Dirty Sexy Money: Discussion Thread

[EricMontreal22]

It is VERY hard to follow. I don't think Berlanti ever was an actual show runner as he was busy with B&S and then Eli Stone, which is his focus, but he was involved--and still is I assume and it's handled at Berlanti's prodcution company. Craig Wright the creator is still one of the main writers--it's not a situation like the playwright/creator of B&S (which still worries me though I liek the new/current showrunners). Reims was the original showrunner--with Wright as creator.

The current show runner is the guy who worked on Big Shots isn't it? Which I thought was AWFUL and flopped so I have no idea what's going on but I enjoyed the direction the show was going so much I'm gonan remian cuationally optimistic (frtnakly I think Cerrone's planned darker directon sounded mroe interesting) He also was an EP at Tru Calling and Reunion two other shows I found awful... sigh this is worrying me more and more lol

Found this dated mid June:

There have been a lot of personnel changes made to the cast and creative staff of Dirty Sexy Money lately. Only four months after replacing original showrunner Josh Reims, Daniel Cerone has left his executive producer/showrunner position. Big Shots creator Jon Feldman is Cerone's replacement.

Apparently ABC didn't share Cerone's vision for a darker season two of Dirty Sexy Money. Fortunately, Cerone is leaving on good terms with the network. He still has a two-year deal with the ABC Studios. There will be an unexpected early break in production so that showrunner duties can be handed off to Jon Feldman.

I'm not sure what to expect from Dirty Sexy Money next season. There has only been one short season of the show, and DSM's already on its third showrunner. Series regular Samaire Armstrong's role has been scaled down, and Lucy Liu may be joining the cast. Will the show look and feel the same when it returns? If Cerone's take on Dirty Sexy Money was too dark, will the series become more of a soapy drama?

Is this news cause for concern, or just the usual retooling?

[Sylph]

The problems I have with the show begin with its title — it's beyond awful! And in my opinion, the role of Darling patriarch doesn't belong to Sutherland; he's just not suited to play it. And at this particular time, I can't think of anyone who could. But there are plenty of choices.

And Krause is a joke, I just dislike the actor. And also — it's a miscast.

I don't know what to say about Cerone, since he worked on Charmed! God knows what his vision for this show would look like! It seems that a good showrunner is difficult to find nowadays.

[JackPeyton]

^I wanted to lvoe this show but just.. couldnt.

Its a big mess, and not the awesome kinda soapy twisted messed up family mess it thinks it is. everything comes off as either stupid or bad.

I like PK, loved him on Sports Night or whatever that 90's sitcom was.

[Sylph]

Exactly how I feel.

[EricMontreal22]

I think it took a few episodes to find its footing but was awesome near the end--some fo the scnees between Sutherland and Krause were just hair raising and Jill Clayburgh has always been one of my fave older actresses--Seth Gabel prob surprising me and ending up being the other standout character--apparantly Berlanti cast him after his audition for Eli Stone blew him away (his bonding with krause's wife--the pot smoking int he gallery, etc was a brilliant scene).

Sylph I suspect you didn't watch too much of the show but tha tmay just be me beign snarky. I agree the title threw me off and took me a bit to get past--btu I do think Sutherland was great casting--and as a big SFU fan i love Krause but I can understand when you just don't like an actor (don't get me on a rant abotu Tom Hanks unless you have a lot of time...)

Cerone DID do a good job showrunning Dexter season 1--it seems silly for ABC to hire him off of Dexter, then complain he was too DARK lol. But I hated Charmed so yeah--

The show did seem to divide critics--Ent Weekly put it on their best of the year list, and I'm sure a few put it on their worse--so it makes sense it so sharply divided audiences I guess. I do hope we can all agree that it was miles better than Big Shots which again has me worried now that that show runner has moved to it... Sigh. Maybe primetime drama shorunner torubles are nearly as messed up as the Daytime head writer sitch

[JackPeyton]

Honestly, all it needs an overall storyline arc involving everyone. It doesnt have to be major, but build to something or idk. Every scene just seems to forced aside from the scenes between PK/DS.

[EricMontreal22]

That's where they wer eheading with the last three eps (which may have been under a new showrunner cuz it had much more momentum). I wish we had got all the episodes filmed for last year --they didn't air three and will open this year with them.

