With the recent resurgence of fairy tale themed shows such as NBC’s Grimm and ABC’s own Once Upon a Time, the Disney-owned company is now prepared to launch their second fabled show in the form of a live-action retelling of the children’s classic Beauty and the Beast, originally written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.

The pilot will be written by Jonathan E. Steinberg (Human Target, Jericho with Steinberg acting as executive producer with Gary Fleder and Mary Beth Basile. It is also speculated that the series, if picked up, will air after the networks already highly successful Once Upon A Time. This version of the tale is intended as a period piece and will feature a hardboiled princess who develops a connection with a wild beast. No word yet on casting.

As if one Beauty and the Beast show wasn’t enough, the CW has also ordered a reboot of the CBS-produced version which ran on the network from 1987-1989. It starred Ron Pearlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy) as Vincent, a lion-faced creature who wanders the New York sewers and occasionally quotes Shakespeare.

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For those who immediately tuned out the news about the 2012 Academy Awards after they heard that “retired” host Billy Crystal would be dusting off his tuxedo to get back up on stage, they had no idea what extents the Academy would go to in order to make you think that this isn’t your mom and dad’s Oscar show.

That’s why they pulled out the stops and collaborated with Funny or Die to put together this epic movie-style trailer featuring the likes of Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Josh Duhamel, Megan Fox, William Fichtner and Vinnie Jones.

That’s right. Some pretty big star power. And if that isn’t enough for you to get into the Oscar mood, the team has also put together a pretty extensive YouTube channel, with some of the best monologues, acceptance speeches, and overall best moments.

Take a look at the epic trailer after the jump and be sure to tune in to what should be an entertaining Oscars on February 26th, only on ABC.

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Previously, we brought you news of ABC’s new Fall schedule. Now, the network has announced the Fall premiere dates for the 2011-2012 season. New shows and returning ones, this season on the network looks to be full of a lot of good drams and some interesting comedies as well.

Of course, we’re pleased to see the return of some of our favorite shows including Modern Family, Happy Endings and Castle as well as the debuts of some other shows we’re going to take a look at including Revenge and Once Upon a Time. Heck, we may even get adventurous and give Charlie’s Angeles a try. Who knows?

Here’s the premiere dates for new and retuning shows (thanks ABC press release). All times listed are ET:

Friday, September 16
10:00 p.m. “20/20”

Monday, September 19
8:00-10:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”
10:00-11:00 p.m. “Castle”

Tuesday, September 20
9:00-10:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
10:00-11:00 p.m. “Body of Proof”

Wednesday, September 21
8:00-9:00 p.m. “The Middle” (one-hour premiere)
9:00-10:00 p.m. “Modern Family” (one-hour premiere)
10:00-11:00 p.m. “Revenge”

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With NBC and Fox already announcing their schedules for the Fall, ABC is next up. The network made its announcements this morning at its upfront presentation.

Some of the highlights include Tim Allen returning to the network to launch a new comedy block on Tuesday nights with his show Last Man Standing. In addition, ABC will launch six of its 13 new scripted series in the fall, including Charlie’s Angels, which will be the anchor show for Thursday nights.

The network also renewed modest performer Happy Endings, giving it the slot after Modern Family. New ABC series for the 2011-12 season are Apartment 23, Charlie’s Angels, Good Christian Belles, Last Man Standing, Man Up, Missing, Once Upon a Time, Pan Am, Revenge, The River, Scandal, Suburgatory and Work It.

America’s Funniest Home Videos, The Bachelor, Body of Proof, Dancing with the Stars, Desperate Housewives, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Happy Endings, Secret Millionaire, Shark Tank and 20/20 join previously announced returning series Castle, Cougar Town, Grey’s Anatomy, The Middle, Modern Family and Private Practice.

All new fall series have received 13-episode orders, while the size of the orders for most midseason shows have not been announced. Good to see Castle coming back, especially after Monday’s amazing season finale. Of the others, we’re probably most interested in Missing (mostly because of Ashley Judd), Pan Am, Once Upon a Time and maybe Charlie’s Angeles, but mostly to see how bad it probably is.

ABC’s fall primetime schedule is as follows, followed by descriptions of all the new shows:

MONDAY

8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”
10:00 p.m. “Castle”

TUESDAY

8:00 p.m. “Last Man Standing”
8:30 p.m. “Man Up”
9:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”
10:00 p.m. “Body of Proof”

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As with NBC last week, ABC has unveiled their schedule for the Summer and it looks like reality series (which are cheap to produce and make good money for networks) will dominate the lineup. Returning shows Wipeout, The Bachelorette and Bachelor Pad are joined by five new ones including spinoff of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, Take the Money and Run and Mark Burnett’s Expedition Impossible.

