The big news from the Nashville Network is they've decided on new hosts for their flagship show.
Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase - of "Crook and Chase" fame - will begin hosting the 90-minute "Music City Tonight" as of Oct. 18.They're replacing Ralph Emery and his "Nashville Now," who has been a pillar of TNN since it signed on a decade ago. Emery announced his retirement in June, and TNN execs went out of their way to make it look like this is a voluntary move on his part.
But . . . insiders in Nashville report that Emery fell victim to what kills so many television shows - bad ratings. TNN is letting him stay on with the network to do interview specials and produce concert specials. But the word is that they wanted him out.
Less happy about this change than Emery, apparently, is Steve Hall, the man behind puppet Shotgun Red who appeared so often on "Nashville Now." Neither Hall nor Shotgun is part of the plans for "Music City Tonight."
So Hall picketed in front of the TNN headquarters in Nashville the day after the announcement was made, carrying a sign reading, "Will work for food or TNN."
PICKIN' 'N' GRINNIN': The long-running "Hee Haw" went out of production a year ago, and the shows seen in syndication this past season were all reruns.
The reruns will continue in the fall but no longer in syndication. The Nashville Network has bought the rights to the show and will air reruns culled from the mid-70s through 1992 on Sunday nights beginning Oct. 2.
QUOTABLE: Standup comedian Bill Maher, host of Comedy Central's "Politically Incorrect," on the proliferation of sitcoms starring standup comedians:
"With the success of `Cosby' and `Roseanne' and `Seinfeld,' it's just a matter of time before Gallagher has his own show. And we all dread that day."
FINALLY ON A SUNDAY: In a move that's long overdue, cable's Lifetime network will finally become a seven-day-a-week network as of Aug. 1.
The channel, which is aimed at women viewers, has always ceded Sundays to Lifetime Medical Television, a channel aimed at doctors and other health-care workers.
(You may have noticed it if you've been flipping channels on a Sunday and suddenly come across video of an operation in progress.)
Network execs had no immediate announcement on what will become of Lifetime Medical Television. All they would say is that it's being "reconfigured."
QUOTABLE: Daryl Hannah, who's starring in HBO's remake of "The Attack of the 50-ft. Woman," is tall enough in real life to have caused some problems in her career.
"I'm 5-10, which isn't that tall, but it's tall enough to be out of the running for a lot of good parts with a lot of good actors," she said.
THEY'RE BACK: The folks at HBO sound almost surprised about it, but they've managed to convince Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams to return as hosts of Comic Relief next year.
The standup comedy benefit for the homeless is set to air Jan. 15. The trio of Crystal, Goldberg and Williams have also hosted the previous five Comic Reliefs.
QUOTABLE: Actor/dancer Donald O'Connor is indeed writing a book but don't expect to see it on the shelves anytime soon.
"I have been writing it for a long time," said O'Connor, 67. "I have to wait for a few more people to die before I can finish it.
"I don't want to be like Mickey Rooney and come out with a lot of things with people still here."
HURRAY FOR HOLLYWOOD: American Movie Classic's Richard Schickel, who is producing and directing an AMC special titled "Hollywood on Hollywood," says a few things have changed in the past few decades.
He recalled a notation in Cesar Romero's 1940s diary that he had spent an hour walking on Hollywood Boulevard.
"In other words, to see and be seen on the boulevard in those days was a thing that was good for your career," Schickel said. "Today, to be seen on the boulevard would be very bad for your career."
HI, BOB: Here's some good news - "The Bob Newhart Show" is joining the Nick at Night lineup in the fall.
This was Newhart's first - and best - sitcom, not to be confused with the later "Newhart" or "Bob." In "The Bob Newhart Show," the star played psychiatrist Bob Hartley, and the cast included Suzanne Pleshette, Bill Dailey, Marcia Wallace and Peter Bonerz.
As Nick so often does in these situations, it will celebrate the arrival of "The Bob Newhart Show" with a weeklong marathon beginning Sept. 13.
ALL GROWN UP: Kim Fields, one of the stars of the upcoming Fox sitcom "My Girls," finds this to be rather different from the nine years she spent playing Tootie on "Facts of Life."
"It's very different in the sense of - I was a kid, and now I'm an adult," she said. "The storylines I'm dealing with now are very different, very challenging from what I'm used to because I've only started recently acting as an adult because I've only recently been an adult."