The TV Zone

Did you know that Jackie Gleason had a sitcom before “The Honeymooners”? That he starred in a 1960s Woody Allen movie? That he had a 1980s TV movie reunion with Art Carney?

Everything Gleason is there at a new “online museum” launched last week on what would have been The Great One’s 92nd birthday. JackieGleason.com has a timeline of Gleason’s Broadway, film and TV career, an in-depth biography and, best of all, video clips of many of Gleason’s memorable characters -- not just Ralph Kramden but Reggie Van Gleason III, Joe the Bartender, the pantomime Poor Soul, and more.

It’s a nice place to visit while waiting for WPIX/11’s weekly “Honeymooners” salute to begin March 16. Or for that Allen-scripted movie, “Don’t Drink the Water,” to hit DVD March 18.

We’re still waiting for an official release of his 1949 season on NBC’s “The Life of Riley.” [See photo at right.] His 1985 TV movie “Izzy and Moe” costarring Carney is already on disc and is available for download to Windows users at Amazon Unbox. With two “Color Honeymooners” collections out on DVD from his 1960s Miami Beach variety show, a third one is due May 27.

Now we await ABC getting into the game. This week, both NBC and CBS announced massive new web streams of full episodes of vintage TV shows.

NBC.com has launched a Way Back Wednesdays page featuring episodes of such NBC Universal library series as “Miami Vice,” “Emergency,” “Buck Rogers” and “The A-Team.” (Who doesn’t need to see Mr. T in “Mexican Slayride”?)

Sci Fi.com, ChillerTV.com and SleuthChannel.com are other NBC-owned channel sites planned to start vintage streaming this month. Expect shows like “Tek War” and “Night Gallery” (SciFi.com), “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” and “Swamp Thing” (ChillerTV.com), and “Kojak” and “Simon & Simon” (SleuthChannel.com).

CBS.com’s new Television Classics list taps the CBS Library (vintage Paramount and CBS shows) for episodes of “The Twilight Zone,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Star Trek” and “Melrose Place.” Even “MacGyver,” for you “MythBusters” fans.

The CBS shows are also available through “more than 300 Web sites currently making up the CBS Audience Network,” says the press release, including “partners such as AOL, Microsoft, CNET Networks, Comcast, Joost, Bebo, Netvibes, Sling Media and Veoh and social application partners including Automattic, Brightcove, Clearspring, DAVE Networks, Goowy Media, meebo, MeeVee, Musestorm, Ning, RockYou!, Slide, VideoEgg, Voxant and vSocial, as well as Web sites from CBS's owned television, radio, and affiliated stations.” (Think they missed anybody?)

But nothing comes free, does it? While these vintage streams don’t cost anything to watch, they do come ad-supported. Sorry, no escaping commercials.

Finally, something worth watching on Saturday night network TV! For one weekend, anyway.

This week’s second-season premiere of “Jericho” will now repeat on CBS Saturday (Feb. 16) at 8 p.m. -- perhaps a tiny test of whether the series now airing Tuesdays at 10 should return to an earlier time slot. I can’t be the only critic getting emails from parents outraged that their kids’ once-favorite show has returned at a weeknight hour too late for them to stay up for.

The episode is also streaming online at CBS’ extensive “Jericho” site, either with or without commentary.

[Above: "Jericho" star Skeet Ulrich and cast addition Esai Morales in CBS photo.]

Revisiting last spring’s two-hour “Lost” season finale (tonight 9-11 on ABC/7) isn’t the only way to catch up to the show’s goings-on before Thursday’s 9 p.m. fourth-season premiere.

If you haven’t already run across the web’s ubiquitous “Lost in 8:15” (also downloadable free at iTunes), it’s worth that much time to watch a recap of the previous three seasons’ main plot points. They’re narrated almost hilariously fast and with dry dollops of wit, but they certainly do the trick.

There’s also Thursday night’s 8 p.m. ABC special “Lost: Past, Present & Future,” promised by the network to “relive their story of survival to prepare for the shocking Season 4 premiere that will change everything.” And of course, those with hours to spare can watch full hour installments via DVD, download or ABC.com’s free streaming episodes, all three seasons’ worth.

