The Grey's Anatomy boards and blogs, and even some of our articles here at TV Squad, have been experiencing a surge in negative comments and posts. Those comments are directed at solely one thing: the potential spin-off featuring the character of Addison. Why are fans so unhappy with the end result? Will fan comments have ABC not pick up Private Practice?
Let's analyze a few of the negative comments left by the TV Squad visitors in our "Grey's Anatomy vs. the spin-off -- Part 2" post.
"I think the biggest disaster was the mesh of the two shows." - Alison
When ABC decided to use two Grey's Anatomy episodes to launch a possible spin-off, they probably reviewed examples of series where this type of test worked. Let's take the case of NCIS. Two episodes of CBS's JAG were used to test waters for the potential spin-off. However, ABC should have taken the time to actually watch those NCIS spin-off episodes. They would have seen that they had their own opening credits (and soundtrack) and where not a mesh of JAG scenes and NCIS scenes but where in fact NCIS episodes featuring some of the JAG cast. This way of doing things for NCIS allowed fans to focus on the spin-off and not constantly compare it to JAG (quality of acting, writers, humor, etc.).
Sadly, meshing the two "series" together actually worked against Private Practice. Fans kept comparing the writing, acting, setting, characters, storylines, etc., of the two shows. Private Practice had a funny and light mood whereas Grey's Anatomy was mostly dramatic last week. Due to the differences between the two series, Private Practice felt like a fish out of water. ABC would have benefited more if one hour had been solely devoted to the spin-off and the other to Grey's.
"The spin-off part with Addison was so weak and it was annoying to watch." - Majella
"There is something so superficial and empty about it." - Jane
Comments like these two have been pouring on TV Squad. If the spin-off and Grey's hadn't been meshed, fans would have probably felt less cheated by the spin-off as it wouldn't have been so easy to compare the Grey's portion, filled with drama and featuring characters we know well, to the Practice portion, featuring characters we do not know and with storylines that are not too thought-provoking.
A lot of people, like Majella and Jane, felt that the storylines during the spin-off portion were bland. Thing is, the writers couldn't write complicated stories and develop the characters too much as they weren't sure the spin-off would be picked up; plus they had limited air time. However, I agree that they could have put a bit more thought in the Addison storylines... maybe settling for only one or two good ones instead. (We could have done without the Chris Lowell without his shirt scene for example.)
"I didn't see the chemistry with Tim Daly and Kate Walsh. I like Tim a lot but he just seemed stiff here. [...] Please drop [Chris Lowell] from the cast and find a new hunk. He is not hunky at all and that made the surf board scene seem just silly." - Tammy
Personally, I thought that there was chemistry between Daly and Walsh. I guess it all depends on point of view. By the way, did you know that Kate Walsh played Tim Daly's ex-wife in episode 3 of ABC's short-lived series Eyes? As for Chris Lowell, I'm with Tammy on this one. Chris looked out of place and he is not hunky enough to be able to romance Merrin Dungey.
"The cast kind of feels old to me. Most everyone in it I can remember from a canceled show." - RG
"Too many stars. Why did they think star power was needed for this show to be a success but went with little known actors for Grey's?" - Carissa
Indeed, most of the Private Practice cast was once on a canceled-quickly show. Tim Daly was on Eyes and The Nine. Taye Diggs was on Day Break. Merrin Dungey was on Summerland. Chris Lowell was on Life As We Know It. Will TV fans be able to look past those failures and believe that Private Practice will soar? Or are those stars cursed? (I call this the Eric Balfour curse. The actor has been in many failed pilots and series. Could his curse be what is hurting this season of 24? Anyway, that is another topic on its own.) As for why ABC didn't go with less known people? My guess is that 1) they hired those actors because they could, 2) they thought that each actor would bring viewers that are used to follow them around.
"I didn't like the spin-off because it was a stretch. [Addison] takes a leave of absence to go to L.A. and try to have a baby and instantly becomes a member of the staff and gets a crazy case. Not believable and trying too hard." - Rose
I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw how fast things were going for Addison. Yes, we have known for a while she was ready to settle down with a man. But a baby? Things go bad in her personal life and she thinks the answer is to go to L.A. to have a baby on her own? Addison is a sensible character who (usually) takes time to think. Having her want a baby the way it was shown to us was rather out of the blue. I guess that since they didn't have much time to plan the spin-off ahead, they had to rush things in the spin-off episodes. If they had had more time, I hope they would have shown us how Addison wanted to have a family in Grey's episodes that preceded the spin-off.
Will fans' comments have ABC not pick up Private Practice?
