THE GOOD LORD BIRD Premiere Episode Will Be Available for Free

SHOWTIME will release the premiere episode of its new limited series THE GOOD LORD BIRD for free online sampling, on streaming platforms and on demand beginning at midnight on Sunday, October 4. Starring and executive produced by Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke, who plays the controversial abolitionist John Brown, the seven-episode series is from Blumhouse Television and based on the National Book Award-winning novel The Good Lord Bird by bestselling author James McBride. The premiere episode will be available on Youtube and SHO.com. THE GOOD LORD BIRD will officially premiere on Showtime on Sunday, October 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

The episode will also be available across multiple television and streaming providers' devices, websites, applications and authenticated online services and their free on demand channels. In addition, the season premiere will be available for free on the Showtime stand-alone service at www.showtime.com.

THE GOOD LORD BIRD is told from the point of view of Onion (Joshua Caleb Johnson), a fictional enslaved boy who becomes a member of Brown's motley family of abolitionist soldiers during Bleeding Kansas - a time when the state was a battleground between pro- and anti-slavery forces - and eventually finds himself participating in the famous 1859 raid on the U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry. Brown's raid failed to initiate the slave REVOLT he intended, but was the event that started the Civil War. THE GOOD LORD BIRD weaves a humorous, dramatic and historical tapestry of Antebellum America, spotlighting the complicated and ever-changing racial, religious and gender roles that make up the American identity.

THE GOOD LORD BIRD is executive produced by James McBride, Brian Taylor, Ethan Hawke, Ryan Hawke, Jason Blum, Mark Richard, Padraic McKinley, Marshall Persinger and David Schiff.