The Couch Potato Report - May 16th, 2006
This week The Couch Potato Report shines the spotlight on some producers and some dinosaurs.
THE PRODUCERS is the film of the Broadway musical based on the original 1968 Mel Brooks film. This new version stars Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell.
Also new this week is DINOSAURS - THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS is the set for the 1991-1994 show about the life of a family of Dinosaurs who live in a modern world. They have TV's, fridges, and all the amenities that you and I enjoy. The only humans in the show are caveman, who are viewed as pets and wild animals.
The Dinosaurs in the show were animatronic and created by the late Jim Henson. As a huge fan of the man I watched the show, hoping that it would have the class and humour of THE MUPPET SHOW or the many other shows that Henson has been a part of.
Sadly, he made the costumes, but he didn’t write the scripts. That said, there are still a great many laughs to be had from DINOSAURS. I’m not sure it will gain any new fans with this DVD release, but as an old fan I know I am quite happy.
And now the box set for DINOSAURS - THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS is available at a store near you along with the original version of THE PRODUCERS and the new film of the Broadway musical THE PRODUCERS.
Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report
In TRANSAMERICA Felicity Huffman from TV’s DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES is a transsexual woman who must confront his past when he was a man.
And THE CECIL B DEMILLE COLLECTION is a 5-disc collection that is a tremendous example of the work of one of the innovators who made moviemaking what it is today.
I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and some other releases, in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next time on The Couch!
CRTC radio review revives Cancon debate
The rules that govern the amount of Canadian content played on the radio are being debated again, more than three decades after they were first introduced.
On Monday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) began a series of hearings as part of its review of the country's commercial radio policy.
The broadcast regulator's hearings – which are being held all week in Gatineau, Que. – are expected to broach a range of topics, including increasing diversity on radio, the industry's move to digital transmission and the amount of local news and information.
However, the issue of Cancon – the percentage of Canadian-made musical content that stations are required to play – has emerged as the dominant subject.
Currently, most commercial radio stations are required to play 35 per cent Canadian content.
Stations urge less Cancon, more 'points' for emerging artists
The Canadian Association of Broadcasting (CAB), which represents commercial radio stations, presented its views to the CRTC on Monday.
The group has pitched a revised Cancon judging system whereby stations would receive more credit for playing emerging Canadian acts than they would for playing established artists.
The Canadian Recording Industry Association supports similar changes.
The CAB is also pushing to ease the Cancon requirement for some stations, such as reducing it to 25 per cent for oldies stations.
The broadcasting association has argued that despite recent successes, traditional radio now faces stiff competition from newer technologies – including satellite radio, the internet and digital music players.
"Next door you have this new emerging universe of unregulated services – by way of internet, by way of broadband, by way of wireless – that access consumers without any regulations," Glenn O'Farrell, the president and chief executive officer of the Canadian Association of Broadcasting, told CBC News.
"And we need to compete with that new environment."
Voices raised for higher Cancon requirements
On the other side of the spectrum, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) wants the Cancon requirement raised.
According to SOCAN vice-president Paul Spurgeon, the Canadian Broadcasting Act calls for the "predominant use of Canadian resources."
His group interprets the act as saying more than half of all music played should be homegrown.
"Some people might think it to be somewhat aggressive but we've looked at the law on this," he told CBC News.
"After considering this, we can't argue with the notion that 'predominant' means 'predominant' – which means more than 50 per cent."
SOCAN is also urging the CRTC to raise the Cancon requirements for specialty radio stations, including jazz and classical stations, from the current 10 per cent to 35 per cent.
The Canadian Independent Record Production Association has similarly asked for the general Cancon quota to be raised to 45 per cent.
Since January, more than 150 individual and groups have submitted comments and topics for consideration to the CRTC in relation to the Commercial Radio Review.
The last review took place in 1998. Another was scheduled for 2003 but the commission decided to postpone the review while it dealt with applications to introduce satellite radio to Canada.
A report, including any regulation changes, is expected later in 2006 or early in 2007.
'Underdog' Finds Its Polly Purebred
Have no fear, Amy Adams... "Underdog" is here.