“See through the eyes of a ghost,” trumpets the latest edition of “The Other Side,” an online scripted companion to CBS’ “Ghost Whisperer,” which starts streaming fresh webisodes today.

Cast with cool young hotties, playing seductresses and spirit collectors, it’s a pretty snazzy effort that starts with a special-effects bang -- after you watch a commercial. This is real TV, after all.

The first season of “The Other Side” is still online, too, with eight short webisodes showing how a ghost like its young bike courier “learns to navigate the Spirit World and intersect with the World of the Living.”

If Showtime’s “Penn & Teller: [Bullfeathers!]” doesn't provide enough highly exercised opinion for you, try the new Penn Says channel on Sony’s still-in-beta Crackle video site.

As Penn Jillette admits while ranting into his own high-def camera, he's fairly ubiquitous on talk shows and has “a lot of opportunity to speak my mind,” even on subjects like politics, “because I’m very, very qualified for that, being a juggler and carny trash.” But these two-minute-ish opinion pieces -- 10 of them posted so far, to a total 100,000 views -- are utterly unfiltered and, occasionally, unintelligible.

Usually, however, they’re knowledgeably smart, as Penn can be, riffing on everything from the scariness of Hillary Clinton to the cynicism of Dr. Phil meeting Britney --

-- to “weather opportunists,” to the zoo tiger eating a guy. (OK, that last one actually makes no sense at all.) They’re definitely low-def high-def, shot by Penn holding his camera at arm’s length whether strolling outside his desert home or just sitting around.

Crackle otherwise collects sketch comedy, animation, other video debris and those fun Minisodes (five-minute episode abridgements) from Sony studio shows including “Police Woman,” “TJ Hooker,” “The Partridge Family,” “Facts of Life,” “Dilbert” and “Ricki Lake.” Worth a look when you’ve got time to waste.

Now that we have your attention . . .

Carson Kressley’s new Lifetime series “How to Look Good Naked” doesn’t arrive on cable till Friday, Jan. 4, but it starts streaming Saturday at the channel’s relaunched web site, mylifetime.com. The “Queer Eye” guy “teaches women of all shapes and sizes how to go from self-loathing to self-loving without resorting to interventions like extreme dieting or cosmetic surgery,” says Lifetime’s press release.

Also previewing in streaming video online (and arriving on Lifetime TV Jan. 4: Matched in Manhattan,” with an NYC “dating agent” who helps both straights and gays find relationships; and “Top This Party,” about elite planners who throw high-end soirees for the richest clients.

It’s not too late to celebrate. Vintage TV holidays are streaming online at TV4U, reaching way back to Red Skelton’s variety show, Jack Benny’s shopping excursion [photo at left], Burns and Allen at home, and the Clampetts’ hillbilly Christmas. Just click on TV4U’s Holiday TV icon.

They’ve even got old-time Christmas cartoons, the Yule Log, holiday music with Liberace, and period fun with “Annie Oakley” and “Long John Silver.”

And if Christmas isn’t your thing, you can watch shows for Valentine’s Day, Halloween or Thanksgiving, too.

But for me, for now -- Merry Christmas!

Got five minutes? Then you’ve got time to watch an entire episode of faves like “Charlie’s Angels,” “Married With Children,” “Fantasy Island,” “The Facts of Life” or “Starsky & Hutch.” Even if you’re not at home.

Pick up that Verizon V CAST phone, and click to on-demand video of The Minisode Network (under the TV & Film category). The online site launched last June has spun off into cell-land, offering quick pick-me-ups from eight vintage tube series even when you’re on the go.

You get the whole kit and kaboodle per episode, including the entire plot and credits (and, yes, commercials) in about one-tenth the time. (And it’s not like you miss much, either.)

