• by Adam Bernard , April 20, 2001

TV Land -- which will be five-years-old on April 29 -- has surpassed the 60 million subscriber mark, as it is now available to 60.2 million cable and satellite subscribers. The network recently unveiled some new acquisitions making their way to TV Land in the coming months.

TV Land will have The Love Boat, starting in June; I Love Lucy, making its TV Land debut on October 15, 2001 - the exact date on which the show made its CBS debut 50 years ago; Taxi, starting in November; and The Rockford Files, starting in January, 2002. Veteran Odd Couple half Tony Randall co-stars with Mr. T, the jewelry-laden star of the A-Team, in a special network-themed rap video that's inter-cut with clips from TV Land's line-up. The video will be featured on TV Land in interstitial vignettes during the network's 5th Anniversary celebration weekend, May 12 and 13, when the network presents a 48-hour retrospective featuring TV Land's signature specials and landmark programming from its first five years.

TV Land also unveiled plans for the network's newest installment of its original production, Inside TV Land: when the series takes a look at the enduring popularity of Get Smart. Inside TV Land: Get Smart will premiere on TV Land on Wednesday, August 1 at 8:00 pm ET/PT - and will be featured as part of a prime time Inside TV Land Week which begins July 30 at 8:00 pm ET/PT. Jones also announced that the network has commissioned two new installments of Inside TV Land with Inside TV Land: The Pitch and Inside TV land: African-Americans in Television.

The Pitch, slated to air this Fall, will feature interviews with several Hollywood notables, in which they discuss their efforts to get television networks to add their programming ideas to network line-ups. The Pitch examines the popularity of several great comedy series and traces the history of those show changes from conception to air.

In February, Inside TV Land: African-Americans in Television will present a multi-part look at the historic role and significance of African-Americans in television, both in front of and behind the camera. TV Land launched on April 29, 1996. The network's broad mix of sitcoms, dramas, westerns and classic commercials - which TV Land refers to as Retromercials - have made TV Land the highest-rated cable channel launched in the last five years on both a household and a 25-54 demo basis.

- Adam Bernard may be reached at Adambernard@mediapost.com