UPN News

News about the goings on with United Paramount Network. Updated whenever I get around to it.

18 May 2002

UPN's Fall 2002 Schedule

The new shows are:

Abby

A mid-season replacement situation comedy about an interracial couple in San Franciso.

Half and Half

Mona and Dee Dee, two half-sisters who grew up separately and are now neighbores in a San Francison apartment building.

Haunted

Matthew Fox stars as an ex-cop turned private eye who uses psychic powers to solve crimes.

The Twilight Zone

Remake of the classic series.

3 August 2001

Now that Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are on different networks, the crossover story lines will end.

The fall premieres of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Roswell have been moved up by one week. The debuts will now be 8:00pm Tuesday on 2 October and 9:00pm Tueday on 9 October, respectively.

22 June 2001

UPN Fall Season premiere dates:

20 May 2001

UPN Announced the fall 2001 schedule last week. In addition to winning the bidding war for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the network is also picking up The WB cast-off Roswell. The shows will be paired together on a single night in an attempt to attract female viewers.

The reality game show Manhunt will premiere in July.

The Fall 2001 Schedule

The announced schedule is as follows; New Shows are yellow and shows in new time-slots are pink.

Moesha and 7 Days have been cancelled.

No dates for premieres have been announced yet, but UPN says it is planning an August roll out.

Buffy will premiere with a two-hour episode that re-introduces the premise of the series while also moving the story forward.

Enterprise, the latest series in the Star Trek franchise, will also receive a two-hour premiere. Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap fame has signed on to play Captain Jonathan Archer in Enterprise, a prequel to the original Star Trek series, set 150 years earlier. The series details the formation of the Federation. The series also stars Connor Trinneer as Chief Engineer Commander Charlie Tucker, Dominic Keating as Lt. Malcolm Reed, Anthony Montgomery as Ensign Travis Mayweather, Linda Park as Ensign Hoshi Sato, John Billingsley as Phlox and Jolene Blalock as Sub Commander T'Pol.

The new comedy One on One focuses on Mark ÒFlexÓ Washington (played by Flex Alexander), a sportscaster and ladis man, and his struggles to raise a 14-year-old daugher Kyla after her mother takes a job abroad.

For mid-season, the network has ordered Stephen King's The Dead Zone, a drama about a young man with psychic powers, and Rebuild Your Life, a reality show in which families are given a chance to "start over" by building a home out of indigenous materials in a tropical island.

Specials include The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards 2001, Mo'Nique's Holiday House Party, and Iron Chef Showdown in Las Vegas.

13 May 2001

After UPN's decision not to continuing broadcasting XFL games, the XFL, jointly owned by the WWF and NBC has called it quits.

25 April 2001

The big news this week is that Buffy the Vampire Slayer will be moving to UPN next season. UPN has placed as 44-episode order—two seasons worth—for the series, at $2.3 million per episode. The WB's highest offer was reportedly $1.8 million. 20th Century Fox Television, the producer of the series, claims that The WB did not share their vision for the future of the series while UPN did. This comes after a drawn-out battle for the rights to the show that began in 1999. The fate of Angel is still unknown, although UPN has agreed to pay over $1 million an episode for two years if The WB cancels the sibling series.

While 20th Century Fox Television insists the move is solely about the economics of the program, The WB is crying foul. They suggest that the studio has an agenda motivated by the acquisition of Chris Craft's broadcasting arm by News Corp, the studio's parent company. Chris Craft's stations are all UPN affiliates. The WB also suggests that News Corp. may purchase some or all of UPN in the near future.

1 April 2001

UPN's new reality-based game show Chains of Love premieres on 17 April. In each of the six episodes, the "picker" is chained to four strangers of the opposite sex for four consecutive days. The four strangers compete against each other to become the picker's ideal mate.

All Souls, about a doctor in a haunted hospital is scheduled to premiere in mid-April and air on Tuesdays.

The sci-fi detective series Special Unit 2 premiers on Wednesday, 11 April. Kate Benson is the newest officer of Chicago PD's Special Unit 2, a secret precinct that battles "Links", malicious paramornal creatures—the missing links between man and beast. She has a sixth sense about Links and is partnered with the hot-headed Nick O'Malley, who is checked by Captain Richard Page. Professor Sean Radmon consults with the unit, which is also assisted by Carl, a gnome-like Link.

4 February 2001

Ice Cube and Mike Epps will serve as consultans for a still-untitled comedy series for UPN, in which Epps will also star.

UPN will air six episodes of Manhunt this spring.

Howard Stern's Doomsday, supposed to air this season, still isn't ready for prime-time. Apparently they are now on their second set of writers. UPN remains committed to the series despite the troubles.

UPN's broadcast team for XFL programming is Craig Minervini for play-by-play, Bob Golic as analyst, and Lee Reherman and Kip Lewis as sideline reporters.

6 January 2001

UPN has picked up the MTV series Celebrity Deathmatch as a companion for the new series Gary & Mike. Beginning 12 January, repeats from the show's first two seasons will air at 8:30pm Fridays. The initial deal is for seven episodes with an option for 13 more.

