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Who knows TV better than us? As America's largest online DISH Network dealer, we've got the inside dirt on the channels, shows, and events that keep you tuned in.
 Living in New York, you learn that everything is possible and none of it should be surprising. 1977, especially, was one of those wild and crazy years that New Yorkers learned to expect the worst. From blackouts and riots, to colossal heat waves, it seemed like it couldn’t get worse for the city. It did, if you added a drawn-out bitter race for the Mayor’s office between the political heavyweights, Mario Cuomo and Ed Koch. To top it all off, the city was introduced to one of the most prolific serial killers in history, David Berkowitz. Berkowitz, better known as Son of Sam, claimed he took his instructions from a barking dog when he stalked young woman at night, with his weapon of choice in hand. By the time the police was led to Berkowitz, 13 people had been shot, six killed, and his only response, “What took you so long?” This recipe for mayhem even stretched out onto the New York Yankees baseball field, or as it was known then, the Bronx zoo.
Mirroring the city, the Yankees were in turmoil. They began the year in one of the most disappointing fashions. Not only were they fighting to stay out of last place, but they exposed themselves to a daily dose of media coverage highlighting the tug of war between the three biggest egos and the strongest wills to ever wear the famous pinstripes. It was a season long soap opera between the owner George Steinbrenner, Manager Billy Martin, and their superstar outfielder Reggie Jackson.
When Reggie Jackson was traded to the Yankees, no one but Steinbrenner was satisfied. Martin didn’t feel Jackson quite fit the team’s mold, and felt snubbed when the Boss took him in anyway. Reigning MVP, Thurman Munson, as well as against the trade because he was promised he would always be the highest paid Yankee. And so the three-ring circus began, as Jackson not only added an outsized contract, and an even bigger ego, but added enough skill to take the limping Yankees to the World Series.
Inspired by the best-selling novel written by Jonathon Mahler, ESPN takes this drama, set to the background of NYC mayhem, and puts on the big screen. The Bronx is Burning, in an 8-episode mini-series, captures every details of the fiery 1977 Yankees season. Catch the latest episode every Tuesday at 10pm. (Don’t worry, if you missed the first few episodes, ESPN has weekly reruns.) (Channel 140/Available in Americas Top 100 and higher) The mini-series is just as seducing as the characters, as the superb acting mixed with an interesting non-fiction storyline, is enough to stimulate anyone, even if you’re not a big baseball fan.
While the Bronx is Burning takes you back in time, witness how players this sensational season are writing history. For instance, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants broke the home run record, surpassing legend Hank Aaron, with over 755 home runs. Mr. Hotshot himself, Alex Rodriguez of the infamous New York Yankees, as well became the youngest player thus far (a few days older than 32) to hit 500 home runs. At the rate he’s going, he will without a doubt knockdown Bonds to the snatch the Home Run King title. To add to this season’s baseball milestones, Tom Glavine of the New York Mets, won his 300th game as a pitcher. Not only have a handful of left-handed pitchers been able to accomplish this outstanding achievement, but it seems that Glavine might be the last to this for many years.
The Yankees, as well, can’t seem to get out of the spotlight as they made the most impressing jump to the top. They began the season losing game after game, reaching rock bottom. Distraught fans watched as their team lagged behind 13 games behind the Red Sox, looking as if they will never make the playoffs. Now the men in pinstripes crawled their way back to the top, inching closer and closer to making the playoffs.
You can catch all this excitement on ESPN or Dish Network's special programming in MLB Extra Innings – all the action your home stations don’t cover and up to 60 regular-season games per week!
Channel: MTV
DISH Network channel number: 160 (available in America's Top 100 or higher and DishLatino or higher)
The DISH: MTV revolutionized the music world, playing the first music video on television in 1981. The channel was an instantaneous sensation among teens and young adults everywhere, becoming the IT channel for music.
But now, we wonder what happened to the days when music channels actually played music videos? If we turn on MTV today, we get a bratty fifteen year old planning an over the top sweet sixteen, celebrities getting duped by Ashton Kutcher in Punk’d, and two exes get down and dirty in a private bungalow while their current significant others watch. Hmm, what do these shows have to do with the music industry again? Perhaps the tide of our obsession with reality television has over swept our interest in music. Out of a 12 hour primetime showing on MTV, possibly 2 hours are devoted to music and 10 hours are devoted to reality television.
As much as I keep ranting, I’m guilty as charged, as I tend to indulge in the occasional rerun of the Real World. Most of the shows aren’t all that bad, abiding to a serving of a pinch of inspiration, main course of drama, and side dish of kookiness. So here’s what’s on the menu:
MTV loves cooking up an array of dating shows with a not so average concept, and a ton of drama to spice it up. Take for instance, Parental Control that has parents, who apparently hate the person their child is dating, set their kid up on two dates while they watch with the current beau. If that’s not enough to break a couple apart, then MTV has really stripped themselves of their morals with their latest new show, The X Effect. They bring together two exes and have them stay in a luxury resort in the honeymoon suite, while, get this, their current loves secretly watches everything that happens from a spy cam in a nearby bungalow. They watch in misery as their boy/girlfriends throw themselves as their exes and rekindle their love. Hm, doesn’t this violate some television ethics code?
The master chef on MTV, of course, does not fail to provide a main course of inspiration. For instance, a stint like MADE coaches a lucky teen to become whatever they wish to be. True Life also takes a sneak peek at a group of individuals, who live a not so normal life. There’s a mountain of other reality television like Road Rules, Engaged and Underaged, and My Super Sweet 16. Believe me, the list goes on.
