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Original Message
"David E. Kelley takes on reality shows"

Posted by AZ_Leo on 03-07-03 at 03:24 PM

I don't usually watch the practice but I may make an exception for this one. (Sorry if this is the wrong place but wasn't sure exactly where to put it.)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/06/television.kelley.reut/index.html

HOLLYWOOD, California (Variety) -- Producer David E. Kelley is preparing to launch a broadside against reality TV -- and he's recruited some of television's top executives to help him do it.

The scribe is putting the finishing touches on an episode of his ABC drama "The Practice" that's tentatively titled "Les Is More," according to numerous industry insiders who've seen a draft script.

In the episode, a deranged woman takes CBS Television president Leslie Moonves hostage and tries to sell CBS a reality show about the kidnapping -- and a possible execution of the network president.



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Messages in this discussion
"RE: David E. Kelley takes on reality shows"
Posted by munson on 03-07-03 at 03:42 PM
LAST EDITED ON 03-07-03 AT 03:43 PM (EST)

LAST EDITED ON 03-07-03 AT 03:42 PM (EST)

Since satire is not really David E. Kelly's milieu, I'm curious to see what his approach will be on this topic. This is "The Practice" after all, not "Picket Fences." Now, he is a fan of irony....

As social commentary, this idea of reality TV taken to it's logical extreme has been mined previously in the little seen and much underappreciated "Series 7". And Les Moonves is hardly a villian as the CBS offerings in the reality TV genre are not exploitive or sensational, but are presented in an extremely professional and classy way. Seems like Mike Fleiss would be a better "victim".


"RE: David E. Kelley takes on reality shows"
Posted by SurvivorBlows on 03-07-03 at 03:52 PM
I saw this yesterday and was going to report on it for the news site but figured this was right up AK's alley and he probably was already writing something pretty funny up...

With all the trash ABC is shovelling, ABC's Andrea Wong is clearly the person you'd want to take hostage, but either Kelly isn't interested in further straining his relationship with the network (he's already pissed at them for moving his show) or ABC is refusing to cooperate. Casting Mooves seems strange, CBS' shows are by far the best reality television out there, I'd say it's CBS... then a big drop to NBC, FOX, and ABC. I'd probably even put TheWB above the later three.


"RE: David E. Kelley takes on reality shows"
Posted by wildchickenhunter on 03-07-03 at 03:54 PM
Don't know about this....I tend to like his stuff early on, but it starts to grate on me real quik. Ally McBeal was funny at first but lost it edge early. I used to love the practice in the first couple of seasons, but it got really bad. Once Bobby got that guy to kill another guy and then got himself off and then his wife Lindsey killed a guy got convicted of murder and then was let out a couple of show later(why I don't know. I stopped watching)I just couldn't handle it. Then there was Boston Public.It was pretty good at first, but it seemed like every other show one of the teachers was having sex with a student and never getting fired for it. The one common thread through most of Kelly's stuf is that the main charactor has to be full of righteous indignation. No matter what they do it is right. Banging a 15 year old student or murdering a stalker it really doesn;t mattter.

So I guess I got a little long winded there, but what kinda reality show could he do when so much of his work is beyond reality.


"RE: David E. Kelley takes on reality shows"
Posted by munson on 03-07-03 at 04:03 PM
None of whihc you will find in the wonderful, but long gone, "Picket Fences." You know, before sactimony became a predominent character trait.

"RE: David E. Kelley takes on reality shows"
Posted by SurvivorBlows on 03-07-03 at 04:33 PM
LAST EDITED ON 03-07-03 AT 04:56 PM (EST)

He's not doing a reality show, he's just doing a storyline on the Practice that involves reality programming.

What's Mooves going to be doing in Boston for starters??? And I agree, Picket Fences was very cool, I think I was a bit of a latecomer to that show, but for a while it was a "must tape" for me


"RE: David E. Kelley takes on reality shows"
Posted by managerr on 03-07-03 at 04:42 PM
How is that a broadside against reality TV? If anything, I think he's trying to use reality TV viewers to boost up The Practice's Sagging Ratings.

Les might be the best choice--he is the most well known of the Network Presidents. I know if I were pitching a Reality Show, CBS would be my network of choice. (Although ABC seems more likely to try anything these days) Plus, Les can act.


"RE: David E. Kelley takes on reality shows"
Posted by SurvivorBlows on 03-07-03 at 04:59 PM
LAST EDITED ON 03-07-03 AT 05:05 PM (EST)


As far as this goes, it's not much an attack on reality TV... there've been bigger "attacks" in just the last few months, I didn't see it, but I remember seeing promos for an episode of UPN's new Twilight Zone (is that the name of the show, it's one of those old shows) that involved a reality show where you won or your kid died or something like that.

And there was an Outer Limits episode a few years ago with a fake show called "Final Justice" or something where the surviving family members of victims of murderers get to hunt down the convicted murderers and kill them with TV viewers watching the whole thing.


"RE: David E. Kelley takes on reality shows"
Posted by AZ_Leo on 03-07-03 at 05:10 PM
LAST EDITED ON 03-07-03 AT 05:11 PM (EST)

The twist in this one that appealed to me is that real executives involved with Reality TV programming seem to be participating in a big way. David Kelley isn't my favorite but there have been times when his sarcasm or irony can be spot on. If this is one of those times, this could be pretty amusing. Since it says it's in draft who knows who else might be involved. It be hysterical if MB got his pals from his USA Combat show to stage a rescue or something.

Edited for spelling.


"RE: David E. Kelley takes on reality shows"
Posted by munson on 03-08-03 at 11:13 AM
It's almost as if the whole thing is coming full circle. I remember reading "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson in seventh grade and being competely freaked out. Stephen King wrote "The Running Man" well before the more recent deluge of reality game show type programming.

I'll probably make an effort to watch this episdoe if it's ever produced even though it seems most reality TV these days does a pretty good job of mocking/spoofing/satirizing the genre, unintentional as it may be.