I write and consult about Nancy Drew - it's a pretty fun job, indeed!
I'm currently working on some fun Nancy Drew book projects and am in the process
of writing my biography on the original Carolyn Keene, Mildred Wirt Benson. I
also know a little something about Nancy Drew and her fabulous fans...
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UPDATE #2: FYI, my tone/comments especially to the twitterverse who hilariously and predictably lost their marbles nearly over this failed pilot, is to be taken very much in the vein of sarcasm and what not, because it was just too easy to not be sarcastic ;-) However, as to the facts and adding to the points below and the first update from Shahi as to the real reasons why this never passed muster, we have it's own producer Tony Phelan stating, "We did a pilot and we tried to forget about it...” - in the law we call that res ipsa loquitur (that's logic...er...Latin for "the matter speaks for itself" and in the vein of Nancy Drew, Case Closed!
UPDATE: Actress Sarah Shahi had this to say about the pilot - which pretty much backs up the rest of this blog posting: “We did a pilot. It didn’t go,” she says. “It didn’t go and I’m very happy it didn’t go. It was not good.”
Read on for more clues about why it was "not good" below...
WWNDD?
She wouldn't want her story told like this, for sure, and actress Sarah
Shahi deserved more. Nancy Drew would also do some investigating behind the
rumor of "too female" as well before going on a rant. Apparently
reading Nancy Drew and being a fan of her doesn't necessarily translate to being
skilled like Nancy in seeking out the truth. ;-) Bottom line, the pilot was
"too non-fan or too non-canon-friendly" and Nancy Drew's
characterization was off. So, rant all you want about the pilot
"Drew" being passed on, but once you read what they did to Nancy
Drew, you'll actually be glad the "Drew" pilot never made it to air
regardless of the other faux drama going on. I'm pretty sure where there's
smoke ("too female"), there's really fire (poorly conceptualized
pilot which is more likely right). Either way I'm completely in CBS's corner on this call. Read on for more tantalizing clues and pilot revelations sleuthers...
The Mystery of "Drew", Nancy Drew!
So, there's the Nancy Drew "elephant" in the room so to
speak, the "Drew" pilot that was shot for CBS which I've declined to
comment publicly on in the past few months once it was announced and during its
filming. Over the weekend there was a "firestorm" of angry Twitter
rants once the pilot was passed on by CBS. However, I was relieved it was passed on because of what they did with
Nancy Drew in the pilot, which is the biggest problem of all.
Why, you might ask? Why would a Nancy Drew fan like myself who has
championed the series for over 20 years as a Nancy Drew consultant, author and
President of the Nancy Drew Sleuths be negative toward a Nancy Drew TV project?
A project which I've pined about for years saying that we need a successful TV
show or movie to help build the brand and franchise.
The answer in a nutshell is that I've got a clue or two about how
things work in the Nancy Drew fan world and I know a bit about the pilot. I've
dealt with fans for years, I know their likes and dislikes and I know how irritatingly
fickle they can be. If they couldn't handle trivial issues including things
like a character's hair color in past incarnations of Nancy Drew, if they
couldn't handle 2002's Maggie Lawson as Nancy Drew or 2007's Emma Roberts as
Nancy Drew, there's no way in hell, they were ever going to handle the pilot
"Drew" and it's characterization of Nancy Drew and other fan-favorite
characters. And I can say that with just
about 100% certainty. I know Nancy Drew fans!
Because I'm a little more clued in than the average Twitter ranter
about what went down with the CBS pilot, I can guarantee a lot of these ranters
might second guess their faux-Twitterversy when they hear about what would have
been, had CBS picked up "Drew." If this had gone on to air, then we
would have likely devolved into more twitter rantings about how they ruined
Nancy Drew and gave the proverbial middle finger to legions of Nancy Drew fans with an
adaptation that is grossly out of whack with Nancy Drew canon and what most
Nancy Drew fans want. There's just no way CBS would win in either situation. I
think they made the right choice to bow out now, before having to deal with the
negativity and therefore less than stellar ratings and ultimate cancellation
that would have likely resulted. I'm certainly willing to "eat" my
words if I were to be proven wrong of course, however the same pattern has
presented itself before with past TV and screen incarnations of Nancy that
strayed too far from canon and failed to succeed and the resulting usual
pattern of fan reaction, lack of support and then resulting failure of shows.
Been there, done that.
So, I'll just save everyone the trouble of any more conspiratorial Twitter rants and disclose
what would have been done to your beloved Nancy Drew and then I'll have a
little fun with this past weekend's twitter "lovefest" toward CBS
because hey, you've got to make lemonade out of lemons, just ask Beyonce!
