There’s a Hollywood lesson behind the scenes of Lorne Michaels’ new Saturday Night Live-inspired behind-the-scenes sitcom.An ugly lesson!
SNL grandfather Michaels forced NBC to take '30' Rock after he threw a hissy fit when the network bought Aaron Sorkin’s SNL-inspired dramedy 'Studio 60' (starring D.L. Hughley, riding high from his role in the DVD laugh-fest, Cloud 9). His star writer Tina Fey (who helped turn SNL's comedy focus from politics to Lindsay Lohan's crowd) got to helm and star in the show, and in a cute display of aging "girl power," she got her best friend from SNL, the tiny, homely Rachel Dratch, to co-star as Jenna DeCarlo, an actress in the SNLish show-within-a-show.
Until this week, that is, when Michaels told Variety “that role has been scrapped and Dratch will play an assortment of different characters throughout the season.”
"Both Tina and I obviously adore Rachel, and we wanted to find a way in which we could go to her strength," Michaels told the magazine. "The way it's been rewritten, it's a much funnier part."
In Hollywood, that's called "letting her down easy," because a day later it's revealed that Jenna DeCarlo lives after all! Only little gnomy Rachels’s been replaced by Jane Krakowski-- a face and body more suitable to prime time. That’s television. That’s what Michaels gets for thinking he has the right to parody his own lame show. That’s what he gets for being responsible for the worst movie comedies of the past thirty years. And that’s the behind-the-scenes drama we’d tune in to see.
To be fair - Jane K is a very funny triple-threat broadway type who deserves any success that the networks are willing to grant a woman over 31. Rachel, funny - but totally unproven as a single-role non-sketch actress and even less of an audience draw. Sure, the looks thing is true - but Jane K is a win-win (unfortunately, that means Dretch gets the lose-lose).
ReplyDeleteNoooo! I can't stand Jane Krakowski! She reminds me of all the shrill-talking drama club girls I knew in high school!
ReplyDeleteUnattractive Rachel Dratch replaced by considerably more pulchritudinous Jane Krakowski. Tabloid Baby thinks it's a move foisted on juiceless Lorne Michaels by a shallow, lookist business; we're of the opinion that it's nice of NBC to think about its audience for once.
ReplyDeleteKrakowski may be more "pulchritudinous" than Dratch, but in the "stacked like a brickhouse" department, Rachel has Jane beat. The size of Dratch's rack, if it had been utilized properly, could have brought NBC at least an extra tenth of a ratings point. Now we may never know.
ReplyDeleteI think Rachel Dratch is cute. Check out those eyes!
ReplyDeleteWhat major disapointment! Rachel is a gifted comic actress who really deserves better treatment!
ReplyDeleteI saw Jane in "Guys and Dolls" in London last year and she was utterly sweet in posing for photos afterwards. OK, I really went to see her co-star Ewan McGregor, but I got to hug Jane! And I like it that she hasn't gone for implants, she's just a normal gal.
ReplyDeleteThats showbiz
ReplyDeletejesus, rachel is fantastic actor persona! i just realized she looks like cherie blair and think of the september SnL skits! she is brilliant. shock enfuriated. boring boring blond Jane K. you would think the last bastian of "creativity" SNL would keep taking risks, staying on edge and keep maverick visions up, as opposed to idiot GAP-LIKE CORPORATE CONFORMITY!!
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing: Yes, Jane Krakowski is more conventionally attractive than Rachel Dratch, but that's not why I endorse the swap. I endorse the swap because Rachel Dratch isn't even vaguely funny in the pilot. Alec Baldwin is funny. Tina Fey is funny. Tracy Morgan is mostly annoying, but occasionally funny. Rachel Dratch? She was just annoying. So I don't blame the producers for figuring that Dratch could be annoying in small doses and that Krakowski would make a better foil for Fey -- blonde and bubbly paired with brunette and sarcastic.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense...
-Dan
I've like Krakowski since "Ally McBeal", and I think she'll do fine. Dratch would have been good, too. One correction, though - Dratch isn't "homely"; she's just an average-looking woman. Homely usually means a big nose or bad skin or buck teeth or overweight.
ReplyDeleteHomely
ReplyDeletehome-ly
3 a : unaffectedly natural : SIMPLE b : not elaborate or complex (homely virtues)
4 : plain or unattractive in appearance
I agree. Rachel Dratch is funny as Debbie Downer but she's always a CHARACTER whereas Jane K can play REAL people and is extremely diverse (she was EXCELLENT in last years Guys and Dolls in London).
ReplyDeleteMost people use homely as a synonym for unattractive or ugly, and that's not an accurate description of Dratch.
ReplyDeletei don't care what they say about her i think she's great !!! u go miss lady !!!
ReplyDeleteIf TV Execs thought like this 40 years ago, we'd never have "The Carol Burnett Show"!
ReplyDelete(I read that in someone's bog, and I couldnt agree more).
honestly, the person who would call Rachel Dratch homely or ugly is a horrible person. period. horrible. i think before you go spraying your shit about other people in such a way, you might think about what it's like to have a bunch of spineless internet nerds talk about you from the comfort of anonymity and their cozy computer chair. are you serious? you keep a blog where you post about the comings and goings of sketch comedians? horrible. try solving hunger or going on a date. seriously.
ReplyDeleteIn the checkered history of SNL, only two woman have made me laugh: Dratch and that blonde ditz from the 80s with the nasal voice that has disappeared off the face of the earth.
ReplyDeleteRachel is cute as hell and she was easily the funniest female SNL cast member in 2 decades.
ReplyDeleteRachel Dratch is funny.
ReplyDeleteRachel Dratch is a good actor.
Rachel Dratch is cute.
Rachel Dratch has a great rack.
Message to Hollywood: this is a woman I want to see more of. (Take that however you like.)
- Straight, employed, good-looking male in his 30s
rachel dratch is gorgeous.shes totally built(stacked) and cute as hell.period.
ReplyDelete