Well, NBC can finally say they’ve achieved greatness. They’re putting Roseanne Barr and John Goodman back on television.
Barr and Goodman will star in Downwardly Mobile where they’ll play neighbors living in a trailer park to whom Barr becomes an ipso facto den mother to the residents. So, okay. This will most likely be something. Something good? Well, that’s debatable. Personally speaking, it’s a bit weird when sitcom icons re-team in a similar format and attempt to reinvent the wheel while imploring the audience forget the characters that made them famous. It’s akin to trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice (See Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad in Cosby .) We understand what NBC is trying to do here, but this is pretty risky. We’re going to want these two to become Dan and Roseanne if for no other reason than you believe from the premise that it could be a sequel to the original show that went off the air more than fifteen years ago, and is perhaps just another alternate ending Roseanne thought up at the end of that show’s ninth season. Will this whole “Like Roseanne, but not Roseanne” thing work? There’s a lot riding on this coupling to hit it out of the park again. It’s kind of an awkward place to start on a network that isn’t known for a lot of patience when it comes to their freshman offerings.
While we’re talking comedians joining the ranks on network television this fall, NBC will also bring you projects developed by Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Fallon. Urgh. Yes, really. NBC will basically continue their crass lady comedienne streak which basically consists of those who like to wiggle their eyebrows and discuss vajayjays, random hookups, vodka, or whatever — but this time all of which will be uttered by Sarah Silverman. Oh, jeesh. It’s like a Comedy Central stand up show from 2002! Sarah Silverman that funny, funny lady, who’s not at all annoying and overrated, will make jokes about hot dogs and oral sex, because this is what I recall she does nearly all the time. Yes? And well, Jimmy Fallon, who we just don’t see enough of doing his little song and dance thing over in the late night spot, will be either writing or starring in what seems like Three Men and a Baby Now on NBC since no one at all will remember that movie.
Yawr, NBC, already these two ideas seem like challenges.
And that’s not all. There are still a lot of “Dear God. What Were They Thinking?” pilots floating around from the once highly viewed network. Now, they’re rolling out things like Daddy’s Girls about a woman who finds out her father is dating the “mean girl” from her high school, and Save Me about a woman who lets herself go in a broken marriage who then becomes some sort of magic miracle-maker. There’s also a show about a shy woman who needs help coming out of her shell and plots revenge after being dumped, and finally a program about two female friends, one perfect and happy, the other overweight and in turmoil. WHO THE HELL IS WRITING THIS MIDDLING LADY-CRAP? Rick Santorum? Berf.
The rest is a mish-mash of detective shows, hospital dramas, the occasional science-fiction trope, and something about robots and the great, big old Frontier in 1840. All in all, mostly uninspired drivel, lady-pandering, nearly exhaustive retreads from years past all done on better networks, or in movies that we all still remember. NBC is effectively on life support.
Here are the rest of the pilots. You’ve been warned.
COMEDY
1600 Penn
What happens when you’re the most ordinary family in the world but your father is the president of the United States? A modern family-type show set in the White House where all the kids are far from perfect.
Cast: Josh Gad
Animal Kingdom
An office comedy revolving around a House-like veterinarian who loves animals but typically hates their owners.
Cast: Justin Kirk
Format: Single-camera
Daddy’s Girls
Revolves around a young woman who returns home from overseas to find her father in a serious relationship with the “mean girl” from her high school.
Cast: Christine Woods, Nicky Whelan, Brenda Song, Cedric Yarbrough
Format: Multicamera
Downwardly Mobile
The proprietor of a mobile home park serves as a surrogate mother to all the unique people who live there in a challenging economy.
Cast: Roseanne Barr, John Goodman
Format: Multicamera
Friday Night Dinner
An adaptation of the British series that revolves around the Goodmans, a traditional Jewish family as they observe Shabbat dinners in which twentysomething brothers Adam and Jonny visit their parents.
Cast: Tony Shalhoub, Allison Janney, Kevin Bigley, Gil Ozeri, Aya Cash
Format: Single-camera
Go On
An irreverent yet charming sportscaster tries to move on from loss and finds solace from the members of his mandatory group therapy sessions.
