It’s that time of year again – the time of the season when the networks start rolling out details on the new comedies and dramas they are considering for the upcoming fall TV season. Each year each network has a long list of shows they are contemplating for pick-up, but the catch is figuring out which shows the network brass will actually go with for the new season.
Each TV season is different because, as we all know, fades come and go, the interest for a particular brand of TV show is always different and what may have worked the season before isn’t necessarily going to work in the next.
With those thoughts in mind, I do as thorough research as possible on all of the new dramas being considered for the fall by the major networks and attempt to determine which shows will be picked up and, of course, which ones won’t. The criteria I use to make these determinations is usually the same: premise of the pilot, casting (a key ingredient) and the likelihood of viewer appeal.
So, let’s take a look at what ABC has to offer for all of their drama pilots. They are listed in alphabetical order below:
Betrayal – This pilot is about a beautiful, unhappily married female photographer named Sara, who begins a torrid affair with a lawyer named Jack for a powerful Chicago family. When he turns out to be defending a murder suspect who is being prosecuted by her husband, the relationship and the case begin a spiraling series of betrayals with cataclysmic results for everyone involved.
THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: David Zabel (ER) will write and executive produce.
CAST: Hannah Ware (Boss) will play Sara. Stuart Townsend (XIII: The Series) will play the lead role of Jack. Chris Johnson (The Vampire Diaries) will play Sara’s husband Drew. James Cromwell (American Horror Story) will play Terence Karsten, the head of the powerful Chicago family. Wendy Moniz (Damages) will play Jack’s wife Elaine, the daughter of Karsten. Actor Henry Thomas (E.T.) will play the slightly brain-damaged son of the family’s patriarch whose life was saved by Jake. Elizabeth McLaughlin (November Christmas) and Braeden Lamasters (Easy A) will play Elaine and Jack’s 16-year-old twins.
Big Thunder – This pilot is about a brilliant, late-19th-century New York doctor Grant Carson and his family, who are given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to relocate to a frontier mining town run by a powerful, but mysterious tycoon. They quickly realize that not everything in Big Thunder is as it seems.
THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Jason Fuchs (writer for Ice Age) will write while Chris Morgan (Fast Five) will be the executive producer.
CAST: Ed MacLiam (EastEnders) will play the lead character of Dr. Grant Carson while Ruth Bradley (Primeval) is expected to play Grant’s wife Emma. Spencer Locke (Resident Evil) will play their 17-year-old daughter Abby. Youngster Pierce Gagnon (One Tree Hill) will play Grant and Emma’s son Jack. Ana De La Reguera (Eastbound & Down) will play Selena Morales, who runs the local saloon. Zahn McClarnon (Ringer) will play Bear, an Apache who teaches young Jack to ride a horse. British actor Alex Hassell (Anonymous) will play the mysterious tycoon. Alex Meraz (Twilight) will play Kiowa, an Apache who like Bear seems to know what’s really going on.
Doubt – This pilot is about a former cop named Vincent J. Calzonetti, who is now a cunning but charming low-rent lawyer, who uses his street smarts to work the system for his clients while battling his own demons and wooing his ex-wife.
THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: David Shore, who created House, created this drama.
CAST: Steve Coogan (Tropic Thunder) will play the lead role of Vincent while Rockmond Dunbar (Prison Break) will play Steve Adams, Vince’s ex-partner who still remains his best friend and confidante. Greg Grunberg (Heroes) will play Mark, Vince’s caring and always well-meaning older brother, who is developmentally disabled as a result of a childhood accident, but high-functioning. He works at Vince’s office as the receptionist and believes that his brother can save the world. Kacey Rohl (The Killing) will play Monica, the firm’s whip-smart paralegal/investigator who often goes about and beyond the scope of her job to help them win the case. Carla Gugino (Political Animals) will play Vincent’s ex-wife Linda, a no-nonsense and extremely competent D.A., who has little patience for courtroom antics, especially when it involves her impulsive former spouse.
REVISED: Forever (formerly The Returned) – This pilot is about what happens when the people you have mourned and buried suddenly appear on your doorstep as if not a day has gone by. The lives of the people of Arcadia are forever changed when their deceased loved ones… return!
THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Aaron Zelman (Criminal Minds) is the writer. The pilot is based on a novel by Jason Mott.
CAST: Matt Craven (NCIS) will play Fred, the local sheriff who has been a widower ever since his wife died in an accident 32 years ago. Devin Kelley (The Chicago Code) will play Gail Garland, the town physician whose latest patient appears to be an 8-year-old boy who died 30 years ago. Samaire Armstrong (The Mentalist and The O.C.) will play Elaine, an attractive and snarky woman with a controlling personality who loses her composure when her father seems to come back from the dead. British actor Sam Hazeldine (Raven) will play Abel, a mysterious man coming back from the past. Frances Fisher (Eureka) will play Lucille, who lives with her husband Harold in Arcadia and is amazed when her 8-year-old son, Jacob, who drowned 32 years ago, reappears in 2013. Nicolas Gonzalez (Off the Map) will play Connor, one of the Sheriff’s patrolmen and boyfriend to Gail. Mark Hildreth (V) will play Preacher Tom Hild, the local minister, who starts to question his beliefs when the dead start coming back. Omar Epps (House) will play Martin Bellamy, an agent with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Kurtwood Smith (That 70’s Show) will play Harold whose dead son Jacob (youngster Landon Gimenez) is among the returned.