On the scripted side ABC will drop two shows, both of which are produced elsewhere. Canadian import Rookie Blue (featuring Reaper’s Missy Peregrym) is back as well as the new Canadian/U.K. co-production The Hot Zone are on the schedule. The thriller Missing, originally to be released in the Summer, has been pushed back.

Here’s a list of the network’s Summer shows and their premiere dates followed by some description of the new shows:

Monday, May 23
9:00-11:00: The Bachelorette (season premiere)

Monday, May 30
8:00-10:01 PM: The Bachelorette (regular time premiere)
10:01-11:00 PM: Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition

Thursday, June 16
8:00-9:00 PM: Wipeout (sneak-peek episode)*
9:00-10:00 PM: 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show (series premiere)*
10:00-11:00 PM: Rookie Blue (second season premiere)*
*If there is a Game 7 of the NBA Finals, programs will move to Thurs., June 23

Tuesday, June 21:
8:00-9:00 PM: Wipeout (regular time premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM: Expedition Impossible (series premiere)
10:00-11:00 PM: The Hot Zone (series premiere)

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Hands down, one of the best shows to come out of last year’s TV season was NBC’s Community, and inside of that far-too-brief season, one of the best episodes was Modern Warfare in which the entire campus partook in a massive paintball game. References to The Warriors, Die Hard, and John Woo’s The Killer were all brilliantly mixed into a solid 30-minute show, and made it an incredible season.

Now, they’re going back to the game this season with an epic two-part season finale in which a new paintball game is taking over the students of Greendale. This time, the stakes are raised, as LOST star Josh Holloway is making a guest appearance in the game to balance things out. From NBC:

In the episode, Holloway guest stars as a mysterious figure, who emerges on the Greendale Community College campus when another game of paintball breaks out.  The two-part finale finds the students of Greendale taking on another round of paintball warfare as a follow up to last season’s acclaimed “Modern Warfare” episode, in which students battled it out for the ultimate prize – early registration.

Not much else is known about the episode, but without Holloway, you would expect a return to the paintball storyline to be epic. Things are only going to get “Epicer” with Sawyer joining in the festivities.

Community airs every Thursday night at 8:00 PM ET/PT on NBC.

February is in full swing, so I’m taking a break from freezing my butt off in upstate NY and conjugating Spanish verbs to bring you this month’s TV Digest. With all the snow that’s been plaguing the US and the winter movie slump in full swing, it’s great to have some excellent tv to watch. Look no further than here, dear readers, as I’ve got everything you need to check out on the tube in February.

Top Shot (History Channel)

Those of you who read my TV Digest regularly will know I’m not too big on reality tv. But man, I LOVE Top Shot. 16 contestants, including expert sharp-shooters, award-winning rifleists, and former U.S. miliary from around the country compete for $100,000 and the coveted title of Top Shot.

The show is a blast to watch every week, between the history you get about each rifle and challenge, the skill exhibited by the competitors, and of course the usual reality tv drama. Top Shot airs on the History Channel Tuesdays at 10.

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Back in the old days we had three TV networks and they scheduled new shows to premiere in the Fall and reruns all Summer. That scheduling model is now a distant memory as new shows premiere pretty much any time of the year these days.

One of the biggest times for networks to bring out new shows is during what is known as midseason. This midseason is no exception with many new shows hitting the air for the first time or previous ones coming back after the holiday break. So, to help you get your DVRs ready, here is a list of the major premiere dates on broadcast and cable compiled by the extremely helpful folks over at Deadline.

It includes season/series premieres and many return dates for series with split seasons. Now to find that DVR remote and get to programming.

Jan. 3
The Bachelor, ABC, season premiere
Pretty Little Liars, ABC Family, winter season premiere
Greek, ABC Family, season premiere

Jan. 4
V, ABC, season premiere
Live to Dance, CBS, series premiere
The Biggest Loser: Couples, NBC, season premiere
Southland, TNT, season premiere
Chopped, Food Network, season premiere
Caprica, Syfy, final 5 episodes

Jan.5
Ghost Hunters International, Syfy, season premiere
Are We There Yet?, TBS, season premiere
Flying Wild Alaska, Discovery, series premiere

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It’s not easy being a consumer trying to cut the cable or fiber cord these days. You’d think with a bevy of hot new set-top boxes like Apple TV, Google TV and Boxee, we’d be living in a Utopian future where television finally does what we want and dumping your expensive provider was a real possibility.

Not so fast, because it’s just not the reality, at least not yet. And predictably, given the nature of content owners, the issues are control and profits.

As thousands of new Apple TV owners plugged in their shiny new boxes, the realization that only a handful of networks were available, slowly began to sink in. With shows from ABC, Fox, Disney, and BBC, Apple TV via iTunes simply does not offer enough diverse content to satisfy most TV-watchers. While that’s a nifty start for Apple’s reboot of Apple TV, certain shows are conspicuously absent.

