Andy Griffith dies

Fans are mourning the loss of television legend Andy Griffith, who died in his North Carolina home on Tuesday at the age of 86. His career spans multiple decades, several movies, and two long-running TV shows. Griffith was born in Mount Airy, N.C. – the town that provided the inspiration for fictional Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show. Griffith got […]

“Dallas” looking to ride high in the saddle again

Look who’s riding back into town after 21 years… and look who’s he brought back from the gutter with him… J.R. Ewing – whose seedy antics made even superhero villains look good by comparison, is coming back to television this Wednesday night in a revival of the popular 1978-91 CBS primetime serial Dallas for TNT, which features the dealings of […]

Chicago’s media prepares for NATO (Update 1)

As you know by now, Chicago is hosting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit at McCormick Place this coming Sunday and Monday. There are numerous street closures, parking restrictions, bus reroutes, and train station closures. Security is being beefed up all over town, including on public transportation and in downtown office buildings. And oh yeah… there’s going to be […]

Fox at 25: The hits and misses

Fox celebrated their 25th Anniversary in prime-time this past Sunday with a two-hour retrospective, featuring clips of past shows and a few cast reunions. While the network officially launched its primetime lineup on April 5, 1987 with three airings each of Married… With Children and The Tracey Ullman Show, the network actually launched on October 9, 1986 with The Late […]

Tribune pulls signals from DirecTV

  Seems like a cruel April Fools’ prank to play on your viewers. It seemed DirecTV had a deal with Tribune Broadcasting – owner of WGN-TV in Chicago and WGN America, with a new retransmission deal. Or so we thought. DirecTV announced a deal Saturday stating it reached an agreement with Tribune two days earlier to compensate them for transmitting […]

TCA: Fox unveils new animation projects

  The Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour continued to roll along on Sunday with Fox’s turn at the mic. The network has a lot of new shows to roll out in midseason – not to mention the eleventh season of American Idol: – To start off, there was an executive session with entertainment president Kevin Reilly and addressed the crowd. He […]

The Excellent 10 of 2011

There is a lot of mediocrity that abounded in the media business this year. But in this post, T Dog Media is honoring the standouts of 2011 – the year’s ten best shows and the best media items. Let’s countdown the best shows of the year first… Best shows of 2011 10. Bob’s Burgers (Fox). What could’ve been the next […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: Expanded edition

It’s been awhile, so let’s do an expanded edition of T Dog’s Six Pack – with an extra item in the winners and losers column this week. It doesn’t get any better than that! Okay, yes it can… Winning. Regis Philbin. After 28 years on daytime television. Regis Philbin steeped down as co-host of the popular morning chatfest Live With […]

The Six Pack: Occupy this!

              While America is holding protests against rampant greed, T Dog Media has the winners and losers of the past week who “occupied” the media spotlight: Winners Last Man Standing. Tim Allen picked up right where he left off – as a prime-time success for ABC. Standing debuted last Tuesday to a 3.6 adult […]

“Simpsons” renewed for two more years

              The Simpsons has been renewed for two years. Let’s go to Moe’s to celebrate! That is, if he let us… In news that has dominated TV news headlines all week long, there was drama on whether The Simpsons‘ voice actors would agree to take a 45 percent pay cut – or cancel the […]

Pan Am takes off

The much-hyped premiere of ABC’s new airline drama Pan Am took off on Sunday with respected sampling. Now the challenge is not to crash in the ratings and not have their membership in the mile-high club revoked. The drama – about a group of stewardess who work for the now-defunct airline in the 1960’s (which filed for bankruptcy and ceased […]

T Dog’s Think Tank: Did Journalists cross the line? Nope, they annihilated it

Walter E. Smithe Furniture recently released a two-minute commercial honoring the 22-year legacy of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. Among those who appeared in the ad were local celebrities like George Wendt, Eric Ferguson from WTMX’s Eric & Kathy, fictional Alderman Ed Bus (from the 53rd Ward), and a few other Chicago dignitaries. Oh, and there were some local news […]

Fox unveils 2011-12 lineup

Fox released its 2011-12 schedule this morning in advance of its upfront presentation, which took place in New York this afternoon. Usually, Fox has two sets of schedules: one of fall, the other in midseason to accommodate the return of American Idol. And here is their lineup (new series are in CAPS; all times Central) Fall 2011 lineup: Monday 7:00 […]

Two and a Half Times the second cycle

Want more Two and a Half Men in syndication? You got it. But if  you want more crazy Charlie Sheen going ape in a hotel room moments, you’ll have to wait – those come at random. In a story Broadcasting & Cable broke Wednesday, Tribune Broadcasting and Sinclair Broadcasting announced they has renewed Two and a Half Men for a […]

T Dog’s Six Pack: Moo & Oink

Jim Laski and Kevin Metheny: Their immortalized testament to their time together at WGN Radio. Guess which one is Metheny…     The winners and losers for the past week in local and national media. On we go: The Winning Attitude WGN Radio listeners. With Moo & Oink (Kevin “Pig Virus” Metheny and evening host James “Don’t Drop the Soap” […]