CBS DEVELOPING TWITTER BASED FAMILY COMEDY PRODUCED BY JESSICA ALBAHow many things are wrong with this news?
In 1997, Kelly Oxford, a stay-at-home mother of three in Canada, started a blog that was later joined by a Twitter feed. Her Internet creations, which reflect her comedic observations and musings about mundane things, pop culture and current events, grew to become a cultural force and attracted the attention of Hollywood’s elite, including actress Jessica Alba. Now, Oxford is writing Mother of All Something, a comedy project for CBS based on her blog and Twitter feed, with Alba attached to executive produce.
Let's start with the first and most obvious: Jessica Alba.
She's on as an executive producer. That implies, at least to me, that someone in the world thinks Jessica Alba is too big for TV, but she's such a star and big name, that she can come down to poor little television and throw her name on something as an EP, and this will somehow help the show become successful.
Because if there is one thing Jessica Alba knows, it is successful entertainment. Can you imagine the script notes Executive Producer Jessica Alba gives? Make it a little more like "Into The Blue".
Don't you have to demonstrate some sort of consistent success and savvy to be an Executive Producer?
"All right, guys. Great set of pilots this season, time to make some hard choices. The question is: Should we pick up the show from Bruckheimer, the one from Brian Grazer, the one from JJ Abrams, or that twitter feed Jessica Alba follows?"
Okay, second part. Twitter.
This is the 3rd show CBS has bought that started as a twitter feed. I don't get it. I really don't. And I'm not a hater about it - congrats to everyone who sells something like this. But from the network's perspective, what is the thinking?
There's not a substantial fan base of twitter feeds. No one was clamoring to see "Shit My Dad Sees" because they loved the twitter. In fact, it seems the opposite is true. People wanted to hate it. So that can't be it.
And as I once brilliantly tweeted myself:
"if you took the best lines from a shitty sitcom, you'd have a funny twitter feed. then cbs would buy it and you'd have a shitty sitcom"
Incidentally, I really thought that tweet was going to be huge, thus spawning it's own sitcom. Instead, crickets.
But the point, people, is clear. Hire 5 sitcom writers, put them in a room, have them only come up with tweets. Believe me, it would be hilarious. Put those same writers in a room, have them write a half hour script for Jenna Elfman. Believe me, it would be a piece of shit.
They're different things! Tweets aren't a sitcom. Sitcoms have a few jokes a minute, A, B, and C stories, runners, call backs, act breaks, tags, and different characters.
I'm not really sure what the point is here. "Shit My Dad Says" got on the air. Okay. But it's a very traditional sitcom, not a new idea in anyway, and they got Shatner.
At the end of the day, I think it's just about being easy to understand for the executives and a somewhat proven commodity. They don't have to read a yucky 50 page script, they get 140 characters. And they get it without all that annoying story or drama. It's boiled down to jokes that have been proven to be funny by people on twitter.
I get that. So I guess the real confusing thing in this whole equation is Alba. What is she bringing to the table exactly? She clearly doesn't know what a good script looks like. She doesn't know TV, unless you count her infamous 1 episode arc as a pregnant teen on 90210. Oh, and "Dark Angel".
Is this is a sign that she might be thinking her movie career is over? Is it TV time for her? Maybe if she's just an EP and then it goes down, no harm done. But if she's attached to star and it fails, then it looks really bad. Alba isn't even good enough to be on TV!
That must be it. If this thing gets a 13 episode order, she's the lead. If not, it was supposed to star Kristen Kreuk or Summer Glau and nobody will be the wiser.
I've cracked the case. You're welcome. Now get to twitter, there's a sitcom deal out there waiting for you.
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