2011-12 pilot season

[Temis the Vorta]

First sighting that I've noticed: ABC orders pilots for two unremarkable comedies.

Man Up, a half-hour single-camera series, is a unique look at what it takes to survive as a modern man, told through three best friends and the women in their lives.

Smothered centers on a couple who find themselves dealing with their two sets of parents whose only thing in common is that their children are married to each other. The couple's one-year-old brings the two opposing families together.

Blergh. But I've written network comedies off altogether, so it's not surprising that it continues to be dreck.

I'm sure more significant news will be forthcoming. Hopefully 2011-12 won't be as wretched as 2010-11 has been.

This is about the time of year when THR's pilot season blog starts ramping up. Nothing yet...

 

[Angel4576]

Sounds like there's two shows right there to not bother with should they go to series.

 

[Starbreaker]

Smothered centers on a couple who find themselves dealing with their two sets of parents whose only thing in common is that their children are married to each other.

Dharma & Greg!

 

[Spot's Meow]

I've learned not to judge comedies too harshly on their one sentence or even one paragraph descriptions as some of them sound really bad on paper but actually turn out being really funny. For example, when I read the descriptions of Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, and Arrested Development, I remembered thinking how stupid they sounded, and now they are three of my favorite shows.

 

[bigdaddy]

However with the crap ABC seems to be making, it seems they just got lucky with the three good / decent comedies they have now.

 

[Guy Gardener]

You throw enough shit at a wall...

 

[scnj]

...The wall starts to smell really bad?

 

[bigdaddy]

You throw enough shit at a wall...

Then you'd think NBC would have a few good show.

 

[Takeru]

NBC has good shows, they just don't have successful shows.

 

[bigdaddy]

NBC has good shows

Good one!

 

[Takeru]

Chuck, Community, Parks & Recreation

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Chuck has had a good run but it's creatively tapped out and running on fumes now. This really needs to be the last season and everyone can go on to something fresh and new.

I haven't seen the other two, but Community sounds like something I should catch up on someday.

 

[bigdaddy]

Community is the best, and only good, show on NBC. The Halloween episode is the best thing on TV THIS SEASON.

 

[Corran Horn]

Both Community and Parks and Recreation are great, I'd say.

 

[Sakrysta]

Happened by Ben Browder's entry on IMDB today and noticed in his filmography a show called Naught for Hire. It also lists Jennifer Sky (Cleopatra 2525) and Chase Masterson in the cast. The tagline is "He's an analog guy in a digital world." And that's all there is to the entry. It's listed as "in production" with a date of 2011, so I wonder where it might show up and if it'll be any good. The tagline really doesn't give much to go on.

 

[Guy Gardener]

What did the professor say?

Something like...

"We won't have truly entered the pushbutton age until we have combined atomic power with all our modern conveniences."

We have to be postdigital but now.

Digital to me means blinking unset clockfaces on VCRs.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

ABC might be trotting out something interesting...they're not afraid to try replicating Lost (after many failures)?

ABC Prez Interview

Asked about his pickup plans, "I think it will be a combination of procedurals and serialized risk‑taking shows on different sides, but we're starting to see some really good scripts coming in," he said. He called network TV "a risky business" where "the biggest failures and successes have come from the things that you haven't seen before."

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Something slightly different: a series set in the world of professional dance.

Still waiting for any really interesting news.

 

[Jack Bauer]

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a297936/buffy-writers-join-randall--hopkirk.html

Syfy has announced that two former Buffy writers will script a new version of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).

The original version of the series, which starred Mike Pratt as detective Jeff Randall and Kenneth Cope as his ghostly partner Marty Hopkirk, ran on ITV from 1969 to 1970. Syfy originally purchased the rights to the show from ITV in May last year.

Entertainment Weekly now reports that Jane Espenson and Drew Z. Greenberg will write a new hour-long pilot. Greenberg has previously worked on Dexter and Warehouse 13, while Espenson, who is currently working on the fourth series of Torchwood, has scripted episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse.

Sounds like the typical SyFy channel show...set in the present involving cops of some kind or another. And light and fluffy of course.

 

[Captain Shaw]

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a297936/buffy-writers-join-randall--hopkirk.html

Syfy has announced that two former Buffy writers will script a new version of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).

The original version of the series, which starred Mike Pratt as detective Jeff Randall and Kenneth Cope as his ghostly partner Marty Hopkirk, ran on ITV from 1969 to 1970. Syfy originally purchased the rights to the show from ITV in May last year.

Entertainment Weekly now reports that Jane Espenson and Drew Z. Greenberg will write a new hour-long pilot. Greenberg has previously worked on Dexter and Warehouse 13, while Espenson, who is currently working on the fourth series of Torchwood, has scripted episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse.

Sounds like the typical SyFy channel show...set in the present involving cops of some kind or another. And light and fluffy of course.

Back in the UK they tried to remake Randall and Hopkirk a while back, it was awful.