I posted a thread about this a few days ago in Off-Topic. I'm excited for it, too. If Alan Menken can't do a musical series right, I'll just have to assume no one can.
This looks funny but stupidly funny! I’m excited to watch it, however i think its outcome really be either be like SMASH but worse and cancelled after 13 episodes or like Glee and become very popular. It will only be those two extremes, not anyway in-between. I hope it is successful tho and Alan finally finishes his EGOT quest!
This looks horrible, you can see the low budget on this one! Those crowd scenes are embarrassing. Why didn't they just introduce song into Once? It's like a corny Robin Hood Men in Tights (if you can say that!).
It's a midseason replacement for Once Upon a Time (8 half-hour episodes, two aired per night). According to the official ABC website, it premieres in January. No specific date yet.
They have been smart about one thing. Instead of airing reruns, they are airing Once Upon a Time in chunks, and during the break (which is where the flop Alice in Wonderland spin off was meant to air last year,) they will air this. So I guess they hope it finds a similar audience. I'm confused though as it's just 30 minutes--basically a laugh-track less sitcom, and needs to fill an hour slot, though they said to get through all thirteen episodes they will sometimes air two back to back. It's holiday time too so they hope to get more families. I see the episodes all airing and it never will come back...
I like the cast. I LOVE Menken. But it is by the guy who did Meet the Neighbours, that alien sitcom--and that's how this came about because Alan Menken and Glen Slater did that musical episode for that show. That was the only episode I watched but all of the songs were jokey and kinda lame like the ones in this trailer seem to be. I know you can't crank out Little Mermaid, or even Sister Act within weeks for a tv show but hopefully Menken has one killer song up his sleeve for the show to be worthwhile. (Oh, who cares, I'll watch anyway.)
I so wanted to love this. Alan Menken is a master, and I was a Smash fan and will basically watch any musical TV show, but I watched the pilot and was completely underwhelmed. Of course, the first episodes of a show are always weak because they have to introduce characters and the other basics, but this show just felt confused about what exactly it wants to be.
Alan Menken deserves and EGOT, but these songs will not get it for him. The songs, including "Galavant," the one that is supposed to be the scene stealer, were so weak. They are the type of songs that people who hate musicals think of - over-the-top and completely cheesy (I'm generally a fan of cheese, but this is ridiculous).
My hope is that with time, it'll find its way, so I'll watch more than that first episode, but there's a lot of work to be done.
I would have to strongly disagree with this. Often times the first episodes are the strongest because they represent the original ideas that the writers had when making up the show, as opposed to later ones where they invariable "run out of ideas." Plus, the early episodes, especially the pilot, were what was meant to sell the show to the network. Of course those aren't always the circumstances.
I too have seen the pilot (can't talk about specifics) and while I was underwhelmed I think the show has potential if they cut a bit of the camp... I hadn't heard it was going to be a mid-season replacement for OUAT. I think that this may be able to capture some of that audience.
This whole preview was shown at the Rave movie theater I was at on Saturday. The audience actually laughed pretty much throughout the whole thing and there was lots of chatting about it going into the next trailer.
I just watched it online and I have to admit it was funnier on a big screen with an audience.