Nexstar to Launch Rewind TV

TV News  Digital Networks 

        Nexstar Media is launching a new digital network that will complement  Antenna TV called Rewind TV.  Rewind TV will be airing classic TV shows from the 1980's and 90's. This gives Antenna TV which has been airing shows from the 50's to 90's  some breathing room in their line up.  

       Rewind will be airing some series that have been airing on Antenna TV  such as, Murphy Brown, Growing Pains,  Wings, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Who's the Boss, and Family Ties, and new addition The Drew Carey Show.    Antenna TV will still air shows from 50's through 70's and the weeknight re run of Johnny Carson. 

    The station will launch May 1st on Nexstar stations on newly added or replacements of existing digital channels. (Court TV airs on many of the former Tribune Nexstar stations maybe leaving due to it moving to Ion sub channels)  

 You can visit their website here : www.rewindtv.com.

Read the press release after the jump 

Joshuaonline's 10's: When TV drifts

Editor's note:  This post was made back in 2016, but it never made it to post and just lingered as a draft all this time.  Part of a plan that didn't come together as well as previously thought, so we are here to post it now. This post hasn't been changed from it's  original premise in 2016, minus this note being added on top.  Some things have changed since this post, thanks to streaming, especially.  Thankyou for reading.   

      As part of our 10th anniversary , we take this time to take a look at TV stories or things in TV that happened in the past 10 years or maybe something that happened before but effects TV to this day. We take a look at topics in television or media that have an interesting or important element to what television brings us.     

  You can read our past posts here in our 10 years section   

   

         Have you ever gotten mad at the History Channel for airing non-history factual programming?  Did you know that Bravo used to be an arts channel , hence the name Bravo? 

                                                    
      Honestly , Yes Names should mean something! (Don't look us like that)  The phrase of what to call a channel that has gone off their launch mission is called Channel Drift. It can also be called network decay.  Let's say Joshuoanline had tons of money  and we launched a TV channel called Car-Repair TV (no relation to any real Car Repair TV's that might be out there) that aired how to shows on how to repair cars. Our target audience people with cars maybe ages 18-49 ,which is basic for advertisers. We do pretty well ,viewers love finding out how to fix their cars and we even start adding programs for people who want to  modify their cars.  Our concept goes so well that other companies launch their own versions , some fizzle away be cause nobody can beat Car Repair TV.  A few years later we  start adding programs that have nothing car repair  but may fit with those watching, Our channel's biggest audience is Men ages  30-50 in fact we beat ESPN in the audience so we find programming that we think they would like besides car repair , let's say we pick up rights to NASCAR races. It has cars so it fits and we might get some viewers who weren't watching who might stay after the race to watch  Stick Shifts with Buck.  Have we drifted ? Yes ..but in a small percentage.  Reality Shows are hot , so we add a reality show that fits with our channel though , called  Can you Fix it ? Where our contestants are compete to on who can be the best mechanic.  We rename the channel to an acronym  of CRTV (Car Repair TV)  and we continue. Well there's in wrench in life later as people have found other ways to have car repair info , they can go on the internet for it ,and now there's a video site that you can look it up, and in fact we start doing the same. Our  TV channel  needs to survive so we do the unthinkable we decide to cut back on our Car Repair TV programming and refocus our name as  CRTV and decide to keep Nascar , make some reality shows about cars , we pick up other car racing  groups . Our older programming is shoved to mornings and our website.   Our channel drifted, slowly, but times caught up to us and our management felt we had to change.

