We can dream, can't we?

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on December 17th, 2009

“Idol creator to launch new star search,” reads the headline. Simon Fuller, the man behind the Idol series, is bringing back Star Search?

Sadly, no.

That series ran from 1983 to 1995 and, at least for the first few seasons, was a major factor in launching the careers of many of today’s big standup figures.

A revival of such a series would be a boon to standup. But, alas, Fuller’s new project is not such a series.

If I Can Dream, says the article written from the press release…

…will chronicle five young people with Hollywood aspirations– a musician, an actor, two actresses and a model — as they leave their hometowns and live together in a house in the Hollywood Hills. Their journey will be streamed live around-the-clock at ificandream.com.

Can it be that certain internet conventions can already be said to be “square?” The WWW’s only been around since 1994 or so, yet some approaches to programming– like launching a series that “will exist primarily online– at least at first”– already seem hackneyed. (Actually, it may be smart to utilize the internet to test a show… but wouldn’t it be cooler if the producers leveled with us as to the exact strategy behind such a maneuver? It’s kind of like when the nets usta tell us that “summer replacement” sitcoms were being “tried out,” when the reality was that they were merely flushing never-to-be-greenlighted pilots out of the system. Level with us; we can take it.

Fuller says, “I am determined to continue challenging convention and pushing the boundaries of mainstream entertainment. Uh… there’s the small matter of The Original Amateur Hour,” which started on radio in 1934 and ran, in one form or another, on radio and/or television, until 1970.

Fuller actually says, “This is the dawning of a new age.” Dude, seriously? Merely hanging some doodads (Twitter, webcams, etc.) on this enterprise does not a new age make.

But why not have a comedian on this version? While having a comedian in the Hollywood Hills house wouldn’t guarantee that there’d be some laughs, not having one might guarantee that “Dream” will be a snoozefest with a lot of fabricated drama.

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