Warner Bros. Pictures, having already delivered Starsky & Hutch and The Dukes of Hazzard to the big screen, will next bring moviegoers a feature version of that '70s show CHiPs — appropriately tapping That '70s Show's Wilmer Valderrama to fill Erik Estrada's distinctively snug motorcycle cop pants. Somewhere, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Mario Lopez are sobbing.
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Now that the dust has settled a bit on all the 2006 mid-season changes that will be kicking in as soon as the holidays are over, here's my night-by-night scorecard of the imminent battles we'll be covering a month or so from now.
Monday
The big news is the return of 24 on Fox, with a four-hour blast January 15-16, followed by all-new episodes through the rest of the season. For the first two months, Skating with Celebrities (a rip-off of Dancing with the Stars) will be 24's lead-in. But come mid-March, Prison Break will return. What a one-two punch that promises to be!
CBS will coast along by capping off its popular comedies with
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American Idol's Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Ryan Seacrest and Paula Abdul
Revealing its mid-season plan, Fox squelched talk that American Idol would be moved to a Wednesday-Thursday schedule. Instead, the series' fifth season will stick to its Tuesday-Wednesday combo, premiering Jan. 17 at 8 pm/ET. Also announced: 24, airing Mondays at 9, starts its uninterrupted five-month run of new episodes on Jan. 15 with a two-night, four-hour event; Skating with Celebrities bows Jan. 18, before moving to Mondays on Jan. 23; Bones relocates to Wednesday at 9 (ouch) starting Jan. 25; Stacked and That '70s Show move to Thursday starting March 2; and Prison Break picks up where this week's
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Laura Prepon in Romancing the Bride
Laura Prepon, who has played Donna on Fox's That '70s Show since its 1998 premiere, returns to the "present day" to headline Oxygen's Romancing the Bride (premiering Dec. 3 at 8 pm/ET), a romantic comedy in which an always-in-control bride-to-be embarks on a "Dude, Where's My Car?"-type journey to piece together how she woke up in bed with — and married to! — a hunky Latino stranger (played by Days of our Lives alum Matt Cedeno; see related Q&A in Soaps News). TVGuide.com spoke with Prepon about the inherent evil of wedding dresses, the potential glory of furry pink handcuffs and the out-of-this-world joy o
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I have to admit that late at night before I go to bed, I love watching reruns of That '70s Show — makes me smile before I go to sleep. But tonight's season premiere just made me fall asleep. Was it the hourlong running time or the lack of adorkable Topher Grace? Not sure. They had me giggling at the outset when they killed off annoying not-Eric, rather Charlie, in a random water-tower incident. And the tape for Eric in Africa was an entertaining way to bring the viewers up to speed on what had happened after Red and Kitty discovered the teens' pot habit and Hyde caught Kelso and Jackie about to hook up. Loved Kitty getting stoned! And I'm sure if Eric ever does come home, he's going to be ticked off that his Millennium Falcon and GI Joes are gone, but by then he'd probably be more annoyed that the show has lost some of its audience. I for one zoned out after Hyde came home with a stripper for a wife, so I tur
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Question: I wonder what your opinion is regarding That '70s Show now that it does not have Topher Grace as a cast member. I have always enjoyed this show, and though it is not a must-watch, it definitely is on my list of will-watch-and-enjoy shows. My question is whether you think the show can survive Topher Grace's departure. He was always the main character but certainly seemed to phone it in last season. I think that the other cast members are more than capable of carrying the show without him and could perhaps bring back some of the freshness it had in previous years. What do you think?
Answer: Sorry, this is one show that has absolutely overstayed its welcome. With the anchor of Eric Forman now gone (and Kelso not far behind), the show has lost its one last chance to make a graceful exit. It's still not as dreadful as, say, The War at Home, but what charm '70s once had (which was considerable) now seems as remote as the decade itself ...
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The happy-go-lucky Parents Television Council has released its annual list of worst prime-time shows for family viewing. Fox had six out of the top (bottom?) 10, with The War at Home, Family Guy, American Dad, those horn dogs on The O.C., Arrested Development and That '70s Show. Rounding out my new Must-See TV list are CSI (too grisly), Desperate Housewives (too slutty), Cold Case (too graphic) and Two and a Half Men
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WB has benched for the time being both Living with Fran and Blue Collar TV, although both shows will remain in production. Melanie Griffith's Twins (the show, people) will take over Fran's slot, while an encore airing of Supernatural will be offered up to the 17 people who were choosing Blue Collar over the Housewives on Sunday at 9.
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Question: Did you go to the TV Guide party after the Emmys? Pick up any good scoop from intoxicated partygoers?Answer: Yes! My gig cohosting TVGuide.com's first-ever webcast (yes, that was the "huge event" I hinted at last week) turned me into a news-gathering fool. Check TVGuide.com later this week for my interviews with such special guests as Desperate Housewives' Mark Moses and Cody Kasch, That '70s Show's Wilmer Valderrama, Lost's Terry O'Quinn, Scrubs producer Randall Winston and Last Call's Carson Daly. Who's a little Mike Wallace-in-the-making? C'mon? Guess. Go ahead. No, not Carson Daly. Guess again. No, not Dan Manu. I'll give you one more guess. (Crickets) Oh, just forget it. The answer is me! I'm the little Mike Wallace-in-the making.
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Ashton Kutcher and Bruce Willis
Demi Moore flames past and present — Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher — will collide this November on That '70s Show. A Fox rep confirms that Willis will play the head of security at Chicago's Playboy Club, where Kutcher's Kelso is interviewing for a job. There's no word if Moore's future boyfriend, Haley Joel Osment, will appear as well.
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