Around the Tubes: 2/13/15

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Valentine's Day programming, Happyish, Penny Dreadful, Haunting: Australia, The Librarians, and Funny Or Die's Billy on the Street with Billy Eichner.

- Premium entertainment network EPIX delivers the cinematic equivalent of a dozen roses this Valentine's Day with a line-up of unforgettable romances. This heartwarming (and occasionally heartbreaking) all-day marathon includes a mix of enduring film classics and new romantic crowd-pleasers. Prepare to be charmed as the iconic Audrey Hepburn lights up the screen in Breakfast at Tiffany's, then grab your hankies for the timeless tearjerker Love Story. Laugh it up with modern-era classics, Moonstruck and Pretty in Pink, then sit back and enjoy new romantic stories such as Labor Day, Barefoot and They Came Together.

- This Valentine's Day, as lovebirds swoon over each other in amorous bliss, TBS is going to be commiserating with lonely hearts everywhere by exposing the true horrors of this thing called love. TBS's Un-Valentine's Day Marathon is going to pull back the curtain on dating mishaps and relationship pitfalls with seven hours of episodes from The Big Bang Theory, Friends and Seinfeld. The hilarious misery is set to air Saturday, Feb. 14, from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.

- Showtime is giving viewers the first look at the brand new half-hour comedy series Happyish starring Oscar® and Golden Globe® nominee Steve Coogan, Kathryn Hahn and Emmy® winner and Golden Globe nominee Bradley Whitford. Premiering on Sunday, April 26th at 9:30, the series is a comedic, soul-searching examination of our pursuit of happiness and why it continues to be so elusive. To view the tease, go to sho.com.

- Showtime will now premiere the sophomore season of the critically-acclaimed psychological thriller Penny Dreadful on Sunday, May 3rd at 10:00. Penny Dreadful returns with ten episodes and will find Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) and Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) forming a deeper bond as the group, including Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton), Dr. Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway), and Sembene (Danny Sapani), unite to banish the evil forces that threaten to destroy them. Meanwhile, Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney), the Creature (Rory Kinnear) and Brona (Billie Piper) are all waging battles of their own. Patti LuPone will guest star as a mysterious character of great importance in Vanessa’s past. Helen McCrory returns as Evelyn Poole (a.k.a. Madame Kali), the seductive spiritualist who will pose a unique threat to our protagonists this season, along with Simon Russell Beale, who is back as eccentric Egyptologist Ferdinand Lyle. Additional guest stars include Douglas Hodge as a Scotland Yard investigator; Sarah Greene as Poole’s powerful daughter, Hecate; and Jonny Beauchamp as a man with a singular past.

- EPIX recently announced that stand-up’s biggest and most off-the-wall comics Jim Norton, Jim Breuer and Lisa Lampanelli will star in three new hour-long Original Comedy Events. The laughter begins on April 24 with Jim Norton: Contextually Inadequate, followed by Jim Breuer: Comic Frenzy on May 29 and Lisa Lampanelli: Back to the Drawing Board on June 26.

- Continuing to expand its roster of global programming, Syfy this week announced that it has acquired Haunting: Australia, an eight-part unscripted series featuring six of the best ghost hunters in the world. Haunting: Australia will premiere on Syfy Tuesday, March 24 at 10:00. Hailing from all corners of the globe, the Haunting: Australia ghost hunters join forces to investigate paranormal activity in Australia’s most haunted locations, traveling across the country unearthing ghostly evidence.

- TNT has renewed its hit fantasy-adventure The Librarians. One of the hottest new shows on cable, The Librarians burst onto the scene with a chart-topping launch in December and went on to finish the year as basic cable's #2 new series of 2014, second only to TNT's The Last Ship. The show's success extends across TNT's multiple platforms, with each week's episode reaching an average of 11.4 million viewers through linear telecasts, DVR playback and VOD, digital and mobile viewing. TNT has ordered 10 episodes for the second season, which is slated to launch later this year.

- Funny Or Die's Billy on the Street with Billy Eichner is coming to truTV as part of a multi-layered deal with Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. that also includes original specials and pilot commitments for networks across the Turner portfolio. At the center of the deal, the streetwise game show hosted by comedian Billy Eichner is set to become a truTV original series, starting with its fourth season later this year. Sister network TBS will present encores of each episode after initial airings on truTV.