High School Musical 2 Tops Cable's Historic Summer. Would It Have Scored on ABC?

		TODAY'S COMMENTARY by Ed Martin Thursday, August 23rd 2007 High School Musical 2 Tops Cable's Historic Summer. Would It Have Scored on ABC? Ed Martin Predicts High School Musical Sitcom By Ed Martin Ed@Mediavillage.com Given the fact that Disney Channel last Friday commanded the biggest audience on record for the medium with the premiere telecast of High School Musical 2, I'm predicting right here and now that the High School Musical franchise will eventually include a weekly live-action, half-hour sitcom on Disney Channel -- featuring an entirely new cast, of course. That 17.2 million viewers watched HSM2 is mighty impressive, but it seems a rather conservative figure, given the fact that so many kids and 'tweens watched with other children, not to mention teenagers and adults who may or may not want to admit their fondness for the High School franchise. I wonder: Would the audience have been so large had HSM2 debuted on Disney's big broadcast sibling, ABC? The fall season and the start of the school year are fast approaching. What would have happened had ABC kicked off its premiere week with this movie? Equal success? Bigger numbers? Or would it have under-performed, since the millions of children and 'tweens who have embraced HSM (and all things Disney) are largely unfamiliar with the broadcast networks. And while we're on the subject, in the interest of long-term planning should the broadcasters do something about that? These are questions to ponder in the weeks ahead, as the HSM phenomenon continues to grow and the broadcasters open the 2007-08 season. Right now, in these late summer weeks, I'm struck by the reality that I have not seen a level of national excitement (especially among young people) brought on by a filmed musical entertainment property since the John Travolta-Olivia Newton John movie Grease hit theaters way back in 1978. Moviegoers in that pre-VCR era returned again and again to watch the gang from Rydell High sing and dance, learning the songs and some of the dance moves thru repeated viewings. Disney, of course, offered an in-home crash course in all things HSM2 last weekend, culminating in a repeat Sunday (the third consecutive night during which the movie was presented in primetime) that featured lyrics to its songs on screen and interstitial bits about the making of the dance sequences. Three decades ago one needed a week or three to get to a similar level of oneness with Grease. As successful as HSM2 was on television, I wondered as I watched the other night (with an all-ages group of viewers) what it would be like to watch the gang from East High in a crowded movie theater -- to share the experience with hundreds of others, as I had the fun of seeing Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Flashdance and Footloose. During the movie's four grand production numbers -- (What Time is It, I Don't Dance, Everyday and All for One) -- it was easy to imagine it playing on the big screen to a theater filled with screaming, applauding young people who would later be heard singing the closing song while walking to the parking lot. The next installment in the HSM franchise will indeed be a theatrical film, so in another year or two we'll all see how it translates to the big screen (and if it remains as profitable in the transition). But for now, I'm damn glad HSM2 turned up on television, especially during this remarkable summer of non-stop cable sensations. This will forever be remembered as the summer that started with the most talked about finale of the year, HBO's The Sopranos, and ended with the most talked about premiere of the year, HSM2. On that note, am I the only one who's finding it hard to get excited about the arrival of the broadcast networks' fall season after this summer of unprecedented cable entertainment? Normally, at this time of year I would be counting the days until premiere week. This year, not so much. Similarly, am I the only one currently wondering how the cable networks will collectively top this season's offerings during the summer of 2008? Because if they don't, the headlines comparing next year to this year will be all bad, just as the broadcasters take a beating when their networks move through a fall season that is not as successful as the one that came before. Today's Featured Commentary at www.MediaVillage.com Fox's Anchorwoman: Late-Summer Eye Candy  Jack Myers RSS Feeds Click To Sound Off If you would prefer not to receive future messages, please click here to unsubscribe.
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