Los Angeles – As Tommy Lee goes to college, NBC goes through a new phase of the reality genre.
“It changes every year because the genre is evolving,” says Jeff Gaspin, who is in charge of NBC’s cable networks and has supervised its reality shows.
In “Tommy Lee Goes to College,” premiering at 8 p.m. Tuesday (KUSA-Channel 9), the motley drummer for Mötley Crüe catches classes at the University of Nebraska.
The show blends neatly into the new season. The final night of “Tommy Lee” (Sept. 13) is the first night for a new season of “The Biggest Loser,” a weight-loss reality show. Soon after that comes “Three Wishes,” a feel-good reality show led by singer Amy Grant.
“What we’re doing is playing with the reality genre,” says Kevin Reilly, president of NBC.
NBC’s first reality shows had ordeals and challenges – some of them nasty. “With ‘Fear Factor’ and ‘Dog Eat Dog,’ we thought we were speaking to what the audience wanted in reality shows,” Gaspin says.
Then came signs that the reality audience also wanted the exact opposite – feel-good shows. ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” soared. NBC’s “Biggest Loser” and Pax’s “Cold Turkey” did well.
Now comes some more fresh turf for NBC, via a rock ‘n’ roll drummer. “Tommy Lee has been a reality-show fan,” Reilly says. “He told us he wanted to do a show.” The first idea was to simply have the cameras follow him, but network officials wanted there to be more to this one.
Then, Craig Plestis, NBC’s reality-show chief, says, Lee said he wanted to go to college.
“I took him out in the hallway and said, ‘I don’t believe you,”‘ Plestis says. “He looked at me and said, ‘Sir, I want to go to college.”‘
Lee still has a negative image, mainly because he has been incarcerated, in a lurid home video and in tempestuous marriages and relationships. That happens to drummers sometimes.
“His bad-boy image is in the past,” Reilly says. “He’s a terrific guy.” Plestis agrees. “He’s a genuinely nice guy.” So the producers sent him to Middle America – Nebraska – and that meant a lot of scrambling.
“‘Tommy Lee’ is our first sitcom reality show,” Gaspin says.
“There’s a lot more setup involved with the humor.” Some of that is explained in disclaimers that whir by at the end of the show: Lee attended classes but didn’t officially enroll.
“He was prepped (on the class material),” Plestis says. “And trust me, those tests he was taking were real.”
Oddly, the toughest test may have been the one to get into the marching band. A guy who has made millions drumming was dazzled by the intricacies of playing a drum set strapped to his waist.
“He got so frustrated by that,” Plestis says.
