Inspiration meets innovation at Brandweek, the ultimate marketing experience. Join industry luminaries, rising talent and strategic experts in Phoenix, Arizona this September 23–26 to assess challenges, develop solutions and create new pathways for growth. Register early to save.
Joining Darin Stephens of Bewitched, Miles Drentell of thirtysomething and Amanda Woodward of Melrose Place is Jack McLaren of The Closer.
The new sitcom stars Tom Selleck as McLaren, Ed Asner as a creative director (!) and Penelope Ann Miller as an accountant. Together they make up the Denver office of a “big” agency until they lose their largest client-the U.S. Army-and, as a result, their jobs. So McLaren decides to open his own shop with his newly unemployed colleagues.
Realism does not appear to be part of The Closer’s agenda. At one point, for instance, McLaren tells a prospective client that it’s OK if he doesn’t hire him. The client laughs it off as reverse psychology and gives him the account anyway.
Aaron Reitkopf, director of account management at Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, New York, was unimpressed with the show. “They should consider adding a dog or a baby,” was his constructive criticism.
The Closer (a print ad for the show is shown here) debuted last Monday on CBS in the 9 p.m. EST slot.
-Andrew McMains
