Truth Campaign Explores Broadway Musical-Style Entertainment

There was this TV show a while ago from Steven Bocho, who gave us NYPD Blue, called Cop Rock. In the show, which was a serious police drama, the character would suddenly break out in song Broadway style. The show didn't last long. On last night's Boston Legal, guest star Scott Bakula serenades Candice Bergin. While Bakula might be a great actor, we quickly fast forwarded until the cheesiness was over. Musical scenarios like this happen all the time. Unfortunately, they mostly never work.

So it was with a bit of queasiness we viewed a new American Legacy Foundation truth spot in which two teens, in front of a tobacco company headquarters, unroll a giant document with the names of five million people who are said to have died from tobacco product in the last year. The two teens then, yes, break out in song accompanied by a bunch of animated typewriters and white out because, ya know, five million people...that can't be right. It has to be a typo.

Hmm. Maybe Derek Beckles wasn't so bad.