Why Cable Beats The Crap Out Of Broadcast Television
Another year, another Assistant District Attorney who looks like a supermodel. I may not spend a great deal of time around courthouses, but I am willing to bet the real life ratio of supermodel ADAs to non-supermodel ADAs is lower than Law & Order's 100%.
Let's see if I can name them all. There was Diane Neal, Stephanie March, Angie Harmon, Elisabeth Rohm, Jill Hennessy, Carey Lowell, Annie Parisse, Alana De La Garza and now Michaela McManus. Have I left any beauties out? Throw in hottie detectives Julianne Nicholson, Connie Nielsen, Annabella Sciorra, Milena Govich and Alicia Witt and the Law & Order courtroom is a place most criminals would kill to get into. Heck. Who wouldn't want to be handcuffed to Julianne Nicholson? Fortunately I have the image of a face to face with Fred Thompson to keep me on the right side of the law.
Law & Order, of course, is far from the only broadcast TV program guilty of casting with its, um, dick. In fact, ALL of broadcast television is guilty of this nonsense. Remember the cops on NYPD Blue? The guys looked like Sipowicz. But the women? Hamana Hamana!
Broadcast executives would have you believe that cable is stealing their thunder because they have more latitude in the area of sex and violence; that they can bring more gritty realism to the mix on cable. Well, isn't part of this grit and realism tied to the casting choices?
Does anyone believe that broadcast TV executives would have cast James Gandolfini and Edie Falco as the leads had The Sopranos been on NBC? More likely we would have seen John Stamos and his ex wife Rebecca Romijn as Tony and Carm. How about all of the wonderful character actors who made Deadwood so much fun to watch? They would have been banished by focus groups and replaced by the cast of the O.C. Hooray, hot teens and tumbleweeds!
That's not to say there's something wrong with casting attractive people. There are many strong actors who are attractive and, as a former marketing executive, I am well aware of the appeal of, well, of appeal. But casting ONLY attractive people? How can you depict the seedy side of an imperfect world when everyone looks perfect? I know. It's show business. Willing suspension of belief and all that. Well, I'm willing to suspend my belief, but do I have to be completely brain dead?
Cable crime shows like The Wire and The Shield make network cop shows look like Howdy Doody. Once you've seen them, it's next to impossible to go back. The cops look like cops. The criminals look like criminals. Almost no one looks like they'll be walking down a catwalk any time soon.
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I think that you have some valid points, but the reality is, there are hundreds, sometimes thousands, of beautiful actresses or actresses in general that did not audition well enough to make it on these shows. I'm not sure if you're familiar of the process, but how it works is basically an initial audition for a casting director, then a callback or two in front of producers and showrunners, then a screentest which is submitted to both network and studio, or worse yet, a screentest in front of them. Then the shows typically have a three episode out in which they can fire the actress after evaluation. Then if the said actress is privileged and talented enough to make it, she must perform only the role as it is written, no matter how thankless, and also subjected to a slew of public criticism like this. Many of the actresses you name, including the current ADA Alana De La Garza, are very capable actresses. She's going on season 3 now and has already done 40 episodes. My point is, yes the ADAs are attractive to fulfill a certain demographic and ultimately that may have helped push the door open, but the door doesn't stay open unless they deliver. To not acknowledge that really discredits these actresses for no fault of their own. They were simply trying to get a job like everyone else, and if you're on a show like Law & Order, they better be damn good at it.
... (continued from first comment) I'm guessing you'd say what's really being argued is that cable tv beats the crap out of network tv because it's more realistic in general. But that's not true either. I assume you loved the story line in The Shield where Vic Mackey and his renegade Strike Force ripped off millions of dollars from an Armenian money laundering operation and then dropped a grenade in the lap of one of their best friends when they feared he might rat them out? VERY realistic. Sure, it's probably happened, but not 100% of the time, and that's how you like your tv, correct? A more realistic ratio of reality to fiction? A genuine reflection of REAL life? No, I'm guessing you like a heightened version of reality when it comes to your plot, but for reasons I can't help but feel are rooted in sexism, you like your women kept in their place. And just like you don't want to watch a version of The Shield where 11 out of 13 weeks are spent with Vic and his team busting petty drug dealers and marching homeless people off of front stoops, I don't have any problem watching a beautiful woman play an ambitious, empowered, intelligent attorney. And I don't throw my hands up in disbelief when I see her, because I've met scores of beautiful professional women in my lifetime. No, If cable tv beats the crap out of network tv, it's all in the writing.
