NBC’s ‘Sound Of Music’ Sounded Good To Me

As a boy, no movie made a greater impression on me than The Sound of Music, with the exception of Gone with the Wind and maybe also McHale’s Navy. (All three, it now occurs to me now, feature captains: von Trapp, Butler and Binghamton).

I was enthralled by the story of the von Trapps and the Alpine world in which they lived. And I soon learned to sing “Edelweiss,” the simple waltz that single-handedly saved Austria from complete ignominy for its role in WW II. (We weren’t all Nazis, it says.)

And how about those clever, singing nuns? As a Catholic school kid, I bought into their ability to foil the Nazis by pulling the distributor caps from their cars. Nuns, I knew, could do anything.

So, there was no way I was going to miss NBC’s Big Event last night. (I confess that I got there 45 minute late, which was good since I had recorded it and was able to zap commercials I wasn’t interested in.)

For the most part, the critics were not kind.

They skewered Carrie Underwood for her failure to generate much chemistry with Stephen Moyer, who played the captain, and to keep pace dramatically with the Broadway vets in other key roles. And they didn’t think much of Moyer.

NBC made much of the fact that the broadcast was live. But as the AP’s Mark Kennedy pointed out, the production was “often strangely lifeless, with the crack and zing of being live rarely transmitting through the screen.”

The Washington Post critic Hank Stuever noticed a “weird sonic hiss” that was apparent when the music wasn’t playing. So did I.

I would add that it was probably a mistake to cleave so closely to the original stage production. Some of the songs that were cut in the movie should have been cut in the TV version. And the stagey pacing didn’t work on TV.

In the early going, the producers seemed to be challenging viewers to hit the remote.

The show opened in the oppressive abbey with lots of dark shadows. And Maria’s big opening number was muted by the setting — not a mountain top, but a claustrophobic forest on the side of a mountain. I suppose that was the best they could do in the Long Island sound stage that stood in for Austria.

On the other hand, as several critics pointed out, those who tuned in hoping for a car wreck on live TV were disappointed. No one stumbled down the staircase.

All in all, it was a remarkable multi-camera production. Some of the scene changes, like the penultimate one to the folk festival, were brilliant.

Underwood and Moyer may not be great actors, but whenever their performances lagged, one of those great Rodgers and Hammerstein tunes turned up and all was well. Underwood delivered on every song, especially her duet with Audra McDonald, the Mother Abbess. Moyer redeemed himself for any shortcomings during his big “Edelweiss” moment.

So, I’ll stand with the minority of critics and the 18.5 million viewers who liked it just fine.

Whatever they thought of the production, NBC affiliates should be pleased with the ratings — 4.6/13 in adults 18-49 across the three hours, according to the overnights. Those numbers translated into NBC’s biggest non-sports Thursday night in three years. The broadcast trounced everything but the half hour of The Big Bang Theory on CBS.

The affiliates should be pleased whenever the network takes a chance on big live events. Such programming has always been important to broadcasting and never more so than today.

NBC certainly realizes this.

“With so much [TV] now being watched on DVRs and through video-on-demand, the need for live telecasts is greater than ever,” NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke told Ad Age. “We must give a reason for viewers to feel like if they miss a live event, they will miss out on the conversation the next day.”

NBC was smart to carve out a Sunday night football game for itself. And The Voice is nothing other than a series of big live events. Its live primetime game show, Million Second Quiz, flopped this season, but it is expanding its real-time portfolio next year with The People Magazine Awards and a revival of the American Comedy Awards.

I don’t think that Underwood’s Sound of Music is strong enough to become a perennial holiday favorite, but I could be wrong. You never know what’s going to stick. It’s a Wonderful Life was a box office flop and A Christmas Story was a trifle when it was released in 1983.

In any case, the show looks like a financial winner. NBC spent a reported $9 million to produce it, and, from what we have heard, was charging advertisers on average at least $240,000 per 30 seconds. At that rate, the network should have at least covered the production cost, if not the heavy promotion.

So cheer up, affiliates. The holidays are upon us, and last night’s broadcast is hard evidence that the reverse comp dollars that you have been grudgingly handing over to the network are being well spent.

And aren’t you glad Rolf didn’t blow the whistle of the von Trapps — literally — as he did in the movie?

Harry A. Jessell is editor of TVNewsCheck. He can be contacted at 973-701-1067 or [email protected]. You can read earlier columns here.