our Lives", Ben Clark on "Santa
Barbara" and guest appearances on "Bonanza,"
"The Rookies," "Valerie," and "Baywatch
Nights". |
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Extras |
[June 20,
2002] Hallmark Schedule: There were
a couple minor changes made to the Hallmark Channel's
schedule, which I posted here on June 9th, that takes effect
July 1st. Most notable is the addition of "The
Facts of Life" 
Full Details
Seven TV series created and produced by Stephen J.
Cannell over the last two decades, including "21 Jump
Street," "Renegade," "Wiseguy,"
"Hardcastle & McCormick" and "The
Commish," could return to cable as early as this
fall.
Full Details
Woody Harrelson broke his way out of a speeding cab
and ran through the streets of London with 14 cops in pursuit,
and wound up charged with causing $500 worth of damage to the
taxi. His trial is set for July 1, 2002.
Full Details
"Diff'rent Strokes" star Todd Bridges,
has taken a role on the daytime drama "The Young and
the Restless." Bridges will play a character
named Juice, described by executive producer David Shaughnessy
as "a real out-and-out bad guy ... bent on revenge."
Full Details |
|
The
TV Land Screen Gems Mystery |
| [June 19,
2002] A few days a I noted that on June 24th the
series "Dennis the Menace" will re-start with
episode #1, rather than continuing the run. Pavan, who
keeps me up-to-date on TV Land schedules, noted that it
will happen again in late July. While we were pondering
why this was happening, Bill, wrote to ask why "The
Rookies" were recycling back to episode one.
Pavan found that "Donna Reed Show" will also
start over on July 1st, "The Flying Nun"
starts over with episode 3 on July 7th, "The
Waltons" and "Gidget" are also not
completing their runs this time around.
TV Land says it's contractual. We wonder if they just
just couldn't prepare enough episodes to fill the
schedules. You might have noticed that TV Land is now
using digital video, rather than video tape. So
we'll just have to stay tuned and see what happens... |
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Two
More Classics to DVD |
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|
[June 19, 2002]
On August 6th two more classics of 70's TV will
be released on DVD, "Sanford and Son,"
and "The Jeffersons." Each set
will include the first seasons, but these shows only
had 13 and 14 episodes in their first seasons, so you
get a nice price break, just $29.95, but from Morty's
Mall, the price is only $22.45, you save 25%.
You can pre-order these sets, and be the first on your
block to own them when they're shipped. |
|
These are just two of 95 TV DVDs being released this
summer.
COMPLETE LIST HERE
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Nickelodeon
Programs to Pre-empt Nick |
| [June 11,
2002] On Friday, June 21st, Nick at Nite will be
pre-empted for Nickelodeon programming all night, as the song
goes: "School is out for the summer!" It's a
basic preview for Nickelodeon Daytime and the new NickToons TV
channel. Click
Here for the line-up. |
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ABC
to Air Unseen Pilots! |
 [June
11, 2002] This fall ABC will air a special called
"The Best TV Shows That Never Were," a
collection unseen TV pilots. It's actually the second
edition of "TBTVSTNW," the first aired in the
90's. This collection will feature "Great Day,"
starring "Happy Days'" Al Molinaro,
"about what fun it was to be a skid row bum in New York
City," an Aaron Spelling TV show called "Velvet,"
about four aerobics instructors who are really only
working for "Polly Bergen's Velvet International"
health spas as a cover for their jobs as secret agents
and "Shivers," about a divorced
man ("Beverly Hills, 90210" dad James
Eckhouse) who, with his two children, moves into a house
haunted by a Revolutionary War-era troublemaker and his
girlfriend. The special, which according to an ABC
source may turn into a series, is based on author and
entertainment writer Lee Goldberg's book Unsold
TV Pilots: The Greatest Shows You Never Saw , an
addictive collection of the "best" of the bad
high-concept TV pilots that, in most cases, never saw screen
time. No date has been announced yet.
Now as much fun as all this sounds, my problem with it is
that it's a clipfest, and I want to see the whole
show. Let's hope it does become a regular series.
