Fans of the lighter variety of automotive events — demolition derbies, racing while pulling a trailer, racing while pulling a spark-inducing skid plate — helped to keep the variety show Lucas Oil … On the Edge on Speed’s roster for 10 seasons and more than 250 episodes before Fox Sports converted the channel to FS1 in 2013.

The library has lived on at MAVTV, where series co-creator Steve Grein is the network’s executive producer. Lucas Oil Products, which always sponsored the show, owns MAVTV. Still, it took an observation by company founder Forrest Lucas this summer to restart the franchise.

“He was in the office [in Corona, Calif.] and walked through the halls and said: Why are we only showing reruns of On the Edge? Why aren’t we doing new shows?” Grein recalled.

Grein said he wasn’t sure. Two days later, network president Bob Patison called in Grein and said, “We’re bringing On the Edge back, we need as many shows as you can before the end of this year, and next year we want 26 again.”

So, with network resources, versus the more limited capabilities he had while making the show as an independent producer, Grein and co-creator Ken Stout have gone back out to tracks in Joliet, Ill.; Perris, Calif.; and elsewhere, filming motorsports events that otherwise might not have a home on television. The first new episode, an hour-long special, aired on Saturday, Dec. 5. The plan is for about 15 new episodes this season, followed by a full slate of 26 next time.

New half-hour shows will continue to air on Saturdays from events including Figure 8 races, sand drag racing and even some more conventional races that, according to Grein, are ones that are “right on the cusp of being a national series.”

Mostly, though, it’s the kind of “fun, wacky” event that can fill the stands at a racetrack on the weekend but are too destructive for a track to do on a steady basis. Which is a shame, economically, because the offbeat events draw more of a crowd than the mainstay races.

The former Speed channel recognized there was a place for event-driven shows like On the Edge, former programming executive Robert Ecker, now an independent writer and producer, told The Wire.

“There are people who are rabid car guys and automotive fans, if not necessarily race fans,” he said. “I think we understood that this community is out there, and in some respects they were underserved and, in some respects, unserved.”

The original idea Grein and Stout had — to stitch together a disparate batch of one-off events into a series that you didn’t have to obsessively follow to see who had the most points or won the most — seemed like a natural for Speed, Ecker said. “And it really did take off.”

Grein, given his executive role at MAVTV, had the option of handing the restart off to another producer, but it being his baby, there was no chance of that. Stout, his co-creator, is the host, and the original theme song is still in place. One change, sadly, was needed because color announcer Brian Olson died this past summer, following a motorcycle accident. Rob Klepper, who had been a pit reporter, has stepped into the color role.

Fans have responded enthusiastically to the show’s return, sending in pitches for events they’d like to see covered, Grein said. He expects to cover more of the country geographically than he could before, including venturing to the Northeast. MAVTV is sending more people and equipment to the events, too, including more onboard cameras.

“There’s still a lot of passion out there,” Grein said. “We are definitely a niche market, no question, but there’s room for that and there’s a lot of passion for motor sports and what we do.”

Library episodes of On the Edge (and eventually new ones, too) will be available on the new LucasOilRacing.TV app that Grein and the network have been prepping for a Jan. 1 launch as a streaming pay channel.

During Monday Night Football’s preseason game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Cincinnati Bengals on Aug. 24, the Bucs scored a first-quarter touchdown when quarterback Jameis Winston dove straight toward the pylon on the right corner of the goal line. Providing an outstanding replay opportunity for ESPN’s still-evolving Pylon Cam experiment.

The MNF contest was only the third televised tryout for ESPN’s new on-field addition, following another National Football League exhibition game, between the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns, on Aug. 20 and the Pylon Cam debut during the College Football Playoff National Championship game in Dallas on Jan. 15.

It’s evolved from an initial four pylons with four cameras each to two pylons with eight higher-quality cameras each, according to ESPN.

Marc Rowley, director of production enhancements at ESPN, told The Wire that the pylon cameras that were placed along the line at the back of the end zone didn’t contribute that many great shots, so it made more sense to double down on the pylons that form a touchdown target for players like Winston.

Now, the pylons have 16 cameras in position to capture images of scoring plays at “angles that have never existed before,” capable of digitally zooming in at up to 200% enhancement, Jed Drake, senior vice president, product innovation at ESPN, said.

