TVSquad

Matt Williams has an impressive sitcom pedigree. He created the quintessential '90s sitcom with Roseanne. Then, with Carmen Finestra and David McFadzean alongside, he struck gold again with Tim Allen's Home Improvement. Now they're hoping lightning can strike twice (thrice?) with another take on the traditional family sitcom for ABC.

Once a television staple, the family sitcom has probably never seen leaner days than right now. But with the multi-camera format making a comeback, there's no better time to test the waters. This time, the family will be a sports psychologist who works out of his home, along with his three kids and presumably a wife.

The big difference between this project and Williams' other two successes is the lack of an established comedian at the center of it. One could easily argue that both Roseanne and Home Improvement were just expansions of the stage acts of their respective stars. That was kind of a trend back then. Are you ready for a family sitcom in the vein of these classics, or has their time come and gone?

Last week on The View, Sherri Shepherd showed off her new body, clad in a bathing suit, and now it seems there was more to her remake than just good health and looking better. Shepherd's Lifetime sitcom, Sherri, will premiere on October 5, and you just know it's her intention to score a big time success. Lifetime has had this in the works for months. This is the network's first fully-owned sitcom, so you gotta believe the net has a lot of faith in Sherri.

The show is based on Shepherd's stand-up, which is the same formula that worked for Roseanne, Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond), Tim Allen (Home Improvement) and a half-dozen other comics, and the exposure Sherri gets from The View won't hurt at all.

The same demographic that watches The View tunes in to Lifetime shows like Drop Dead Diva and Army Wives. Oh, and don't forget the Lifetime movies. Ladies love Lifetime.

The thing that gets me about the TV Land Awards is this: they're celebrating the types of TV shows that TV Land will one day not even show anymore.

But before reality shows and movies take over the network, it's kinda fun to see the casts of Magnum, P.I. (too bad John Hillerman wasn't there) and Home Improvement again (but still no Jonathan Taylor Thomas ... guess that tension is still alive all these years later). Neil Patrick Harris was a good host, and the lineup of old and new stars they had is actually quite impressive.

What did you think of it?

If you watch a lot of TV like I do, you often go through patterns. You'll drift away from a show for many months or even years, and then you start watching an episode one night and find yourself watching the show on a regular basis again (I'm talking about watching the shows on TV, not DVD). Here are a list of shows that I've found myself watching again recently, usually at 1 in the morning when I should be in bed.

1. Home Improvement. What a good show this was, and the type of show you don't see much of anymore, a sitcom shot on video in front of a live audience (most filmed-before-a-live-audience sitcoms today, like Gary Unmarried and Old Christine, have that film look). I think a lot of people dismiss this show because it was about a guy who was more into cars and tools than reading and emotion, but the show was a lot deeper than that.

The network that brought you Family Matters, Cavemen and is still bringing you the parade of unfunny that is According to Jim wants to bring the sitcom back to its rightful throne on the airwaves.

ABC made a solemn vow to bring back more hit, half-hour sitcoms to the airwaves starting with the new TV season, according to Variety.

The network's heads made their announcement at last week's Television Critics Association gathering.

• At 8, ABC has I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown.
• CBS has the movie Elf at 8, then a new 48 Hours Mystery.
• NBC has a new Crusoe at 8, followed by the WWE Tribute to the Troops.
• ABC Family has the movie Christmas in Wonderland at 8.
• TNT has the movie The Wizard of Oz at 8.
• Also at 8: TLC has Crazy Christmas Lights, then More Crazy Christmas Lights.
• At 9, FOX has a new America's Most Wanted.
• CNBC has a new Suze Orman Show at 10.
• Lifetime has the movie A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride.
• There's a Christmas episode of iCarly on Nickelodeon at 9.
• Sci-Fi has the movie Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon at 9.
• Hallmark has the movie Our First Christmas at 9.
• At 10, BBC America has a new Graham Norton Show.
• At 11, Nickelodeon has two Christmas episodes of Home Improvement.
• At 1am, Cartoon Network has a new Bleach.

Check your local TV listings for more.

• At 8, CBS has a new Survivor.
• ABC has A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving again at 8.
• TBS has four Friends Thanksgiving episodes starting at 8.
• Cartoon Network has a new Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends movie at 8.
• Also at 8: ESPN has College Football, Texas A&M vs. Texas.
• At 9, CNN has CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute.
  
• HGTV has a new Rate My Space at 9.
  
• Nickelodeon has two Thanksgiving episodes of Home Improvement at 9.
• Spike has a new TNA Impact! at 9.
• Hallmark has the movie An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving at 9.
• At 10, HGTV has a new House Hunters.
• MTV has a new Paris Hilton's My New BFF at 10.
• Current TV has the special Thanksgiving Countdown: 25 Pods We're Thankful For at 10.
  
• At 11, Lifetime has a two-part Will & Grace Thanksgiving episode, then a Frasier Thanksgiving episode.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk show listings.

Where are the family comedies these days? They're a rare commodity on the big three plus Fox, and even if you include the animated clans on The Family Guy and The Simpsons and American Dad, you can count the family-type comedy shows on one hand.

However, TBS has a throwback family comedy, one in The Cosby Show mode, and they're sticking with it. TBS's The Bill Engvall Show has just been given a third season renewal. The sitcom will be back in the summer 2009 with ten new episodes.

I've watched The Bill Engvall Show and enjoyed it. It's meant to evoke Cosby, but I also found a lot of Everybody Loves Raymond and Home Improvement in it as well, and that's a good thing. Engvall's a funny guy, and he's greatly aided in the show by sitcom vet Nancy Travis as his smart, attractive spouse.

