Showtime along with Major League Baseball Productions has crafted a brilliant series about what happens after a team wins a World Series. “The Franchise: A Season with the San Francisco Giants” premiers on the network this Wednesday at 10 p.m. “We have wanted to work with Major League Baseball on a project for years and this seemed like the perfect fit,” Showtime’s Ken Hershman said. “The Giants with their many colorful characters are a made-for-TV reality show without winning a championship. So you throw in the fact that they are the defending World Series Champions and a behind-the-scenes look at how they go about living their everyday life while defending that title, and we think fans will see something they have never seen before.”
This is a great story about the characters off the field, the day-to-day grind of baseball, how they deal with family issues, and how 25 different men come together to form a team.
Some storylines include Barry Zito working on yoga to focus better as a pitcher; bearded closer Brian Wilson driving an unmarked Ford Crown Victoria because he feels that policemen will think he is working with them; and Freddie Sanchez riding his custom big wheel in the house with his two young sons.
The series is more about the 21 hours that the players aren’t playing baseball than the three hours that they are.
“We felt that if the right programming came our way that we would do it, but only if the product was compelling,” Hershman said. “So we added the most comprehensive Mixed Martial Arts-Ultimate Fighting programming on television to our stable. We brought ‘Inside the NFL’ over to the network. We have NASCAR program that has won rave reviews. Now we have the Giants series that is scheduled for six episodes, but we are hoping that we can add a couple more and make it eight.”
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
