If you who work for a dating site, founded a dating site, or are thinking about starting one, this post is for you. “The LEK” is a sitcom pilot about a fictional online dating site called The LEK. The episode focuses on the dating site company during the time period leading up to the big launch.
After watching the brief trailer, I was skeptical about how the show would unfold. I’m glad I stuck it out. Being on the inside of the dating industry made the show that much more entertaining. Launch parties, geeks in the server room, supposedly clueless people brought to provide adult supervision and the usual cast of office characters rounded out what could be a funny show, although there’s got to be a serious alignment of the stars for that to happen.
Dave Kurtz produced The LEK, along with quite an interesting cast of characters. Colleen Fitzpatrick plays the CEO of the dating company. The Myspace crowd may know her as popstar Vitamin C, or as the singer of Eve’s Plum. Other cast members include David S. Jung, World
Air Guitar Champion and David Earl Waterman as the So-Cal surfer dude installed at Chairman by his father. Bonus learning round- I was not aware that the United Arab Emirates has their own Air Guitar Championships.
I did a pilot dating show on ABC last year, which actually aired, but didn’t get picked up for syndication, and I know how rough-cut they can be. The idea is similar to a business plan, to get network execs interested enough to fund a few episodes with higher production values, refine the storyline, sometimes even bring in different actors. In the case of The LEK, they’ve got the general casting done pretty well and the productions values were ok.
Having seen this particular scenario of startup angst played out many times over, it’s refreshing to see things from a different perspective. Supposedly, Kurtz has been reading this blog for a few years now to figure out what concepts would work for the show. Dave, how about a cameo and a credit?
A show like this has to work hard to have any sort of staying power. Once a dating site launches, it’s all marketing and A-B testing, monitoring server load and search engine optimization. How fun is that to watch? If they pull back from the daily nitty-gritty of running a business, they have to rely on a solid cast and great screenwriting to keep the story lines fresh. The pilot introduces some relationships that blossom, new cast members can always be introduced and the usual screenwriter stuff that goes on behind the scenes that keeps a show going for more than 13 episodes.
I attended several premiers in NYC of similar pilots back in the late 90’s, basically rags to riches 21 year olds with VC money and Aeron chairs acting like clueless businesspeople with fantastic NYC nightlife as the undercurrent to keep things interesting. Bare shoulders, Williamsburg hipsters wearing Manolo Blahnik and imbibing healthy doses of Cristal kept the audience in their seats until the free booze ran out.
UPN’s Love, Inc. is the only show I can think of that’s even close. And the LEK starts out with a better story line. Different perspective, but closer to the real thing when it comes to the pitfalls of starting a dating site company.
My absolute favorite example, and something The LEK would do well to pay attention to, is the IT Crowd, a show about British IT workers that is the perfect spot-on blend of British humor with a geek flavor and absurdity thrown in to keep the pace moving along.
For The 60-second streaming trailer is here. Skip it and watch the complete 20-minute pilot at YouTube. Here’s the torrent for all you pro downloaders.
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