Posted by Ryan

Episode 2 of The Kill Point starts off with the morning after, 18 hours since Mr. Wolf (John Leguizamo) and his crew busted into the Three Rivers Trust bank.

The FBI has taken control of the hostage negotiations, relegating Cali (Donnie Wahlberg) to a consulting role — basically a nice way of telling him to get lost. The new negotiator, Agent Ash, is an arrogant hard-ass who you know is just going to screw this up. At least Cali’s not giving up. He wants to know why Wolf released Mr. Sabian.

Things aren’t going so well inside the bank either. Mr. Rabbit has an episode of post-traumatic stress disorder and just starts randomly slapping up Rocko, the maintenance man. Rocko reveals he’s always hated Rabbits, the Easter Bunny included, and wants to hatch a scheme to get the gun Leroy stuck in the plant and use Ashley to get Mr. Pig’s gun. It’s also Robby Sabian’s birthday, and he’s not going to be able to go to his all-male pool party and wear a T-shirt to hide his “man cans.” Robby and Mr. Wolf connect in a touching moment, and Wolf decides that he’s going to demand a birthday cake from the FBI. Oh, and Mr. Mouse’s gunshot wound is infected.

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Posted by Cubicle QB

I knew I would have to do this post someday. Blah. Here are ESPN’s plans for coverage of Barry Bonds’ chase for the career home run record:

• Live cut-ins and short turn-around highlights of Bonds’ at bats when he goes for home runs 754, 755 and 756 during all Major League Baseball game telecasts

• Live cut-in or taped highlights in non-MLB programming

• Short turn-around highlights of home runs 754, 755 and 756 on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS and ESPN on ABC

• Select cut-ins to Bonds’ at bats through home run 756 on ESPN.com

• Live cut-ins to each Bonds’ at bat once he reaches 754 home runs on ESPN Radio

• Comprehensive SportsCenter and ESPNEWS coverage – highlights, news and information – following on- and off-the-field storylines

Beyond 756 — An ESPN Town Meeting (Wednesday, July 25) This 90-minute SportsCenter special includes a collection of prominent baseball commentators discussing Bonds’ legacy and impact in front of a live audience at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts Theatre. Bob Ley hosts, with analysts featuring Dusty Baker, Ellis Burks, Kirk Rueter, Bryan Burwell, Buster Olney, Juan Williams and Game of Shadows coauthor Lance Williams.

In the Books: Barry Bonds #756 ESPN Classic will show a five-hour programming block dedicated to Bonds/Aaron coverage which would immediately follow Bonds’ record-setting performance. The block includes Classic Conversations: Barry Bonds, SportsCentury: Barry Bonds, SportsCentury: Hank Aaron and the 1996 Home Run Derby won by Bonds. (What? No encores of Bonds on Bonds?) The five-hour block will repeat itself until 8pm ET the next day when ESPN Classic’s coverage culminates with In the Books: Barry Bonds #756. In the Books is a studio show for major sports events and milestones that connects current perspective with historical events.

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Categories: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Posted by Cubicle QB

NFL Network is visiting six NFL training camps in five days beginning July 30 for a series aptly called Inside Training Camp (full schedule after the jump). NFL Network is putting wireless mics on players and coaches to give viewers an on-the-field perspective of drills and practices. There’ll also be news, storylines, injury reports and updates on positional battles throughout each show.

The first preseason game, the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio, between New Orleans and Pittsburgh, will air on NFL Network Aug. 5 — a bold scheduling move for the NFL, since this game usually aired in prime time on one of the broadcast networks. It’s a totally meaningless game, but it’s still football and I still watched it. And if you haven’t heard, HBO is returning its Hard Knocks reality series Aug. 8, this time going into Kansas City Chiefs camp. More on the NFL preseason is in the August edition of Channel Guide Magazine.

I’m disappointed no one wants to go inside Cleveland Browns camp. I wanted to see if Syndric Steptoe was going to make the team.

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Categories: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Posted by Ryan

Followers of The Kill Point will want to head over to Spiketv.com for a series of webisodes which tell the story of Deke, the getaway car driver who escaped Market Square on foot. You’re not going to get any huge reveals in the webisodes, just some extra side-story stuff that might help fill in some of the gaps in the TV series.

I’m curious to see exactly what Deke and the posse of ex-soldier buddies he rounded up at the end of Episode 1 plan on doing. Are they going to launch an assault on the cops? Are they going to bust into the bank and stand in solidarity with Wolf and the other guys? Probably not. If Wolf could contact Deke, he’d probably tell him how to best screw with Cali — and that would be by kidnapping Cali’s wife. Just a prediction. No insider knowledge here.

Categories: Action by Cubicle QB
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Posted by RabbitEars

Homer Simpson may not have worked out very well as the voice of the animated Poochie character, but plenty of other folks have lent their vocal talents to the long-running comedy The Simpsons to great effect. FOX recently announced the next batch of celebrities who will contribute even further to pop culture by starring as guest voices in the upcoming 19th season:

* In the Sept. 23 season premiere, “He Loves to Fly and He D’ohs,” Lionel Richie and Stephen Colbert guest star. It’s another wacky Homer adventure, as our dimwitted hero is serenaded by Richie with a customized version of “Say You, Say Me,” and hires a life coach (Colbert).

* Steve Buscemi guest stars in “I Don’t Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” on Sept. 30. Marge gets caught in a bank robbery and convinces the assailant, Dwight (Buscemi), to turn himself in with the promise that she will visit him in jail. Too scared to visit him, she may have to pay the price when Dwight escapes and comes looking for her.

