Network Shows in Play
By Jim Finkle -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/10/2005
Development season is in full swing. Here’s a sneak peek at some of the contenders the six broadcast networks are considering for the 2005-06 prime time season.
- Jerry Bruckheimer (CSI, Amazing Race) is working on E-Ring, a Pentagon drama for NBC, and an untitled drama about mismatched lawyers for The WB.
- John Wells (ER, The West Wing) is developing The Evidence for ABC: two cops schooled in forensic evidence.
- Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick (thirtysomething, Once and Again) are developing 1/4life for ABC, about a group of twentysomethings.
- Frank Langley (Cops) is mixing reality with fiction in Hollywood Vice.
- David E. Kelley (Boston Legal, Ally McBeal) has a med-school drama for The WB called Halley’s Comet.
- Fox is bending time (similar to 24) with Reunion. Each episode covers a year in the life of a group of friends.
The list of signed comedies is relatively short and also dominated by familiar names. ABC has at least three of them:
- Emilio Estevez heads a sitcom from Mad About You writer Danny Jacobson.
- Freddie Prinze Jr. is being pitched as a man plagued by women who drive him crazy.
- An unnamed show casts Melissa Etheridge as a gay women living with her male best friend.
Fox projects include a Good Morning, Vietnam-type show set in Baghdad and Peep Show, a Carsey-Werner take on a British comedy à la The Odd Couple.
NBC is looking at a pilot with Happy Days’ vet Scott Baio as a middle-age man who gets a younger roomate.
CBS is quiet on development but is signed to do a medical drama with exec producer/writer Peter Ocko.
| Working Title | Network | Vision |
| 1/4life (Touchstone TV) | ABC | Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick put seven friends in a house, where they face friendship, love, sex and work. |
| The Evidence (John Well Prods/Warner Bros. TV) | ABC | John Wells procedural about two best friends obsessed with looking at forensic evidence. |
| 3 Lbs. (Paramount Network TV) | CBS | Is this drama about brain surgeons the start of a medical franchise? |
| Hollywood Vice (Fox 21/Langley Prods.) | Fox | Mostly improvisational show about the Hollywood Vice Squad by the creator of Cops. |
| E-Ring (Warner Bros. TV) | NBC | Jerry Bruckheimer drama chronicles the lives of people inside the Pentagon. |
| Book of Daniel (NBC Universal TV) | NBC | Dramedy about a minister/dad befriended by a hip, congenial Jesus |
| Fathom (NBC Universal TV) | NBC | Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets The Abyss. |
| TBD (Warner Bros. TV) | WB | Jerry Bruckheimer is behind this story of a legal odd couple. |
| TBD (Warner Bros. TV/Wonderland) | WB | McG is the driver as The X-Files meets Route 66. |
| Halley’s Comet (David E. Kelley/20th Century Fox TV) | WB | Dramedy about a cancer survivor in med school |
| Comedy | ||
| Long Island Sound (Warner Bros. TV/Tannenbaum) | ABC | Like Mad About You, the show is based on the life of writer Danny Jacobson. |
| TBD (Warner Bros. TV) | ABC | Freddie Prinze Jr. stars as a Puerto Rican man surrounded by women who drive him crazy. |
| TBD (20th Century Fox TV/Brad Grey) | ABC | Melissa Etheridge as a gay music teacher living with her best friend and his daughter |
| Spirit of America (20th Century Fox TV) | Fox | Life at a Baghdad TV station trying to bring American-style entertainment to war-torn Iraq |
| TBD (HBO Independent Prods./Tagline) | NBC | Scott Baio as a middle-aged guy whose life is turned upside down by a twentysomething roommate. |
| Lies and the Women We Tell Them To (NBC Universal TV) | NBC | Four close friends who have trouble with the truth |
| TBD=To be determined |
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