TVSquad

Word on the street yesterday was that the 90210 spin-off executive producers were thinking of actor Rob Estes to portray Harry Mills, a father who relocates his family in Beverly Hills to take care of his alcoholic mother. The show had yet to find an actor to play the pivotal role and they were now getting ready to just hand it on a silver platter to a "name" actor.

The stars quickly aligned (read here that Rob Estes became available since ABC canceled Women's Murder Club) and the actor will join the already beautiful 90210 cast.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Alien Nation - The Ultimate Movie Collection
• American Dad - Vol. 3
• College Hill: Interns
• The Goldbergs - Best Of
• How The Earth Was Made
• Jupiter Moon - Set 3
• Masterpiece Theatre - Room with a View
• Melrose Place - Season 4
• SpongeBob SquarePants - Pest of the West
• The Woody Woodpecker Show - Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection Vol. 2

Stanley Kamel, who played Dr. Charles Kroger on the USA hit series Monk, was found dead in his Hollywood house earlier today. No cause of death has been announced yet. He was 65.

Kamel has had an incredibly long career in TV and the movies. He was a regular on such series as Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Murder One, L.A. Law, and Cagney and Lacey, and appeared in dozens of TV shows over the years, including The West Wing, MacGyver, The Golden Girls, Hunter, Star Trek: TNG, Murder, She Wrote, Reba, The Guardian, General Hospital, NYPD Blue, 7th Heaven, The Mod Squad, Mannix, The Rookies, Three's Company, Emergency, Kojak, and many more. Besides episodes of Monk, he was also filming a feature film titled For Better Or Worse, and a new movie, The Urn, which will be released later this year.

We'll update this post once we found out what exactly happened. Access Hollywood and the other shows will have more later today.

Update: Kamel died of a heart attack.

Schools in! For 11 seasons, Beverly Hills 90210, was a ratings hit and trend-setting youth soap opera for Fox. Now, a mere eight years later, the CW will spin-off Beverly Hills 90210, coming up with a contemporary version of the well-loved, if corny, teen drama.

The original, executive produced by the late Aaron Spelling, and created by Darren Star (Cashmere Mafia). The new CW version is not connected to Star. Rob Thomas, who created Veronica Mars, has been approached to take on the project.

Recently, TV Squad reported that NBC has added all kinds of classic TV shows to their online outlets. Now comes the announcement that CBS is also bringing a variety of well-loved TV dramas to the web. CBS Interactive is raiding the CBS Library, which is "one of the largest television programming libraries in the entertainment business," to present TV series online across the CBS Audience Network.

Like the NBC fodder, the CBS offering is gangbusters: full-length episodes of classic Star Trek, Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone, MacGyver, Hawaii Five-O and Melrose Place. CBS plans to add more programs and clips in the coming months, including sports and other kinds of entertainment.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow:

• The Addams Family - Complete Series
• Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 4
• Captain N and the New Super Mario World - Complete Series
• DaVinci's Inquest - Season 2
• DuckTales - Vol. 3
• Gilmore Girls - Complete Series and Season 7
• Kenny vs. Spenny - Season 3
• Masters of Horror - Dream Cruise and Season 1,Vol. 3
• Melrose Place - Season 3
• Miami Vice - Complete Series
• Northern Exposure - Complete Series
• Perrry Mason - Season 2, Vol. 2
• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? - Treasure Chest Gift Set
• South Park - Christmas Time
• SpongeBob SquarePants - Atlantis SquarePantis
• Tale Spin - Vol. 2
• The Young Ones - Extra Stoopid
• Zorro: Generation Z - Return to the Future

CBS is on a good run, being the most watched network for the last five years, but they have taken a bit of heat for the formulaic way they have gone about doing it. Not arguing with success, the whole family of CSIs, and their crime based cousins, will be back, but the network is trying to branch out with some edgier programming. Most notably, Swingtown, Viva Laughlin, and Moonlight.

Returning: The Amazing Race, Cold Case, 60 Minutes, How I Met Your Mother, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, CSI: Miami, NCIS, The Unit, Criminal Minds, CSI: NY, Survivor, CSI, Shark, Without A Trace, Ghost Whisperer, Numb3rs, 48 Hours Mystery.

New: Viva Laughlin, Swingtown, Moonlight, Cane, Big Bang Theory, Power of 10, Kid Nation

Out: King of Queens, Jericho, The Class, Close To Home

Moving: Without A Trace moves back to Thursday at 10. Shark heads to Sunday at 10.

New TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet - Best Of
• Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters - Best Of
• Beverly Hills, 90210 - Season 2
• Dinosaurs - Seasons 3 and 4
• The Girls Next Door - Season 2
• Hee Haw - Vol. 7
• The King of Queens - Season 8
• Melrose Place - Season 2
• Three's Company - Janet's Favorites
• What I Like About You - Season 1
• Will & Grace - Season 6

Welcome to TV Squad Lists, a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.

