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Posts tagged as “Pilots”

The CW 2010: It’s for dudes too

The CW 2010: It’s for dudes too

For my first blog back on A TV Calling 2.0, I will try to continue the trend talking about what teenagers like, to Alex’s great dismay.

And what they (seem to) like is The CW. Born from the merger of The WB and UPN, The CW is equally the property of Time Warner and CBS Entertainment. All of their pilots in development are produced by both their production arms, Warner Bros. TV and CBS Paramount TV. Problem is, since fall of 2006, the netlet barely produced an original hit, focusing on the sure bets of both the WB and UPN. So, it carried the last seasons of “Gilmore Girls”, “Everybody Hates Chris”, “7th Heaven”.

The only sure-fire hit born under the CW banner is “Gossip Girl”. And one can argue that this show is mainly watched by female teenagers. And yes, this season has brought us “The Vampire Diaries”, who is also targeting the same female viewership, and whose showrunners’ mission is to try and not resemble “Twilight” too much. If you think I’m joking, go read this Paley Festival recap.


But for this fourth season on air, both those hits can be attributed to luck, and hide a network who has trouble expanding the soap-opera fare, and more crucially, beyond female viewers. It brought back “90210” last year and “Melrose Place” this year, but the scandal-ridden storylines barely mesmerized viewers. One is struggling in its second season, and suffered a showrunner switch in the middle of the first season, and the other returned last week to catastrophic ratings. It’s not expected to make it past this season, a shame when you know the original series lasted seven seasons.

So Dawn Ostroff, The CW’s President of Entertainment, decided to take drastic measures: having male viewers back to The CW. What better than a highly-trained female assassin played by the cutie from Die Hard 4? Yep, “La Femme Nikita” is about to be resurrected with Maggie Q as the lead. And Lyndsy Fonseca (“Desperate Housewives”, the upcoming “Kick-Ass”) is to play her hunter, a 19-year old felon that makes a deal with a secret organization (what else?) to escape a lengthy prison sentence. It sounds good and all, but don’t forget that they can make it lighter, a la “Alias”, than the original USA Network show. But ass-kicking females playing cat and mouse is sure to bring back boys to the yard.


Another pilot, still untitled and penned by Amy Sherman-Palladino, centers on a hunky horse trainer that becomes the patriarch of his parent’s Wyoming ranch after the parents die. And “Nomads”, produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, features globetrotters working undercover missions for the CIA. This last one sounds more FOX-like than CW-like. But it’s all about finding a hit outside their comfort zone, or this could spell the end of Dawn Ostroff’s tenure of the netlet.
Or it could be just a bluff move, where none of the shows are picked up and Ostroff’s people decide to go with companion shows to “Vampire Diaries”, like “Betwixt”, or “Grey’s Anatomy”-lite like “HMS” (Harvard Medical School).

TV Mid-Season '010: The Complete Review – What is new

We almost got side-tracked by the Oscars, didn’t we?
No worries, I’ve got you covered on the new series coming your way in the next few months.

New and shiny. Will you tune in?


– Miami Medical (premieres April 2): At first you might think we’re talking about NBC’s Trauma (hell, the show was even first named Miami Trauma), but the truth is, it’s a riveting original new medical drama unlike any other. Except all the others. Lana Parrilla stars in this soon-to-be-canned new series. Did someone say three for three? If there’s one thing to point out however, is that the show was created by residuals-millionaire Jeffrey Lieber (yes, that one).


– Parenthood (premieres March 2): Is it really Modern Family meets Brothers & Sisters? If anything, the cast is incredible. However with that said, I wasn’t overly impressed by the pilot but I’ll stay tuned to see if it does get better.
– Persons Unknown (premieres June 7): Created by Oscar-winner Christopher McQuarrie (thanks to a little film called The Usual Suspects), this new mystery drama is about a bunch of amnesiacs waking up in an unknown location. Who are they? Where are we? Add an island, flashbacks, a smoke monster and, well, you know where I’m going with this.

The Big Unknown
Day One (Spring): What a ride it has been. First it was an event series premiering post-Olympics, then an event mini-series, and now a backdoor-pilot/TV-movie with (still!) no premiere date. No need to pull the plug on this one, the cord has already firmly secured the neck.