[EricMontreal22]

ABC posted a 5 minute "recap" of season one which is good since I'm sure even the peopel who watched every episode like me forget most of the details. There's also an interview with Greg Berlanti about all his shows (I have to admit he's pretty cute but I still find something about him off putting)

[Juliajms]

I really liked this show and I thought it had a lot of potential. It didn't quite live up to my hopes, but still it was quite good. I love PK, but his character needs to have something to play other than consternation at the self indulgent behavior of the Darlings. Imo, they need to show him longing for Karen, but fighting it tooth and nail. It would give his character more depth and make it easier to root for him. Also, they need to show that Nick is the one Karen really loves no matter what (or who) else she's doing.

These characters should not be allowed to get together until the show is almost through it's run, but there should be a lot more push and pull than we got last year when things were too campy.

There are so many good things about this show. The concept is good, several of the characters and actors are very good, but somehow the finished product doesn't quite gel. I also suspect that the writer's strike both hurt and saved this show. The ratings were pretty mediocre if I remember right and it seems like the plug might have been pulled if there were a lot of pilots to choose from. At the same time the strike screwed up the shows momentum. Will people come back after last season is the question. They didn't really give us enough reason to, but I will anyway because I think the characters are so much fun.

I'll be watching this show this fall, but I don't have a lot of hope that it will survive it's second year. All the backstage upheaval speaks to a lack of leadership and direction and that's something DSM has badly needed all along. It doesn't look like it will get it, but I hope I'm wrong. If we're lucky maybe the relaunch will be successful. Personally, I wish they had stuck with Cerone. I could have gotten behind a darker second season. What I can't get behind is fluff, which is basically what Big Shots was. I guess we'll see how things turn out soon enough. I have my fingers crossed.

[dc11786]

SoapNet will be having a "Dirty Sexy Money" marathon on September 27th. The first season episodes will air from 9 am to 7 pm in anticipation of the October 1st return.

[wiccachick_1]

Do you guys know if Peter Horton, Michael Grossman or Tony Goldwyn are still going to be connected to this show?

And wasn't Cerone working on Dexter?

[EricMontreal22]

Cerone left Dexter for DSM--apparantly to take it in a darker direction. Now they decided against that but in the current Ent Weekly they promise it'll be much "soapier". JuliaJms I think your view of the show is pretty spot on though I felt it was really gaining momentum at the end. I'll agree (and it seems the cast and crew do too) that it never *quite* clicked despite all the talent behind and in front of the camera and I hope it finds its footing cuz I have a lot of affection for it and for the kinda show it could be.

Here's the Ent Weekly piece:

Returning Drama

Starts October 1, 10-11PM, ABC

The 125 black-tie partygoers on this three-story yacht have been at it since the previous night, but the wineglasses are still clinking, the twinkle lights still twinkling, the Jacuzzi still bubbling. Then, suddenly, a hush sweeps over the crowd as they hover wearily over trays of plastic sushi and warm glasses of bubbly: The climactic scene on this Dirty Sexy Money episode is finally going down after 16 hours of shooting. A tuxedoed Tripp Darling (Donald Sutherland) presents a small, shiny gift to his family's principled lawyer, Nick George (Peter Krause). ''It's the key to this boat,'' Tripp booms. ''It's yours.'' But seconds later, a half dozen cops storm the vessel, and the family politico, Attorney General Patrick Darling (William Baldwin), turns an accusatory gaze on Nick: ''What the hell have you done?''

We won't spoil what brought on the NYPD raid, but we will tell you what Nick and the Darlings are trying to do: Their mission is to reinvent the prime-time network soap. Again. Last fall, ABC attempted to launch its ''Dynasty for the new millennium,'' as creator/exec producer Craig Wright describes it, with much fanfare. It seemed reasonable to think Sexy would sell: The tongue-in-cheek chronicle of an — berwealthy family living in the age of gossipmongering boasted a platinum cast, including Sutherland, Baldwin, Oscar nominee Jill Clayburgh as family matriarch Letitia, and Emmy nominee Krause as their moral center. But the series premiered to an okay 10.4 million viewers — and dropped to a paltry 6.7 million by episode 10. Worse still, the writers' strike ended DSM's season with the Dec. 5 episode.