According to Variety, the Oscar nominated actress is set to play the female lead in Disney's adaptation of the popular animated television show, to be directed by Fredrik Du Chau ("Racing Stripes").
Premiering on NBC in 1964, "Underdog" told the story of a canine-superhero with an occasionally annoying tendency to speak in rhyme. By day, he was just Shoeshine Boy, but he could become Underdog whenever Polly Purebred (Adams, presumably) was in danger.
Jason Lee ("My Name Is Earl") will voice the main character in the live action/CGI mix. Peter Dinklage is in place as the main villain.
Adams, toasted last year for her work in "Junebug," is becoming an old hand with the CG/live action mix, taking a lead role in Disney's "Enchanted." She'll next be seen in a supporting role in this summer's "Talladega Nights."
'Clerks II' Moves Up To July
Fans have already waited more than a decade for the sequel to "Clerks," but that interval is about to be reduced by a month.
Previously set to battle "Snakes on a Plane" for Aug. 18 box office gold, the Weinstein Co. has moved "Clerks II" up to July 21.
"Why the move? Getting into Cannes changed everything," writer-director-star Kevin Smith says in a statement posted to the NewsAskew website. "Since the film will have its world debut on May 26th, the Weinstein folks thought it'd make more sense to get the film out there sooner, rather than later. They found a weekend in which there wasn't any flick that directly compete with the movie for an audience, and staked their claim."
Analyzing the competition, he adds, "Now, we're opening against some pretty big flicks ('Lady in the Water,' 'Monster House'), but nothing that's appealing directly to our core audience. So while we'll never open at number one (those two flicks alone are pretty mass-appeal movies), we stand to make a decent chunk of change and wind up somewhere in the top ten."
Smith has already repeatedly said that with a budget of only $5 million, waltzing into profit should be a breeze for the sequel, which focuses on the continuing adventures of Randal (Jeff Anderson) and Dante (Brian O'Halloran), the titular clerks from the original.
"Clerks II" is screening out-of-competition at Cannes.
'Scrubs' Gets Another Midseason Run
NEW YORK -- With the NFL swallowing an entire night of primetime and the network high on several new dramas, a couple of current NBC shows were likely to get lost in the shuffle.
Or, if not lost, at least filed away for a while.
So the good news for fans of "Scrubs" and "Crossing Jordan" is that both shows will be back at some point during the 2006-07 season. The bad news is that NBC hasn't figured out what point that is yet.
That "Crossing Jordan" was held back isn't that surprising, given that NBC will be broadcasting prime-time NFL games on Sundays in the fall. However, the network has scheduled a new drama, "Raines," for the 10 p.m. Sunday timeslot after football season, meaning "Jordan" may likely find a new home somewhere.
The show has survived an extended absence in the past, going 10 months between its second and third seasons when star Jill Hennessy was pregnant.
As for "Scrubs," which received a full-season order, it's the second year in a row the Emmy-nominated comedy has been held off the fall schedule. NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly says the decision was driven by the network's need to "bulk up" its schedule with one-hour shows and the somewhat fragile state of comedy on network TV -- NBC has just four on its fall schedule.
"We're going to revisit comedy," Reilly says. "Obviously we have some good ones on the bench -- NBC has also picked up two comedies, "Andy Barker, PI" and "The Singles Table," for midseason. We're going to get out of the gate, hopefully have some real success, and then look. ... We've got to revisit it and figure out strategically where to get it in."
Radiohead's Yorke Flies Solo
Everything's in its right place for Thom Yorke.
Radiohead's wiry frontman has announced that his first solo album, The Eraser, is set to hit stores on July 11.
But don't go getting all paranoid android thinking the Grammy-winning British art rockers are going to disappear completely.
In a message to Radiohead fansite W.A.S.T.E., Yorke emphatically denied that bandmembers have any intention of going their separate ways with his new musical foray.
Instead, he reports that Radiohead has been feverishly working in its U.K. studios on new tunes for the band's highly anticipated seventh album, which Radiohead has been road testing with a short tour that began earlier this month in Europe. The tour makes its way to North America in June via intimate theater venues, as well as a June 17 headlining gig at the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee, before wrapping up in August.
