Whatever happened to Must-See TV? In this DVR-reliant digital age, plenty of television executives are wondering exactly that. “It’s been a very challenging six months for us. It’s no secret that NBC is in fourth place,” announced new network chair Robert Greenblatt at NBC’s TCA press tour this week in Beverly Hills. No secret indeed, as even the Peacock’s own late-night hosts and comedy actors have taken open digs at the channel since its decline in recent seasons. Community ’s Joel McHale opened the presentation showcasing the network’s fall schedule with a few bada-bing shots of his own.
“We invite you to play along with the new TCA home game. It’s called ‘Count The Number Of Times A Network Head Uses The Word EXCITED In Describing His Network’s Schedule,’” McHale teased. “The winner gets a copy of the brand-new Blu-ray box set of The Paul Reiser Show .”
All kidding aside, good sport Greenblatt no doubt has his work cut out for him. The once-thriving NBC has plummeted in overall viewership and used the opportunity to showcase its upcoming attempts at a comeback with unmistakable zeal.
“The goal for this season and for the next few years is to rebuild the schedule. We’re going to develop upscale original shows that hopefully appeal to our audience, which has always been more upscale,” Greenblatt noted. “We want to restore NBC to its leadership position in quality. We’re going to do attention-getting shows. Hopefully we will have patience to see those attention-getting shows get their full shot at success.”
One program in particular has already been piquing curiosity from potential viewers as well as potential boycotters. The Playboy Club is a swingin’ 60s musical drama set in Chicago’s infamous after-dark dwelling where “the men hold the key, but the women run the show.” Despite the popular time period, producers insist that this winking, behind-the-scenes look at the dawn of the Hugh Hefner dynasty is neither as tawdry as its decriers claim, nor as derivative as its skeptics insist.
“I think the comparison to Mad Men sort of ends at the era of the 60s,” said executive producer Ian Biederman. “This is a much different show with a much different energy. It’s got a musical component that’s great. So I don’t think beyond that it really has much to do with Mad Men. It’s really its own. It’s its own show.”
Star Amber Heard was quick to dispel allegations that The Playboy Club revels in outdated views on women’s role in society, saying that the show’s setting actually provides opportunity to celebrate a turning point in American history.
“This is pre-Stonewall, pre-women’s lib, pre-Civil Rights revolution, but it’s right at the cusp before everything started to boil over,” she explained. “And I think that’s going to lend itself really well to our character-driven piece.”
Co-star Wes Ramsay agreed, quipping, “Exploration without exploitation.”
Heard continued, “I think it’s a common, you know, puritanical kind of way we look at things, that we consider if it involves sexuality that somehow the women must be compromised … It comes down ultimately to choices. And just like anything else, if there are choices available and they’re making the choice, they’re not being exploited.”
Biederman echoed this notion, discussing how the show’s tagline and source material lends itself to the narrative structure and focus with a positive spin on the female characters. “These aren’t Playmates, they’re Bunnies. There was a culture. These were great, bright young women who wanted to become something and it helped give them an opportunity, but really they did it themselves,” he explained. “That’s what the show is about … The first thing Hugh Hefner said to Chad [Hodge, executive producer] when [he] made the show … it’s about the Bunnies, it’s about the girls.”
New comedy Whitney is all about one girl in particular, and that’s stand-up comedienne Whitney Cummings , starring in this semi-autobiographical look into modern relationships. Whereas Playboy Club centers on old-fashioned social mores through an updated perspective, Whitney focuses on the Gen Y view of marriage with a surprisingly traditional format: the multi-camera sitcom.
When asked about the decision to use an arguably outdated template upon which to base her show, Cummings was quick to point out the numerous examples where the formula worked. “I certainly do watch reruns of Friends and Seinfeld and all those multi-camera shows, and they hold up,” Cummings noted. “I also think it’s the best format for stand-up comedians, from Drew Carey and Raymond and Cosby and Mad About You and Roseanne and Ellen, the list goes on.”
Executive producer Betsy Thomas agreed, saying the multi-camera approach is “still a very viable form,” but nonetheless discussed how the show’s central theme helps transcend the possible stagnancy of an antiquated structure.
“I think one of the things that we’re excited about with Whitney and proud of is that this relationship is a modern relationship that a lot of us are in where it’s very even, and it isn’t traditional male/traditional female, and the balance is always shifting and changing,” Thomas stated. “I think that’s the relationship that reflects the way we live our lives.”