     The Biggest name brought up in a channel drift is MTV , formerly MTV : Music Television.  MTV was part of the early days of cable , which was an inventive time and possibly at it's best. (hang on)  There were many single program style program channels, Want Sports and Sports news 24/7 : ESPN (1979) , want News all day live ?  CNN (1980) , are you a kid tired of not being able to watch children's shows at 5pm on a Saturday ? Nickelodeon (1979). Music videos did air on TV but there was not an outlet of MTV's scale and they changed out music videos were done.  But then in the  mid 2000's they cut back on music videos and few other music programs like TRL , to focus on other things in the demo they were attracted. Today they air dramas, sitcoms, and  reality shows this is a definitely a drift. Is this a bad drift ,good drift ? Maybe a survival drift. MTV to stay on the air felt they ad to adapt to the changing market place like our fake CRTV had to do. This makes people ,who grew up with MTV doing Music and music videos (as of this writing they are going to do some music programs starting soon) , though if MTV was to put back music videos, there's  a chance that you might not watch. They are not going to air the same music videos that you remember because MTV Always did current music videos. MTV Hits , which was an extra channel on cable airs music videos all day of current songs not songs from the 80's and 90's  also with the internet you can find tons of music videos from the past right there and watch anytime you want, or watch  MTV Classic which airs older music videos all day. 

     The another drift offender, the most outrageous  one  is TLC.  If you were to tell someone that didn't grow up in the 90's or before that TLC's letters used to mean The Learning Channel , they would be shocked or not , what do we know?  Not to make this a history lesson so we are going to make this short. TLC was launched in 1972 by the  Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and NASA as the Appalachian Community Service Network. It was a way to provide educational and instructional programming using television. In the 80's the name was changed to The Learning Channel and it did what the name was on the tin and it was privatized when it was renamed.  A competitor launched called Discovery Channel ,think about that channels competing for viewers over programming about nature, science, history ,and other educational programs.  In the 90's Discovery bought TLC , that's who owns them today. Discovery must have felt that having two learning channels would be a bit redundant.  In the late 90's they went for a new focus the slogan I remember the most "Life Unscripted" was started, this brought in programming like inetior design shows , guess to compete with the HGTV market. Shows like Baby Story and  crime shows and etc.  So in this period was the decay? I would say no , was it drift , yes?  Though I guess you are learning about how crimes are solved or how to do some D.I.Y  is some type of learning.  They did started focusing on the name TLC and less on  The Learning Channel , like when our fake channel focused on CRTV , it lets the channel have more flexibility.  TLC then started finding success in reality shows but their focus instead of competition shows like the networks , or whatever the heck Bravo is doing , they went for "real people" well many call this lowest common denominator programming.

    But why did they do it ?  Well ratings , were high yep and that equaled that they felt you wanted more. People watching Jon and Kate Plus 8 .. well hey here are some other big families with maybe some drama added in.  Do you like Cake Boss... well let's make more.   TLC is now having to find some other direction they will be adding some scripted programming soon though.  So our question was this good drift or bad drift. Well  it was good for Discovery who had lots of viewers watching TLC more than watching the learning programming or even the  D.I.Y/ home programs  (which apparently were a fad), it was bad for everyone else , unless you were the new viewers watching. This one is subjective in answer isn't it?

more after the jump  or come drift was us / wait that was awful

FOX announces Summer Schedule

FOX Summer TV 

     FOX has released their summer schedule. They have added new reality series, a  new remake of "Fantasy Island"  A new baking competition series called "Crime Scene Kitchen".  New seasons of  "Hells' Kitchen: Young Guns" , Lego Masters", "Masterchef : Legends"  and "Beat Shazam".   There also will be a Monday animation block with the new season "Ducanville" and  new series "Housebroken". 

Here's the schedule (all times ET) 

Sunday, May 23

8:30-9pm  Duncanville  (Season Premiere , part 1) 

9:30-10pm   Ducanville  (Season Premiere, part 2) 

Tuesday, May 25

8-10pm  Mental Samurai  (Season Premiere) 

Wednesday, May 26

8pm  The Masked Singer (Season Finale) 

9pm   Crime Scene Kitchen (Series Premiere) 

Mondays, starting May 31 

8pm   Hell's Kitchen : Young Guns (Season Premiere) 

9pm  Housebroken  (Series Premiere) 

