Fall TV Preview: Can ‘Doctor Who’ alum Karen Gillan make ‘Selfie’ into a hit?
ABC is a network that occasionally likes to take risks with comedies, which we have seen with “Trophy Wife,” “Cougar Town,” “The Goldbergs” (at least in that it is a show set in the past), and even “Super Fun Night.” Some of these work, and some of them fail.
For “Selfie,” they have quite a challenge in adapting “My Fair Lady” into a single-camera comedy featuring Karen Gillan of “Doctor Who” fame. Is there a lot of crossover between Whovians and people who will like this show? The first thing that this trailer below reminded us of is “Ugly Betty,” and not her traveling around in a Tardis.
This is the latest edition of our Fall TV Preview, where we try to offer an honest take on a new series based on the information that is out there.
Cast – Karen Gillan as Eliza, John Cho as Henry, Tim Peper as Ethan, Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Charmonique, Allyn Rachel as Bryn and David Harewood as Sam.
Producers – Emily Kapnek, Julie Anne Robinson
Logline – “Comedy inspired by My Fair Lady tells the story of a self-obsessed 20-something woman who is more concerned with ‘likes’ than being liked. After suffering a very public and humiliating breakup, she becomes the subject of a viral video and suddenly has more social media ‘followers’ than she ever imagined — but for all the wrong reasons. She enlists the help of a marketing expert at her company to help repair her tarnished image.”
Timeslot – The show is going to air Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, a tricky spot since you have “The Voice,” “NCIS,” “The Flash,” and more as competition. It is going to have to build into “Agents of SHIELD,” rather than build from any lead-in that it has.
Our take – This is an interesting idea for a show, given that it is so distinctly modern and totally reliant on that. ABC has to know that this would not syndicate well, and it really needs great live ratings. Cho and Gillan are great leads, but the premise still needs some work and the show will need to advance beyond what is sure to be a predictable pilot.
What do you think: Is “Selfie” the sort of show that can succeed, or is the title and the premise a little too off-putting? Share below.