"Yes it's a record! No, it's not a Radiohead record," the singer wrote in a post dated Friday. "As you know, the band are now touring and writing new stuff and getting to a good space, so I want no crap about me being a traitor or whatever splitting up blah, blah...this was all done with their blessing."
And while The Eraser is his own baby, Yorke tells fans he doesn't like referring to the disc as a solo project, claiming "it doesn't sound right."
Solo or not, the new disc is going to be distributed by Indie label XL Recordings and feature nine tracks produced and arranged by Nigel Godrich, the famed Radiohead collaborator who shepherded the group to prominence via his work on The Bends, OK Computer, Kid A and Hail to the Thief.
"The elements have been kicking round now for a few years and needed to be finished, and I have been itching to do something like this for ages," Yorke said in his post. "Inevitably, it is more beats and electronics."
Billboard reports that one song, "Black Swan," will be featured over the closing credits of Warner Independent Features' upcoming thriller A Scanner Darkly, which Richard Linklater is adapting from the classic Philip K. Dick sci-fi novel.
The film's score was rumored to be written entirely by Radiohead, but the band will instead contribute a limited amount of music along with Yorke's new tune.
As for their long-awaited creep back to the stage, Yorke & Co. kicked things off with the May 1 tour opener in London, which saw the unveiling of new songs "Arpeggi" and "Bodysnatchers." Radiohead was forced to cancel a May 10 concert in Amsterdam after the unexpected death of drummer Phil Selway's mother. The band has rescheduled the show for Aug. 28.
Here's a complete track listing for Yorke's The Eraser:
"The Eraser"
"Analyze"
"The Clock"
"Black Swan"
"Skip Divided"
"Atoms for Peace"
"And It Rained All Night"
"Harrowdown Hill"
"Cymbal Rush"
Jennifer Garner Says 'Alias' Had a Good Run
BURBANK, Calif. - "Alias" is coming in from the cold. "I think we have done these characters justice and to do any more would be pushing it," says series star Jennifer Garner, who plays double-agent Sydney Bristow, perhaps TV's most gorgeous female spy since Diana Rigg played Emma Peel on the `60s British series "The Avengers."
After five seasons, the ABC series that revitalized the espionage genre with a visually dazzling combination of glamor, angst and trickery concludes Monday, May 22, with a pair of episodes (9 p.m. EDT).
The brainchild of J. J. Abrams (who has since created ABC's hit drama "Lost" and directed "Mission: Impossible III"), "Alias" leaves behind a loyal, cult-like group of fans who understood the minutia of the double-dealing plot twists.
Yet mainstream viewers were often left scratching their heads over the spies' constantly shifting alliances between good and evil, not to mention their occasional faked deaths.
Show runner and executive producer Jeff Pinkner says it's "always been a family drama" and has "always played with the question of whether or not Sydney Bristow had a choice in what she was doing in her life ... fate versus free will."
The role made Garner an A-list star and her private life media fodder. Supermarket tabs tracked her divorce from "Felicity's" Scott Foley, her dating of "Alias" co-star Michael Vartan, her marriage last year to film star Ben Affleck and the November birth of their daughter, Violet.
Simply clad in black, action-star work clothes, the gracious, fresh-faced actress arrived promptly for lunch at the Mickey Mouse-themed Rotunda restaurant on the Walt Disney Studios lot, where the final episodes of "Alias" were in production.
Pinkner joined her and they shared feelings about the bonds that develop among cast and crew during the series run.
"This show will always be the backdrop to me growing up and I did it with these people. They've seen me struggle through stuff, figure stuff out, struggle through it again," said Garner, now 34. "They have been enormously kind to me the entire time and have done nothing but facilitate my growth, and been very patient."
That included her real-life pregnancy, which was worked into the plot, with Bristow giving birth to a daughter, Isabelle, in the April 19 episode.
Filming that sequence felt "too intimate," Garner said. "It was a horrible scene to shoot. I felt ridiculous. I kept saying to the crew, 'This wasn't what it was like. I wasn't like this. I was very calm.'"
