Viva Blackpool

I just finished watching the now cancelled Viva Laughlin and I can totally understand why nobody watched the show. It was a total mess!

I was a fan of the BBC version (Viva Blackpool) and I really had high hopes for the Americanized drama. Sadly, the producers made way too many mistakes for this show to have even the slightest chance.

The first mistake they made was the decision to have the leads sing over the original songs. In the original version of the show, the actors lip-synced all the musical numbers which gave the show a really creepy quality. Especially when the male characters are doing a number like "These Boots Were Made for Walking." It was creepy and funny and weird and enjoyable to watch.

In the world of TV, one of the riskiest things a creative team can do is shoot for the "quirky" factor. It's an all-or-nothing deal: either it works, where everything clicks and the audience embraces the show, or nothing works, and the show explodes in a big awful mess over the poor suckers who decided to tune in and watch. At the beginning of the 2007-08 season, we have two shows who went for the quirk: Pushing Daisies and Viva Laughlin. And as it turns out, one show works and the other show is a disaster. Considering Daisies is one of the most praised new shows of the season, we all know where we're going with this.

(S01E01) Showtime has decided to air the English drama Meadowlands starring David Morrissey (Viva Blackpool) as the head of a family who must enter the witness relocation program. Now that description may seem simple and if this were an American drama on network TV, that's all it would be.

The show opens with the newly renamed Brogan family wearing blindfolds while being delivered to their new home in the community known as Meadowlands. As the show unfolds the meet their new neighbor, the local handyman, the town cop as well as a host of other interesting characters.

According to Variety, CBS has struck a deal with Hugh Jackman and John Palermo to produce a pilot for an American version of the British miniseries Viva Blackpool. BBC fans will remember that Viva Blackpool was a musical extension to a previous series that was simply called Blackpool; it revolves around a small-potatoes casino owner, Ripley Holden, who tries to open a huge Vegas resort. Among the mysteries, murders, and sex, the musical version also used production numbers to punctuate the action.

If you're thinking Cop Rock, though, think again; Viva Blackpool won a Peabody Award and got a Golden Globe nomination. Anyway, Jackman will appear in the pilot episode, but no other casting has been announced.