What will you be watching this fall? Perhaps you’ll tune into the network that made Sofia Vergara a household name, and by household name we mean in every commercial released within the last year, or so it seems. Modern Family and its continued reign in comedy aside, with the release of the potential 2012-2013 pilot season, ABC is hoping to cash in on fish out of water themes, families, the 99%, and stories that take place in hotels and apartment buildings. Did Donald Trump make a move that we don’t know about? ABC has also undoubtedly decided that they’re more than a network full of irascible families and BFF’s, they’ve got Mandy Moore.
Mandy Moore, remember her? She was the fourth runner-up in the former Pop-N-Blonde sweepstakes of the early aughts that featured Britney, Christina, and Jessica. Well, after losing in probably the worst musical pageant ever, she went on to try her hand in the movie talkies starring in mostly cutesy light fare like A Walk to Remember, until a string of flops (Because I Said So, License to Wed, and Love, Wedding, Marriage ) landed her on ABC and destined for a laugh track. Wait, I have no idea if there’ll be a laugh track. She’ll play a newlywed named Annie (of course) in a single-camera comedy about opening a restaurant. Eh, maybe a laugh track. The words “Hometown” and “high-maintenance family” are used in the logline so we can probably imagine the amount of sweetness and apple pie bursting from the seams this thing will bring. Yeah, okay, there will be a laugh track.
Take a look at the selections below. Is it just me or do none of them really seem like great standouts? I’m not sure who greenlit yet another Reba McEntire series. Where are these people who are just clamoring for more REBA! Could she have her own cult? Possibly. There are also more than one seemingly duplicated story line; people working in restaurants, diners, hotels, etc. Perhaps this is ABC’s way of bringing stories back to the common man, you know all those working folks that make up most of this country and not, you know, the soul-sucking, rich egomaniacs who bathe in diamonds and sleep on beds made of gold bars. Mitt Romney has no idea who these other people are.
In addition, there are two shows that talk about Nashville, one about Gotham city which has a supernatural bend (because you can’t say Gotham and mean anything other than, well, Gotham), there’s a thing about aliens living in suburbia, and a Beauty and the Beast story since fairy tales are all the rage now. Fairy tales, yes, are the Nicki Minaj of primetime television. Somehow this seems like a line up from 1986, but you know, whatever, we may get a show about Scruples. Scruples!! Didn’t our moms talk about that book when they drank TaB soda pop, and worked out with Jane Fonda? Okay. ABC just wants to know if your time machine works.
Let’s see what else ABC has in store:
Comedy
American Judy
A cosmopolitan woman gets married, becomes a fish out of water in the suburbs having to juggle stepkids, her mother-in-law and the ex wife of her husband, who also happens to be the town sheriff.
Cast: Judy Greer
Format: Single-camera
Counter Culture
Three aging sisters run their West Texas family diner together, with sibling dynamics always getting in the way.
Format: Multicamera
Dan Fogelman’s Untitled Alien Comedy
Centers on a family that moves into a coveted New Jersey gated community only to discover that the entire neighborhood is comprised of aliens disguised as humans.
Cast: Lenny Venito (father of the family), Jami Gertz (mother of the family), Simon Templeman (Wilt Chamberlain, leader of the aliens), Toks Olagundoye (Jackie Joyner Kersee, mother of lead alien family, Tim Jo (Joe Montana, son of the alien family)
Format: Single-camera
How to Live With Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life
Polly, a recently divorced single mom, moves in with her eccentric parents, Elaine and Max, a couple who’s full of life but knows no bounds.
Cast: Sarah Chalke
Format: Single-camera
Malibu Country
After her “good ‘ol boy” rock star husband cheats on her and burns through most of their money, Reba divorces him and moves her three kids and mom from Nashville to the only asset they have left—a little house in Malibu. There she’ll try to reignite her own singing career and keep herself and her three kids from being corrupted by the materialistic and rarified Malibu world she now calls home.
Cast: Reba McEntire
Format: Multicamera
Only Fools and Horses
Based on the British format, the comedy chronicles the misadventures of two streetwise brothers and their aging grandfather as they concoct outrageous, morally questionable get-rich-quick schemes in their quest to become millionaires.
Format: Multicamera
Prairie Dog
Neil, an uncool cubicle worker (“prairie dog”) at one of the coolest companies in the world, is the victim of identity theft. When he discovers the thief has created a much more fulfilling, kick ass life with his identity than he ever has, he engages the charismatic conman to help him change his life.
Format: Single-camera
The Smart One
A brilliant and successful woman (Portia de Rossi) who begrudgingly goes to work for her less-brainy but more popular sister — a former beauty queen, weather girl and now big-city mayor.
Cast: Portia de Rossi
Format: Multicamera
Untitled Kari Lizer project
Hilary Pfeiffer-Dunne, a high powered executive who has dominated corporate America for years, faces the biggest challenge of her life when she finds herself unemployed and acting as a full-time mom to her two teenagers.
Format: Multicamera
Untitled Adam Sztykiel project
A raw and hilarious peek behind the curtain of modern twentysomething relationships.
Format: Single-camera
White Van Man
Based on the British format, revolves around a man who is forced to put his dreams on hold in order to take over the family handyman business from his father.
Cast: Kyle Bornheimer, J.K. Simmons
Format: Single-camera
Drama
666 Park Ave.
When a young couple accepts an offer to manage one of the most historic apartment buildings in New York City, they unwittingly begin to experience supernatural occurrences, which complicate and endanger the lives of everyone in the building. Based on the book by Gabriella Pierce.
Americana
A soap revolving around a legendary fashion designer and his family business.
Beauty and the Beast
A fantasy reimagining of the classic fairy tale set in a mythical, dangerous world where a beautiful and tough princess discovers an unlikely connection with a mysterious beast.
Devious Maids
Based on the Mexican format, this soap follows four maids with ambition and dreams of their own while they work for the rich and famous in Beverly Hills.
Gilded Lilys
Revolves around the opening of the first luxury hotel in New York in 1895 and the intermingling of love, treachery and disdain between the classes set against a backdrop of vicious family rivalries, scandalous secrets and conflict and co-mingling of the classes.
Cast: Blythe Danner, Sarah Bolger, Madeline Zima
Gotham
After pursuing a seemingly unsolvable case, a female cop discovers a magical world that exists within New York City. A world that goes unseen by normal humans takes all of the familiar N.Y. landmarks and reinvents them in a magical, otherworldly manner.
The Last Resort
Centers on the crew of a U.S. nuclear submarine who, after ignoring an order to fire nuclear missiles, wind up being hunted and escape to a NATO outpost where they declare themselves to be the world’s smallest nuclear nation.
Cast: Daniel Lissing, Andre Braugher, Daisy Betts, Autumn Reeser
Nashville
A family soap set against the backdrop of the Nashville music scene revolving around one star at her peak and another on the rise.
Cast: Sam Palladio
Penoza
Based on the Dutch format, PENOZA centers on the widow of an assassinated criminal who is forced to adopt her husband’s role in a crime syndicate in order to protect her family.
Untitled Roland Emmerich election drama
An astrophysics grad student in NYC learns that he is the chosen one to destroy the forces of evil.
Cast: Max Thieriot
Scruples
Based on the Judith Krantz novel, the sexy soap is set in the late 1970s and follows a socialite who, following her husband’s death, seeks to open a fashion-forward boutique in the heart of Beverly Hills.
Zero Hour
A bizarre twist of fate pulls a man who’s spent 20 years as the editor of a skeptics magazine into one of the most compelling conspiracies in human history.
Image: Source