There are thousands of hours of unaired pilots, and ABC has
nothing exciting to run anyway, so why not show a different
one each week? Ever see Bette Davis in "The
Decorator?" |
|
Passings |
| [June 10,
2002] Herbert Finn, Wrote for Bob Hope,
classic sitcoms such as "The
Honeymooners," "The Flintstones"
(now we know why they were so similar) and "Gilligan's
Island," died May 28 of respiratory failure at
Providence St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank. He was 89, and a
longtime resident of Studio City.
Freeman King, An actor and comedian best known for
his appearances on "The Sonny & Cher Comedy
Hour" in the 1970s, has died. He was 59. He was
seen on "Life Goes On" playing
"Jamal" in 1990 .
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|
Westerns
and Perry Mason on New Hallmark Schedule |
[June 9, 2002]
Starting Saturday July 6th Hallmark will be airing "High
Chaparral" at noon ET, "The Rifleman"
1:00 PM 2:00 PM "Rawhide" and here's
the new weekday schedule featuring "Perry Mason."
| 9:00AM |
My
Three Sons |
|
4:00PM |
Bewitched |
| 9:30AM |
My Three Sons |
4:30PM |
Bewitched |
| 10:00AM |
Bewitched |
5:00PM |
I
Dream Of Jeannie |
| 10:30AM |
Bewitched |
5:30PM |
I Dream Of Jeannie |
| 11:00AM |
I
Dream Of Jeannie |
6:00PM |
Bewitched |
| 11:30AM |
I Dream Of Jeannie |
6:30PM |
I Dream Of Jeannie |
| 12:00PM |
Hart
To Hart |
7:00PM |
Hart
To Hart |
| 1:00PM |
Perry Mason |
8:00PM |
Dr. Quinn, Medicine
Woman |
| 2:00PM |
Perry
Mason |
9:00PM |
MOVIE |
| 3:00PM |
My Three Sons |
11:00PM |
Dr. Quinn, Medicine
Woman |
| 3:30PM |
My
Three Sons |
12:00AM |
MOVIE |
All times are Eastern Daylight Time.
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|
Off
Topic, But Pretty Wild
|
|
 [June
3, 2002] ATTENTION: You have less than three days
to get your bid in on the engineer's cab of The Walt Disney
World Mark IV Monorail! It's the real deal, it's the
front of a 1971 Monorail, with a mere 943,976 miles on
it. The cab was taken out of service in 1993 and was
just taking up space in a Disney World garage, so they're
auctioning it off. You can bid on it, if you've got
$19,100.00 (at last check), and have a really high limited on
your credit card, it's the only payment method they'll
take.
Cost of a Monorail: $20,000.00. Cost of shipping:
$5,000.00. Pissing off your neighbors with your new lawn
ornament: Priceless.
Click
Here to buy a Monorail Cab, Click
Here to check out other cool items, like a submarine
propeller from "20,000 Leagues Under Sea," or
a Monorail air horn.
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|
Ren
& Stimpy: Back, One Way or Another |
 [June
3, 2002] "Ren and Stimpy" are
coming to The New TNN, and maybe with new episodes too. "R&S"
became a high-rated Nick favorite in 1991, grabbing enough
adult viewers to warrant replays on MTV: Music Television. In
1993 Nickelodeon fired the creator and voice of "Ren",
John Kricfalusi from the show. Under Kricfalusi the
program was dogged by delays in delivering new episodes.
Despite these differences with Viacom owned
"Nick," Kricfalusi is in talks with Viacom
owned TNN to make new episodes. Although new episodes
are not a done deal, TNN picked up "Ren &
Stimpy" reruns for use in a primetime animation block
coming in early 2003. |
|
Carol
Burnett and 'Hearts Afire' Return to USA |
  [June
1, 2002] "Carol Burnett &
Friends" and "Hearts Afire" will
return to USA Network this July. I haven't seen "Hearts
Afire" since it originally aired from 1992-95.
Until I saw this photo I had forgotten how steamy it
was. As for Carol, her specials have been
fun, and this edited version of "The Carol
Burnett Show" is like getting the best of the
specials in half hour blocks. "Carol Burnett
& Friends" airs Sundays at 6:00AM
followed by "Hearts Afire" at 6:30AM
starting Sunday July 7th. |
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