"SMASH" blindness....

The ads are making me hate Katherine McPhee.

I watched the premiere a couple of nights ago. Didn't hate it, didn't love it.

I don't see it being the hit NBC thinks it will be.

---

Every time I see these ads (which is about 3 times per minute, I believe), the show gets less exciting and glamorous for me.

And I don't care if I get razzed for saying this, but neither young lady is pretty enough to play Marilyn. Both are extremely attractive and beautiful women. Both are very talented.

But they're not Marilyn.

Then again, nobody but Marilyn is. (Sorry to break the news to Jimmy James.)

I should add that I have the same issue with Michelle Williams in the current film. As talented as she is, she's not pretty enough either.

Now stop showing me these ads so I stop picking away at it and finding more reasons to dislike it!

---

Fortunately for me, I watch little programming on NBC. Regarding Besty's comments about the actresses' looks, I tend to agree, but I wonder if that will be addressed on the show. In my opinion, they're probably pretty enough to play Marilyn on stage but not on screen, but of course we're watching them on screen.

---

Rather than complaining about the ubiquitousness of the advertising (which everyone here would be complaining about if NBC were NOT advertising it), the more interesting thing to note is the manner in which NBC is making it their 2012 tent pole.

This is how hits are made in the Internet age: a massive combination of TV advertising, print advertising, transit advertising (buses and taxis--at least in NYC) and targeted Internet advertising. (We don't see it here because they bought ads directly on BWW necessarily. We probably see it here because they bought ads through centralized advertising services based on keywords. Every time one of us types the name of any Broadway show or star, it attracts more ads to BWW and our own browsers.)

They could have chosen any of their new shows to bet the ranch on. Why don't we all sit back and enjoy the ride? It may just work. I doubt there could have been a better TV series about a Broadway show than the writing and performing of this one, at least from what I've seen so far.

---

What PalJoey said!

Tink! *hugs back*

I think it's great that NBC feels confident that a show of this type could be a tentpole.

In no way am I being disparaging about the fact that a major network has decided to produce a show about musicals. In fact I LOOOOVE that they are doing it.

What I am saying is that:

a)after what I'm sure will be a huge premiere audience, the show's ratings will probably drop significantly.

b)I didn't love the show all that much personally.

So before everyone freaks out about how I should be grateful that there is a show about musical theater at all, I would like to say I'd be a lot more grateful if the show was actually interesting.

---

Updated On: 1/26/12 at 10:48 AM

The problem is they've made the show way too "important," rather than simply let people enjoy it. That's a big turnoff before it even airs. It also creates extremely high expectations, often unmeetable.

---

Updated On: 1/26/12 at 11:21 AM

I think they gave themselves an insurmountable task when they decided to go with casting someone to play Marilyn Monroe. As you say, ray, on stage, it might have worked. But on film (or even on TV), you're essentially competing on Monroe's own turf in front of the camera, and nobody's going to win that battle. They don't have to be better than her, but they do have to "be" her to win an audience over. So, not only are you selling a backstage musical to modern mainstream television audiences, you're asking them to suspend their disbelief that one of these talented ladies could "be" Marilyn. I can already tell you they can't. They lost the first, most basic, and most important round, when it comes to Marilyn Monroe. The "photo finish." They aren't pretty enough to play her. (And again, who is?)

That's an awful lot of hurdles to ask a modern TV audience to jump over in order to have them "just enjoy the show." I don't see it happening.

I wonder why they went with a Marilyn musical instead of something else? Her presence and her memory and her iconic image are overshadowing the fictional characters before anybody gets a chance to know more about them.

---

Updated On: 1/26/12 at 12:09 PM

Well, we'll all just have to wait and see if people find it boring. Backstage plots have frequently turned out to be the opposite of boring to the general audience, going back to A Chorus Line and 42nd Street. It's the specifics of any story--backstage or anything--that make it interesting and absorbing to an audience.

"Inside theater," "inside baseball," "inside politics"..."too gay"--these phrases are always true until one success proves them not true.

I imagine they picked the idea of a Marilyn musical precisely because it's the kind of idea that a general audience can instantly agree with the characters saying "Hey, this could be a musical." Marilyn's story is known (to some degree) by virtually everyone, Marilyn's image is sexy to straight men so the musical numbers can rise above a knee-jerk judgment that only teenage girls and gay men would be interested. And there is built-in drama for the series because the general audience can understand that even though Marilyn is a "good idea" for a musical, it could also easily fail.

So, quibble though we may (and there are vastly fewer quibbles here than with Glee), I think they've done everything right so far.

If I were a betting man--and if I had Mitt Romney's money--I would bet $10,000 that NBC is going to have another Will and Grace with this: a popular show whose audience extends far beyond what the conventional wisdom judges as a "hopelessly niche market." The proof will be in the ratings.

---

Updated On: 1/26/12 at 12:52 PM

I'm looking forward to it. Is it going to be on opposite Revenge? I guess I'll have to DVR it.

---

Is this one of those shows where someone makes their way to the upper eschelons of the entertainment industry not by experience or hard work but because they're JUST SO TALENTED?

*spoilers*



Not really. The two main characters, played by Hilty and McPhee, are (respectively) a long-time chorus girl who's put in her licks and has a shot at her first big leading role, and a hard-working aspirant who heretofore has been dismissed, but is recognized as having talent. Neither character is really presented (well, maybe McPhee's is, a little bit) as the kind who just got off the bus, walked to their first audition, and landed a leading role.

As for the advertising, I do believe that it's a case of oversaturation. And I'm tired of the people who act like not being gung-ho for this show is the same as not supporting theatre.

---