The premise of this blog: "Cable TV beats the crap out of network TV because they don't cast pretty people" is ridiculous. First of all, it's a fallacy. Cable television is rife with beautiful women in what you would clearly consider to be "unlikely" roles. How about the stunning Paula Garces, who plays a rookie cop on the Shield? Or Jennifer Carpenter, who plays a cop on Dexter? Diane Farr played a gorgeous firewoman on Rescue Me, and Rachel Griffiths was the beautiful girlfriend of Peter Krause on Six Feet Under. And MOST of the male leads on these award-winning shows are/were handsome.. You also hold The Sopranos and Deadwood up as examples of sublime casting. Both are shows that cast scores of beautiful women - they just played prostitutes, strippers, and concubines. And it obviously doesn't bother you that heart throbs like Timothy Oliphant, Ian McShane and Powers Boothe play the men of Deadwood. I can't help but read that you're just torn right out of a tv show when a beautiful female assistant district attorney arrives on screen, but have no problem being entertained by beautiful women who are more "realistically" cast as sex objects or sex industry workers.. to be continued…
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As I said, it's not that there's something wrong with casting attractive people, it's casting ONLY attractive people in wholly unlikely roles that makes no sense. Your implication that I believe attractive women should only play sex objects is way off base. Are there attractive people in real life who are Assistant District Attorneys? I'm sure there are. It's just a little hard to believe they're all gorgeous.
As to your accusation of sexism, I can't imagine how arguing for casting people that closer resemble reality can be construed in that way. It's sexist to think women shouldn't have to be supermodels to get cast in a brainy role? I like my women kept in their place? Where in the world does that thinking come from? Bit of a reach if you ask me.
I do agree with you that the writing is paramount. But I don't think you can ignore the casting decisions, their impact on the production and what those choices say about how the executives view their product. A show like The Wire was brilliantly written and directed but it wouldn't have worked if the casting hadn't been so perfectly done. Perhaps I should have titled the blog "One Of The Pretty Significant Reasons Cable Beats The Crap Out Of Broadcast Television
Of course I'm playing devil's advocate, and YES, the networks do rely heavily on the casting of beautiful people. But The Wire, an admittedly brilliant show, relies on the talent of the very handsome lead, Dominic West. You aren't rolling your eyes at his casting. I suppose my point is simply this... if Dominic West's character was a female cop, and she was equally as good looking, I feel you would toss your hands up and say "oh please, what are the chances she'd be an attractive cop, this detracts from my viewing experience
Of course there are plenty of attractive cops and DAs. But in real life they seem to avoid wearing clingy tops with plunging necklines! See CSI Miami, among others.
Who cares about the looks of actors on tv series.
For me, it is all about content. That is why the four big networks never see me tuning into to them (and it has been that way for over a decade now) while I watch the History Channel, Keith's and Rachel's programs on MSNBC and ESPN (during the baseball season anyway) and Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel.
I agree wholeheartedly that many of the casting choices made on Broadcast are far from realistic. And that's not to say that an incredibly attractive man or woman couldn't be a lawyer or cop. But in the real world, your qualifications for such jobs center around training and experience, right? It's not like there's any jobs out there that are hired based almost solely on looks and how they come across to people, regardless of their lack of experience, right? Wait...tha
Is the Republican Party run by NBC?
Heroes.
Crap did I just disprove your theory? crap crap! Sorry.
I don't think Broadcast TV is dead, and I think they do put on a lot of good programs..
:;shrug::
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Which is the unattractive Hero, Hayden Panettiere or Ali Larter?
In any event, I'm not so sure Heroes qualifies as the role of superhero is not quite what I was thinking when I was describing the gritty realism of the real world. On the other hand, I did not mean to suggest that casting is the only problem with broadcast television and I agree that they've always been a bit inept at development time. Still, I maintain that the programs of HBO, Showtime, FX, TNT and AMC blow the nets out of the water.
Most of the attorneys and law officers I see on my TV news have average looks, at best. Then again, I do live in an area where obesity is quite high. I expect everyone on TV to be a bit more attractive than the people they're portraying, but not to the extent of what we see on the network procedurals.
Oh, you left out Mariska Hargitay..
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