Halloween episodes are still up on V CAST now (under the subcategory What’s Hot), which must mean -- we pray, we pray -- that Christmas episodes are soon to follow. New episodes arrive each week. Minisode’s online site ups the count to 15 Sony-produced series including “Dilbert,” “Ricki Lake” and “Police Woman.”

Mary Tyler Moore remembers being cast on “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” Tina Fey talks about creating “30 Rock.” Anderson Cooper explains how he became a reporter. “The Sopranos” creator David Chase faces off with “whacked Sopranos” like Steve Buscemi and Drea de Matteo. Conan O’Brien riffs with his writers.

They’re all on the souped-up website of The Paley Center for Media, the Manhattan archive that used to be called The Museum of Television & Radio. Under either name, the facility frequently hosts panel discussions with TV’s top creators, performers, journalists, executives and other experts. Excerpts from more than 40 of those are now online. (If you want to watch entire usually-90-minutes events, you can head to The Paley Center at 25 W. 52nd Street. Or to the Paley's Beverly Hills offshoot.)

Recent events now streaming include Roger Daltrey talking about “Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who” (which debuts on VH1 Saturday, Nov. 3 at 9 p.m.) and a discussion of HBO’s new female suicide bomber documentary “To Die in Jerusalem” (airing tonight at 9, as well as Sunday, Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. and Tuesday, Nov. 6 at 8:30 a.m.).

If you haven’t yet caught the cool new CW comedy “Aliens in America,” about a Wisconsin geek and his Pakistani exchange student roommate -- and most of America unfortunately still hasn’t -- here’s your chance to watch at leisure.

This week’s episode, a what-to-wear conflict called “The Metamorphosis,” is available now as a free download from iTunes. Watch it on the go, and show it to your friends. (Episodes also stream online at The CW site.)

This little gem, delightfully both silly and smart, is so far doing abysmal ratings that make us fear for its survival. And “Aliens” deserves better. Of course, so did “Freaks and Geeks,” of which it so charmingly reminds us in its savvy depiction of high school hell.

Add the timely culture-clash element (and the presence of “Gilmore Girls” fave Scott Patterson), and “Aliens in America” should be soaring. Help it take flight on Monday night (8:30 p.m. on The CW).

[Above: Adhir Kalyan in CW photo by Sergei Bachlakov.]

Just in time for Halloween, find out “How to Survive a Horror Movie: All the Skills to Dodge the Kills.” It’s an original web series spoofing both old-time educational films and fright film conventions, and its cool comedy comes from, of all places, CBS.

The network’s interactive division has been posting six episodes a week for the last three weeks (“666,” natch), and as of today, they’re all streaming at a dedicated web site and at CBS.com. Learn “How to Defeat Satan” (or a killer doll), as well as “What to Do If Your Corn Has Children in It.” Get wise to “Know Your Ghosts” or “Know Your Four Ejection Seats.”

It’s quick and breezy fun since the installments are generally less than 2 minutes long. (You’ll have to sit through preroll commercials first. Nothing's free in this universe.) There’s also director’s commentary and a blog, plus behind-the-scenes photos.

Now that it’s been yanked off CBS’ air after just two episodes, “Viva Laughlin” can enter pop culture legend under the category so-bad-it’s-jawdroppingly-essential. We wouldn’t want this pseudo-musical mess polluting the airwaves weekly, but we can’t let it pass, either, without saying you MUST see it at least once just to savor its sheer, mind-numbing wrongheadedness.

Thankfully, CBS’ Innertube video site still has the pilot available, located under the Recommended tab, and you might want to get there before they kill the streams, too. (They’ve already 86’d “Viva’s” CBS.com show site.) It's also available via AOL Video.

Watch as many minutes as you can stand. (The lily-livered among us could consider fast-forwarding the time bar to about halfway through for Hugh Jackman’s least-objectionable “Sympathy for the Devil” number.)

Don’t thank us. Really. We’re ashamed of ourselves already.

[Above: Hugh Jackman and Lloyd Owen in CBS photo by Robert Voets.]

Before “America’s Psychic Challenge” hits the air on Lifetime this Friday, Oct. 12 at 10 p.m., the premiere episode of the clairvoyance competition is already streaming at Yahoo TV.