Cast: Julie White
Format: Single-camera
Isabel
Inspired by the French-Canadian series Le Monde De Charlotte, a normal angry middle-class family wrestles with the challenges of everyday life while raising a daughter with magical qualities.
Cast: Marcia Gay Harden, Kevin Nealon, Sophia Schloss, Abigail Mavity, Skyler Gisondo
Format: Single-camera
Next Caller Please
A gender comedy revolving around a brash alpha male DJ and his feminist co-host set in the office of a satellite radio station.
Format: Single-camera
The New Normal
Revolves around a blended family of a gay couple and the woman who becomes a surrogate for them as they grow their family.
Cast: Andrew Rannells, Ellen Barkin
Format: Single-camera
The Sarah Silverman Project
Revolves around a woman readjusting to single life following a decadelong live-in relationship. Loosely based on Silverman’s life.
Cast: Sarah Silverman, Harris Wittels, June Raphael, Tig Notaro, Ken Leung
Format: Single-camera
Save Me
A woman who lets herself go in a broken marriage transforms into a version of herself and creates miracles along the way.
Cast: Anne Heche, Alexandra Breckenridge, Michael Landes, Heather Burns, Madison Davenport
Format: Single-camera
Untitled Hilary Winston
A shy and focused woman leans on her co-workers in a bid to come out of her shell and plot revenge after being dumped by her fiancé.
Cast: Aubrey Dollar
Format: Single-camera
Untitled Jimmy Fallon
Three thirtysomething guys who enjoy the adventures of parenting despite the fact that they haven’t grown up themselves.
Cast: Zach Cregger
Format: Multicamera
Untitled Kari Lizer
Two friends, Nicole and Jen, who lead vastly different lives. Nicole has a perfect family and trouble-free pregnancy; while Jen has a strained relationship with her family, trouble with men and gained weight while on a diet.
Cast: Andrea Anders
Format: Multicamera
DRAMA
Bad Girls
Adapted from the long-running U.K. series, follows the ins and outs of a group of unlikely women in a federal prison: a scandalous female warden, her new protégé and a host of inmates — some mothers, some friends — who struggle with loyalties to people on the inside and outside.
Cast: Jurnee Smollett
Beautiful People
An imaginative and thematically rich ensemble “what-if” drama set 10 minutes in the future where families of mechanical human beings exist to service the human population — until some of the mechanicals begin to “awaken.”
Cast: James Murray, Patrick Heusinger, Frances Conroy, Andrea Parker, Jud Tylor, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Madisen Beatey, Cody Christian, David Conrad, Tovah Feldshuh, Ernie Hudson (r)
Chicago Fire
Action-driven drama exploring the complex and heroic men and women of the Chicago Fire Department
Cast: Taylor Kinney, Eamonn Walker
County
Revolves around the lives of a group of young doctors, nurses and administrators in a frenetic underfunded and morally compromising L.A. County hospital.
Cast: Jason Ritter, Aimee Garcia, Michael B. Jordan, Jess Weixler, Agam Darshi
Do No Harm
A brilliant neurosurgeon wrestles with his dangerous alter-ego that threatens to wreak havoc on his personal and processional life.
Cast: Steven Pasquale, Alana De La Garza, Mousa Kraish
The Frontier
Revolves around a group who follows their dreams and heads West from Missouri across the uncharted country in the 1840s.
Cast: Ethan Embry, Megan Ferguson, Jake McLaughlin, Bridget Regan, Al Weaver, Gina Bramhill, Erik Jensen
Midnight Sun
A thriller in which a female FBI cult specialist begins to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a group commune in Alaska who uncovers a larger conspiracy in the process. Based on an Israeli format.
Notorious
An opulent soap in which a female detective returns undercover to the wealthy family she grew up in — as the maid’s daughter — to solve the murder of the notorious heiress who was once her closest friend.
Revolution
Follows a group of characters struggling to survive and reunite with loved ones in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist.
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