Tuning In to TV

TV classics go postal

The U.S. Postal Service is going into showbiz.

Sales began Tuesday of Early TV Memories commemorative stamps featuring classic characters from television’s golden era of the 1950s.

The campaign was launched in a crowded auditorium at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood, Calif. Funnyman Carl Reiner kept the program running with his comments, Associated Press reports.

A TV performer since 1948, Mr. Reiner doesn’t have his own stamp. The reason: He’s 87 and still alive. You have to be dead to appear on the stamps.

Mr. Reiner introduced dozens of survivors of stars with stamps. Among them: Jayne Meadows, widow of Steve Allen; Grace Bradley Boyd, widow of William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy); Sam and Tracy Nelson, third generation of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson; Barbara Hale, aka Della Street, secretary to Perry Mason (Raymond Burr).

Yet the star of the show may well have been Lassie, who barked and posed on orders from his trainer.

“He’s in the 10th generation of collies,” says June Lockhart, who starred in “Lassie” from 1956 to 1964. “In all my years of working with them, not one has bitten me.”

The early television shows that appear on the stamps include “I Love Lucy,” with a picture of Lucy and her friend Ethel struggling to cope with candy rolling past on a conveyor belt.

Uncle Milty makes an appearance, commemorating Milton Berle’s funny moments on “Texaco Star Theater.”

George Burns and Gracie Allen share a comedic stamp moment, as do Jackie Gleason and Art Carney in “The Honeymooners.”

And who could forget the conniving Sgt. Ernest T. Bilko played by the over-the-top Phil Silvers. There’s also the original combination comedy-game show hosted by Groucho Marx and his duck puppet from “You Bet Your Life.”

On the mysterious side are stamps honoring Alfred Hitchcock, who presented tales of suspense, and Jack Webb, who unraveled mysteries as the Los Angeles Police Department’s Sgt. Joe Friday on “Dragnet.”

Perry Mason makes an appearance on a stamp featuring Raymond Burr, who played the star defense lawyer, and William Talman, who specialized in losing cases to Mason when playing prosecutor Hamilton Burger.

No taped Emmys

The television academy is scrapping its “time-shifting” plans and will present all 28 Emmy Awards during the September telecast.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced last month that it would pretape eight awards presentations and acceptance speeches, including some in the writing category. Members of the Writers Guild of America then blasted the academy for the plan in a letter signed by some of the top TV showrunners, Associated Press reports.

The academy says the decision was made to “mend relationships within the television community” and allow the telecast producer to focus on “creative elements” during the live show.

The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards will air at 8 p.m. Sept. 20 on CBS.

Roast ratings down

Comedy Central’s Aug. 9 “Roast of Joan Rivers” easily won its time slot among the cable network’s young male demographics and performed well in both the 18-to-49 group and total viewers, Broadcastingcable.com reports.

While the roast did well, it couldn’t top the previous Comedy Central “Roast of Larry the Cable Guy,” which the network aired in March.

The Rivers roast drew 2.8 million total viewers compared to 4.1 million viewers for Larry the Cable Guy.

The numbers also were down slightly from last summer’s roast of Bob Saget, which drew just over 3 million viewers, B&C says.

Of course, both Larry the Cable Guy and Mr. Saget are popular and well known among Comedy Central’s younger male audience, an audience that may not necessarily be familiar with Miss Rivers outside of her red carpet specials and self-deprecating cameos in show’s such as “Nip/Tuck” and “The Celebrity Apprentice.”

AMC taps Darabont

AMC is venturing into zombie-drama territory with Oscar-nominated director and screenwriter Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption,” “The Green Mile”), Variety reports.

According to the trade publication, the basic cable network is close to finalizing one of the richest development deals ever with Mr. Darabont to write and direct a series adaptation of the Image Comics graphic novel series, “The Walking Dead,” penned by Robert Kirkman.

The project is set among a group of zombie survivors of an apocalypse who are led by a police officer, Rick Grimes, in search of a safe place to live. Numerous editions of the “Walking Dead” graphic novels have been published since 2003.

Joel Stillerman, AMC’s senior vice president of programming, production and original content, says the project appealed to the network because of “the quality of the storytelling” in Mr. Kirkman’s work. The series will stay faithful to the tone of the original novels, he said.

State of the Union

Gabrielle Union is set to co-star and serve as executive producer of the upcoming Lifetime movie “The Vow,” Variety reports.

The made-for-cable film is based on the 2005 novel by Denene Millner, Angela Burt-Murray and Mitzi Miller about three women who attend a wedding and all decide to be engaged within the next year.

Miss Union was last seen on the big screen in “Cadillac Records” and has a recurring role this fall in ABC’s new science-fiction drama “FlashForward.”

Hudson to ’Heroes’

“Oz” alum Ernie Hudson has joined NBC’s drama series “Heroes.”

He’ll play Capt. Lubbock, a Baltimore detective, the Hollywood Reporter says.

As usual, the show’s producers are keeping story line details under wraps, but it’s understood that Lubbock is on the hunt for one of the other characters on the show.

“Heroes” marks a return to the police beat for Mr, Hudson, who also played a detective in a recurring role on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.” The actor also played a senior deputy on ABC’s dramedy “10-8: Officers on Duty.”

• Compiled by Robyn-Denise Yourse from Web and wire reports