Fawcett
Filmed in Los Angeles and New York by Windmill Entertainment. Executive producers, Craig J. Nevius, Marta M. Mobley-Anderson, Sal Maniaci; producers, Nancy Valen, Kathryn Riccio; co-producer, Pearl Lucero; director, Nevius.
The fears that "reality TV" generated in scripted television's creative community come to the fore in TV Land's "Chasing Farrah." With no concept beyond "wouldn't it be great if Farrah Fawcett were on the air again?," the TV Land skein is a hodgepodge of development meetings, limo rides, a date with ex-husband Ryan O'Neal and encounters with fans that don't add up to anything. This is tabula rasa TV that never gets its slate filled.
Nothing against Farrah. She appears to be fun and engaging and goofy and sexy and willing to participate in anything put in front of her. But in her entourage's ambition to ensure that she not become Anna Nicole Smith, they shield everything. Filmmakers are forced to create a choppy and insufficient overview of Fawcett, certain segments are used as many as three times in the first two episodes.
Ultimately, these peeks into glamorous lives need to deliver as fantasy for the America outside L.A. and New York and show a celeb behaving either outrageously abnormal or uncommonly nice. So Fawcett can't accept blame. And she's always late. Big deal. That's about all anyone learns in the first two segs.
It's one thing to live up to the title, but to get an audience to return, a tidbit that suggests Farrah
could be caught needed to be put into play.
Camera, Matt Mindlin; editor, Cameron Spencer; music, David Russell. 30 MIN.
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Date in print: Wed., Mar. 23, 2005