The other day I came across a story that was high on Yahoo’s “trending” list, about how Neil Patrick Harris and his family celebrated
Halloween. And I thought: When did the life of Neil Patrick Harris become so interesting that no day seems to go by without a story about him?
There were stories about him just
this morning. This new round of “NPH” bulletins had to do with a new NBC variety show he’s going to host. NBC announced the show last week, on Oct. 27, which became another banner
day for Neil Patrick Harris stories, even though this show has no title, premiere date or time slot.
But it does have Neil Patrick Harris, who is quoted in today’s round of NPH
stories vowing that this new variety show will never use non-union writers. The subject apparently arose because the production company that is partnering with NBC on the production of this unnamed
show -- ITV Studios America – has reportedly been locked in some sort of continuing struggle with the Writers Guild.
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So Neil Patrick Harris tweeted his promise to use union writers only
and voila! -- NPH stories were splashed all over the Internet, again. The stories about this tweet noted that Neil Patrick Harris has 11 million followers on Twitter. (To put that figure
in perspective, it’s 10,999,843 more followers than I have. )
The day after his new variety show was announced, Harris turned up on “Charlie Rose,” where he revealed his
“five-year plan” to become the new Ed Sullivan. The quote that all the stories focused on was this: “In a perfect world, in five years, I’m Ed Sullivan,” he is reported
to have said
The quote indicates his ambition to evolve from actor-and-entertainer to master of ceremonies -- a role in which he would be positioned a rung above mere actors and entertainers
as their overseer and wrangler.
Neil Patrick Harris is 41. And up until last spring, he was known primarily as an actor on a CBS sitcom, “How I Met Your Mother,” which ran for nine
seasons. Along the way, he hosted the Emmy Awards and the Tony Awards, and his popularity grew. Now, he’s so well-regarded as an awards-show host that he has been named to host next year’s
Oscars.
In case you weren’t on Yahoo a few days ago and didn’t see the Harris Halloween story, Harris and his family -- husband David Burtka and their two children -- dressed up as
Batman characters. Harris was costumed as the Riddler.
Somehow (I’m being sarcastic here), a photo appeared of Harris and his family in costume and suddenly, “stories”
appeared all over the place. “See Neil Patrick Harris and Family Dressed Up As Batman Characters” read the headline on one such “story,” on Time.com. Yes, that’s
the Web site of Time magazine, whose editors once upon a time would not have been caught dead even considering such a photo for publication.
Today, though, headlines that invite Web
visitors to “see” a photo or “watch” a video or “read” a list of some sort are all the rage, which is easy to understand: Web features of this type draw a lot more
traffic than any number of actual “stories” do on Web sites such as Time.com.
NBC’s announcement about Harris’ new show said 10 episodes would be produced in its
initial phase. That’s a far cry from “The Ed Sullivan Show,” which ran for 24 seasons and produced 1,068 episodes.
But everyone has to start somewhere.