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« Roush Dispatch
Viva Is Dead; Long Live the Race!
Lloyd Owen in Viva Laughlin by Robert Voets/CBS
Since almost no one watched the second and final episode of CBS’ misbegotten quasi-musical mess Viva Laughlin, let me share with you a headline that appeared at the start of Sunday’s episode: “Viva Craps Out.” I kid you not. (The headline was referring to the fictional casino, not the show. But really. Did they already know this was coming?)
And then there was this bit of dialogue, as casino owner Ripley Holden (Lloyd Owen) surveys his customer-free casino (prophetic, that) and asks his mousy accountant, “How long can we hold out?” The answer: “A week, tops.”
Viva Laughlin didn’t even last a week. Episode 1 crashed and burned Thursday with a plum CSI lead-in, and Episode 2 (which was of even considerably worse quality than the pilot) caused nary a ripple Sunday night. With the ever-fatal combo of lousy ratings and blistering reviews, CBS made the only logical move and canned it. After a CSI repeat this Sunday, The Amazing Race will return on Nov. 4, with an itinerary that includes first-time stops to Ireland, Lithuania and the scenic hot spot of Croatia. I’m excited to have this spectacular reality competition back on the Sunday schedule.
Laughlin isn’t officially the first network cancellation of the new season. That honor goes to Fox’s Nashville and the CW’s Online Nation, two reality-based series that few even knew existed. But this is the first significant blow of the programmers’ ax, and I’m sure far from the last.
The fact that nearly everyone predicted this would happen is no cause for celebration. Viva Laughlin wasn’t a grand folly of a failure like the infamous but undeniably ambitious Cop Rock of 1990. Laughlin was a sadly botched experiment that was executed so halfheartedly you wonder why they even went to the trouble of taking this risk.
Music and TV shouldn’t be strange bedfellows: Just look at the incredible success of the High School Musical movies on the Disney Channel. And while it was never a hit, NBC’s much-missed American Dreams found a way to tell a compelling story with a musical backdrop (albeit not a traditional “musical” in the sense of characters bursting into song). All musical fans desire is something that’s entertaining, and that’s where Viva Laughlin came up miserably short.
Better luck next time, and I truly hope there is a next time. (Failing that, let’s just hope that Kristin Chenoweth gets a chance to deliver more show-stoppers like her “Hopelessly Devoted to You” star turn on Pushing Daisies’ second episode. Given that Raul Esparza from Broadway’s recent Company revival just made an appearance as a potential love interest for Chenoweth’s Olive, anything is possible.)
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Oct 22, 2007 4:41 PM
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Wow - less than a week? I did not watch this show but honestly Matt - can any show be evaluated in two weeks?
Next time - a show will be cancelled before it premiers!
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Oct 22, 2007 5:14 PM
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Didn't watch it. But I can't help but think, of course, why did they bother at all? They could have renewed Jericho instead. At least then we'd have a chance at more than 7 episodes this season. Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to its return next year.
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Oct 22, 2007 6:22 PM
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They could have renewed Jericho instead
Agree with you 100% on that one, nsgal!
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Oct 22, 2007 6:34 PM
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Actually, Ranger99, Fox had cancelled two shows before they ever premiered. One was, I think, called "Rewind" in which Scott Baio went back to the '70s. Another one was based on the movie Cruel Intentions. That one ended up as an edited movie called Cruel Intentions II which I saw on Cinemax. Definitely too sexy, even for Fox which had "Melrose Place" at the time!
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Oct 23, 2007 12:48 AM
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Glad TAR is coming back. But with football overrunson Sunday nights, it's so difficult to watch. Hopefully it'll be available OnDemand on my Comacast system like Survivor is. But I still think they should do one TAR and one Survivor per season-one could air in the fal, one in the spring with both occupying the Thursday at 8 timeslot. Or put TAR on Wednesday at 8 when Kid Nation wraps up.
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Oct 23, 2007 7:40 AM
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Oh, here we go again. It's Sunday evening. Get the DVRs set up, then turn on the TV at 6 (central) to see how far over football runs. Make live viewing choices based on the answer. Next day, try to avoid TAR spoilers until I can see the show.
Annoying!
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Oct 23, 2007 8:30 AM
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I for one will definitely not miss Viva Laughlin. I think I fell asleep during the pilot, but I can't be certain because it doesn't seem that I missed anything, since nothing happened.