9:30pm Ducanville (Time Period Premiere) 

Tuesdays, starting June 1 

8pm Lego Masters (Season Premiere) 

9pm   Mental Samurai  (Time Period Premiere) 

Wednesdays, starting June 2

8pm  Masterchef : Legends ( Season Premiere) 

9pm   Crime Scene Kitchen 

Thursdays, starting June 3

8pm  Beat Shazam  (Season Premiere) 

TBA ---August 

Fantasy Island 

Press Release after the jump 

ABC Summer Premiere Dates

    ABC has announced their summer programming premiere dates. As with networks in summer, it's a mixture of reality shows and game shows.   They have added three new series to the line up: "The Celebrity Dating Game" , "The Ultimate Surfer" ,  "When Nature Calls" 

Here are the dates. (all times ET/PT) 

Friday, June 4th 

8-9:01pm  Emergency Call (new season) 

Sunday, June 6th 

8-9pm   Celebrity Family Feud (new season) 

9-10pm   The Chase                  (new season) 

10-11pm   To Tell the Truth      (new season) 

Monday, June 7th

8-10pm  The Bachelorette (new season) 

 

Wednesday, June 9th 

8-9pm   Press Your Luck (new season) 

9-10pm  The $100,000 Pyramid  (new season)

10-11pm  Card Sharks (new season) 

Monday, June 14th 

10-11pm The Celebrity Dating Game (new series) 

Thursday, June 17th

8-9pm When Nature Calls (Series Premiere) 

9-10pm Holey Moley 3D in 2D (new season) 

10-11pm  The Hustler   (new season) 

Monday, August 16th 

8-10pm  Bachelor in Paradise  (new season) 

10-11pm The Ultimate Surfer (series premiere) 

Press release after the jump 

The Lookback: 1996: A Look at CBS' 1996-97 season Saturday Morning Programming

The Flashback CBS 

Had to cheat and use an image from 1995 

     Previously on the blog, we looked at ABC's 1996-1997 Saturday Morning programming. You can read that here. 

                  The idea here is to do a snap shot of a period of time in Saturday morning television history, by doing an overview of programming while mostly talking about them in a larger context.  The time being the 1996-1997 season.  The reason why I picked 1996 for this post (and the ABC post) is that 1996 was a transitional time for this network's morning programming. This would be the last year of their traditional programming block before adding news programming and focusing on E/I children's programming. NBC had started the ball rolling with "Saturday Today" and CBS was going to join in later.  

       

       There's another similar story to ABC: acquisition.  I'm going to keep it simple for this post because there's a larger context, but that's not really here for this post.  Westinghouse announced in 1995, they were wanting to purchase CBS.  This was announced about a day after Disney announced they were buying ABC, and Westinghouse got their network purchaused approved first.  Now, CBS had new owners, though Westinghouse wasn't really a company that was like Disney, it owned local stations and was an electric products company, so they didn't have anything to bring to Saturday Morning kids TV they way Disney would. 

        Let's get a look at this line up now.   In 1996, this would be the last year of a traditional block for CBS before mostly going to a) E/I programming  and b) later letting someone else program the time for them.  

         First, the second and final season of "The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat" This is a series that's a modern take on the character Felix the cat, (duh) this series has Phil Roman working on, you would know him from "Garfield" specials and some "Peanuts" specials as well. This season only had 8 episodes, and of course was the last for the series. In "Felix" history this was the first series since the 50's series that ended in 1962.  So far, the next series was the last one with "Baby Felix" which came out in 2001. (but that didn't air on CBS) 

        Next on CBS, was the 2nd season of "Timon & Pumbaa" yes, Disney's.   The Disney Afternoon by the mid 1990's was mostly faltering as a block , especially as local stations were changing around the country.  Disney decided to work with CBS on a few things, before well, buying ABC. Just because they bought ABC, doesn't mean contracts would change that easily. This though, was the final season of this show on CBS; it had one more season in 1999, airing on Toon Disney.  CBS didn't even finish airing the 2nd season, five episodes premiered in just syndication.  This series takes Timon and Pumbaa from "The Lion King" and sets them on their own adventures. 

