Paramount Plus’s reboot of the popular 1990s sitcom Frasier leads a busy list of shows set to debut this week.

Frasier premieres on the streaming service October 12 with Kelsey Grammer reprising the role of psychiatrist Frasier Crane. The series also stars Jack Cutmore-Scott and Nicholas Lyndhurst, with guest appearances from original series stars Bebe Neuwirth and Peri Gilpin. The first two episodes of the series will also air on CBS on October 17.

Debuting on October 13 is the premiere of Disney Plus’s Goosebumps, the latest TV adaptation of the R. L. Stine book franchise. The 10-episode, kids-targeted, horror-themed series will also debut its first two episodes on Freeform on the same night.

Also premiering on Friday the 13th is the fourth season of streaming service Shudder's horror-based anthology series Creepshow. The first episode of the series will also debut on AMC Plus and AMC. 

Here are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting during the week of October 9-15. For some videos, viewer discretion is advised.

October 11: Messi Meets America (sports documentary), Apple TV Plus

October 12: Doom Patrol (returning series), Max

October 12: The Fall of the House of Usher (horror), Netflix

October 13: The Burial (drama), Prime Video

October 13: John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams (horror series), Peacock

October 13: Lessons in Chemistry (drama), Apple TV Plus

October 13: Shining Vale (returning series), Starz

October 15: Billy the Kid (returning series), MGM Plus 

Apple TV Plus’ drama Emancipation starring Will Smith and the return of HBO’s fantasy drama His Dark Materials highlight the list of new shows premiering during the first full week of December. 

The December 9 premiere of Emancipation, which follows the travails of a man who escapes from slavery, stars Will Smith in his first major project since his infamous slap of Chris Rock during last March’s Academy Awards Ceremony.

HBO on December 5 will debut the third and final season of its fantasy series His Dark Materials. Two new episodes will debut each week leading up to the series finale on December 26, according to the network.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for multiple shows debuting the week of December 5 to December 11 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

December 8 – Doom Patrol (returning series) – HBO Max

December 8 – South Side (returning series) – HBO Max

December 9 – Little America (returning series) – Apple TV Plus

December 9 -- Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio (animated movie) -- Netflix

December 9 -- Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again (animated movie) -- Disney Plus

HBO Max has renewed two of its DC Comics-themed series, Titans and Doom Patrol, for fourth seasons, the streaming service said Saturday at the DC FanDome event.

Titans, which ends its third season on the streaming service Oct. 21, follows young heroes from across the DC Universe. The series, which moved to HBO Max for season three after its first two seasons were featured on the DC Universe streaming service, stars Brenton Thwaites, Anna Diop, Teagan Croft, Ryan Potter, Conor Leslie, Curran Walters and Joshua Orpin.

Doom Patrol, which is currently streaming its third season on HBO Max, reimagines one of DC’s most beloved groups of superheroes who all suffered a horrible accident that gave them superhuman abilities, but also left them scarred and disfigured. Part support group, part superhero team, the Doom Patrol is a band of super-powered freaks who fight for a world that wants nothing to do with them, according to the streaming service.

The series stars Brendan Fraser, Matt Bomer, Diane Guerrero, April Bowlby, Joivan Wade, Timothy Dalton, Skye Roberts and Michelle Gomez.

AT&T's HBO Max said it ordered a third season of Doom Patrol.

The series, produced by Warner Bros. Television, features an unusual group of superheroes from the DC universe. Warner Bros. and DC are part of the AT&T universe.

“Doom Patrol came to HBO Max with an already deep and passionate fan base and has risen to the top as one of the most watched Max Originals on the platform,” said Sarah Aubrey, head of original content, HBO Max. “The series sits well in our portfolio and we are glad to greenlight a third season to continue this distinctive style of storytelling that resonates so well with critics and fans alike.”

In Doom Patrol, Brendan Fraser plays Robotman, Matt Bomer is Negative Man, Diane Guerrero is Crazy Jane, April Rowlby is Elasti-Woman and Jovian Stone is Cyborg. In season two Abigail Shapiro joined the group bringing mysterious powers.

“On behalf of the wonderful cast, writers and crew, we are thrilled and grateful for the opportunity to return to Doom Manor.” said executive producer Jeremy Carver. “And we are especially thankful for our partners at Berlanti Productions, Warner Bros. Television, DC Universe and, of course, HBO Max.”