Eventually, the signature image from the Pylon Cam could be a replay that provides definitive proof of a touchdown that was or wasn’t, at a key moment in a championship game. Until then, as far as Rowley is concerned, “I’ll take Jameis taking a shot at the pylon; that was pretty good.”

After evaluating the results so far and in consultation with the NFL, Pylon Cams might make regular appearances during the Monday Night Football regular season, which kicks off with a Sept. 14 doubleheader — Philadelphia Eagles vs. Atlanta Falcons (6:55 p.m.) and Minnesota Vikings vs. San Francisco 49ers (10:20 p.m.) — ESPN said. It might also be used during some college-football games this season.

Social-media responses certainly seemed positive during the Bengals-Buccaneers game. “Finally technology catches up to common sense. #PylonCam #NFL” (Coach Bryan, @DrB365). “Can someone explain why it took until 2015 to have a #pyloncam? #NFL” (ReLando Calrissian, @Reondompls). “In other sports broadcasting news, the @ESPN #PylonCam on Monday Night Football is pretty cool” (Russ Maloney, @russmaloney). Etc.

“We are very optimistic about the future of Pylon Cam,” Drake said, counting it potentially among the First and 10 virtual first-down marker and the Spidercam in ESPN’s pantheon of innovations.

What a Drag … MavTV Speeds to Canada for Subs

MAVTV, the independently owned (by Lucas Oil) motorsports network, is hoping distribution roads lead to Canada soon, as the network builds its way back from a May drop by Dish Network, mostly via launches on smaller distributors in the National Cable Television Cooperative. Today (Aug. 31) it plans to announce recent additions by the likes of Harlan Municipal Utilities, Windstream and Walnut Telephone Co., along with the previously disclosed pickup by Suddenlink Communications on that operator’s sports tier.

“We’re up there this week trying to ink some distribution deals, so I think realistically MAVTV will be available in Canada first quarter of next year the way things are shaping up,” network president Bob Patison told The Wire.

The purveyor of such “adrenaline” racing events as motocross, drag boats and sprint cars has also expanded with Frontier Communications systems and Google Fiber, Patison said, downplaying the impact of being dropped from tier placement on Dish and saying there’s still hope of reinstatement. The loss was of about 1.7 million subscribers, he said. MAVTV has 28 million subscribers and is on such big distributors as DirecTV, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications and Cablevision Systems.

MAVTV also plans to up its quotient of live events, Patison said, beyond such current mainstays as pro motocross events, “King of the Cage” mixed martial arts and the annual Chili Bowl midget-car racing extravaganza in Tulsa, Okla. This January’s Chili Bowl will be the 30th anniversary, so plans are set for a one-hour pre-event show, hosted by Dave Despain, Patison said.

TCM Campaign Puts ‘Oz’ on the Broad Side of a Barn

Turner Classic Movies is going after younger viewers who like to socialize around movies with a new branding campaign — above the tagline “Let’s Movie” — the first such outreach in about a decade for the Turner Broadcasting System-owned channel.

New on-air and online spots show groups gathering to watch, for example, The Wizard of Oz projected onto the side of a Kansas barn, John Wayne in The Searchers played off a butte in Monument Valley and Ben Hur on the outside walls of The Colosseum in Rome.

“We want to appeal to broader movie lovers, not just classic movie lovers,” Jennifer Dorian, TCM’s general manager, told The Wire.

The message: ‘These iconic films should be enjoyed by everyone and they’re timeless, so if you love movies, check them out. It’s about getting people together and everybody making an event out of seeing an iconic film.”

Here’s where the clever spots will be seen, starting Sept. 1: on TCM’s air; on TCM.com; cross-promoted on CNN.com; on TBS, TNT and CNN Airport Network and on electronic billboards in New York and Atlanta and on-screen ads in some 750 movie theatres across the country.

There also will be a social-media campaign — #LetsMovie — building toward a “LetsMovie” holiday on Sept. 19, when TCM will encourage fans to watch films with family and friends and share their experiences socially.

Dorian also hopes to stage live events in iconic locations, possibly including a Rocky screening on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

“We feel like we’re the movie place, so let’s movie,” she said.