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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Superheroes are huge now, incase you weren’t up to speed. With films like Dark Knight and Spider-Man making over a billion dollars in the worldwide box office, that means you’re going to see movie and TV studios make bolder decisions that lean towards comic book properties that could bring eyeballs (and dollar signs) to their company.

That’s just what Syfy is looking to do, as they have ordered a script from Greg Berlanti, who wrote Green Lantern, as well as helped shape the story of ABC’s Modern Family, which will focus on DC’s anti-hero from the future, Booster Gold. THR has the report.

The story will center on Booster Gold, a washed-up athlete from the future who travels back to the present in hopes of becoming the greatest super hero of all time. Instead of chasing criminals, however, his main priority is chasing fame and money. But Booster Gold discovers that being a hero takes more than just a megawatt smile, and that the future doesn’t happen without first protecting the present.

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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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If you needed a more clear example of TV-based original superhero shows, there is none more showing than this. NBC has decided to pull their two-part Cape finale from TV and only air the episodes online.

The series was on a steep decline in ratings since it’s start back in January, and NBC had even cut it’s original order of 13 episodes for the season down to 10. Now they have pulled this past week’s episode and have decided to air both parts of the finale online only. From TV Line:

The disappointing performance of both The Cape (which early last month saw its 13-episode order cut to 10) and The Event has caused much shuffling of NBC’s midseason schedule. At first, The Event‘s return from a winter hiatus was pushed back a week so that The Cape could wrap its run on February 28 with a pair of episodes. Instead, NBC made way for Chuck (no argument there!), leaving The Cape‘s finale unaired.

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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.

If you were one of the many Wonder Woman fans eagerly awaiting the debut of the new show featuring your favorite female Amazon, sad to say but you’re going to have to wait a bit longer. The TV reboot of Wonder Woman that we told you about previously is being postponed.

Set to be written and produced by big time TV guy David E. Kelley, the show had gone out to various networks after Kelly’s script was finished but as if often the case with high-profile and expensive projects like this (superheroes in WWII), the major networks decided to pass or couldn’t reach a consensus decision. According to reports, this is not a reflection on Kelly’s take on the material (which is said to be good) but more on the current state of network TV and the timing of the project.

Supposedly, here’s how things went. This will give you a bit of insight into how Hollywood works. The project was supposedly taken to the networks on Wednesday night. Fox and ABC passed and the CW couldn’t afford it. This left CBS and NBC. The execs at CBS could not make a decision and with no real person in charge at NBC yet (new chief of programming Bob Geeenblat has yet to start) it was a no go there as well.

So, for those keeping score, that was a pass (because we don’t like anything good), a pass (because we’re owned by Disney who owns Marvel), a too expensive, a we can’t make up our minds and a we can’t make a decision because we’re afraid to do so before a new boss starts. Yes, I added those little items in parenthesis but after being around Hollywood for many years I have learned to read between the lines.

Besides, between the lines is where all the interesting stuff happens anyway. And no, that pic of Lynda Carter has nothing to do with David E. Kelly’s Wonder Woman TV show. I just like it, so there.

It’s a new year, and a new month, which means that Cortney’s TV Digest is here to tell you everything you need to watch. And since it’s a new year, I figured we’d try something a little different, and talk about some shows I’ve never discussed here until now! January’s a big month for tv, with some new shows bursting on the scene, but also some old favorites of mine returning for a new season.

V

With shows like Caprica getting the axe, it’s great to still have some decent sci-fi on television these days. Which is why I’m super psyched that V has returned for its second season.

V is a re imagining of the 1983 mini-series of the same name, in which an alien race arrives on Earth, claiming they come in peace and bringing with them both technology and medical knowledge, as well as some ulterior motives.

V premiered on Tuesday, but that’s plenty of time to catch up on the series in time for the next episode, which airs January 11th on ABC.

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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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Netflix came one step closer to total entertainment domination today with its announcement of a new deal that will bring additional content from ABC, ABC Family and the Disney Channel to the company’s online streaming service. New shows will now be available on Watch Instantly 15 days after their initial air date.

Some of the new content coming to the service includes Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. The deal also brings complete seasons of past shows such as Lost, Ugly Betty and Scrubs.

“TV content streamed from Netflix has proven to be immensely popular with our members,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said in the release. “Adding to our existing Disney-ABC lineup with great network and cable shows, and opening up ABC Family for the first time, are important steps in creating a wide and diverse selection of content Netflix members of all ages can watch.”

Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” service allows DVDs-by-mail subscribers to stream an unlimited amount of TV and movie content to computers, compatible set-top boxes and other devices like Apple’s iPad and iPhone 4. The company also recently made available a stand-alone version without the physical media component for $7.99 per month.

Today’s deal with ABC/Disney is the latest in a series of deals Netflix has put together in an effort to increase the quantity of new content available to its streaming customers. We say keep up the good work and keep the content coming.