The Sopranos
Jun
15
Could Meadowlands be the Next Sopranos?
I was surfing the net this evening just minding my own business when I came across a preview for Showtime’s new series, “Meadowlands” that premieres on Sunday. The premise is a family that goes into the witness protection program and is given new names, new life, new home, all in a neighborhood where everything looks the same. This British import will run Sunday nights at 10 and after watching the first episode online, I’m pretty impressed.
The family given the name, “Brogan” seeks to adjust after the head of the family, Danny Brogan (played brilliantly by David Morrissey) has done something to cause the family to flee. His wife, Evelyn (Lucy Cohu), wants to be able to go outside of Meadowlands, but finds out it’s impossible to leave. People check in, but they don’t check out. The Brogan family is filled by daughter Zoe (Felicity Jones) and son Mark (Harry Treadway).
Right off the bat, you get a seedy character, Constable Wintersgill (Ralph Brown) who keeps the peace in Meadowlands. He seems to know everything about everyone as soon as they come in. And he’s rather unsettling as he has a present for the Brogan’s trash can when he meets them.
Unlike another series (cough Lost cough), the show does reveal secrets with each episode and doesn’t leave the viewer hanging, although there’s something about Meadowlands that just isn’t right. At least you go in knowing this and that’s half the battle. If the rest of the series is as good as the premiere episode, then this might be some good summer viewing and Showtime may have a hit on its hands. We’ll see.
Jun
12
More Tuesday Links
First, I would like to welcome those who are coming over to this blog from the Imus Truth blog and Support Imus website. In one of my entries yesterday, I linked to an article from Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News talking about the search to replace Don Imus. This is what I wrote:
From his Sunday column, Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News writes that the search for Don Imus’ successor has been a failure and CBS Radio should bite the bullet and invite him back. No.
One person apparently linked to my comments and I’ve had quite a few visitors from both sites. Thank you for coming over. While we’ll not agree over Imus, perhaps you’ll find something else you’ll like here.
Let’s go over some other stuff on this Tuesday.
The finale of The Sopranos killed the networks on Sunday. It outpaced everything, The Tony Awards, the NBA Finals, anything NBC had that night.
Last week, DirecTV announced it would have multiple coverage of the US Open next week with four channels including one devoted to Tiger Woods. Dish Network follows suit with six channels.
Marc Narducci of the Philadelphia Inquirer has a profile on ESPN’s John Kruk who is the veteran analyst on Baseball Tonight. Apparently Kruk’s contract expires at the end of the season. With Harold Reynolds on MLB.com, why not reunite Krukie and Reynolds so they can launch the new MLB Network? It’s a thought.
Michael Hiestand of USA Today had a feature on ad agency Wieden+Kennedy which has the ESPN SportsCenter and Nike accounts. You’ve seen their ads. Very imaginative and quite good.
ESPN bought a website devoted to Cricket, but I’m not linking to the story.
Fox Soccer Channel has purchased US mobile and internet rights to the Barclay’s Premier League, otherwise known as the Premiership.
Steve Politi of the Newark Star-Ledger says fans just don’t care about the NBA anymore. I think having Game 2 of the NBA Finals against The Sopranos finale was a bad move by both Disney and the NBA. John Ryan of the San Jose Mercury News wonders if the ratings for Game 3 will be lower tonight. In Newsday, Neil Best says it’s sad when the NBA’s Tony Parker can be outrated by his fiancee, Eva Longoria on the same network.
Get ready for Round 2 in NFL vs. Comcast. Last month, a New York court ruled that the cable company could place the NFL Network on a sports tier which was made the channel available to fewer customers. Now, the NFL is fighting back with what is being called as an e-mail “blast”, asking Comcast customers to fight the move.
CBS chairman Les Moonves spoke with Ken Auletta at a symposium this morning. Subjects broached in the interview were Jericho, the Sopranos and the CBS Evening News.
The Big West Conference is negotiating with ESPN to launch a basketball tournament involving West Coast conferences and perhaps one of the power conferences such as the Big Ten or SEC.
That’s it until primetime viewing choices later today.
Jun
12
Quick Links
I’ll give you a couple of links this morning. Work issues, you know the drill. Anyway, here are a few to tie you over for now.
Red Sox fans know that Manny Ramirez is not speaking to the media this season so it came as a surprise when Man-Ram did a video piece with Fang’s Bites fav, Tina Cervasio of NESN. David Scott of Boston Sports Media Watch writes about the piece which focused on Manny getting a haircut from “Lmonstro”. Watch the video labeled ” Manny talks hair with LMonstro” and you’ll see how bizarre it is. Words cannot do it justice. Laugh you will (as he does his Yoda voice).