Certainly more fun for the actress over the years were the many disguises Bristow adopted to go undercover, including "hundreds and thousands of dollars worth of wigs," Garner recalled. Her favorite was "the blonde bob," which she donned, along with blue contacts, to pose as a Nordic beauty. "It's the only time I've ever felt, `I wish I was this person.'"
She also mastered snippets of many foreign languages, the hardest being Czech.
And Garner is proud to say she performed many of her own stunts, though she's miffed that as her fame grew so also did Disney's insistence on stunt doubles.
She said she had wanted to do a "descender" in one of the final episodes, where "you're rigged in a harness. Couldn't be safer. A hundred and fifty feet. I've done higher than that several times."
But she was told insurance wouldn't cover her. "I was crushed. I was so bummed."
So on this day, she was happy to be going back after lunch to shoot a rappelling scene, even though "it's just a wussy thing."
Pinkner co-wrote one of the final episodes, but, teasingly, would only say, "People die; people live."
However, he assures the conclusion honors Bristow's ongoing romance with CIA agent Michael Vaughn (Vartan) and her relationship with her parents, particularly her father, double agent Jack Bristow ( Victor Garber).
The final episodes also pay off the mythology of the show, based on the mysterious prophecies of 15th century seer Milo Rambaldi, and add another kink to the machinations of treacherous spymaster Arvin Sloane ( Ron Rifkin).
Garner admitted to some ambivalence as production on the series drew to a close.
"I feel very much like a college senior," she said. "Kinda, `When will this ever end? I'm never going to get out of here!' and at the same time, `Oh, don't let it end. Who am I without it? I don't want it to end! I love these people.'"
NBC Ready for Some Regis
Regis Philbin got another first-string job. Joey got sacked. Crossing Jordan got benched.
Football analogies were in order Monday as NBC announced a fall schedule that will rely on prime-time pigskin and six new series to turn around the fourth-place network.
The ubiquitous Philbin, Matthew Perry and Alec Baldwin will be among the familiar faces in freshman shows. Matt LeBlanc, Benjamin Bratt and the Fear Factor bugs are among the stars losing their network parking spaces.
Overall, NBC announced plans for four new dramas, two new comedies, four midseason replacements and one new Philbin-hosted, Simon Cowell-produced talent show.
Canceled were: Joey, the LeBlanc-led Friends spinoff put out of its misery after two seasons; Fear Factor, the bug-eating reality show exterminated after six seasons; save for My Name Is Earl, every single new NBC show from last fall, including the Bratt-staffed E-Ring and the cult fave Surface; and, except for Deal or No Deal, every single new NBC show from midseason, including Teachers and Conviction.
In addition to the previously announced Sunday Night Football, or as it was known for 35 years on ABC, Monday Night Football, NBC will go long with Friday Night Lights, an hourlong drama inspired by the 2004 football film of the same name (itself based on the 1990 football book of the same name).
Less the network alienate non-football fans, NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly noted in a telephone press conference that Friday Night Lights has been described as "The O.C. that's got authenticity."
NBC, however, will risk alienating Crossing Jordan fans by renewing the crime drama for a sixth season, but leaving it off the fall schedule.
The show, which had higher ratings than The Office, The Biggest Loser and Las Vegas (three NBC series rewarded with fall slots), got squeezed out of its 10 p.m. Sunday home by Sunday Night Football and a new Jeff Goldblum series. Sunday Night Football will dominate NBC's Sunday nights through December; Raines, a House-ian police detective drama starring Goldblum, will assume the 10 p.m. slot in the winter.
In lieu of a fall slot, Crossing Jordan, "a great utility player," per Reilly, will be plugged in somewhere, sometime during the new season.
Scrubs, a bubble show renewed for a sixth season, will be deployed on a similar as-needed basis.
Elsewhere, NBC resolved a few cliffhangers: No, ER won't be moved off Thursday (although, yes, it will have to learn to share); no, The Apprentice won't be fired; and, yes, Andy Richter won't rest until he stars in a hit series of his own.