more after the jump 

The Lookback: 1996: A Look at ABC's 1996-97 season Saturday Morning Programming

The Flashback  ABC 

        1996. You  might be wondering why we are looking at a random year (though in 2021, 1996 is 25 years ago, eek)  of programming on a random broadcast network, when we could be doing anything else. (Whatever that is)  Well, 1996, wasn't just some random year, in theory, for Saturday morning kids block there was some change.

 

    In 1995 (Nooo you can't do that... what are you doing, this is about 1996!),  one new block joined the big 3 Saturday morning kids  blocks and it joined the big 1 weekday race.  Joining ABC, CBS, and FOX was the WB's  Kids WB (on the WB) . UPN also launched a block, but they said, woah Saturday is crowded, we'll die so Sunday and Weekdays for them. (I'm sure they didn't say that line like that , but it's implied)  Anyway, we're talking about ABC.  We have to go back to 1993. (Oh come on!) 

  In 1993, the wise FCC decided, nah it's good for syndication and production companies to be owned with networks. Now, FOX and a few others had found ways around the rule, anyway, but this meant something. This is also how UPN and the WB were able to exist.  On July 31st, 1995 it happened, The Walt Disney Company announced it's intentions to buy Capital Cities/ ABC, this was approved by shareholders (duh money)  and later by the FCC (because sure why not, allow  bad decisions to happen?) ABC was now no longer a company it was now part of a larger company, it had been demoted from crown jewel to a piece of future in the house that exists next your fancy stuff.   (what?)  

        Sticking to the theme of this blog post, 1996-1997 season on Saturday morning would be a transition year.  February 1997, Peter Hastings joined Disney and decided that they needed to something different with this real estate on Saturday morning on ABC. (Meanwhile at CBS, we see them burning their Saturday morning down , and seeding to FOX , Kids WB, and the FCC)   That block would be called  Disney's One Saturday Morning, ( Disney buy Saturday Mornings in the future probably) (source: https://variety.com/1997/digital/news/abc-hopes-for-virtual-success-1116677612/) 

          1996-1997 would be the last year of what essentially was an unnamed block. It wasn't tradition to call these things names until like FOX Kids started. So we look at this block, a moment in time, a snap shot, a time , a piece. Let's get on with it. 

             First in the line up : Disney's Jungle Cubs.  This was the first year of Disney ownership of ABC, but before this Disney relied on syndication (Disney Afternoon) and selling programs to networks, like ABC and CBS. A model that had been the standard for decades like with Hanna and Barbera.   Disney didn't make their programs exclusive to ABC(yet,)  Disney Afternoon was dying at this point, but that's a different story.  On CBS this season there were still some Disney animated shows running there.   But this series was the first one to premiere on ABC with Disney ownership.     

    "Jungle Cubs" takes the making shows with characters but younger route. It's based off their "The Jungle Book" movie, but with the animals as "kids" and no human child. Now because this is more a snap shot look, I won't be going too deep into every show's plot, but mostly giving a look at this time period.

     In a weird twist, a Nickelodeon show. Alright, Disney had purchased "Doug" one of Nickelodeon's first Nicktoons. This has only happened once and Viacom will probably fight to the death than allow this to happen again.  Disney had acquired the studio that made "Doug" (Disney's rampage goes long) and it had already ended on Nickelodeon, and Disney thought to make their investment have a purpose, since they didn't own the original Nick episodes, they needed to make more Doug. (It's like Disney with Star Wars)  In September of 1996, here on the ABC line up, the "Brand New Sparking Doug" (what?) premiered.  It would last through the One Saturday Morning block as well. Confusing kids as to how Doug can run on two different channels at once.  (Jokes on Disney, Nick had their cash cow of Rugrats in their back pocket)   

more after the jump

2021 Oscar Nominations announced

Oscars

After a strange year for movies in 2020, the 93rd annual Academy Awards nominations have been announced. The award show airs on April 25th on ABC.


