McBRIDE

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PREVIOUSLY RELEASED                     CONTACT:            Pam Slay, 818.755.2480

December 10, 2004                                                     Sheri Helmers, 818.755.2490

FIVE-TIME EMMY® WINNER JOHN LARROQUETTE IS

‘MCBRIDE;’

SECOND OF THREE HALLMARK CHANNEL MYSTERY MOVIE FRANCHISES

PREMIERES EXCLUSIVELY ON THE NETWORK JANUARY 14

First Movie Series Installment “The Chameleon Murder”

            Five-time Emmy^® Award winner John Larroquette stars as a tough-minded, tender-hearted cop-turned-attorney in “McBride,” a recurring Hallmark Channel Mystery Movie which premieres exclusively Friday, January 14 (9/8c).  “McBride” is one of three new original mystery series franchises; the other contemporary whodunits are “Mystery Woman” starring Kellie Martin and “Jane Doe” starring Lea Thompson. 

          Marta DuBois stars as Detective Sgt. Roberta Hansen, a no-nonsense plainclothes police detective with an on-again off-again personal relationship with McBride.  Matt Lutz stars as Phil Newberry, an eager young attorney who quits his ill-suited job as a public defender for the opportunity to work for his role model and reluctant mentor, McBride. 

            Dean Hargrove, one of television’s most prolific program producers and the Emmy^® Award-winning executive producer of “Columbo,” created “McBride.”

“McBride” revolves around one of television’s most compelling new characters – a rough-around-the-edges type whose lifestyle belies a razor sharp mind and dogged determination to uncover the truth.  McBride only takes the hardest cases, has a soft spot for the underdog, and possesses a unique ability to eliminate potential suspects through flashbacks that place him squarely in the scene of the crime. 

          In “The Chameleon Murder,” McBride takes on a client, a young male hitchhiker, accused of murdering a woman – a perfect stranger.  While investigating the deceased, McBride and Phil learn that the victim had multiple identities, each one of whom leads to more and more new suspects. 

          “McBride” is a Hallmark Entertainment presentation.  Robert Halmi, Jr. and Larry Levinson are executive producers.  Dean Hargrove is creator and executive producer.  Nick Lombardo, Amy Goldberg and Michael Moran are co-executive producers.  Brian J. Gordon and Erik Olson are producers.  The Hallmark Channel Mystery Movie is an Alpine Medien Production in association with Larry Levinson Productions.

Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of 75 million subscribers.  The top tier program service is distributed through more than 5,300 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country.  Hallmark Channel consistently ranks among the top 10 ad-supported cable networks in Total Day and Prime Time household ratings and is the nation’s leading network in providing family-friendly programming.  Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel, Hallmark Movie Channel.

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