NBC handled the ER matter--the aging, but still semi-popular series dedicated to the advancement of new regular John Stamos--by announcing that the medical drama would air in its traditional 10 p.m., Thursday slot through December, straight, no repeats, and then step aside for The Black Donnellys, an Irish Mob drama from Crash director Paul Haggis. Once the Haggis show concludes its run, ER will get back its turf. Or, at least that's the plan for now.
The Apprentice, meanwhile, currently struggling through its least watched season ever, will be allowed to see if a change of scenery (Los Angeles instead of New York) can improve Donald Trump's TV fortunes. The series will be back for a sixth cycle in January.
As for Richter, the former Conan O'Brien sidekick, late of the short-lived sitcoms Andy Richter Controls the Universe and Quintuplets, will see if the third time is the charm with Andy Barker, P.I., a midseason replacement comedy about an accountant who turns gumshoe.
A brief look at the other new series:
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (fall): The previously announced star of the schedule that isn't football. In this hourlong drama, Friends alum Perry and West Wing alum Bradley Whitford play producers of Saturday Night Live, sorry, "a popular, late-night comedy show comedy sketch show."
Heroes (fall): "A high school cheerleader learns that she is totally indestructible." No one-trick pony, this hourlong drama about ordinary people discovering their inner Superman and Wonder Woman, also promises a stripper (Final Destination's Ali Larter) who "uncovers that her mirror has a secret."
Kidnapped (fall): Prison Break meets Dynasty in this hourlong thriller about the abduction of a teenage boy that focuses on his well-to-do Manhattan family, his kidnappers and his would-be saviors in law enforcement. Best-case scenario for NBC: The show's a hit, and the kid doesn't go home for a very long time. Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany head the ensemble cast.
20 Good Years (fall): In this "high-energy romp" of a sitcom, John Lithgow, 60, and Jeffrey Tambor, 61, play friends who optimistically estimate they have two solid decades left to change their lives.
30 Rock (fall): SNL head writer Tina Fey plays the head writer of SNL, sorry, "a frenetic television variety show." Frequent SNL guest host Alec Baldwin costars, as do SNL regulars current, Rachel Dratch, and past, Tracy Morgan. NBC said it was not known yet if Fey and Dratch will continue to work on the show that actually is called SNL.
America's Got Talent (January): Regis Philbin looks for new talent that presumably producer Simon Cowell isn't looking for on American Idol.
The Singles Table (midseason): Because no NBC schedule would be complete without at least one attempt to redo Friends, this half-hour comedy sees five "witty and single strangers" bond while consigned to the "singles table" at a wedding. John Cho (Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) stars.
And here's a night-by-night look at NBC's fall lineup:
SUNDAY: Football Night in America; Sunday Night Football (January 2007 lineup: America's Got Talent; The Apprentice; Raines)
MONDAY: Deal or No Deal; Heroes; Medium
TUESDAY: Friday Night Lights; Kidnapped; Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
WEDNESDAY: The Biggest Loser; 20 Good Years; 30 Rock; Law & Order
THURSDAY: My Name Is Earl; The Office; Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; ER (fall)/The Black Donnellys (January)
FRIDAY: Deal or No Deal; Las Vegas; Law & Order: Criminal Intent
SATURDAY: Dateline Saturday; reruns
Hagar puts Cabo on tour, shots included
NASHVILLE (Billboard) - When Sammy Hagar is fired up, he tends to talk kind of fast.
Exhibit A: "Cabo-esque looking, a bunch of tents, with poles and all that, and we're filling all these little booths up with fun stuff, like taco stands, margarita stands, shot stands, and some outdoor grills with people grilling chickens and carne asada and making tacos out of 'em, and salsa, wandering mariachi bands, sand all over the place, we're putting up volley ball courts, it's all about bathing suits, bikinis, no shoes, no shirt, no problem, it's a whole different kind of concept."
Phew. It turns out he's describing the shed version of the Cabo Wabo Village.
Hagar is bringing Cabo north of the border this summer. The Red Rocker's summer trek even has a Cabo San Lucas-themed concourse attraction -- the Cabo Wabo Village -- on each date, beginning with a sold-out show June 3 at the Hyundai Pavilion in Glen Helen, Calif.
