Tag: clubhouse

I don’t watch "Clubhouse" and you don’t have to

“Clubhouse” is gone, although it’s a little unclear whether CBS has just pulled it for the rest of November sweeps or it’s been canceled entirely. (Either way, they’ve shut down production, but there are still a couple of episodes unaired.)

My TiVo didn’t even get the one episode that aired in the Saturday night time slot; because of the last-minute episode change a few Tuesdays ago, TiVo thought it had already recorded that episode within the previous 28 days. But I didn’t care, because the actual baseball playoffs had enough drama for me. Also, they were less preachy.

Original comments

Levi: Only something that would get the kids to watch could save that series. Something like . . . Scooter!

Dan: http://thebrushback.com/scooter_full.htm

Dan: That above link is quite dirty, by the way.

As predicted, "Clubhouse" isn’t as good as the real baseball playoffs

The “Clubhouse” episode that was promoted last week, in which Doc Brown is uncomfortable with modern technology, was not shown this week. Instead, it was an episode in which there are trade rumors swirling around Dean Cain’s character (who is named “Conrad Dean”; get it?). I forgot to “stay tuned for scenes from next week’s ‘Clubhouse,'” so I don’t know if they showed the same promo from last week.

At any rate, because of disappointing ratings, CBS is soon going to move “Clubhouse” to Saturdays to make room for “The Amazing Race,” which is a better show but is (usually) less baseball-related.

On another note, I’m listening to the Cardinals-Astros game on ESPN Radio. Boy, are these commercials annoying!

Still watching "Clubhouse" so you don’t have to

What I learned from “Clubhouse” this week: the New York Empires’ scheduling is such that they would play a night game Friday, and then what was referred to several times as a “morning game” on Saturday. (This was presented as the justification for the batboys having a sleepover in the stadium.) Also, while baseball players may enjoy dancing with Brazilian swimsuit models, they enjoy even more talking about Kurt Vonnegut’s “Breakfast of Champions” with the model’s translator, who turns out to be her mother (who for some reason never bothered to teach her daughter English, despite she herself knowing enough English to read Kurt Vonnegut’s “Breakfast of Champions”).

On next week’s episode, equipment manager Doc Brown gets a computer put on his desk, but he doesn’t know how to work it. However, batboy Pete, our hero, is a 16-year-old boy and therefore a computer expert. I guess Doc Brown isn’t comfortable with any technology within the range 1985-2015 (i.e., anything that comes after the DeLorean and before the Mr. Fusion).

I watch baseball-related TV so you don’t have to

I just watched my TiVo recording of the new CBS drama “Clubhouse,” which premiered last night. In this show, we are led to believe that there is a baseball team in New York called the New York Empires, the reigning world champions of a baseball league called the ABA, in which there is also a Boston team that wears red-and-black road uniforms. The Empires play in a stadium in Brooklyn, or perhaps Queens (somewhere along the route of the F train), that looks a lot like Dodger Stadium with the seat colors changed, some of the details missing (e.g., the right field scoreboard and the roofs over the bleachers), and apartment buildings in the background instead of palm trees. Also, the team equipment manager is Doc Brown from “Back to the Future.” And judging by the promos for the second episode, the Empires are going to be changing their uniforms within the first couple weeks of the season. (The truth: the Yankees complained about the pinstriped uniforms used in the pilot. There was talk the producers were going to digitally remove the pinstripes, but the pinstripes were there in the broadcast.)

The pilot involved steroids, and the second episode involves corked bats. I’m not sure if they can come up with 22 episodes’ worth of baseball-related issues, so surely some of the later episodes in the season are going to deal primarily with the home life of the central character, batboy Pete Young, and his sister Betsy, who is clearly named after my aunt Betsy, who in the mid-1960s, was an impostor on “To Tell the Truth” for a Baltimore Orioles ball girl. But the Betsy on “Clubhouse” seems like she cares more about sneaking out of the house to meet her boyfriend than she does about baseball.

Oh, and among the producers are Aaron Spelling and Mel Gibson. In fact, the show was created by a writer for one of Aaron Spelling’s other shows, “Charmed,” so I’m hoping for a crossover episode, perhaps involving a demon attacking during a game between the Empires and the San Francisco Cable Car Dodgers, or whatever they’re going to decide the ABA’s San Francisco team is called.

