Duncanville

Series star and co-creator SNL alum Amy Poehler at the 2012 Peabody Awards

 I'm still on my prom kick, and Duncanville is primed to be the next show to have one since the characters there seem old enough now (it already came up this season).  Duncan tries to plan a prom-posal for his girlfriend Mia, who is a free-spirited liberal who thinks prom is an outdated ritual, despite becoming more inclusive in recent years.  She does say yes.  Their other three friends manage to get dates.  Duncans parents Jack and Annie recall when they went to prom.  Their Kimberly can't wait until she's old enough, while little Jing is too young to fully understand what it's all about beyond being like a ball in a faery story.  Popular teacher Mr Mitch also DJs the do (he does it all in their small town).  Something must happen at the hotel or wherever it'll be held so we have a show.  Could happen next year in Series 4.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Fox cancelled the show, and the remaining episodes will only be on Hulu (which I can't afford, so I will just go to "the other place"). Only having the show air during the summer didn't really help when ratings are generally lower.  Also, an episode Hulu aired showed the kids at a semi-formal, which is close enough to prom.

Bobs Burgers

Menu at a real life restaurant in the Benelux (same copyright as The Great North)

 With the Bobs Burgers film coming out (the rare time that I go to the cinema for a scripted, fictional film; it has a water main break, which is common in my area in the winter because of ageing pipes), I had an idea for an episode.  The Belchers and Gayle, Lindas sister, are invited to a wedding of their cousin on the sisters' side of the family, but their elderly parents in Florida can't make the long trip.  There isn't much extended family known, and it's a rare event for them (although they catered a wedding several series ago).  While my prom episode prediction went where I least expected it to in a recent episode (their Tina wearing a prom dress for a fundraiser), I pictured the wedding being at some multi-room venue in town with the local high school prom next door and Tina crashes it with an older boy that she meets across the aisle from out of town about to go to his own another weekend, but now that would have to be reconsidered now that prom has been done in some form.  Gene and Louise would have to sit at the kids' table with the flower girl and ring bearer.  Single girl Gayle is determined to catch the bouquet thrown by the bride! (Ladies, can you relate?!)  The kids make sure their spinster auntie wins the pools by the end of the do!  Linda has a bit of champagne! Gayle also gets a couple numbers from men she meets there, perhaps.  Cue mess!

I've been to more proms than weddings (a story for another day, mind), so I would go too if it were for real.  As for the plot, this could probably work.  Maybe another day, Bob and Linda could go to an adult prom since they met well after high school, but he might find it a bit too contrived for his taste.  We'll just go with a wedding then.

The Great North

TM & © 20th Television (Disney).

Groundbreaking animated series The Great North set in remote small town Lone Moose, AK is in Series Two on Fox.  What there needs to be is an episode about prom, since two of the characters, Ham and Judy (second from top) are at that age, although a similar episode aired last season.  A side plot would be Moon (top) having to dissect a frog in class and being able to do so aimlessly since he knows how to clean fish as the family run a fishing boat, and there could be an adult prom for newlyweds and film fanatics Wolf and Honeybee to go to while doting dad Beef chaperones and shows Moon what prom is like several years ahead.  Judys boss at work Alyson from the photo studio would take snaps and set up a booth.  Ham already found a tuxedo at the charity shop in a recent episode.  We would have to see which boy would come up with a prom-posal for Judy.

I couldn't write a script for a radio advert if I tried, and fan fiction doesn't sit well with the solicitors or writers unions.  If nothing is planned this year, maybe next year as it takes several months for an idea to go from the drawing board to air.  The other animated shows from 20th on Fox or TBS (American Dad! since 2014) have already put prom into the storyline in one way or another except Bobs Burgers as those kids are too young (unless their Tina tries to sneak into a prom, although she got to be a prom queen for a charity limo race), Housebroken is about house pets, while Duncanville also has teenagers that could have prom, even though that only airs in the middle of the year (The Simpsons had a flashback or two and flash-forward in their record-setting long run).

UPDATE (1 May 2023): The Series 3 Finale will have Judy and her friend Kima trying to get dates for the do, so I guess the spirits were telling me all along.  The episode is a cliffhanger for Sweeps, and the plot is not one Mary Whitehouse would have liked to put it that way.

Keeping Up Appearances

Patricia Routledge in 2012 at the local (Hyacinth Bouquet in a public house?!)