Special Unit 2 premieres in the spring on UPN. The sci-fi action series is set in Chicago and follows a secret team whose mission is to kill "missing links:" mummies, gargoyles, werewolves, etc.

All Souls, which has no premiere date set, takes place in a Boston hospital haunted by ghosts, and where strange experiments are performed on unsuspecting patients.

10 December 2000

Freedom has been cancelled. Episodes will air through December 29. The timeslot will then be filled with Gary & Mike a foamation comedy, which has a special premeire at 9:30pm on Thursday, January 11.

The WWF and UPN are teaming up to produce Manhunt, a reality-based game show that pits "bounty hunters" against contestants for five days.

UPN has picked up NBC cast-off Chaims of Love, a reality-based game show, and "extreme" version of The Dating Game. UPN has six episodes of the series, which are expected to air in early spring.

5 November 2000

UPN has ordered a full season of 22 episodes of Girlfriends.

1 October 2000

UPN has ordered six one-hour episodes of Road Rage for mid-season. The reality series features two contestants competing against each other and the show's "road warriors," who throw obsticles in their way in a demolition derby environment.

UPN has ordered a two-hour speical Temptation Manor, in which three couples swap partners.

UPN has ordered a one-hour special Getaway, which follows four police officers as they attempt to catch cars driven by race and stunt drivers.

20 August 2000

Boyz II Men will appear on Moesha, The Parkers, The Hughleys and Girlfriends this fall to promote their new album Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya.

News Corp. says it has no plans to pressure Viacom into shutting down UPN.

14 August 2000

News Corp. has purchased Chris-Craft Industries, owner of 8 television stations in major cities that are currently UPN affiliates (Chris-Craft co-founded UPN, and until recently owned half the network). This could have ill-effects on UPN because the affiliate contracts are up in January 2001. The affected stations are: WWOR, New York (Secaucus, N.J.); KCOP, Los Angeles; KPTV, Portland, Ore.; KBHK, San Francisco; KMSP, Minneapolis/St. Paul; KUTP, Phoenix; WRBW, Orlando, Fla.; WUTB, Baltimore; KTVX, Salt Lake City (ABC affiliate); and KMOL, San Antonio (NBC affiliate).

6 August 2000

Starting 1 January 2001, United Paramount Network will change its name to the Paramount Network. The new logo contains the P in the triangle from the current logo, surrounded by a band of stars. The change won't be marketed until after November sweeps, at whcih point UPN and other Viacom outlets will advertise the coming change. Because the "United" in UPN came from Chris-Craft's United Television division, and Chris-Craft no longer owns a stake in the network, the name is being changed to better captitalize on the Paramount name.

The fall line up will premiere over eight weeks:

• Monday, 4 September: Moesha and The Hughleys
• Monday, 11 September: The Parkers and Girlfriends
• Tuesday, 3 October: Movie franchise returns
• Wednesday, 4 October: Star Trek: Voyager
• Wednesday, 11 October: 7 Days
• Friday, 27 October: Freedom and Level 9

Coverage of XFL games begins on Sunday, 4 February, and continues for 10 weeks, plus 1 playoff game.

At the end of July, Viacom invested $30 million in the World Wresting Federation.

In June, Mel Karmazin, president and COO of Viacom, said that if UPN fails to become profitable now that it is under complete control of Viacom, it will be sold or shut down.

27 May 2000

UPN's Fall 2000 Schedule

The Hughleys

A two-year veteran of ABC's "TGIF."

Girlfriends

Sitcom by executive producer Kelsey Grammer, stars Tracee Ellis Ross (Hanging Up) in a Waiting to Exhale-ish story about four longtime female friends.

Freedom

From Joel Silver (The Matrix and Lethal Weapon), a high-tech thriller that pits heroes with martial arts skills against a totalitarian leadership backed by futuristic weaponry. Stars Bodhi "Mr. Dharma" Elfman (Enemy of the State) and Darius McCrary (Family Matters).

Level 9

Thriller about a top secret elite government group that tries to protect the world from cyber crimes. Stars Tim Guinee (Blade) and Kate Hodge (Working).

UPN has also obtained the rights to two reality specials originally produced for Fox: Cheating Spouses and World's Nastiest Neighbors.

Midseason replacements include: Out of Bounds, a sketch comedy show; Gary & Mike, the animated adventures of two friends on a road trip; All Souls, a horror from Aaron Spelling about a haunted hospital; and Special Unit 2, about a NYPD special team that battles aliens.

Dilbert, Shasta, Malcolm & Eddie, The Beat, and Secret Agent Man have all been cancelled.

It was previouly announced that the 2000–01 season would be the last for Star Trek: Voyager.

UPN may or may not continue to co-brand its movie franchise with its sister-company Blockbuster. UPN hopes to utilize Paramount's film archive for broadcast material.

Finally, beginning in February 2001, UPN will broadcast 7:00pm Sunday games from the new XFL football league. UPN has rights to 10 regular season games and one playoff game. UPN and NBC (co-owner of XFL) will cross promote each other's XFL broadcast: UPN will promote the NBC's Saturday broadcasts during WWF Smackdown!, and NBC will promote UPN's Sunday games during its own Saturday games.

