Each week, I take a look back at a pilot from the 2010-11 season, first reviewed on my blog during that season. This week, I am looking at ABC's three season drama Body of Proof!
The Details:
Premiered: March 29, 2011 on ABC
Starring: Dana Delany, Jeri Ryan, John Carroll Lynch, Nicholas Bishop, Sonja Sohn, Geoffrey Arend, Wendell D. Middlebrooks
Created by: Christopher Murphey
What I Thought Then:
"[It is] somewhat intriguing but the truth is that it is a generic procedural."
"In the pilot, they made a somewhat unlikely jump to the conclusion almost as if they ran out of time on the story."
"[Dana Delany] elevates the material and the performances around her... she gives the character a vulnerability and depth that makes her an intriguing lead."
"Right now, it's trying to be a medical drama, crime drama and drama in general with the back story. It will need to balance all three to be successful."
What Others Said:
"The show will ultimately sink or swim on its protagonist, and while it's a long way back to her TV medicine internship on China Beach, Delany can still make scrubs and dialogue about fatal drug combinations and post-mortem wounds sound surprisingly interesting." - Brian Lowry, Variety
"While Delany's obviously too good for her show, the later episodes offer at least some evidence it might be able to rise a little closer to her level." - Robert Bianco, USA Today
"Body of Proof doesn't break any new ground as a procedural and has more than enough hokey moments to make you look elsewhere. But as a case study of how and why star vehicles get made, this is textbook." - Tim Goodman, The Hollywood Reporter
"Body of Proof feels like a show that has been nibbled to death by network ducks. You can almost see the TV executive post-it notes on the screen." - Verne Gay, Newsday
"Murphey and the writers will have to do a lot of heavy lifting for Body of Proof to transcend its immediate predictability. There's only so much Delany can do with a cardboard show." - Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times
What I Think Now:
Watching this pilot, the best description I could give it is "Elsbeth without the fun or cool villain" Elsbeth is a very lighthearted, often quite comedic show that has a murder every episode usually committed by a notable guest star. Body of Proof has the other trappings of Elsbeth and many others: the brilliant outsider who is a thorn in the side to the actual police detectives (and is always right when they are almost always wrong), the "gotcha" moment where the killer gets confronted, the prototype of the brilliant woman who can solve every case but can't get her personal life in order and the side stories that don't always land. Maybe Body of Proof was more akin to another procedural on the air now: High Potential but even that show has a lot more fun. Despite a few attempts at lightheartedness, Body of Proof was downright dreary and self important for much of its episode. I think it's the self important quality that is my favorite evolution of many broadcast procedurals now. When your main character says lines like "the body is in the proof" and it's done with complete sincerity, you know this is a show that takes itself way too seriously. Dana Delany does what she can with the material but this very much had a paint by numbers feel to it.
What Happened to the Show:
For the 2010-11 season, ABC originally had plans to air Body of Proof on Fridays at 9pm in the fall but it never got a premiere date and as the weeks went by and ABC's other new dramas (No Ordinary Family, Detroit 1-8-7, The Whole Truth, My Generation) struggled, it became clear that Proof was not going to air on Friday and instead get a timeslot upgrade in the spring. By the time it actually premiered in March in the former Detroit timeslot (Tuesdays at 10pm), all of ABC's new shows including some midseason ones were either cancelled or on their last legs. Reviews were mixed at best (56 on Metacritic) but Body of Proof benefited from being the last show to enter the race when all the other shows had flopped. It improved on the Detroit 1-8-7 number and was a pretty easy renewal even without the "saving face" element. It returned to Tuesdays at 10pm the next fall and aired a full season where ratings were down but still respectable so it got a third season but was held for midseason. It returned again to Tuesdays at 10pm with a creative reboot, replacing the ending Private Practice but ratings were down quite a bit and it was cancelled. At three seasons, it was one of the more successful shows from the 2010-11 season. Dana Delany was a bigger name at the time but hasn't done as much in the years since.
Final Episode: May 28, 2013
Episode Count: 42
Where to Watch: Hulu/Disney+, available for purchase on DVD
I'm excited to be contributing to The TV Ratings Guide! You can read my regular work at Benjamonster's TV!
