Here We Are Now, Entertain Us
Posted on | July 27, 2005 at 8:57 pm | 3 Comments
As I’ve said many times before, my favorite reality show is Project Greenlight. I love it because it shows what really goes into making a movie, and it’s loaded with interesting conflict. Seeing an amateur filmmaker suddenly thrown into the Hollywood system makes for interesting TV. So, you just knew that I’d be watching Bravo’s new, similar series, Situation: Comedy. Plus, I have to talk about it, since the wife of one of my few readers submitted a script to it. The difference between this and PGL is that we’re dealing with amateurs trying to make a sitcom instead of a movie. Actually, two writers (or groups of writers, in this case) are competing against each other by filming a pilot of their sitcom script for NBC and having the viewers pick which is the best one. The winner gets money, talent representation, and some small (I’m guessing very small) chance the pilot will get picked up. Instead of Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and supercranky Chris Moore behind it, this time we get Will & Grace star Sean Hayes and his producing partner Todd somebody. The stakes don’t seem nearly as big as with PGL, since we’re only talking about a dopey sitcom and not a multimillion dollar feature film.
But still, after watching the first episode, there’s a lot of the same things in it that I liked about PGL. The angle of the outsiders being suddenly thrust into the Hollywood system is there and like I said, that’s an interesting angle. From the previews of upcoming shows, it looks like there’s a lot of conflict ahead. And it will be interesting to see the whole sitcom creation process from the ground up. This show has the added appeal that you can pick one of the teams to cheer (and eventually vote) for. The two winning pitches didn’t seem that great or original to me, but maybe something can be done with them. I’ll keep watching and see how it all plays out. But I’ll keep wishing that Chris Moore was in charge.
But what I really want to see is a PGL-like show where contestants pitch and film their own reality show. It would be so Meta.
Latre.
Comments
3 Responses to “Here We Are Now, Entertain Us”
July 27th, 2005 @ 11:31 pm
The wife watched it yesterday and was quite annoyed, which for her is just about as much fun as enjoying it when it comes to reality shows. Sean Hayes by himself is annoying enough so I didn’t bother to watch.
She submitted 3 scripts to the show, but did it nearly at the deadline, so we’re pretty confident they never read them. In fact I’d be very surprised if they read even the first 500 of the alleged “10,000″ scripts submitted – I know people who read scripts, and they get paid for it. It costs money. But you can pick 5 candidates from a few dozen scripts just as easily as you can from 10,000…
Now speaking of reality shows, how ‘BOUT that Master Blasters, eh? You could see my name in the credits if you used a magnifying glass and still frame…
July 28th, 2005 @ 4:35 pm
Yeah, it would not surprise me if most of the scripts were never even read by anyone.
I didn’t watch the first ep of Master Blasters, even though you told me about your involvement. Didn’t really look like it would appeal to me. But I’ll record and hopefully watch the second one. Playing “spot the credit” can be a fun game.
July 28th, 2005 @ 5:12 pm
I think the show will appeal mainly to aerospace geeks and pyromaniacs, but it’s worth trying for anyone with a technical bent – you might like it. Heck, even my wife liked it. I for one learned a lot of interesting stuff about welding and machine tools, for example (in footage which will no doubt never make it to air…) There’s genuinely funny stuff which goes on too. Mainly, it’s such a refreshing change from the other reality shows I’ve taken logging jobs on, I’m probably thinking better of it than it would objectively deserve!
Next week they launch Mini Coopers towards a football goalpost 1,000 yards away. If that doesn’t at least sound intriguing, don’t bother tuning in…