When it comes down to shows integrating music with the program, no one is doing it better right now than Supernatural. Alas, their CW-tiny budget evidently doesn't allow for them to do it every week, but whenever the show's signature classic rock makes an appearance, it - well - rocks. The use of "Renegade" by Styx at the close of last season's episode Nightshifter may rank as the best music cue ever. Closing out last season with Boston's "Don't Look Back" was genius, and setting up the current season by opening with AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" was inspired. Setting and circumstance-appropriate music turns up even when you least expect it, and never, ever, jars - radios in the background on the show always seem to know exactly what music suits the moment. Why, it's practically supernatural ... *grin*
I don't need to have characters bursting into song in order to feel satisfied by a good melding of story and music. That said, though, I really did enjoy Kristin Chenoweth's musical turn in Pushing Daisies, and definitely wouldn't mind more - the fantasy environment of the show suits the musical conceit!
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Oct 23, 2007 11:44 AM
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I watched the pilot of "Viva Laughlin" admittedly from grim humor, thinking from the reviews that it would be a huge trainwreck. But what I found, despite the musical numbers (which were admittedly flat), was a pretty standard show. It wasn't particularly good, but it wasn't jaw-droppingly horrible either.
In fact, all it made me do was wonder why t.v. critics went to such lengths to yammer on and on about how awful "Viva Laughlin" was, when a number of those same critics simultaneously kept insisting that shows like "Bionic Woman," which had equally bad, if not much worse pilot that utterly botched a good concept, were "works in progress" and we should give them a second chance.
In other words, the hate and disppointment sometimes seemed really out of proportion. It made me wonder:
Do critics dismiss musicals much easier than other material, like action thrillers? If so, why?
Did critics simply personally dislike an actor, producer, director, etc. on "Viva Laughlin" or have a more favorable bias toward the creative team behind other shows?
Again, "Viva Laughlin" wasn't very good, but from the critical reaction I was expecting an absolute, virtually unwatchable disaster (didn't the New York Times even wonder if this wasn't only the worst show of the season, but the worst of all time? Where did that come from?).
If anything, "Viva Laughlin" was moderately more entertaining (and compartively better conceived, particularly in some of its cast) than several new shows that are still very much on the air. I'm not sorry to see it go, but the air reeks of a little bias surrounding its quick demise.
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Oct 23, 2007 12:13 PM
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I have to agree with BobbyJoe and Mary's comments. I watched bits of both episodes and though it wasn't anything that really interested me it also was not the horrible train wreck I was expecting. A show like Supernatural knows how to integrate music without it seeming forced and gimmicky.
To be honest, a lot of the new shows this season have been underwhelming...especially the hyped ones like Bionic Woman and Pushing Daisies.
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Oct 23, 2007 12:50 PM
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Well I saw two scenes on Sunday and to me it was as big a train wreck as the critics had said it was.
And to the person who said critics are so quick to dismiss musicals, there haven't been many musicals to make that blanket statement. Also, critics loved the musical epsiodes of Buffy and Scrubs. The original songs blended with the show and furthered the storyline. Viva Laughlin just seemed like a bad night at karaoke. I mean, at least have the actors sing. Why were they just singing along to the original songs?
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Oct 23, 2007 4:39 PM
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If there's one show that brought the musical genre back to TV in a great way, it's HBO's hysterical Flight of the Conchords.
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Oct 23, 2007 4:55 PM
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I'm apparently the only one, but I thought the show was pretty good. I watched both the pilot and second episode and I thought the story was moving along nicely. I won't say it was completely compelling and I'm certainly not writing any letters to the network demanding its return, but I thought it was kinda fun. I don't think 2 weeks was nearly long enough to make a determination of future success. I enjoyed the musical interludes and how the old songs went along with what was going on in the story. The actors were fine [although the lead seemed more suitable to a gumshoe role] and the mystery was OK. Not a blockbuster but I didn't think it deserved all the bad press it got.
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Oct 23, 2007 6:11 PM
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I think the record still belongs to a 60's clone of Laugh In called Turn On which was cancelled during the first episode. They just pulled the plug and never showed the second half-hour.
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Oct 23, 2007 9:46 PM
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I don't understand why the networks keep remaking British series instead of just showing the originals. Viva Blackpool was very good. But given how they usually totally botch it when they try to remake the shows, it's not surprising that Laughlin stunk.
(And I know the Office is a successful remake, but it still isn't close to the orginal, which was freaking brilliant.)
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Oct 23, 2007 10:12 PM
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