Viewpoints News (Page 2)

For awhile, notes James Hibberd of TV Week, Private Practice was widely assumed to become the biggest slam-dunk new hit of the fall season.

But as excitement for NBC's Bionic Woman and ABC's own Pushing Daisies has grown exponentially this summer, the Practice buzz has waned.

• The PRIOR Private Practice pilot that aired in May as part of a two-hour Grey's Anatomy episode was disastrously haphazard, causing critics and fans to slam the promising concept with surprising vehemence.

• The FUTURE Private Practice premiere was then re-cast, shot, then re-shot again. The result is a premiere episode that's firmly better than the May intro and more successfully captures the Grey's sense of humor.

The most despised elements of the "backdoor" pilot (talking elevators, women fawning over a young staffer) are gone. What weaknesses remain, ABC hopes to address in future episodes.

One source noted that both Grey's Anatomy and Brothers and Sisters started out shaky, then successfully course-corrected, and that ABC plans the same ongoing fine-tuning for Private Practice.

The sour taste of the May effort has partly lingered because, unlike most fall first-year dramas, until recently, ABC hasn't had a completed Private Practice premiere for critics and insiders to view.

The show's launch is set for September 26 and hardly anybody has seen the show (including most ABC employees, who are typically treated to early screenings).

Also, ABC elected to shiftmarketing efforts to tough sells like Pushing Daises, Dirty Sexy Money and Cavemen rather than its perceived fall flagship debut.

Continue Reading...

God willing, no.

It's always a concern, though, for the much maligned spin-off - no matter who or what is being spun.

Fortunately, according to TV Guide's Michael Ausiello (considered a timely and accurate gauge of such matters), the answer is no. Audiences still have a lot of good will towards Grey's Anatomy, for one.

ABC has also surrounded Private Practice on Wednesday nights with two of its top pilots, Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money.

It has a solid night in Wednesdays, Ausiello writes, with Private Practice as a pre-sold tent pole (if you will) to hold it up.

But expect the veteran cast of Paul Adelstein (pictured), Kate Walsh and their Private Practice co-stars to attract, and secure, a slightly older audience than the Grey's Anatomy mother ship.

To promote its fall lineup, ABC produced three half-hour preview shows that are the stuff of a TV exec's fantasy: they feature editors and writers from three big magazines who have traded their critics' hats for pom-poms.

"If you liked Grey's Anatomy, you're going to love Private Practice," said Alynda Wheat, a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly, in one of the shows.

About another new program, Ms. Wheat says, "If there's anything this season I'm excited about, it's Dirty Sexy Money. I mean, it just seems like so much fun. It's probably going to be the thing we're talking about come fall."

Working with a network to promote its shows may come across as contrary to journalistic objectivity, the New York Times opines, but editors say it's just a lending of expert opinion.

"We participated in the ABC special because our staffers are TV experts offering commentary," said Suzy Berkowitz-Weksel of Entertainment Weekly. "Their remarks are entirely separate from whatever reviews our critics later deliver."

If Ms. Wheat or the 17 others involved — including Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly, Craig Tomashoff of TV Guide and Galina Espinoza of People — had anything negative to say about ABC's programs, those comments were not shown, at least not in the parts ABC posted on YouTube.

This endorsement of shows - intended or not - did not sit well with Roy Peter Clark, vice president of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Continue Reading...