Okay, a quick word about the nature of pilots and pilot season before I list some of the ones that sound most promising. Just for those that don’t know, a TV “pilot” is the very first episode of a TV series. It’s what a network will watch, and then make a decision on to see what shows will become a series and which ones won’t. “Pilot season” is this time of the year when TV networks read pilot scripts and determine which ones to make into a pilot they want to see more of. In a few months, they’ll make a decision on what shows get picked up for the Fall and which pilot episodes become nothing.
Okay, now that the boring shit is out of the way, let’s take a look at what I consider to be the more promising pilots you COULD see this Fall, provided they get picked up. [Note: This is based solely off the strength of the premise, the few scenes of the pilot I’ve read—-if any, who the script comes from, and the cast. It’s just a belief of what shows will be good, not saying they will be.]
CBS
Promising Rank: Last
Prognosis: Not good. Okay, so CBS is by far the most successful network. The highest rated show on NBC would get cancelled if it pulled in the same numbers on CBS. That being said, success makes people lazy, and CBS’s Fall definitely looks lazy.
What Have They Got: Cop shows, cop shows, and more cop shows (the most promising of which stars Dennis Quaid as a 1960’s Las Vegas sheriff…but that ain’t too promising). This network is just painfully boring, and I doubt I’ll watch anything they’ve ordered for the Fall.
Fox
Promising Rank: 4th
Prognosis: Not so sure. Some of the projects are so vague sounding, that it’s really hard to predict how interesting they’ll be.
What Have They Got: Fox surprised me by being so inconsistent this pilot season since usually they have the MOST interesting shows, but this season just sounds like a lot of the usual usual. Their most promising project may be Kevin Bacon’s long-overdue television debut as an FBI profiler tracking a serial killer, but see, right there it sounds generic as hell, and so maybe you get why I’m having such reservations about their Fall schedule.
CW
Promising Rank: 3rd
Prognosis: I hate the CW. I have never watched a single one of their shows repeatedly, and the mere fact it’s 3rd REALLY means that they’re doing something very right this pilot season.
What They’ve Got: Okay, so there’s the projects that everyone else is most excited about: The Green Arrow series, The Beauty and the Beast series, and The Sex and the City prequel. And then there’s the one that I’m most excited about: The Selection, which is described as “The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games,” in which a woman is chosen to compete to become the queen of a war-torn nation by vying to woo the Prince and slay the competition. Sounds awesome. If it actually IS awesome, the CW will finally have a show I’ll watch for more than one episode.
NBC
Promising Rank: 2nd
Prognosis: NBC is a ratings-laughing stock and I don’t see them changing that with the crop of shows they’ve ordered for Fall (they’re just not adventurous enough or grab-you compelling), but they do have a few projects I’m curious to see as shows. HOWEVER, let’s hope they don’t cancel Community or Parenthood to get any of these shows on the air.
What They’ve Got: They’ve got a ton of new comedy series starring talents like Sarah Silverman, Dane Cook, Matthew Perry, Tony Shaloub, and even Roseanne Barr. That being said, NONE of these shows sounds good enough to replace the low-rated Community or Parks and Recreation, so I’d rather they not pick up too many comedy shows.
Out of their new dramas, there’s one set at a women’s prison that’s never been done before, and a show called “Beautiful People” about human-looking cyborgs living side-by-side with actual humans that could work.
ABC
Rank: 1st
Prognosis: ABC has ordered a very strong lineup for the Fall. We’ll see if half of them make it to air, but if the ones I list do then I’ll predict some critical acclaim at the very least.
What They’ve Got: They’ve got perhaps the best comedy pilot of the Fall season in “Prairie Dogs” about a boring office drone (Kal Penn making his return to acting) who gets his identity stolen, but discovers the identity thief was living a more richly rewarding life than he was, and hires the free-wheeling thief as a life coach.
But the real meat is in the Dramas. They’ve got “Zero Hour,” about a conspiracy (already on board). They’ve got “Nashville” which is an expose on the country music industry. They’ve got “Penoza” which is about the widow of a crime boss who has to take over the “family business.” They’ve got “Devious Maids” which is based off a Spanish soap opera. And best of all, they’ve got “666 Park Avenue,” which stars the great Terry O’Quinn from Lost as the proprietor of a haunted apartment building in New York whose residents have all made a deal with the devil to achieve fame and fortune.
Oh, and “Gotham” which is about a secret fantasy world under NYC, and “The Last Resort” which is about a nuclear submarine that goes on the run after defying an order to attack AND the crew creates a tiny country of their own. All awesome, so congrats ABC!
Great review