"Viva Laughlin": Is the Singing Becoming a Dirty Little Secret?

Every network has a show that the critics love to take shots at during Press Tour week.

For CBS, that show is “Viva Laughlin.” And CBS is really not helping the situation…

If you’ve only seen the recent commercials for the show, then you don’t know what’s becoming its dirty little secret. It has characters who sing.

Even the show’s executive producer went to great lengths to say the show is not a musical. “We’re a dramatic television show with music…We’re telling story first. We need to have solid story to tell, and then we use the music to enhance that.”

One of the show’s stars, D.B. Woodside, tried to defend that stance even further. “It’s not a musical because there’s never a character or actor who bursts into song. Every time a character sings, it’s more revealing about who that character is. It’s not because we’re trying to run away from it.”

D.B., I love you. But have you even watched the show? I would totally call Hugh Jackman getting out of a helicopter and singing “Please allow me to introduce myself” as bursting into song.

Interestingly, the 14 commercials for “Viva” during the Tonys all featured singing, hoping to appeal to Broadway fans. But I think that those who may have been intrigued by the spots will be disappointed when they see that the actors sing along to the original tracks (It is pretty lame.).

What this all boils down to is that CBS is trying to avoid the “Cop Rock” stigma. Since I liked “Cop Rock” and I want the best for D.B., I’m going to withhold my judgement…

And since I mentioned “Cop Rock,” this gives me the perfect opportunity to share one of my favorite YouTube clips with you. And yes, that’s Paul McCrane, better known as Dr. Romano from “ER” (or Graem Bauer on “24”)…