NBC Announces Fall 2018 Premiere Dates

NBC TVLookFall2018 

  NBC announced their fall premiere dates  for the fall season.

 The week of  September 24th is the big premiere week they  kick off with another new season of "The Voice"  on September 24th for two hours.  New series : "Manifest" and "New Amsterdam" premiere the same week.  "This is Us" returns on September 25thTheir night of "Chicago" programming starts on September 26th with the premieres of "Chicago Med", "Chicago Fire," and"Chicago P.D" . "The Good Place" gets an hour long season premiere on September 27th.  Followed by a 2 hour premiere of "Law and Order".  The rest of the Thursday line up returns the following Thursday, October 4th.  Meanwhile, Friday gets pieced together over the weeks.  "Dateline" starts September 28th, "Blindspot" starts October 12th ,  "Midnight, Texas" starts October 26th.

  Here's the schedule ( subject to change) all times ET

 Monday, September 24th
8PM  The Voice
10PM   Manifest

Tuesday, September 25th
8PM  The Voice
9PM  This is Us
10PM New Amsterdam

Wednesday, September 26th
8PM  Chicago Med
9PM   Chicago Fire
10PM  Chicago P.D.

Thursday, September 27th
8PM The Good Place (one hour )
9PM   Law & Order SVU ( two hours)

Friday, September 28th
10PM  Dateline NBC

Thursday, October 4th
8PM Superstore
8:30PM The Good Place
9PM   Will & Grace
9:30pm  I feel Bad
10pm  Law & Order SVU

Friday , October 12th
8PM Blindspot

Friday, October 26th
9PM   Midnight, Texas


press release after the jump

A First Look at "Big City Greens"

Disney Reviews 

   There's  a new Disney animated series , coming to Disney Channel on June 18th 2018 called "Big City Greens" . They've released the first half hour of two eleven minute episodes on demand. The episodes called "Space Chicken" and "Steak Night" . 

 Spoilers ahead 

  First off  "Space Chicken" 

  

   So this episode mentions that our main characters have moved from the country to the city  which is also shown in the intro.  We are introduced to Cricket and his sister Tilly as the fly into their yard on a lawn mower. Their father wonders of course what Cricket has been doing as the mower is engulfed in flames. The father says that the neighbors don't know them yet and they want to make a good impression implying he wants Cricket to behave. This is not how  Cricket  hears it.   He takes it to mean they need to be impressed. So of course, his idea is to send one of their chickens INTO SPACE! (It has to be read dramatically)  A random kid named Remmy is asked to join the fun of helping to send the chicken into the infinity and beyond. (He's Random because he was walking down the sidewalk when Cricket calls him.)  The episode there's also Gramma (that's how they spell it) and she's not one to wake up in the middle of sleep -- she has a sword.   This episode goes through Cricket, Tilly, and Remmy's attempts to launch a chicken into space and causing some havoc instead.  Eventually, one of the chickens ends up being "sent into space" and everyone around is impressed.

Second, "Steak Night" 

mmm night. 

       The Greens are on their way back home with big plans of their tradition of having a steak night.  Cricket wants to hold the steaks which he is allowed to do , and they take the subway. Since this is new for the kids ,they are amazed and dazzled by the sights and sounds.  Tilly makes friends with the rats. As they get into a subway car, Cricket realizes that he left the steaks back near a bench at the station. So he tries to go back and get them.  He goes on the trip hopefully get them. Funny enough due to the steaks being mistaken for a suspicious package  the train on the way  back to the station stops. Tilly talks to a down Cricket and encourages him to not give up.  He does get them but is now chased by the bomb squad  and a bomb squad robot.   Cricket explains that he was trying to get the steaks because it's important for the steak night but his father says that family is important for steak night.  So he goes up from the tracks while the bomb robot and the steaks are lost.

  This is a nice start for the series.  It's  a more slice-of-life style comedy and at least so far, I don't think it's going to be an over arching mystery or quest series ,which is just fine.  If you are the kind of person who's looking for a quiet animated series with some funny laughs and outlandishness it's this one. 

