More Shifts For Broad Street Bullies to Get Ready For the Final
May 25, 2010 Leave a comment
With the Stanley Cup Finals between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Chicago Blackhawks set to begin this weekend in Chicago, HBO has added additional playdates for the hour-long documentary BROAD STREET BULLIES, a look at one of pro sport’s most polarizing teams, the legendary Philadelphia Flyers Stanley Cup championship squads of the 1970s. The increase in ice time for the BROAD STREET BULLIES on HBO includes Tuesday, May 25 (8:00 p.m.), Thursday May 27 (7:00 p.m.), Saturday, May 29 (11:00 a.m.) and Tuesday, June 1 (7:00 p.m.). All times are ET/PT.
HBO2 playdates: May 26 (1:10 a.m.), 29 (9:00 p.m.) and 30 (11:30 p.m.)
HBO On Demand® availability through June 7
This exclusive presentation tells the backstories of these engaging and colorful athletes, who won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975 with a bold, aggressive style that sparked controversy and criticism.
Playing before adoring fans at the Spectrum, the Philadelphia Flyers rose to prominence in the 1970s under the guidance of shrewd coach Freddie Shero. With larger-than-life figures like Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Bernie Parent, Ed Van Impe, Bill Clement, Rick MacLeish, “Moose” Dupont, Bob Kelly, Joe Watson and Gary Dornhoefer, the team won many games, fought in just about all of them and made numerous enemies. The club’s popularity soared as their physically imposing and sometimes bloody style generated headlines across North America.
Although the franchise did not exist until 1967, the team rose to national prominence in just a few short years, and some NHL teams would see their home attendance double when the Flyers came to town. The club became a favorite of other hardscrabble cities and towns where blue-collar communities were taking an economic beating.
In a bizarre twist, singer Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America” became the Flyers’ good luck charm. Eventually, the team that showcased players with gap-toothed grins, funny hair and goofy nicknames evolved into one of the NHL’s elite franchise. In 1976, the Flyers engaged the vaunted Soviet Central Red Army team in the finale of an exhibition series that would do little to ease the cold war tension between the two nations.
BROAD STREET BULLIES interviews include former Flyers standouts Bobby Clarke, Bill Barber, Bill Clement, Gary Dornhoefer, Bob Kelly, Bernie Parent, Ed Van Impe, Don Saleksi, Orest Kindrachuk, Bobby Taylor, Joe Watson and Dave “The Hammer” Schultz; team founder and chairman Ed Snider; former NHL stars Phil Esposito, Terry O’Reilly and Larry Robinson; radio personalities Howard Eskin and Anthony Gargano; former NHL director of broadcasting Stu Hackel; journalists Jay Greenberg, Frank Orr, Jack Chevalier and Mark Mulvoy; Flyers historian Bruce Cooper; and former director of NHL officiating Bryan Lewis.
The executive producers of BROAD STREET BULLIES are Ross Greenburg and Rick Bernstein; senior producer is Joe Lavine; produced by George Roy; Erik Kesten is the writer; Brian Keane scored the music; Liev Schreiber is the narrator.
Former Flyer Bill Clement: “Our legacy now is exactly what it was then…loved in one part of the world, and hated everywhere else. And there isn’t an apologetic bone in my body or anybody else’s body on our team.”
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