Once Upon a Time

CHICAGO – Welcome to the new world of Blu-ray, DVD, and streaming coverage on HollywoodChicago.com. With so many options from iTunes to Video On Demand to Hulu to Blu-ray, what should you be watching this week? Every week, we’ll highlight some of the most interesting new releases, link to our full review coverage when applicable, tell you what’s special about the Blu-ray releases, and point you in the right direction to watch them.

CHICAGO – The new Sunday ABC line-up of “Once Upon a Time,” “Revenge,” and “666 Park Avenue” looked very promising on paper. I think I even called it one of the smartest moves of the season. I was wrong. While the first two sophomore programs had decent ratings on their first night of the ‘12-13 season, “666” is empty, producing the kind of numbers that start the cancellation clock ticking. ABC just can’t win at 9pm on Sunday nights.

CHICAGO – Why on Earth is ABC/Disney releasing “Revenge” on DVD-only but “Once Upon a Time” on Blu-ray and DVD? It doesn’t make any sense. Both shows were surprisingly robust hits this year for ABC and are clearly building buzz as they head into their sophomore outings in a few weeks. Wouldn’t fans of “Revenge” deserve to be treated as well as “Once Upon a Time”?

CHICAGO – After an incredibly successful 2011-2012 season, ABC is doing something of a victory lap by not changing much of what worked about a season that saw the network create a number of new hits, including “Revenge,” “Once Upon a Time,” and “Suburgatory.”

CHICAGO – In advance of next week’s official Fall schedule announcement, ABC gave a vote of confidence to seven of their biggest shows, revealing that they will be a part of the 2012-2013 schedule. The lucky seven include three freshman series — “Once Upon a Time,” “Revenge,” and “Suburgatory” — along with “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Castle,” “Modern Family,” and “The Middle.”

CHICAGO – ABC made some TV viewers very happy this week when they announced that two of their new shows and one of their almost-new shows would be on until at least May 2012 with full-season orders for “Once Upon a Time,” “Last Man Standing,” and “Happy Endings.” This brings the total of new programs given a full-season order to a remarkable 13. While few of the programs are what could be called breakout hits, there’s no denying that this freshman class has been pretty strong.

CHICAGO – ABC and the creators of lost may have another hit on their hands. The new drama series “Once Upon a Time.” The new series, which premiered last night, stood as the top dog in non-sports programs on Sunday night, bringing in an impressive 12.8 million viewers when premiering against Sunday Night Football and Game 4 of the World Series.

CHICAGO – With two “Snow White” films currently in production, it’s tempting to believe that Hollywood’s well of originality has run dry. Sure, faerie tales have always been reinterpreted for new generations, but how many re-imaginings does one generation need?

CHICAGO – NBC & FOX released their schedules already this week and there are a few interesting highlights, but ABC has released easily the most aggressive and ambitious new slate of programs, which will feature at least one new program five nights a week.