Hagar's shed tour comes on the heels of six sellouts at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe, Nev., where he opened his first U.S. Cabo Wabo Cantina in 2004. He launched the first Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in the early '90s.
Hagar is still talking breathlessly. "It starts at 3 o'clock with karaoke stages and body builders, like you're just going down to the beach in Cabo to see what's going on. So I'm just bringing that whole feel and look and sound and smell even to this village. People can start partyin' at 3, 6:30 the doors open, you go inside and continue to party inside the venue, I come on at 7:30 or 8:00, depending what the curfew is because we do a three-hour show."
Hagar's band the Waboritas will play first, then Hagar will hit the stage with his former Van Halen bandmate Michael Anthony in an outfit they call the Other Half. "Michael kicks off his classic Van Halen bass solo on steroids, then (the band and) I come out and do an hour of classic Van Halen. We're just trying to have some fun with it."
The band rips through around 10 Van Halen standards. "Eddie (Van Halen) and I wrote every one of those songs together," Hagar continues. "If those guys don't wanna come out and do it or make it difficult to do, whichever way you want to look at it, the fans deserve to hear 'em, I deserve to sing the songs I wrote, so I feel good with Mike doing it that way. Otherwise I'd never do an hour of Van Halen in my show.
"Then we do a big grand finale with anybody in town that wants to come up and jam with us. I'm going to invite a lot of different people, kinda make it an open mic kind of situation, then we bust the pinata. If people can still walk, we'll come back with an encore."
He and Anthony are joined onstage by guitarist Vic Johnson, drummer Bro Lauser and background singers.
To Hagar, this summer's run is "just a new way of doing a tour and a concert, instead of just doing the same show you did the night before, packing up and leaving. It ain't that kind of show. It's an all-day event and it's user-friendly.
"If you've never been to Cabo, this will really put the hook in you. If you've been to Cabo, you're gonna sit there drinking shots and go, 'Man, it sounds and smells like I'm in Cabo.' It's just got a vibe we're trying to re-create."
Sounds like fun. Hagar will wrap up his tour with a performance, Cabo Wabo Village and all, at the Rock'n the Rally festival August 10 in Sturgis, S.D. Hagar gave 650 tickets to the Sturgis performance to winners on his "Are We Having Fun Yet" cruise to Cabo.
Foster Quotes Eminem at Penn Graduation
PHILADELPHIA - You can add rapping to the list of Jodie Foster's talents. The Oscar-winning actress spoke Monday at the University of Pennsylvania's commencement ceremonies, ending her address with the chorus of Eminem's "Lose Yourself" from "8 Mile," the semi-autobiographical 2002 film in which he starred.
Foster, who graduated from Ivy League rival Yale University in 1985, received an honorary doctor of arts degree.
She earned laughs from the graduates by taking pictures of them from the podium and then by recalling her own years at Yale. But she struck a serious note later, saying the country and world are worse off than they were four years ago, and challenging graduates to change that.
The U.S. "squandered" the goodwill and sympathy other nations offered after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Foster said. She also criticized officials for the "disastrous and shameful" handling of Hurricane Katrina.
Penn seniors had expressed skepticism and seemed underwhelmed by her selection as commencement speaker when it was announced earlier this year, but she received a standing ovation after her speech.
Foster, 43, won Oscars for 1988's "The Accused" and 1991's "The Silence of the Lambs." She received nominations for her roles in 1976's "Taxi Driver" and 1994's "Nell."
Aimee Masters, 22, who received her bachelor's degree in sociology and women's studies, said Foster was "really inspiring."
"Everyone around me was really happy with what she said," Masters said, adding that quoting Eminem "was surprising, but I liked it."
Comedian Yakov Smirnoff, who earned a master's degree in positive psychology, was among the approximately 6,000 graduates.
MTV Launches Online Music, Video Store
LOS ANGELES - For years, MTV Networks Inc. sat on the sidelines while Apple Computer Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and others racked up sales of music downloads. Now the cable network group that helped popularize music videos two decades ago is entering the online music fray with URGE, a new service that makes its public beta debut on Wednesday.
