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It's easy to compare NBC's savior-to-be "Smash," starring Katharine McPhee, to the only other musical show currently on air, "Glee," but these comparisons are cheap. "Smash" is no more "Glee" than "CSI" is "Law & Order."
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There are no courtrooms, no operating rooms, and no interrogation rooms. That alone should make "Smash" stand out as a unique program.
Sure, there is music. Sure, it happens out of nowhere from time to time. Sure, it's being offered on iTunes after each show. But "Smash" and "Glee" are two different animals.
"Glee" is a complete clash of styles that was initially enjoyable but, as many critics now say, has turned into a mess. It toddles in the superficial and the momentary, handing us pop culture candy and hoping we enjoy it.
"Glee" shifts weekly, while "Smash" centers on the ongoing production of a musical - a musical about Marilyn Monroe. Moreover, "Smash" is about adults - about the pursuit of dreams and the potholes along the way. It doesn't meander in high school mores like its supposed counterpart.
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Whereas "Glee" taps into the lucrative and influential teen market, subtly introducing them to the concept of musicals and show tunes, "Smash" assumes that the interest is already there - and that's the big gamble NBC is taking.
Perhaps that's why the executive producers are playing down the music and highlighting the "adult" plotlines.
"Their day job happens to be putting together a show, but their lives aren't really about that," Craig Zadan, who, with partner Neil Meron, is among the many "Smash" executive producers, told The Associated Press. "We also have adoption, divorce, infidelity and disapproving parents from the Midwest in our story lines. We've put in as many human, universal qualities as we can: It's a story about wish fulfillment."
What "Smash" won't be, he said, is a "'Glee' for adults," as many viewers were quick to assume.
"We don't think that it's anything like 'Glee,'" Meron said. "But we thank God for 'Glee,' because it got viewers used to watching people sing on TV dramas."
"Smash" was originally intended for Showtime, but when Robert Greenblatt jumped over to NBC as chairman last January, he brought the pet project with him. Rumor has it the pilot episode had to be tamed down for network television.
Unlike "Glee," "Smash" will introduce and compile original songs for "Marilyn the Musical" - the show-within-a-show that, if all goes as planned, will someday become a true Broadway musical outside the fictional world of "Smash."
The premiere has a lot at stake. NBC put all its eggs in one basket, spending over $7 million on the pilot and hoping that its "Super Monday" combo of returning hit "The Voice" and mid-season replacement "Smash" can save the fourth-ranking network.
NBC chief Robert Greenblatt isn't shy about claiming the program is capable of ending the peacock's longstanding residency in the network cellar. He too has repeatedly denied all comparisons to Fox's "Glee," even though both are variations on the backstage musical.