A few summers ago, I discovered reruns of Melrose Place on the Style Channel. The show had always been a sort of kryptonite for me, since I never watched it during its original run. Basically, if anyone wanted to "Stump the King" all they had to do was ask me a Melrose question. Since it was summer and I had little to watch, I decided to give it a look. Well, I fell in love with it. When I told people that I had been watching the show and loving it, they were shocked. I was hard pressed to come up with concrete reasons why I was so taken with the show but here is what I came up with.

1. I'm watching my friends.
Even though the stories are ridiculous (Michael trying to kill Sydney, Kimberly blowing up the building, etc.), I can't wait to see what happens to these characters, because I have so much invested. Andrew Shue can play soccer and pretend he's a philanthropist till he's dead for all I care, but Billy Campbell has became a dear friend and if I go too long without seeing him, I miss him (yes, in a gay way).

First they were kicked to the curb by E! Entertainment Television, and now the same thing has happened with the TV Guide Channel: Joan and Melissa Rivers have been let go by the network and replaced by Lisa Rinna, star of Dancing with the Stars and various soaps.

Joan has a lot to say about what happened, but is keeping quiet until a new deal is finalized, says her spokesperson.

I love the press release from TV Guide Channel President Ryan O'Hara. Let me translate his remarks:

(S01E18) "Extended Families" was a good name for this episode. More than most episodes, this one was balanced out pretty evenly between the whole Friday Night Lights family. Saracen got a little short changed in the deal, but considering all the other good stuff, that's ok.

Let's start with Tim Riggins. Normally I would refer to him simply as Riggins. Or occasionally Tim, if Billy is involved in the conversation. Today, because Bo's repeated use of his full name made me laugh, I'll use the whole thing. That whole story just came out of nowhere, and I'm a little iffy on it actually. On the one hand, it seems a little late in the game to be setting up yet another love interest for Tim Riggins, and that sure looks like what they are doing. Although, if they want to carry it right on over into season two, I'm good with that. On the other hand, I do really like the casting of Brooke Langton (Melrose Place, The Net, pictured).

Legendary TV producer and actor Aaron Spelling died today in Los Angeles.

Spelling, father of Tori Spelling, suffered a stroke on June 18, and died from complications from the stroke.

Spelling was the producer of several classic TV shows over the past three or so decades, including Dynasty, Charlie's Angels, Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Starsky & Hutch, Hart to Hart, T.J. Hooker, and 7th Heaven. And somewhat more recently, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place and Charmed.

A lot of people don't know that Spelling actually started as an actor. That's him in the classic I Love Lucy episode "Tennessee Bound," playing the gas station attendant the gang encounters.

Television producer Aaron Spelling, who has worked in some capacity on nearly 200 productions, suffered a stroke over this past weekend.  According to spokesman Kevin Sasaki, the 83-year-old Spelling, who has produced such hits as Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, Charmed and 7th Heaven, was briefly hospitalized. Sasaki did not know the extent of damage the stroke caused; however, he said that the fact he was released from the hospital was a good sign.

If you have watched a television show anytime during your life you have probably seen a show that Aaron Spelling had a hand in. He has produced a number of nighttime soaps including Dynasty, Family, The Colbys, Summerland and Twin Peaks (he co-produced the series). He also produced a number of crime dramas such as Starsky & Hutch, T.J. Hooker, The Mod Squad, and Burke's Law. During the 1970's, his mark could be found on ABC with the hits Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Vega$, and Fantasy Island. Needless to say, an extremely impressive resume.

Spelling is the father of actor Tori Spelling, who appeared in Beverly Hills 90210, and Randy Spelling

 

You might see a few familiar faces if you tune in to ABC Family's Beautiful People (Mondays, 9 PM ET), a relatively new show about a family that moves to New York from New Mexico to make a fresh start. Starring as Lynn Kerr, we have Daphne Zuniga, who you may remember from her days on Melrose Place and, a little more recently, as Shelly Pierce on American Dreams. Playing her daughters on Beautiful People we have the 21-year-olds Sarah Foret as Sophie and Torrey DeVitto as Karen.

I was lucky enough to catch all three ladies for a new feature that I call "A Quint of Quick Questions." The questions aren't altered from person to person, so their answers can be pretty interesting. I'm still working out the final list of questions (got ideas? Let me know!), but Daphne, Sarah and Torrey were nice enough to answer them like champs.

At the beginning of an article profiling the book The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch), Hanna Seligson of the New York Daily News asserts that Heather Locklear's iconic Melrose Place character, Amanda Woodward, ushered in a new era of "bitchy" female bosses. The article then goes on to talk about the book and how various women find it difficult to be forceful but nuturing bosses at the same time. But it never goes back to discussing the influence of Locklear's mini-skirt-wearing power-hussy on the American workscape. And it doesn't look like the book discusses it, either, at least judging by the content of the article.

Which makes me wonder: Is this writer just going for an easy intro, or does she really believe female bosses everywhere "suddenly" felt it was OK to become shrill and catty in 1993 because "hey, Heather's doing it!"?

Methinks that any boss, male or female, who wanted to act like a jerk didn't need a television show to make it OK, but that's just me. I mean, I had plenty of asshole bosses before Michael Scott and The Office ever came on the scene... oh wait... scratch that. Never know who might be reading this.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

[via Gawker]