"America's Funniest Home Videos" didn't make ABC's fall schedule, but the show has been picked up as a midseason replacement show.
And when it does return, it should be much improved - Bob Saget won't be back as the host.Whether he quit or was fired is a matter of debate. Saget's publicist released a statement quoting his client as saying, "I did the show for eight years and enjoyed doing it. That's millions of people getting hit in the groin. It really was time for both parties to move on."
On the other hand, the trade publication Variety reported that Saget had been unceremoniously dumped as the frontman for "Videos."
Whatever the real story is, the viewers are the ones who will benefit. There are many things wrong with "America's Funniest Home Videos" - from the preponderance of videos featuring people getting hurt to the obviously fake "spontaneous" bits - but the worst thing about the show has always been Saget.
There's nothing worse than someone who thinks he's funny, but he's not. And Saget's lame jokes and stupid voices wore thin about seven years ago.
(Just look at that prepared statement again. That's Saget's idea of a joke.)
The truly amazing thing is that someone with as little talent as Saget could star in not one but two successful TV series. He also spent nine seasons on "Full House" - nine seasons filled with Saget mugging for the camera and displaying the most wooden acting style since Pinocchio.
There's no immediate word on who will replace Saget on "Videos," but the producers are reportedly considering using a male-female team. And Variety re-ported that comedian and former "Love & War" star Jay Thomas was under consideration for the male half of that equation.
SNYDER STAYS PUT: Despite rumors that his stay on "The Late Late Show" might be getting short, CBS has signed Tom Snyder to do another season of the post-Letterman show.
Snyder's new contract carries him through the 1997-98 season. The former host of NBC's "Tomorrow," various radio shows and his own CNBC talk show came to CBS in January of 1995.
Rumors have abounded that CBS was planning to make a change. And the fact that Jon Stewart - who used to host his own syndicated talk show - has been under contract to David Letterman's production company has fueled those rumors.
Letterman, whose Worldwide Pants Inc. produces "The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder," released a statement saying, "Tom's great. I love him. I've always loved him. I hope he stays in the chair a long, long time."
Stay tuned . . .
SEPARATED AT BIRTH? As previously reported, Disney is producing "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The Series" for syndication in the fall. It's based on the movies that featured Rick Moranis in the lead role.
Moranis isn't doing the TV show, but Disney hasn't gone far afield to find a replacment. Peter Scolari ("Bosom Buddies," "Newhart") has signed on as wacky inventor Wayne Szalinski.
Let's see, Moranis and Scolari are both sort of short, sort of blond and bespectacled. Yes, there's more than a passing resemblance.
MADE IN UTAH: Production began this week right here in Utah on the latest Fox made-for-TV epic - "Marabunta," a thriller about killer ants.
Really. I am not making this up.
Utah will be doing some acting of its own, substituting for Alaska in this movie.
The plotline follows the terror when an "unsuspecting town has become a feeding ground for voracious killer ants" and the heroes fight "a life-or-death battle against the advancing deadly army."
Oooh. Ick.
"Marabunta" will air sometime this coming season on Fox.
ANOTHER COUP? First Fox stole the NFL away from CBS. Now Fox has stolen the American Comedy Awards away from ABC.
Something tells me that they're not really all that upset at ABC.
It's part of a deal that Fox has struck with George Schlatter (the producer of the American Comedy Awards) to create and produce various comedy projects for the Fox broadcast network as well as cable's FX channel.
This might be bigger news if Schlatter had done anything worth watching since he produced the original "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" - which went off the air 24 years ago.
REVAMPING "AMERICAN JOURNAL": The syndicated tabloid show "America Journal" is getting a new pair of hosts, a new look and a new title - sort of - in the fall.
The show, retitled "American Journal Coast to Coast," has named a replacement for soon-to-depart anchor Nancy Glass. The brother-and-sister team of Michele Dabney-Perez and Charles Perez will take over in September.
Dabney-Perez is currently an "American Journal" reporter. Her brother is best known for hosting his own self-titled, short-lived talk show, and he's been a producer on shows like "Ricki Lake," "Montel Williams" and "Leeza."
(His bio fails to mention his brief appearance on the first season of MTV's "The Real World," when he was seen as the boyfriend of the show's gay roommate, Norman.)
What's rather disturbing about the "American Journal" announcement is that the show plans to "work with affiliate stations to draw reactions from local anchors and reporters around the nation to top news stories of the day."
That's just what we need - a further blurring of the line between legitimate journalism and tabloids.
"American Journal" airs locally weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on KTVX-Ch. 4.
OVERKILL: NBC has promoted the U.S. Open so heavily during its coverage of the NBA Finals that I was beginning to think that Tiger Woods plays for the Bulls.
QUOTABLE: David Letterman on the "Late Show," talking about the Chicago Bulls' Dennis Rodman:
"Dennis isn't happy in Utah. In Utah, it isn't easy to find a men's big-and-tall dress shop."