Season two of Tacoma FD starts on truTV March 26. Steve Lemme and Kevin Heffernan play firefighters in rainy Tacoma, Washington. The creator pair said they hear from plenty of first responders who dig the show. “We are told it’s the most accurate firefighter show on television,” said Lemme. “There’s plenty of hijinks and comedy.”

Well-regarded comedies today tilt toward dramedies, but Tacoma FD sticks to the yuks. “We create a world that people want to hang out in,” said Heffernan.

The season has 13 episodes, after season one had 10. Heffernan sees it as a vote of confidence from truTV. “I think it was a test run last season,” he said, “and we passed the test.”

Joe Pantoliano guest stars. The season’s highlight? Heffernan “shaking his tail feather,” said Lemme, in a salsa lesson. “It’s an incredible dance sequence,” he added. Noted Heffernan, “I will tell you — things go awry.”

Home Before Dark is on Apple TV+ April 3. It’s based on the gumshoe endeavors of Hilde Lysiak (see Review, page 8). When she was 9, Lysiak broke the news about a murder in her neighborhood in her Orange Street News. “From that moment on, for her it was, this is who I am, and this is what I have to do with my life,” said Dana Fox, showrunner/executive producer.

The series is far more than a “plucky little girl who solves crimes,” said Fox. “She takes the job of finding the truth very seriously.”

Brooklynn Prince plays Hilde. Fox called her “a complete revelation.”

Home Before Dark is a bingeable mystery, said Fox, and fun for the whole family. She compares it to watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Goonies with her family as a girl. “You see exciting, wonderful, scary things,” she said. “And at the end of the day, you’re OK.”

Fowl Play on Disney XD

On April 4, it’s season three of DuckTales on Disney XD. The Duck family embarks on a globetrotting hunt for the world’s greatest lost artifacts. Huey, Dewey and Louie work side by side this season.

“We never had a season where the whole family shares a goal,” co-executive producer Francisco Angones said of them taking on Fiendish Organization for World Larceny (F.O.W.L.).

Danny Pudi voices Huey, Ben Schwartz handles Dewey and Bobby Moynihan is Louie. Exec producer Matt Youngberg said each actor puts his own stamp on his duck. “Each has such a distinct voice, but they meld so well together,” he said.

Youngberg and Angones said it’s the characters that keep viewers watching DuckTales. “Once viewers have emotional resonance with the characters,” Youngberg said, “they want to see what happens to them.”

The second half of Greenleaf’s season two starts up on OWN Aug. 15, and creator Craig Wright promises explosives for the Memphis megachurch. The first half set up serious conflicts — between Grace and Mac, and Charity and Kevin — and the second half will reveal “the fallout of those explosions,” said Wright.

Oprah Winfrey is an executive producer, and plays blues joint owner Mavis McCready. Wright says Winfrey pushes him to make scenes “rougher and deeper.

“She wants juicy, meaty stuff to play,” he added.

Before the TV work hit, Wright ran a church in St. Paul, Minn. He said Winfrey was keen to explore the goings-on of a megachurch. “I’ve learned to trust Oprah,” he said. “When she says it’s gonna be OK, it’s gonna be OK.”

And DuckTales is gonna be OK on Disney XD. Like the original, the reboot features Scrooge McDuck, grandnephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, and Donald Duck, too. Co-producer Francisco Angones says the ideal Duck-Tales team member balances respect for the show’s heritage and a desire to take it in new directions. “They’re so insanely excited to work on DuckTales,” he said, “and so horribly horrified to mess it up.”

A whiteboard at show headquarters reads, “DuckTales Must Be Great.” Angones mentioned that part of the theme song —about solving a mystery and rewriting history — popped up in his wedding vows.

The voice cast includes Danny Pudi and Bobby Moynihan. The producers promise a lively family comedy. “We make sure we create a feeling in you when you watch that you had when you were a kid,” executive producer Matt Youngberg said.

And the final season of AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire, starting up Aug. 19, may bring viewers back to kidhood too. It depicts the “dawn of search” in the early ’90s, according to creators Christopher Cantwell and Christopher Rogers. “Season four is about the characters arriving at the future they worked very hard to create,” said Rogers. “They’re asking, is this what we hoped for?”

Charlie Collier, AMC and SundanceTV president/general manager, talked about the “rewarding evolution” of Halt from computer drama spec script to critical darling. “It’s something that we’re really proud of,” he said.

The season is full of recognizable early ’90s music, including Hole, Pavement and The Breeders. “They’re songs we both loved as children of the ’80s who reached musical maturity in the ’90s,” Rogers said.

“The Chris’s,” as Collier calls them, don’t know what they’ll do after Halt. For premiere night, they’ll be at the fourth birthday party for Cantwell’s son. With a Justice League theme, the boys will dress up as superheroes, with Cantwell as a villain. A Jedi robe and ski goggles will be part of his costume. “It’s still a work in progress,” Cantwell admitted.

Rogers sees possibilities. “That’s our new show!” he quipped.

Disney XD has ordered a second season of its original animated series Ducktales, months in advance of the show’s network premiere.

Ducktales, based on the 1980s animated series of the same name, will premiere later this summer on the boys-targeted network. The series will feature the voices of David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck; Danny Pudi, Ben Schwartz and Bobby Moynihan as the voices of Huey, Dewey and Louie, respectively; Kate Micucci as Webby Vanderquack; Beck Bennett as Launchpad McQuack and Toks Olagundoye as Mrs. Beakley.

Ducktales will be executively produced by Matt Matt Youngberg (Ben 10: Omniverse), with Francisco Angones (Wander Over Yonder) serving as story editor and co-producer and Sean Jimenez (Gravity Falls) serving as art director.

“Fans around the world are eager and we're looking forward to introducing viewers to the all-new DuckTales,” said Marc Buhaj, Disney XD senior vice president of programming and general manager in a statement. “This early season two order is a testament to the quality work the creative team, led by Matt and Frank, and the cast are delivering."

Disney has ordered a reboot of the 1980’s animated series DuckTales for Disney XD, the network said Wednesday.

The series, which features animated characters Scrooge McDuck, his grandnephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, and Donald Duck, will launch on the boys-targeted Disney XD in 2017, said network officials.

Disney Television Animation originally produced 100 episodes of the animated series from 1987-90.  An animated theatrical film, DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, premiered in 1990.

The original DuckTales is currently available on the Watch Disney Channel TV Everywhere app.

 "DuckTales has a special place in Disney's TV animation history, it drew its inspiration from Disney Legend Carl Barks' comic books and through its storytelling and artistic showmanship, set an enduring standard for animated entertainment that connects with both kids and adults,” said Marc Buhaj, Senior Vice President, Programming and General Manager for Disney XD in a statement. ”Our new series will bring that same energy and adventurous spirit to a new generation."