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Primetime Pilot Panic (Fall TV: Dollhouse, Castle, Lie To Me, Scrubs, Better off Ted renewed)
Deadline Hollywood Daily ^ | May 16, 2009 | Nikki Finke

Posted on 05/16/2009 6:43:09 AM PDT by tlb

7TH UPDATE: ABC has officially picked up Jerry Bruckheimer's pilot THE FORGOTTEN to series.

6TH UPDATE: I'm told ABC just picked up THE MIDDLE with a 13 episode order. The pilot starring Patricia Heaton. Same with the pilot that Kelsey Grammar was exec-producing and starring in, AWESOME HANK which ABC also picked up.

5TH UPDATE: I just heard that ABC offered to pick up 6 episodes of V -- but Warner Bros has not accepted. ABC also has ordered the hour-long HAPPY TOWN.

4TH UPDATE: ABC has officially renewed Better Off Ted.

3RD UPDATE: I've just learned that ABC has picked up to series the UNTITLED DAVE HEMINGSON LEGAL SHOW. The network is offering five plus pilot. But my sources say Twentieth Century Fox TV has not accepted the order yet though I hear it's probably a go.

ABC TV Studios pilots still in the mix: UNTITLED JEFF STRAUSS, THE LAW with Cedric The Entertainer, THIS LITTLE PIGGY.

UPDATE: The comedy COUGAR TOWN starring Courtney Cox was always considered one of AMC's hotter pilots. It was expected that ABC would renew its ABC TV Studios production Scrubs after taking over the veteran sitcom after NBC didn't renew it last season. Appealing newcomer Castle won a second season from ABC.

AbFab', 'Eva Adams', 'Two Dollar Beer' All Dead At Fox # New Fox Hot List; 'Sons Of Tucson' & 'Human Target' Join 'Glee' On Sked # New CBS Hot List; 'The Good Wife' & 'NCIS' Spinoff OKed # New ABC Hot List; 'Modern Family' Picked Up # New CW Hot List; Yes To 'Melrose Place', No To 'Gossip Girl' Spinoff # NBC Cancels 'Life', Renews 'SVU' & 'Medium', Horsetrades 'Chuck' & 'Earl'

(Excerpt) Read more at deadlinehollywooddaily.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: gangrenousteat; hollyweird; networks; schedule; television; vastwasteland
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To: Political Junkie Too
I sensed an NCIS spin-off last week when they focused on a new undercover unit in LA.

CBS has made no secret of it. The spin-off has been in the works for months.
41 posted on 05/16/2009 9:43:42 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: TomGuy
CBS has made no secret of it.

Hee-hee... CBS could report that the president died and I wouldn't know it from them. I watch only a few entertainment shows and that's it. I don't even go to their website.

I did see Katie Couric on her victory tour on Leno the other day. I suppose her show is doing better than when it started?

-PJ

42 posted on 05/16/2009 9:50:41 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (This just in... Voting Republican is a Terrorist act!)
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To: tlb

A major problem with Hollywood right now is that it is in the high risk-high reward mindset. Back in the 1970s-’80s, when it had a similar problem, a couple of smart guys named Golan and Globus made a huge fortune by going in the opposite direction, making a huge number of low budget movies, that if even 1 in 20 hit, would still make them rich.

But the same problem applies to television today. Most actors, writers and production staff are out of work, because corporate Hollywood wants only a few, big budget productions.

What is needed is just the opposite. A studio essentially run by the various unions, where productions are low budget, but there are a lot of them. Where everyone works for scale, and profits are plowed back into more productions.

Vignette shows, like The Twilight Zone, using different casts, crews, writers, etc., with the idea of providing the maximum number of scale jobs possible. Producing a huge volume of content, more oriented to syndication than first run productions. The emphasis is on writing and acting, not special effects or high production values. Original music as well.

This was the big secret of the golden age of Hollywood, and it could work again. The television watching public would win, because they could see far more and different programs.


43 posted on 05/16/2009 10:31:14 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: TomGuy

I just read that Chuck and Southland will be on Friday nights! That’s TV graveyard....but maybe somebody will get a clue and move Chuck to better time.

Any knowledge of NCIS spinoff cast?


44 posted on 05/16/2009 10:40:51 AM PDT by tajgirvan (Please Pray for Baby Gavin, Grandson of a FReeper ,flightline. Injured in Car Accident)
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To: tlb
The content of broadcast TV was crappy before the DTV switch. The irritation of digital dropouts takes it to a new low. The networks lost me as a viewer in 2000. I watched the remaining episodes of ER, but nearly dumped it when the writers kept pushing the gay and lesbian themes. The TV is now a DVD/BluRay display.
45 posted on 05/16/2009 10:42:36 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: tajgirvan
Any knowledge of NCIS spinoff cast?

It is basically the same west coast characters that were in the 2-hour episode.
46 posted on 05/16/2009 11:13:15 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: freedumb2003; svcw

There were actually two miniseries and a full-season series named “V.” They were: “V,” “V: The Final Battle,” and “V: The Series.”