What about the music you say? I introduce to you the MTV house special: TRL, or a pathetic attempt to squish in an afternoon run of two minute glimpses of videos, and 90 minutes of screaming teen fans. It’s just enough to whet your appetite for music, then on to more reality shows.
So how could a music channel not play music? MTV, clearly realizing that they have a reputation to uphold, created a new channel, MTV2 (Channel 161, available in America's Top 100 and higher) that played music videos, old and new, throughout the day, with an occasional re-run of a show.
If you enjoy listening to music, and MTV just doesn’t do it for you, then Dish Network offers over 100 SIRIUS music channels to satisfy any of your moods. These channels play all types of music 24/7, ranging from an Elvis station, to a Hawaiian station.
So MTV, please put some music on! Best said by Jennifer Lopez in her song, Play: “DJ, play that song, just play my favorite song.”
When we think about relationships, we stir up the image of falling in love, and living a perfect life with the person who’s the reason you wake up in the morning and go to sleep at night. Unfortunately, this perfect image lasts a split second, until we open our eyes and see the ugly side of relationships. The tears, the heart-aches and the fights. We’ve all been there and we’ve seen our vase-like relationship slowly cracking to it reaches the brinking point and shatters into pieces.
In case your forgot a thing or two about my melodramatic description of a good relationship gone bad, just take a quick peek at last year’s hit movie, “The Break Up,” starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston (HBO, Channel 300, Available in Dish Premium Package). The two play a couple, (on-screen and off-screen, as a matter of fact), who have been living together for three years and seem destined to wed soon. However, Vince’s failure to think about anyone but himself, and to bring the twelve lemons she asked for, leads this relationship down to the breaking point. The bad gets ugly, when the duo does anything in their power to get under each others’ skin and to test each other’s resolve and lingering feelings.
The movie also looks at the miscommunication between the sexes, with scenes that were probably taken from a page of “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” The dialogue was also right on target, especially when Jennifer asks Vince to the dishes, and when he finally caves in, she complains that he should want to the dishes.
Although the movie provokes a few laughs, it’s hard to call it a comedy. It was sufficiently poignant, as it became not that much to watch these two characters break up. The inconclusive, Soprano-like ending, is unexpected, and leaves you in a break down wondering the fate of these characters that you spent 90 minutes watching.
Preparing for the big day can definitely be hectic. Cake. Dress. Invitations. Limos. The list goes on and on. If we haven’t seen someone we know obsessing over the details, then we’ve definitely had a glimpse of couple’s wedding preparations on television shows. Take WE’s show, Bridezilla that had sweet brides-to-be turn into overly meticulous controlling creatures. (Channel 128/Available in America’s Top 200 and higher) My favorite has to be, A Wedding Story, on TLC, that highlights a couple’s journey from the day they met to the day they finally get to exchange their vows. (Channel 183/ Available in America’s Top 100 and higher)
Then of course, there’s the Style Network that never fails to fill their daily lineup with a tear jerking show on what else, weddings! It kicks off with a look into the high-stressed job of wedding planners, as they attempt to create paradise weddings, in the show Whose Wedding is it Anyway? (Tuesdays at 10pm ET/Channel 115/Available in America’s Top 250 and higher). You’re invited again to tune into watching couples search for a gorgeous destination to have their weddings, in Married Away. Not enough for you? Good because there’s more. Don’t need a wedding planner? Then have your little sister and daughter plan all the details in this oddly twisted show, Wedding Altar.
Who knows more about weddings than the domestic goddess herself, Martha Stewart? Watch as she reveals all the handy-dandy ideas and secrets she knows for throwing the perfect wedding. Even if you need more advice, there’s always the premiere on June 16th, of Glamour’s 20 Weddings Dos and Don’ts that answer all the in-between questions you might have had. With all this fuss and worry about the wedding, we tend to forget about the magical day of the wedding proposal! Take a break from all this wedding preparations, prepare the box of tissues, and kick back to watch, I Propose (Tuesday 8pm ET). Here future grooms prepare for the anxiously awaited moment of giving the perfect wedding proposals to their girlfriends. What guy doesn’t want to make their special girl feel like a true Cinderella and whisk her away in an over the top fairy tale proposal she’s always dreamed of?
Ah, now it feels like summer because love is definitely in the air.
Need a good laugh every once in a while? Sure we can tune into one or two of President Bush’s speeches and watch him pronounce nuclear, but now there is something even better. The mastermind writer behind The Simpson’s has created a new wise-guy show that combines the miniature South Park figurines with Family Guy humor and you get, the new series, Lil’Bush, premiering on Comedy Central (Channel 107/Available in America’s Top 100 and higher). This series pokes fun at current political events, as it follows the adventures of a pre-puberty version of George Bush, along with his pals, Lil’ Condi, Lil’Rummy and of course his sidekick in crime, Lil’Cheney. The debut series shows Lil’W’s crew shopping for Father’s Day gifts in, get this, Iraq. The escapade doesn’t stop there as they bet on who will kiss someone first. The episode next week will feature Lil’Kim Jong-il, who bullies Lil’W in school, and the gang finds a summer camp run by Al’Qaeda., Overall, this show is absolutely worth tuning into, if you enjoy Comedy Central’s typical raw not-politically correct humor.
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