Are you a ‘Wipeout’ or ‘Big Bang Theory’ fan? Unfortunately, you’re out of luck since iTunes doesn’t carry those shows. And if you think Google TV might be your salvation, it just may be worse for owners of Logitech’s Revue Google TV devices. Upon Google TV’s release, the big three networks as well as Hulu began to block Google TV owners from streaming their shows.

So it’s no shocker that the recent reporting talking about how Microsoft is potentially cobbling together enough network deals to launch it’s own streaming service on the back of its extensive installed base of Xbox gaming systems, has many consumers quite skeptical.

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It’s a pretty big decision to choose the host of The Academy Awards every year. There have been some epic hosts in the past, and some pretty bad ones. One thing is for sure, it’s going to be hard to top last year’s picks of Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. It seems like the Academy has made their choice, however, as word is coming out that James Franco and Anne Hathaway are currently booked for the event. Here’s the official press release.

“James Franco and Anne Hathaway personify the next generation of Hollywood icons— fresh, exciting and multi-talented. We hope to create an Oscar broadcast that will both showcase their incredible talents and entertain the world on February 27,” said Oscar telecast producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer. “We are completely thrilled that James and Anne will be joining forces with our brilliant creative team to do just that.”

Franco, who currently can be seen in “127 Hours,” will be making his second appearance on an Oscar telecast. His other film credits include “Eat, Love, Pray,” “Date Night,” “Milk” and “Pineapple Express.” Franco is also known for his portrayals of Harry Osborn in the “Spider-Man” trilogy.

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Back at Comic-Con, Castle creator Andrew Marlowe spilled the beans on a Nick Fury script he had written for Marvel. Last we heard he was still tweaking it and about to hand it over to the studio, and it looks like that’s exactly what he’s done.

We recently got a chance to catch up with Marlowe in between scenes on the set of ABC’s Castle to discuss his plan for the first agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and he believes a Fury movie based on his script has great potential.

It’s been in Marvel’s hands for a while. They’re point of view is that Nick has never supported his own comic book. It’s only been special runs or one-shots.

I think that they have questions whether the audience will show up for a character if they spent $150-$200 million on a movie. Crashing the helicarrier? Very expensive.

My script was more along the lines in a Steranko mode. Like the American James Bond. I think with Sam Jackson, they’ve gone in a different direction from my script, but I think that if that character continues to excite audiences, I think that there are ways to do it. I haven’t read The Avengers script yet, but I know they guys at Marvel are smart in terms of the intersection of the creativity, the fun, and the commerce of it all.

Right now, it’s in their very capable hands, and I have faith in them.

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Since the announcement that Disney purchased Marvel Entertainment over a year ago, we the fans have been waiting to see exactly how that would effect us, because really, it’s all about us. We haven’t seen any mega-crossovers like Daredevil the Pooh or Spider-Mouse, but it looks like Disney may just be pulling some weight by bringing a few Marvel titles to your TV screen.

After a presentation on the Disney lot, Marvel has put together a short list of properties that they are looking to bring to TV in the next few years. On the very top of that list is a live action Hulk series, helmed by comic veteran Jeph Loeb, who most know for his work on NBC’s Heroes.

Hulk could go into production over at ABC as early as mid-summer. Next in line, the plan is to work on a series based on the Cloak & Dagger franchise, which would go straight to ABC’s cable network, ABC Family. The story would follow the duo of Tyrone Johnson (aka Cloak, who has the ability to teleport) and Tandy Bowen (aka Dagger, who has the ability to heal and create daggers from light).

Both shows are in very early development, but that hasn’t stopped the studio from poking around a handful of other properties to adapt into the small screen. Heat Vision has the short list.

Executives presented ABC suits with a list of titles they identified as possible series:
• Heroes for Hire (focusing on ex-con Luke Cage offering to take on bad guys for a price);
• The Eternals (a race of superpowered beings live amid humanity in secret, inspiring legends);
• Agents of Atlas, Alter Ego (private investigator Jessica Jones takes on cases involving superhumans);
• Moon Knight, the Red Hood (a low-rent criminal discovers a cloak that gives him superpowers);
• Ka-Zar (a Tarzan-type and his saber-toothed tiger must journey to the concrete jungle to seek justice);
• Daughters of the Dragon (a dynamic female duo, one with a bionic arm and the other a granddaughter of a samurai, open a private-detective agency); and
• The Punisher (one man wages a war on crime; already adapted as two feature films).

Even given Hulk and Cloak & Dagger, this is an incredible list, and could only mean that Warner/DC and Disney/Marvel have decided that the silver screen wasn’t large enough for them to wage war, and they’re now taking over our living rooms. In any outcome, we all win.