Upfronts on the down low

It used to be that you could judge if the advertising market was strong or weak by the type of beer the networks had at their upfront parties. If Heineken was on tap it meant things were looking up. If it was Budweiser, well ...

Next week we suggest bringing your own beer. While the networks have been scaling back on the grandiosity of their upfront dog-and-pony shows for the last few years, this time around the flash and glitz will be so dim it will seem as if the industry is incognito. Presentations to advertisers in advance of selling commercial inventory for the fall season once droned on for two-to-three hours, but now are pretty much kept to a clip of under 90 minutes. No complaints there.

The parties will be less grand as well. CBS, for example, is exiting tony Tavern on the Green in Central Park for Terminal Five, a locale on 11th Avenue and 56th Street whose main selling point may be its proximity to Larry Flynt's Hustler Club a block away. ABC's post-presentation party is for media buyers only at a Cheney-like undisclosed (to the press anyway) location. While Fox is still holding its party at Wollman Rink in Central Park, it has moved its presentation to a Monday school night from Thursday, where people tend to eat and booze as if it were Friday. That said, a Fox executive says there is not a cost-savings by moving the date. There will be more leftovers though.

Fewer executives and agents will be boarding jets from LAX to JFK in the next few days and those that are will be sitting in *gasp* coach instead of business class and taking cabs instead of town cars and anyone rubbernecking for stars will have more luck craning their necks upwards into the overcast Manhattan night sky.

Perhaps the biggest sign of the new economic reality this year is no William Morris party for the first time in almost a quarter of a century, back when the networks had a 90% share. The Monday night soiree--which until recently was held at "21" until it moved to the Four Seasons in a cost-saving move--always drew a fair amount of heavy hitters--every network president and studio chief as well an assortment of hangers-on. Sure, sorting out the merger with Endeavor probably made this shindig less of a priority, but if there was ever a time for a blow out this would appear to be it. 

From a business standpoint, this is the right message for the networks to send. Advertisers and media buyers are already hinting that this year's upfront take for the broadcast networks could be in the $7 billion range, a 20% drop from last year. The last thing these guys want to do is act like it's business as usual. Still, does this mean no shrimp?

--Joe Flint

'Parks and Recreation': Less funny than 'Joey'?

Here's how unfunny "Parks and Recreation" (7:30 p.m. Central Thursday, NBC; one star) is: There were episodes of "Joey" that were more amusing.

People bash "Joey" as the worst example of NBC's tendency to extend its franchises well beyond what is desirable or logical. Yet "Parks and Recreation" is a more dispiriting example of the same trend, because far more talent is going to waste on this show.

Nobody was really rooting for "Joey," the ill-advised post-"Friends" spinoff starring Matt LeBlanc. But it would be hard to find a critic who wasn't hoping that "Parks and Recreation" would succeed. For years, Amy Poehler was one of the best things about "Saturday Night Live." Clearly she has talent to spare, and the idea of her creating a comedy with writers Greg Daniels and Michael Schur of "The Office" seemed like an excellent idea.

Unfortunately that idea was not ready for prime time; Schur, Daniels and Poehler needed more time to marinate their ideas.

But NBC was bound and determined to have an Amy Poehler comedy on the air this season, and what co-chair Ben Silverman wants, he gets. The end result of all that rushing, however, is that much of "Parks and Recreation," which airs it season finale Thursday, comes off as half-baked and decidedly unfunny.

By this point in its life cycle, Daniels' version of "The Office," which also started with a six-episode tryout season, was showing quite a bit of promise. NBC has renewed "Parks and Recreation," but it's hard to see why. Then again, having forced this show on the air, executives at the network can hardly admit their mistake now.

The biggest problem is that Poehler's character, officious and dim parks bureaucrat Leslie Knope is as unappealing than she was in the first episode. Not once have I rooted for this strained character, who has more ambition than "The Office's" Michael Scott but none of his child-like charm. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that Poehler should be playing a smart if sometimes inept character --someone like Liz Lemon on “30 Rock” -- not a female Michael Scott with delusional political ambitions. 

The characters around Knope are still mostly bland, except for Leslie's assistant, Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), an obnoxious Lothario. Ansari brings plenty of energy to the role, but there's no depth to Haverford; he's just a collection of traits. 

One of the show's central premises makes less and less sense as time goes on. Rashida Jones is given little comedic material as community member Ann Perkins, who's trying to help Knope get a park built in town. It's hard to understand why Perkins spends so much time in Knope's orbit; surely no citizen was ever this involved in the building of a park. And given that Perkins, like the rest of the characters, doesn't appear to like Knope much, her constant presence is just strange.

The only good thing about the show so far is former Chicago actor Nick Offerman, who plays Leslie's boss, Ron Swanson. He has some dementedly comical ideas about government (it should consist of one man in a small room, whose only decisions concern "who to nuke").

Offerman never tries to be funny, which is part of why his character works. But every other part of "Parks and Recreation" reeks of flop sweat. It'll be interesting to see whether "Parks and Recreation" flops again next season. But given its structural problems, I can't see how the show's creative team will be able to build anything useful here.

Jay Mohr appears at San Jose Improv Thursday through Saturday
Jay Mohr works hard for laughs on stage and on television.
Broadway Producer Tapped For NEA

Broadway producer Rocco Landesman has been nominated to head the National Endowment for the Arts. Landesman's Jujamcyn company owns five Broadway theaters and his production credits include Angels in America and The Producers.