9 May 2000

UPN is remodeling itself during May sweeps, debuting new network IDs, tags, bumpers, interstitials and promo graphics, all based on the WWF Smackdown! franchise.

28 April 2000

The Beat has been cancelled. That fate of the unaired episodes of the time slot is still undecided.

21 April 2000

New episodes of Dilbert will begin airing on 30 May. Also returning, on 26 May, are new episodes of Shasta, I Dare You, and Secret Agent Man.

5 April 2000

Viacom has purchased the half of UPN owned by Chris-Craft for $5 million. This purchase was a result by a clause in the original ownership agreement that was triggered by Viacom's acquisition of CBS. Chris-Craft either had to sell its half to Viacom, or buy Viacom's half, and Viacom would be bound by the decision.

UPN has pulled Secret Agent Man from the schedule, and will be replacing it with reruns of The Parkers and Moesha starting 11 April. The remaining episodes may air over the summer.

Paramount Stations Group and Acme Communications, the television station owning divisions of Viacom and Time&ndashWarner respectively, have entered into a deal where PSG stations will show some The WB programming, and the Acme stations will show some UPN programming in marketes where they don't directly compete. The UPN stations that will carry The WB programming are in Columbus, Ohio; West Palm Beach, Florida; and Providence, Rhode Island. The WB stations that will carry UPN programming are in St. Louis, Knoxville, and Champaign.

Star Trek: Voyager will air its series finale in May 2001, after seven seasons.

2 March 2000

Four "webisodes" of The Beat are now airing on the official website for the drama: www.thebeattv.com.

17 February 2000

Dilbert goes on hiatus March 21st, being replaced by The Beat, a police drama. Dilbert may return over the summer.

However, an UPN and Columbia TriStar TV have teamed up to stream an episode of Dilbert, "The Merger," from 17–29 February at www.dilbertondemand.com.

13 February 2000

The Beat debuts on March 21st at 9:00pm. The show "chronicles the day-to-day travails of two young cops working on New York's Lower East Side."

Caroon Network is in negotiations to purchase Home Movies. The deal would include the five episode that previously aired on UPN.

UPN is producing a martial arts drama, tentively titled Freedom.

16 January 2000

Shasta McNasty has been renamed to just plain Shasta.

Verne Troyer, of "Mini-Me" fame, joins the cast of Shasta starting with the 22 February episode. He has appeared in two other episodes so far this season.

Jerry Seinfeld's voice will appear on the 22 February episode of Dilbert. He will be the voice of the computer "Comp-U-Comp."

UPN is developing a new sci-fi series with Todd McFarlane, entitled Gorilla World. The series is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans are an endagered species and apes rule the earth. They swear it is not a Planet of the Apes knock off.

UPN may replace Blockbuster Video's Shockwave Cinema with series programming.

UPN has The Great Monster Truck Race for February sweeps. The special pits 12 monster trucks against each other. The special is also a pilot for a possible fall series, that will, WWF-style, feature rivalries and backstories for the truck drivers.

10 December 1999

UPN is considering airing fifteen-minute situation comedies next fall.

UPN will debut I Dare You on Tuesday, 18 January 2000. The stunt-based series is filmed in Las Vegas. Evel Knievel has signed on to be co-host along with Lee Reherman, and field reporters Tyler Harcott and Traci Melchor. The show will also feature classic footage of Evel Knievel's stunts. A February sweeps episodes will feature Bubba Blackwell attempting to break Evel Knievel's record jump over 15 buses.

24 October 1999

UPN has ordered full-seasons of The Parkers and Grown Ups.

2 December 1999

UPN has cancelled The Strip, which will run through the end of 1999. It will most likely be replaced by The Beat, a police drama. LOS ANGELES (UltimateTV.com) - UPN has decided to fold production of "The Strip." Though the Vegas-based drama will run episodes until the end of the year, no new segments will be made, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The hour-long Tuesday night program most recently scored a dismal 0.7 rating and 2 share in the key 18-49 age demographic. Chronicling high rollers and crime along Vegas' most notorious boulevard, "The Strip" was the first series produced for UPN by Warner Bros. TV, the studio component of rival WB network. The network will likely fill the 9 p.m. slot with "The Beat," a New York cop show from "Homicide: Life on the Street" vets Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson, beginning early next year.

10 October 1999

Howard Stern will be the executive producer of, and provide the voice for the main character of, Doomsday, an animated sci-fi comedy being produced for the Fall 2000 season. UPN is committed to 13 episodes. The program follows the Bradley family, who travels across a post-apocalyptic America.

UPN has ordered a pilot for a drama series called The Fighter. The series focuses on a young Catholic boxer who gives up his prep school background and college to pursue is dreams of being a boxer.

5 September 1999

UPN has ordered the specials The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards and Summer Music Mania for next season.

29 August 1999

Jerry Seinfeld will lend his voice to a Dilbert episode this fall. Seinfeld will voice "Comp-U-Comp," an arrogant super-computer, in the episode "The Return."

25 August 1999

Secret Agent Man has been shelved for mid-season. Instead, The Strip, a police drama set in Las Vegas, will premeire in the fall.

