"Star Wars" Spiked

Not too long a time from now in a cable galaxy not so far away, you'll be able to watch all six Star Wars flicks.

Spike TV has opened up the vaults to secure television rights to the entire George Lucas space opera. The Viacom-owned male-centric network signed an exclusive six-year deal worth a reported $65 million to $70 million.

According to Daily Variety, Spike won a fierce bidding war against NBC Universal's USA Network and Sci Fi Channel and Turner Broadcasting's TBS and TNT that pushed up the price from an initial $50 million, where it hovered a few months ago, to Spike's record offer.

The Star Wars blockbusters will begin their run on the net in April 2008. The deal includes both the original trilogy (Star Wars: Episode IV--A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V--The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Episode VI--Return of the Jedi) and the prequels (Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones, and Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith).

Sith will make its network debut as part of the package.

Of course, we've all seen the USA Network's original trilogy marathons around the Thanksgiving holiday. The first three Star Wars installments have been running on various network and cable channels for more than 20 years. The new deal will only permit Spike to run them.

However, the only time Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones have aired on a broadcast network has been on Fox, which paid a stellar $80 million in 1999 for a 10-year exclusive license to air Menace. The Spike deal takes effect once that window expires.

On the pay TV side, HBO forked over $15 million in 2003 for an exclusive 18-month window to broadcast Attack of the Clones on its channel. The deal also included rebroadcast rights for the four previous films.

For Spike, the agreement with Lucasfilm comes on the heels of the network losing its prime-time staple, World Wrestling Entertainment, whose rights were snapped up by USA. Spike had some of its best ratings with WWE Raw. Spike has been filling the void with CSI reruns, for which it paid a then-record $1.6 million per episode. The cable network has since snagge rerun rights to CSI: NY for $1.9 million an episode.

The network has also signed radio raunchmeister Howard Stern to develop a 'toon about awkward adolescence, but there's no word on when Howard Stern: The High School Years will debut.

Reps for Spike and Lucasfilm were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Lucasfilm continues to develop two TV-specific projects: another Star Wars cartoon that will pick up where the Emmy-winning Star Wars: Clone Wars left off; and a live-action series that will be set sometime between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and follow lesser-known characters in the Star Wars universe.

MikeSB - well me and my most favoured apprentice [Yoda] - plus a bunch of ACM guys - were putting away the 1664's at a sensible pace... which is obviously pretty quick..
and that was all afternoon... woohoo!!!...

Mari was working [taking pics of the gig] so she obviously had to be a little more under control..

which meant we drank, talked utter shite and got louder and more abusive..
and she got to watch... and understand less and less of the conversation..
funny really, I was under the impression that she speaks English fluently.. lol..
so despite our crass and crude bullshit..
I think she still likes us... quite a thing really...

we went to the gig.... and after Eric's set, I bumped into Yoda again so we went to augment the alchahol blood level...

after the gig I was on Grolsch in the VIP lounge....

Mr Clark - Happy Birthday to you Sir.

SteveeT - Yea Beverly Hills. CheckFree bought another little company there so i went out on Thursday and stayed until Tuesday. Malibu is incredible. I am off to Jakarta on Thursday 28th, then West Javan jungle and Bali. I'll also fly to Taiwan and spend a day or so there. I have kinda not done much with Roy's stuff the past 2 months - and feel bad about that - I just needed the break with moving house and travelling. I'm going to get back into the swing very shortly.

Cuthbert - YJM - You can but ask him. Sounds like he is getting his act together. Roy and I saw him in Glasgow about 14 years ago and he was awful. Couldn't play half his songs without messing up. Roy went to the bar instead. YJM is a genius though - no doubt about it. A real one-off unique creative talent.

zenfish hey buddy, i am down with the toast send it! you still got my addy?

LucySorets, I dunno if you're interested, but the Andy Timmons Band are doing some shows in Spain in november and december:

Good Morning Satchland....... How are we today?

Dakook & Angelina....... Now I really feel stupid. I can't read the wolf2 dialect very well. Thanks for your thanks. Congrats on your pregnancy. How'd that happen?.....LOL.....First child? God Bless you both.

This will put a smile on your face:

Hind Lick maneuver:

Two hillbillies are eating in a restaurant. Suddenly, a woman at a nearby table, who is eating a sandwich, begins to cough. After a minute or so, it becomes apparent that she is in real distress. One of the hillbillies looks at her and says, "Kin ya swallar?" The woman shakes her head no.

"Kin ya breathe?" The woman begins to turn blue and shakes her head no. The hillbilly walks over to the woman, lifts up the back of her dress, yanks down her drawers and quickly gives her right butt cheek a lick with his tongue. The woman is so shocked that she has a violent spasm and the obstruction flies out of her mouth. As she begins to breathe again, the hillbilly walks slowly back to his table. His partner says, "Ya know, I'd heerd of that there 'Hind Lick Maneuver', but I a in't niver seed nobody do it!"

Check this link. This is cool...but a little scary. Anybody.....let me know how he does it. I have no idea.

http://www.whateveryouwant.ca/copperfield.htm

Have A Great Day Everyone ! ! ! !

Death cube K

Keniko

Make a note of ALL the first set of cards.

None of them are shown in the second set.

Signs You Suffer From Road Rage

5> A) Teeth marks on steering wheel all the way down to the 5 and 7 o'clock positions; B) You're NOT Christian Slater, Mike Tyson, or Marv Albert.

4> Left forearm bigger than Popeye's from giving the finger and aiming the Uzi.

3> In traffic, that throbbing vein in your forehead gets big enough to honk the horn on its own.

2> You can't resist firing off a few practice shots whenever you pass a Target store.

and the Number 1 Sign You Suffer From Road Rage...

From a friend of mine . . .

Sometimes women send mixed signals.

For example,

if you read every 11th letter in the restraining order my girlfriend faxed me it clearly spells i-l-o-v-e-y-o-u . . .

and then mostly gibberish . . .

but then p-u-s-b-a-g, which I presume is her newpet name for me.

Vai and band were awesome last night. Jeremy Colson is a wicked drummer; I had no idea how good he is!!! Too bad the sound was crap - all kick drum and bass, not enough of anything else. Once again, the moment that really stand out in my mind of the whole gig was a Tony MacAlipne lick. That guy is a fucking monster of a guitar player...

962 - Yeah, man that was weird!!!! I would have liked him to play the full complete tracks though - particularly the sick solo in Rescue Me Or Bury Me. That said, it would have been hard to hear the guitar since the sound was so utterly dreadful last night... Performance was top notch form everyone though - especially Tony MacAlipne!!!!!!

Clarky - Now there's a good idea!!!! We could go out for Chritsmas dinner somewhere!!!! How very English??? lmao

mikesb - That sounds awesome. Any idea where I can get my hands on it?

hi all, just joined the website. is there any fans of satch in the tunbridge wells area in kent?

jon5 - Welcom to the site, dude! I live in Hastings - not too far from Tunbridge Wells at all!!!