I suppose the thing that piques my curiosity about this show is its timing. It comes from the same producers as “So You Think You Can Dance,” who are also the producers of “American Idol.” IDOL, the biggest and longest-lasting phenomenon in recent television history, is coming back with its seventh season next week. While it’s on a completely different night, aren’t the producers worried about overlap or overkill? I suppose not.

In its favor, this is a family friendly show centered on a family favorite musical on a family favorite night, Sunday. On the other hand, it has to get lucky in its first three weeks that NFL football doesn’t run over and ruin its start time. Of course, I don’t think this show will have a huge male demographic. We’re looking at a reality show here that should skew heavily female. The carry over audience won’t be too big a bother, but the show might lose momentum when it gets trounced on Super Bowl Sunday, if it even bothers to air that night.

That all said, how did the hour and a half premiere go last night?

Comparisons to IDOL are obvious. This week’s and next week’s show are devoted to scouring the country looking for the two lead roles in an upcoming production of GREASE on Broadway. Thankfully, there are only three cities on the list for rehearsals: L.A., Chicago, and New York. Los Angeles gets most of the focus in this first week, with Chicago being squeezed into the last couple of commercial breaks. New York City gets an episode all its own next week, which makes sense. Surely, there’s a ton of Broadway talent there that can take a day off from its collective waiter/waitressing job to rehearse.

Three “judges” run the show. They include the British financial backer of the production, the director/choreographer of the show, and the guy who originally wrote GREASE in the first place. They mention his Chicago roots fairly often throughout the show, but it wouldn’t take you long to pick up on the clues by yourself. This is a guy ready to break out into a rousing chorus of “Da Bears” at any moment. In any case, the Brit is a little nicer than Simon, but can be blunt when he needs to be. It’s a completely shallow and superficial comparison, but it will be made.

They fall into many of the same traps as the Idol judges. Hard luck stories and strong characters often get to stick around longer than they should. Tap dancing cupcake lady should never have been welcomed back to the dancing stage. While I could easily imagine Sandy and Danny being younger or older or Latino or black, I just can’t picture an obese Sandy with a Brooklyn accent.

One smart thing they did with the show was to keep the bad auditions to a minimum. They stuck to showing mostly promising singers, with the occasional bad one to change things up a bit for a change of pace. Still, even those random odd nutjobs and TV-starved losers feel like copycats of IDOL. I can find the losers funny on IDOL, but it looks like too much of a put-on anywhere else. I realize that’s not a completely fair stance to take, but it is what it is. The first to market is often the winner, even when it’s not the original or the best. C’est la vie.

One thing the show might have a problem with is overexposing the musical. I’m nearly sick and tired of “Hopelessly Devoted” already, and we’re only an hour and a half into the series so far. Since all the auditioners will be vying for the same jobs singing known songs, I imagine that Grease Camp — the “Hollywood” equivalent for this series — will be packed to the gills with “Grease” songs, as will the live performances. We’ll see how they manage that.

Thankfully, there are also elements of dancing and acting in the series to help break things up. “Grease” is looking for a real “triple-threat,” something “Fame” failed to do a couple of years ago. Better luck this time.

The other thing they did nicely to break things up in this first episode was to introduce the judges and the setting. We got to hear from the writer about the Chicago roots of GREASE. We saw a little of the backstory for the financier and the choreographer. We got to hear them talk a bit about what they’re looking for. This is all interesting context for the series, and a nice change-up from the endless monotony of auditions that so many performance shows fall prey to.

I don’t think I’ll be doing weekly write-ups for the series as it goes along. As more shows return to air — IDOL and 24 at the top — my TV time will be used up with other enjoyable shows. I don’t know how long GREASE will stay on my radar, but I’m willing to give it more time to see how it develops.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 3:04 pm and is filed under TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.