Doom Patrol is produced by Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, with Jeremy Carver, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Chris Dingess and Geoff Johns serving as executive producers. The series is based on characters created for DC by Arnold Drake, Bob Haney and Bruno Premiani.

Comic books have been a prime source of TV shows for some time, but the trend has hit what some are calling a second wave, the newer shows having some fun at the expense of superheroes. Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, Amazon’s The Boys and HBO Max’s Doom Patrol all have new seasons, and these comic book offspring offer an offbeat take on the superhero genre that dominates both movies and comics. 

“Superheroes are so omnipresent right now, and some shows look to turn that upside down,” said Eric Kripke, creator and executive producer on The Boys. “We feel like the audience is really hungry for the reaction, the deconstruction to how much superhero stuff is out there.”

Season two of The Boys arrives Friday, Sept. 4. Based on the comic book franchise by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, it’s a cheeky look at what happens when superheroes abuse their powers. 

Kripke has long been what he called a “superfan” of Ennis’s comics, and was crushed to not get to produce Preacher, which was based on an Ennis comic and ran on AMC 2016-2019. When The Boys was in the works, Kripke pushed hard for a role in it. 

Comic Crush 

Comic books have long been a source for TV series, and the genre has hit a high point in the last decade. AMC debuted The Walking Dead, from a Robert Kirkman comic, in 2010. Netflix had Daredevil, Jessica Jones, The Iron Fist and Luke Cage, all from Marvel. The CW has Riverdale, which stemmed from Archie Comics, and the DC Comics-inspired “Arrowverse,” including Arrow, Supergirl, Batwoman and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. HBO’s Peabody Award-winning Watchmen was originally a DC Comics series.

“The more outlets that are ordering original programs, the more they will turn to existing I.P., and comics are an ideal source,” Myles McNutt, assistant professor of communication and theatre arts at Old Dominion University and contributor to The AV Club, said. “They offer a wealth of existing source material, sometimes spanning over decades, and their stories are often serialized, giving producers a strong framework to
work from.”

Season two of Doom Patrol started June 25. The characters include Negative Man, Crazy Jane and Robotman. HBO Max calls them “DC’s strangest group of heroes.” 

“There’s a lot of layers to the show,” Jeremy Carver, executive producer and showrunner said. “Our superheroes don’t even like superheroes.”

The Boys sees some pretty ordinary humans take on a self-reverential gang of superheroes. “The superhero stuff out there is so overwhelming that someone had to take the piss out of it,” Kripke said. 

Season two of The Umbrella Academy begins on Netflix July 31. Based on a comic book series from My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way, it is the story of 43 babies born to unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy. Seven are adopted by a billionaire, who trains them to save the world. 

Creator Steve Blackman was not familiar with the comic franchise, but was intrigued when he found out Way was behind it. He saw it not as “a graphic novel about superheroes, but a story about a dysfunctional family.”

Moving In New Directions

There are significant challenges to turning print stories to television, and doing so in a way that wins over diehard fans of the comics. The half-dozen Marvel shows on Netflix, for one, did not enjoy particularly long runs. 

Producers say the biggest challenge is when to be faithful to the source material and when to take it in a different direction. “You cannot do a one-to-one translation,” Kripke said. “Trying to adapt it word-for-word would be disappointing for everybody.”

Kripke described his strategy as “take what you love from the comic and remix it for the show,” which he likened to “an incredibly stressful game of Jenga.”

Blackman mentioned being “inspired by the source material and bringing my own voice to it. Ultimately, you want to respect the existing fans while attracting a whole new audience.”

Comic books offer a rich palette for producers and a trove of established entertainment brands as more and more networks hunt for compelling original content. “If there was once a time when people presumed that a comic book meant a superhero story for young kids, the breadth of adaptations across both film and television has shifted that discourse,” McNutt said, “meaning that the
industry has more latitude to explore the medium’s thematic and generic range.” 

The first week of summer will see the final season debut of OWN's Greenleaf as well as the return of CBS' All-Access' The Twilight Zone. 

OWN on June 23 will premiere the fifth and final season of its mega church drama Greenleaf, starring Keith David and Lynn Whitfield. The series finished its fourth season as the most watched original scripted series on ad-supported cable for African-American women and total viewers, according to OWN.

