TCA:Cross-Dressing Comedy 'Work It' Steals The Spotlight At ABC's Executive Session

At the end of ABC's TCA executive panel, president Paul Lee admitted that he had asked a network PR executive beforehand, "Shall I go out in a dress?" That probably would've been appropriate given that ABC's new cross-dressing comedy Work It, which has not even been scheduled yet, emerged as the main attraction at the Q&A session even somewhat overshadowing the official announcement of Desperate Housewives coming to an end. The first mention of the Bosom Buddies-esque multi-camera comedy starring Ben Koldyke and Amaury Nolasco as out-of-work car salesmen who dress as women to get jobs as pharmaceutical reps, came when Lee was asked to discuss the network's new crop of comedies. When he got to Work It, the British-born Lee said, "It was in my contract that I have to do one cross-dressing show a year, I was brought up on Monty Python." Later on he was asked about a trend of many new shows featuring central characters who are orphans that harkens back to Victorian times and Charles Dickens. While admitting that he didn't notice an orphan pattern in picking up series, Lee noted, "We don't sit there and think, 'Work It! That goes all the way back to Shakespeare!'" After all that, appropriately, the last question of the session, attended mainly by TV critics, was about Work It, and the Shakespeare and Monty Python comparisons. "When you pick up pilots, there are many reasons," Lee said. "Sometimes you pick up a pilot just because it absolutely makes you cackle with laughter, and that was the case with Work It. I make absolutely no excuses for that show. We didnt think this room would like it and I dont think we have a problem with that."