Rueben's Ramblings

While the major networks, for the most part, are still running their annual pilot season throughout the first few months of the year that could all be changing in the very near future. In the meantime, though, let’s take a look at what each of the major networks have in the works for this coming fall’s TV season.

First, here are the dramas that ABC has under consideration and my opinions on which dramas may or may not get picked up:

Agatha: A former convict turned big city criminologist is brought in to help local police crack a case involving a perplexing disappearance. The chief detective she’s been hired to help is her father – and they haven’t talked in fifteen years.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Tom Donaghy (Without a Trace), Mark Gordon (Criminal Minds and Grey’s Anatomy)

CAST: Bojana Novakovic (Rake), Erik Palladino (NCIS: Los Angeles), Aaron Ashmore (Veronica Mars, Smallville and Warehouse 13), Clancy Brown (Sleepy Hollow), Meta Golding (The Tomorrow People), Daniel Henney (X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Revolution), Jee Young Han (the web series City of Dreams) and Christian Keyes (Beauty And the Beast)

American Crime: Set in California’s Central Valley, the pilot centers on a racially charged murder and the subsequent trial, which are examined through the personal lives of the victims, the accused and their families.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: John Ridley (The Wanda Sykes Show, Third Watch)

CAST: Timothy Hutton (Leverage), Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), Penelope Ann Miller (Mistresses), Benito Martinez (The Shield and Supernatural), W. Earl Brown (Deadwood), Elvis Nolasco (Oldboy), Caitlin Gerard (The Social Network), Richard Cabral (Southland) and newcomer Johnny Ortiz

Clementine: A habitual criminal digs into the mystery of her origins after she becomes the target of a group of zealots who fear she possesses latent supernatural abilities that she will one day harness for either profound good or monstrous evil.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Dean Georgaris (The Manchurian Candidate), Ilene Staple and Mark Gordon (Criminal Minds, Grey’s Anatomy)

CAST: David Strathairn (Alphas), Australian newcomer Sarah Snook, Edwin Hodge (The Purge), Kevin Alejandro (Arrow), Kathleen Munroe (Alphas, Stargate Universe and Resurrection), Mykelti Williamson (Justified) and Nick Gehlfuss (Shameless)

Exposed: Adapted from Liza Marklund’s best-selling novels, it centers on an investigative journalist who will stop at nothing to uncover the truth, including making questionable alliances.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Charles Randolph (Love & Other Drugs), Peter Traugott (Samantha Who?) and Rachel Kaplan (Do No Harm)

CAST: Fran Kranz (Dollhouse), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (A Good Day to Die Hard), Brian F. O’Byrne (FlashForward), Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia franchise), Sandrine Holt (House of Cards and Hostages), Pedro Pascal (Graceland and The Good Wife) and Peter De Jersey (Broadchurch)

Forever: Dr. Henry Morgan is New York City’s star medical examiner, but what no one knows is Henry studies the dead for a reason: He is immortal. With the help of detective Jo Martinez, the show peels back the layers of Henry’s colorful and long life through their cases.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Matthew Miller (Chuck), Dan Lin (Sherlock Holmes) and Jennifer Gwartz (Veronica Mars)

CAST: Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic Four and Ringer), Alana de la Garza (Law & Order), Joel David Moore (Bones), Barbara Eve Harris (CSI), Donnie Keshawarz (Damages and The Sopranos) and Judd Hirsch (Taxi)

How to Get Away With Murder: A sexy, suspense-driven legal thriller about a group of ambitious law students and their brilliant, mysterious criminal defense professor who become entangled in a murder plot that will rock the entire university and change the course of their lives.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers and Peter Nowalk (all from Grey’s Anatomy)

CAST: Viola Davis (The Help), Tom Verica (The Nine), Lisa Weil (Gilmore Girls and Scandal), Katie Findlay (The Carrie Diaries), Billy Brown (Hostages), Charlie Weber (90210), Aja Naomi King (Emily Owens, M.D.), Matt McGorry (Orange Is The New Black), Jack Falahee (Twisted), Alfred Enoch (Harry Potter franchise) and Karla Souza (Instructions Not Included)

Sea of Fire: When three teenage girls star in a pornographic film, it tears their families apart and leads to a disappearance, a murder and host of other secrets boiling under the surface in a small town. This pilot is based on the Dutch series Vuurzee.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Jenna Bans (Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy), Alon Aranya (Betrayal and Hostages), David Hoberman (Monk), Todd Lieberman (The Fighter) and Laurie Zaks (Castle)