On June 25 streaming service CBS All Access will return anthology series The Twilight Zone for its sophomore run. The series, based on the 1960's series of the same name, is executive produced by Jordan Peele. 

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several other shows debuting the week of June 22 to June 28 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

June 25 -- Esme & Roy (returning animation series) -- HBO Max

June 25 -- Doom Patrol (returning series) -- HBO Max

June 25 -- Search Party (returning series) -- HBO Max

June 26 -- My Spy (action movie) -- Prime Video

June 28 -- Black Monday (returning series) -- Showtime

June 28 -- I’ll Be Gone In the Dark (documentary) -- HBO

Season two of Doom Patrol rolls in HBO Max June 25, after the first season aired on DC Universe’s streaming platform. DC calls it the “strangest group of heroes,” including Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Woman and Crazy Jane. Showrunner Jeremy Carver described Doom Patrol as “an exploration of the human condition wrapped up in a Trojan Horse of a superhero show.” He added, “There are a lot of layers to the show.” 

Brendan Fraser, Matt Bomer and Rita Farr are in the cast. 

Carver was never a big comic book guy and had not heard of Doom Patrol until he was approached about the series. He believes that may be an advantage. “I come with a slightly different point of view,” he said. 

New episodes of What Made America Great debut on streaming platform Fox Nation June 29. Host Brian Kilmeade travels the country, revealing “the hidden history and ongoing controversies behind some of America’s most iconic locations,” according to Fox Nation. Kilmeade’s travels include trips to Washington to look into women’s voting rights and Huntsville, Texas to connect with Sam Houston’s legacy. The pandemic has made the visits challenging. “It’s so hard to plan something when you don’t know when you’re allowed to travel,” Kilmeade said. 

His goal is to “bring a different perspective, a different slice of America” to the nation’s history, and where it happened. “I always try to bring something you didn’t know,” Kilmeade said. 

He’s energized by people who want to talk about the big news event, unlike many politicians or pro athletes. “It’s a pleasure to cover something where people say thank you for covering it,” he said. “Thank you for being here.”

History Examines How We Get Through Tough Times 

History also checks out interesting places where history happened. Starting July 5, America: Our Defining Hours examines the most trying times in U.S. history — the Great Depression, civil rights, Pearl Harbor, Sept. 11 — and how we got through it. 

Jane Root, CEO of producer Nutopia, met with History execs as the pandemic was emerging. “They said, what can you do, what can you make?” she said. 

Root got the idea to examine how Americans respond in these exceedingly difficult times — “moments in history we come back to that at the time felt cataclysmic,” she said. 

The original title was Times We Were Tested. Two dozen notable historians weigh in on the events. Root said a project such as this would typically take a year. Our Defining Hours came together in about 14 weeks.

 What did she learn about Americans facing dire consequences? “People find the depth of resourcefulness,” she said. “People work together.”

Streaming service HBO Max has released a new trailer for the second season of action series Doom Patrol, which debuts June 25.

The series, which originally appeared on the DC Universe streaming service, follows the exploits of a misfit group of superheros. The series stars Diane Guerrero, Brendan Fraser, Matt Bomer, April Bowlby and Joivan Wade.  

A nostalgic look at an infamous 1970’s disco era club and a live-action movie based on a kids-targeted animated superhero lead a bevy of new series and specials launching this week.

A&E today (Feb. 11) premieres Studio 54, a documentary movie that looks at the glamorous New York City dance club that shaped the culture of New York City in the 1970s.

On Feb. 15, Disney Channel debuts Kim Possible, a live-action original movie based on the network’s popular animated series of the 2000s.

Here are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services:

Feb. 11 -- Studio 54 (documentary) -- A&E

Feb. 12 -- Boomerang (series) -- BET

Feb. 12 -- Miracle Workers (comedy series) -- TBS

Feb. 13 -- Weird City (anthology series) -- YouTube

Feb. 14 -- Dating Around (reality) -- Netflix

Feb. 15 -- Doom Patrol (series) -- DC Universe

Feb. 15 -- Fast Layne (series) -- Disney Channel

Feb. 15 -- Kim Possible (movie) -- Disney Channel 

Feb. 15 -- Lorena (series) -- Prime video

Feb. 15 -- The Umbrella Academy -- Netflix