Smash moving to Saturday nights- Page 3

[suestorm]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 10:09am

Has anyone seen WESLEY TAYLOR in IT COULD BE WORSE?? HILARIOUS!!

[winston89]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 10:09am

I recall reading an article in The New York Times, shortly after Heros went off the air. It was talking about how the show did wonders for NBC, yet, NBC was having trouble finding another prime time drama that audiences would want to watch. I think that NBC feels that Smash was a swing and a miss and that they are putting all their eggs in one basked with Revolution. I will admit that with that show, I started watching it and found it enjoyable. Same with Chicago Fire, a show that I feel will catch on due to it being a Dick Wolf procedural show. But, Those were two shows that I stopped watching due to loosing power from Sandy and never quite got back into the swing of.

I do think that Eric is right that Revolution may not pick up as well as it started out when it returns mid season.

[Kad]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 10:10am

NBC has Parks and Rec. That's enough for me right now.

[finebydesign]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 11:15am

It's just a terrible show and I watch it all the time. This slot is the kiss of death but not a complete loss on NBC's investment.

If ever a network gave a show a chance (Spielberg is attached), this was it. Sure many people now view tv al acarte, but this show never got traction. Are there petitions to keep it going yet? I can't imagine this show being salvaged and it looks very expensive.

*I would be thrilled if some of you would put up your favorite Deborah Messing reaction shots from the last two episodes. That woman is incredible at over-acting a scowl.

[suestorm]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 11:24am

hey FINEBYDESIGN!!! I saw Cinderella and it was AMAZING!!!as were the reviews!!! totally sold out too!!!! BTW how does that crow taste

Updated On: 3/14/13 at 11:24 AM

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 11:28am

Smash had this odd habit of appearing to want to teach audiences about what happens backstage at a theatre and educate them about terminology. It slowed things down and gummed up the works. Keep the show focused on the relationships and worry less about the workings of a show.

[mikem]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 12:52pm

In terms of the question about Saturday Night Live's ratings, this past week's episode with Justin Timberlake was seen by 8.6 million people. That's better than ANY of NBC's prime-time shows. Their highest prime-time show was The Biggest Loser at 5.9 million (#37 among all prime-time shows). Smash had 2.7 million viewers.

NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams also outranked every prime-time NBC show.

Last week's primetime average on NBC was their lowest average ever. They are in huge trouble.

[ClydeBarrow]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 12:54pm

For suestorm.

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 12:59pm

Whizzer - I should have articulated about sub plots better and agree with your point about how they were handled. I was trying to say people want to see SMASH be about a show trying to get on Broadway and the sub plots relate to that central theme. Julia and Frank wanting to adopt a child and the problems with their son did not advance the main story and was poorly done. SMASH showing the relationship of Derek and Ivey and Jerry and Eileen made sense since these relationships affect the show "Bombshell.

[beautywickedlover]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 1:42pm

They make very good points here.



Requiem for a musical: How 'Smash' went wrong

[Amalia Balash]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 1:57pm

I didn't expect to like Nashville, but its mix of soap and songs drew me in. I don't know if it will be renewed or not, but I care if it does.

I did expect to like Smash, but its mix of soap and songs couldn't keep me interested. I like its original music more than Nashville's, and I like Christian Borle and Megan Hilty more than any given actor on Nashville, but my likes of those elements ended up being outweighed by my disbelief at the Karen character, dislike of every story she touched, and disinterest in the other Season One storylines. I could watch the original numbers on YouTube and did. But until this last episode, I haven't even been tempted to try watching, even hate-watching, an entire episode. Putting in on Saturday night won't affect my watching it online -- as a show if they isolate the Karen parts, original numbers on YouTube if they can't do that.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 4:23pm

I'm 100% with Whizzer, the reason people think SMASH shouldn't have dealt with the lives of the characters is more of a sign of the terrible writing and the producer's inability to come up with intriguing, complex storylines. Of course the scenes dealing with the Broadway show are the most interesting, but at its best, a drama should be able to get us engaged in the characters' lives and use the conceit of the show as a way to do that. For example, at its simplest, SIX FEET UNDER was a show about a family who owned a funeral home; the scenes with the characters dealing with the different sides of the job were only incredibly interesting because we cared so much about the characters themselves in the first place and because Alan Ball and his team so beautifully tied the two aspects of the show together without hitting the audience over the head with it. SMASH was simply never able to do this.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 5:59pm

"EricMontreal22 - It seems FOX can make quality series that last like "24", "House", "Bones" and to some extent "Glee"."

Right, and New Girl has become one of the few breakout comedy hits, with The Following being one of the biggest drama hits (though I think it may have trouble after a season plot wise.) Fox used to have a terrible rep for canceling shows--mainly I think because of how they treated Firefly (I mean, their next Whedon show Dollhouse did worse, but they kept it going two seasons, gave it a proper ending and can't really be faulted for its varrying quality.) But they have issues too--an over reliance on piggybacking shows with American Idol, etc. They also only have to fill two hours of programming a night.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 6:02pm

" I think most audiences will go along with something if they feel like they are presented with a strong vision of the truth, and they can believe in the reality created by the writers. Unfortunately Smash never quite succeeded here. "

Right. I think the problem with Smash as it does seem to want to present itself as a "realistic" drama (the same way The West Wing or ER are realistic which, as anyone working in those fields can say, they aren't but they still gave off that sense). Or at least did. Either it has to work a bit harder on that, or it has to go over to full on soap opera mode--which I think this last episode did better with. I do think basing the drama much more about and around the work place, and not little sidestories outside the place that go nowhere, is an improvement, at least on paper.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 6:06pm

"I also don't care for country music and LOVE Nashville. The songs are great and the drama is so addicting! We see how Nashville supposedly works- people are writing songs, albums are recorded, arena concert tours are planned- but these are just the background for the real interest on the show which is the human relationships. "

Nashville is a great example. My sister got her boyfriend watching because he loves country and some of the songwriters involved, and said only recently he turned to her mid episode and said "you know I just realized this is basically a soap, and I hate soaps" (but he's stuck with it.) It gives off the air, mostly, of reality even if obviously a lot of it is just severely heightened. (It's not the huge hit they hoped, but it's still doing pretty strongly hovering around the 6 million figure plus some major country radio music play.)

Ironic since actor/writer David Marshall Grant, who was meant to co-showrun Smash last year with Rebeck but by all reports she turned down all his help and efforts, probably would have done well as Smash's new showrunner this year--buthe had already left to become top story consultant for Nashville.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/14/13 at 6:13pm

"If ever a network gave a show a chance (Spielberg is attached), this was it. "

Spielberg doesn't mean anything in the TV world anymore. Terra Nova was quickly canceled (despite it reportedly making a profit) and it was more tied to his name than Smash, which he reportedly has very loose involvement in. He simply doesn't have a good TV track record--from the extremely expensive and huge flop Amazing Stories in the 80s, on (partly as he has admitted that he thinks tv audiences don't want the kinda quality he thinks film ones do.)

Sure he helped instigate some hits like ER, cartoons like Tiny Toons and mild successes like United States of Terra but his name in tv is synomynous with big budget flops: Seaquest DSV, High Incident, Semper Fi, and last year's Terra Nova and The River.

[TFMH18]

Posted: 3/15/13 at 4:12pm

Plus Spielberg wanted to recast Megan Hilty. Colossal moron when it comes to television.