CAST: Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter), Jack Davneport (Smash), Christina Chang (Nashville), Jeffrey Nordling (Body of Proof and Killer Women), Amanda Detmer (Necessary Roughness), Michael Trucco (Killer Women and Battlestar Galactica), Kevin G. Schmidt (“The Young and the Restless and Unnatural History), Lilli Birdsell (Geek Charming), Isabelle Cornish (Home and Away), Zoe Soul (Prisoners), Keir Gilchrist (United States of Tara) and Morgan Taylor Campbell (Spooksville)

The Visitors: Based on a Ray Bradbury short story, the pilot chronicles the race against the clock to defeat an unseen alien enemy out to destroy the world using our most precious resource against us.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Dawn Olmstead (Prison Break), Soo Hugh (Under the Dome), Darryl Frank (Falling Skies and The Americans), Justin Falvey (Las Vegas and Smash) and Steven Spielberg

CAST: Barry Sloane (Revenge), Milo Ventimiglia (Heroes), Lily Rabe (American Horror Story), Brianna Brown (Devious Maids), Derek Webster (Revolution), Catalina Denis (The Assets) and Kyle Harrison Breitkopf (Being Human)

Untitled Richard LaGravenese Project: Set in New York City, it revolves around the love and rivalry between two equally matched, powerful socialites who play out their obsessive attraction and seduction of each other through their manipulation of others.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King), Erwin Stoff (The Matrix) and Wren Arthur (A Prairie Home Companion)

CAST: Rufus Sewell (Eleventh Hour, Katie Holmes (Dawson’s Creek), Melissa George (Alias, Hunted, Grey’s Anatomy), Britne Oldford (Ravenswood), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Smash) and Oded Fehr (The Mummy franchise and Covert Affairs)

Warriors: The series will follow the best and brightest of active duty military doctors and nurses as they practice trailblazing medicine on critically wounded warriors returning home from Afghanistan, on military families and veterans, as well as administering to Washington’s government elite.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Chris Keyser (Party of Five), David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman (The Fighter) and Laurie Zaks (Castle)

CAST: Eloise Mumford (The River and Lone Star); Courtney B. Vance (FlashForward), Morena Baccarin (Homeland and Firefly), Greg Grunberg (Felicity, Alias and Heroes), Abbie Cobb (Suburgatory), Justina Machado (The Fosters), Australian actor Don Hany (Underbelly), Steve Kazee (Tony winner for Broadway’s Once) and newcomer Hampton Fluker

MOST LIKELY TO BE PICKED-UP: How To Get Away With Murder (simply because of Viola Davis alone)

COULD MAYBE GET AN ORDER: Clementine

LONG SHOT (but it sure would be cool to see it): The Visitors

RIP-OFF OF THE SEASON: Forever (does anyone remember New Amsterdam? No?! Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from Game of Thrones played an immortal man too and that show didn’t last long at all)

NOT GONNA HAPPEN: Untitled Richard LaGravenese Project

ABC has also already given an order for three direct-to-series dramas that include the following:

Secrets & Lies – This 10-episode drama will focus on a family man who finds the body of a young boy and quickly becomes the prime murder suspect. He has no choice but to try to find the real killer as his marriage, his kids, his reputation, and his sanity are all at stake.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Barbie Kligman (Private Practice and The Vampire Diaries) and Aaron Kaplan (Terra Nova)

CAST: Ryan Phillippe (Cruel Intentions), Juliette Lewis (The Firm), KaDee Strickland (Private Practice), Clifton Collins (Red Widow), Natalie Martinez (Under the Dome) and Australian actress Indiana Evans (Blue Lagoon: The Awakening)

The Astronaut Wives Club – This is a 10-episode series that will debut on July 24, telling the real story of the women who stood beside some of the biggest heroes in American history during the height of the space race.

UPDATE: The Astronaut Wives Club has been pushed back with production now set to start this fall and the series not debuting until mid-season of the 2014-2015 TV season.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Stephanie Savage (Gossip Girl), Josh Schwartz (Chuck) and Michael London (Sideways and The Illusionist)

CAST: JoAnna Garcia Swisher (Once Upon a Time), Azure Parsons (True Detective) and Zoe Boyle (Breathless)

The Club – The 13-episode series will be an upstairs/downstairs soap centered on a private country club.

THOSE BEHIND THE SHOW: Susannah Grant (A Gifted Man), Sarah Timberman (Unforgettable and A Gifted Man) and Carl Beverly (Elementary and Justified)

CAST: Callie Hernandez (Sin City 2), Betsy Brandt (The Michael J. Fox Show), Boris Kodjoe (Undercovers) and newcomer Chris Conroy