View From the Phlipside Radio - Too Much Glee

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.

There’s a concept that I have returned to over all the years of my various and sundry careers.  I would love to tell you who taught it to me but that’s been lost in the mists of my rapidly aging memory.  It’s a fine old tradition that dates back well beyond the days of mass communication to the days of vaudeville and the stage.  It’s quite simple actually.   

Leave them wanting more.

Just that simple.  Leave your audience wanting just a little more.  One more story.  One more song.  One more joke.  Just a few minutes more of your program.  The idea is quite simple.  You want the audience to want to come back the next time.  Even in the entertainment business it’s all about repeat business.  It also has the advantage of holding performers back from trying to do too much.

Sadly it’s a lesson that just never seems to sink in.  As soon as you become a hit you want more and more and more.  I can understand the impulse.  The fame, the adulation.  It feels like it’s never going to end.  

For example take a look at Fox TV’s huge hit of the last couple seasons, Glee.  Before its premiere Fox execs touted it as “the next big thing”.  Miraculously it wasn’t just hype.  The TV show became a huge hit.  It’s fans, dubbed Gleeks, made the music from the show the hottest titles on iTunes.  That’s two different media arenas where Glee was a winner.  So they went one more and created the Glee concert tour.  Another hit.  Everything Glee touched turned to gold.

Well almost.  Instead of leaving the faithful desperate for more, Glee decided to hit the big screen.  It’s a natural, TV show on summer hiatus, perfect audience demographic for a summer film, 3D the latest movie gimmick.  The sad reality is that the movie opened to only 6 million dollars ticket sales good enough for ELEVENTH place on its opening weekend.  That is disastrous in a word.  

So the unstoppable freight train that was Glee has hit a very serious bump.  With the original cast having to graduate soon it will be interesting to see if they can regain their momentum or if the audience has had enough.

Call that the View From the Phlipside