Granted MatthewShiner, "On Tonight's Smash, a dry tech to end all dry techs . . . what will happen when the bedroom set stops moving upstage in a nail biting 15 seconds of terror." doesn't sound very stimulating, but I'm not suggesting that the SM or the minutiae of a real production become the primary focus of the series - but a little reality (with a little 'Gee, is that how that is done?' for the punters) would be nice, too.
The drama of seeing "On tonight's SMASH, everyone beds everyone else, Julia has a hissy fit because she's afraid she can't keep her libido in check and nearly kills off the show before Ellis has a chance to poison Rebecca", sounds more like a bad opera (or a particularly fraught episode of Dynasty) than anything resembling reality. And that makes it hard to find a good story, well told, by people you care about (for good or bad) in the series. It's just disappointing that this opportunity to show off our business has become so soapy.
Meanwhile, I'm not familiar with the detective series regarding the British Stage Manager, but I do know that the Stage Manager to Actor-Manager Sir Henry Irving had some success with a little novel called Dracula...