The Secret of Nancy Drew's Most Dastardly Villain
Nancy Drew's most dastardly villain of all time? Nope, not Bushy Trott
who left her tied up in a hidden attic room to be poisoned by a black widow
spider in The Secret of the Old Attic.
Not Mary Mason who left her to drown and burn in a fire in The Mystery at Lilac Inn. No, not the crazed mad scientist who
nearly boiled her alive in the revision of The
Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion! No, the most dastardly villain Nancy
Drew has ever tangled with is The Hollywood Phantom Menace alias "We think
we know better than those little Nancy Drew fans!"
The pilot "Drew" was loosely based on the classic Nancy Drew books
we've all known and loved for over 86 years. I use the word "loosely"
very loooooooooooooosely as it bears little resemblance to anything beloved
about Nancy Drew for generations. In other words, a police procedural that's
mostly in name only.
I don't think I've ever seen such a poor adaptation of Nancy Drew from
the classic Nancy Drew series in my lifetime and I mean no disrespect by pointing that out, it just is what it is. I was told the producers and writers of
the pilot, Tony Phelan and Joan Rater (Grey's Anatomy), are huge Nancy Drew
fans. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around that though, based on what
they changed so drastically. They may be some kind of Nancy Drew fan, but they
are apparently clueless about what most Nancy Drew fans actually want to see in
a TV show. This kind of thing could have been sorted out and smoothed over by
consulting with someone knowledgeable about such things like me on the project, but apparently they must have passed on having me give them this kind of advice, which
I would have freely given, considering the fact I've been wanting a TV series
for years! I'd like to see one done successfully that takes into consideration
all sides of the Nancy Drew coin--canon/fans/creators and all.
I have no doubt that spitfire Sarah Shahi would have done a fine job as
Nancy Drew, the problem lies though with the source material and
characterization she had to work with. There's a way to do a modern Nancy Drew
and still stick to canon and be successful and not alienate the fan base. It's
not rocket science. Past incarnations have failed to recognize this as well,
though the 1970s version starring Pamela Sue Martin came the closest to being
successful thanks to the savvy TV Producers Arlene Sidaris and Joyce Brotman who
understood that straying from canon too much, is a no-no.
Then, of course, there's another way to do a modern Nancy Drew where
you give classic Nancy Drew canon (and by association generations of fans) the
shaft. We're clearly got more of the latter, not the former, with the
"Drew" pilot, which is a shame.
Banking on name or brand recognition alone and expecting fans to
support it for who it is in spite of what they've done is a little insulting to
fans who have read and treasured these books for generations and a little
insulting to those who worked so hard over the years behind the scenes to help
make the series a success. I'm sorry, but 86 years of history has to have some
bearing on anything done in the modern world and it can be done, it just needs
to be done in the right way. I'm not saying perfect, just better and more
respectful of everyone involved.
Which is why, sad to say, I've hoped - in its present form - that
"Drew" would fail. If another network were to pick it up, hopefully
they would revamp the concept and change it up, as it will need a lot of work
to bring it to a reasonable Nancy Drew fan-supportable level. You have to
remember with a niche subject like Nancy Drew, there's already a built in
fan-base which you have to rely on to come out and support your project. If you
alienate the fan base or a large group of them, then you will have to scramble
for others to come on board in enough numbers to drive ratings, and that's much
harder to do. I've learned of course, that with fickle fans, it's hard to
please them all. That's an impossibility, but it's not that hard to please MOST
of us if you just stick to what has made the books so popular for so many
years.
The Not so Mysterious Case of
Why Nancy Drew is So Popular...
86 years of Nancy Drew history and generations of fans have loved Nancy Drew
for all the reasons that this pilot isn't.
People who grew up reading Nancy Drew, cite Nancy as influencing their
lives. Supreme Court Justices for goodness sakes! That's pretty amazing.
There's a reason for this. Nancy Drew is empowering. She's bold, brave,
independent, and was treated as an equal to adults even though she was just a
teenage girl. That's the kind of girl power that has kept her alive for over 86
years and made her Mystery's IT GirlTM!
But there's more than just that, there's the whole Nancy Drew
characterization and formula that made this series such a success. And the safe
and sane mantra that the Stratemeyer Syndicate, who created the series,
imparted into all their children's books, of fun entertainment without all the
spoils of social issues or anything political, as it should be. Just fun
entertainment to excite and thrill children and get them hooked on reading.
Ultimately Nancy Drew has been a great role model to generations of
girls and boys who have read them too. In real life she's become a pop culture
icon revered and celebrated by people from all walks of life.