  Cricket is a fun energetic but well meaning character.  In the first episode he's not being malicious or causing havoc for the sake of havoc but mostly mis understood his father's use of the word impression.  In the second episode he thinks that the steaks are the most important thing about the night because that's what his family says so, when he tries to go get them back he's doing it to makes his family happy. 

    

  Tilly is quiet and kind of in her own world.  She's  a little quirky  but works well with her brother and is supportive of him. Hopefully we will get to know more about her a character as the series goes on. 

  The Dad, named  Bill is a caring father who might be a little annoyed by his son's antics but at least sees the good intentions. He can be a little goofy as shown in Steak Night. Again hope we  learn more about him as the series goes on. 

 Gramma Alice is going to be that one character you can't forget she's feisty and as stated above apparently sleeps with a sword for protection.  She so far, isn't over the top just a fun a little crazy character. 

more after the jump

Those PSA Episodes: Hitting Is Bad so Don't do it

PSA

         Sometimes TV shows want to teach a moral as a public service.  We delve into an infamous episode of "Arthur" that had a message , it gets scrambled  somewhere.

      Our Show : Arthur
        What are they trying to tell the audience: Hitting is Bad.

        This is from Season  4 episode 1b.  Codename : Arthur's Big Hit.  This episode aired in 1999.  Also it is weird not use our normal "Arthur" format for an "Arthur" episode.

         Arthur is working on a model  airplane and D.W is inquisitive about the model at this point isn't over zealous but does annoy Arthur when he is trying to work on the plane.  Eventually, the airplane is finished.  D.W decides to play with the airplane while Arthur is distracted and eventually she ends up throwing it out the window because she thinks it can fly.  She tells him that he made the plane wrong because it didn't fly.  Arthur puts 2+2 together and finds out the truth. Arthur gets angry and punches D.W who cries and runs away. He gets in trouble.

the most famous image from this episode , apparently. Copyright WGBH 

          The episode continues where Arthur and D.W's  parents want him to apologize  he doesn't think he should because he feels justified in hitting her because of her destruction of the plane.  Binky, whom at the time in this series was the bully, and his friends in the 'tough customers' group hear about this as well and Binky is surprised that Arthur hit  his sister. Now his friends want him to prove that Binky still has it in him to hit someone so they tell him to hit the next kid who turns around the corner. Guess who is the first kid to turn around the corner?  If you said anyone but Arthur then you've not been paying attention.

        They tell him that the next time he sees Arthur he has to hit him.  So Binky tries not seeing Arthur.  Meanwhile Arthur is annoyed that people don't see his side in this story.   Eventually Binky and Arthur meet up and the tough customers are around so, he has to hit him and does. Arthur explains what happened  and he felt being hit. He apologizes for hitting D.W  and later Binky apologies and Arthur thanks him for hitting him. (Maybe he got hit too hard.)

     
         Did it do it's PSA message clearly?  Well no.  I am going to start from the start of the episode.  Arthur was shown to be working on this model they did the hammering in of showing how much dedication he was working on this model. It also shows D.W being inquisitive because of course she would. She's a little sister who has been shown in the series to want Arthur to spend time with her and be interested in her. Maybe she was getting interested in the plane to spend some time with Arthur who knows?  This episode doesn't explain more than she's inquisitive.    Now at the part where D.W touches the wet paint plane and Arthur tells her not to touch it comes back when he is getting mad at her before hitting hitting her. He did tell her not to touch it.   The audience may justify that Arthur was in the right to hit her because he was mad and explicitly tell her not to touch it.  Again, this episode is there to tell us hitting is wrong.   It does seem to try to say why the justification of why he hit her wasn't right but they missed at telling you why.  Now, I know why  it was wrong to hit her, but this episode is supposed to be a way for your audience to learn why it's wrong to hit people and maybe telling you why it is wrong to hit someone even when you feel justified.

