Welcome to programming season -- the time of year when stressed out network executives plot their strategies to conquer prime time and squash their cross-channel rivals. The radar is picking up a lot of activity, and this is only the beginning...

NBC
New Comedies
* Untitled Tina Fey show
* 20 Good Years, John Lithgow stars.

New Dramas
* Friday Night Lights, based on the high school football film of the same name.
* Studio 60, Aaron Sorkin's insider view of pseudo-SNL.
* Raines, ploice drama starring Jeff Goldblum.
* Heroes, from the mind of Crossing Jordan creator Tim Kring.
* The Black Donnellys

Returning Series
* My Name is Earl, The Office, ER, Medium, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: CI, Deal or No Deal, Crossing Jordan, Las Vegas

Going Home
* Teachers, the Tuesday night midseason replacement starring Justin Bartha.

ABC
New Comedies
* In Case of Emergency, David Arquette and Jonathan Silverman star as high school pals who reunite to face a personal crisis.
* Help Me, Help You, celebrity shrink Ted Danson runs group therapy while dealing with his own issues.
* Notes from the Underbelly, the changing life of a married couple expecting their first child.

New Dramas
* Day Break, Taye Diggs is a cop trying to discover who framed him for murder.
* The Nine, Chi McBride and Scott Wolf star as two of nine people piecing their lives back together following a hostage crisis.
* Six Degrees, JJ Abrams gives us odd coincidences surrounding six people brought together by fate or something else.

Returning Series
* Lost, Grey's Anatomy, According to Jim, George Lopez

FOX
New Comedies
* 'Til Death
* The Winner

New Dramas
* Primary, Ron Livingston and Rosemary DeWitt star as sexually charged, feuding hostage negotiators.
* American Crime, the Jerry Bruckheimer legal drama starring Victor Garber.
* Vanished

Returning Favs
24, The Simpsons

Going Home

The CW
Going Home
* Reba

Our pain-in-the-ass barrister, Justice Payne, goes off the deep end today -- commenting on everything from Britney's amniotic fluid and David Blaine's broken water, to two brand new waterlogged movie trailers. Grab a towel and dive in.

Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly will star in QUEBEC, the story of two supermarket assistants who compete for the manager's job. Lili Taylor, Jenna Fisher, Fred Armison, and Gil Bellows will co-star. Steve Conrad is writing and directing.

Source: Variety

Warner Home Video has just announced a September 5 release date for SUPERNATURAL: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON. This six-disc set collects the first 22 pulse pounding episodes of The WB's hot new series, starring Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. Relive their adventures before the show moves over to the CW this fall, when we find out the fate of the Winchester boys.

BONUS FEATURES
TBD

BASICS
Price: $59.98
Street Date: September 5, 2006
Video: Anamorphic widescreen
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 (English)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese
Not Rated

Something New

Coming to DVD May 16, from Focus Features

SYNOPSIS
Kenya Denise McQueen (Sanaa Lathan) appears to have it all – beauty, brains and a prestigious job at a top accounting firm. She also has a long list of requirements for the type of man she wants to marry, but she’s not having much luck finding someone who fits the bill. Dispirited after hearing that over 42% of African American women never marry, Kenya impulsively agrees to a blind date with Brian Kelly (Simon Baker), a sexy, free-spirited landscape architect, who isn’t exactly what she pictured for herself. While not the man she had in mind for romance, she hires him to fix up the yard of her new house and finds herself irresistibly drawn to his earthy, laid-back charm. When she finally meets her theoretically perfect match, corporate attorney Mark (Blair Underwood), Kenya is further thrown into confusion. Everybody has an opinion, from her trio of girlfriends Cheryl, Suzzette, and Nedra (Wendy Raquel Robinson, Golden Brooks, Taraji P. Henson) to her socially prominent parents Joyce and Edmond (Alfre Woodard and Earl Billings). Ultimately, Kenya must decide between the relationship everyone expects and the romance no one expected.

BONUS FEATURES
* Blair Underwood Introduction to the Film/DVD
* The Do's and Don'ts of Dating Introduction by Blair Underwood
* The Making of Something New

BASICS
Price: $29.98
Street Date: May 16, 2006
Audio: Dolby 5.1 Surround (English)
Run Time: 100 min
Rated: PG-13

Visit the official web site

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: The Complete Fourth Season

Rolling onto DVD August 8, from Warner Home Video

SYNOPSIS
Season Four sees Will (Will Smith) and Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro) develop into college boys when they enter the University of Los Angeles, home of the Peacocks. But higher learning is not the only subject on their curriculum -- college life brings many other advantages, including gorgeous coeds, fraternity parties as well as Will and Carlton’s own place. This entertaining season also features a diverse lineup of guest stars, including the rap group Boys II Men, Hugh Hefner, Ben Vereen, Pam Grier, Michael Rapaport, Robert Guillaume, Donald Trump, Marla Maples, Dick Clark, and Tyra Banks.

