The announcements of the broadcast network fall lineups are still more than a week away. But some others have announced new shows for the summer and fall.
A&E has a slew of reality shows in development for the third and fourth quarters of 2011, including ones devoted to boar hunters, bickering in-laws, independent truckers and a spinoff of its popular "Storage Wars" series. A new dramatic miniseries, "Coma," is also in the works but isn't scheduled until May 2012.
USA Network has 13 new dramas and comedies in development. Among them are "On We Go," a comedy with Nathan Lane as a struggling actor trying to land roles despite, as USA puts it, "the fact that he resembles, but is in fact not, Nathan Lane"; "Silent Partner," a drama about an ambitious lawyer based in Florida and his paralegal, who is outsourced and communicates to him from her home in India; "The Special," about a homicide detective with hypomania, a condition that leaves him in a euphoric, energetic state much of the time; "Big in Japan," a comedy about a boy band reuniting 20 years after it split up; "We the Jury," a comedy about sequestered jurors during a high-profile celebrity trial; and "M.Deity," a medical drama about a doctor who fights hospital bureaucracy. There is no word on airdates.
PBS' summer lineup will include new episodes in mid- to late June for Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple on "Masterpiece Mystery," plus Rufus Sewell as a detective in "Zen." And in July, PBS has a two-hour reunion for "An American Family," the 1973 series that is considered the forerunner of the reality-show genre.
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The Navy SEALs, who figured prominently in the news last week with the killing of Osama bin Laden, will be the focus of tonight's prime-time lineup on the Military Channel (Channel 261 on Time Warner Cable's digital tier).
First is an episode of the series "Navy SEALs: Untold Stories" focusing on Bosnia and a 1998 commando mission to catch Serbian war criminals. At 9 p.m., "Ace in the Hole" looks at the capture of Saddam Hussein. Finally, "Somali Pirate Takedown: The Real Story" looks at how the SEALs ended a pirate siege in 2009.
* * * * *With the latest season of "Doctor Who" under way on BBC America, BBC Home Video is releasing more classic episodes of the long-running science-fiction series on Tuesday. The latest releases are two stories with Jon Pertwee, the third actor to play the time-traveling adventurer. One, "Terror of the Autons," is best known for introducing several characters, including The Master, who goes on to become The Doctor's greatest rival. The other story is "Planet of the Spiders," which was Pertwee's last episode as the lead of the series and the introduction of Tom Baker, who took over the role. Each disc includes extensive extras, among them audio commentary, features, news articles as PDF files and retrospectives.
Fans of the new "Who" may also want to check out "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders," a cheeky 1996 British miniseries based on Daniel Defoe's notorious 1722 novel. Alex Kingston, who plays sidekick River Song on "Doctor Who," stars as Moll, a woman who survives on her wits and seduction skills in 18th-century England. Daniel Craig, who went on to play James Bond, co-stars.
* * * * *Also new on DVD from the Warner Archives (www.wbshop.com), an online-only service that makes and ships DVDs on demand, there's "The Yellow Rose," an occasionally overwrought but fun 1983-84 prime-time soap about a west Texas ranching family. The cast included Sam Elliott, Cybill Shepherd, Ken Curtis and David Soul.
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