ABC’s breakout hit Modern Family returns on January 6 with a brand-new episode called “Up All Night.”
Even better, the comedy opens 2010 with guest star Benjamin Bratt of Law & Order fame.
The Miss Congeniality star plays Manny’s father Javier Delgado. After he arrives in town, Manny begins to stay up all night, which causes his mother Gloria much grief when she realizes what’s going on.
Elsewhere, Claire is forced to get her husband Phil emergency treatment when a bout of kidney stones hits him, and Mitchell and Cameron have a difficult time training Lily to sleep.
ABC has already put out a sneak peek at “Up All Night,” featuring a pissed off Gloria and a quick look at the episode’s big guest star. Kudos to Modern Family’s show runners for the excellent casting.
Modern Family airs Wednesdays on ABC at 9pm ET.
Photo: Bob D’Amico/ABC
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ABC’s quirky workplace comedy gem Better Off Ted has a brand-new video out featuring the cast members discussing their favorite experiments from the show.
But stars Jay Harrington (Ted), Malcolm Barrett (Lem), Andrea Anders (Linda), Jonathan Slavin (Phil), and Portia de Rossi (Veronica) also give us a little more insider information when they reveal which experiments they wouldn’t mind seeing Veridian Dynamics attempt.
If viewers are lucky, showrunners might even follow through with one or two in a future episode.
Check the video out below. Better Off Ted will complete its current 13-episode second season in January 2010, and yours truly is praying for a renewal.
Better Off Ted airs Tuesdays on ABC at 9:30pm ET.
Photo: Bob D’Amico/ABC
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The bad news for fans of the quirky HBO comedy Flight of the Conchords dropped on December 10. That’s when the series’ creators published a post on their website announcing the end of the show after just two seasons.
The series hasn’t been canceled by its home network HBO, however. Instead, the cancellation comes courtesy of the show’s New Zealand-based co-creators and stars Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie and co-creator and director James Bobin.
Said the three in a joint statement: “[W]e’ve noticed the less we say about the future of the show, the more people want to talk about it, so in an effort to reverse this trend we are today announcing that we won’t be returning for a 3rd season. We’re very proud of the two seasons we made and we like the way the show ended. We’d like to thank everyone who helped make the show and also everyone who watched it. While the characters Bret and Jemaine will no longer be around, the real Bret and Jemaine will continue to exist.”
The announcement doesn’t reveal exactly why Clement, McKenzie, and Bobin have decided to walk away from a well-received albeit cult show, but The Hollywood Reporter attributes the premature goodbye to the fact that all three still live in New Zealand, which makes filming a series for American television more difficult.
Not that many television actors and showrunners have the luxury of calling it quits on their own terms, and not that many would end their own show even if they could. So, I guess you could call this a brave choice. Fans will surely understand, and as the guys said themselves, they’ll still exist in real life.
Photos: Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie (Newscom)
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Honestly — who didn’t see this coming? Variety and just about every other TV-industry rag report that ABC has gotten it over with already and canceled the so-not-funny rookie sitcom Hank, which stars Cheers and Frasier great Kelsey Grammer in the not-so-great title role.
As a result of the recent development, viewers can kiss all unaired episodes in Hank’s ten-episode first season goodbye for the moment.
The network has yanked each and every one of them from the schedule, opting to replace the remaining five episodes with other stuff, like repeats and holiday-appropriate specials. Production of additional episodes has ceased, as well.
As Grammer fans know, this is the second comedy failure in a row for the actor, who last starred in Fox’s promising Back to You. Meanwhile, two of his co-stars from that series have moved on to very successful and wildly funny freshman sitcoms on the same network.
Everybody Loves Raymond veteran Patricia Heaton stars as Frankie on The Middle and Ty Burrell plays Phil on the ensemble comedy Modern Family. Both shows were quickly and deservedly picked up for full seasons a month ago.
Apparently, three wasn’t the charm in this case, however, and we saw the writing on the wall back then when Hank was the lone newbie left out in the cold. May better luck befall Grammer next time.
Photo: Kelsey Grammer (Newscom)
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If you’re a fan of the TBS sitcom The Bill Engvall Show, bad news dropped this week.
At the end of an article about the swift yanking of The CW’s godawful bore The Beautiful Life: TBL (what were the folks responsible for that thinking?!), Variety reported that TBS has confirmed Bill Engvall & Company will not return for a fourth season.
The comedy ended its ten-episode third season just a few weeks ago, on September 5. Yet, many viewers probably suspected this development was coming as soon as the network moved the show from a weekday time slot to Saturday nights, a place where TV series traditionally go to die.
And so another family-oriented sitcom bites the dust.
Photo: Danny Feld/TBS
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Reno 911! star and co-creator Thomas Lennon shared some dismal news with fans this week. Tweeting from his Twitter account on August 13, he announced Comedy Central canceled the improvised cop spoof at precisely 1:30pm.
The series lasted for a total of six seasons, with the final run marked by the departures of three longtime cast members — Carlos Alazraqui, Mary Birdsong, and Wendi McLendon-Covey — and the introduction of two new regulars, Ian Roberts and Jo Lo Truglio.
In the cancellation announcement, Lennon notes that he “won’t be wearing the shorts again,” making August 13 a sad day for fans who’d come to love his character Lieutenant Jim Dangle, as well as Reno 911!’s other principal cast members Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Niecy Nash, and Cedric Yarbrough.
Reno 911! closed its sixth and final season on July 8. Thanks for all of the R-rated wackiness.
Photo: Seth Olenick/Comedy Central
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Sorry, fans. ABC broke the bad news shortly after the rookie Bob Saget comedy Surviving Suburbia aired its first-season finale on August 7.
According to The Futon Critic, the network has decided to cancel both that sitcom and its fellow freshman comedy, the animated Mike Judge (King of the Hill) series The Goode Family.
Each show lasted just one season and 13 episodes. The reason for the ax is poor ratings, of course,, and the news comes directly from Steve McPherson, ABC’s head entertainment executive.
Better luck next time, Bob and Mike. At least fans got to see every episode produced for both shows.
Photo: Bob Saget (Newscom)
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