In This Section
TV Guide Spotlight
Also on TVGuide.com
|
« Today's News: Our Take
NBC Gives Lauren Graham Her Due
Lauren Graham by Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com
Emmy shmemmy! Our favorite Gilmore Girl has just scored a seven-figure development deal with the Peacock, Variety reports. "After having spent so many years representing the frog on the WB," the actress says, "I am especially comforted to be part of the only other network with an animal mascot." More importantly, it's now only a matter of time until the golden Girl is back on the tube in a new series! Yay squared!
|
TVGuide Links:
|
|
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 11:00 AM
|
Woooohooooooo! This is the best news ever! Just last night I was thiking it was going to be a boring tv season without Lauren in my TV. I bet she's gonna rock our socks out. NBC better not screw this one up.
*snoopy dance*
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 11:36 AM
|
|
Hopefully she'll leave the attitude she developed towards the end of GG back with CW too. Both NBC and Graham have the opportunity to make it good or to screw it up. Let's hope we get the old Graham and the pretty side of the peacock.
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 11:55 AM
|
|
That's awesome. NBC better come up with something great for her.
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 11:56 AM
|
|
OMG! This is great news.
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 11:57 AM
|
|
This is awesome news!!!
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 12:00 PM
|
|
WOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 12:37 PM
|
|
Matt, you made my day! There is hope my Lauren Graham withdrawl will be even more temporary than I imagined.
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 1:06 PM
|
|
Yeah! I love Lauren.
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 1:15 PM
|
The Variety article that Mitovitch references (too long to reprint here) is located at: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117972136.html?categoryid=14&cs=1 and specifically mentions that it's a deal to develop a new show around Graham (as opposed to, say, a holding deal that could place her in an existing show, although I suspect that the deal could be converted as such):
So, my reactions as the resident Gg fanatic at too many MBs  :
First, hell, yes, I'm certainly happy that Lauren scored a huge development deal with NBC (IMO, it's likely a byproduct of doing Evan Almighty for NBC Universal).
The bad news: NBC television's new show development department sucks. Chuck? Journeyman? Life? Turning Dateline into that To Catch a Predator junk? I mean, come on. That's the best they can do? She'd be better off signing with ABC/Disney/Touchstone, makers of the great dramedies Grey's Anatomy and Brothers & Sisters -- and, well, we won't hold the sheer awfulness of Desperate Housewives against them, will we?
Second, yes, the bad news is that the deal does mean that anything Gilmore that happens would take what is called second position (either formally or informally) to any production she develops or signs onto at NBC Universal -- unless, say, she got a rider put in to allow for a Gg revival, which is possible but nothing we'd ever know for sure about. That sounds worse than it actually is. It just means that whenever Amy comes up with whatever she's going to come up with, it's just going to have to work around Lauren's schedule. Which really changes nothing. She has movie gigs, she has a TV development deal. Anything Gg would have to work around her current gigs (and any other actors' current gigs) anyway.
What that means in the short-term is very little -- nothing's changed that we didn't already know about or could figure in as she's not signed to any specific show with NBC yet. She just has a development deal -- to develop a show around her. It does mean that the clock is ticking on a Gg revival and makes it more far more likely that any real conclusion to the series will be a movie than anything longer, like a miniseries (but OTOH, there'd be nothing really stopping her from doing even a Gg miniseries during a summer hiatus).
But on the other hand, none of her NBC deal is a certainty unless -- and I stress unless she is signed not just to a pilot, but a pilot that gets greenlit into a series. Despite the number of Pilots that get greenlit to series, the failure rate for pilots during pilot season is extremely high and the failure rate for rookie shows is similarly extremely high. If both the network and Lauren are desperate to keep her on the network, they could conceivably sign her onto an existing show. But really, NBC the network (as opposed to the extended NBC Universal family, which includes USA and Sci-Fi) hasn't had much luck launching new shows in recent years.
Except for Heroes and The Office, none of the ones that have really hit recently have been NBC Universal-produced shows: Medium is from CBS Paramount, My Name Is Earl is from Fox, Scrubs is from Touchstone and among the rest of the existing shows that NBC Universal produces itself, Friday Night Lights, starring Graham's BFF Connie Britton, is struggling in the ratings, Las Vegas is nearing its last legs and 30 Rock with its "dozens and dozens of viewers" ranked at 137th place overall for the 2006-2007 television season.
Worse yet, of the network's new shows this year, Chuck is produced by Warner, Journeyman is produced by Fox, and only The Bionic Woman and Life are produced in-house by NBC Universal. So a lot already rides on NBC's in-house new shows, The Bionic Woman and Life.
