Showtime announced today that the new documentary series The Franchise: A Season with the San Francisco Giants will premiere on July 13, but a thirty minute preview episode will air three months earlier, on April 13. The series follows the team as the attempt to defend their unprecedented World Series title, and it looks like an entertaining, revealing ride. The team that won the series consisted almost exclusively of underdogs and oddities like star pitcher Tim Lincecum; exactly the guys who can carry a show like this even for those viewers who aren't baseball fans. Check out the extended trailer right here:
Closing pitcher Brian Wilson is the funniest man in professional sports, and he alone is reason enough to watch The Franchise. Take a look at that beard, and consider that he has called himself a "certified ninja" and once claimed that Christopher Nolan's Inception is his life story. Showtime is hoping to turn The Franchise into a Hard Knocks-style series, focusing on a different Major League Baseball team every season.
Who else is hoping that The Franchise results in a spin-off titled Fear the Beard starring Wilson as a hard boiled private detective and part-time ninja?
