Friday, April 24, 2015

Around the Tubes: 4/24/15



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 Happyish, Penny Dreadful, Turner on Hulu, Childhood's End, First Peoples, Dead End Express, Inside Comedy, Red Nose Day, BBQ with Franklin, Journey to the Draft, Iverson, Bitten, The Spy Inside the Hanoi Hilton and The Breaks.

- Showtime is giving viewers an early opportunity to sample the series premiere of the new half-hour comedy HAPPYish and the second season premiere of the critically-acclaimed psychological thriller PENNY DREADFUL across multiple platforms before their debut on Showtime. Viewers can sample the premiere of HAPPYish (sho.com/HAPPYish1), and the TV-14 rated version of Penny Dreadful (sho.com/PennyDreadful201) for free now on YouTube and on SHO.com. The premieres are also available via a number of television providers' free On Demand channels and websites, on Showtime on Demand® and various partner sites and applications. The episodes will also be available via Showtime Anytime® on desktop, iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phones and tablets, Kindle Fire™, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox 360®, Xbox One and Apple TV streaming players anywhere in the U.S., as well as for download as a free video podcast on iTunes. PENNY DREADFUL will also be available on the Showtime Preview app on Smart TVs from Samsung, LG and Panasonic. HAPPYish will premiere on Sunday, April 26th at 9:30 and Penny Deadful will premiere on Sunday, May 3rd at 10:00.

- Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., and Hulu today announced an extensive, multi-year licensing agreement that will grant Hulu the exclusive SVOD rights to previous seasons of Turner's popular programming from Cartoon Network and Adult Swim as well as select current and upcoming series from TNT and TBS. The deal marks the first-ever licensing agreement between Turner Broadcasting and Hulu. All episodes from past seasons of TNT's The Last Ship and Murder in the First will be available to stream exclusively for Hulu subscribers. Additionally, all episodes from past seasons of popular Adult Swim original series including Rick and Morty, Black Jesus,NTSF:SD:SUV and Cartoon Network original series such as The Amazing World of Gumball, Steven Universe, Over the Garden Wall and Clarence will be made available to stream through an SVOD service for the first time ever on Hulu. All Cartoon Network series will be available to stream ad-free in the Hulu Kids environment.

- This sci-fi classic gets an adaptation at last. Childhood’s End, starring Charles Dance of Game of Thrones, premieres in December. Check out the teaser below:


- 200,000 years ago our ancestors took their first steps on the African savanna. Today, seven billion of us live across the planet. How did we beat the odds and spread from continent to continent? First Peoples is a global detective story that traces the arrival of the first Homo sapiens on five continents. Airing Wednesdays on June 24-July 1 at 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. ET and July 8 at 9:00, First Peoples is part of PBS’ “Think Wednesday” programming block.

- Across the vast and untamed wildernesses of the U.S., a hardy breed of American still lives a life set apart. Not just off the beaten path, these families and individuals are physically cut off from society by Rocky Mountains, roaring rivers and frozen tundra. However self-sufficient they might be, no man is an island, and sooner or later, those isolated in these remote locales must replenish their diminishing resources, whether fuel or ammo, or life-saving essentials like food and medicine. Dead End Express follows five rugged adventurers as they live and breathe the high-stakes life of hauling critical cargo into treacherous tracts of wilderness. Produced for National Geographic Channel by Original Media, a subsidiary of Endemol Shine North America, and Punchdrunk, the new series premieres Thursday, May 7, at 10:00.

- Inside Comedy, the critically-acclaimed SHOWTIME documentary series from comedy forces David Steinberg and Steve Carell, will premiere its fourth season on Tuesday, May 5th at 11:00. The six, half hour episodes will feature some of the buzziest names in entertainment including Dan Aykroyd, Stephen Colbert, Dane Cook, Bryan Cranston, Ted Danson, Michael Keaton, Carol Leifer, Jon Stewart, Wanda Sykes, and newest additions Conan O’Brien, Cheech & Chong, and Jeffrey Tambor. Steinberg will continue as host.