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times gives a mostly positive review to ESPN/ABC’s production of the Belmont Stakes, but has some scathing words for Brent Musburger.
Bob Raissman in today’s New York Daily News, is already sick of the Roger Clemens hype.
Michael Hiestand looks into the weekend sports TV ratings in this morning’s edition of USA Today.
After a year away from television due to legal problems with ESPN (never really explained), Harold Reynolds returns thanks to MLB.com and will most likely work on the upcoming MLB Network.
The Sopranos series creator, David Chase, sat down with Alan Sepinwall of the Newark Star-Ledger. Actually, he sat down with Sepinwall before the season began, but at least he explained the final scene. To be honest, he really didn’t explain it, but he did say you’ll see what you’ll want to see in the last scene of the series. Well, it’s not what I wanted, but at least you get it out of his mouth. If you want to read the entire column without having to click through four pages, here’s the printable version.
That’s it for now. I’ll be back later.
Jun
11
The Weekend in Review and The Sopranos Finale
Nice to have a weekend free of Paris Hilton news. And as I was ramping up for the finale of The Sopranos, I stayed away from the computer for the most part. One place I do endorse is Wright’s Farm in northern Rhode Island. Great all you can eat chicken as well as pasta, french fries and salad. Went there with a bunch of friends Saturday night and the eating was excellent. Totally enjoyed the evening.
And I left my radio on WEEI-FM so I had to listen to John Dennis of Dennis & Callahan scream about The Sopranos finale. I don’t need to hear yelling at 6 a.m. so I turned the station to WBRU and thankfully, there was music and no talk of the finale. And when I last tuned to the station before I came to work, I heard Dennis talking about the show. Come on, guy, four hours talking about a TV show is a bit much.
Ok, let’s do the weekend sports links first, then we’ll move onto the links about The Sopranos.
USA Today’s Michael Hiestand has a few bits and pieces today. His most noticeable story was on ESPN having people vote for various athletes. Hiestand writes:
The point, says (ESPN senior coordinating producer Glenn) Jacobs, is to select 32 famous active athletes, seed them and put them in tournament-like brackets. Each day, one will be eliminated — based on verdicts from ESPN judges and viewer voting online and via text messages — in head-to-head matchups. The last one left will be deemed the “Ultimate Sports Star.”
This sounds like more Arrogant ESPN to me. Will anyone care? And Hiestand notes that HBO’s Larry Merchant has signed a new deal, but won’t be working every big fight for the network. Charlatan Max Kellerman will work in his place on some fights and those telecasts will be ones to miss.
Richard Sandomir of the New York Times notices that teams and stadium owners have been moving press boxes to locations where reporters can barely see the action. A lot of that has been for financial reasons.
From his Sunday column, Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News writes that the search for Don Imus’ successor has been a failure and CBS Radio should bite the bullet and invite him back. No.
In his blog in Newsday, Neil Best has his take on The Sopranos finale.
John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant discusses ESPN’s attempt to save the UConn-Tennessee women’s college basketball series. The two schools had been playing every year since 1995, but for some unknown reason, Tennessee ended the series last week.
You knew when the Big Ten announced plans for a cable channel of its own, other conferences would follow suit. Now comes word that the SEC is making plans for its own channel.
Steve Simmons of the Edmonton Sun wonders why the ratings for sporting events other than the NFL are going down.
Dan Caesar of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has one more story on the NHL ratings.
Alan Pergament of the Buffalo News says the NBA is not burning up TV sets in his city.
Brian Vanochten of the Grand Rapids Press has his take on the NFL Broadcast Boot Camp which takes place this month.
The Columbia Tribune (MO) has an interview with Joe Buck.
Now your Sopranos links. They’re pretty brutal for the most part.
Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times says the ending was a practical joke on the viewer. And the Times’ blog, The Lede, has its story on the finale.
Linda Stasi of the New York Post gave the finale three out of four stars, but calls the last scene, “disappointing”.
The New York Daily News’ David Bianculli says he could be angrier at the finale, but isn’t. Nonetheless, he’s still disappointed.
In the Boston Herald, Mark Perigard calls the last episode “the worst series finale ever.” Get a life, Mark.
But the crosstown Globe’s Matthew Gilbert says the finale was thought provoking.
Members of the cast were at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida watching the final episode.
While other cast members were at the HBO HQ’s in New York where TV Guide caught up with them.
Robert Bianco of USA Today says series Executive Producer David Chase ended the show his way.
And that’s it for now.
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