The Emmy nominations won't be announced until July 17, but we can tell you right now without a doubt that Ugly Betty's Rebecca Romijn will not be among the outstanding supporting actress in a comedy category at the Emmys. No, we're not psychic. It's just that her spokesman has confirmed that her name was never actually submitted. DOH! And why was that, you wonder. No good reason, said her rep, "It was an oversight."

According to L.A. Times' Tom O'Neil, this isn't really that far-fetched an occurrence. Tim Allen, at the height of his Home Improvement success, missed a chance for an Emmy nomination when somebody fumbled the ball. The next year, his paperwork was hand-delivered, accompanied by the University of Southern California marching band.

Romijn's omission -- on the surface -- looks like a mistake. Yes, it's true that her status on the show is going from series regular to recurring, but I don't believe she purposely kept her name out of the running to in some way act out in protest against the show. It makes no sense? How is she hurting Ugly Betty by not getting an Emmy nomination? No, this was a screw up, nothing more.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Army Wives - Season 1
• Bleach - Season 1 (Uncut)
• The Boondocks - Season 2
• Broken Trail - Complete Miniseries
• Comedy Central Home Grown
• Da Vinci's Inquest - Season 3
• The Dukes of Hazzard - Movie Collection
• Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes - Season 1
• The Fugitive - Season 2, Vol. 1
• Hawaii Five-0 - Season 4
• Home Improvement - Season 8
• The Incredible Hulk - When Monsters Meet
• Into Alaska - Collection 1
• John Adams - Complete Miniseries
• McLeod's Daughters - Season 6
• My Boys - Season 1
• The Odd Couple - Season 4
• 7th Heaven - Season 6
• Soap - Complete Series
• TekWar - TekWar
• What's Happening - Complete Series

When one of our favorite TV shows goes off the air, it can be devastating. However, many times, the cancellation is the birth of a spinoff. Sometimes it can be a great thing (Frasier) and sometimes not so much (AfterM*A*S*H).

Here are some of this month's spinoff ideas that I would love to see.

Mr. Hawkins Goes to Texas
After the conspiracy of the Cheyenne government was revealed on Jericho, Robert Hawkins (Lennie James) thought the hard part was behind him. He had no idea what was in store. As America tries to form a new governing body, they are desperate for honest men to help lead the way. With help from Mimi Clark (Alicia Coppolla), his personal assistant, Hawkins fights government bureaucracy with the same zeal that he fought domestic terrorism.

A few weeks ago, while doing some research on stand-up comedians who became sitcom stars, I ended up Googling a whole bunch of names to get some additional pre-television history on them. One of these was Home Improvement's Tim Allen. While looking up Tim's information I came upon a listing for his personal website. It was a weird listing though -- something like Tim Allen -- T'Avatar. Well, since I know Tim's not a Romulan, I thought this was just an abbreviation of something. Needless to say I clicked in.

Turns out, T'Avatar was short for Tim Allen's Avatar, which appears in an opening video to his website. Folks, this Avatar freaks the living piss out of me.

(S01E13) "Racist." - Tony

So, Andi decided to bite the bullet and tell Sam how she feels. Now I know this could easily be seen as a disastrous turn of events for Reaper but it could very well be awesome. The way I see it, Cady & Sam were destined to break up anyway and now Sam has one more very big reason to show Cady "the gate." The best part will be Cady making Sam's life a literal hell on earth after he dumps her. The whole situation could lead to a very cool cliffhanger for next season. I know what you're thinking but I'm being optimistic.

I'm curious about Sam's discovery that Steve and Tony are demons. I mean, if anyone else had walked in and saw them sanding their horns they would have completely freaked out but Sam, having had experience with that sort of thing, was able to handle it and react accordingly. Does Sam's relationship with the devil make him more susceptible to supernatural events? I think so.

• TV Land is showing Christmas episodes of various shows all night.
• At 8, ABC has Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
• NBC has It's A Wonderful Life at 8.
• CNN has What Would Jesus Do? Holiday Edition at 8.
• AMC has 1984's A Christmas Carol at 8.
• Also at 8: Great American Country has a Holiday Wrapping Party.
• At 8:30, Nickelodeon has a Christmas episode of Full House, then two Christmas episodes of Home Improvement.
• At 9, Lifetime has the movie Deck the Halls.
• Food Network has the All-Star Holiday Party special at 9, followed by All-Star Holiday Dishes.
• Comedy Central has Bad Santa at 9.
• At 11, Lifetime has two holiday episodes of Will & Grace, then two holiday episodes of Frasier.
• At 11:35, CBS and NBC have Christmas Eve Mass.
• At midnight, TCM has The Bells of St. Mary.
• At 12:15, AMC has the 1947 movie Christmas Eve.

Check your local TV listings for more.

I'm one of those suckers who really loves a good holiday episode of a TV show. Whether it's Friends or The Simpsons or The West Wing, I get all choked up when a couple gets together or a family learns the true meaning of Christmas and a carol is played at the end. I still remember the Christmas episodes on Guiding Light in the 80s, with Nick visiting and helping out Philip and Beth and Rick and other Springfield citizens. (Wow, not only do I love Christmas on TV, I love Christmas on soap operas...yikes).

AOL has a 10 question quiz about Christmas TV. How much do you know about The Wonder Years, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Home Improvement? This is the best I've ever scored on one of these AOL quizzes. I got 9 out of 10. Damn you, Grey's Anatomy!