* Any Simpsons episode featuring Comic Book Guy certainly can’t be the “worst … episode … ever,” and he appears here, in “Husband and Knives,” on Oct. 7. Much to the shock of Comic Book Guy, Coolsville Comics & Toys opens up directly across the street. Owned by friendly hipster Milo (guest voice Jack Black), Coolsville is the ultimate retro fabulous store, which even offers kids a chance to meet comic book creators like guest stars Alan Moore, Art Spiegleman and Dan Clowes.

Later in the season, Frasier stars Kelsey Grammer, David Hyde Pierce and John Mahoney are reunited, playing Sideshow Bob, his brother and his father. Other familiar voices heard in Springfield throughout this season: Jon Stewart, Matt Dillon, Maya Rudolph, Dan Rather, Placido Domingo, Kurt Loder, Weird Al Yankovic, Beverly D’Angelo and Topher Grace.

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™ & © 2006 TCFFC ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. © 2005 FOX BROADCASTING CR: FOX

Categories: TV News & Program Updates by RabbitEars
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Posted by Ryan

(Click here for my recap and review of The Kill Point Episode 2)

Spike’s The Kill Point premieres this Sunday, with a two-hour presentation. I’ve been writing about The Kill Point now for nearly three months since I visited the set in Pittsburgh, and have amazingly managed to avoid Kill Point burnout. I’ve been screening a lot of comedies (many of them not so good) for our fall preview, and have been looking forward to finally watching The Kill Point DVD Spike sent me about a month ago. I watched it yesterday afternoon, and I’m happy to say that my three months of buildup for this series didn’t go to waste.

My review of the first episode is after the jump. I don’t think I included any spoilers or revealed any plot twists, but if you’re really concerned about learning too much before seeing it for yourself, you might want to wait until late Sunday night to read it.

If there’s interest from visitors to The Kill Point Countdown, I’ll post reviews and commentary of the remaining episodes. So let me know in the comments. And share what you thought of the show in the comments, too!

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Posted by Ryan

If you’ve been following along, then you’ve probably figured out that Spike’s The Kill Point has some heavy, intense stuff in it. So I saved the fun stuff for last, just to lighten it up a bit before the show premieres this weekend. (Check back on Friday for my review of the first episode.)

I asked a few of the guys I interviewed what their favorite movie was from the heist/robbery/standoff genre, and then I asked them what they liked to record on their TiVos or plain-old-generic DVRs.

One thing’s for certain: They love themselves some Dog Day Afternoon. Attica! Attica! Attica!

The Q&A starts after the jump.

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Posted By RabbitEars

More announcements from the cable portion of TCA:

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Categories: TV News & Program Updates by RabbitEars
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Tags: CMT, Dale, TCA, Television Critics Tour

Posted by Cubicle QB

Perhaps in conjunction with some kind of movie coming out sometime in the near future, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening and executive producer Al Jean will appear Thursday morning on ESPN First Take on ESPN2. Then on Friday, First Take subjects you to this:

Friday, July 20
“I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” - Adam Sandler & Kevin James

If anyone sees that movie, I guarantee it’s not for Adam Sandler and Kevin James. (On Wednesday, Donnie Wahlberg is going to be on ESPN First Take talking about Boston sports. We can’t get enough Donnie!)

Photo is from the Kwik-E-Mart in Chicago, where dorks like me recently stood in line outside to buy Buzz Cola, Squishees and donuts with pink frosting and sprinkles. (A Twizzler is not a sprinkle.)

Categories: Sports, TV News & Program Updates by Cubicle QB
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Posted by Cubicle QB

The latest fussin’ and feudin’ between cable companies and upstart TV sports networks is brought to you by Big Ten Network, a joint venture between FOX Cable Networks and the Big Ten Conference. The network is devoted to sports, academics, activities and personalities (but yeah, mostly sports) from the Big Ten’s 11 institutions. It plans to launch Aug. 30 with a schedule that is going to include more than 35 football games, more than 105 men’s basketball games, women’s sports and coaches shows.

Big Ten Network has found carriage on DirecTV and a number of small cable companies, but doesn’t have deals with some of the major cable companies serving areas in the Midwest, where the conference’s fan base lives. Big Ten Network wants to charge cable companies $1.10 per month per subscriber in states with Big Ten schools, and 10 cents per month per subscriber in states without Big Ten schools. It currently won’t allow cable companies to put it on a separately priced digital sports tier (does anybody out there actually get those?). Cable companies don’t want to charge their entire customer base for what they consider a niche network. And so the battle begins.

Big Ten Network launched its “This Is Big Ten Country” campaign this week to angry up the blood of cable subscribers who will be missing out on the channel. NFL Network tried similar tactics to gain carriage on cable, and it didn’t work so well. NFL Network is still without carriage on some of the major cable carriers, and it’s losing leverage with one of the big ones it did have a deal with. The complaints and the migration of customers to satellite systems, which carry NFL Network on their basic packages, weren’t severe enough to make the cable companies cave. If the NFL couldn’t pressure cable companies into carrying its network, the Big Ten sure won’t.

Maybe even more of a concern to Big Ten Network should be this: I’m an alum of a Big Ten school and a fan of its sports teams, and I’m not really convinced that I need the channel. And I’m certain that I don’t want to pay more for it. I’m probably not alone in that.

[Update: Good observations from The M Zone on Big Ten Network as it relates to possible conference expansion.]

[Update 2: A very astute piece from Michigan blogger Hoover Street Rag about the BTN Open House in Ann Arbor.]

Categories: Sports by Cubicle QB
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