(TJAGS weekly column) It was 9:30 PM, on a Thursday night, and I was in the middle of dinner and (more than a few) drinks at a local establishment. My phone starts vibrating in my left pocket,

Family Ties, a wildly popular 80's show about an Ohio family, originally premiered on NBC Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. in 1982. Steve and Elyse Keaton (Michael Gross, Meredith Baxter-Birney) were products of the 60's love and peace hippie movement. They were smart and professional; Elyse was an architect and Steve was in public television. Their politics were liberal.

Principal photography is currently underway in Calgary, Alberta on the Lifetime Original Movie Christmas Miracle (working title), about the life-or-death ordeal of an estranged Idaho couple who accidentally get trapped in a blizzard during a snowmobiling trip gone wrong just before Christmas.

Lifetime Television just announced that Reba (starring Reba McEntire) and Still Standing (starring Jami Gertz) are joining the network’s schedule Mondays-Fridays beginning Monday, August 7. This is in addition to Desperate Housewives, which premieres on Saturday, August 5 at 11 p.m. (ET/PT), beginning with the first season.

Warner Bros. Records is pleased to announce that it has signed singer-actress Ashley Tisdale, the effervescent star of the top-rated TV movie "High School Musical," to an exclusive long-term recording contract. She is currently co-writing and recording her debut album for the label with a stable of world-class writers and producers.

Lifetime Television has acquired the exclusive basic cable rights, beginning in 2009, for the hit drama Medium, starring Patricia Arquette, who won the 2005 "Outstanding Lead Actress" Emmy Award for her portrayal of psychic crime solver Allison DuBois. Ranking in the top 20 among all scripted series in primetime, "Medium," showcases Arquette as a wife and mother of three who is trying to understand her natural intuition about people and her ability to communicate with the dead.