Also previewing at Yahoo -- Season 2 debuts of Lifetime’s “Lisa Williams: Life Among the Dead” (back on TV Friday night at 9) and supernatural drama “Blood Ties” (not on TV till Friday at 11).

The three shows’ premieres can also be downloaded for free from iTunes.

Find more episodes at Lifetime’s video page.

You think it’s easy to become the star of your own TV show? You don’t know the pain it takes. But Buster does. And the star of “MythBusters” now has his inside tale told online in “Behind the Story: Buster.”

The hunk made of junk, the stud who lands with a thud -- Buster hit the top in 2003 as the crash test dummy on Discovery’s sudden-smash “MythBusters.” But as with so many instant celebs, stardom turned Buster’s head. You heard about that stay at the Henry Ford Clinic. Now learn about Buster’s humble beginnings in a mixed family, and the road that led to all that stunt-double-demanding Hollywood behavior.

There’s more -- oh so much more, told in juicy clips, interviews and even bloopers (extras!) -- streaming online in “Behind the Story: Buster.” You'll never look at "MythBusters” quite the same way again.

[Discovery Channel photo above shows Buster, center, with co-stars Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman.]

Fans of the old NBC soap “Passions,” which moved exclusively to DirecTV satellite on Sept. 17, can now continue to watch new ninth-season episodes online.

For just $19.95 a month.

Gulp. You give DirecTV $20, and you’ve bought yourself a few dozen channels, via a nice clear digital broadcast signal on your big-screen TV. You give NBC.com $20, and you get one show that might or might not stream at a fast or slow speed, in a computer-screen window. (It's on NBC.com because the network's owned studio continues to produce "Passions" for DirecTV.)

The episodes will, however, remain on the site for eight weeks for easy catchup, starting Monday (Oct. 1).

Read the press release here.

[Above: Juliet Mills and Georgia Engel in NBC photo by Paul Skipper.]

Missed last night’s big “Heroes” return? NBC is happy to help you out.

The second-season premiere repeats on NBC (in high-def) this Saturday, Sept. 29, at 8 p.m.

And it’s streaming online now at NBC’s “Heroes” page, along with last May’s first-season finale. The site also hosts Monday night’s live blog with “Heroes” creator Tim Kring and star Jack Coleman (H.R.G.).

And if you're lucky enough to have a Verizon V CAST Mobile TV equipped phone, you can even watch it on that teeny-weeny cell screen via NBC2Go.

Can’t wait for fall series premieres? Don’t have to. They’re all over the internet.

Among the online highlights:

YAHOO! TV -- The season premiere of “Friday Night Lights” doesn’t hit the tube till Oct. 5, but it’s already streaming here, along with CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” and NBC’s “Chuck” (both hitting TV Monday, Sept. 24). Soon to come are The CW’s “Aliens in America” (on Yahoo Sept. 24, on TV Oct. 1) and “Life Is Wild” (on Yahoo Sept. 30, on TV Oct. 7), Showtime’s “Dexter” and “Brotherhood” (on TV and on Yahoo Sept. 30), Lifetime’s “Blood Ties” (on Yahoo Oct. 4, on TV Oct. 12), and many more.

AMAZON -- The Unbox download service offers CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” and NBC’s “Chuck” (on TV Sept. 24), “Journeyman” (Sept. 24), “Life” (Sept. 26) and “Bionic Woman” (Sept. 26), plus encores of “Back to You,” “K-Ville” and more.

ITUNES -- Free downloads include CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory,” plus Fox’ already debuted “Back to You,” “K-Ville” and “Kitchen Nightmares” (the episode with Peter’s in Babylon). Fox plans to post its fall premieres here after they air.

AOL TV -- Premiere video is streaming for NBC’s “Life” (full episode) and “Bionic Woman” (first half).

MSN –- Shows include CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” premiere and “Kid Nation” encore.

