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Saturday, Jul 11, 2009
All is not as it seems in "Contest Searchlight," Comedy Central's mockumentary series about the making of a bogus sitcom starring Peter Gallagher as Jesus. In chaps. In New York City.
Aug 28, 2002 | So what, exactly, is the deal with "Contest Searchlight"?
"There's been some confusion in TV viewer-land," a Comedy Central spokesperson admits, doing little to clear the confusion up. Comedy Central promoted the show (which premiered Aug. 14) quietly and earnestly, making it sound like a shameless rip-off of HBO's "Project Greenlight." Which it is, only not. "Contest Searchlight" is a wholly fictional, giddily cruel smartass's-eye view of the HBO show, which last year took us behind the scenes for a glimpse at what a clueless neophyte might do with a million dollars of Miramax's money: Spin it into a theatrically released after-school special, become puffy with entitlement in the process and fall flat on his face. Pete Jones' completed film, "Stolen Summer," grossed $134,000 at the box office.
Looking back, the promos for "Contest Searchlight" were a dead giveaway. They featured a smiling and suspiciously sunny Denis Leary gushing over the chance to give an aspiring writer-director the chance to make his or her very own sitcom. The press release Comedy Central sent out was equally straight-faced and sincere. "Denis Leary and Comedy Central search for a shining light when 'Contest Searchlight' premieres." Soon it was being reported that Miramax's lawyers had sent a threatening letter to Comedy Central and that even Harvey Weinstein was angry about the show's similarities to "Project Greenlight."
In fact, Miramax did send a letter asking for more details on the show early on, after it was announced at the TV critics' showcase in Pasadena earlier this summer. But the studio neither threatened legal action nor took any further steps after it became clear the show was a parody. "We can take a joke," a Miramax spokesperson says. If anything, Miramax execs seem more annoyed that "Contest Searchlight" has milked the nonexistent Miramax "controversy" for all it's worth.
Although it premiered to high ratings (according to Comedy Central, it attracted 1 million more viewers than that network's prime-time average), "Contest Searchlight" would still probably benefit from being promoted as the spoof that it is. Another obstacle for the show is that it's an inside joke that relies heavily on the assumption that you watched "Project Greenlight" and that it drove you over the edge.
The show's "finalists" are actors (the Comedy Central executives featured, however, are real, with the possible, unconfirmed exception of a suspiciously bouffant-haired "creative executive"), their ideas are beyond terrible and the result is a hilarious spoof of the recent "win a career you don't deserve" offshoot of reality TV. If you did watch "Greenlight," the first four episodes of "Searchlight" (the third airs Wednesday night and all four will run back-to-back on Sept. 8; the resulting "sitcom" will "debut" in January), which "document" the beginning of the show, the party for the finalists, the pitches and the shooting of the "sitcom," are milk-out-your-nose funny.
In the first episode, Leary is surprised by the cameras in his office and quickly tries to back out of the project. When Jon Stewart, who was to co-host the show, flees in terror, Leary begins making calls. Matt Dillon, Gina Gershon, Ray Romano and "the fat guy from 'Swingers'" all decline to play Ben Affleck to his Matt Damon, so Leary decides on "live body" Lenny Clarke, his former costar on the short-lived ABC series "The Job."
Clarke: "When Denis called me and asked me to be co-host of this wacky show we're going to do that included giving young people a chance and on top of that being a co-producer, I said, 'It's like winning the lottery!'"
Next, Leary and Clarke attend a "press junket" to describe "Contest Searchlight" and defend it against accusations that it is a rip-off of "Project Greenlight."
"We're like the Japanese," Clarke says. "If we're going to steal anything, we're going to steal it and improve on it."
"Let me tell you something," Leary adds. "If I was doing that 'Project Greenlight,' and that guy, what's his name, Pete Jones, started doing that scream he did to get that crane shot? ... I would have put duct tape around his entire body and thrown him in the trunk of the car for three hours."