1 August 1999

Sabrina, the Animated Series will air this fall on UPN. Melissa Joan Hart provides the voices for Zelda and Hilda Spellman, while Melissa's sister Emily provides the voice for Sabrina.

20 July 1999

Will Smith and Mike Tyson will host the The Source Hip-Hop Music Awards in August.

UPN has ordered 13 episodes of I Dare You! as a midseason replacement. The show will feature stunts by professional dare devils.

UPN will is going to spread out its fall premeires over a two month period beginning in August.

WWF Smackdown! is going to toned down a bit due to the 8pm timeslot.

23 May 1999

Fall 1999 Schedule

10 May 1999

UPN has bought 13 episodes of Power Play, a one-hour drama about a hockey team based in Hamilton, Ontario. The series premeiers on June 14th, and will air on Mondays at 9:00pm.

16 April 1999

The season finales of The Sentinel, Star Trek: Voyager, and 7 Days air on May 24, 25 and 26th.

Thumb Wars airs on May 18th at 8pm (the night before the premiere of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), and retells the story of Star Wars: A New Hope using thumbs.

16 April 1999

Disney's Whomptastic, UPN's new kids programming block, will premire Monday, September 6. The block will air Sunday through Friday, and includes an animated adaption of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, new episodes of Disney's Recess, and favorite episodes of Disney's Doug, and Disney's Hercules. 750 new character sketches will be produced for the 1999-2000 season.

Home Movies premieres April 26th after Dilbert.

Legacy has been cancelled. The rest of the unaired episodes will probably be shown over the summer.

31 March 1999

Jason Alexander has been cast as the voice of Catbert in Dilbert. He will appear in the April 5th and May 3rd episodes.

UPN will air the pilot for the action series Disciples on May 20th.

UPN is considering the series Grown Ups, staring Jaleel White.

UPN has a 13-episode commitment for a new police drama by Fontana & Levinson for the 1999-00 midseason. The network also has a 6-episode order for The True Story, an ensemble drama by the same production company.

February 17, 1999

UPN has ordered a second season of 22 episodes of Dilbert.

February 3, 1999

Legacy will go on hiatus starting March 5 when America's Greatest Pets returns. DiResta goes on hiatus beginning March 8, being replaced by RedHanded. Home Movies premeires on April 26.

February 1, 1999

Bumper Robinson, most recently of Guys Like Us is signed to join the cast of Between Brothers if UPN opts to order more episodes.

January 11, 1999

On February 17, Star Trek: Voyager will air a two-hour episode "Dark Frontier", in which Captain Janeway and The Borg Queen fight for control of Seven of Nine. The crew of the Voyager attempt to steal technology from a Borg vessel, which causes Seven of Nine to be re-assimilated with the Borg.

UPN is developing an animated sit-com Quints about quintuplets in junior high.

UPN has ordered six episodes of RedHanded, an adaption of the British show of the same name, where people "sting" their friends while they commit one of the seven deadly sins.

The Sentinel returns on January 25, when the network will air the original pilot, followed by the cliffhanger of the last season.

Disney's Recess, which currently airs on Satuday mornings on ABC, will begin airing in a daily Disney block on UPN in Fall 1999.

Starting January 19, UPN will air the former FOX series Between Brothers. UPN has obtained the broadcast rights to the five episodes that FOX did not air plus one previously aired episode. The network has the option to order more previously aired episodes and to put the show back in production.

UPN has ordered Home Movies as mid-season replacement. The show is animated comedy about a third-grade moviemaker raised by a single mom. The voice actors, which include Paula Poundstone, Brendon Small, and H. Jon Benjamin, will improvise each episode from an outline. The episode will then be animated using the "SquibbleVision" technique used by Dr. Katz. The show should be ready for broadcast by April.

In an efforct to develop new shows that people actualy want to watch, UPN has teamed up with the United Talent Agency (UTA) to develop series ideas in a non-traditional fasion. Five comedy writers from UTA will run there ideas past UPN, but then be able to develop approved ideas without being confined to the usual development process.

Yet another mid-season replacement is Family Rules, a sitcom about a basketball coach reasing four teenage daughters.

November 29, 1998

UPN has picked up Legacy for a full season. During the week of December 28th, UPN will air it at 8pm each night to promote it.

November 22, 1998

Guys Like Us has not been picked up for the rest of the season.

Dilbert will premeire on Monday, January 25, at 8:00pm.

November 8, 1998

The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer has been cancelled. It was originally supposed to return after November sweeps, but now production has been ceased, and the show will not return to the schedule.

October 25, 1998

Mercy Point has been cancelled. Beginning October 27, 1998, America's Greatest Pets and Reunited will take its place.

The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer and Malcolm & Eddie are trading time slots.

NBC has ordered In The House as a mid-season replacement.

September 22, 1998

UPN has placed an order for six episodes of a series by Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson, creators of Homicide and Oz.

August 11, 1998: Fall 1998 Premieres

July 26, 1998

The crek of the starship Voyager may return home before the end of the upcoming season. It's 100th episode will air this November.

July 2, 1998

Stacey Travis has been replaced as the cruise director on The Love Boat: The Next Wave by Playmate Heidi Mark. The move is an attempt to make the show sexier than it was during its first season.