Talk about a quick turnaround. Not 15 hours after Sunday’s “MTV Video Music Awards” performance debacle, VH1 was sending out press releases for tomorrow night’s half-hour special “All Access: Britney’s Most Shocking Year Ever” (Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m.).

“It's been a whirlwind journey of self expression, self destruction and patented Britney wackiness,” say the sympathetic souls at VH1. “And to think the year is not even over yet!”

Sadly true. For a more compassionate take on Ms. Spears’ misfortunes, watch this classic Craig Ferguson monologue, where CBS’ late-late night host empathetically identifies by making light (and dark) of his own vicissitudes. Hilarious -- yet heartrending.

Likely not what VH1 has in mind.

The hip-hopper’s online “urban operetta” sensation hits the tube tonight. “Trapped in the Closet: The Movie” debuts on IFC Friday at 9 p.m., all 22 chapters compiled from earlier internet/DVD releases.

There’ll be a live chat at IFC.com during this “feature film” airing.

It’s followed tonight at 10:30 by “Trapped Inside the Realm of R. Kelly,” a sitdown interview at Kelly’s Chicago recording studio.

Kelly plays multiple roles [IFC photo above] in what Entertainment Weekly calls “a monumental pop culture achievement.” Chart the characters and sample the episodes online.

OK, so it's just a parody of a TV commercial.

But still the smartest, funniest thing I've seen in ages.

Check out Microsoft's forthcoming (not) ZunePhone.

NBC has started streaming “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” on a next-day basis. Episodes can be viewed here after about 3 p.m. the afternoon after they air.

Already online are this week’s shows with Bob Saget (Monday night), Jeff Goldblum (Tuesday night) and Kelly Preston (Wednesday night).

Upcoming guests include Friday night’s Scarlett Johansson and Tuesday’s David Duchovny and Tim Gunn. (Monday’s a repeat.)

MLB.TV celebrates its fifth anniversary Sunday with a free webcast of the Yankees-Tigers game from Comerica Park. Game time is 1:05 p.m.

The Yankees also played in the first game the online pay service streamed, the Aug. 26, 2002 contest hosting the Rangers.

Getting a jump on the competition, Fox has already put the premiere episode of its new fall Monday night drama “K-Ville” online at Fox.com, AOL, Yahoo and other sites.

“K-Ville” dramatizes New Orleans police officers trying to maintain order and some semblance of normal life post-Katrina. Starring as partners are Anthony Anderson (“The Shield”) and Cole Hauser (“High Incident”) [above in Fox photo]. The series debuts on Fox TV stations Sept. 17.

More online video from Fox: this fall’s return of “Prison Break,” or at least the first 17 minutes of it. That show [Fox photo below] starts its third season Sept. 17, leading into “K-Ville.”

Vanessa Simmons from MTV's "Run's House" starts appearing on CBS’ “Guiding Light” this week as “Lola, a woman with an eye for Remy Boudreau (Lawrence St. Victor),” says the network.

You can watch the daughter of former Run DMC front man Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons on TV weekdays at 10 a.m. on WCBS/2 or online anytime via CBS’ web site.

She’s also online in “Run’s House” episodes here.

[Photo by George DeSota/jpistudios.]

ABC put “The Nine” on the air last fall. Then it yanked the hostage-taking fallout saga off the air. Then network execs promised to burn off the rest of the serial story’s 13 produced episodes this summer. Then they took those off the air.

So here’s where you “Nine” fans can go. (No, not there. That’s for ABC to say, not us.) We are now promised that ABC.com’s video player will roll out the remaining episodes this month, forthwith:

Episodes 8-11 are already posted. Episode 12 goes up Aug. 23, with the finale loading Aug. 30. They’ll remain online through Sept. 24.

While you’re at the site, you can also find some other (possibly unexpected) goodies: SOAPnet’s “GH”-spinoff “Night Shift,” ESPN’s 1977 Yankees/NYC portrait “The Bronx Is Burning,” and fellow ABC burnoffs “Six Degrees,” “Daybreak” and “The Knights of Prosperity.”