Still, ABC saw potential payoff in the Darlings. So just as it did with Pushing Daisies and Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice, the network gave producers time off in the spring to regroup, rather than rushing back on air post-strike. Now Wright & Co. have a second chance to make a show that lives up to its seductive name.

A television series is like a mirage in the beginning,'' says Krause. ''Until you all agree on what it is you're heading toward, it's hard. I think we're getting there now.'' The road to creative clarity, though, was rough. Just after the strike, Dexter exec producer Daniel Cerone replaced original showrunner Josh Reims. Then ABC Studios swapped Cerone out for Jon Harmon Feldman (Big Shots) and started this season from scratch. Execs say the leadership changes were simply about getting the behind-the-scenes chemistry right. ''Jon's a perfect fit,'' says Steve Tann, ABC Studios' vice president of current programming. ''He shares Craig's vision for the show.'' Adds Wright: ''No one was to blame. We took the show in a direction very briefly where we thought, 'If we did that, would it make everyone happy?' We did it, and then went, 'No.'''

The plan that made everyone finally say ''yes'' involves amping things up to prime-time-soap levels, with all the wealthy trappings a cash-strapped nation wants to fantasize about. ''It's getting dirtier, sexier, and moneyer,'' Wright says. ''We're selling the wish fulfillment.'' The story picks up six months after the finale, in which Nick found out about Karen's (Natalie Zea) affair with Simon Elder (Blair Underwood); Brian (Glenn Fitzgerald) left the ministry and joined the family business; and Patrick's transgendered mistress, Carmelita (Candis Cayne), vanished. The premiere will feature character introductions for neophytes and plenty of action for fans, including murder, the revelation of a possible culprit in Nick's father's death, and new cast member Lucy Liu as Nola Lyons. ''She's like a wrecking ball,'' says Liu. ''Even if she makes a mistake, you can't tell, because she walks right over it.''

Nola will begin flirting with layabout playboy Jeremy (Seth Gabel), who'll continue to struggle with the sexual tension between him and Nick's wife, Lisa (Zoe McLellan). Samaire Armstrong, who played spoiled Juliet, and who struggled with ''personal issues'' at an outpatient facility last fall, won't return as a series regular. (Producers insist Armstrong was a casualty of plot changes, nothing more. ''She will still be a member of the family and on the show,'' Wright says.) Nick, meanwhile, is fighting his attraction to Karen, even as she gets closer to Simon, a man with possibly nefarious interest in the Darlings. ''You think you've got him figured out, but the next scene it turns around,'' Underwood says of Simon, whom he describes as ''the chocolate Richard Branson.'' How explosive could things get? ''The best way for Simon to use his power is to end Karen's life,'' Wright hints. ''Whether Nick would allow that to happen and what it might cost him to stop it is an interesting question.''

The cast knows all too well the price of being on a could-be-great prime-time soap that can't quite seem to get off the ground. ''It feels like the start of season 3,'' Krause sighs, ''and we haven't even done a full season's worth of episodes yet.'' Adds Baldwin: ''We're so close, I can taste what it would be like if I were on a hit television series.'' Better than prop sushi and two-day-old fake champagne, we hope.

[Sylph]

So in the end... Who were the showrunners of this show? In order of appearance?

[EricMontreal22]

Is it just me or does it seem shor runners are having a hard time the past year or two--I guess the strike played a big part. It seems more than usual shows are running through a number of them.

Josh Reims was showrunner number 1 for I think the first 8 episodes, followed by Daniel Cerrone who it sounds like basically was in charge of the two remainign eps that aired (which went ina direction I liked--oh well) and a couple coming up--if even that, and currently it's Jon Harmon Feldman. Craig Wright has stayed on the show as a main writer and EP the whole time.

[Toups]

1. Josh Reims (first season)

2. Daniel Cerone

3. Jon H. Feldman (current showrunner)

I believe ABC is dumping the Cerone episodes (so ABC basically wasted money shooting those episodes) and starting the season from scratch. So, the season premiere will be a JHF showrun episode.

This show is such a mess behind the scenes! Hopefully they'll be able to straighten everything.