Doubtful. Most of the comments point the fact that the spin-off tanked because it was meshed with a powerful Grey's Anatomy episode. On its own, the spin-off could have done better. Fans complained that characters were bland and that the storylines were boring. Given proper time to write episodes and develop the series, the crew behind the series could give fans what they want: a series with more content.
Some comments also pointed at the fact the actors seemed out of their game. Remember that in most pilots, actors (and even storylines) are often not that great. This is mostly due to the fact that the cast and crew don't know enough about the series yet: characters have not been well-developed, storylines are not too complicated so that the test audience can understand what is going on easily, etc.
Do you really think that ABC will pass a chance to make some more money? Even though a lot of the fans who did post said they didn't care much for Private Practice, a lot of them will surely tune in to how the spin-off will do on its own and see if any tweaks were made. The series, with a few tweaks (and maybe even a new title), has a good chance to bring good enough ratings.
ABC has yet to announce if Private Practice will be part of the 2007-2008 season. The news will come during ABC's Upfront presentation on May 15.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
5-07-2007 @ 11:07AM
David said...
Here's another comment you can quote...
One crapy ER soap oprea ripoff is enough. Let's not waste TV time with another bad show.
And The Practice used a whole season to make the spinoff Boston Legal. :)
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5-07-2007 @ 12:24PM
matthew m. barnes said...
i understand where people are coming from with their comments (and i didn't like the mashup either) but...
i think i'm probably going to like the spinoff more than Grey's. Grey's is getting tired and worn-out with over run plotlines and Meredith's whiney self. a brighter change of scenery and a nice change of pace sounds good to me.
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5-07-2007 @ 11:31AM
Susan said...
For me the issue wasnt so much about the the new show itself, the character or acting skills. I had a problem with the fact that it actually took away from, distracted me from the episode of greys i wanted to see. Greys is one of the shows i actually sit down and give my 100% attention to. Other shows im usually multi-tasking while watching...ie on the internet, cooking, etc. For me it was just the thought that i hadnt asked to see this new show, it was just thrown in my face...completely out of pace with greys and totally distracted me in an unpleasant way. Meshing 2 shows that have no real similarities other than one cast member just did not work for me. I totally agree it should have been a completely different episode after greys so we could still have the pleasure of watching greys without the interuptions of this private practice show.
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5-07-2007 @ 11:54AM
Connie said...
Question- is Merrin Dungey the actress that played Stevie's mother on Malcolm in the Middle? She looks familiar to me and I'm not sure if that is what I know her from... I'm a big Grey's fan- I didn't think it was that bad meshing the two shows- of course the new one is a lightweight by comparison- but that's OK- I just hate to see Kate Walsh leave Grey's... especially if the new show tanks. If so, would they consider letting her come back to Grey's?
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5-07-2007 @ 11:55AM
RedStarRevolution said...
I think the main problem IS the star power. I kept waiting for Taye Diggs to get stuck in a time loop or Tim Daly to get caught in a bank robbery, or Paul Adelstein to pull out a gun and go all Kellerman.
I think it has promise, and I think we should give it a chance to develop into something before condemning it. I mean, what show is absolutely great right outta the blocks? Nothing. Shows need time to find their groove, their footing.
If we call for the end of Private Practice (still hoping they change the name, ugh) we're playing the FOX game, ditching shows before they have a chance to even try and grab an audience (cough, Drive, cough)...
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5-07-2007 @ 12:04PM
Gordon Werner said...
um ... the NCIS 2-episode "Pilot" were JAG episodes ... that simply featured the NCIS team ... they were not NCIS episodes ...
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5-07-2007 @ 12:49PM
Tracey said...
I agree with Susan's comment above and I very much agree that the "hunk" was not hunky. At all. Ew. So that big "sexy" shirtless scene just had me falling out my chair laughing. There are much better looking fellas out there for that role.
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5-07-2007 @ 12:39PM
Cat said...
I think what Isabelle meant re: the NCIS pilot is that the episode, tho it was a 'JAG' episode, focused pretty much on the NCIS team, with occasional appearances by the JAG cast members, unlike the Grey's episode which had a concurrent storyline going on in addition to Addison's pilot.
Still haven't watched the two episodes... I'm beginning to think I'm going to be very disappointed.
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5-07-2007 @ 12:54PM
Jimmy said...
I actually liked what I saw in the spin-off, but I could have done without the hunky surfer waltzing around the doctor's office with shorts hanging off his hips and abs that weren't so spectacular. What can you learn in one episode? I didn't think much of Grey's until half-way through it's shortened first season and it really didn't take off for me until season 2 -- right when Kate Walsh showed up to play Addison.
I agree with many that the whole thing seemed forced. I think ABC would be better served in making the new show a mid-season replacement so the team behind it can have the time they need to make the show better. At the very least they need to change the title -- it's boring.
