Category: Television

“From The Whatever Happened To?” File
One posed for Playboy, one battles a deadly disease, another drifts between dead-end jobs and another is a successful businessman. Its time to find out whatever happeend to The Waltons?

Fox Premiere Dates
If you are sick of Summer TV here are the premiere dates and times for all of your favourite Fox series:
The Bernie Mac Show: Sept. 18 8 p.m.
Boston Public: Oct. 21 8 p.m.
Cedric the Entertainer Presents: Sept. 18 8:30 p.m.
Fastlane: Sept. 18 9 p.m.
Firefly: Sept. 20 8 p.m.
Futurama: Nov. 10 7 p.m.
Girls Club: Oct. 21 9 p.m.
Grounded For Life: Sept. 17 9:30 p.m.
The Grubbs: Nov. 3 11 p.m.
John Doe: Sept. 20 9 p.m.
King of the Hill: Nov. 3 8:30 p.m.
Malcolm in the Middle: Nov. 3 9 p.m.
The Simpsons: Nov. 3 8 p.m.
That ë70s Show: Sept. 17 8 p.m.
24: Oct. 29 9 p.m.

‘Friends’ Producers Ponder Show’s Finale
NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker left open the possibility on Tuesday that television’s top-rated show, “Friends,” might remain on the air beyond its upcoming ninth and presumed final year, but the show’s producers say they are approaching the season as their last.

Fox Looks For Latenight
Fox is apparently looking to try again at a late night show, as top-level execs met yesterday to discuss various options for the timeslot. The network isn’t fully committed to development, as they are still focused on developing the primetime slots. If a show is developed, it will not air before fall 2003, however. Fox has tried and failed miserably before with Joan Rivers show in 1986 and Chevy Chase in 1993.
Orlando Jones (THE REPLACEMENTS) is apparently the front runner to take over, however.

Stones Roll ‘Simpsons’
“The Simpsons” executive producer James L. Brooks is taking a trip to Springfield — along with a slew of other celebs scheduled to make cameos next season.
Brooks will appear as himself in an upcoming episode of the Fox toon dubbed “A Star Is Born Again.” Oscar winner Marisa Tomei will also lend her voice to the episode.
“The Simpsons” will start its 14th season on Sunday, Nov. 10, with an episode featuring Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, along with rockers Tom Petty, Brian Setzer, Lenny Kravitz and Elvis Costello. The episode is titled “How I Spent My Strummer Vacation.”
The series will also mark its milestone 300th episode next year with a half-hour featuring skate god Tony Hawk and Blink 182. Its intriguing title: “Barting Over.”
Other guest voices slated to pop up soon include the following:
= Adam West and Burt Ward reprising their roles as Batman and Robin, respectively, in Nov. 24’s “Large Marge.” Jan Hooks of “Saturday Night Live” fame will also appear.
= Good golly! Little Richard will pop up on the Dec. 15 episode “Special Edna.”
= David Lander — think Squiggy from “Laverne & Shirley” — is set for the first episode of 2003. He’ll play himself, not Squiggy.
= Elliott Gould will also play himself in “The Dad Who Knew Too Little,” set to air Jan. 12.

Beauty News, eh?!?
It seems that Homer Simpson is Canadian.

Drainage Ponds Named for ‘Simpsons’
The Minnesota Department of Transportation was having trouble keeping track of its several hundred drainage ponds at highway interchanges.
So it named some of them Bart, Barney and Milhouse.
Yes, TV’s “The Simpsons” has come to stormwater runoff management, courtesy of state hydrologist Patrick McLarnon. “It’s just something fun,” he said, and a better naming scheme than the numbers and letters that used to be employed.
The Simpsons ponds ó there’s also Apu, Clancy Wiggum, Maggie, Itchy, Lenny, Quimby, Scratchy and Seymour ó are all part of the Interstate 494-Highway 61 interchange project in Newport in the metro area.
McLarnon also has named ponds after “Happy Days” characters Richie, Joanie, Chachi and The Fonz along Interstate 94 and for “Star Wars” aliens along Highway 12.
None of the names appear on plaques at the ponds, but that’s how they’re designated in state databases to track water quality and runoff flows.
Other state planners use different naming schemes, McLarnon said. One had a project with five ponds, which he named for his five children.
What’s next? “Maybe `South Park,'” McLarnon said.

Opening The Bar Again?
Ted Danson, on the CBS tour to promote Becker (moved to Sunday this season), says he’s not opposed to a Cheers reunion, even though he turned down a chance to reunite with George Wendt and John Ratzenberger on a recent Frasier.
“I got rid of my hairpieces. I had nothing to wear,” joked Danson, who occasionally catches reruns of his “big hair” days on Cheers. “And just for the record,” he says, “the first three or four years, that was mine.”
Danson, who starred in Three Men And A Baby and Body Heat, was also asked if he was looking at any movie scripts these days. “I see some of them on (wife Mary Steenburgen’s) side of the bed, but I don’t actually read them.”

STANDING TALL
Actor Daryl “Chill” Mitchell, who was paralyzed from the waist down last November in a motorcycle accident, returning full-time to acting after landing a role on NBC’s Ed. Mitchell, who stars in Disney’s upcoming The Country Bears (which he wrapped before his accident), will play Eli, a new employee at Ed’s bowling alley.

HERE WE GO AGAIN
CBS premiering the fifth edition of Survivor on September 19 to get a one-week head start on NBC’s Friends. The latest Survivor is set in Thailand.