Rueben's Ramblings

So far this week I covered the dramas that are up for consideration at ABC, CBS and FOX for the upcoming 2013-2014 TV season; and now today I will focus on the dramas at NBC.

They are listed in alphabetical order below:

After Hours – The pilot is about a motley crew of rogue ex-Army surgeons (think M*A*S*H-meets-ER) that bring humor and rock-n-roll energy to the night shift at a chaotic trauma center in San Antonio, Texas.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah (90210) will write and executive-produce

CAST: Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under) will play Ragosa, Jeananne Goossen (Alcatraz) will play Krista, Brendan Fehr (Roswell) will play Drew, Brigid Brannagh (Army Wives) will play Althea, Jill Flint (Royal Pains) will play Dr. Jordan Santos, Ken Leung (Lost) will play Topher and Eion Macken (Merlin) will play TC Callahan. [No other details could be tracked down for this pilot at this time.]

Believe – This pilot is about the unlikely relationship that develops between a young girl with a gift and a man sprung from prison who has been tasked with protecting her from the evildoers who covet her power.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter) and Mark Friedman (The Forgotten) will write and executive-produce with J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk (Lost).

CAST: Jake McLaughlin (Crash) will play Tate, the man who is sprung from prison to protect the young girl from those trying to hunt her down while newcomer Johnny Sequoyah will play the young girl named Bo. Delroy Lindo (The Chicago Code) will play Winter, a kind man with an honorable agenda posing as a priest who may not be what he seems. Jamie Chung (Once Upon a Time) will play Channing, Winter’s all business associate. Sienna Guillory (Resident Evil: Retribution) will play Moore, a hit woman after Bo. Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks and Desperate Housewives) will play Skouras, a mysterious billionaire with an even more mysterious agenda.

The Blacklist – This pilot is about Red, the world’s most wanted criminal, who mysteriously turns himself in, offering to give up everyone he has ever worked with. His only condition: He will only work with Elizabeth Keen, a newly minted FBI agent with whom he appears to have no connection.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Jon Bokenkamp (Perfect Stranger) will write and executive-produce with John Eisendrath (Alias).

CAST: Megan Boone (Law & Order: Los Angeles) will have the female lead role while Ryan Eggold (90210) will play Elizabeth’s husband Tom. James Spader (Boston Legal) will play the lead role (of the most wanted criminal) opposite Boone. Diego Klattenhoff (Homeland) will play Donald Ressler Field Agent In-Charge. Henry Lennix (Dollhouse) will play Harold Cooper, the successful yet cynical Assistant Director of Counterterrorism at the FBI.

Bloodline – This pilot is about Bird Benson, a smart, irreverent young girl who finds herself caught between two warrior families in modern suburbia.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: David Graziano (Awake) will write and executive-produce with Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights).

CAST: Skyler Samuels (The Nine Lives of Chloe King) will play the lead role of Bird Benson. Tom Everett Scott (Southland) will play Dr. Christopher Benson, a beloved ER physician at a suburban hospital who’s known for his charm and dedication to his patients. But an indiscretion years ago led to him impregnating a patient; the resulting child was Bird. KaDee Strickland (Private Practice) will play Bird’s mother Stella, who has been raised in a family descended from an ancient line of killers, brigands and mercenaries. Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad) will play Bird’s grandfather, Leo Killpriest, a Greek mercenary who married off Bird’s mother to satisfy a mysterious debt with a rival Chinese clan. Chris Zylka (The Secret Circle) will play Troy Robbins, who grew up with the rigorous training regimen once mandated for all male Spartans. He is smitten by Bird. Tzi Ma (24) will play Charles Hwang, Bird’s trainer and mentor.

Hatfields & McCoys – This pilot is set in present-day Pittsburgh, where a startling death reignites the feud between the legendary families. Unleashing decades of resentment, the blue-collar McCoys will put the Hatfields’ wealth and power at risk as they battle for control of the city.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: John Glenn (Eagle Eye) will write and executive-produce with actress Charlize Theron.

CAST: Virginia Madsen (Scoundrels) will play the matriarch of the McCoy clan, Eloise McCoy, a self-made woman who manipulates her son into taking revenge on the Hatfields after her husband is murdered. Jesse Lee Soffer (The Mob Doctor) will play Patrick McCoy, prodigal son who returns home after years away. Patrick Flueger (The 4400) will play Jack McCoy, a street-smart, hot-headed guy who is fiercely loyal to his family. He runs a sports bar in the city he loves. Rebecca De Mornay (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) will play Hatfield matriarch Mary, the city’s mayor and Nick Westrate (Hatfields & McCoys mini-series) will play her son Randall. Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill) will play Emma McCoy, a resident at Allegheny General Hospital. Annie Ilonzeh (Charlie’s Angels and Switched at Birth) will play Shannon Hatfield, the adopted daughter of Mary Hatfield, who develops a romantic interest in Patrick McCoy. James Remar (Dexter) will play Mary Hatfield’s estranged husband Joe.

I Am Victor – This pilot is based on the Jo Nesbo upcoming novel of the same name that focuses on Victor Port, a high-powered divorce attorney with a unique view of relationships. He is quick, charming, disarming, brazen and direct. He unapologetically says what most people think but dare not say, and the methods he uses on behalf of his clients are anything from jurisprudence.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Mark Goffman (The West Wing) will write the pilot while Katie Jacobs (House) and author Jo Nesbo will executive-produce.