BASICS
Price: $29.98
Street Date: August 8, 2006
Video: 1.33:1 full frame
Audio: Dolby 2.0 Surround (English)
Subtitles: French, Spanish
Run Time: 584 min
Not Rated

BONUS FEATURES
None

To celebrate the May 16 release of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE: LIKE, THE BEST EDITION EVER!, Fox has partnered with VMix for an online dance-off, wolvie-berseker style. Pit your best video moves against Napoleon's for fun, fame, and fabulous prizes...

The Napoleon Dynamite Dance Off Challenge!

You have to see it to believe it. Personally, I vote for the two Asian kids. Hard to believe there are this many people with little or no shame.

SHAKESPEARE BEHIND BARS

The Award-Winning Documentary Arrives On DVD July 18, from Shout! Factory

The award-winning documentary about an all-male Shakespearean theatre company composed of convicted felons doing hard time. Shakespeare Behind Bars premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and has won awards at many festivals. The DVD also contains over 45 minutes of bonus material, including deleted scenes, prisoner updates, and bonus performance footage. Three full length audio commentaries provide insight from the filmmakers, program founder/artistic director, and four of the convicts who participated in the program.

SYNOPSIS
Shakespeare Behind Bars follows a group of men enrolled in a theatre program at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in Kentucky. Over the span of a year, the cameras follow this cast of convicted felons as they rehearse and perform a full production of The Tempest under the direction of Curt Tofteland. Marking their seventh year as an acting ensemble, the inmates cast themselves in relation to their crimes and as a result, murderers play murderers, and thieves play thieves. The inmates delve into personal experience to bring these Shakespearean characters to life. Ultimately, the film explores the universal themes of redemption, transformation and forgiveness.

BASICS
Price: $19.98
Street Date: July 18, 2006
Not Rated

ANIMANIACS VOLUME 1 and PINKY AND THE BRAIN VOLUME 1

Animating their way onto DVD July 25, from Warner Home Video

Lock the Warner water tower and guard the lab!

ANIMANIACS: VOLUME 1

Follow the misadventures of the Warner Brothers, Yakko and Wacko, and their sister, Dot, in Animaniacs: Volume 1. Created and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, the ensemble cast of off-the-wall Warner Bros. characters, appear in a wide variety of roles as they continuously escape the water tower and run amuck all over the Warner Lot. This five-disc collectors set is filled with over 12 hours of zany adventures and bonus materials including Animaniacs Live!, an in-studio interview with Animaniac friends commenting on the historical significance of the show.

BASICS:
Price: $44.98
Street Date: July 25, 2006
Video: 1.33:1 full frame
Audio: Dolby 5.1 Surround (English), Dolby 2.0 Surround (English), Dolby 1.0 (Portuguese)
Subtitles: French, Spanish, Portuguese
Run Time: 550 minutes
Not Rated

PINKY AND THE BRAIN: VOLUME 1

Pinky and The Brain: Volume 1 is a four-disc collectors set, featuring 22 fun-filled, classic episodes from the Emmy nominated series. Pinky and the Brain are two laboratory mice living at Acme Labs whose genes have been spliced. Before each night is over they scheme to formulate a plan to conquer the world. The Brain is a genius who leads the master plan, whereas Pinky is quite insane and the comedic relief for the series. Bonus materials include "The Start of All Things Wacky", a behind the scenes look at the series, courtesy of voice actors Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche, and voice director Andrea Romano as they discuss antidotes and antics about Tom Ruegger, Steven Spielberg and why they had so much fun at work.

BASICS:
Price: $44.98
Street Date: July 25, 2006
Video: 1.33:1 full frame
Audio: Dolby 5.1 Surround (English), Dolby 2.0 Surround (English), Dolby 1.0 (Portuguese)
Subtitles: French, Spanish, Portuguese
Run Time: 471 minutes
Not Rated

THE CULT OF THE SUICIDE BOMBER

Coming to DVD June 20, from The Disinformation Company

Their devastating and deadly actions punctuate the world news almost nightly, yet they remain faceless figures amidst the violence and turmoil that engulf the Middle East. And, whether it’s the C4-laden martyrs of Hezbollah or the car bombing insurgents of Iraq, what could possibly compel a suicide bomber to voluntarily take their own lives, along with those of hundreds of innocent victims? There is perhaps no one better equipped to investigate this terrifying practice than Robert Baer, a decorated, former Middle East CIA Agent and the man George Clooney’s Syriana character was based on. In this groundbreaking documentary, Baer returns to his former center of operations to trace the origins of the modern day bomber from the Iran-Iraq war to the Middle Eastern streets of today. Learn the secret history of the suicide bomber, from the child martyrs of the Iran-Iraq war, the truck bombers in southern Lebanon, to the young men and women who now strap explosives to their bodies and calmly blow themselves up in crowded streets and markets across the Middle East.

BASICS
Price: $19.98
Street Date: June 20
Run Time: 120 min
Not Rated