     There's a part with Arthur's parents punishing him and they tell him again what she did was wrong , and that's true and that they'll deal with it. (which wasn't brought up at all after that moment)  Then they said to Arthur what he was wrong too but not explain a  little of why it is.  Arthur is surrogate for the audience who also is maybe not understanding why it's wrong to hit someone.   Now the Binky part is maybe there to give Arthur a lesson on why hitting is wrong.   This episode did a good job at showing Binky's conflict of not wanting to hit Arthur at all and his internal conflict with that and peer pressure. We are part of a group and the group wants us to do something wrong and if don't do it we be removed from the group is actually given more clearly in this episode then its main plot.  The part where Binky later would rather disband the whole group than let it continue with their hitting rule also shows his learning of a lesson he gathered ,again, better than the main plot. Arthur does learn his lesson in this episode that hitting is wrong, but D,W was still in the wrong too and the episode didn't show what repercussions  she got for her actions. Unless, the hit count as her punishment but that would render the whole episode pointless.   So it didn't get the message out clearly, it seemed like it was focused on saying yeah hitting is bad , but it didn't fill in the gaps well.


           Was it a good PSA?  No.  I think it would have worked better if they had taken out the part where Arthur says don't touch the plane and toned down D.W where instead she wasn't seen for much of the process then she sees the plane the first time and either tries to play with it like in the episode without malice and it breaks and Arthur gets frustrated because of all the work we saw him do and that in a moment of anger hits her, or she brakes it by accident and insert the rest of what I said before. It would give a focus that maybe the episode was going for that when you are angry the best solution isn't hitting and it  removes any implication that the viewer could make that  it's justifiable because of D.W's actions.  The rest of the episode could maybe still even work the way it does.


         Also ,  we know this episode became a meme because of course it did.

  Tune in next time when we find out  why  D.W still brings up the punch 20 years later in therapy.
 
 

 

More to Say: More on "It was My Best Birthday Ever , Charlie Brown"

The Flashback 

 
    Since we are on somewhat of a break with Peanuts specials , I thought it would be good to something a little different.  I've been doing this since 2015 ,I've looked a lot of non-holiday Peanuts specials.   The tones and  lengths of them have changed over some time it might be good to look at some of my early ones and see if any thing can be expanded or changed.

     The second Peanuts review ever we've done was on "It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown."   There were a few reasons I started the lookbacks on Peanuts specials , one was because it was the 65th anniversary  in 2015 , the other was an opportunity to maybe catch some I've not gotten to see before. This was one of those that I hadn't seen before the lookback at all. The background information on this special and the 1990's specials over all is that  after  "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown" aired  CBS , the home of Peanuts specials kind of gave up having anymore new ones. As mentioned in my "It's Spring Training , Charlie Brown"  that was meant to be on CBS but was part of cancelation after 1992 and didn't make it to TV until 1998.   This specia came out on VHS (direct to video) release in 1997, one of the last specials over seen and worked on by Charles Schulz.

    This was also the first special to be worked on with the process of digital ink which you can kind of tell compared to the old fully hand drawn style of the past specials.

   In my look back I didn't breeze through the opening or take out anything .

This special is about Linus , he does a lot of roller skating  which leads him to girl ( of course )  named Mimi.

    The thing is this special starts with a scene of Linus just roller skating with some music backing it. A lot of Peanuts specials  do have filler  but, this one felt excessive to a point.  I did skip one thing, it also had Snoopy trying to go up a skate ramp without skates.  But if you were to skip everything upto the the title cards at 1:50 past, you'd miss nothing in this special.  In fact, after the title cards there's more Linus skating. That lasts  a minute.     Then the rest is Linus goes to a birthday party , there are other characters there too and he gets down tonight (or shakes his groove thing, pick whatever song you want.) .   Going by the title of the special you would think that this was the birthday party in the title well, nope.  It's 2 minutes of just partying and barely any dialogue. Well it is more filler.  There's  scene where  Sally and Charlie Brown talk about the party then it goes back to more Linus skating.  It's recycled footage from earlier too.    The space between 0:00 and 7:25 (except for the title cards  and credits from 1:50 to 2:30 in)  was pretty much what could be classed as filler.

He's a dance machine/ Copyright Peanuts

    This was the 2nd Peanuts special to use the aira,  "O Mio Babbino Caro", the other was "She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown" where Peppermint Patty uses it as her ice skating song.   This time it's a girl named Mimi who is singing it and it is so beautiful to Linus that he stops skating, walks into a garden just to find the siren who has this voice. (the siren part is the only joke in that sentence)  The voice of Mimi is also the voice of Lucy in this special.