CAST: John Stamos (ER and Full House) will play the lead role of Victor Port. Megan Dodds (Ever After) will have the female lead, playing Victor’s wife Helen, an accomplished businesswoman and a caring, family-oriented mother of two. Matthew Lillard (Scooby Doo) will play Victor’s best friend Elliott, an off-beat, off-books former cop who helps Victor acquire information and things, legally and otherwise. Terry Kinney (Oz) will play Victor’s father-in-law. Newcomer Lorenza Izzo (Hemlock Grove) will play the lead role of Lena Engles, the Assistant District Attorney while McKaley Miller (Hart of Dixie) will play Victor’s daughter Dana. Angela Sarafyan (Twilight Breaking Dawn 2) will play Cucumber, Victor’s sassy secretary. Josh Zuckerman (Kyle XY and 90210) will play Wes, an attorney with an extraordinary mind.

Ironside – This pilot is a remake of the 1960s classic drama, about Robert T. Ironside, an acerbic police detective relegated to a wheelchair after a shooting, who is hardly limited by his disability as he pushes and prods his hand-picked team to solve the most difficult cases in the city.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Michael Caleo (The Sopranos) will write and executive produce with David Semel (American Horror Story).

CAST: Blair Underwood (L.A. Law) will have the lead role of Ironside. Brent Sexton (The Killing and Justified) will play Gary, Ironside’s ex-partner, once a hard-nosed detective who blames himself for the shooting and falls apart after the incident. Gary struggles to move on with his life. Pablo Schreiber (Weeds) will play a team member named Virgil, one of the toughest, craziest cops in the city who will do anything to protect citizens, victims and most of all his partners. Neal Bledsoe (Smash) will play the wealthy and highly educated Teddy who became a cop following a family tragedy. Spencer Grammer (Greek) will play the lead role of Holly, who stands up to Ironside and everyone else. She would be much higher up in the police department if she would distance herself from the criminals she grew up around. Kenneth Choi (24 and Sons of Anarchy) will play Captain Ed Rollins, Ironside’s supervisor.

Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives – This pilot is about three couples in the idyllic community of Saddle Hills, California who live secret lives; especially when a murder in their suburban home complicates their lives.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Sascha Penn (Imagination Movers) will write and executive-produce with Jerry Bruckheimer.

CAST: Nicole Ari Parker (Soul Food) will play Paula Cooke, Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order) will play Greg Cooke; Perry Reeves (Entourage) will play Danielle Deaver and James Tupper (Revenge and Men in Trees) will play Richard Deaver; Laura Allen (The 4400) will play Alison Dunn and Martin Henderson (Off the Map) will play Kyle Dunn – the three main couples in the pilot. [No other details could be tracked down for this pilot at this time.]

The Sixth Gun – This pilot is based on the best-selling Oni Press graphic novel, a supernatural Western that tells the tale of six mythical guns with otherworldly powers in the Old West, the most dangerous of which falls into the hands of an innocent girl named Becky Montcrief who – alongside shadowy gunfighter Drake Sinclair – must battle vile men thought long dead that have set their sights on retrieving the gun.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Up and comer Ryan Condal will write with Carlton Cuse (Lost) as executive producer.

CAST: Laura Ramsey (Lords of Dogtown) will play the lead role of Becky while Michiel Huisman (Treme) will play the lead role of Drake Sinclair, a rogue gunslinger. W. Earl Brown (Rogue) will play Oliander Bedford Hume, a seemingly immortal Confederate War General obsessed with acquiring the sixth – and most powerful – of the guns. Graham McTavish (24) will play Hume’s loyal lieutenant Silas Hedgepeth and Aldis Hodge (Leverage) will play Mercer, a Special Agent with the Pinkerton Detective Agency who is searching for the aforementioned gunfighter. Pedro Pascal (The Good Wife) will play Special Agent Ortega, the younger of the two Pinkerton detectives who follow Mercer’s lead. James LeGros (Ally McBeal) will play Bill John O’Henry, a gunslinger who is a fervently loyal companion and sidekick to Drake Sinclair and Chin Han (The Dark Knight and Arrow) will play Chow, a brilliant Machiavellian schemer. Elena Satine (Magic City) will play “widow” Missy Hume, a powerful Madame who runs the town of Brimstone, who is kept unnaturally youthful by being in possession of the Fifth Gun.

Untitled Rand Ravich Project – This pilot is about Washington’s most powerful players, including the President, who find themselves blackmailed into an international conspiracy by an unlikely puppeteer. The story follows Marcus Finley, an idealistic Secret Service agent who finds himself at the epicenter of an international crisis on his first day on the job as the President’s son’s protection when the son, along with several of his classmates, are kidnapped.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Rand Ravich (Life) will write and executive produce with Far Shariat (Life).

CAST: Lance Gross (House of Payne) will play the lead role of Marcus Finley while Rachael Taylor (666 Park Avenue and Charlie’s Angels) will play FBI agent Susie Dunn, who is responsible for getting information from the children’s parents and whose biological daughter Amber is among the kidnapped. Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) will play Susie’s sister Meg, who has been raising Amber as her own. Halston Sage (The Bling Ring) will play Amber Fitch, one of the kidnap victims and daughter of Susie. Max Martini (The Unit and Revenge) will play Koz, a well-armed and deadly mercenary behind the abduction. Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding) will play Bill Gibson, the chaperone on the ill-fated private school bus. He is divorced from his wife and estranged from his daughter, Beth Ann (relative newcomer Stevie Lynn Jones), who is a passenger on the bus. Michael Beach (Third Watch) will play the FBI Director, who snaps into action after learning of the crisis while James Lafferty (One Tree Hill) will play Mr. Nash, this boyishly handsome private school instructor who was abducted along with his students. Joshua Erenberg (Suburgatory) will play Anton, a genius student whisked away into the woods by the wounded Finley to save him.

MOST LIKELY TO BE PICKED-UP: Ironside and Hatfields and McCoys

COULD MAYBE GET AN ORDER: Bloodline

LONG SHOT: The Sixth Gun

NOT GONNA HAPPEN: The Blacklist