Why "Lipstick" Proved Wrong Shade For NBC
What do you get when you take fabulous women, living glamorous lives, set in The Big Apple, based on a phenomenon with origins in the writings of Candace Bushnell? Not a Sex and the City-esque hit for network television apparently.
NBC has cancelled Lipstick Jungle, one of two Sex clones that premiered pre-Strike, as well as Christian Slater's My Own Worst Enemy. Based on the novel by the same name from Bushnell, Lipstick Jungle was one of the most heavily promoted shows in recent television history and was touted as the heiress apparent to HBO's smash hit Sex and the City, also based on Bushnell's prose.
Much like Cashmere Mafia, ABC and Darren Starr's attempt to recapture the "women-on-top" fantasy of Sex and the City, Lipstick Jungle, was a pisspoor imitation of the haute coture original. What creators of these knock offs didn't realize is viewers didn't fall in love with Carrie and Co. because they had fabulous jobs, wore expensive shoes and screwed like testosterone-enhanced she-bunnies (though that admittedly helped). We fell for them because they were fully-developed, well-drawn characters that we could relate to and root for.
My only hope is that NBC signs Lipstick's breakout star, the brilliantly-sexy All My Children alum Lindsay Price, to a holding deal and gives her a Samantha Who?-type vehicle of her own. That way at least something good can come from this particularly bad shade of lipstick.
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Comments
20 November 2007
22 hours 39 min
Well Jay, we will not agree on this, but I never loved Sex in the city and I tried to watch it. I just don't like slut, even when they are “allegedly” fashionable.
As for Lipstick Jungle, I watch it a couple of time and thought that there was not one cliché they did not love, and fell into. It was awful.
22 January 2008
7 hours 47 min
It's okay Timepass, I know not everyone loved Carrie and Co.. It is one of my top five favorite shows of all time and I never really saw them as sluts. I saw them as free, adult women who decided they could screw like a man if they saw fit. (Samantha was my favorite if you can guess, with Carrie as a close second! LOL) I think society tells us sex is only okay within the bounds of certain narrow parameters, if not, you're a "slut". I don't buy that business at. all.
20 November 2007
22 hours 39 min
I agree with you Jay.
I must add that acting like a man is NOT being a woman.
I love woman with healthy sexual appetite, and not afraid to live it. We woman need a relationship attach to our sexual accouter.
For me a slut is a woman trying to be a man, having indiscriminating sex. It is a fact that man can have sex and have NO emotions tie with the person they do it with.
Women are not like that!
22 January 2008
7 hours 47 min
I agree, women are usually more geneticially predisposed to require intimacy with sex, but there are exceptions to the rule. I have female friends who make me blush and Samantha sort of reps for them. Yet even with her, Samantha wanted to be loved just as much as the other girls, in the end she just realized that she had the love, support and nurturing she needed from her galpals, meanwhile men were for sex! LOL
23 July 2008
13 weeks 5 days
A slut is a slut is a slut is a slut!
________________________
//**No one on the corner has swagger like us!**\\
22 January 2008
7 hours 47 min
Sluts have less migraines. Instead of two pills with all the side effects, take two screws and call me to let me listen in!
22 August 2007
15 hours 34 min
Less migraines... maybe I should try being a slut...LOL!
I thought Cashmere was the better of the two rip offs but nothing is the original. NBC has some extra cash now... bring back FNL from where you exiled it on DirecTV!
16 August 2007
5 hours 57 min
I'll bet Sam McCall has never had a headache in her life.
The only thing good about Lipstick Jungle was Lindsay Price
3 August 2008
4 weeks 4 days
That sucks. I was kind of getting into it. IMO, they started to flush out the characters more in this season. Oh well, on to the next rip-off.
Jamey, ITA about Carrie & Co. It is one of my all-time favorite shows. When they show reruns on TBS, I know what epi it is just from hearing Carrie's voiceover at the beginning. Remember when Big put the fart bag in Carrie's chair? CLASSIC.
So, I hate to bring this up but VM is out of a job. Those BLUSH checks will be running out soon. I'm sure Guza is dancing with joy. Time for another round of 'Vanessa Returns?' magazine covers.
Help me Jesus. LOL!!!
22 January 2008
7 hours 47 min
Luke, see my definition of "good slut" vs. "bad slut". Good sluts are women like Samantha on Sex and the City who have sex for fun, not because someone hurts their yiddle feelings or because they are ashamed that they don't have a GED. Good sluts are sluts like Carly Corinthos, who get the ultimate payoff by marrying their Johns. Sam McCall is a bad slut. She never has anything to show for it but a gnarly infestation of crotch crickets.
23 July 2008
13 weeks 5 days
Oh please, Samantha probably had the first case of panty crickets back during the Depression!
________________________
//**No one on the corner has swagger like us!**\\
22 January 2008
7 hours 47 min
But unlike Sam on GH, Sam on Sex could read the directions on her crotch crickets antibiotics and pay for them herself!
