Detroit Drama Coming To The Small Screen?
ABC's decision to create a TV show based on the high drama of Detroit's auto tycoons is not particularly surprising. The backstabbing, corruption and alliances that you read about in these pages are often far more compelling than anything in the networks' lineups. But much like Detroit's interiors, Hollywood's high-concept pilots rarely hold up to more than a passing glance. The Prince Of Motor City is no exception. Rather than mining Detroit's rich, stranger-than-fiction heritage, the producers of TPOMC are erring on the side of hackery by simply transplanting the plot of Hamlet to the Motor City. Philosophy lecturer (yes, really) Billy Hamilton's father dies, leaving him in control of "Hamilton Motors," where he deals with uncle/mom entanglement, a ghost haunting the factory, a "spunky" girlfriend, and other eerie parallels to Disney's The Lion King. Ultimately, pilots rarely make it past that first episode– even if their scripts were written hundreds of years ago. ABC should ditch the Hamlet retread for some cheaper and far more entertaining Detroit-inspired reality television. Survivor: Detroit would sell itself, Extreme Makeover Chrysler Edition would tap into reality-show schadenfreude, and a show about Volt development could bring back the old Mission Impossible moniker. Then, there's always The Biggest Loser…
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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All of your ideas are better. I might even tune into a urban "Survivor" set in Detroit.
Already been done. "The Betsy" in 1978. It has all the elements you mentioned in the article, and seemed to me to be a fictional version of the Ford family. A commenter on the IMDB site calls it "Dynasty... on wheels"
In the interest of fairness, doesn't any of this drama occur at other manufacturers, too? Is only GM guilty of stupidity?
Matthew Danda: Enter Lutz as comedic relief, and Mulally as the white knight. What a show! From hereon, he shall be referred to as Bob Lulz.