The Beautiful Life

''The Beautiful Life'' (also known as ''The Beautiful Life: TBL'') is an American teen drama television series, which ran on The CW from September 16 to September 23, 2009. The series starred Mischa Barton, Elle Macpherson, Sara Paxton, and Corbin Bleu. It revolved around a group of male and female models sharing a residence in New York City. Mike Kelley served as the showrunner for the series, based on the script by former model-turned-writer Adam Giaudrone, and Ashton Kutcher was the executive producer. The CW ordered 13 episodes for the first season.

On September 25, 2009, ''The Beautiful Life'' was canceled after two episodes due to low ratings. This was the first network television cancellation of the 2009–10 television season. Six full episodes were produced, while the cancellation came during the filming of the seventh episode. On November 17, 2009, ''The New York Daily News'' reported that the CW planned to air the remaining completed episodes during the summer months. However, a CW spokesperson stated that "the status of unaired episodes has yet to be determined", and as of now, the remaining episodes remain unaired.

The first five (of six reportedly produced) episodes were streamed on YouTube, with Kutcher stating, in December 2009, "What we feel like we're doing is creating, in some ways, an industry first.... A show that couldn't find its legs on television, we believe can find its legs on the Web." The five episodes, when they first streamed, had been sponsored by HP.

Cast and characters

Main cast

* Mischa Barton as Sonja Stone – A supermodel, who has returned to the fashion scene after a mysterious disappearance for the (secret) birth of her daughter
* Sara Paxton as Raina Marinelli – An aspiring model, who instantly rises to fame
* Ben Hollingsworth as Chris Andrews – A newly appointed model, who is new to the fashion world.
* Corbin Bleu as Isaac Taylor – A once child model who aspires to a career as a DJ.
* Nico Tortorella as Cole Shepherd – A rising underwear model
* Ashley Madekwe as Marissa Delfina – A socialite and backstabbing model
* Elle Macpherson as Claudia Foster – The owner of Covet Models and a mother figure to the models

Recurring

Jaime Murray played a powerful wardrobe stylist, announced as a recurring character who would be eyeing Isaac. Ed Quinn would have played Claudia's husband, and Gal Gadot was cast to play Olivia, a Gisele Bündchen-type supermodel, but neither got the chance after the show's sudden cancellation. Billy Magnussen appeared as Alex, brother to Raina, in what was intended to be a multiple-episode arc.

Guest stars

The first episode shows the models at a Zac Posen runway show at New York Fashion Week, where Posen guest stars. ''Marie Claire'' fashion director and ''Project Runway'' judge Nina Garcia had a small cameo in the second episode. Designers Matthew Williamson and Erin Fetherston were also set guest star alongside model Jessica Stam. Model Irina Lazareanu made an appearance in the pilot as did ''So You Think You Can Dance Canada'' season 1 winner, Nico Archambault and model Boyd Holbrook. Claire Unabia and Mila Bouzinova from Cycle 10 and Cycle 9 of America's Next Top Model respectively made a special appearance at the Nina Garcia's party in episode 2.

Production notes

The show was largely filmed on location in New York City. Studio interiors were filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios, Queens, New York.

In order to give the show an authentic look and feel, the show's producers negotiated a number of product placement deals and other agreements with various designers and fashion houses. This allowed the costume department to secure the loan of a wide range of genuine designer outfits and accessories for the cast to wear.

Prior to the start of production, as part of her preparations for the role of Sonja Stone, Mischa Barton had her ears pierced for the very first time. This was required in order to comply with one of the product placement deals that the producers of the show had negotiated with various high-end fashion designers. One of the terms of this deal was that Barton's character would wear the designer's earrings and, as most of the earrings were made for pierced ears, Barton had to have her ears pierced especially in order to wear them.

Promotion

''The Beautiful Life'' was heavily promoted through the cast's and producer's Twitter with promotional photos of Sara Paxton, Corbin Bleu, and Ashley Madekwe appearing semi naked with the tag line "What are you looking at?". ''The Beautiful Life'' was heavily promoted during New York Fashion Week and through ''New York'' magazine. In a very targeted mailing, 4,000 high profile contacts in the fashion and media worlds got a polybagged edition of ''New York'' magazine featuring those semi naked shots of the cast and then, during Fashion Week, copies of ''New York'' featuring an ad spread and the naughty nudes were handed out in the show tents. The show also received some unplanned publicity due to Mischa Barton's medical issues in the weeks leading up to the start of production.

Ratings and cancellation

The series premiere did poorly with 1.38 million viewers, and a 0.6/2 in Adults 18–49, 0.8/2 in Adults 18–34, and 1.1/3 in Women 18–34. The second episode also drew in low numbers, with a 0.6/2 rating with adults 18–49, with only 1.1 million viewers. The show was officially cancelled on September 25, 2009, due to the poor reception.

Reception

On Metacritic the series received a score of 40 out of 100 based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average review". Glenn Garvin of ''The Miami Herald

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