In conclusion, there will probably be more drama in the baseball playoffs starting next week than there is in “Clubhouse,” but I’ll watch the second episode on Tuesday before deciding whether or not to take it out of my TiVo Season Pass list.

Original comments…

Dan: This was on in a bar I was in last night, but the sound was down and closed captioning off. Sounds like I missed just what I thought I missed.

What about Hustle? Anyone see that on ESPN? I keep meaning to set the TiVo, but wonder if its worth my time.

Jim: “Clubhouse” was being shown in a bar? Was it a lazy bar where they hadn’t changed the channel away from CBS after the football games, or was it a bar where a lot of Kirsten Storms fans hang out?

thatbob: Episodes later in the season might deal with Doc Brown’s comic attempts to rectify problems in time-space caused by bookies with access to his Delorean.

Dan: It more in a bar by default. No cable and the person who really cared (the football games were over) flipped around and left it on that because there was good reception.

Today’s baseball-related press release

CBS has a new drama coming this fall that’s baseball-related. Here’s their official description:

CLUBHOUSE (Tuesday, 9:00 PM) is a drama about a 16-year-old boy who becomes a man in a world of overgrown boys when he takes a job as a batboy for a professional baseball team. For the first time, Pete Young (Jeremy Sumpter) takes a risk – perhaps the only risk of his young life – when he applies for and lands his dream job as a batboy for the New York Empires. The problem is his single mom, Lynne (Mare Winningham), has no idea what he’s up to. Until now, he’s been the golden boy while his rebellious older sister, Betsy (Kirsten Storms), has always been in the doghouse. On the job, Pete becomes a part of a new family that includes Conrad Dean (Dean Cain), the team’s captain and star third baseman and one of the boy’s all-time idols who takes on the role of an older brother. Also, in the clubhouse is his boss, Lou Russo (Christopher Lloyd), a gruff but fair equipment manager who becomes a much-needed father figure; Rich (Marc Donato), a fellow batboy who just happens to be the general manager’s nephew; Carlos Tavares (John Ortiz), a rookie who believes that Pete is his good luck charm, and Jose Marquez (J.D. Pardo), the Empire’s territorial head batboy. Pete is over the moon at being a member of his favorite team, but he must still balance life at home and life in the big leagues as he faces the moral dilemmas and curve balls that life throws his way. Emmy Award-winners Aaron Spelling and E. Duke Vincent (“And The Band Played On,” “Day One”), Academy Award-winner Mel Gibson (“Braveheart”) and Bruce Davey (“The Passion of the Christ”), Daniel Cerone (“Charmed”) and Ken Topolsky (“Party of Five”) are the executive producers for Spelling Television.

Aaron Spelling! Mel Gibson! And it means I won’t have to look at Kirsten Storms on “Days of Our Lives” anymore! (Interesting that she’s the “rebellious older sister” on this show, since her character on “DOOL” is a goody two-shoes, younger than all of her half-siblings there.)

Original comments…

Levi: If only Boychick from San Pedro Beach Bums could be on the program. I wonder what he’s up to these days?

Jim: I seriously came very close to mentioning “San Pedro Beach Bums” in the original posting.

Looks like Boychick hasn’t done much with his career, to the extent that the only people he can get to submit information about him to the IMDB can’t spell “New Jersey” correctly.

But there is a connection: Stuf appeared in the “Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century” movies for the Disney Channel, which star Kirsten Storms as the title character, so maybe there’s hope for a guest-starring appearance for him on “Clubhouse.”

Jason: Anyone remember the short-lived Fox sitcom “Hardball”? At least, I think it was called Hardball. Anyway, it was a about a baseball team, the Pioneers, and all the wacky hijinks its players got into.

One of my favorite TV lines was said by Mike Starr, who later appeared as one of the mean toughs in ‘Dumb & Dumber’: “I love this guy! But not in the way you think. I want to have sex with him!”

It was so good, I used it in an episode of ‘Sucks to Yer Azmar’.

Eric J. Ritter: (*)(*)

wOOt!

Viveian: Kirsten Storms Rocks i canot wait to see her on CH!!~

Mike: Kristen Storen Storms is really HOT!!~

Jim: Is that you, Mike, my supervisor? Has closed-captioning “Days of Our Lives” finally driven you insane? We’ll talk when you get into the office.