July 1, 1998

UPN has ordered 13 episodes of The Sentinel as a midseason replacement. To complete its mid-season line-up, UPN has also ordered Nicki and Home Team. Press releases describe the new shows as:

The half hour comedy series "Nicki" finds its title character, a wife, mother and congenial courtesy clerk at a major discount chain, living a simple, suburban lifestyle with her husband Gary and their red-headed seven-year-old, Ami. But Nicki's quiet world is rocked when Joanne, a cynical misfit, arrives to declare she's the child Nicki gave up for adoption twenty years ago. Meanwhile, Nicki's husband attempts to persuade his kindhearted wife that her lowlife brother, Roy, should be permanently removed from the family tree.

A raucous half hour family comedy, "Home Team" is set inside the high energy household of Nate Harrison, a young widower and college basketball coach with four daughters - three teenagers and a precocious seven-year-old. Nate's at home on the court but when it comes to relating to his girls, he's way out of his element. There's boy-crazy Hope; intelligent but unpopular Anne; athletic yet often empty-headed CJ, and eager young Lucy. There's plenty of love among them but it's four on one in the game of parent manipulation. Luckily, they all have an advisor - and translator -- in "Uncle" Phil, their ever-present neighbor

June 14, 1998

UPN's fall season will begin on October 5, 1998, in an effort to avoid being lost in the clutter of September premieres, and to guarantee new programming during the November, February, and May sweeps periods. Mercy Point debuts on Tuesday, October 6, with a two-hour episode. Moesha and Cluelss will premeire on Tuesday, October 13. Seven Days debuts on Wednesday, October 7, with a two-hour episode, and Star Trek: Voyager begins its new season on October 14.

May 25, 1998

UPN has announced the fall 1998 schedule:

Guys Like Us is about a guy's six-year-old brother coming to live at his bachelor pad. DiResta is a sit-com abouta NYC transit cop. The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer is about President Lincoln's key advisor, his English butler. Mercy Point is medical drama in space. Seven Days is about a CIA operative sent one week into the past. Legacy is a drama set in post-Civil War Kentucky.

As mentioned before, Dilbert premiers in January. ABC's Soul Man may appear on UPN as well.

May 1, 1998

UPN will premiere Thursday and Friday prime-time programming on October 8 and 9, 1998.

The season finale of Love Boat: The Next Wave aires on May 18. The season finales of Moesha and Malcolm & Eddie air on May 19. The season finales of The Sentinel and Star Tre: Voyager air on May 20.

UPN and Disney have reached a deal to air 2 hours of programming 6 days a week. Beginning in Fall 1999 the programming will air on weekday afternoons, and Sunday mornings.

Daniel Stern has been cast as the voice of Dilbert.

Upcoming specials include:

May 4, 1998: Extreme World Records

Olympic Gold Medal winner Jonny Moseley hosts this fast-paced special featuring young daredevils attempting to break world records in several spectacular stunts. Included are a snowboarder's attempt to break a world record by jumping off a 3,400 foot cliff; a parachutist's backward fall off a 20-story skyscraper and an astonishing aerial feat with two skydivers swapping airplanes.

May 11, 1998: Contestants Tell All... Secrets of Beauty Pageants Exposed!

This daring special exposes untold stories -- from the scandalous to the ridiculous -- from behind-the-scenes of popular beauty pageants. Included are accounts from former contestants who have made their way through the competitive, hectic pageant circuit in hopes of walking down a runway with a tiara on their head.

May 18, 1998: The Virtual Ed Sullivan Show

This inventive one hour special features "virtual" variety show host Ed Sullivan in his trademark style introducing and interacting with contemporary song, dance, specialty and comedy acts.

April 1, 1998

Shows in development for next season include Walking on Sunshine about a resort hotel, Nickie about a mother reunited with her child after 20 years, Joy Street Station about two female Boston detectives, Mercy Point a futuristic medical drama, Martian Law about patrolling for outlaws on Mars, and Legacy about a post-civil war community.

March 1, 1998

UPN has ordered a full-season's worth of Moesha and Malcolm & Eddie for the 1998-99 season.

UPN has ordered 6 pilots for the fall season. Included are two dramas, Desert Heat about two detectives in Las Veagas, and Joy Street Station, about two women uniformed police officers in Boston.

The Love Boat: The Next Wave premieres on April 13. Robert Urich plays the captain.

February 15, 1998

UPN's strategy of attracting black viewers has worked, and the network is now the top-rated network in black households during primetime.

UPN has ordered 13 episodes of an animated version of the comic strip Dilbert. The series will air in prime-time, and should premiere in late 1998 or early 1999. The show will features the characters Dogbert, Ratbert, Catbert, the pointy-haired Boss, Wally, and Alice, besides Dilbert.

January 31, 1998

UPN Kids has acquired X-Men, Spider-Man, and BeetleBorgs to air on Sunday mornings starting this fall. The trio will be joined by Incredible Hulk & Friends, a compilation of stories from the current The Incredible Hulk series and from the "vintage" The Fantastic Four and Iron Man series. The schedule for the new Sunday morning is:

January 25, 1998

UPN will get an exclusive revised version of the former "Disney Afternoon" syndication package for broadcast in the afternoons before 1999.