Best Picture
“The Father” 

“Judas and the Black Messiah” 

“Mank” 

“Minari” 

“Nomadland” 

“Promising Young Woman” 
“Sound of Metal”

“The Trial of the Chicago 7” 

Best Director

Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”)

David Fincher (“Mank”)

Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”)

Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”)

Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”)

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”)

Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”)

Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”)

Gary Oldman (“Mank”)

Steven Yeun (“Minari”)

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”)

Andra Day (“The United States v. Billie Holiday”)

Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”)

Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”)

Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Sacha Baron Cohen (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”)

Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”)

Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”)

Paul Raci (“Sound of Metal”)

Lakeith Stanfield (“Judas and the Black Messiah”)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Maria Bakalova (‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”)

Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”)

Olivia Colman (“The Father”)

Amanda Seyfried (“Mank”)

Yuh-jung Youn (“Minari”)

Best Animated Feature Film

“Onward” (Pixar)

“Over the Moon” (Netflix)

“A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon” (Netflix)

“Soul” (Pixar)

“Wolfwalkers” (Apple TV Plus/GKIDS)

Best Adapted Screenplay

“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.” 
“The Father” 

“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao

“One Night in Miami”

“The White Tiger"

Best Original Screenplay

“Judas and the Black Messiah.” 

“Minari” 

“Promising Young Woman”

“Sound of Metal.” 

“The Trial of the Chicago 7"

Best Original Song

“Fight for You,”

“Hear My Voice,”

“Húsavík,”

“Io Si (Seen),” 

“Speak Now,” 

Best Original Score

“Da 5 Bloods,” Terence Blanchard

“Mank,” Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

“Minari,” Emile Mosseri

“News of the World,” James Newton Howard

“Soul,” Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste

Best Sound

“Greyhound"

“Mank” 

“News of the World"

“Soul,” Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott and David Parker

“Sound of Metal,” Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Phillip Bladh

Best Costume Design

“Emma"

“Mank"

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom"

“Mulan"

“Pinocchio"

Best Animated Short Film

“Burrow” 

“Genius Loci” 

“If Anything Happens I Love You” 

“Opera” 

“Yes-People” 

Best Live-Action Short Film

“Feeling Through”

“The Letter Room”

“The Present”

“Two Distant Strangers”

“White Eye”

Best Cinematography

“Judas and the Black Messiah,” Sean Bobbitt

“Mank,” Erik Messerschmidt

“News of the World,” Dariusz Wolski

“Nomadland,” Joshua James Richards

“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Phedon Papamichael

Best Documentary Feature

“Collective,” Alexander Nanau and Bianca Oana

“Crip Camp,” Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht and Sara Bolder

“The Mole Agent,” Maite Alberdi and Marcela Santibáñez

“My Octopus Teacher,” Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster

“Time,” Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn

Best Documentary Short Subject

“Colette,”

“A Concerto Is a Conversation,”

“Do Not Split,” 

“Hunger Ward,”

“A Love Song for Latasha,” 

Best Film Editing

“The Father,”

“Nomadland,” 

“Promising Young Woman,” 

“Sound of Metal,” 

“The Trial of the Chicago 7"

Best International Feature Film

“Another Round” (Denmark)

“Better Days” (Hong Kong)

“Collective” (Romania)

“The Man Who Sold His Skin” (Tunisia)

“Quo Vadis, Aida?”(Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

“Emma,” Marese Langan, Laura Allen, Claudia Stolze

“Hillbilly Elegy,” Eryn Krueger Mekash, Patricia Dehaney, Matthew Mungle

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson

“Mank,” Kimberley Spiteri, Gigi Williams, Colleen LaBaff

“Pinocchio,” Mark Coulier, Dalia Colli, Francesco Pegoretti

Best Production Design

“The Father.” Production Design: Peter Francis; Set Decoration: Cathy Featherstone