  If  are one of those people who look at animation deeply , you will notice an error since before Linus was wearing roller skates, then he takes them off and you his red socks ( I thought he'd be a Rangers fan) then when he's helping Mimi he has his normal shoes on.  Later the shoes are gone again when are drinking lemonade together on a bench.

    Linus is so in love with the girl he blushes heavily and helps her garden while staring at her.  Linus mentions he was coming home from a birthday party (yeah we know) and Mimi says she loves birthday parties.

                                             

       It happens  that Mimi is visiting for a birthday party, she loves Birthday parties.  so conveniently his birthday is  in a couple days  (Hmmm Linus)   so he invites her. The special continues where  Linus hears her amazing singing in his head  for awhile. (He's high on love , or the inspiration for the Kylie Minogue song)

     Linus has really fallen smitten with this girl her song plays either in his head or she's singing again  both ways he's in love.  The animation to speak up again, when he for example, is skating back home seems to be more traditional looking than what we saw at the beginning.  Linus tells his best friend, Charlie Brown, about his new love because that's what best friends do.   This special gives us the funniest facial expression I've seen on Linus ever.

        There are some normal Peanuts antics  in this special like Snoopy and Woodstock scenes.  For the party Linus waits for his girl of the hour to come.  They also got the rights to sing Happy Birthday in the special (since it wasn't public domain or whatever was going on yet)

     This is a Peanuts special where you could skip the first 7 minutes and not miss anything  does kind of seem they needed to fill the whole 24 minutes but didn't have enough story for the 24 so they maybe had enough for the 16 to 17.  It's plot we do get isn't bad it's simple story  with some enjoyment to it.  I don't recommend it  to someone who hasn't seen a Peanuts special as the first one to see or for someone who is to recommend as the first one to see it might make it harder to get into the other specials.

Nice retro car

   This special isn't on DVD, it's on VHS  though if you buy it used on somewhere, or watch online. It hasn't aired on television though ironically, ABC could use it as a filler special when they add more time to a special to air the whole special without editing it , but they still  need commercials. They could air this with the 7 minutes cut out of it as a back half special to fill in hour.  (That's kind of a joke there) 


       To give it a rating out of 10  it gets a 7.2/10 it's not a bad special but the filler does bog it down.

  Might do more of this ,we'll see.


 

The Flashback : Stickin' Around

Joshuaonline Canada   The Flashback  Animation 

        This time we  look at  another animated series because that's something we do here.  Our story involves CBS, Canada, and Fox Kids, but also an interesting 90's animated series that maybe doesn't get talked about much.

      Nelvana

You may remember their logo and bear. 

       Nelvana , you may remember from watching television in the late 80's and 90's, is a Canadian animation company  now currently owned by Corus.  They are the company that made the series we are talking about today. 

     "Stickin' Around" premiered on CBS as 1 minute shorts to air when CBS didn't want to look to commercial during their children's shows. (the C in CBS stands for commercial, not really)  These appeared in 1994. (It even made the Chicago Tribune) 

                         

                              

                                         

             In Canada, YTV decided it was good enough to be a series and that premiered in 1996. It also appeared on UK television , Australian television , and of course American. It aired on Fox Kids for about a year ,but it didn't do well for FOX Kids or they just didn't care. America did the get rest of the show without Fox Kids' strange edits on the digital network . Qubo like 20 years later. 

       We are here to talk about the show. Like all TV shows before the networks thought screw long themes or any at all ,we have stuff to sell, it has  a theme.  

     
  One thing you might notice if you haven't heard of or seen this series before, is the animation. The intro would really shows what this show is in it's 60 seconds.


        Why yes, they are stick figures.   The series 'stars' Stacy Stickler (get it stick?) and her best friend, Bradley (he gets no last name)  they are 9 year olds with big imaginations.

   Let's look at little at the first episode.
        Bradley has his Dad's camera and he and Stacy decide to make a movie there's a neighbor girl named  Polly who is introduced in a strange way.
 

   See the dog we circled? That's not the show's animation style , that dog is dead , don't tell Polly that. 