January 17, 1998

The expansion to Thursday night has definately been put off until the fall because of delays in production of the original movies needed for sci-fi night.

An updated version of The Love Boat will premiere in April, as the start of the network's plan to target "Middle America." The series will, of course, focus on the crew and their interactions with ever changing roster of passengers, who, of course, are bound for love. The characters include Captain Jim Kennedy III, a recent divorcee; Danny Kennedy, the captain's 15-year-old son; Chief Purser Will Sanders, Chief of Security Camille Hunter, Cruise Director Suzanne Zimmerman, Bar Manager Paolo Kaire, Ship's Doctor John Morgan, and Head Chef Armand.

UPN has a number of specials planned for the spring. The 1998 UPN alt.games will air on February 17 as an comedic alternative to the Olympics. Real Dumb People by the Zucker brothers will air on March 3. UFO Sighting! will air on March 11. Virtual Ed's Variety Hour, which uses digitally enhanced footage from The Ed Sulliven Show, and Pop-Up Primtime, which will show scenes from classic TV shows with pop-up bubbles of information, are scheduled to air in May.

December 27, 1997

The expansion to Thursday night has been pushed back to the fall of 1998.

UPN is looking into producing new The Love Boat and Fantasy Island series.

In a pre-emptive strike against The WB's expansion to Tuesday night, UPN has scheduled two specials to air opposite The WB's Tuesday night premiere. Real Vampires ... Exposed! airs at 8:00pm on January 20 (opposite Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Alien Encounter: The Incident at Lake County airs at 9:00pm.

November 16, 1997

The premeired of the UPN's Sci-Fi Thursday Night, originally scheduled for April 1998, may be pushed back until the start of the 1998 season.

UPN has ordered an additional 9 episodes of Good News (for a total season order of 22).

On December 2, UPN will air Spice Girls: Too Much is Never Enough, a special about the pop-group Spice Girls.

October 4, 1997

Head Over Heels is the first of the new shows to be cancelled. Columbia TriStar will complete the 13 episode order. The remaining episodes will air intermittently. On October 7, the show will be pre-empted by Hitz, and In The House will air at 9:00pm. On October 21, UPN will air two episodes of Clueless followed by two episodes of Moesha, while Hitz airs at 9:30pm on October 20.

September 16, 1997

A long long time ago I mentioned that UPN was developing a "Blues Brothers" series. I've finally heard some more about it. Apparently, due to create differences between the network and the studio, the series, which was supposed to premiere this fall, was retooled. It has now resumed production.

August 3, 1997

The UPN fall season premiere dates have been announced.

The Monday night line-up premieres on August 25 as:

The Tuesday night schedule is more confusing, due to ABC's insistance on airing Clueless through the end of their contract in September. The Tuesday premiere scheudle is:

On September 2nd, 9th, and 16th, new episodes of Moesha air at 8:00pm, while encores of the season premieres of In the House, Good News, and Head Over Heels air at 8:30pm, respectively. On September 23, Clueless premieres in its 8:00pm time-slot, and Moesha moves to its 8:30pm time-slot.

On Wednesday, September 3, The Sentinal is pre-empted by an encore presentation of the Star Trek: Voyager season finale, followed at 9:00pm by the Star Trek: Voyager seaon premiere. On September 10, the seaons premiere of The Sentinel airs.

UPN's expansion to Thursday night will occur at an as of yet undecided time during the second quarter of 1998. It is said they are looking to add a "sexy, rock 'n' roll sensibility to Sci-Fi" with the "UPN Thursday Night Sci-Fi Movie."

In addition to picking-up the previously syndicated Sweet Valley High, UPN has also bought the new series Breaker High. Both series will air on weekday afternoons and Sunday mornings. Breaker High is about a 500 student high-school on a cruise ship. The focus is on the lives of Cassidy Cartwright, a surfer girl; Denise Williams, Cassidy's activist roommate; Ashley Dupress, a rich Georgian debutante; Alejandro Garcia, an athelete; Max Ballard, the captain's son; and Jimmy Farrall, the obnoxious frat-boy in the making. Breaker High will air weekdays at 4:30pm and Sundays at 10:30am.

Sweet Valley High follows the travails of identical-twin sisters Jessica, who is self-absorbed, and Elizabeth Wakefield, who is responsible. Returning schoolmates are the jock Todd Wilkins and Elizabeth's best friend, Amy Danles. New this fall is Cheryl Thomas, a famous teen model. Sweet Valley High will air weekdays at 4:00pm and Sundays at 10:00am.

July 12, 1997

UPN is in the process of toning down Andrew Dice Clay's character in their new comedy Hitz. UPN's Salhany says that while the show is being modified, it will not be turned into a family show.

June 15, 1997

The season premeire of Star Trek: Voyager, "Scorpian" Part 2, will be the debut of a new character Seven of Nine, played by Jeri Ryan. Seven of Nine is an assimilated human of the Borg Collective, who becomes part of the Voyager crew when her link to the Collective is broken.

