TV Guidance

Jaime Weinman writes about all kinds of television and other kinds of popular culture. He does not write Gossip Girl episode reviews. Follow Jaime on Twitter: @weinmanj

Categories: TV Guidance

The CUPID Curse

by Jaime Weinman on Friday, May 29, 2009 4:56pm - 4 Comments

Here’s how things have gone down:

- Paula Marshall got a reputation as a “show killer” because she starred in a lot of bombs like Cupid.

- Last season, she finally landed a lead role in a show that got renewed for a second season: Gary Unmarried.

- Asked to name the person who would inherit Paula’s mantle as Show Killer, Destroyer of Shows, I decided that the best candidate is Sarah Paulson, who has starred in several shows that bombed: Leap of Faith, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip… and the very season that Paula beat the curse, Sarah starred in a bomb called… Cupid! (Yes, she had a recurring role in the second season of Deadwood, but many show killers have managed to land small or recurring roles in non-flops; Paula Marshall had a recurring role in the second season of Spin City.)

From this we can draw only one conclusion: there must always be one Show Killer in the land, and the vessel for the transference of Show Killer status is Cupid. Who will play the female lead in the inevitable third version of Cupid, and thereby be doomed to wander the networks until Jay Mohr can save them?

Of course all of this, like the very idea of a “show killer,” is mistaking luck (an actress happens to be unlucky in the shows she gets) for destiny. But arguing over whether something is luck or destiny is what the Cupid franchise was all about. Which just proves that it’s destiny!

But now we know what Sam Raimi’s next movie will be: a casting director denies a role to an old gypsy woman and is cursed to star in a remake of Cupid.

Tags: Cupid, Paula Marshall, Sarah Paulson

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http://www.tv-eh.com Diane

Hey, I think Deadwood is just another example of her powers. Didn’t people think it died too soon? What better excuse than that a showkiller made an appearance rather than that John From Cincinnati took precedence.

Oh, and this post is both hilarious and further evidence that we have our winner: torch officially passed to Paulson.
Jorge Garrido

Sarah Paulson was also in Frank Miller’s Will Eisner’s The Spirit, which bombed at the box office and was ravaged by the critics.

And they call ME the murderer…
http://flyingtotems.blogspot.com/ Ben J

Interesting that you put Ted McGinley at the top of the post. He and Paula Marshall were both on Sports Night. Now Ted was on the first season, so he couldn’t be accused of show-killing. Paula, on the other hand, was in some of the last episodes, so I guess it could go down as a black mark on her record. She still played her pornstar character pretty well, though.
Andrew Potter

Wasn’t Tea Leoni once considered a show killer? I thought I recall reading that once, but looking at her IMDB page, it looks more like she’s just had a pretty quiet career.