      Polly  and her  dead dog , Pepperoni get to be part of the movie. (He's not not dead!)  An average episode shows imagination scenes. Also, the show's backgrounds fit the style of the show as well, if the stick drawings are like a child's drawings the backgrounds are flat and simple giving it a fitting style.  

It also lets them use random backgrounds like this just for fun. /Copyright Nelvana

  

  Back to the plot : With all the running all the characters end up lost down town. There are two more male characters and also a living dog. After they run around screaming from different things , Stacy looks at the recorded footage to figure out how they got downtown in the first place.  Also Stacy also caught a robbery on film.   They do make it home and they don't win a sadder version of "America's Funniest Home Videos" but the police to give them award catching the robbery on video.  (Crime does pay - just not those who rob)   

more after the jump 

ABC cancels "The Chew"

Daytime TV News ABC 

    The daytime food based talk show that replaced  ."All My Children" in 2011 , "The Chew" has been canceled and will be replaced by a new hour of "Good Morning America" airing at the same current time as "The Chew".   1pm/12c    This is not an instant change as "The Chew" will still run through the summer and ABC has not given a date for when "Good Morning America" will expand.

     This is "GMA's" second bought with being on in the afternoon , there was the short-lived "Good Afternoon America" which was a tempoary replacement for "The Revolution" which ran for 6 months in 2012 after replacing "One Life to Live".  There's also, as of this writing,  it's unknown who will be hosting the program.
   

EXCITING NEWS JUST IN: In September @GMA will add a third hour of TV beginning at 1pm ET/12pm CT/PT: https://t.co/yvXAOIPxbj pic.twitter.com/fUgJ7LO5eg

— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 23, 2018

    Recently, "The Chew" had a controversy with former  co-host and chef, "Mario Batali" left the show back in November 2017 due to sexual harassment allegations   and  as of this week is facing investigations for sexual assault. 

  press release after the jump

The Last Episode : Newhart Wipes Your Mind

The Flashback  Essays 

        Newhart was a funny series with it's strong cast of  strange characters and the main characters of Dick Loudon (played by Bob Newhart) and his wife Joanna (played by Mary Frann). Where most of the time it was Dick trying to contend with oddness around him.  The series ran on CBS from 1982 to 1990 .

  So spoilers ahead.

     How do you end Newhart?

             The last episode starts with the people of this unnamed town in Vermont (we don't have enough sitcoms taking place in Vermont) having a unnamed town meeting.  Talking about important issues like the town fish.  The Stratford inn the place that the Loudons run is turning 200 years old.  The episode starts like a normal "Newhart" episode.  Then a Japanese Business man (because late 1980's early 1990's) says that he wants to buy the town and turn it into a golf course. (because of course?)  So we are doing a save the town episode?  Nope, he offers a million per home and they are all in , except one. Guess who?  Yep Dick Loudon.  So that's gonna stop it from happening?  Ha ha ! No they are willing to build their course around the inn.

   Everyone leaves the town but Dick and Joanna.  But first we get the townspeople going fiddler on the roof on us.  It cuts to five years later where it's a golf course now except the Stratford Inn. This finale has everything.   Dick and Joanna have tried to make the best of it but, Dick does want to sell now. The business man refuses because of Dick's pride.  Stephanie and Michael return with their older daughter.   So does George the handyman. And some of the other old townspeople.  Apparently, they all want to live in Sratford. They argue and not listen to Dick so he decides to leave and gets hit in the head with a golf ball and falls down.

  Now the famous finale part.  The show returns to a familiar set to that of the bedroom of the Bob Newhart show.  With Bob Newhart being  Dr. Bob Hartley, with  and the his wife,Emily, in that series (played by  Suzanne Pleshette )  saying he had a crazy dream.

      The finale is famous for that ending. Kind of interesting way to end a series kind of like a fellow made MTM (Mary Tyler Moore studio) series that had a twist at the end.    Does make it a remember able finale.  I will start with everything before the famous scene.  The whole episode goes all in with the strange like above the normal episodes. They were giving something special with this episode  and yet it doesn't seem so out of place from the series.  The last episode still has great comedy and  even skipped anything that would make a dramatic finale to more serious they went straight for the comedy.  It's a good trick when they started with  wonder if this finale is going to be the characters trying stop the purchase , or maybe Dick changes their minds and they all gather saying how great the town they live is or something.  It could have gone the way of Dick deciding to sell and either that's how it ends (many finales have )  or Dick plans to sell when everyone then changes their minds.     Instead , it's just used as away to put Dick in another strange situation.  The golf ball  thing was great at foreshadowing and how eventually he gets hit in the head with a golf ball.

