The pilot of the Newcastle-baed reality television show “Cowshit Corner” will air at 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 28. (D. Lobkowicz photo, LCN file) |
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By J.W. Oliver
The pilot of a Newcastle-based reality television show will air at 8 p.m., Friday, Feb. 28.
The first episode of “Cowshit Corner” will debut on Lincoln County Television, Channel 7. Lincoln County Television also streams its programming online at http://www.lctv.org. The episode will be available on YouTube the same day.
The show follows the exploits of Newcastle resident Larry Russell and friends Rodney “Fuzzy” Crockett, Mark Fenderson, Eben Hunt, Tavio Luksic and “Marijuana Pete” Roscop.
Russell owns and operates Dyer’s Valley Farm Inc., a dairy farm in Newcastle. He and his friends gather at the farm most Sundays for what they call the Cherch of the Holy Cow, when the group drinks beer and talks about the events of the week.
The show takes its title from a long-standing nickname for the nearby intersection of Jones Woods Road and North Newcastle Road.
The approximately 26-minute pilot will center around the group’s participation in the 2013 Fourth of July parade in Round Pond.
Keith O’Leary, a Newcastle resident and veteran of the television industry, is the creator, director, and producer of the show.
The episode “introduces the show and the concept of Cherch, which is kind of the focal point of the show” before the transition to the parade, O’Leary said.
O’Leary is optimistic about the show’s chances to reach a national audience.
He shopped the show to cable networks at a trade convention in Miami this January. He encountered “a lot of interest” at the convention and people want to see more, he said. The pilot will help him market the show.
“I think we have a really good shot at selling it,” O’Leary said. “From a human interest standpoint, the characters that are involved in this thing, when you look around at what else is out there, I think it has a really good chance at being picked up by somebody.”
The show could also find a home overseas, in Australia, Europe, or even Japan.
“There are a lot of markets out there,” O’Leary said. “A lot of it might have to be dubbed, but it has a possibility of going to a number of countries.”
The show now has a full-time editor, Ian Kennedy, which frees O’Leary up to spend more time marketing the show.
“He’s a local boy from Nobleboro who trained and worked in New York,” O’Leary said. “He’s actually taken a great burden off my shoulders, because up to this point, I’ve been producing, directing, and editing the whole thing.”
O’Leary plans a public premiere for the show at Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta this spring.
Lincoln County Television will show the pilot again at 10:30 p.m., Monday, March 3 and 2 a.m., Tuesday, March 4.
For more information or to view the episode online, check the Facebook page for the show or visit http://www.cowshitcorner.com.