Here's the basic formula in a nutshell: Nancy Drew, a girl of
eighteen, lives with her father, attorney Carson Drew and their motherly
housekeeper Hannah Gruen in River Heights. Her best "foil" friends
are cousins Bess and George and her special friend and boyfriend is Ned
Nickerson. Her mom died when she was 3 of an illness and Hannah and Carson have
raised her to be a very bright, independent and curious young woman who has the
courage of her convictions, is never baffled for too long by a puzzling case,
who loves a good mystery, desires to help others and right wrongs, and always
in the end manages to succeed against the most dastardly of villains and save
the day, restoring honor and justice in the wake of evil deeds.
We can break this down further into character traits that have been set
out on purpose by the creators and writers of Nancy Drew for generations:
Nancy Drew - age 16 originally, then 18, blonde then Titian haired, fashionable,
brave, independent, honorable, polite, nice, kind, amateur detective,
"slim and attractive." Dates Ned Nickerson.
George Fayne - tall, dark short hair, a tomboy, athletic, bold, brash,
tells it like it is, adventurous, dates Burt Eddelton, signature phrase
"Hypers!" - Bess's cousin.
Bess Marvin - short, curvy, blonde, always on a diet to lose 5lbs,
likes boys/food/shopping/romance, a fraidy-cat, dates Dave Evans - George's
cousin.
Carson Drew - Nancy's proud father, attorney, smart, treats Nancy like
an equal and relies on her, helps others in need, indulges Nancy's
determination to solve mysteries.
Hannah Gruen - the motherly housekeeper of the Drew's, worries about Nancy,
fabulous cook, Middle-aged, German.
Ned Nickerson - Nancy's patient boyfriend, from nearby Maplewood,
attends Emerson University, football player, in a fraternity, tall, handsome,
smart and capable.
Obviously, some of these character traits can be left on the cutting
room table when creating a pilot like "Drew" that modernizes and ages
all of these people about 15-18 years ahead of book-Nancy's world to making Nancy
and her pals around mid-30s and then Carson and Hannah into their 50s/60s for
him and 60s/70s for her. For instance, we could drop Bess always being on a
diet as I think most fans would be OK with dropping that tired-old silly thing!
However, some of these characteristics are what has endeared us to the
characters for so many years. Like Hannah's fabulous cooking and motherly
worry-wart-self or Carson treating Nancy like an equal and indulging her
mystery solving. Nancy always being bold and brave and George and Bess being
her sleuthing pals who also operate as foil friends to set off Nancy--two
extremes to Nancy falling in the middle. To change any of this drastically, to
many fans, would be akin to being "sacrilegious" to canon. And
that's a no-no that should have been realized in this situation. I certainly
could have explained that to the powers that be.
The Secrets Behind "Drew" &
Why It Likely Was "Mysteriously" Passed On...
Instead of the canon, the foundation and formula and the
characterization that has endeared fans to these characters for generations,
this is what we were going to get instead with the pilot, "Drew" -
and you'll see why I was never on board once I realized what had been done to
your beloved characters:
1. Nancy Drew aged to 30s - this is somewhat minor compared to the rest
of the changes. But still, aging a character brings into the mix all sorts of
situations that the books avoided, as it's quite a drastic change. However, this
is the least of our worries.
2. Nancy is adopted - nothing against adoption, but I didn't see how
this was necessary to change this element? I guess this is how they sought to
bring in diversity to the show--since if she's adopted, she could be any
ethnicity/etc. They could have made her deceased Mom diverse, however.
3. Nancy lives in NYC & River Heights is a city near NYC - again,
River Heights was generally always a "Midwestern city" and had its
own fair share of crime and criminals and quirky characters which would have
been far more interesting than another bland police procedural from NYC.
4. Nancy is a NYPD detective, who quit the force over a bad case -
sorry, but Nancy would never have joined the police force, she would have
preferred more freedom, and she was never a quitter!
5. George is on the NYPD too - this doesn't really fit with
George's characterization from the books either.
6. George possibly has alcohol/emotional problems - drinking beer
before noon to Nancy's concern - we don't need a dysfunctional George!
7. George is a lesbian - original intent was never that George was a
lesbian. This is cringe-worthy because this plays on athletic/tomboy stereotypes,
and stereotyping isn't really appropriate. This almost borders on parody and
jokes fans and scholars have made over the years, instead of trying to come up
with something original.
8. Bess is dead of a possible suicide or murder. Regardless, still
dead. Most fans will HATE this. After all, they hated that Bess and George were
not a major part of the 2007 movie.