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Production Design: Mark Ricker; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton

“Mank.” Production Design: Donald Graham Burt; Set Decoration: Jan Pascale

“News of the World.” Production Design: David Crank; Set Decoration: Elizabeth Keenan

“Tenet.” Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Kathy Lucas

Best Visual Effects

“Love and Monsters,” Matt Sloan, Genevieve Camilleri, Matt Everitt and Brian Cox

“The Midnight Sky,” Matthew Kasmir, Christopher Lawrence, Max Solomon and David Watkins

“Mulan,” Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury and Steve Ingram

“The One and Only Ivan,” Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones and Santiago Colomo Martinez

“Tenet,” Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley and Scott

That Banned (and Now UnBanned) Arthur Episode: The Great MacGrady

Arthur PBS 

       This post had to be mostly redone because of a recent development and that's what I get for not doing this sooner.  So I had to change the whole thing to fit a new narrative but still explain the old and original thing about this particular episode, so welcome to our mess. 

       There's an "Arthur" episode about cancer, they didn't do childhood cancer, they aren't as brave as "Peanuts" but still they did a topic that many shows for kids don't really touch. This episode is called "The Great MacGrady" it premiered on October 19,2009, as part of the premiere of the 13th Season. This episode was removed from circulation  after the revelations that Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs.  He was in this episode, because Arthur has used famous people for roles before and he was known as a cancer spokesperson because of his own battle with the disease.  So sadly, this episode was pulled from rerunning because well that.

      

     This is where I add a new paragraph, so season 24 premiered on March 8 2021, (wow 24) and they decided to "update" the episode. So, after almost 10 years of being removed, they brought it back, re-formatted and dropping Armstrong. I will explain that later.  So, here's how the post will work from here on out.  The  original episode version will be talked about then I'll drop in changes from the reformatted episode as notation. This is going to be fun.

 

            

       Actually, I am cutting in a line here, so the original airing was in SD because it was 2009 and still had the classic Arthur look to it, the new version is the name lines and scenes but redone in the new animation style in HD. Not a surprise, but a note still. The episode starts with Arthur and his classmates going to lunch.  Buster keeps a almanac of school lunches,  and notices the food doesn't smell as planned. They notice at lunch a new guy cooking named Skipp Bitterman, and that's not Mrs. MacGrady. (Good work, did you use science to figure that out?)   --- They didn't change too much for the season 24 episode, the title card is different though. 

Don't worry about Arthur, he lost his sense of taste in the war/ Copyright WGBH 

        They don't  like Skipp's food because it's kind of disturbing. After multiple days of her not being there, Mr. Ratburn finally makes an announcement. This episode will focus slightly more on Francine who is very concerned about the woman's condition, because her grandfather died from the disease.  Muffy being Muffy is focused on other things: Her father's birthday party in this case. Muffy has a confidence it thinking Mrs. MacGrady will be fine. (She's seen the script then)  --- The only differences here is the animation coloring and some slight dialogue modification  

   

               Arthur and D.W show up (on this show called Arthur) to Mrs. MacGrady's house to see how she is doing. D.W wants to play nurse. They use D.W to make sure to explain that you can't  catch cancer. (I will say the mask thing touches differently, but want to make the post work for the future so...) They also mention about how cancer patients through treatment have weaker immune system. The episode does a great job of explaining cancer to young audience in a well done well.  

   

So are you going share some soup with us or...? / Copyright WGBH 

      I will mention "Why, Charlie Brown, Why?" here since it's a special on the same topic. That special shows how differently people react to someone with cancer to show the various way people respond to it, this episode of "Arthur" does that  kind of as well. Francie is frustrated and worried, (like Linus was in that special)  while Muffy so far seems to at least be optimistic, but maybe looks un caring to the situation, but maybe she's hiding her worry more than others.  

more after the jump