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5-07-2007 @ 12:57PM
George said...
The annoying thing about Private Practice, IMHO, is that it assumed too much of an investment on the audience's part. If the episode had simply followed Addison for the entire time, that would've been fine (albeit harder to stretch). Instead, we were dropped into the other characters' stories as if we'd been watching them for years... and it was awkward at best. This was particularly problematic for Amy Brenneman's character -- we never really got to know her before we were plunged hip-deep into her personal drama. Presumably the writers assumed we'd care, but I didn't.
If Private Practice does go to series, I hope they think seriously about dropping Brenneman's character, and possibly Adelstein's as well unless they can give him a better foil and make him a more convincing doctor. The show needs more variety in its characters in terms of age, race, sexual and/or ideological orientation -- no need to make it Thirtysomething with medicine. Getting outside the clinic will help, too -- the series will need to take more advantage of the scenery in its off-hours locations.
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5-07-2007 @ 1:54PM
LarriveeJP said...
It feels like they had a mediocre show idea that wasn't really all that interesting rotting on the shelf. Probably even had a generic title like... I don't know "Private Practice". Instead of keeping it shelved they got greedy and came up with the genius idea of making it noteworthy by sticking Addison's character in it.
Ditto #11. This thing started as if we already knew all the characters, not just Addison. It could end up being decent I guess, but good grief was that a rocky start.
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5-07-2007 @ 2:30PM
Scazza said...
I'm just wondering what they are trying to accomplish with this series. With Grey's we understand, relationships, themes worked our in a hospital context. The voice-over is so important in tying things together under one theme. So with that missing for the "Practice" specifically, yes it was superficial, there was no guidance tying scenes together. Is it about aging? Making Meredith's crew older and seeing the consequences of their kind of decisions? "Thirtysomething with medicine" very good.
I think that their intentions are good, Addison is the best character for a spin-off in Grey's. I thought it was entertaining, showcased LA nicely, but the sex scenes made me squirm in their akwardness, the shrink was completely not a real shrink/unprofessional/whiney, Daly looked stiff, and the show is not something that will last, wasting a great character in Addison. It's the Studio 60 effect. Great everything, great actors, but it just won't last.
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5-07-2007 @ 2:31PM
Lala said...
"...where not a mesh of JAG scenes and NCIS scenes but where in fact NCIS episodes..."
Please edit "where" to "were". Thanks.
Love,
The grammar nazi
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5-07-2007 @ 2:36PM
scazza said...
Did anyone else notice that the pregnant woman's husband was Sark from Alias? Combining him with Merrin Dungey was such a trip, I expected him to hold them all hostage and she was the clone and that slippery Alias slope into oblivion...
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5-07-2007 @ 3:37PM
ssssss said...
I think that the way they shoved the spin-off down the viewer's throats was a terrible way to get people to like/watch the new show. That being said, not much can be taken away from one episode, except that in the future I can see myself liking the spin-off more than Grey's Anatomy. Anyone who had made a laundry list of complaints about the spin-off has obviously never seen a pilot before. All they were trying to do was introduce the characters. In the long run, the spin-off will be a better show, not that it means it will ever make it that long if people don't give it a chance.
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5-07-2007 @ 4:15PM
poxtomod said...
two words, Taye Diggs! This guy is cursed, I mean how many failed Tv shows does this guy have to do before he gets it. By it I mean that he for some reason fails as a leading actor period. Whether he plays a cop, lawyer, doctor whatever his shows sink. Sorry, but like I said he seems cursed....
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5-07-2007 @ 5:31PM
DaveTehWave said...
When was Private Practice on?
I TiVo'd last weeks Grey's... was it on after/before it?
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5-07-2007 @ 6:23PM
vacelts said...
I don't want to see Addison leave 'Grey's Anatomy.' But I like the cast for 'Private Practice.' In the end, I'll probably give the spin-off a chance.
http://redlightnaps.wordpress.com/2007/05/07/grey-spin-off/
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5-07-2007 @ 7:31PM
Fran said...
I thought that the spin-off was very enjoyable. The actors were great together and looked like they were actual people with the actual jobs that they were assigned. I felt very comfortable with the episode, except for the back and forth of the stories. If the spin-off is picked up, we will have a Grey's Anatomy-type show on twice a week instead of just once. I think that the one show goes by much too fast. Besides, who could be against watching two great shows for the price of one? Give it a chance. You might actually like it.
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5-08-2007 @ 9:08AM
marybethbreslin said...
I laughed out loud at Jane's comment that "there was something superficial and empty about it" -- as if that's different from Grey's itself! Get over yourselves, Grey's fans.
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