Any Doctor Who Fans? **UK AIR-DATE SPOILERS ABOUND** — Page 28

^I should check that out.

Anyway, I read this interesting blog posting about "Rex Is Not Your Lawyer":


Rex Is Not You Lawyer Delay

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Updated On: 1/25/10 at 06:42 AM

Really, I would like to see David Tennant doing something, and something good. I hope that if this show did get made it would be good. Certainly, I'm quite interested.

And NBC does need more new shows, because their Spring line-up is mostly shows they already have. If "Rex Is Not Your Lawyer" were added to the fall season, the schedule might be a bit more interesting.

The impression I got from the whole "Burke and Hare" thing was that David dropped out because he didn't know whether he would be filming "Rex" or not. Which kind of sucks, if "Rex" doesn't get made.

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If NBC wanted any indication of what kind of audience they might get for Rex, they just have to look at that article's response list.

A few thousand - or even a million - super-devoted David Tennant fans do not an audience make. Fact is, no one in the U.S. knows who he is. This isn't a show built on his star power. I'm not saying NBC was right or wrong to put a hold on the pilot - I'm just saying that that decision should be predicated on its quality, not on the presence of Tennant, because the latter just doesn't make that much of an audience-draw difference.

Being extra super devoted doesn't make the individual you into 10 ad-watching viewers. That's the sad lesson of a lot of shows I've seen cancelled.

Britcasting is done for a number of reasons:

1. Sometimes you want an unknown, because that person comes with no baggage. Americans didn't know who Hugh Laurie was, so they could instantly buy him as House rather than Bertie Wooster or Prince George.

2. The corollary of the above - it's hard to find American actors in their 30s-40s who have the charisma and talent to lead a TV show but haven't been fully "discovered" yet. Sometimes you'll get a Jon Hamm, but that's a rare occurrence and tough to accomplish. Expanding the search to other English-speaking countries is just a way of increasing your odds.

3. You can pay British people less because their salary standards are lower. Sad but true. Even a mediocre Hollywood salary is totally extravagant to someone used to working on a BBC scale.



Whether Tennant's following in the U.S. is negligible or merely tiny doesn't matter - if the pilot sucks, his presence isn't going to save it one way or another. And if it's good and ends up airing, the Who crowd won't be sweeping it into ratings popularity any more than lovers of Masterpiece Theater and Blackadder (quite a cult of their own, actually) made a great audience foundation for House.

Laurie's UK work may have gotten some people to tune in, but the overwhelmingly vast majority of viewers came to the show the way they come to any other show - because of FOX's ads during the MLB playoffs, because a friend said they liked it, because it started airing right after American Idol and they decided to leave the TV on. If Rex ever airs, it'll be the same. Tennant doesn't matter. Or at least his cult doesn't. His acting abilities and whether he's been well-cast are, of course, extremely relevant to the air-worthiness of the show.

And since none of us has seen pilot...again, it makes it impossible to really say if NBC is making the right call or not. You can say that it's a call that's personally disappointing to you, of course, but it seems silly to call it a bad business move given our total lack of relevant information.

Don't forget Tennant was also in one of the Harry Potter movies. That carries a surprising amount of weight with a lot of people - not enough to make a hit, but enough to get a few more eyes on the show...

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I'm not saying people will know who he is from that, but it's a potential marketing ploy. There are an awful lot of HP fangroups out there - marketing directly to those WILL get some people watching. It's about as likely to hit the Dr. Who viewers.

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More Rex news that gives a bit more detail to the show. (Which reminds me, strangely, of a version of House with lawyers.) Anyway:


First Look at Rex Script

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I know I've probably asked this somewhere in the thread, but I'm lazy. When does the next season start?

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Loved that article, GG---makes the show sound really interesting!

Got the Complete Specials yesterday, on the back it ays it has over 7 hours of Special Features---sitting doen to watch them now!

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Magdalene, did you order yours from the UK or the US? Did you see the "forward" written by David Tennant? I've also pre-ordered the specials.

Loving Doctor Who at the Comic Con! Hoping David pops up at the NYCC this year!!!

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I switched from the comic con after John kissing David---I wanted to see the confidential! The confidential for End Of Time Pt. 2 is phenomenal!
I pmed you about my having the dvd...

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"I know I've probably asked this somewhere in the thread, but I'm lazy. When does the next season start?"

But if you want some idle speculation, it'll hopefully be around 27th March / 3rd April (based on previous years and upcoming sporting events).