June 8, 1997

Ruby, in development for midseason, stars David Faustino as the assistant to actress Ruby. Ruby, however, is portrayed by a small puppet that is treated like a real person (in the same way that Lil' Penny is "real" in the Nike ads). Whoopi Goldberg provides the voice for Ruby.

June 1, 1997

UPN's highest rated series of the season is Star Trek: Voyager at 127th.

UPN announced its fall schedule last week.

Pastor David Randolph is designated the temporary replacement for the Church of Life's founding father in Good News. However, all the church staff leave in protest, except for Vera, the church secretary. Together with the remaining congregatoin, David must resolve various sociol predicaments.

UPN picks up Clueless, based on the hit movie, from ABC. Beverly Hills teenager Cher, the responsible one, plans her widowed father's sociol calender, shops with her friends Dionne and Amber, and offers her adive to others.

Hitz is set in the cutthroat world of the LA record business. Robert Moore and Busby Evans are two young music execs who must fight for their jobs after their boss and mentor is booted out of the company. Robert and Busby's job is made more difficult by the mocking cynical promotion guy Tommy Stans, and by their collegue April Beane who tries to steal their stars. Andrew "Dice" Clay is the tough record company president Jimmy Esposito.

Brothers Jack and Warren Baldwin take over the operation of their mother's video dating service in Head Over Heels. Their mother revels in her swinging single life as her sons try to make the matches. Jack makes things more difficult for Warren, who has become hopeless because his wife left him for a football star, by trying to pick up their clientele.

May 13, 1997

David Faustino will be the star of the new fall sitcom Ruby, which also will feature Whoopi Goldberg as the voice of a hand puppet.

May 11, 1997

Chairman and CEO Lucie Salhany will not be renewing her contract with UPN. She will stay until her replacement is found.

April 29, 1997

Beginning in the fall, UPN will air the U.S. Open Professional Figure Skating Championship.

April 18, 1997

Sweeps Info

April 28

Ricky Watters and Eddie George make guest appearences on In the House. Tone Loc and Wild Orchid guest on Goode Behavior.

April 30

Moesha's Lamont Bently guest stars on The Sentinel. Concetta Tomei from China Beach guest stars on Star Trek: Voyager.

May 5

John Amos of Good Times appears on In the House. Marsha Warfield guest stars on Goode Behavior.

May 6

Erik Estrada and Gary Coleman appear as Mr. Dork and Snafu in a Fantasy Island parody on Homeboys in Outer Space.

May 12

Ken Norton, Jr. appears on In The House. Vanessa Bell Calloway appears as a lawyer on Sparks.

May 13

Lawrence Hilton Jacobs of Welcome Back Kotter and FLEX from Homeboys in Outer Space appear in Moesha. George Takai, and Burt Ward and John Astin of Batman appear in Homeboys in Outer Space.

May 19 (Season Finales)

Junior Seau and Jermoe Bettis guest star on In The House. Terry Ellis of En Vogue appears on Sparks. A vision of angel in a pan of cornbread saves Willie's restaurant on Goode Behavior.

May 20 (Season Finale)

Dorien Wilson from Goode Behavior guest stars on Moesha.

May 21 (Season Finale)

Star Trek: Voyager ends in a cliff-hanger as Janeway must form an alliance with the Borg. John Rhys-Davies guest stars as Da Vinci, who will be Janeway's love interest next season.

April 13, 1997

Parmount and MTV are producing Hits for UPN staring Andrew "Dice" Clay as the head of an indie record label.

January 17, 1997

UPN Plans on adding a fourth night of programming in late 1997 or early 1998.

August 16, 1996 -- The Fall Season is Coming!

The new fall shows are:

• In The House -- UPN picks up the discarded NBC family comedy starring singer LL Cool J. Season premiere August 26, 1996.
• Malcolm & Eddie -- Stars Malcolm-Jamal Warner and focuses around mismatched roommates. Season premiere August 26, 1996.
• Goode Behavior -- Features Sherman Helmsley as a con man paroled into the custody of his son, a college dean. Season premiere August 26, 1996.
• Sparks -- Comedy about a storefront law firm in a poor neighborhood of Los Angeles. Season premiere August 26, 1996.
• The Burning Zone -- Depicts the struggle of an elite medical team fighting the virus. Season premiere September 3, 1996.
• Homeboys in Outer Space -- A futuristic comedy. Season premiere August 2,7 1996.

March 22, 1996

According to a post on the Nowhere Man newsgroup, the series has been renewed for a second season.

Seen on The Vidiot's site: No further episodes of Teknoman and Space Strikers will be ordered. They will be replaced with The Hulk, Jumanji, The Mouse and the Monster, and B.A.D. - Bureua of Alien Destroyers.

March 8, 1996

On Monday March 11, 1996 UPN will show Star Command.

January 19, 1996

Wednesay night programming begins on March 6, 1996 with the 2nd Annual Blockbuster Entertainment awards. Begininng March 13, 1996, The Sentinal will air at 8:00pm, and Swift Justic will follow at 9:00pm.

