more typical 2007-08 season, there were 105 pilots, meaning that there are 23 percent fewer pilots this year. In terms of genres, in 2007-08 there were many more comedies (57) than dramas (48), while last year, the dramas (31) outnumbered the sitcoms (23). These days, it seems that programming and production executives assume that people want to watch something that more closely resembles the current reality. As a direct result of the recession, a number of the 2009-10 network pilots deal with protagonists who have been affected by the ailing economy. Frasieralum Kelsey Grammer is behind Pryors , an ABC laffer about a corporate tycoon who reconnects with his family after being downsized. The alphabet net is also offering up Canned, a multi-camera ensemble comedy about friends who are all fired from their jobs on the same day, and The Middle , a sitcom revolving around a lower middle class Midwestern family. Fox is also getting in on the game with comedies that revolve around blue-collar workers. Two Dollar Beer explores the lives of a blue-collar ensemble in Detroit, Michigan, while Walorskytells the tale of a security guard who solves crimes at a mall in Buffalo, New York. It is also likely that audiences will want to seek comfort in the familiar. To that end, the CW network is offering up a modern update of ’90s soap phenom Melrose Place , while Fox hopes that an American version of hit Brit comedy Absolutely Fabulous (to be called AbFab on this side of the pond) will serve that necessary purpose. NBC is working on drama Parenthood, based on the 1989 theatrical film of the same name. And ABC is presenting a pair of refurbished titles. Eastwick, the story of a small town where strange things happen when a man begins pursuing three witches, is based on a John Updike book that was successfully turned into a theatrical film in the 1980s, while Vis a remake of the classic miniseries that revolved around a Homeland Security agent and her struggles after the arrival of aliens on our planet. Spin-offs are also all the rage this year, with CBS greenlighting an as yet untitled spin-off of its long-running ratings winner NCIS and the CW moving forward with its spin-off of the wildly popular Gossip Girlseries. Furthermore, a number of recognizable faces may be back this fall. In addition to the aforementioned Grammer, Friendsvet Courteney Cox-Arquette is headlining ABC’s Cougar Town, a single-camera sitcom about a newly single 40-year-old and her 17-year-old son. Gilmore Girls ’ Lauren Graham will make her way back to series television with The Bridget Show, a comedy about a talk show host who gives up her career for a guy, only to be dumped by him. Pint-sized Broadway star and Pushing Daisies alum Kristin Chenoweth is joining uber-producer David E. Kelley’s newest legal drama, NBC’s Legally Mad, about the goings-on at a Chicago law firm. Everybody Loves Raymond’s Patricia Heaton is lending her acting chops to ABC’s The Middle . And Cedric the Entertainer stars in The Law, a single-camera ABC comedy pilot about weekend cops working for the LAPD. Additionally, networks are looking to Latin America for what they hope will be the next big hit. ABC has joined forces with producer Daniel Cerone for a U.S. take on Argentine crime drama Brothers & Detectives , which is originally from Telefe International. The series focuses on a low-level homicide detective who discovers that he has a brilliant 11-yearold brother who is adept at solving puzzles. “My team is not only excited, but very honored to have, for the first time, placed an Argentinean novela to be adapted in the States,” said Telefe’s Michelle Wasserman. “We consider Brothers & Detectivesto be one of our top shows — smart, well thought-out and just ideal for American audiences.” Wasserman, who mentioned that the series had already been sold in over 40 countries, said she was especially proud to see this project going forward during a time of economic uncertainty. “It gives us confidence and confirms that we are walking the right path,” she said. “It gives us the strength to keep doing what we’ve been doing.” Fox is hoping to launch Eva Adams , a series that follows a sexist sports agent who wakes up one morning to discover he’s somehow been turned into a woman. The series is based on Argentine telenovela Lalola from Israel’s Dori Media Group. “We are very proud that Sony is producing the pilot,” said a spokesperson for Dori. “Due to the fact that Lalola has already sold to 65 countries worldwide since its debut — and received good ratings in every country where it launched — we are confident that the American version will also be successful.” Despite the sheer number of medical and legal dramas currently on air in the U.S., it looks as though neither genre is losing any steam. NBC has two medical series in the works, including Mercy, which focuses on a trio of nurses bound together by their personal and professional lives, and Trauma, a drama that follows first response paramedics. Fox is presenting Maggie Hill , a series that follows a New York City heart surgeon who discovers that she’s a schizophrenic. CBS also gets in on the doctor game with Miami Trauma, a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced medical drama centering on a team of trauma surgeons; Three Rivers , a series about organ transplants as seen through the eyes of doctors, donors and recipients; and The Eastmans , about a family of doctors. As for lawyers, NBC has the aforementioned Legally Mad, ABC has See Cate Run, which follows a young prosecutor who plans to one day run for president, and an as yet untitled project from Dave Hemingson that tells the tale of four recent law school graduates who get the “job of a lifetime” with a boutique firm in Los Angeles. Additionally, CBS has The Good Wife, a legal show that focuses on a politician’s wife who works as a defense attorney, as well as a to-betitled project from Frank Military, which is about federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office in V I D E O • A G E MAY 2 0 0 9 (Continued from Cover) Nets Return To Trusting Pilots 34 Telefe’s Brothers & Detectives has been adapted into an ABC pilot Dori Media’s original Lalola is being made into a Fox pilot called Eva Adams Manhattan. It could be that these familiar, comforting sorts of dramas are just what the doctor ordered during these recessionary times. But it seems that what most broadcasters are thinking will appeal to the masses these days is an old standby that had somewhat fallen by the wayside in recent years: the four-camera comedy. Network pilot orders always included a handful of comedies, but few fared well in the ratings, so even fewer were ordered the following year. Yet this year, 36 comedy pilots have been ordered (14 from ABC, 10 from CBS, seven from Fox and five from NBC) versus 39 dramas. Perhaps the huge success of CBS sitcoms Two and a Half Menand Big Bang Theory have forced networks to rethink their anti-comedy stances. Or, it could be that the harsh realities of the economic crisis mean that people could really use a good laugh right now. “It does seem that networks are looking for comedies, as well as lighter-hearted one-hour shows,” said Marion Edwards, president of International Television for Twentieth Century Fox Television Distribution. “It’s much more escapist fare,” she said. “People are looking to get out of the day-to-day goings-on of their lives.” Keith LeGoy, president, Distribution, Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), concurred. “We have certainly seen a big uptick in the number of comedy pilots that we have ordered this year,” he said. “Comedy series have been awaiting a revival for a little while now, and obviously we all need to laugh to be able to escape a little more from the acute day-to-day concerns that we all face.” Whichever pilots are eventually ordered to series, it seems that the fall 2009 TV schedule is destined to be filled with the funny and the familiar. And in these uncertain times, most viewers couldn’t ask for anything more. LHR
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