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UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
Hope for U.S. distribution of Joel Surnow’s 8-part miniseries The Kennedys is fast fading away. Showtime has just passed on the project, which was cancelled by its original network, History, on Friday. Showtime was considered The Kennedy‘s best shot for an airing on a traditional network in the U.S. because of 24 co-creator Surnow’s long-standing relationship with Showtime’s new programming chief David Nevins, who previously ran 24 producing company Imagine TV.
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What a load. It actually looks pretty good. Always nice to see networks cave to political pressure. I respect the Kennedys but if they pushed for this thing to not get picked up, obviously it’s because they’re afraid of something in it tarnishing the legacy. Hopefully someone will have the balls to run this thing…
Is this REALLY a Kennedy pressure thing? I mean, they came from selling booze illegally, regardless of their bright political careers. What’s next on the pressure machine?
Next stop, HBO?
Apparently they were concerned it would conflict with the Episodes marathon they’re planning.
Don’t f**k with the Kennedys. No one is going to touch this with a ten foot pole in the US, especially in this political climate. Get your friends to tape it in Canada. It’s airing in March.
This thing must be a stinker.
Starz, HBO, do your thing. The script was solid, I can’t imagine anyone fucking this up.
HBO is not going to pick up a project Showtime passed on.
AMC!!!
Yes! I saw the trailer on another site and I thought it would be perfect match for AMC while we wait for a new season of Mad Men. It really looked good, even with Katie Holmes as Jackie Kennedy (odd casting choice!)
While Surnow clearly has a relationship with Nevins, this was never going to be on Showtime because A) they got burned from both sides of the political aisle on The Reagans, B) they had an incentive to pick up The Reagans since it had been produced for and partially funded by then-sister network, CBS, and C) Showtime burned their audience by airing something that clearly was shot under the much tamer broadcast network standards than the usual premium cable fare Showtime’s audience is used to, which also applies to The Kennedys. It’s just not a premium cable show.
So, just wondering: wouldn’t the “best shot” for this be AMC which has the room on its schedule and is still in the miniseries business? Not to mention their biggest show, Mad Men, has created a clear interest in the period for their audience? And, I believe, no parent company connection to the family?
Or what about Epix, which hasn’t aired any original scripted programming, yet keeps telling everyone in town they will? Airing The Kennedys would at least make them, well, less of a laughing stock… Not that Epix could afford it, but it sounds like the producers are running out of buyers anyway.
Still shocked History passed on this… they barely gets the facts straight on most of their programming.
Tom Cruise should swoop in and buy it for Katie and then give it the Bio channel as a gift to her. Hey, don’t laugh, crazier things have happened!
All of the conspiracy theorists may need to face the fact that it just might not be all that good.
I wonder if they will end up just releasing it on iTunes and Amazon video on demand, if can’t find an willing networks.
Bottom line, the political stuff slant that Surnow clearly brought to the project wouldn’t dissuade anyone if it was brilliant. But those who have seen it say that it’s middling to poor…so clearly all the networks are asking themselves…why bother?
This seems to have way too much hype now not to find a home.
After 15 years in the business, it simply amazes me that a solid product with a great script, recognizable talent, both in-front and behind the camera can’t get distribution. Apocalypse Hollywood is truly coming to fruition.
It would be great if this airs on some cable backwater like The Game Show Network or G4. Nevins is extremely smart not to take the bait on this one.
Wrong approach – if TV is so problematc, just edit it into a fine 2-hour-feature (all the ‘Oscar’ moments), get a gutsy distributor (it doesn’t have to be a big studio) and a theatrical release date ! If it is THAT good, at least it will be eligible for the Oscars unlike remarkable films like Temple Grandin and Grey Gardens….if those two would have been released in theaters, Claire Danes and Drew Barrymore would be Oscar-nominees today….
A limited theatrical run is better than a straight-to-DVD-scenario, and it doesn’t have to be expensive, just your typical Oscar-qualfying week or so. Though I think with all the press it has been getting, people might be interested, too. 500 theaters for opening weekend doesn’t require a lot AND could show whether people are interested or not…..and why wouldn’t they ? The Kennedys are basically America’s Royal Family. If I were one of the producers, I would definitely consider this approach. And if it doesn’t work out they can STILL release the 8-part-mini series-version on DVD.
