Noah Wyle
Thanks to the success of the Sookie Stackhouse and Twilight novels, vampires have already taken over the library. Now, Noah Wyle must prevent them from taking over the world in Curse of the Judas Chalice (Sunday, Dec. 7, 8 pm/ET, TNT), the third installment of TNT's popular Librarian movies. See how Wyle's Flynn Carsen ends up in New Orleans and knee-deep in blocksuckers after the jump...
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Bob Newhart by Kevin Parry/WireImage.com
Bob Newhart will be returning to the tube this summer in Herb's Murders, a two-hour original movie for the Hallmark Channel. Newhart will play a detective who, with the help of his police-officer daughter, investigates the killing of a publisher.Murders is but one of Hallmark's 30 original movies planned for release this year. Among the other projects are The Ride of Her Life, feauturing 7th Heaven's Stephen Collins, and Ladies of the House , which finds Pam Grier, Florence Henderson and Donna Mills working on a church-sponsored home-renovation project.For those who just can't get enough of funny old ladies, Hallmark also announced that it will begin airing The Golden Girls in March 2009. I've already begun counting the days! — Adam Bryant
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Noah Wyle will be back on TNT this winter in the latest high-adventure installment of the successful Librarian franchise, The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice. Other returning cast members Bob Newhart and Jane Curtin join newcomers Bruce Davison (X-Men, Knight Rider) and Stana Katic (Heroes) in a new conspiracy that leads Wyle to New Orleans to protect the Judas Chalice from falling into the hands of notorious vampire Prince Vlad Dracul. The first installment in the series became the No. 1-ranked movie on ad-supported cable in 2004, and the sequel placed among the top five cable movie telecasts of 2006. Production began in New Orleans earlier this week, but no firm premiere date has been set. — Adam Bryant
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She was so nice to come home to. In many ways, Suzanne Pleshette’s wonderful (and twice Emmy-nominated) performance as Emily Hartley on CBS’s ’70s classic The Bob Newhart Show was an important evolution of the dream sitcom wife. With her husky voice and dark good looks, Pleshette embodied an elegant, sophisticated, sardonic yet warm soulmate for the endearingly mild-mannered Newhart. If Rob and Laura Petrie (Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore) were TV’s first convincingly sexy modern sitcom couple, despite adhering to ’60s TV conventions dictating they be shown sleeping in separate beds—as if!—Bob and Emily took it a step further. They actually went to bed together. (One terrific episode chronicled a sleepless night as they tried to live up to their policy of not going to bed mad.) This bed, not so coincidentally, took its place in TV history when it was recreated for the finale of Bob Newhart’s second hit sitcom, Newhart—where it was rev...
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Bill Engvall, The Bill Engvall Show
Blue Collar comedian Bill Engvall will join the ranks of Bob Newhart, Bill Cosby and Ray Romano, each of whom has segued from the ranks of stand-up performer to sitcom star, with the debut of TBS' The Bill Engvall Show, which premieres tonight at 9:30 pm/ET. Paired with veteran sitcom writer/executive producer Mike Leeson (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, Rhoda), Engvall's goal is to return the family-friendly sitcom to the airwaves.
Indeed, this type of program has taken a hit in recent years with the loss of such shows as Everybody Loves Raymond and My Wife and Kids. As Engvall tells TVGuide.com, "After we shot the pilot, this 70-year-old
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TBS announced on Tuesday morning that in addition to renewing 10 Items or Less for a second season, it has the following series in development: Uncommon Sense, a domestic comedy penned by Larry Miller; Big Shot, a Jamie Foxx-produced series about a teenage NBA rookie; a Dave Caplan (Drew Carey Show)-penned laffer about a woman who finds humor in life despite adversity; and Bob Newhart: In Search of Comedy, a late-night comedy anthology.Over at A&E, Ice Cube has been tapped to produce Good in the Hood, a reality-series pilot in which a reformed gang member, drug dealer or thief helps similar folk turn their lives around.
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Bob Newhart, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines
In 2004, TNT scored big ratings with an original production titled The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, which followed Flynn Carsen, a bookish adventurer (ER alum Noah Wyle) who tracks down lost relics. The network hopes to strike gold again with a sequel, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, premiering this Sunday at 8 pm/ET. Among the many riches inhabiting the film is a flesh-and-blood American treasure — comedian Bob Newhart. TVGuide.com recently spoke with the stammering septuagenarian about reprising his role as Judson, the mysterious library curator, and we also got his take on what it's like to look back over his most celebrated career.
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Question: Hey, Matt. I just wanted to get your opinion on the series finale of Alias. I have been a faithful fan from Season 1 and have written in to your column asking about Alias all the time. However, I felt the writers wrote a rather depressing ending. I mean, Renee, Nadia, Tom, Irina and Sloane all were killed, not to mention my favorite, Jack! I thought that Jack's death was totally unnecessary and mean-spirited toward the fans who have loved him from the first season on. And Irina, what's the deal? Why did they make her so evil? I mean, she saved the world at the end of Season 4 and then turned into her evil sister, Elena! It did not sync up and felt rather like a betrayal. Yes, I understand Rambaldi "changes you," but c'mon. I mean, I was happy with Sydney and Vaughn ending up together and Dixon as director, etc. But it was the finale. Make the fans happy all around; what can it hurt? I was waiting for Isabelle to run in and say, "Grandpa Jack!"
Answer: For my own analysis (one
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King of the Hill and creator Mike Judge
This Sunday (at 7:30 pm/ET) will mark the 200th episode and 10th season finale of Fox's King of the Hill. The achievement is yet another feather in the cap of series creator Mike Judge, who turned Beavis and Butt-head into household names and directed the oft-quoted cult hit Office Space. Known as
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Question: It seems a given, in the many questions about network scheduling that you receive, that Saturday night is where TV shows go to die, so no one schedules a potential keeper on Saturday. Yet within living memory (mine, at least), CBS had a killer Saturday lineup that would put any recent "must-see" night to shame (All in the Family, M*A*S*H, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett). I know we went out on Saturday night in the '70s (and with no TiVo, or even VCRs). It can't just be due to the fracturing of cable — if the audience is really too small on Saturday, then it's too small whether your share is 15 percent or 35 percent. I've been looking back trying to find the tipping point, but I can't see when the landscape changed. What in the business has caused this change in perception? On a completely unrelated note: I have fallen in love with Slings & Arrows. Has there been, or is there going to be, a third season? I need more of New Burbage!
Answer: First off, I'm thrilled
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