Wikiing this to make sure I got the names right, however, I discovered that the creator, Kenneth Johnson had written an alternate-ending novel, “V: The Next Generation,” in 2008 and since 2004 he has wanted to remake the original “V” with a new ending. My guess is that is what is coming.

Hey, the new Battlestar Galactica is a complete crap sandwhich, even setting aside its orgy of Muzzie-terrorist worship. (And yes, the creator acknowledges he hoped the series would be an inspiration to the “Iraqi” “resistance.”) If that can be recocgnized, even by some conservatives, as classic television, God knows what they can do with “V.”


47 posted on 05/16/2009 11:39:03 AM PDT by dangus
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To: razorboy

Kelsey Grammar starred in TWO shows, which each an for a decade, back-to-back, with the SAME character, from 1984 to 2004.


48 posted on 05/16/2009 11:44:36 AM PDT by dangus
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To: Political Junkie Too

I’m hooked on NCIS. I never miss an episode, and even tend to watch the reruns on USA.

This sequel sounds good...especially if Ziva shows up in an episode or two.


49 posted on 05/16/2009 12:06:41 PM PDT by Armedanddangerous ( I think you're so full of inconsolable rage you don't care who you hurt)
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To: Armedanddangerous
NCIS and The Unit are the only military shows on now, that I know of.

There was JAG, and the short-lived show about the CIA a while back. I suppose 24 is close the that old CIA show.

-PJ

50 posted on 05/16/2009 12:11:47 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (This just in... Voting Republican is a Terrorist act!)
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To: TomGuy

Oh joy, another crime show like CSI, CSI Las Vegas, CSI Miami. Lets show more burnt bodies, cut open bodies, mangled bodies.
These shows are like the Law and Order franchise. Same plot, different cities. Ripped from todays headlines means the writers dont have to think anymore, just open the newspaper and theres the next episode.
Gone are the days when shows like “Hill Street Blues” or “Space, Above and Beyond” were orignal. Now it all rehash and vomit from other shows.


51 posted on 05/16/2009 12:47:35 PM PDT by Yorlik803 ( If this be treason, then lets make the best of it.)
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To: dangus

Well technically on Cheers he was supporting cast. But definitely he’s got a career that makes a flop look like an exception not the rule. I think the show with Heaton failed because nobody cared about the subject matter, not enough people watch the news anymore for people to find TV news spoof worthy, or an interesting backdrop for character driven stuff.


52 posted on 05/16/2009 1:38:21 PM PDT by razorboy
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To: GreenLanternCorps; TomGuy

9TH UPDATE: ABC is not renewing The Unusuals.


53 posted on 05/16/2009 7:24:55 PM PDT by tlb
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To: Yorlik803
Gone are the days when shows like “Hill Street Blues”

What a show that was and IT almost got canned if it wasn't for NBC showing two shows every Tuesday night after a dismal start on another night.

Loved hearing my hometown mentioned, "Utica Street" and just below where I lived was "Bleeker Street"

54 posted on 05/16/2009 7:43:41 PM PDT by Wilum (Never loaded a nuke I didn't like)
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To: tlb

“Human Target”? After the old DC Comics series I presume. That’s already been tried once on TV and it stiffed.


55 posted on 05/17/2009 3:40:35 AM PDT by GodBlessRonaldReagan (Refugee from the World of Doomed Olsens)
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To: Wilum

The bitch is that they put season 1 and 2 on DVD and they said they are not puuting anymore out. What I dont understand is that they put crappy, one season shows out on DVD and even shows that lasted longer that were not as good out but they wont put anymore Hill Street out.
I heard a rumor that Hill Street had a lot of Pittsburgh references because Bochco went to CMU.


56 posted on 05/17/2009 3:38:12 PM PDT by Yorlik803 ( If this be treason, then lets make the best of it.)
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To: wmfights

Life was one of our favorites. Can’t believe they passed on that one.


57 posted on 05/17/2009 3:56:47 PM PDT by altura
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To: spodefly

You betcha about the last Lie to Me episode sneaking in some gratuitous liberal crap.

Example: referring to a bad guy having a ‘big Dick Cheney safe somewhere.”

What did that even mean??

Also implying that we are responsible for terrorists (muslims) hating us.

Like the show but won’t put up with much more of that.


58 posted on 05/17/2009 3:59:48 PM PDT by altura
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To: tajgirvan; newfreep; Texas_shutterbug

Just read that Chuck has officially been renewed for Season 3, but will have some cast cuts and revisions. It is scheduled for 13 episodes.

http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/05/its-official-nb.html


59 posted on 05/17/2009 7:45:13 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: TomGuy

Thanks so much for that! I’m already spreading the word to my friends.


60 posted on 05/19/2009 8:52:43 AM PDT by Texas_shutterbug (e)
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