What Went Wrong?

About This Column::

Good ideas, good qualities...BAD flaws; that's the trouble with many promising entertainment products. Every once in a while there's that one product (movie, television, video, or game) which had it all --concept, sound, visuals-- yet fell like a rock because of a few grating mistakes. Techtite's "What Went Wrong?" commentary examines such titles.

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Some Of The First What Went Wrong Columns :

---Montezuma's Return

---Trespasser

---Quantum Leap (TV)

---Quest for Glory 3 (PC)

---3Dfx (!!!)

For the current What Went Wrong page, click here.

An Analysis Entertainment Column, by Techtite

A Thorough Critique of entertainment gone awry

Good ideas, good qualities...BAD flaws; that's the trouble with many promising entertainment products. Every once in a while there's that one product (tv, movie, video, or game) which had it all --concept, sound, visuals-- yet fell like a rock because of a few grating mistakes. This regularly updated page examines such titles.

The current entertainment product discussed is:

Living Dolls

(Television, ABC, 1989)

Does anyone miss the sitcom Living Dolls? Probably not...myself included. However, when an E! documentary showed a short clip from the show recently, I considered how much the series had going for it in casting. All 6 of the show's main stars, either had done or would go on to bigger and brighter roles. You'd expect a strong cast would have led to at least one full season. After all, it was hardly any worse than Jesse, Suddenly Susan or Veronica's Closet, which were given at least two seasons each. Living Dolls, comparatively, lasted only a few weeks. What Went Wrong?

First, as always, let's review the pluses...

What Went Right? At the time, Who's the Boss? was a major ratings grabber. It had the teen audience fawning over Alyssa Milano, plus the adults intrigued at the whole Angela (Judith Light) and Tony (Tony Danza) romance. Living Dolls was to be an (alleged) spin-off of this popular show. Its original time slot was even right after Who's the Boss? itself. So far, so good.

One thing is for certain : the casting director of this show was not to blame for the show's demise! Every single one of the chosen actresses, had either done some major work in the past, or would go on to bigger and brighter starring roles. Halle Berry was in the role of the "brainy" model. Sitcom actress Leah Remini (King of Queens) was in the "starring" role as the rebellious model. Allison Elliott, the "girl next door model," would go on to critically acclaimed indie-film type roles. The "redheaded model," Deborah Tucker, would later win a very coveted role, in the last seasons of the popular CBS drama, Dallas. The casting agent (and self appointed "mom") to these teen models was played by veteran TV actress Michael Learned. Pestering the teen models each week was David Moscow, who was made famous in his role as a young Tom Hanks in Big. If you ask me, none of the cast is to blame for the show's demise, nor is the person who cast them.

What else can be said about the show, that's positive? Well, in a show that only lasted maybe one quarter of a season...not much. However, the premise in itself was intriguing; the life of teen models, behind the scenes. If done right, this could've been a sitcom for all the fans of popular teen dramas at the time, like Beverly Hills, 90210. Unfortunately, it was far from done right...

What Went Wrong?  The biggest flaw with the series is obvious: Poor Writing, plain and simple. After all, a bunch of gorgeous teen girls would do any number of exciting things, yet the writers preferred they do absolutely nothing.  In fact, the girls didn't even seem to do much modeling, with clips during the opening theme song (shown here) as the only sight of them in any photography studio. What good is a good sitcom premise, if you don't exploit it?

However, such decisions of "watering down" these teen girls' modeling life might not have been totally the writers' fault; Tony Danza, a doting "Italian father" in real life, was hired as the show's consultant. Anyone can imagine how little an overprotective "father figure" would approve of these girls doing. I'm sure every time a script had these girls so much as kissing a date goodbye, there was Tony to give the thumbs-down to that idea. As a result, they simply stayed home, went to school each weekday, were shown studying their school work in every single episode...and got cancelled.

The final blow to the series, however, would have to be that it was a "spin off" with no real link to Who's the Boss? at all. In fact, aside from the questionable choice of Danza as consultant, the only apparent link to the two series was a cameo of Alyssa Milano in the pilot episode. A better idea would've been to have Alyssa's character, Samantha Micelli, stay on for a few episodes, "trying out" modeling (as Alyssa was doing in real life at the time). Instead, the producers decided to simply have Alyssa pop in and say "hi" every 10 minutes or so, for a total cameo time of maybe 5 minutes. Meanwhile, the other, not-yet-known stars of the show were left on their own, for the remaining 25 minutes. Oops.

The truth is, while the above mistakes are little more than 3 "little" mistakes, they snowballed into the demise of the whole show...in just a few measly episodes! When looking at the potential of the series' setting, and the cast, this is a borderline travesty. However, as one of the lesser products overviewed by this column...no biggie. Just chalk this up as another of television's many blunders, even if it didn't have to be one.

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