Feature: Primetime

The Knights of Prosperity

Let’s rob Mick Jagger, say the crooks called the Knights of Prosperity in this sitcom

Eugene Gurkin’s dreams have always exceeded his income, so when he serendipitously tunes into an episode of a TV tabloid entertainment show and sees Mick Jagger giving the viewers a tour of his New York apartment, including his hat room, the Manhattan janitor is inspired to recruit a motley gang he calls The Knights of Prosperity, to rob Jagger’s super-deluxe Central Park West home.

This is the bizarre premise for ABC’s new sitcom and, believe it or not, the producers actually persuaded the legendary singer to go along with it – well, to do a cameo for the pilot. “Mick’s a busy rock star,” Executive Producer Rob Burnett emphasizes, “so we’re hopeful to have him back. I know he had a great time doing the pilot. We flew to New Zealand to shoot his stuff there, because the Rolling Stones had just finished a huge tour in that part of the world. I believe he delayed his vacation a day or two for us, so he had every reason to be cranky and exhausted, but he couldn’t have been nicer or more professional. He had a lot of energy, and some of the gags came from him. But he’s certainly not a regular on the show. However, we will pursue the robbery of Mick Jagger, and that story will pay off this season. Next season it will be something different.”

Burnett is quick to stress that the Mick Jagger plot is just a means to an end. “This is a very odd workplace comedy. There’s this overarching goal of, ‘We need to rob Mick Jagger,’ but, in doing so, we explore all of these characters in detail and show different sides of them.”

“Part of the reason we wanted to do this show is that on a typical comedy you basically have to make things up from scratch every week,” adds Executive Producer Jon Beckerman.

by Judy Sloane

Read the full feature in
TV Zone #212

Photo © ABC
Feature © Visual Imagination 2007. Not for reproduction

Taken from

TV Zone #212
March 2007
ships from Jan 31 2007
News-stand Price
UK £3.99 / US $7.99

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