NBC's SMASH - Series & Broadway Adaptation Thread- Page 26

[bk]

Posted: 3/2/12 at 5:19pm

Erik, I didn't think you were trying to pick a fight. I'm just telling you what I saw.

Others: the mother doesn't post on the show's Facebook page, she posts on HER Facebook page. Since I've known her for over a decade, and she's a Facebook friend, I see the posts in my feed or food or dinner or whatever they call it.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 3/2/12 at 5:34pm

"Watching SMASH, I feel the way cops must feel watching LAW & ORDER."---Casting director friend of mine.

That said, I'm glad its doing well. There are vispers that NBC could very well be going bye-bye if this one doesn't catch on and bring their stock up a bit. As in, the whole network.

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/2/12 at 6:15pm

That would really be something if "Smash" was remembered as the series that sank a network.

[sephyr]

Posted: 3/2/12 at 6:16pm

I thought it was disgusting how members of the ensemble/Ivy treated her at the beginning. I know how she feels, it's her first day doing something she loves and she just wants to do her best. They were being rude to her and I'm sure it didn't feel good.
When you're an ensemble it's like a family, they're a part of something great (Marilyn) so why not enjoy the ride together and embrace "the newbie" and show her what she needs to do? Who cares if she went against Ivy for the role? It's a job.

[Hahabimbi]

Posted: 3/2/12 at 6:32pm

As long as the show stays above 2.0, it´s lock for a renewal. NBC is in a disastrous state. Someone here tried to compare the production expenses to Parenthood. Parenthood shoots in a studio, using the same sets and is shot in a very improv/natural style that I imagine makes the production affordable. On the other hand, the cast is big and not cheap (it was reported that Lauren Graham gets 150k/episode, Peter Krause 125k and Craig T. Nelson is over 100k, too). Not cheap. but so far it looks like it will be renewed for another season. (I hope so, I love the show.)

I was so excited to hear that they were planning a show about Broadway back in May. Then I saw the first previews and my excitement doubled. I loved the pilot and then it went all down, sadly. I just can´t get really into it. I will stick with it because if someone makes the effort to make a show about theater, I´ll be there but it´s no must-see tv. And it´s not even reality problem for me. I know tv shows have to add some drama and change stuff but the dialog and some choices in directing are just soo bad. Starting to be a mock-tv instead (which isn´t bad either, for my amusement, not so great for the show itself.)

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 3/2/12 at 6:39pm

I'm rooting for "Iowa". Karma is a bitch....and so is Ivy. She'll get her comeuppance when her director/boyfriend drops her like a hot potato. I think that the director respects Karen for having rebuffed his advances and not giving in...unlike Ivy. So, he respects Karen in that sense. I hope the series lasts as long as possible. It would be tragic for it to fall by the wayside, after such a tremendous media campaign. There's so much to like about "Smash" but it still needs fine tuning, to be sure. from RC in Austin, Texas...visiting NYC from March 10-13, 2012.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/2/12 at 7:52pm

""Watching SMASH, I feel the way cops must feel watching LAW & ORDER."---Casting director friend of mine. "

My myriad of problems with the show aside, I have little patience for this kind of argument (and I don't meant to pick on your friend--I've read it in MANY blogs). Did people really expect an extremely, or even very realistic look at the theatre world on a network drama? Your friend raises a good point actually--one blog in particular seems keen on bringing the sholw down because she is so insulted on how people will now consider her profession. Umm has she seen any past backstage movies (or recent movies like Center Stage)? And has she seen how nearly all professions are treated in the majority of network tv shows?

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 1:19pm

I am SO worried that Megan's career will be over after this show. She is coming off like a total see you next Tuesday and she is such a great actress that I am afraid people are going to think she IS Ivy and will NEVER want to work with her again. If I were her, I would INSIST that they make my character likable. This could really be the end of her very promising career. Remember what happened to Patty Duke after Valley of the Dolls? Nobody would cast her!

I also think that the entire cast and crew should work for scale. If they believe that much in the show,they should know that the purpose is to create art, not to make money, right? Take a cut in pay and keep this show on the air!!!!

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 1:22pm

Sueleen, the similarities between Hilty and Ivy are pretty striking. I'll leave it at that.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 1:23pm

I think my casting director friend's comment was made in the spirit of amusement rather than ye olde interwebs trash talk.

Expecting grittiness? No. But I would have liked to see a network show approach something like this with the clear-eyed philosophy that the cable TV shows are doing.

That said, the show is reasonably fun. I only got to it on this last episode. I'll watch it again, but the character of Karen really grates on my nerves. Her entitled rant to the other chorus girl about how appalled she is that her talent isn't recognized and they should all be helping her...ugh! The fact that the show then rewards her with friends and allies after this childish outburst kind of pissed me off. In reality, the chorus girl would have given her a "Bitch, please" and walked off. That wouldn't have been "gritty", just clear-eyed.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 1:35pm

"I am SO worried that Megan's career will be over after this show. She is coming off like a total see you next Tuesday and she is such a great actress that I am afraid people are going to think she IS Ivy and will NEVER want to work with her again."