Gothica – This pilot is a sexy, modern gothic soap weaving together the mythologies of Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein and Dorian Gray (among others). It will focus on Grace Van Helsing, a woman who discovers the likes of everyone from Victor Frankenstein to Dorian Gray exist in modern-day San Francisco while she searches for her own identity.
THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Matt Lopez (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) will write and Mark Gordon (Grey’s Anatomy) will be the executive producer. Also, Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas (the women behind Reaper) will serve as showrunners.
CAST: Janet Montgomery (Human Target and Made in Jersey) will play Grace Van Helsing while Raza Jaffrey (Smash) will play John Harker, a police detective investigating the death of Grace’s brother Chris, whose murder mirrors that of their parents. Chris Egan (Kings and Letters from Juliet) will play Victor Frankenstein, the head of a biotech company on a quest to bring back his recently deceased daughter. Tom Ellis (The Fades) will play Dorian Gray, a wealthy playboy whom Grace has known and loved her entire life. Tracie Thoms (Cold Case) will play Mina Murree, Grace’s eclectic friend from college and the Managing Editor at Grace’s family’s paper, The Guardian. Emma Booth (Parker) will play Madeline Usher, wife to Victor Frankenstein. Seth Gabel (Fringe) will play Roderick Usher, the district attorney and heir to the once-powerful Usher family who is carrying secrets. Melissa George (Hunted and Alias) will play Fiona Hunter, the show’s most formidable force, and everyone from Grace to Dorian to Victor will find their mettle and savvy tested by her.
Influence – This pilot is a provocative workplace ensemble about the complicated relationship between two brothers, manic genius Clark and slick ex-con Ross Edwards, who head an agency that uses the real science of human motivation and manipulation to solve its clients’ problems.
THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Kyle Killen, who created Awake, is behind this project.
CAST: Steve Zahn (Treme) will play the lead role of Clark Edwards and Christian Slater (The Forgotten) will play Ross Edwards. Wynn Everett (The Newsroom) will have the female lead role of Claire, Ross’ ex-wife, who is hired by Clark to be the new office manager. Megalyn Echikunwoke (House of Lies) will play Megan, who uses her beauty and acting skills to help the team turn their scientific schemes into real world results. Cedric Sanders (The Social Network) will play Latrell, a serious, talented young man from a tough neighborhood tapped by Ross, who saw a raw and untapped talent for business in him. Gregory Marcel (The Good Shepherd) will play Miles, a promising graduate student who improbably followed Clark to the company.
Killer Women – This pilot will focus on Molly Parker, the only woman in the Texas Rangers, who is a ballsy, beautiful badass who knows how to get to the truth and isn’t afraid to ruffle a few feathers along the way. The sheriff’s daughter has a doctorate in gender studies as well as a Miss Texas crown from 1992. She was hand-picked to be one of the two Texas female Rangers and is a forensic specialist, an interrogation ace and can shoot with deadly precision. Her personal life, meanwhile, is a mess — as the recently divorced Molly now lives with her older brother Billy, and her two rowdy nieces.
THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Hannah Shakespeare (The Playboy Club) will write and Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) and Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) will executive produce. This pilot is based on the Argentine series Mujeres Asesinas.
CAST: Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) will play the lead role while Marc Blucas (Necessary Roughness) will play DEA officer Dan Winston, Molly’s ex-husband. Marta Milans (Shame) will play Vanessa “Nessa” Hernandez, who is married to, but separated from, Molly’s older brother Billy, Michael Trucco (Fairly Legal and Battlestar Galactica).
Lucky 7 – This pilot is about the lives of seven employees of a service station in Queens who are changed in many unexpected ways when they win a lottery jackpot.
THOSE BEHIND THIS SHOW: David Zabel (ER) and Jason Richman (Detroit 1-8-7) will write and executive-produce along with Steven Spielberg and Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank (both from Smash).
CAST: Isiah Whitlock, Jr. (The Wire) will play Bob Harris, the boss at the service station while relative newcomer Stephen Louis Grush will play one of the seven employees, a reformed ex-convict named Nicky. Summer Bishil (Towelhead), Anastasia Phillips (Skins) and Lorraine Bruce (Eden Lake) will play three of the seven employees while Christine Evangelista (The Joneses) will play the “baby mama” of another winner, Matt. Luis Antonio Ramos (The Ruins) will play Antonio Clemente, the gas station mechanic who pulled out of the lottery pool to save money. Matt Long (Private Practice) has recently joined the cast of this pilot.