- Watch as the first red nose is sold to a lucky - and unsuspecting - customer at a Chicago Walgreens. Noses are available now for $1 exclusively at your local Walgreens.


- Pitmaster Aaron Franklin takes viewers on a boisterous road trip through BBQ culture — the people, the places and, of course, the food — in the new original series BBQ with Franklin, premiering on PBS in May 2015 ( check local listings). Ten half-hour episodes celebrate the traditions, techniques and histories passed along through generations, while serving up a new take on this distinctly American passion. The tour guide for this adventure is the owner and chief firestarter at Austin’s Franklin Barbecue, Aaron Franklin, widely regarded as one of the most influential pitmasters in the U.S. Part pilgrimage, part noble quest, the series brings viewers into Franklin’s world as he visits notable BBQ joints and their legendary masters, tries new recipes, answers burning questions such as “Is it done yet?” and shovels wood at his own BBQ pits.

- AOL announced today the release of its upcoming digital docu-series, Journey to the Draft, which will premiere on April 28th. The series will release nine episodes on April 28th, followed by the finale on May 6th for 10 episodes in total streaming on journeytothedraft.com. NFL Hall-of-Famer Deion Sanders serves as executive producer and narrator for the series. Journey to the Draft is an organic, unscripted, docu-series that follows three college football players, all with promising professional careers. These young men attend different schools across the country and play a variety of positions on the field, but at the end of the day they share one goal: to play in the NFL. The AOL docu-series follows players Leonard Williams, Kevin White and Marcus Peters.

- Showtime Sports® will present Iverson, a feature-length film on the legacy of NBA great Allen Iverson premiering on Saturday, May 16 at 9:00 on Showtime®.
The film, which debuted at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, is an in-depth look into 11-time NBA All-Star Allen Iverson whose audacious rejection of conservative NBA convention and unapologetic embrace of hip-hop culture sent shockwaves throughout the league and influenced an entire generation.

- In 2014, Syfy introduced genre audiences to Elena Michaels, the world's only female werewolf, in Bitten, a steamy, emotionally charged supernatural series based on the novels by #1 New York Times best-selling author Kelley Armstrong. On April 17 at 8pm ET, Season 2 sees the return of Laura Vandervoort as Elena, the world's only female werewolf; Greyston Holt as Elena's passionate partner Clay Danvers; and Greg Bryk as the Alpha Pack leader Jeremy Danvers. And on April 18, Entertainment One (eOne) - also a Bitten producer - will begin to release each stunt and VFX-fueled SEASON TWO episode for purchase on all leading digital platforms the day after premiering on Syfy.

- A new Smithsonian Channel special will reveal one of the greatest secrets of the Vietnam War. The Spy in the Hanoi Hilton, premiering Monday, April 27 at 8:00, uncovers the true story of POWs inside the Hỏa Lò Prison, known as the Hanoi Hilton, who created a high-level espionage operation that reached all the way to the CIA and the White House. This included sending radio transmissions to the Pentagon and President Nixon’s White House during the brutal Christmas Bombings of 1972, signaling that POWs inside the Hanoi Hilton were still alive and that the raid should continue.

- VH1 has tapped legendary New York music producer DJ Premier to compose score and serve as executive music producer of the new original movie The Breaks. Inspired by journalist Dan Charnas’ book “The Big Payback,” a narrative history of the hip-hop business, “The Breaks” will be written, directed and executive produced by Seith Mann (“The Wire,” “The Walking Dead,” “Homeland”). VH1 plans to start principal photography in June with a premiere date set for late Fall 2015.

- Vibrant TV, the new, online network offering American viewers exclusive internationally-produced television entertainment, launches today with award-winning programming from the UK, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Presenting popular international shows, Vibrant TV gives American viewers the chance to experience cultures from around the world – embracing their differences, celebrating their similarities and coming away with a fuller view of how people live. Vibrant TV features a full range of program categories including lifestyle, comedy, action adventure, drama, reality, travel, food, sports and family. Vibrant TV offers new subscribers a free, two-week trial followed by a $4.99 per month charge. Highlighted among Vibrant’s many noted offerings are a trio of highly-acclaimed series never before available in the U.S.

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