The TV Column

Online network Crackle offers funny stuff free

Jerry Seinfeld (right) goes for coffee with Judd Apatow in Crackle’s new season of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
Jerry Seinfeld (right) goes for coffee with Judd Apatow in Crackle’s new season of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

Unless you've been living under a rock, or out in the boonies with an old analog TV with a wire coat hanger for an antenna, you should know there is television these days that, well, isn't on television.

At least the television that we baby boomers grew up with.

Case in point -- our millennial son and millennial daughter-in-law watch TV streamed through their PlayStation gaming console. It's TV delivered via the internet.

They have, as the saying goes, "cut the cable."

"All the cool kids do it," they say, and they're perfectly happy streaming all their favorite shows this new-fangled way.

Of course, their PlayStation is hooked up to a huge flat screen monitor so they can play Super Mario Brothers or Mortal Kombat or whatever the latest hip video game is.

All of this is part of the growing shift in the way people are watching TV these days. Recent data from Pew Research Center indicate 15 percent of Americans have cut the cord -- that is, they once had cable or satellite TV service, but no longer subscribe.

The survey also notes that nine percent of Americans never had cable or satellite, making a total of 24 percent of viewers currently not subscribing.

It is worth noting, however, that also means 76 percent of Americans still subscribe to a pay TV service for their homes. That's a hefty majority.

Pew breaks it down: Young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 are the least likely to have cable or satellite. Only 65 percent of that age group subscribes, compared with 73 percent of adults ages 30 to 49, and 83 percent of us over 50.

Those young folks without cable are content with the arrangement because they have alternate access to the programs they want through online streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime, or via an over-the-air antenna.

And that brings us to today's lesson, boys and girls -- Crackle.

Crackle is Sony's free (yes, free) streaming network available for sign up at crackle.com. It features films, popular TV shows and original series.

Sony says it's "always freely accessible with no subscription or commitments required" and boasts "a robust library of original programming available anytime, anywhere on every connected device."

Netflix was the first streaming service to offer outstanding original programs designed to lure new subscribers. House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black set a high bar.

Crackle's signature series is Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. The title says it all. Each 20-minute episode features Seinfeld in a cool car with a comedian. They chat and go out for coffee. Simple, but hilarious.

One episode featured Seinfeld in a 1963 Corvette Stingray with President Barack Obama. They made it from the front door to the White House gate and were told by the "guard," "You're a comedian in a car with the president of the United States. You're going nowhere. Back it up."

They ended up having their coffee in what looked like a staff break room somewhere in the White House. Obama may not be a comedian, but he was most amusing.

At the end, Obama took the wheel of the Stingray for a slow spin around the driveway. The car sported a bumper sticker that read, "My other car is a 5-ton bulletproof limousine."

Normally, however, Seinfeld has guests such as Larry David, Ricky Gervais, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.

The six episodes of Season 8 of the Emmy-nominated series kick off today and debut each Thursday. Getting coffee with Jerry will be comedian Margaret Cho, Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, stand-up comic Jim Gaffigan, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver, actor JB Smoove and writer/producer Judd Apatow.

It's some funny, funny stuff.

Crackle hopes viewers will come for Seinfeld and stick around for its "evolving slate of original premium content" that features some well-known talent.

The lineup includes Crackle's first original scripted hour drama, The Art of More, starring Dennis Quaid, Kate Bosworth, Cary Elwes and Christian Cooke; and the stop-motion animated comedy, SuperMansion, with Bryan Cranston, Seth Green, Keegan Michael-Key and Jillian Bell.

The weekly live game show Sports Jeopardy! with Dan Patrick airs every Wednesday.

Set for the fall is the drama, StartUp, with Martin Freeman, Adam Brody, Edi Gathegi and Otmara Marrero.

And beginning Monday, the Crackle original film Dead Rising: Endgame debuts. The zombie thriller, based on the Dead Rising video game franchise, stars Jesse Metcalfe, Billy Zane, Dennis Haysbert, Marie Avgeropoulos, Jessica Harmon and Keegan Connor Tracy.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Weekend on 06/16/2016

Upcoming Events