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Hi - this is Rachel - and this is Kendra - and you're watching this Week in TV. Today we
have the week's scheduling and then we'll talk about some TV shows that pioneered entirely
new genres of TV. First, Kendra, what's on?
K: Well Rachel, on Monday, the much buzzed about new musical series Smash makes its premiere
on NBC at 10pm plus CBS comedies will be new again including How I Met Your Mother, 2 Broke
Girls, Two and a Half Men and Mike & Molly. On Tuesday, The River makes its 2-hour series
premiere on ABC at 9pm, and on FOX, don't miss Ricky Martin's guest appearance on Glee.
So, that's the beginning of the week, what else is on Rachel?
R: Not too much going on the second half of the week all the way until Sunday, February
12th. This is an an exciting night with the Grammys on CBS. On AMC we also have the midseason
return of The Walking Dead at 9 followed by the premiere of new reality comic book store
series Comic Book Men at 10.
R: This week's premieres of The Voice and Smash got Kendra and myself thinking about
their predecessors and how, if not for those predecessors, they would not exist at all.
In fact, we've identified some shows that we would call TV Pioneers - those that established
entirely new genres of TV. Kendra?
K: First we American Idol which pioneered The Voice…and pretty much every singing
competition show. Since Idol's 2002 debut, due to the success of Pop Idol in the UK,
American Idol has become one of the most popular shows in American television history. Kind
of impossible NOT to want to copy that!
K: Next, also based on a UK series, the American version of The Office kicked off the now well-known
and very popular mockumentary TV show. Since The Office's 2005 premiere, America has fallen
in love with the comedic mockumentary including some of SideReelers' favorite shows, Parks
& Recreation and Modern Family. So, those are a few shows that pioneered new TV genres,
what are some others, Rachel?
R: I've got to single out Glee, which was the pioneer of what we'll call the modern
TV musical. It's not as if there wasn't singing & dancing on TV before Glee - Fame in the
80s was all about a school of aspiring performing artists. But, with the exception of a special
musical episode in a series like Scrubs or Buffy, no series in recent memory until Glee
has integrated singing and dancing so heavily into the show - including numbers that aren't
even on stage - but just expressing thoughts of characters and advancing the plot. Now,
we have Smash on NBC, which though a very different show than Glee - still owes its
existence to the popularity of Glee.
R: Another TV pioneer is Desperate Housewives, which spawned an entire reality franchise
of Real Housewives - which honestly, has just about nothing in common with Desperate Housewives
besides also containing the word Housewives in the title. But, the primetime fascination
with "Housewives" was absolutely spawned by the success of the Desperate Housewives. When
Bravo greenlit the first of the Housewives series they announced that the show would
depict "real-life ‘desperate’ housewives". Real, of course, is also pretty debatable,
but real or fake, those Bravo Housewives should thank Teri Hatcher and company for their success.
R: Have any more examples of TV pioneers that we've left out? Let us know in the comments.
K: That's it for this week, stay tuned to SideReel's YouTube channel, Facebook and Twitter
for more TV news and buzz.
R: And we'll see you next week.