The weird marketing of "Frank TV"
TBS, as baseball fans know, owns the rights to the early preseason rounds of the MLB playoffs. I've even heard a rumor that TBS is carrying the games in high definition, though Time Warner Cable hotly denies that. Oops — I read that wrong: Time Warner Cable is denying its Kansas City subscribers TBS games in HD. My bad.
Anyway, TBS is using the playoffs to promote the November launch of its new late-night series Frank TV. Now, I have no objections to naming a show after Frank Caliendo, a comedian much of the population hasn't heard of. A lot of folks hadn't heard of Roseanne, either, until she got a TV show with her name on the label. But I find it awfully strange bit that TBS is asking baseball announcers to routinely read this piece of copy: "Hey fans, do you remember the guy who did those hilarious impersonations of John Madden and Jack Nicholson?"
"Well, of course I do," the sensible fan says at home. "He just did them during the last commercial break." In fact, there are only a handful of these ads, and they are used so heavily by TBS during the breaks, that the average viewer could be excused for thinking that he has gotten enough Madden and Nicholson impersonations for the next two years. (In another spot, Caliendo plays a fat Robin Williams. There's another one where he's wearing a leather jacket and impersonates ... uh, someone.)
I have no idea if this show is going to be any good. TBS's track record is just too spotty to predict anything. It has brought out two pretty good comedies in the past year ("10 Items or Less," "House of Payne") and two not so good ones ("My Boys," "Bill Engvall Show"). (Those of you who don't find Tyler Perry funny probably like "My Boys." I'm not typecasting; I'm just saying.) But none of those got the kind of repetitive, hit-them-over-the-head promotion that always seems to befall shows pimped during sporting events.
But at least I understand why they're not showing Caliendo in his civvies. Dude looks exactly like Jimmy Kimmel's other brother.