23 July 2008
13 weeks 5 days
ROTFL!!!!!
________________________
//**No one on the corner has swagger like us!**\\
8 May 2008
6 weeks 4 days
I would love to see Vanessa back as Brenda on GH:NS not on orginal show because of Guza and co. I don't think she would come back until guza is fired.
siomonstuart2003
3 August 2008
4 weeks 4 days
^^ITA. Guza would ruin Brenda.
29 May 2008
7 weeks 6 days
Well that leaves Kim Raver available to return or guest star on 24 again.
I never cared for Lipstick Jungle either. I liked Cashmere Mafia only marginally better because of the cast (love Peter Hermann) and also because I work for the company that made it. Other than that, I am beyond all that silly hopping in and out of bed stuff.
I USED to be a fan of Sex and the City. I thought Samantha was funny. I pretty much lost it when Carrie couldn't go through with the wedding to Aiden. Now I think the show is immature (perfect for cable) but I do not think prime time needs these types of shows and their influences and the ratings proved it. Frankly I am surprised NBC even gave it a second chance because it was dead in the water after the second episode.
23 July 2008
13 weeks 5 days
How bad was the show and how low were the ratings that Lipstick Jungle gets cancelled and Knight Rider lives to bore another day?!
________________________
//**No one on the corner has swagger like us!**\\
3 August 2008
4 weeks 4 days
I don't know about the ratings, season. However, I thought the show improved a lot compared to last season, which was a major SNOOZEFEST. I knew once it moved to Friday nights, cacellation wasn't that far behind.
29 May 2008
7 weeks 6 days
Season, according to the guy that reports on the ratings, Knight Rider is being revamped - AGAIN!
However, I don't know if that will help. Knight Rider hit an all-time low last night.
23 July 2008
13 weeks 5 days
"Knight Rider hit an all-time low last night."
________________________
Are we still talking about the ratings? LOL!
________________________
//**No one on the corner has swagger like us!**\\
29 December 2007
3 days 9 hours
Well I guess I can see why it was cancelled because I wanted to watch it and even have some saved but never have and I guess there's no reason to.
I guess it just really never caught my attention.
They were all very nice to look at though.
29 May 2008
7 weeks 6 days
"Are we still talking about the ratings? LOL!"
Unfortunately I only made it through the first half of the first episode of the season, so you are on your own to figure that one out.
22 January 2008
7 hours 47 min
Knight Rider sucks dong dong. They need to late me do a Dallas update, I'd actually cast Justin Bruening in the perfect role for him, Christopher Ewing. If anyone could revisit Patrick Duffy's awe shucks dumbfoundedness it would be Bruening as Bobby's son. I'd cast Justin Hartley as JR and Sue Ellen's son John Ross and Kristin Bell from Veronica Mars as Cliff and Afton's daughter Pamela. Rounding out the cast would be Michael Graziadei as Bobby's illegitimate son with Jenna Wade and Melissa Fumero as Inez, the secret daughter of the longtime Ewing maid Theresa!
29 May 2008
7 weeks 6 days
I think Powers Booth would make an EXCELLENT JR after his turn on 24. I hated the idea of having John Travolta do it in a feature. I like John, but he is no Larry Hagman.
23 July 2008
13 weeks 5 days
Oh, Powers Booth would be real menacing as JR if they were to do a movie remake.
________________________
//**No one on the corner has swagger like us!**\\
19 December 2007
4 years 15 weeks
You said Kristin bell so i would tune in right away....dang fanboy in me -.-.
Not sad that either show is gone ;-/
Ratings for Lipstick:
2.3 Premier to the lowest 1.6, latest episode was 1.9
So from 6 million viewers down to 1.6
My own worst enemy started off with a 7.3 and hit a low of 5.2 with the latest episode.
29 May 2008
7 weeks 6 days
"Oh, Powers Booth would be real menacing as JR if they were to do a movie remake."
Season, if you and I could get this idea to TIIC of the stalled Hollywood version of Dallas, we would really have something. I mean they were going to put that IDIOT Jennifer Lopez in as Pam (or was it Sue Ellen) of all people.
But I loved the series and I do not see the need for a movie version just like I don't need to see a garbage movie of Magnum PI - for me there will only be one Magnum and that is Tom Selleck.
2 January 2008
17 weeks 3 days
what a bummer i loved lipstick jungle nbc has lost so many viewers in recent yaers
29 May 2008
7 weeks 6 days
I agree with you gush, that they have lost a lot of viewers.
It seems that NBC hasn't been the powerhouse it once was since Seinfeld/Friends/Will & Grace went off the air. They used to focus on really good sitcoms (Cosby Show/Cheers), but now there are way too many nights of Deal or No Deal and other garbage.
Then again, every network has their own brand of turkey on the air too. I really wish they would move away from the stone age with the Nielsens and take into account DVR usage instead.
15 July 2008
5 days 14 hours
I am more bummed that NBC canceled my own worst enemy. It was on on the wrong night IMHO.