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sf/f TV development news - 2013

Ah, I didn't realize that title was a mistake.
As for ABC, not all of their shows are family friendly. I don't know if I'd call Revenge or Lost a family friendly show, and I doubt a show called Mistresses is particularly family friendly.


With "ABC Family", they mean DYSFUNCTIONAL family ("Pretty Little Liars"?)
Despite it's name, ABC Family's stuff seems to be geared more towards teens and adults these days.
 
Lots of networks have drifted from what their names indicated. The Discovery Channel and The Science Channel have very little science anymore. Lots of networks have drifted so far from what they were originally named for that they've changed their names -- Arts & Entertainment is now just A&E, The Nashville Network became TNN and then SpikeTV!, CourtTV is now the "reality"-based TruTV, and so on.

The problem is that they're commercial networks and are thus dependent on ad revenues to stay in business, and that means they can't stick with specialized niche programming but have all had to drift toward more generic, popular stuff in order to get the advertising dollars they need. It's only premium channels and commercial-free public television that are really able to maintain niche identities.
 
Ah, I didn't realize that title was a mistake.
As for ABC, not all of their shows are family friendly. I don't know if I'd call Revenge or Lost a family friendly show, and I doubt a show called Mistresses is particularly family friendly.


With "ABC Family", they mean DYSFUNCTIONAL family ("Pretty Little Liars"?)
Despite it's name, ABC Family's stuff seems to be geared more towards teens and adults these days.

When Disney bought the channel from Pat Robertson, there was a contractual clause that the word "family" had to stay in the name. This prevented them from rebranding it XYZ, although they still shifted to targeting teens.
 
Were they actually going to call it XYZ at one point? I could kind of see that as a counter for ABC.
 
^Except at the time Disney bought it, it was called Fox Family Channel -- after Fox Kids Worldwide acquired it in 1997 and renamed it from The Family Channel. It was only after Disney acquired it in 2001 that they renamed it to ABC Family, since they already owned ABC and envisioned ABCF as a dumping ground for reruns of ABC shows. The "XYZ" rebranding was something they considered later on after that initial plan failed.
 
More casting for Syfy’s High Moon

Dana Davis and stage actor Peter Macon have been cast as regulars in Bryan Fuller’s Syfy pilot High Moon, which explores what happens when the countries of Earth establish colonies to mine the moon’s resources and discover a new form of life. Davis plays Yama Winehart, the first – and last – kid ever born on the Moon. Pre-natal problems with artificial gravity mean she can never leave the Moon, giving her a special connection with it and making her the moon’s first environmentalist. Macon will play Yama’s father, General Gale Lynn Winehart, a hard-as-nails American Army General who, with years of hands on battle experience, is not only savvy but cautious as he knows things are not always what they seem.
 
^Except at the time Disney bought it, it was called Fox Family Channel -- after Fox Kids Worldwide acquired it in 1997 and renamed it from The Family Channel. It was only after Disney acquired it in 2001 that they renamed it to ABC Family, since they already owned ABC and envisioned ABCF as a dumping ground for reruns of ABC shows. The "XYZ" rebranding was something they considered later on after that initial plan failed.
I knew about the channel's history. I just meant after ABC bought it.
More casting for Syfy’s High Moon

Dana Davis and stage actor Peter Macon have been cast as regulars in Bryan Fuller’s Syfy pilot High Moon, which explores what happens when the countries of Earth establish colonies to mine the moon’s resources and discover a new form of life. Davis plays Yama Winehart, the first – and last – kid ever born on the Moon. Pre-natal problems with artificial gravity mean she can never leave the Moon, giving her a special connection with it and making her the moon’s first environmentalist. Macon will play Yama’s father, General Gale Lynn Winehart, a hard-as-nails American Army General who, with years of hands on battle experience, is not only savvy but cautious as he knows things are not always what they seem.
Hmmm, the Yama description is actually one of the more interesting ones I've read in a while.
 