OR make 3 films out of it….I guess the first few episodes are covering the basics (first film), the 3th-5th maybe JFK and Jackie and the rest is Bobby. If the script/narrative makes the 3-part version possible with some inspired editing and all, it could be a (theatrical) trilogy instead of an 8-part-mini-series. All they need from then on is a gutsy distributor and they can release it Millenium-trilogy-style, all 3 films within a year. I think it is a fascinating project and if they had done a great job with it, it shouldn’t go to waste.
Cowards and hypocrites. The promo looks great. And if we’ve learned anything, it’s that when Hollywood controversially turns it’s back on a project, it only creates buzz and draws a bigger audience. A smart play and opportunity from the net who picks this up would be to publicly denounce HLWD for turning a cold shoulder to a project simply because it disagrees with their politics. The net would cull favor from the public and enjoy healthy ratings.
One also has to give props to Surnow for his courage to show another side of HLWD’S darlings.
They probably passed on it because no one wants to air inaccurate diatribe. They might as well pitch it to Fox News, an inaccurate portrayal of Kennedy on a channel that airs inaccurate news. Makes much more sense.
And yes, The Kennedys is wildly inaccurate. Just because someone does a different take on a person, doesn’t mean its accurate. Read what the many historians have had to say, even the one whose book was used as the so called basis for the miniseries.
No channel with any ounce of self respect would air this garbage, especially after the political massacre in Arizona at the hands of a crazy right wing nut.
Lea – which right wing nut would that be? For someone who longs for accuracy in the mini series you watch, maybe you should try to get the facts straight in your own postings!
It’s a shame that both History and Showtime have passed on this mini-series, considering that the show was fully produced and is ready for airing. But then again, it’s not like Showtime is desperate for something to air in a primetime slot.
I’d like to see Starz or AMC pick this up. Both networks have previously aired mini-series based on source material (The Prisoner for AMC, The Pillars of Earth for Starz) and they could both use some programming in between the airings of there hit shows (well, for Starz there “show”).
If anything, I’d be the most shocked if this isn’t offered to Starz or if Starz also passes on this. I guess Epix would be the last resort for the show, that or a simple into syndication airing for the mini-series.
In all the articles about the film Surnow is id’d as a “conservative” which somehow justifies the attacks against the miniseries and its censure. Ann Sweeney is at the heart of this and she censored, and then killed the DVD release of THE PATH TO 9/11 because the Clintons complained it was made by “conservatives”. The Kennedys and Clintons have enough sway in Hollywood — with the support of scum like Robert Greenwald (whose own movies are unwatchable) — to kill the work of talented people.
This is censorship based on politics. Plain and simple.
The Blacklist is back in Hollywood.
“The Blacklist is back in Hollywood.” A fan of melodrama?:)
Isn’t it possible that the miniseries is not the victim of some political agenda, but is just not very good?
The more they cancel it, the more we want to see it. Good thing they can always put it out on the World Wide Interwebs…
This is all about Kennedy fatigue. Please, let the history of this family just lay fallow for 10 years. Why anyone would decide to make another piece about the same historical period without doing something / anything different is beyond me. The problem they face is recoupment of the deficit and no one is going to step up and give them the kind of money they need because there’s no reason to. A pay channel’s subscriber base is never going to expand because of it and a basic cable’s ad rates are never going to expand because the demos are not coveted and a broadcaster won’t touch it because history, when it has to do with taking a personal hit for something the way Moonves did for Reagan, won’t compel anyone to have the courage to program it. It’s mediocre programming because it’s a mediocre idea now. Let’s remember, Starz paid 2M an hour for Pillars of the Earth and barely created a ripple for their channel. I say give it Ben Silverman and see what he’d do with it. I can promise you one thing, it won’t be conventional which is the kind of re-imagining this needs if Studio and producers are to recapture any of their investment. Real criminals in all this lay at the Network. This is not a pilot scenario and people went out to the market place to secure distribution and foreign sales based on the domestic platform. History channel needs to consider some kind of make good in all this. What a mess!
Sid, you are exactly right. EVERYTHING is on DVD except ‘The Path to 9/11′ and the myriad of excuses from ABC/Disney have proven to be nothing but embarrassing. There is no defense. I hope one of the actors sues one day.
Surnow should take the project to Fox. They have the courage to run it.