Friday, August 24, 2007

Web Of Goodies

More and more, the broadcast networks are making the Internet a powerful tool in their marketing of programs.

In spite of some flubs along the way - such as Fox not having its online voting working for the final "On The Lot" vote (No, Fox, I'm not letting this go) - it's the viewer who wins out, getting to see previews of shows that won't air for another month and other goodies.

Fox, perhaps making up for its "On The Lot" flub, is giving viewers a chance to see the pilot for the new series "K-Ville," starring Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser as cops in post-Katrina New Orleans. It's one of Fox's biggest hopes for the fall season. In addition, viewers can also see the first 17 minutes of "Prison Break's" Season 3 premiere. You can check these out at Fox.com, as well as AOL.com, Yahoo!, TVGuide.com and IGN.com.

NBC, which used the Web very effectively with last year's hit, "Heroes," is also giving viewers a treat with one of the best dramas on the air, "Friday Night Lights."

You can register today at http://houseparty.com/fridaynightlights to win a "FNL" house party, which includes:

A custom DVD with Producer's Choice Episodes from Season 1, greetings from the cast and an exclusive sneak peek of the first episode of Season 2

A bonus DVD, with the first 4 episodes of Season 1 plus a sneak peak of the new NBC show, Bionic Woman

Great collectibles for you and your guests, including rally towels, stadium seat cushions, stadium cups, megaphones, beverage koozies... even FNL microwave popcorn.

I'll mention as many of these Web promotions as I can find, so stay tuned.

WARNER ROBINS LITTLE LEAGUE: Lord, have mercy! Or at least, invoke the mercy rule as Warner Robins pounded Arizona 16-6 in five innings. That means the local baseballers will face Lubbock, Texas in the U.S. semifinals (ABC, Sat., 3:30 p.m.) for a chance at Sunday's World Series title against the international champion.

WEEKEND'S BEST BETS: While Little League baseball is all the rage around these parts these days, the TV viewer still has a few dramatic options as well.

On the networks, viewers can follow along with "Miss Teen USA," (NBC, 8 p.m.), the beauty queen equivalent of Little League, I guess. Or they can follow a new game show, "Set For Life," (ABC, 8 p.m.) No idea how this one is played.

The Doctor and Martha try to escape one of the Doctor's old enemies on the first of a two-part "Doctor Who" (Sci-Fi, 8 p.m.), which is followed by a slightly funny jaunt of "Flash Gordon" at 9 p.m. Also new are "Monk" (USA, 9 p.m.) and "Psych" (USA, 10 p.m.)

On Saturday, I've been praising "Jekyll" as one of the best miniseries in a summer of great miniseries. Now is your chance to catch up, as BBC America begins a marathon of the whole thing beginning at 4 p.m. leading into the two-hour finale that begins at 8 p.m.

Also for Brit-philes, the highly touted TV movie "The Murder of Princess Diana" (Lifetime, Sat., 8 p.m.) airs, starring Jennifer Morrison ("House") as someone investigating the crash.

On Sunday is the finale of "Kill Point" (Spike, Sun., 9 p.m.) concludes a miniseries that was about two hours too long. Also, there are new episodes of "The 4400" (USA, 9 p.m.) and "Dead Zone" (USA, 10 p.m.) On HBO, "Big Love" (HBO, 9 p.m.) wraps up Season 2, followed by new episodes of "Entourage" and "Flight of the Conchords."

5 comments:

Jonathan said...

I became a huge fan of the drama side of Anthony Anderson after seeing his great turn on "The Shield" a couple of years ago, and so "K-Ville" is right up there for me with new shows I want to check out, so I'm looking forward to watching it as soon as I get a chance. "Prison Break" I will watch out of pure morbid curiosity, but I can wait till it premieres. I don't really understand the idea of just showing the first seventeen minutes (How did they come up with that number anyways?); why not just go ahead and show the whole thing? Especially, if you're already going to do it with the other show. But the day I understand Fox is the day I discover the meaning of life which I will be sure to let you guys know about.

Anonymous said...

A really cute show that is in its 3rd season is 'Meerkat Manor' on Animal Plant. It airs tonight at 8:30pm. Tonight is the second show of the 3rd season. This show is good not only for familys with kids, but anyone (even my dogs and cats will watch it). I know it must seem silly too some of you more 'serious' TV views. But I really enjoy it, and look forward to tonights show. It's almost a soap oprea for the animal kingdom.

Anonymous said...

Well, that's good news about "K-Ville" and yes, like Jonathan, Anderson also impressed me on "The Shield" enough to check out the pilot. I am wary of adding too many new shows this Fall since overall, I need to cut back on the sheer amount of Television I watch--so maybe "Prison Break" gets the axe.

Last season was very weak--this was a show that clearly should have been a 1 season long mini series and I can't believe they are dragging it out.

The funniest part is that they put themselves in a corner with star Wentworth Miller's (Michael Schofield) season 1 body art. As you may or may not have noticed, he wore long sleeves all of season 2 so they wouldn't have to keep him in make up for 6 hours at a time. Is he going to be in long sleeves now all year in a Panamanian prison? Or are they going to go back & do 6 hours of makeup each episode?

Actually, I bet the show hopes we all forget about the season 1 body art and he's tattoo free.

The good news for this year is it seems they have trimmed the season 1 cast even further and dumped a lot of the dead weight and less interesting characters, but still have the key players like Schofield, Lincoln, T-Bag, Bellick & Sucre.

Phillip Ramati said...

Edge, thanks for the heads up on Meerkat Manor. I don't really watch Animal Planet, but I've heard a lot lately that they have a lot of good, family-friendly programming.

Prison Break really dropped after a promising first seaosn. I think if they had planned to wrap the show up as originally intended after season 2, it would have been better from a dramatic sense, but by dragging it on, they just made the show more ridiculous.

17 minutes covers the teaser and the first two acts, meaning viewers won't be seeing the final two acts until the full episode airs, which does seem pretty pointless.

Jonathan said...

Gotcha. But yeah, pointless. And Zod, interesting point about the tatoo; I never even thought of that last season. Funny stuff.