HD Heads-Up: July 7

Fresh sheen for old Men … New Thrones not coming until next winter … The Amazing Race/Bachelor out of primetime race … Uncle Buck out of luck … 

TV2 will go back to the beginning of Two and a Half Men for a late-night weekday strip starting July 18. The long-running comedy has been endlessly re-run in and out of primetime on the network but this will be the first time the early seasons have been seen here in HD, with TVNZ sourcing remasters from Warner Bros (as it has reformatted HD eps of The Simpsons from Fox). It’s a strategy that breathes fresh life into old staples like Friends and hopefully will be adopted for The Big Bang Theory’s first three seasons the next time they’re re-run …

Variety reports Game of Thrones fans will have to wait longer than usual for their next fix: “Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss recently told the UFC Unfiltered podcast that due to winter’s much-anticipated arrival in the world of the show, production on Season 7 will be delayed in order to capture the chilliness of the change, even in some of the show’s hotter filming locations.” And The Hollywood Reporter previews “what’s next for Jon Snow after The Winds of Winter” …

Of note: TV2 will screen the latest seasons of  The Amazing Race and The Bachelor off-peak: season 28 of the former will play 4pm Saturdays from July 16 and season 19 of the latter, 10am Sundays from July 17 … Whoopi Goldberg guest stars in SVU on July 19 (TV3, 9.25) … The same night Prime Rocks will showcase the 2012 documentary Can’t Stand Losing You — Surviving the Police … ABC has axed TVNZ OnDemand’s Uncle Buck while Duke’s Angie Tribeca has been renewed …

22 Jump Street will have its network movie premiere on July 18 (TV3, 8.30). Other coming attractions in HD that week include: Alice in Wonderland (TV2, 5.30 Saturday), The Smurfs (TV2, 7.00 Saturday), Rio (TV3, 7.00 Saturday), I Am Legend (TV2, 9.00 Saturday), The Break-Up (TV3, 9.00 Saturday), Good People (TV2, 10.50 Saturday), Thor (TV2, 7.00 Sunday), Riddick (TV2, 9.15 Sunday), Lincoln (TV3, 10.35 Sunday), Resident Evil: Retribution (TV2, 11.25 Sunday), The Apparition (TV2, 1.10am Monday) and Despicable Me 2 (TV3, 7.30 Thursday) …

Ending their runs in the week starting July 16 are: Britain’s Got Talent, Escape to the Continent, Border Security, First Dates UK, Terror in the Skies, Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, Murder in the First, My Kitchen Rules, Shearing Gang, Containment, Al’s Fish’n With Mates, House Husbands and Lip Sync Battle …