sf/f TV development news - 2013

[RJDiogenes]

Kegg wrote:

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How old were you when you first watched Star Trek?

Because it's very much in that sense it's a family show.

I was eight. As I said, it can be family friendly or not (as long as it's not like Terra Nova or something). They can do an R-rated version on Showtime for all I care, as long as it meets those criteria.

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Worse than in vain, counterproductive. The only way Star Trek will get back on TV is for CBS to be so overawed by the stunning success of the movies that it overrides all the huge obstacles a TV show faces. If you really want a new TV show, start telling everyone that they should go see the next movie about 20 times and tell everyone they know to do likewise.

Then we'll just get more mindless explosion Trek.

Maybe if CBS decides to put it on Showtime or partner with Netflix. But they could just as easily opt for the CW or an animated series on The Cartoon Network. What form a new series would take would be determined by the audience where it is placed.

Showtime, Netflex, Direct-To-DVD-- all good. CW and Cartoon Network, not so much.

And a couple 3D shows in development.

Space sounds like it could be fantastic.

[Temis the Vorta]

Direct to DVD is a dying format, they won't bother with that. Of all the options, Cartoon Network is the most likely. They'll be losing The Clone Wars (or other animated SW series) to DisneyXD so they'll need a replacement. Netflix would be great for a live action series but I'm skeptical the financials could be made to work.

[JD]

Judging by what's been done with Clone Wars, an animated Trek series on CN could be friggin' awesome.

[RJDiogenes]

^^ On Cartoon Network, even if it's a quality show, it's still likely to be an action series, and not likely to have any of the relevant storylines of the original series.

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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Direct to DVD is a dying format, they won't bother with that.

Or iTunes or whatever the direct market is now.

[Temis the Vorta]

Julia Roberts producing paranormal investigator show for Lifetime.

How many ghost hunters shows are in development, anyway?

Written by Miss Congeniality scribe Katie Ford, it about an all-female group of paranormal investigators who call themselves The Paranormal Housewives. The show is inspired by the real Paranormal Housewives, a Southern California group of women professional paranormal investigators. It was launched in 2010 by Erin Potter and her friends friends Kirsten Thorne and Marsha Covert-Garcia in part as a response to their field being dominated by male investigators.

That last part is great. Equal rights for women to waste their time with nonsense!

EDIT: I was rooting for this season of American Horror Story to be about the Roanoke mystery - they mentioned in in passing - now it looks like Kelsey Grammar might be coming thru on this idea!

Blackwood centers on 19-year-old Miranda Blackwood who, when 114 people, including her father, suddenly vanish off Roanoke Island, begins to investigate the mass disappearance, teaming with her high school sweetheart. But she makes a chilling discovery when she uncovers that she’s at the center of not only this mystery, but one that traces back to the first American mystery: the disappearance of 114 people at what would be called The Lost Colony

That doesn't say it's genre in so many words, but the easiest way to link up the two disappearances so far apart in time would be via a fantasy or sci fi explanation...and the book publisher is described as "sci fi," hmmm...

[JD]

I just watched the Comic-Con Defiance panel and apparently Kevin Murphy, who has worked on The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Reefer Madness, Desperate Housewives, Reaper and Capric, is the show runner, not Rockne S. O'Bannon. I loved Caprica, and Reaper, and when I saw a kid I liked Sonic, so I'm not at all disappointed.

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Given the previews, my enthusiasm level has dropped.

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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EDIT: I was rooting for this season of American Horror Story to be about the Roanoke mystery - they mentioned in in passing - now it looks like Kelsey Grammar might be coming thru on this idea!

The "Roanoke Mystery" is a classic of American folklore, so we'll just ignore the fact that it's been solved and hope that this turns out well.

[Kegg]

Temis the Vorta wrote:

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EDIT: I was rooting for this season of American Horror Story to be about the Roanoke mystery - they mentioned in in passing - now it looks like Kelsey Grammar might be coming thru on this idea!

All that made me think is how great it'd be to have Kelsey on a season of AHS. And/or Douglas Hyde Pierce (who's played a psychotic socialite in a movie and thus seems well fitted).

JD wrote:

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I just watched the Comic-Con Defiance panel and apparently Kevin Murphy, who has worked on The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Reefer Madness, Desperate Housewives, Reaper and Capric, is the show runner, not Rockne S. O'Bannon. I loved Caprica, and Reaper, and when I saw a kid I liked Sonic, so I'm not at all disappointed.

Ehh. Caprica is the only one of those I'm sure I've seen (so many Sonic cartoons, etc.) and while it had a great pilot episode, strong cast, many individually good episodes, it did feel it could have a stronger focus as a series and some of the plots felt haphazard and if you're not putting that at the showrunners feet then who are you.

Still, as messy as Caprica could get I did basically like Caprica, so again, count me in on Defiance.

[bullethead]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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^^ On Cartoon Network, even if it's a quality show, it's still likely to be an action series, and not likely to have any of the relevant storylines of the original series.

I dunno. That depends more on the writers than the network, although if they really want to push the action thing, they could try to get it into the Toonami Adult Swim block. It would really depend on the content and whether CBS would be okay with the older skewing demographic of that block (and at most getting 2 million viewers at the 12:30AM slot).

That said, it would be a lot safer than depending on CN to not cancel the show, because they've been shedding action shows like there's no tomorrow, and Toonami/AS would probably bend over backwards to promote the show (Toonami's biggest problem is lack of budget, to the point that they've been basically doing paid reviews to hype up stuff like Halo 4 and Wreck-It Ralph).

[Temis the Vorta]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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^^ Given the previews, my enthusiasm level has dropped.

The "Roanoke Mystery" is a classic of American folklore, so we'll just ignore the fact that it's been solved and hope that this turns out well.

There's no such thing as Vulcans, so I guess you can't watch Star Trek. Apparently you expect science fiction shows to double as documentaries.

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Huh?

bullethead wrote:

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I dunno. That depends more on the writers than the network, although if they really want to push the action thing, they could try to get it into the Toonami Adult Swim block. It would really depend on the content and whether CBS would be okay with the older skewing demographic of that block (and at most getting 2 million viewers at the 12:30AM slot).

That would be interesting if they made it part of Adult Swim. As far as I know, all of those shows have always been satires or parodies, but nothing really adult in terms of drama or sophistication.

[Harvey]

Isn't the television version of The Boondocks on Adult Swim? A comedy, to be sure, but unsophisticated?

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Could be. I'm not familiar with that one. I was thinking of stuff like Venture Bros., Harvey Birdman, Sealab 2020....

[bullethead]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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That would be interesting if they made it part of Adult Swim. As far as I know, all of those shows have always been satires or parodies, but nothing really adult in terms of drama or sophistication.

Well, the Toonami block is more action/drama oriented than the regular AS lineup and most of the stuff it airs typically falls under the scifi/fantasy genres. That's mostly due to the fact that Toonami airs a lot of anime (and currently two Western cartoons that got cancelled).

[RJDiogenes]

^^ I guess I'm out of touch with Cartoon Network. I'll have to research Toonami. A Star Trek cartoon could be a good fit with Anime.