More casting news out of High Moon:

Jonathan Tucker
has been cast in Bryan Fuller’s 90-minute Syfy pilot High Moonhttp://www.deadline.com/tag/high-moon, which explores what happens when the countries of Earth establish colonies to mine the moon’s resources and discover a new form of life. Charity Wakefield has signed on for a guest-starring role in the pilot. [...] Tucker [...] will play Stanislav “Stan” Stavin, a handsome and outgoing miner for the Russians who may be hiding something. He also recurs on Parenthood. Wakefield will play the smart and savvy Eve St. John-Smythe, CEO of the world’s most profitable corporation that is responsible for opening up the moon by providing oxygen to the various countries there.
 
NBC Buys ‘Wizard Of Oz’ Drama Emerald City

A century after the release of L. Frank Baum’s Wizard Of Oz
series, the books have become the toast of this TV development season.
NBC just nabbed Emerald City, an Oz-themed drama from Siberia
creator/showrunner Matthew Arnold.

Emerald City, which Arnold is writing and executive producing through
Universal Television, is described as a dark reimagining of the
classic tale of Oz in the vein of Game Of Thrones, drawing upon
stories from Baum’s original 14 books.
 
Timothy Dalton in Penny Dreadful is awesome!
Not sure what to make of the Oz series though. It has potential to be be both awesome or a horribly bloody disaster, or maybe even an awesomely horrible disaster.

EDIT: I was just looking at the Wikipedia page for NBC's Dracula, and it says David Knauf, the creator of Carnivale, will be serving as Head Writer/Show Runner. I did not know that.
 
Last edited:
NBC developing multiple timeline crime drama and body switch thriller

Time To Time

The high concept drama Time To Time is about two star-crossed police
officers, separated by 27 years in time, who work together to solve
murders.

Ricochet

Ricochet is a high-concept serialized action/thriller about a
professional hitman who is trapped in a coma and forced to serve as a
guinea pig for a secret NSA espionage program; a project that uses
technology discovered while researching near-death-experiences to send
operatives into other people’s bodies.
 
Good news about Timothy Dalton in Penny Dreadful. The "dark" Oz bit makes me cringe, as any use of the word dark does these days, but I imagine it will be more like a Once Upon A Time copycat.
 
Time To Time

The high concept drama Time To Time is about two star-crossed police
officers, separated by 27 years in time, who work together to solve
murders.

Huh? "Star-crossed" is an adjective used for lovers who are doomed never to be together. Hard to see how that fits the described premise. I guess they're connected by some kind of mental link, so maybe that's how they "meet" and fall in love.

Anyway, it reminds me of Awake in terms of the police investigations crossing between two time frames. It should be much easier for the future person to solve the past person's cases, though, since he or she could just look in an old newspaper and see who was finally found guilty. Although I guess it'd mainly be unsolved cold cases, that sort of thing.

(And yes, the headline does say "multiple timelines," but sometimes laypeople use that to mean just different time periods rather than alternate universes.)
 
Immaculate Conception Drama From John Glenn Gets Put Pilot Commitment At NBC

Conception, a supernatural mystery drama from writer John Glenn (Eagle Eye) and producer David Janollari, has been set up at NBC with a put pilot commitment. The project hails from Universal Television where Glenn’s and Janollari’s companies, John Glenn Entertainment and David Janollari Entertainment, are both based, and marks a rare put pilot commitment for NBC’s sibling studio. Co-written by Glenn and Lars Jacobson, Conception tracks a modern-day immaculate conception on a large scale. The show follows those few children that survived and how they’re destined to change the world.
 
Looks like the Blake's 7 remake is not confirmed for Xbox:
Kate Barnes [...] Executive Producer at Microsoft's EMEA TV [...] had this to say: "I think the rumours took on a lot of speed because sci-fi is obviously something at the heart of Xbox, but no, there's nothing to that." Apparently no programming has been confirmed bar the already announced Halo TV series which was described as having obvious appeal as the console's biggest franchise.
 
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