Really, all a development deal means is that they're going to *try* to develop a series for her. And that's a crapshoot. Literally. Graham had already been a recurring character on Caroline in the City and NewsRadio and a lead in several short-lived series, Townies, Good Company, Conrad Bloom, and the nearly Gilmore-ish MYOB before she finally hit netlet-big with Gg. That doesn't mean that Graham isn't series material (obviously), it just proves that the failure rate of shows, even for particular actors, much less networks, is extremely high. And no series that would be developed for Graham would air any sooner than the Fall of 2008 anyway, if any pilot even gets greenlit to series. Moreover, Graham's deal isn't even a "put" pilot deal (a type of deal, usually granted only to marquee showrunners in which the pilot is fast-tracked, sidestepping pilot season entirely, with the network airing up to the minimum number of episodes ordered unless the studio/network opts to buy the contract out) or a pay-or-play deal (offered to both showrunners and actors depending on the circumstances and status of the given producer or actor), which would mean that they'd have to pay her the deal money whether anything that's developed for her during the duration of her contract ever goes anywhere or not.
Special note: Of the shows noted in the previous paragraph: Townies aired on ABC, Good Company aired on CBS. ALL of the rest aired on NBC. NBC's casting VP Marc Hirschfeld might be entitled to take credit for placing her in so many series early in her career, as he does in the Variety article, but it's Warner Brothers, The WB and Amy Sherman-Palladino that cast her in the one series that was a hit for her, Gilmore Girls. So, yeah, Hirschfeld has a great eye for actors (kudos to him for that), but unfortunately, neither of the two series he put her in lasted, neither of the two series she was a lead cast member in at other networks lasted and none of her recurring roles on existing series lasted as regular recurring gigs.
Worse yet, the cast of NewsRadio, despite lurving Graham personally, resented the network for demanding the show institute a number of changes for its fourth season, one of them being the imposition of Graham's neurotic efficiency expert Andrea into the show. The cast and producers of NewsRadio knew about and regretted the kettle of fish that she was thrown into and have specifically complimented her on several commentary tracks of their show, resulting in her appearing in only four episodes before they were able to write her out, BID.
So don't let any of this news stop you from signing the petition, calling the CW Network or participating in phone-in or call-in projects of the Save The Lorelais campaign at www.savethelorelais.org. Graham's deal doesn't even have the *chance* of bringing anything to fruition for at the very earliest a full 'nother year.
-- Rob
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 2:39 PM
|
|
Quite possibly one of the greatest actresses to grace television since Lucy - I'm glad to hear it!
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 3:34 PM
|
|
Lauren is the best! I hated to see Gilmore Girls end! Good move NBC!!!
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 3:48 PM
|
|
Has anybody got an umbrella I can borrow? ShutUpRob is raining all over my parade!
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 3:59 PM
|
The bad news: NBC television's new show development department sucks. Chuck? Journeyman? Life? Turning Dateline into that To Catch a Predator junk? I mean, come on. That's the best they can do? She'd be better off signing with ABC/Disney/Touchstone
I really hope you are not judging Chuck without having seen the pilot, because I have and it was surprisingly hilarious, and unless I'm mistaken ABC's development slate consist of Carpoolers, Cavemen, and Cashmere Mafia (seen it and hated it); and aren't they still airing the Bachelor?
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 4:12 PM
|
525600min -- I *did* see the pilot for Chuck at Comic-Con. It sucked. Google my screen name in the rec.arts.tv newsgroup for more info on how much this faux-Apatow, faux-PG-Tarantino, Jake 2.0 ripoff mess makes my skin crawl on every level. And I say that as a comic-book geek.
And that's even before I get to talking about how much I *hate* that they're wasting Sarah Lancaster in the Sister role, which is the same as Lauren Graham being relegated to her Wife World Tour roles. Cardinal freakin' sin.
What a waste of Levi, Lancaster, Baldwin and the blonde chick!
Anyway, Chuck sucks. It's going to be in deep trouble against Prison Break and football, which go after the same demo of young guys.
NBC will eventually come back, just, IMO, not under this regime and IMO not even with Graham developing a show under this regime. They've got just plain awful taste in programming and a history of trying to micromanage to death shows not created by Aaron Sorkin or Dick Wolf.
I know that Graham has a lot of past experience working with NBC, but honestly, NBC has yet to get its act together, so IMO, her development deal (which doesn't actually pay until/unless whatever show they come up with actually gets greenlit) is far less of a sure thing for her than doing a real conclusion to Gilmore Girls. Even given Gg's current status.
OTOH, it could be worse, she could have signed with the CSI Broadcasting System.
-- Rob
|
|
Sep 18, 2007 4:53 PM
|
|
|
