I’d just like to pat myself on the back for a moment, if I may, and say that this is the first time since the first day of the tour that I’ve actually caught up to the point where I’m writing about a network’s presentations while that network is still doing their presentations. I don’t know how many people are reading my stuff with any regularity, but given how hard I’ve been trying to knock this panel coverage out in a timely manner, those of you who are keeping up will know how much ass I’ve kicked to get this close to being completely caught up.
Okay, enough self-congratulation. On with the ABC coverage! And…what’s this? Why, it’s another executive session! Welcome, if you would, the President of ABC Entertainment, Mr. Steve McPherson.
I posted about the first question of the panel the other day, but it was so funny that it bears repeating, so here’s the exchange as it went down:
Jimmy Kimmel: Hi, my name’s Tom Weinerman from the Sarasota Star-Herald Tribune. There are rumors that ABC is actively courting Jay Leno for 11:30. Is there any truth to those rumors? And if so, I have a follow-up, then.
Steve McPherson: I don’t really feel comfortable answering that in this forum. What’s the follow-up?
Jimmy Kimmel: Is it McPherson or McPhorson?
Steve McPherson: McPherson.
Jimmy Kimmel: If anything were, God forbid, to happen, would that mean…would Ted Koppel get fired, or how would that work?
Steve McPherson: Yeah. It would be doomsday for Ted.
Jimmy Kimmel: If you were even to talk to Jay Leno, wouldn’t that be like contract tampering? Wouldn’t that be illegal? Couldn’t you go to jail for that?
Steve McPherson: It’s possible, but…you know, you have any other questions?
Jimmy Kimmel: How do you keep your hair so nice?
Steve McPherson: Can we get this guy out of here? Obviously, the Leno situation, we figured…
Jimmy Kimmel: Are you at all afraid that, if you do replace Jimmy Kimmel, he might do something crazy to you or your car?
Steve McPherson: Yes. Actually, very afraid.
Jimmy Kimmel: I’ll be out in the parking lot.
Genius.
After Kimmel headed off to do untold damage to McPherson’s car, his boss assured us, “I can’t say enough about Jimmy. His show has just exploded this year. He’s done an amazing job. You know, I think everybody knows all the YouTube stuff, and the videos have been just an explosion. The live commercials he’s doing are groundbreaking. The show creatively is firing at all cylinders, and we’re hugely supportive of it. The Leno situation…to me it’s a question for NBC. I can’t believe that they’re going to let this guy go at the top of his game, and if that happens, I guess we’ll look at it at the time, and Jimmy will be involved in those discussions. And that will be that.”
So there you go.
As to other notable revelations from McPherson, they were as follows:
* Will this be the last season of “Scrubs”? More details on that later from the horse’s mouth, but as far as McPherson’s concerned, “After talking to Zach, talking to Bill, and whether and/or all of the cast is a part of that, I still think there’s a great amount of growth there. It’s a show that, despite being moved around into like 17 time periods and really never being given the marketing support, has really performed unbelievably well on NBC. So we’re excited to have it as part of our comedy assets, and we do think that it will not hopefully be a one-season situation. But we’ll just take that step by step.”
* The unique tone of “Pushing Daisies” will remain unchanged. (I guess there was some concern about that…? I couldn’t imagine they’d change a thing about it, given how it so defiantly stands apart from anything else on the television, but at least we have confirmation now.)
* “Private Practice,” meanwhile, will be tweaked to a certain extent…not the cast (thankfully, since it’s one of the best ensembles out there), but the direction. “If you watched the show last year, maybe the best episode was about the baby that was switched, and the kind of moral and ethical dilemmas that go on with that and real medical drama. We’re going to get Kate (Walsh’s) character back to actually doing surgery as part of that, which I think will be a big proponent for getting some more energy back, getting some medical drama. There’s going to be more interaction with the hospital, because I think she does an unbelievable job of character, but it works best when it’s laid over kind of a palette of these really great medical stories.” (Again, we’ll have more details when we cover the actual “Private Practice” panel.)
* As far as his position on Katherine Heigl’s war of words with the “Grey’s Anatomy” writers, “I think it’s unfortunate when there’s any kind of turmoil on a show. There’s so many people who work so unbelievably hard to make that show the #1 show in the country. I think it’s a beautifully written, beautifully acted, beautifully produced show. Everyone from the grips to the writers to the EPs, I think, deserves an enormous amount of credit, and I never like to see when any of them are in any way taken lightly, so I think that was really unfortunate. She’s absolutely staying with the show. There’s an unbelievable storyline for her this year, which is really central to everything that’s going to go on this season. We’re really excited about that. Shonda (Rhimes) is really excited about that and is the one who actually crafted that. I think you’ll hear more about that from her as the season goes on…and maybe at the Show Runner Panel.” (That’s a big 10-4, by the way.)
* According to McPherson, everything is just ducky with “Life on Mars.” “I don’t know where the rumors come from,” he said, perhaps rather naively. (Clearly, they come from the internet!) “I think people are kind of searching for something. There’s no conspiracy. It’s in great shape. We are keeping some of the cast. We’re in the process of recasting certain elements. Michael Imperioli is joining the cast. We’re pursuing a big element right now that we’re hoping will close. We’re shooting in New York, which we’re really excited about. So we continue to be extremely excited about that show. I don’t look at it as a troubled show at all. We’re really enthusiastic. We had a piece of casting that we booked two nights ago. It is a work in progress, certainly. But I would certainly not root against it at this point. It’s really one of my passion projects. It’s something we’ve been trying to bring to life for a few years.”
* The rumors are true: Katie Holmes will indeed be guest-starring on “Eli Stone.” “I was at the table read. She was fabulous,” says McPherson. “It’s a great role for her. There’s actually some singing and dancing that she does, and she’s exquisite. It’s a really special piece of business. And obviously, for a show that we really creatively believed in and had a tough launch because of the strike, it helps us from a promotional standpoint. But first and foremost, Greg (Berlanti) came to me with the idea because he really had a creative way to do it, and him and Katie wanted to get back together and do something, so we were really fortunate that she agreed to do it, and we’re excited.”
* The greatest lost ABC project of recent years: “A Will Ferrell Christmas.” “We had signed a deal to do a Christmas special variety show with Will Ferrell a couple years ago,” said McPherson, “until he realized how much money he made in features and decided to go do that instead.”
* “Boston Legal” is ending because David Kelley has 13 episodes left him. Yes, it’s apparently really just that simple. “He really wanted to end it,” said McPherson. “He really wanted to do some things with our two core characters. It was really his decision, and I really like being able to know when shows are going out. Let’s let these creators who have created unbelievably compelling characters and iconic pieces of television end it with dignity and integrity and, to me, compelling content. And we can market it as such. For us, it’s an advantage. We really appreciate David signing up and getting excited about these final 13. We’re talking about how to really sell them as this kind of final crescendo for what, for us, has been a terrific series.”
And those are pretty much the highlight’s from Mr. McPherson’s neighborhood. From there, we move on to…