While some people have had trouble separating their actual personas from a character they've played on screen, many, many others have not had any issues at all. If every actor had to worry about how what their character was doing onscreen would affect the perception of their real selves off-screen then we would never have any sort of conflict in anything because nobody would be willing to play the bitchy villain.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 1:48pm

But aeasagsm, she is just TOO good.

[fingerlakessinger]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 2:23pm

somethingwicked...I know you wanna leave it at that but you raised my interest. Everyone I've talked to has said Hilty is a great person to work with.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 3:28pm

I'm more worried about Anjelica Huston's career after this.

She'll be known only as "that lady who throws drinks in people's faces."

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 3:28pm

I'm really worried.

Updated On: 3/3/12 at 03:28 PM

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 3:48pm

She'll always be the Grand High Witch to me.

Or maybe Moriticia Addams.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 4:03pm

But, PJ, Angelica is already a legendary Oscar, Golden Globe winner with too numerous nominations to count. Poor Megan is just getting started. Angelica doesn't have to work another day in her life and she will be fine, but I worry that if this show keeps making Megan look like a you-know-what, she will have a hard time getting a job as a hostess at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Factory in Times Square! I worry that this is the rare time an actor is just TOO good.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 4:32pm

Sueleen, Patty Duke was also an Academy Award winner when she did VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. Let's keep our arguments straight.

If VALLEY hurt Duke's career it was because she was really, really awful in it, just at the moment she was trying to transition from juvenile to adult roles. Granted the script didn't do her any favors, but for whatever reason, bitchy melodrama/borderline camp isn't her metier.

She was greatly beloved then and remains so to those of us old enough to remember her as a teenager. I doubt anyone confused her with Neely O'Hara unless she was acting like Neely O'Hara in real life.

Actors get typecast when they play iconic roles on long-running TV series, whether or not their character is likable. Thus far, I don't think anyone in SMASH is going to have that problem.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 4:38pm

First of all, I adore Patty Duke. But yes, as horrible as she was in VoD, she DID have a reputation not unlike Neely's as an erratic, unpredictable and risky actor. It was not until she was diagnosed with Bi-polar disorder that she was able to turn her career around again.

I think Megan needs to quit this show if she ever wants to work again.

[degrassifan]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 4:39pm

"and THIS is the episode that critics say gets the ball rolling?"

EXACTLY what I was thinking. I just watched it and kept waiting for the drama, and nothing! I loved episode 1-3, but 4 was kind of boring. I'll continue watching because I am learning a lot about the business (although it's highly dramatized).

[random person 112]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 5:01pm

Suellen i think a better example of the kind of 'too good' in a more sinister role would be Christopher Meloni, Not Patty Duke.

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 5:33pm

It's the "Hamilton Curse", named for Margaret Hamilton, a perfectly lovely actress who regretted ever saying "yes" to L.B. Mayer. She could never walk into a room where children were present without every little boy and girl running from the room, screaming, "I thought she was DEAD!!!". Beware, Megan. This could happen to you on your next audition!

As for Meloni, he can be sinister with me anytime.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 5:53pm

First of all, I adore Patty Duke. But yes, as horrible as she was in VoD, she DID have a reputation not unlike Neely's as an erratic, unpredictable and risky actor. It was not until she was diagnosed with Bi-polar disorder that she was able to turn her career around again.

Okay, but then Duke's problem wasn't that she played an unsympathetic character, it was that she behaved badly due to her undiagnosed mental illness.

What has that to do with Megan Hilty?

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 5:57pm

Suellen i think a better example of the kind of 'too good' in a more sinister role would be Christopher Meloni, Not Patty Duke.

Now I'm really confused, random. When did Meloni's career suffer?

He spent years playing serial killer, Chris Keller, on OZ and then transitioned immediately to playing an heroic (if complicated) cop on LAW AND ORDER SVU. And made himself a small fortune in the process.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 3/3/12 at 6:03pm

It's the "Hamilton Curse", named for Margaret Hamilton, a perfectly lovely actress who regretted ever saying "yes" to L.B. Mayer. She could never walk into a room where children were present without every little boy and girl running from the room, screaming, "I thought she was DEAD!!!". Beware, Megan. This could happen to you on your next audition!

Oh, come on!

And people spat on Angela Lansbury for being mean to Judy Garland, but Lansbury went on to be not only the toast of Broadway but the most successful senior lady on TV (along with the Golden Girls) since Irene Ryan.

Hilty and SMASH are not going to be around long enough to have such problems, unless it's true that, as one poster suggested, Hilty and her character are much alike. But if so, I imagine the industry knows it by now.