HBO's 'Eastbound & Down' Begins Second Season, 9/26

Arrogant, washed-up big league pitcher Kenny Powers thought he'd scored a shot at a comeback in the majors, but the offer turned out to be bogus. Now, having left his North Carolina life behind, he's making a fresh start in a small Mexican town, where he can both nurse his wounds and bless the locals with his awesomeness. EASTBOUND & DOWN kicks off its seven-episode second season SUNDAY, SEPT. 26 (10:30-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), with other new episodes debuting subsequent Sundays at the same time.

Starring Danny McBride ("Up in the Air," "Tropic Thunder"), EASTBOUND & DOWN tells the story of Kenny Powers, who used to be a star pitcher until his self-destructive behavior knocked him out of Major League Baseball. In the first season of the series, he returned home to North Carolina to teach Phys Ed at the middle school he once attended, and eventually scored another big-league job offer or so he imagined.

EASTBOUND & DOWN also stars Steve Little as Stevie Janowski, the high-school band teacher who idolizes Kenny; Michael Pena as Sebastian Cisneros, owner of the local Mexican baseball team; Ana de la Reguera as sultry lounge singer Vida; Marco Rodriguez as Roger Hernandez, manager of the baseball team; Efren Ramirez as his new neighbor Catuey; Elizabeth De Razzo as Maria, another new neighbor; Deep Roy as Aaron, one of Kenny's new sidekicks; and Joaquin Cosio as Hector, Kenny's other new sidekick.

Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) heads to Mexico to lick his wounds and start a new, more anonymous life. Befriended by a neighboring Mexican family and a sultry bar singer named Vida (Ana de la Reguera), Kenny emerges from "the darkest hole I've ever been in" by planning a comeback.

Written by Shawn Harwell, Jody Hill & Danny McBride; directed by Jody Hill.

This season's episodes were directed by David Gordon Green and Jody Hill, both of whom directed episodes of the first season of EASTBOUND & DOWN. Series star Danny McBride met Green and Hill at the North Carolina School of the Arts, and later starred in Green's "All the Real Girls," winner of the 2003 Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance hit "The Foot Fist Way," which was released theatrically in May 2008. Green also directed McBride in 2008's "Pineapple Express," opposite Seth Rogen and James Franco, and in the upcoming "Your Highness," along with James Franco, Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel, scheduled for release in April 2011. Hill co-wrote "The Foot Fist Way," and wrote and directed the 2009 feature film "Observe and Report," starring Seth Rogen, Anna Faris and Ray Liotta.

The six-episode first season of EASTBOUND & DOWN, which concluded in March 2009, inspired critical praise, with Entertainment Weekly describing the show as "a winner about a real loser," while the New Yorker observed, "Kenny Powers will live on in our minds after he's left the screen." The Hollywood Reporter hailed EASTBOUND & DOWN as "sublimely hilarious," and the Washington Post called it "the most recklessly funny comedy of the year."

The executive producers of EASTBOUND & DOWN are Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Chris Henchy, Jody Hill and Danny McBride; consulting producer, David Gordon Green; producer, Stephanie Laing; writers, Shawn Harwell, Jody Hill & Danny McBride; directors, David Gordon Green and Jody Hill.

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