URGE comes integrated into the newest version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Player, which users of Microsoft's Windows will receive in coming weeks as an upgrade. Prior to that, the player upgrade will be available for download at the URGE and Microsoft Web sites.
At launch, URGE will have more than 2 million tracks, which can be purchased individually at 99 cents or as full albums starting at around $9.95.
The service also will offer unlimited downloads at a monthly rate of $9.95, or $14.95 for the ability to transfer songs to any of more than 100 compatible portable music players.
Initially, URGE will also feature streaming videos, with video downloads becoming available for purchase later this year.
URGE will also be the featured music service on Microsoft's media player, which will continue to have built-in links to several other services.
The company has begun clearing content from its vault of exclusive appearances by recording artists on staples such as "TRL" and "MTV Unplugged" for sale on URGE, said Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music Group.
The tie-in to MTV should also help URGE sell consumers on the upside of subscription services better than others have to date, said analyst Phil Leigh with Inside Digital Media.
"The thing that works to their advantage is they have a well-recognized brand that is popular to a demographic that is going to be receptive to purchasing digital music," Leigh said.
Still, URGE enters an online music market struggling to compete with online piracy and the dominance of Apple's iTunes Music Store and its market-leading iPod digital music player.
And like established rivals RealNetworks' Rhapsody and Napster Inc., URGE is not compatible with Apple's Macintosh computers or its market-leading iPod digital music player.
That incompatibility, combined with the availability of music on Internet file-sharing networks, has made subscription music plans a tough sell.
Earlier this year, Napster said it had more than a half-million subscribers. RealNetworks, which doesn't break out the number of Rhapsody subscribers, says it has more than 1.7 million paying customers for the service and its cadre of radio streaming plans combined.
Apple's iTunes Music Store, which doesn't offer a subscription plan, has sold more than 1 billion songs since its launch three years ago, while more than 50 million iPods have been purchased since 2001.
"Whether the consumer really wants a service that's only compatible with non-iPod players is going to be the big issue," said Steve Gordon, entertainment attorney and author of "The Future of the Music Business."
Toffler acknowledges the popularity of Apple's store and player, but argues both the a la carte singles model and the subscription business are still in their infancy.
"Only 5 percent of music sales happen digitally," he said. "Hopefully, through the TV channels we have and the dot-com sites ... we can educate people about the virtues of subscriptions. It's not about selling a million singles."
Eva Longoria Tops Maxim's 'Hot 100' List
NEW YORK - Eva Longoria tops Maxim's seventh annual "Hot 100" list of the most successful women in film, TV, music, sports and fashion for the second year in a row.
The "Desperate Housewives" actress told The Associated Press that her repeat selection for the No. 1 spot was a shock.
"I was actually really shocked last year when I made the list," said the 31-year-old Longoria, who ranked No. 91 on the 2004 roster.
"So 91 to No. 1 was a big jump, and then to get it a second time in a row — I just couldn't believe it," she said Friday. "I was like, `Surely there are more beautiful women in the world.' I can name 10."
Maxim said it is the first time the magazine has bestowed the No. 1 honor back-to-back. Editors made the selections for the issue, which will be on newsstands Thursday.
The magazine said all of the women on the list have several things in common, including "a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding them, undeniable beauty and a promise of greater things to come."
Jessica Alba is No. 2, followed by Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie, Stacy Keibler ("Dancing With the Stars"), Scarlett Johansson, Cameron Diaz, Kate Bosworth, Keira Knightley and singer-actress Christina Milian.
The list also includes "Desperate Housewives" stars Nicollette Sheridan (No. 48) and Teri Hatcher (No. 73).
"I would have voted all of our `Housewives' on the list," Longoria told the AP in a phone interview.
"The Maxim Hot 100 continues to get hotter, and it is all because of girls like Eva Longoria, who always looks sensational and continues to reach new heights in her career," Editor in Chief Ed Needham said in a statement Monday.
What does boyfriend/San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker make of all this?
"Oh, he's very proud," Longoria told the AP. "He thinks he's with a beautiful girl every day, so for him, it's, you know, someone else solidifying what he already thinks."