This Showrunner, That Show: Let's Play TV Transplant!
NBC
What's keeping me from doing more blogging today is working on my review of Kings for the print magazine. Naturally, it made me want to write a blog post.
I don't want to telegraph too much about my review—it's complicated—but one thing I was thinking as I watched was that I sometimes wished that a different writer had gotten the chance to work on this imaginary world, someone who could create alternative universes and languages out of whole cloth, but who could create livelier characters and had more of a sense of playfulness.
And then it occurred to me: I want Joss Whedon to write Kings. It makes perfect sense. Here's a show whose premise I love, whose execution could use work. Whedon is a writer whose execution I generally love, who's doing a show that (so far) is handicapped by its premise. Peanut butter, meet chocolate!
It'll never happen, but it's a fun game to play. Call it TV Transplant: What TV producer or writer would you like to see take over which other TV show—permanently, or even for a guest episode?
You can use Joss if you want too, but remember, he's only one man.
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1
How about Cuselof taking over Heroes? So that season 2 and 3 wouldn't have sucked. (Though I'm actually enjoying season 4.)
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This probably takes a wee bit of liberty with your premise, but I would love to see an Aaron Sorkin led S4-7 of The West Wing. I so wish he hadn't left.
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Okay, so I have no imagination. It's why I couldn't do what they do... -
2
Sorry, I guess that would have been S5-7 of TWW.
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3
David Simon writes for Two and a Half Men
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4
My real wish for TV Transplant came true, actually! Stephen Moffat is taking over Doctor Who from Russel T. Davies. Moffat wrote my favorite episodes of the new Doctor Who - The Girl in the Fireplace, Blink, The Silent Forest - and his work is always thoughtful, a little off, and sometimes scary. However, the guy that he cast as the next Doctor weirds me out a little. Okay, a lot. If it were anyone but Moffat taking the reins and casting this guy, I'd be totally turned off. However! I have faith.
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Let's hope this doesn't turn into a case of 'be careful what you wish for.' -
5
Rob Thomas on Chuck? While I love Chuck and literally couldn't imagine changing it, I think his Veronica Mars work was spectacular, and allowing him to play in the Chuck-universe would be pretty swell.
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Thomas would also be a GREAT choice for "Life" -- which could use some more of the grit that Thomas allowed to fester in VM.
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Sorkin does have to make this list somewhere, too, but on a show where his own self-importance would be forced to be minimized due to the context of the show....maybe a Sorkin-written Friday Night Lights episode? (Or would that be WAY too talky and/or condescending to Texas football?) Seeing what Sorkin would do with a season of 24 would also be REALLY interesting -- he did make up some great crises for the Bartlet administration.
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Actually, Jason Katims and the FNL writing staff should also be allowed to save a show if FNL tragically dies....I'm just not sure where their pitch-perfect writing of realistic dialogue would fit best on the current television landscape. Maybe Leverage, where they could write for the con-men? (Come to think of it, Leverage would be a good fit for Sorkin, too). -
6
i'd like to see Ron Moore take over Terminator: TSCC. To me that's a show with great, but mostly unrealized potential.
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7
I didn't get the impression that Kings was fantastical enough to really work for Joss, and if it is as far removed from "normal" universe as it seems, doesn't that take away his ability to make the pop culture references that feature regularly in his work?
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I would love it if Shawn Ryan (from the Shield) took over Smallville, a horrible show I don't actually watch, but wish I could. There is a whole metric ton of moral ambiguaity to be explored with superpowered vigilant who is young and kinda stupid (actually, Smallville Clark is REALLY stupid), and he would probably be able to make the surrounding people not so awful. Shawn worked with Joss Whedon's Angel (I feel like Joss is getting to that Tyler Perry point where all his work features his name), so we know Ryan can tackle the whole superhero thing.
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I would also like it if Hurwitz (Arrested Development) worked on any number of non Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother sitcoms, specifically Samantha Who. Any word on his transplant of Absolutely Fab btw? I hope it isn't dead. -
8
Joss Whedon takes over Heroes. He's a comic geek at heart so it's a natural fit. And then the show wouldn't suck.
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Ron Moore takes over House. They think they're making a dark show just because the main character is a drug addict and they have horrible things happen to patients? Moore will bring the full-scale epic Galactica-style self-destruction and depression to Hugh Laurie. And wouldn't that be fun!
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David Simon takes over 24 and brings McNulty and Lester Freeman out of retirement to be new CTU agents. Just picture a mushroom cloud in the distance over Baltimore with McNulty saying, "What the **** did I do?" Bonus would be that they could bring Omar back from the dead just like most of the other characters currently on the show.
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David Chase takes over Knight Rider. Just because I still think the ending of The Sopranos was a complete cop-out, and he deserves the humiliation. -
9
@Ashman: Well, not so many pop-culture references in a distant solar system 800 years from now, either. Seriously, I think you're right that the tone of the show is different from traditional Joss... but so is Dollhouse, and Kings is a better basic premise. (I wasn't the first to say this, but the Dollhouse might have worked better as a storyline within another show, a la The Initiative in Buffy.)
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In other words, it would be the kind of show where he could invent a new world, while doing the kind of noir thing he seems to be interested in, and if he could rethink the Western in space, I'd love to see him rewrite the Bible in an alternative history. Really, though, it was mainly a tongue-in-cheek idea... it just made me think that I wished Whedon were doing a show with a more promising premise.
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(I also wish Whedon were doing True Blood rather than Alan Ball... but two vampire series probably enough.) -
10
Ooh, this kind of postulating is anathema! But tantalizing nonetheless. Heh. Soo..let's see...
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Matt Nix (Burn Notice) to 'Life' - for half a season. Give it a bit more oomph/danger/edge while maintaining the quirkiness
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David E. Kelley (Ally mcBeal) to 'Trust Me'- for a while. Give it a neat/tight balance btwn comedy and professional angst.
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Tim Kring and 'Heroes' season 1 writing team (no, seriously) to 'Dollhouse'- for a season 1 overhaul. Give a convoluted premise an everyman sensibility and 'heart'.
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But anyhow, creating and running these things is a gut-wrenching, depression-inducing, inferiority complex-breeding, relationship massacring adventure of a lifetime. More power to ALL writers/producers out there!
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11
Just because I don't know where else to post, last night's Dollhouse was, in my opinion, the best yet (which isn't saying a lot, but it really felt like it kind of "hit its stride"). Good dialog, good action/pathos, and it pushed the story well, too.
Just sayin'. If you missed it, maybe give it a look?
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12
I'd like to see John August (Go, Big Fish, Corpse Bride) take over Lost. The show needs some of the dark humor it had in the first season and John is just the guy to do it. Have you seen his writer's stike foray into TV?
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