Josh Duhamel and co. Sells a soap opera to ABC

[aMLCproduction]

Dont know if this was already posted as I dont hang out in all the topics here and I'm not too sure if this is the right place for it. But here goes any way

"At ABC, Transformers star Josh Duhamel is teaming with Gretchen J. Berg and Aaron Harberts for an untitled drama about a daytime soap opera that explores the loves, lives and lunacy at an on-the-bubble network soap opera, where the antics of the cast and crew are crazier than any plot lines they broadcast. Set as the TV genre is faltering, the larger-than-life workplace family fights a never-ending desperate battle to keep their show on the air, egos secure and relationships in tact."

Source:( For more read on)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/josh-duhamel-oliver-hudson-mark-gordon-soaps-abc-nbc-389919

[Khan]

Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts? Oy. I'm not a fan.

[DRW50]

What other shows have they done?

Is this going to be another Soapdish type? That description sounds like crazy caricature.

ABC dramas of recent years tend to fall apart after a season or less, so I don't know how to react.

[Khan]

Well, they've worked with Bryan Fuller on two of his shows, "Wonderfalls" and "Pushing Daisies," which were both very good (although, short-lived and clearly run by BF and his quirky approach). Aside from that, though, they've worked on "Roswell," which I hated; "John Doe," which I hated; "North Shore," which I hated; "Pepper Dennis," which I HATED!!! (and they co-created); "Off the Map," "Women's Murder Club," "Mercy," "GCB," and "Revenge," which I wouldn't say I hate, it's just not a series that appeals to me. They also wrote the screenplay for that horrid horror movie w/ David Boreanaz, "Valentine," back in the day, and served for a time as story editors on the original "90210," but not during the show's so-called "glory years."

[SFK]

Sounds like Soapdish or Grosse Pointe. If it's funny, I'm all for it. More enthusiastic about this than a Soapdish musical.

[Khan]

Frankly, I'd rather someone do a good soap opera than a satirical series about the making of one. But that's just me.

[DRW50]

So they've created a lot of those "too good for TV" shows, which usually means the show is too busy winking at its own brilliance to bother to tell a coherent or entertaining story.

I don't like the Soapdish stuff, I think it's badly dated and patronizing, but maybe this will be a different approach. I wish it were on a better network.

The idea of focusing on a dying genre is at least different, but the whole wacky, crazy approach doesn't work for me anymore. The 80s are over.

[Khan]

No, they've created only "Pepper Dennis" thus far, which I thought to be not at all amusing. But they do have this knack of writing (IMO) poor scripts for poor series that are about "not taking themselves seriously." Right up (or down) there with Krista Vernoff and her hacky "Charmed" scribe ass.

[DRW50]

I thought you meant they'd helped create a few of the Fuller shows (I feel like his shows are almost designed to fail, because they're so deliberately precious and struggle to make any attempt to bring in viewers).

Was Pepper Dennis one of those legal dramas or PI shows?

[Khan]

Oops. My bad. Apologies, Carl (and anyone else), for misleading you there. No, Bryan Fuller created "Wonderfalls" and "Pushing Daisies" on his own; he just hired Berg & Harberts to be staff writers/co-EP's on both.

"Pepper Dennis," starring the supermodel who used to be married to John Stamos, was about a girl TV reporter who, as best as I can recall, had one of those "quirky" (read: annoying and demeaning) crushes on her co-worker, the lead news anchor, played by Josh Hopkins, another actor whose alleged charm or charisma escapes me completely.

[DRW50]

I think you explained it well enough, I just read too fast the first time.

[aMLCproduction]

Put your glasses on Carl

ABC primetime is tanking and I suspect NBC will over take soon. NBC is showing signs of life lol

[Khan]

If ABC is tanking primetime-wise, it's only because they coasted too long on "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy" and the like, and haven't done enough to cultivate new and different kinds of series.

[SFK]

A show about the bts action on a soap opera, (or of the soap industry at large) under the premise of the medium dying could be a brilliant show in the right hands (e.g., HBO). A show like this needs more than an insider on its team, it needs a level headed insider with some damn sense. I feel like there are people on this board who could write a show like this. A show that would go beyond the all too obvious aging diva, perky ingenue, dumb himbo route, but throw in some desperate bloggers, famewhore columnists/magazine editors, the nutjob president of "Keep Soap Ailve", et cetera.

[DRW50]

You missed off the token gay writers or PR people, one of them campy and campy and the other morose and suicidal (maybe they can save money and combine the character).

ABC shows seem to become aimless very early on, over and over. I'm never sure why. I hear that about Revenge all the time, as I did with Lost, Desperate Housewives, etc.