Cummings addressed related questions about the recent trend of female television characters, including hers, who are more vocal and assertive in their relationships than earlier shows would have depicted.
“Because that’s how life is, I guess,” she shrugged, to audible chuckles from the live audience.
While Whitney brashly subscribes to a tried-and-true format familiar to TV viewers for decades, NBC is also adding bold dramatic ventures to its fall lineup as well, even if other networks have their own versions to offer. Fairy-tale crime proceduralpositions itself as one of the more unique ideas to get greenlit for a major network in years, despite ABC’s similar Once Upon a Time debuting concurrently.
Grimm brings everyone’s favorite childhood bedtime stories to life, but with a macabre twist as a Portland, Oregon homicide detective realizes the fables weren’t meant as innocent entertainment, but rather as warnings. As the crimes he investigates begin to parallel familiar tales of his youth, his ability to witness the merging worlds of reality and the supernatural deems him one of the few descendants of an elite group known as Grimms. Once his legacy is made clear, the perpetrators he chases enter a whole new realm of criminal justice that only a fairy tale could explain.
Executive producer David Greenwalt of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel fame discussed why this fantastical basis for a crime drama works for a network slot, and appeals to fans of the fantasy canon as well. “This show is probably for a broader audience than Buffy was for,” Greenwalt confirmed. “And it takes a police procedural and kind of turns it on its head, and takes a storybook fairy tale every week and fractures that. So I think it’s a new beginning, for sure.”
The coincidence of Grimm premiering alongside a rival network’s conceptual counterpart brought up discussion of the show’s balance between fairy tale and gritty cop saga in the midst of trying to stand alone among the competition.
“Sean [Hayes, executive producer] and I had the original pitch in 2005, so we just weren’t very good at pitching it, I guess,” executive Todd Milliner said of his original effort to get the show on the air. “So, it’s been through a few different changes. It is odd. There are a lot of movies and a lot of TV shows, but ours is so not about the fairy tale. It’s a police procedural with a hint of fairy tale … We want people to watch because it’s a great crime drama, regardless of which fairy tale it is. If you get the fairy tale, then that’s just a bonus.”
A cappella singing group Committed likely feel as though they’re experiencing a fairy tale of their own after winning the most recent season of NBC’s reality competition seriesThe sextet graced the TCA press tour stage with a surprise performance before host Nick Lachey, executive producer Joel Gallen, veteran judges Ben Folds and Shawn Stockman and debut judge Sara Bareilles sat down for questions about the show’s addition to NBC’s fall schedule.
“We were doing five or six episodes between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we [had] certainly found our audience,” Gallen began. “The fact that NBC now is giving us the opportunity to expand and grow into the primetime slot, part of the fall schedule, we’re very excited about it.”
With the better timeslot comes better exposure, and with better exposure comes better content, as Gallen continued to discuss The Sing-Off ’s evolution into a more well-rounded musical competition to hopefully join the ranks of Idol, X Factor , and even NBC’s own hit The Voice .
“We’re going to go from 10 groups to 16 groups … we’re going to do a cappella interpretations of everywhere from rock to country to hip-hop, our usual sort of guilty pleasures and big signature songs and big hits,” Gallen said. “We’ll also give the opportunity for the groups to grow.”
Lachey was quick to sing the praises of a cappella’s technical pedigree, and express gratitude for The Sing-Off giving the medium a platform on national television. “I think it’s wonderful to see music celebrated the way it has been,” Lachey began. “And certainly on our show, what we’re so proud of is it’s so specifically about a cappella music, which I think is, by far, the hardest thing to pull off.”
Stockman agreed, adding further insight into the genre’s difficulty and explaining the importance of the universal element needed for all forms of artistry. “You can be technically sound with a cappella, meaning you can hit every note correctly, you can do all the chords and all of the major thirds, fifths and all that other stuff well,” he said, “but with music, period, it has to have a soul.”
NBC and the television industry as a whole could benefit from this notion, as a slew of new shows are slated to hit airwaves in time for the fall premiere season. Many may boast the technical prowess of a strong publicity team, but without the soul of a well-told story, the majority will likely end up as three-episode box sets given away at next year’s TCAs.
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