9. Carson in his 50s or 60s is shacking up with Nancy's former
school-mate nemesis from The Secret of
the Old Clock, Isabel Topham. Oh, and she's pregnant! Too soap opera-ish. The
Carson Drew of the books would NEVER sleep with the enemy.
10. Nancy working as Uber driver, not sure of herself anymore - Nancy
Drew had her moments of doubt in the books, but we'd rather her be kick-ass
than kick-herself-in-the-ass!
11. The Mentalist and Psych have been reincarnated into Nancy Drew in
the form of her uncanny observation skills which were not her method of solving
mysteries in the books. We don't need another
Mentalist-type show.
12. Hannah is working as a paralegal to Carson Drew and is now a
"ballbuster" who tells Nancy to sit "her ass down" as seen in casting audition videos posted publicly online - Definitely
not Hannah from the books. I want motherly Hannah who can whip up a midnight
snack after a hard day of sleuthing.
13. Nancy cusses - words like "asshole" (at least in casting
script audition tapes found publicly online) - most definitely not Nancy Drew
from the books, we expect her to be classier than that.
14. Ned and Nancy are not together anymore - fans flip flop over this
issue as some like Ned, some don't, but overall most like them together. The
books were never about romance, they were always about mystery as Nancy's true
love and that's the way it should be in a series--romance should take a
back burner to the mystery at hand.
15. Ned is an investigative journalist with the New York Times - Ned
was not into journalism in the classic books, he was into sports, worked for an
insurance company and as a camp counselor during summers, and was big into
science, so this is a big stretch. And frankly, it's kind of boring.
And these are just 15 things that I'm aware of as reported on publicly by reviewers of the pilot/script and casting/audition videos posted online regarding the pilot, who knows what else was done...
The actress playing Nancy Drew, Sarah Shahi, who I loved on Person of
Interest, tweeted earlier this year that this pilot isn't "Your mamma's
Nancy Drew. Ha!" You think? It's not my Nancy Drew either, nor most fans
from everything I've been hearing. Book-Nancy has been popular for a
reason--many reasons--of which this show doesn't measure up, sadly.
It really is as if someone without any perspective or respect to creators
and fans of Nancy Drew, sat down and thought they could change things for the
sake of modernization and slice and dice canon as they pleased without
realistically playing homage to 86 years of Nancy Drew and her fans.
Yeah, I can see why CBS passed on this apparent hot mess. You can make a
character modern but you don't trash the characterization of beloved characters
- traits which endeared us to them and made them popular for decades and expect
enough fans to be on board for that soon-to-be sinking ship. You don't kill off
an integral part of a threesome of friends, Bess, and expect legions of fans to
be happy about the death of Bess. You don't take Nancy's relationship with her
father Carson Drew and take it to a trashy level where there is dysfunction in
his bedding & impregnating the enemy - Isabel Topham, the nasty "vapid
creature" and one of the villains from The
Secret of the Old Clock.
Hannah Gruen "ballbuster" cussing at Nancy, wow, so not motherly!
George is now a lesbian - playing into every bad stereotype about girls that a
tomboy who is athletic must therefore be a lesbian, is just insulting to
lesbians and everyone else. And that she may have a drinking problem as
evidenced by Nancy being concerned she has to bring George beer before lunch? That's
not how we want our well loved characters to be modernized.
Nancy being a cop in NYC and then an Uber driver unsure of herself and
suddenly is now The Mentalist reincarnated? She didn't walk into a room like
The Mentalist and have a case half-solved in 30 seconds. No, she snooped,
eavesdropped, looked for clues, and investigated cases and used her sleuthing
skills to deduce how things happened, sometimes got knocked out and
chloroformed and kidnapped, and used her wits to get her out of sticky
situations.
Nancy was brilliant as an amateur detective who could beat the
police and now she's just one of them. Nancy shouldn't be hampered by a police
hierarchy, she should have more freedom like in the books. Because Nancy wasn't
in school, had no regular job, was motherless and Carson Drew treated her as an
equal, there was lots of freedom for her to solve cases and be her own boss.
That Nancy Drew would never have joined the police force, she would have
competed with it and bested it. Girl Sleuth Power, people!
Sorry, but this tried and true fan agrees with CBS and says no thanks, I'll pass on this too.
The Case of the Twitterverse Fanatics
Who Fell Down the Hidden Staircase
Who Fell Down the Hidden Staircase
Here's where we have a little fun with the Twitterverse who erupted
over the weekend when news hit that CBS had turned "Drew" down for
being "too female" which sent "too female" into trending
for awhile on Twitter.
