Flying Saucers Over Oz
12-01-2008, 05:39 PM
If the ratings are any indication, most of you did NOT see Rosie O'Donnell's recent variety special the day before Thanksgiving. It was a quasi-pilot; if it'd done well, it would have led to a series. But it didn't. In fact, ratings were actually a bit lower than the series it bumped that week, which wouldn't be quite so depressing except said series was Knight Rider.
Not to say the show didn't deserve it. Look, I'm a Rosie fan. Love the girl dearly. But the idea, a live variety show designed to suggest the experience of watching a stage production, just didn't work. For one thing, Rosie and many of her guests tended to play too broad for the TV cameras, since they were playing to the in-house audience. The show was live so they couldn't go back and tighten up slack timing or muffed lines, and there clearly wasn't enough rehearsal to get all the kinks ironed out. Jokes fell flat and skits mostly went nowhere.There didn't seem to be any overall plan beyond just throwing things at the audience; a guest would come out, do some schtick, then vanish in about two minutes, only for someone else to appear. The pace was frentic and borderline flustered; at times, Rosie seemed like a female impersonator. And perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the 'Live' concept; the best thing about having a New York-based show starring Rosie is that she can call in Broadway show casts to do production numbers. Except here, she mostly couldn't since the casts were busy doing their own shows at the moment.
It's possible all the problems could've been solved with a bit more work, but it's unlikely Rosie and crew will get the chance. Ah, well. There are several other variety show pilots with other hosts queing up; one reason Rosie's was rushed into production was the network wanted to beat the Osbournes on the air.
And I'm sure Rosie will survive. It's not like she needs the money, and she seems not all that eager to get back on TV. She'll be okay. Besides, variety shows are tricky to do. At any rate, she can comfort herself with one thing: Even if the show had been ten, twenty, a million times worse, it still wouldn't have been half as awful as Howard Cosell and Barbara Walters' love-song duet on his short-lived 70's variety show...
Not to say the show didn't deserve it. Look, I'm a Rosie fan. Love the girl dearly. But the idea, a live variety show designed to suggest the experience of watching a stage production, just didn't work. For one thing, Rosie and many of her guests tended to play too broad for the TV cameras, since they were playing to the in-house audience. The show was live so they couldn't go back and tighten up slack timing or muffed lines, and there clearly wasn't enough rehearsal to get all the kinks ironed out. Jokes fell flat and skits mostly went nowhere.There didn't seem to be any overall plan beyond just throwing things at the audience; a guest would come out, do some schtick, then vanish in about two minutes, only for someone else to appear. The pace was frentic and borderline flustered; at times, Rosie seemed like a female impersonator. And perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the 'Live' concept; the best thing about having a New York-based show starring Rosie is that she can call in Broadway show casts to do production numbers. Except here, she mostly couldn't since the casts were busy doing their own shows at the moment.
It's possible all the problems could've been solved with a bit more work, but it's unlikely Rosie and crew will get the chance. Ah, well. There are several other variety show pilots with other hosts queing up; one reason Rosie's was rushed into production was the network wanted to beat the Osbournes on the air.
And I'm sure Rosie will survive. It's not like she needs the money, and she seems not all that eager to get back on TV. She'll be okay. Besides, variety shows are tricky to do. At any rate, she can comfort herself with one thing: Even if the show had been ten, twenty, a million times worse, it still wouldn't have been half as awful as Howard Cosell and Barbara Walters' love-song duet on his short-lived 70's variety show...