Beginning January 23, 1996, Deadly Games will be replaced with the sit-coms Moesha at 8:00pm, and Minor Adjustments at 8:30pm. Minor Adjustments aired on NBC during the fall of 1995, and UPN will begin by rebroadcasting the original seven episodes (including the one that didn't air).

UPN has halted production of Live Shot. It will continue in reruns until a replacement is found.

December 13, 1995

UPN has ordered 13 episodes of a half-hour comedy Moesha starring Brandy Norwood.

Looking towards a third night of programming, UPN also ordered 13 episodes of the hour dramas Swift Justice, about a former cop turned vigalante, and The Sentinel, about a Seattle cop with strange powers.

October 24, 1995

Wednesday night programming will begin in March 1996.

UPN has order 13 episodes of an animated version of Blues Brothers to be shown during prime time. The cartoon is being produced by Film Roman in conjuction with John Belushi's widow and Dan Aykroyd.

August 20, 1995

The second season of Star Trek: Voyager begins Monday, August 28 at 8:00PM.

Dates for the debuts of the new series:

• Nowhere Man -- Monday, August 28 at 9:00PM (1 1/2 hours)
• Live Shot -- Tuesday, August 29 at 8:00PM (2 hours)
• Deadly Games -- Tuesday, September 5 at 8:00PM (1 hour)
• Space Strikers -- Sunday, September 10 at 10:00AM (1/2 hour)
• Teknoman -- Sunday, September 10 at 10:30AM (1/2 hour)

These desciptions of Space Strikers and Technoman were obtained from The Vidiot's UPN site.

"Space Strikers" (Sundays, 10:00 - 10:30 a.m. ET/PT) is an action-packed outer space adventure for children -- with state-of-the-art 3-D computer generated imagery and classic tales of good versus evil. (A nationwide distribution of free "Strikervision" 3-D glasses will commence in Fall.) The fantastical "Space Strikers" is set in a distant future and follows the courageous Captain Nemo, conunander of the technologically advanced starship, Nautilus, as he and his bold crew fend off the nefarious Phantom Warriors and their dreadful leader, the Master Phantom. Together, the Nautilus crew -- a cadre of earthlings and alien races from the farthest reaches of the galaxy -- must save Planet Earth from the total domination of this ruthless villain who is bent on spreading chaos throughout the universe. The executive producers are Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and Jacqueline Tordjman. The supervising producers are Eric S. Rollman and Joel Andryc and the producer is Sam Ewing. The series is a production of Saban Entertainment.

"Teknoman" (Sundays, 10:30-11:00 a.m. ET/PT) is a dramatic serial drawn in Anime' style (Japanese animation). Set in the year 2087, it tells the story of a devoted young man, known as Blade, who is on a valiant quest to rescue his kidnapped family from the clutches of Darkon -- the deranged Venomoid Warlord and his army of Spider Crabs. When Blade, his twin brother and their sister were on a space mission, they were abducted and held in Tekno-pods where their human bodies were altered and their humanity siphoned out, transforming them into evil and powerful slave warriors called Teknomen. Only Blade was able to escape before the full transformation process was complete. He was soon retrieved by the Space Knights, Earth's most courageous soldiers, who brought him aboard their patrol vessel. Through the use of a mysterious emerald crystal, Blade can become' empowered with the characteristic super-human strength, impenetrable armor suit and quantum energy weapons of the Teknomen, but his own good soul remains. When Blade becomes a Teknoman, his only impediment is that he can remain in this transformed mode for just 30 short minutes or he'll sink into evil Blade and become a slave of the Venomoid Warlord forever. Aided by the Space Knights, Blade (as the superhero Teknoman) sets out to turn the tables on Darkon and his Spider Crab army, hopefully not only rescuing his siblings but saving Earth from the grasp of these evil invaders. The executive producer is Eric S. Rollman and the producer/director is Tom Wyner. The series is a production of Saban Entertainment.

August 1, 1995

KHBK's page has information on the new fall programming. It also has premeire dates, but I think they are wrong.

July 9, 1995

According to a promo I saw on my local UPN affiliate, the fall season begins August 28, 1995.

May 28, 1995

It seems the only surviving show for the Fall season is Start Trek: Voyager. Wednesday programming will begin in March 1996.

The Fall Schedule is:

• Monday: Star Trek: Voyager at 8pm, Nowhere Man at 9:00pm
• Tuesday: Deadly Games at 8pm, Live Shot at 9:00m

May 16, 1995

From the May 13th TV Guide:

UPN will be adding programming on either Wednesday or Sunday night, and an hour of children's programming will be added on Sunday mornings. Watcher will not be returning. New programming includes: Deadly Games starring Christopher Lloyd as a come-to-life villian from a video game, Absolute Zero about an on the run photographer, and Live Shot a drama about a TV News show, starring David Birney and Cheryl Pollack.

Supposedly, since Paramount has been unsuccessful in attempting to get many of its UPN affiliates to drop Babylon 5, it is going to attempt to confuse the issue by producing a new show Babylon.

April 10, 1995

Legend starting Richard Dean-Anderson premiers Tuesday, April 18, 1995 with a two hour movies. The one hour western series replaces The Watcher, which will probably return with a few unaired episodes in the summer.

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