However, one missing element of the mystery behind why the pilot wasn't
picked up, was an actual source for that "too female" rumor. An
entertainment website, Deadline.com, ran a short piece about the show being
passed on and said loosely that it was because it was "too female"
though it "tested well" even though there are counter reports that it
tested terribly and was "unwatchable." However deadline.com listed no
direct substantiation. I actually reached out to the writer at Deadline to ask
about their source and never heard back. But, I'm also connected in other ways,
so I reached out to see if in fact CBS really passed because it was "too
female." In the meantime, CBS addressed the rumor in a presser on their
fall lineup and shot the rumor down, which makes sense if you think about it. Obviously
Nancy Drew is pretty darn female. Even the most giant of ding bats would
realize that. CBS Network President Glenn Geller noted, “Well that’s just not true. We
have a number of pilots to choose from, and we chose the best pilot." I
think based on everything I noted above, we can clearly read between the lines
here of why "Drew" likely wasn't picked up. There may be a
demographics/ratings/advertisers issue too in the how the show tested that was a
factor as well--and likely that is another part of the reason the pilot failed. Regardless of why CBS passed, what I've noted above would have certainly hastened its demise if it had been picked up.
I've been shaking my head over "fan" reaction and rage evidenced by lots of F-bombs, cussing, raging, threats, talks of boycotts, anti-male sentiment and so many more "love notes" to CBS I can't write about. I
think about Nancy Drew being a pretty kick ass sleuth, yet she always managed
to hold herself in check and was a class act and diplomatic and would never
rant and rave and cuss and throw a tantrum like a 2 year old denied
candy...er...a TV show. So, I find the ranting a bit ironic. For one
thing, as someone who has had to deal with stereotypes of "fans" as
"fanatics" with the powers that be in my consulting on all things
Nancy Drew, I surely can't thank you all enough (NOT!) for driving those
fanatical stereotypes home! The Twitterverse as usual tends to fall prey to a
minority of vocal fanatics and those who jump on the bandwagon with little
connection to the regular fan base--the ones who give the rest of us
level-headed fans a bad name and who likely make the powers that be cringe.
Regardless, this "too female" faux-Twitterversy and the many
18,000++ and counting tweets some of which copied networks and outlets like
Netflix and the CW, begging them to pick up "Drew", I'd say were
pretty smart "PR.". Of course, if it was all just organic and not any
kind of last minute effort to drum up support for "Drew", it
certainly may work out that way in the end especially if
"Drew" finds another home.
The Mystery of the Missing "Drew" - Here's A Clue
I've always said that this kind of show would be better served on a
network like Hallmark or in the vein of a show like ABC's Castle in which
surely the strong and bold character Kate Beckett was inspired by Nancy Drew to
a degree--or even a period piece from the 30s or 40s on a PBS/BBC type network.
Or a teen Nancy Drew on a network like CW. After all, she has been a teenage
sleuth for over 86 years and counting. A cozy style drama with a slight edge of
girl sleuth power and Gothic mystery behind it--that's the real style and
characterization which has made the Nancy Drew books popular for generations.
Nancy Drew isn't gritty, dark, dysfunctional and doesn't belong in NYC in her
30s, so the "Drew" pilot just went in the wrong direction overall.
Regardless of the faux drama outrage, the real bottom line problem in
all of this debacle, however, remains the content of the pilot as expressed
above in detail. I'd much rather it have gone out with a whimper in not being
picked up by CBS, than with a bang in being picked up and eventually canned due
to poor ratings and angry rants about how they've ruined Nancy Drew and stepped
all over 86+ years of canon. But hey, if it's a bang you want, a bang it might
possibly be if someone else picks it up and doesn't retool it. Don't say I
didn't warn you...
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FWIW: The only 2 people who I've found so far that have seen the
pilot/script and have posted public reviews of it online, also concur with my similar
reasoning of it being poorly conceptualized and you can see those reviews here and here. Not as reliable or
verifiable, but a commenter on another Deadline.com article noted that she was
in the test audience for it and that it was "unwatchable."
UPDATE: Actress Sarah Shahi had this to say about the pilot - which pretty much backs up the rest of this blog posting: “We did a pilot. It didn’t go,” she says. “It didn’t go and I’m very happy it didn’t go. It was not good.”
UPDATE: Actress Sarah Shahi had this to say about the pilot - which pretty much backs up the rest of this blog posting: “We did a pilot. It didn’t go,” she says. “It didn’t go and I’m very happy it didn’t go. It was not good.”