Joke Productions

Ghost Inside My Child

JokeProductions — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 02:14:13 +0000

What would you do if your child told you they missed their “other mom” from a past life? Or remembered intricate details of dying in plane crash in World War II that, upon researching, you learned to be absolutely true?

Have a peak at BIO’s promo for our new show THE GHOST INSIDE MY CHILD.

Trailer: Ghost Inside My Child

JokeProductions — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 02:04:37 +0000

Check out the promo for our new Biography show, Ghost Inside My Child:

Caged dubbed “Gripping reality show” by Entertainment Weekly

JokeProductions — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:50:28 +0000

So proud to be in tonight’s “must watch” list for Entrainment Weekly, where they dubbed the action “gripping reality.”

Check out the must watch list at the Entertainment Weekly site.

MTVs CAGED: May I Never Forget This Feeling

JokeProductions — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:52:17 +0000

Biagio: Today, Variety broke the news that our new show CAGED will premiere on January 9th at 10pm/9 central on MTV.

We love this show. We feel it’s the very best television we’ve ever made.

Joke, my wife and business partner, shared this journal entry with me, and I was so moved I asked her if I could share it with you. After thinking about it for a while, she gave me the go ahead.

Far more than “just another TV show” for the two of us, CAGED represents everything we ever hoped to accomplish in unscripted television.

I hope her words will touch you as they did me.

Joke’s Journal Entry

May I never forget this feeling. May I never lose this moment.

As a storyteller, one of the biggest challenges I encounter on each journey is the one of letting go, of letting that story find a life of its own out in the world.

I’ve not had the privilege of raising a child, but I guess what I feel at those moments is in its own tiny way similar to when parents send their children off to college and find themselves hoping they’ve done their job well enough.

But today everything is still pure with this story. Right now is the moment I live for, the moment when the pieces come together and the sum is greater than its parts.

For two years now my husband and I have nurtured this story called Caged.

It’s been a team effort getting it sold, shot and assembled, yet in some ways it’s all mine, or rather I’m its. From the moment I met the incredible people who live this story every day, they claimed a piece of my heart. It’s theirs. It’s like a little ember, always glowing, and when I pay it some attention it grows and warms my entire heart and soul.

I know I’m blessed, lucky, fortunate–whatever you want to call it–I know this is special.

We’ve had passion for all the stories we’ve told over the years, but this one is different, this one locked me in from the word go, and it is as if it is driving me more than I’m driving it.

So I want to make sure I remember right now. This moment of pride, this moment of completeness, this moment of purity.

Before the critics judge, which they will carefully or quickly, before the audiences decide our fate, which they will with their thumbs on the remote, and before the people at the heart of this story become public figures, which some will do with grace while others stumble.

Before this story takes flight and finds a life of its own, at this moment, it’s still mine.

At this moment, I can protect it, treasure it and love it as it’s supposed to be.

No matter what happens, whether it becomes a hit or ends up being another great story you never saw, may I never forget this feeling, may I never lose this moment.

Joke Fincioen
11/29/11

Caged premieres Monday, January 9th at 10pm/9 central on MTV. Follow Joke and Biagio’s Caged twitter feed at @JNB_MTV_Caged

New York Times Features Giant Photo of CAGED Fighters on Arts Section Cover

JokeProductions — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:21:53 +0000

Cover of The New York Times Arts Section

From the New York Times:

Every town has a scene, a subculture, a place where young people go to escape. In Minden, La., a city of about 13,000 some 30 miles east of Shreveport, it’s mixed martial arts, a sport that attracts young men with hopes of punching and kicking and wrestling their way through their opponents, and hopefully their problems.

Their fights, and their struggles, are captured on “Caged,” which begins on Monday night on MTV and is the latest entry in that channel’s effort to document the lives of young people, often digging and seeking them out in places others don’t.

Full article: The New York Times

Sports Illustrated Likens CAGED to Friday Night Lights

JokeProductions — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:27:59 +0000

From Sports Illustrated:

The wide variety of compelling backstories have to overlap in a town that makes Friday Night Lights’ fictional Dillon look big…

…None of the shows characters are perfect protagonists. They’re all real characters that can be easily related to…

…Caged definitely doesn’t follow the obviously stale recipe of The Ultimate Fighter…

…While The Ultimate Fighter searches for the next Forrest Griffin, Caged gives you a real-life Tim Riggins.

Read the full review at Sports Illustrated.

Tae Kwon Do Champ Embraces CAGED on MTV

JokeProductions — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:10:53 +0000

Caged on MTV officially premieres this Monday night, Januaray 9th at 10pm, 9 central.

Shortly after the Caged trailer hit, we were excited to learn that Tae Kwon Do Champ Sabrina Schmeck was excited about how CAGED could affect the Mixed Martial Arts community.

Sabrina kindly allowed us to reprint some of her email correspondence here:

From Sabrina Schmeck

I saw a promo video for CAGED about two weeks ago and was really impressed.

As a pig-tailed and bratty four year old, I began developing a love for mixed martial arts when my dad would rent old Pride/etc fights on VHS and we’d watch them all weekend.

At the risk of sounding heinously corny, it was love at first strike.

Martial arts, mixed martial arts and combat athletics are truly my passion, and to see a thoughtful and well-made documentary television show on a major media channel that shows the ins and outs of martial arts/fighting/etc — that’s honestly just mind-blowing and wonderful to me.

I am so very pleased that this sport is hitting the mainstream in a big way — as so many talented athletes have sacrificed so much to even scrape by simply to do something that they love and feel called toward.

Thank you so much for really fighting to get CAGED on air (pun intended) — the airing of this documentary series could have serious implications for the world of mixed martial arts, in a good way.

There is a side — a human struggle — that so many don’t understand or get to see — and I think this show will be an excellent way to really expose mainstream audiences to the struggles and sacrifices that these athletes and their loved ones undergo in the pursuit of excellence/success.

Caged on MTV

Catch the full first episode of CAGED Monday, January 9th at 10pm, 9pm central on MTV.

MTV CAGED Sneak Peek Trends on Twitter

JokeProductions — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:56:09 +0000

The Midnight “Sneak Peek” of MTV’s CAGED Trended on Twitter in the United States with thousands of tweets pouring in during the one hour episode:

Entertainment Weekly Praises CAGED on MTV

JokeProductions — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:28:09 +0000

Named fourth to this week’s MUST LIST, Entertainment Weekly called our new show Caged on MTV “comic and heart-wrenching” “revalatory” and “fascinating.”

Futon Critic: MTV Caged Sneak Peek after Jersey Shore

JokeProductions — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:20:43 +0000

Sneak Peek of the New MTV Docu-Series “Caged” to Air at 12:05AM Following the “Jersey Shore” Premiere Night Extravaganza on Thursday, January 5 The show, which provide an honest look into the lives of young amateur MMA fighters, will regularly air Mondays at 10:00/9:00c beginning January 9.

Source: Futon Critic