 It looks like Keeping Up Appearances has unceremoniously been removed from WCNY in my area, as it has from many other PBS member stations over the years.  While Britbox (a joint venture of the BBC and itv) if not other streaming services would now carry it, the shows cancellation from channel 24 would be inconvenient for those who can't afford streaming, or are unfamiliar with newer technology, even DVDs, which are available.  Hyacinth Bucket, I mean Bouquet (Patricia Routledge) would be straight on her white, slimline telephone with last minute redial to complain!  Some may even consider her an OG Karen like Mary Whitehouse perhaps!  If her Sheridan were here, he would be appalled!

In fairness, I've seen every episode hundreds of times.  Saturday night won't be the same.  I may have wiped any episodes from my DVR, which I now regret.  Other Britcoms have also been discontinued over the past few decades.  Affiliates have to pay extra for the rights, and the pandemic has dominoed into just about everything, including the station and viewers' budgets.  Also, Friday and Saturday nights in the past thirty years have left low ratings in the Nielsens as people go out in normal times, so the show became a lower priority after playing it all that time.  It used to even air on BBC America, which is now BBC in name only for commercial purposes.  Might as well watch Channel 4 (rival pubcaster in the UK which our Hyacinth thinks is for a lower class of people)! She had a good run over here.

UPDATE: It's alright!  The show is back on again.  Looks like it was just on another hiatus for a period. We were firm!  It has gone off of other stations however.  Now we just need a free photo of missus for Wikipedia since this one isn't suitable and the one from To Sir with Love had merely a legal loophole.

Nick Cannon Show

Nick Cannon in Canada, 2010.

 Nick Cannon is the latest celebrity to enter the talk show circuit.  While he's syndicated, Syracuse has yet to pick up the show (this has happened with some other shows in the past that were late to come to the area, even network ones).  There is room on the major network affiliates where informercials and low-rated programmes could be moved to the graveyard shift.  Weekdays at 11 on CW 6 WSTM 3.3 seems to be the only place to go, although an encore showing will also be on Bounce, which is available through NewsChannel 9 WSYR (I've asked them to get the rights for the main channel, the ABC affiliate).  Not everyone can stream the show.  I have reached out to the shows Twitter and Facebook and am waiting to hear back.  Cannon will continue to host The Masked Singer on Fox on the west coast (flagship Fox 5 downstate is his as well on the east coast).  CW 6 said they may not have room right now, but if his friend Wendy Williams can't start the latest series of her own show because of health issues, then Page Six, the gossip column, says he may get her spots and it's up to each affiliate, so hope springs eternal.  Until then, he has a YouTube feed if you can get that, but it's just not enough.

UPDATE: The show has been cancelled due to low ratings.  No wonder CNY Central never bothered.

This TV Syracuse

Here at last!

 Over a decade overdue, This TV finally makes its CNY début on WONO-CD 11.2.  It's another terrestrial-only station that's low-powered, low-budget and low-rated.  The channel was left blank for some time until owner Rennard suddenly and unceremoniously launched the local affiliate.  The network is owned by Byron Allens Allen Media Group, which owns Entertainment Studios, one of the largest independent TV companies in the country, which produces Funny You Should Ask which he's on and created and airs in syndication (on NewsChannel 9 WSYR in Syracuse).  This TV used to have shows, but since Allen took over from Weigel, it's mainly films from MGM/UA with some programs that may appear on other (or sister) networks, as well as infomercials and E/I for the kids and FCC.

ThisTV in New York State is only also in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, and downstate/Tri-state.  There could be other affiliates as I had to look up the WNY ones and I couldn't edit the list on Wikipedia properly without getting a Syntax error until I figured it out.  Back near me, we still wait for sister network Light TV, as well as Quest, Twist, Grio, Doctor, Retro, Cheddar, Clic, Azteca and Fave just to name a few.  Even the bigger markets are still trying to catch up, let alone the small ones.  Still wonder if Spectrum and Verizon FiOS would even pick up the whole WONO/WWDC/WHSU/WTVU tier.  Dish doesn't have a national feed like they do with Laff and Get TV.  Doubt DirecTV would bother, even after spinning off AT&T.

With so many of these upstart networks alongside the A-list ones, over-the-air in the US is as close to the UK's Freeview as we would get here.  However, streaming is still what people do most these days.  At least, ThisTV gives us another choice on the airwaves.

Wahlburgers

Donnie Wahlberg (right) at a groundbreaking of a Wahlbergs outside Chicago in 2019.

 Even though this article is from the sister blog and focuses more on the business side of Wahlburgers, I suppose it counts here.  I know Donnie Wahlberg more from Blue Bloods these days, and have known him from New Kids on the Block and Mark Wahlberg since he was Marky Mark for over three decades.  Reruns are now on TrueReal.

For Alma and Nacho.