REVISED: “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (formerly S.H.I.E.L.D.) – This pilot is, of course, based on the Marvel Universe’s fictional and secret law-enforcement agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D.
THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse and director of The Avengers and Maurissa Tancharoen (his sister-in-law) will write and executive producer.
CAST: Clark Gregg will reprise his role of Phil Coulson from the Avengers (Thor, etc.) films while Ming-Na (Stargate Universe and Eureka) will play Melinda May, relative newcomer Brett Dalton will play Grant Ward, Elizabeth Henstridge (Hollyoaks) will play Gemma Simmons, Ian De Caestecker (The Fades) will play Leo Fitz, Shannon Lucio (The Gates) will play Debbie and Chloe Bennet (Nashville) will play Skye. REVISED: J. August Richards (Angel) was just announced as being added to the cast in a “super top-secret role”!
Murder in Manhattan – This pilot is a New York City-set dramedy about a mother-daughter, Blythe and Lex, sleuthing team.
THOSE BEHIND THIS SHOW: Maria Maggenti (Monte Carlo) will write and executive produce the series with Ryan Reynolds.
CAST: Bridget Regan (Legend of the Seeker) will play Lex, who teams up with her mother Blythe, to be played by Annie Potts, as amateur sleuths. Lex works in the Mayor’s office by day and as a sleuth with her mom at night. Enver Gjokaj (Dollhouse) will play Jack, Lex’s best childhood friend, who is now an NYPD detective who has feelings for Lex and helps her and her mother in their investigations. Brendan Hines (Lie To Me) will play Lex’s brother, an Assistant District Attorney.
Reckless – This pilot is about what happens when the wife of David Ritter is unjustly imprisoned during a political uprising overseas. He pursues every legal option to secure her release; but when he’s stymied by the U.S. government in the name of diplomacy, he is forced to consider less-than-legal options.
THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Chris Black (Mad Men) will write and Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) will executive produce.
CAST: Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) will play the lead role of David. Eloise Mumford (The River) will play Sarah Harrison, the wife who has been unjustly imprisoned. Sarah is a doctor at a medical clinic in East Myanmar. Lou Taylor Pucci (Southland Tales) will play Ryan Harrison, Sarah’s “good guy” brother who interns at his family’s manufacturing business. Stephen Lang (Terra Nova) will play Sarah’s dad Tom, who runs a top military manufacturing facility, using his strong political connections to demand action in his daughter’s disappearance. Lyndon Smith (90210) will play Allie, Sarah’s smart and conscientious sister. Bess Armstrong (House of Lies) will play Sarah’s mother. Naveen Andrews (Lost) will play Brit Roland Shaw, former SAS and a renegade who will do whatever it takes to rescue Sarah. Ashton Holmes (Revenge and Nikita) will play Wyatt, a cocky, opportunistic acquaintance of David’s from college who represents a private security contractor, who eventually puts David in contact with Roland Shaw, a dangerous mercenary. Parminder Nagra (ER and Alcatraz) will play David’s co-worker Susan, the CFO for the company and trusted advisor to the family. Ernie Hudson (Last Resort) will play Frank Wolfe, an intelligence analyst with the CIA who is put out to pasture.
Westside (formerly known as Venice):– This pilot is a modern take on Romeo & Juliet, pitting two rival families of California’s most seductive city against each other with the focus on Sophie Nance and Chris Carver, star-crossed lovers from rival families in Venice, California.
THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Byron Balasco (Without a Trace) will write and executive producer with McG.
CAST: Odette Annable (House) will play Sophie Nance while Luke Bracey (Home And Away) will play Chris Carver. Jennifer Beals (Flashdance and The Chicago Code) will star as Lisa Hopkins-Carver, the matriarch of the Carver clan while Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek) will play Gordy Nance, the powerful head of the Nance family. Michael Graziadei (The Young & The Restless) will play Josh Nance, the son of Gordy Nance and brother of Sophie, a rising star in his father’s company, poised to take over the family business. Lincoln Lewis (Home and Away) will play Shealy, Chris’s brother, who just got out of prison after six years. Dean Winter (30 Rock) will play Robbie Carver, a local legend who runs the Carver family surf shop in Venice and is brother-in-law to Lisa. Lexi Ainsworth (General Hospital) will play Nico, Lisa’s teenage daughter Lisa and Brooklyn Sudano (My Wife And Kids) will play Chris’s girlfriend Jess, who has been waiting six years to be reunited with him after he is released from prison only to learn that he is now seeing Sophie.
MOST LIKELY TO BE PICKED-UP: S.H.I.E.L.D.
COULD MAYBE GET AN ORDER: Murder in Manhattan and Killer Women
LONG SHOT (but it sure would be cool to see it): Gothica
RIP-OFF OF THE SEASON: Forever (formerly The Returned) [anyone remember The 4400 on USA?]
NOT GONNA HAPPEN: Betrayal
Rueben's Ramblings 