   I think it's a good finale. It's a show that didn't take itself to seriously had well written comedy and was fun and knew how to go out. 

 That's it for now on our series finales ,we may return in the future. (This isn't our series finale)

  Tune in next time when we wake up.

The Last Episode : Sabrina Teenage Witch : End With Tying One Last Loose Swing

The Flashback Essays 

         "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" the series that ran from 1996 to 2003 ,  actually has two finales.  ABC ran the series from 1996 to 2000 and they ended it with that episode where spoiler?  Harvey finds out that she is a witch.  The WB network decided that Sabrina was right thing for their channel and picked up the show and there it aired for 3 more seasons.  What I am going to talk about is the finale from the final season.

   The finale is chosen because  I am a fan of the series  personally and it's an example of a finale that has a big two part story and ties up something that was arc in the series.

   "Sabrina The Teenage" finale  aired on the WB network on April 24th, 2003 as a two part episode   called "What a Witch Wants" and "Soul Mates".

       Spoilers ahead. (Warning)

    Background first: In this season , Sabrina and her college friends  have moved into the house together , the aunts have left.  To a point there's been an arc where Sabrina was dating a man named Aaron and they plan to get married which leads us to the episode  "What a Witch Wants". 

           What a Witch wants is Sabrina going out for her bachelorette party and that episode focuses on her and friends proving they they have a strong friendship.  So the episode I am more going to focus on is the last last episode "Soul Mates"  It's now Sabrina's wedding day and she has little cold feet, and since this show's humor sometimes goes into the literal humor , she has ice blocks on her feet. (get it?)   Salem tells her that there's a reason this happened. (need to turn the AC down a bit there)

     Also for a series finale they brought back some of the show's  past stars like her cousin Amanda (played by  Melissa Joan Hart's real life sister) , her mom , which is big because of the show's lore of she not being able to see her mom.  Her Aunt Hilda returns (Caroline Rhea). Her father, also makes another appearance.  Sadly, Aunt Zelda doesn't make a reappearance.  (in human form)  Amanda ,who is also a witch finds Harvey to get him to come to the wedding.   Doubt appears yes in literal form and tells her that there's doubt around and gives her Aaron's soul stone and  tells her that she doubts that they are soul mates.

       Sabrina searches for her soul stone at the North Star and wants to see if her stone matches with Aaron.  Do they match?  Well no.  The Wedding eventually starts after some snags ,but she's having some doubt still so it gets stalled again. Her aunt and mother tells here that everything is not against the wedding , she is so she tries again to get married. At the vows she stops again and tells Aaron that she doesn't want to get married to him after all. (Not getting that deposit back)  She leaves the church were she sees Harvey with  a soul stone of his own.   They kiss and ride off on his motorcycle. The two stones fall on the ground and they match.  Guess what they did something for those who've been watching the show since the start, the 12:36 time where she and Harvey first met.

   One thing about the show is that Harvey and Sabrina seem to be a big thing of the series. This finale kind of finishes where these characters who seemed to made for each other end up together.  Much of the series showed us how much they cared for each other even when they broke up so, it doesn't feel as some sort of weird  they did that because they were a couple once and so stick them together. In fact , it felt more that way with Sabrina and Aaron in the last few episodes of the season that he kind of just shows up in the series and then they announce to get married.

  Is it a good finale?  Yes, it gives us a good wrap up of the series with most of the characters that were big on the show a chance to return. (-3 pts for no Aunt Zelda) It gives its fans a satisfaction that yeah it's over but it ended in away that would make him feel it ended on a good note.  It gives us a little drama too, where we honestly don't know how it ends until it ends.
 
   Next time, a series finale that takes a whole show and makes you go WHAT?


Tune in  next time when we find soul stones and start a dating service.