– Happy Town (premieres April 28): No, I’m not going to make a Twin Peaks joke. The pilot was pretty much a bore and a waste of its great cast (more Amy Acker!).

The Big Unknown
Copper (Spring): Grey’s Anatomy, but with cops. How original.


– Sons of Tucson (premieres March 14): It’s been promoted for almost a year, the pilot leaked ages ago, and it’s only premiering now. Don’t ask if it’s going to blend, ask if it’s going to last.
– The Good Guys (fka Code 58/The Five Eight) (premieres June 7): Bradley Whitford with a ‘stache, Matt Nix behind the typewriter, and Colin Hanks as the snarky rookie. Do I hear Starsky & Hutch meets badassery?


– The Pacific (premieres March 14): You know you’ve been waiting for it for a decade. It’s finally here.
– Treme (premieres April 11): Will it be The Wire: New Orleans, or something else? In either case, people will declare it snubbed at the 2011 Emmys.


– Justified (premieres March 16): By Graham Yost, with Timothy Olyphant and Natalie Zea. This looks like another FX winner to me. Despite all of this though, the pitch doesn’t appeal to me.


– The Phantom (premieres in June): We’ve already taken a look at this backdoor-pilot. A trailer is also out there. If you’re not really interested, let me just add that it was written by non other than Daniel Knauf (from Carnivàle fame). Now are you gonna watch?

This mid-season certainly has an “edge” to it…

Back in bold

A few NBC news stories surfaced today, such as the networking ordering Madagascar and Monsters vs. Aliens specials from DreamWorks Animation.

NBC will air its “Monsters” half-hour special on Oct. 28, with voices by Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland and Rainn Wilson. “Merry Madagascar” will air Nov. 17, with voices by Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Cedric The Entertainer, Carl Reiner and Andy Richter.

There was also this spec pilot by Felicity’s J.J. Abrams & Josh Reims which got sold to the highest bidder, the peacock. Reims is most known for his work on family-centered dramas such as Brothers & Sisters and Dirty Sexy Money.
The still-untitled show sounds like a Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The Series: Spy Edition. Indeed, it centers around two spies, husband and wife. Not much else is known though.

There’s also some business news with Comcast supposedly on the verge of acquiring NBC Universal, even though both parties are currently qualifying these “rumors” as “inaccurate.”

Chez FX, unsurprisingly both Terriers and Lights Out just got their 13-episode series orders.
We’ve already seen what both those series entailed, though if you have a short memory span, just know that the former, by Shawn Ryan and Ted Griffin, stars Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James as an ex-cop and his BFF hot-shot starting their own unlicensed PI business.
As for Lights Out:

[It centers] around a former heavyweight boxing champion with pugilistic dementia (a disorder slowly leading to complete memory loss) struggling to support his family, including his wife, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. The boxer is also forced to become a debt enforcer.
The pilot was co-written by The Bucket List’s Justin Zackham and Phillip Noyce and the show described as more family-centered à la Sopranos than The Shield.

Holt McCallany plays the leading man, Patrick “Lights” Leary.
Terriers and Lights Out are respectively scheduled for a summer and late 2010 premiere.
By picking up all of its six pilots this season, FX is trying to regain its lost momentum by introducing a new wave of original programming.

In other TV news, Melissa Joan Hart is returning to television (well, besides her dancing with the stars).
ABC Family has greenlit an untitled series by Bob Young & David Kendall, with Joseph Lawrence as a co-star. Joan Hart will play “Hailey, a political dynasty wild child-turned-politician who takes in her teenage niece and pre-adolescent nephew when her sister goes to prison and her brother-in-law flees. She turns for help to Jack (Lawrence), who, desperate for a job, moves in and becomes the family’s many.”

There’s also Spider-Man/Milk/Pineapple Express’ James Franco who is joining for two months the ABC soap drama General Hospital.
What the hell is he doing on a soap? Perhaps the pot finally got to his head.
Also, I thought he was in college. Does he have that much free time? Or does he need money?
Quick, someone give him a loan or something!

And finally, some good news:
Christopher Nolan’s Inception will come out on July 16, 2010 in IMAX!
Hell yes.