Discovery Channel has started offering full episodes of some of its most popular series for viewing through the channel’s website. TLC and Animal Planet series are also included. “Meerkat Manor” is up now, with “Dirty Jobs” and “LA Ink” to come.

Watching the shows requires a download of Discovery’s video player (works on PC and Mac). Users can pause and choose episode chapters.

Episodes are promised online the day after they premiere on TV.

Curious about next week’s new ABC Family college drama “Greek” or Comedy Central’s auto-com “American Body Shop” with former NYC cop/LI comic John DiResta [pictured right]?

Sneak a peek at them by downloading next week’s pilot episodes right now through iTunes. These previews are free, along with tastes of such other current shows as Bravo’s “Hey Paula” docusoap with the “American Idol” judge and LOGO’s “Curl Girls” reality show in the surf. Also still gratis are last spring’s ABC story catch-up clipfests from “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Ugly Betty,” to keep you (almost) current for fall.

Plenty of other tube treats have been added at $1.99 an episode, including Garry Shandling’s acclaimed “The Larry Sanders Show” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” You can even try out offerings from cable/satellite channels you might not otherwise have access to, including FUEL, Style, Sleuth, the English-language SiTV channel and the bilingual mun2.

Remember you can watch the shows through iTunes on your computer as well as on your iPod. Click on “TV Shows” in the iTunes store box (upper left on the application's home page), then scroll down to click “Free on iTunes.”

CBS just started streaming three of its soaps in same-day web offerings. “Guiding Light,” “As the World Turns” and “The Young and the Restless” can now be viewed at CBS’ innertube site after 6 p.m. ET the day of airing. (Click the “All Shows” option, then “Daytime.”) The network says the episodes will stay online free for a week.

Handy to have ’em available anytime -- there’s even the “boss button” used on sports streams to call up cover when the supervisor strolls by -- but it’s hardly the same as watching them on TV. Even on broadband connections, you can see jumpy video, buffering time and other online artifacts. You still get commercials, too. (That’s why they’re free.) But there’s a full-screen option, and you can pause, rewind and fast-forward.

Already posted here: Monday-Wednesday episodes.

[Right: "GL" star Rob Bogue in CBS photo.]

ABC has upgraded its website video player with a full-screen viewing option to make online tube-watching even more TV-like.

Its debut may be some consolation to fans of “Six Degrees,” the J.J. Abrams-produced and New York-shot serial drama that was a Nielsen dud. ABC pulled the show after its March 30 airing, but says the five remaining unaired episodes will start streaming April 27 (new one each Friday). In the meantime, the previous four outings are already online.

Catch up with local arts, culture and cuisine online in video streams of WLIW/21’s weekly “Ticket” series, a New York Emmy nominee both this year and last.

The new online archive offers on-demand viewing of Ch. 21’s Wednesday 7:30 p.m. show, which covers the arts and artists’ stories, local institutions (Long Island Philharmonic, Long Island Press), area celebs (TV’s Father Tom Hartman), and other aspects of life around here (religion, food, more).

“Ticket” heads online at the three-year anniversary of WLIW’s five-nights-a-week local lineup, which also includes “Q&A;” (Mondays at 7:30), one-on-one interviews with top decision makers; “Face Off” (Tuesdays at 7:30), featuring local “opinion shapers and risk takers”; the LI portrait “Snapshot” (Saturdays at 7:30), and the roundtable discussion “21 Forum” (Thursdays at 7:30).

Also streaming from WLIW: “Visions of Ireland” and “Healthy Minds.”

The home of the $1.99 episode, iTunes is offering some free TV downloads you would actually want.

Play catch-up: Before they returned from winter hiatus, both “Lost” and “Jericho” offered refresher episodes summarizing what happened last fall. Both recap hours are still free for the grabbing.

Preview: Download the pilot of NBC’s new well-reviewed (including by me) comedy “Andy Barker, P.I.” casting Andy Richter as an accountant/detective who sleuths as if auditioning for “Police Squad!” The show premieres Thursday night at 9:30.

[NBC photo by Mitchell Haaseth.]