Logo

TV Development Watch

Mar 11, 2002  •  Post A Comment

COMEDY
ABC
MICHAEL JACOBS PROJECT
Touchstone Television; NBC Studios pilot pickup. Auspices: Jacobs, Michael (EP/W pilot). Logline: A comedy about a workaholic husband and father who attempts to reconnect with his wife and kids.
LEGALLY BLONDE
Touchstone; Marc Platt Productions pilot pickup. Auspices: Platt, Marc (EP-N/W); Sweet, Rachel (W pilot). Logline: A comedy based on the feature film of the same name about a ditzy blond woman who follows the guy who just dumped her to Harvard Law School. To everyone’s surprise, she’s a great success.
MY WONDERFUL LIFE
Touchstone Television; Granada Entertainment pilot pickup. Auspices: Kohan, Jenji (EP/W pilot); Bukinik, Suzanne (EP-N/W); Johnson, Ann (EP-N/W). Talent: Ally Walker. Logline: Billie is a woman struggling with the problems that face many single mothers today: how to balance a career and a family while searching for romantic satisfaction. Opportunities abound for Billie, but she knows from experience to hold out, investigate and ask questions. Now if only she could learn to wait for the answers before she acts. Based on a British format.
WHAT LEONARD COMES HOME TO
Touchstone Television; Brad Grey Television pilot pickup. Auspices: Zweibel, Alan (EP/W pilot). Logline: A single-camera comedy that explores marriage from the husband’s point of view.
WITH YOU IN SPIRIT
Twentieth pilot pickup. Auspices: Levitan, Steve (EP/W pilot); Freedland, Alan and Cohen, Alan (EP/W pilot). Talent: Reid Scott. Logline: A hybrid single-camera and multicamera ensemble comedy centering on a strait-laced young man from Chicago who goes to work as a TV reporter at a small station in the spiritually rife town of Spirit, New Mexico.
CBS
JULIE LYDECKER
Paramount pilot pickup. Auspices: Crittenden, Jennifer (EP/W pilot); Rosenthal, Phil (EP); Zaks, Jerry (D pilot). Talent: Mary McCormack. Logline: A comedy about a young divorced woman who reinvents herself after losing her job and who struggles against the dubious influences of her best friend and her mother.
LIFE OF THE PARTY
Twentieth pilot pickup. Auspices: Richman, Jeff (EP/W pilot); Zaks, Jerry (D pilot). Talent: Nathan Lane (Charlie Lawrence). Logline: A comedy starring Nathan Lane as the former star of a hit TV series who becomes a freshman congressman from New Mexico and moves to Washington.
CHRIS LLOYD & JOE KEENAN PROJECT
Paramount pilot pickup. Auspices: Lloyd, Chris (EP/W pilot); Keenan, Joe (EP/W pilot); Burrows, James (D pilot). Logline: A comedy about a young woman who is reunited with her father.
STILL STANDING
Twentieth pilot pickup. Auspices: Burroughs, Diane (EP/W pilot); Gutierrez, Joe (EP/W pilot). Talent: Mark Addy. Logline: A multicamera family comedy about a close-knit blue collar couple who, despite problems, are still together. However, the two are seemingly surrounded by broken homes and untraditional families.
FOX
THE BIG FIX
Castle Rock Entertainment; Columbia TriStar Television pilot pickup. Auspices: Sacks, David (EP/W pilot). Talent: Lewis Black. Logline: A high-concept family comedy about a person who did everything possible wrong, and then, after he dies, comes back into the world to try to fix his mistakes.
COMEDY
RICKY BLITT PROJECT
Twentieth pilot pickup. Auspices: Blitt, Ricky (EP/W pilot); Gordon, Bryan (D pilot). Talent: Johnny Galecki. Logline: A comedy with tonal similarities to “The Wonder Years” but about adults.
CEDRIC THE ENTERTAINER PROJECT
Twentieth Television pilot pickup. Auspices: Bowman, John (EP/W pilot); Wickline, Matt (EP/W pilot); Lathan, Stan (EP/D pilot); Cedric the Entertainer (EP). Talent: Cedric the Entertainer. Logline: A hybrid sitcom and sketch family comedy series.
OLIVER BEENE
Twentieth Television; DreamWorks Television pilot pickup. Auspices: Gewirtz, Howard (EP/W pilot); Levitan, Steve (EP); Melman, Jeffrey (D pilot). Logline: A single-camera comedy about a conservative teen-ager in the 1960s.
NBC

CLASS OF ’06
NBC Studios; Paramount pilot pickup. Auspices: Chase, Adam (EP/W pilot); Wass, Ted (D pilot). Logline: A young-adult ensemble comedy focusing on the trials and tribulations of six college freshmen.
GOOD MORNING MIAMI
Warner Bros. pilot pickup. Auspices: Kohan, David and Mutchnick, Max (EP/W pilot); Burrows, James (D pilot). Talent: Suzanne Pleshette. Logline: A comedy about an ambitious man who is driven by his career in TV, but makes what might be the worst professional move of his life when he takes the executive producer job on the lowest-rated morning show in the country-a decision that turns out to be his salvation.
HIDDEN HILLS
Daniels/Juergens Co. pilot pickup. Auspices: Swartzlander, Ric (EP/W pilot); Segal, Pete (EP/W pilot); Berlinger, Bob (D pilot); Daniels, Susanne (EP-N/W); Juergens, Kate (EP-N/W). Talent: Paula Marshall. Logline: A family comedy told from the point of view of a married man who lives in the suburbs with his three kids.
LIFE AT FIVE FEET
Columbia TriStar Television; Pariah pilot pickup. Auspices: Forbes, Maya (EP/W pilot); Polone, Gavin (EP); Mancuso, Gail (D pilot). Talent: Alex Borstein, Greta Cavazzoni. Logline: A comedy series starring Alex Borstein (“Mad TV,” “Gilmore Girls”) as a struggling writer who becomes a ghost writer for a supermodel who has a magazine column.
WB
HORRID LITTLE GIRLS
Warner Bros., Tollin Robbins Productions pilot pickup. Auspices: Murphy, Ryan (EP/W pilot); Tollin, Mike (EP-N/W); Robbins, Brian (EP-N/W); Davola, Joe (EP-N/W); Cohen, Gerry (D pilot). Talent: Delta Burke, Gregory Harrison. Logline: A comedy that features Delta Burke as a woman who is sentenced to community service at a well-to-do, all-girls prep school.
HOUSE BLEND
Paramount pilot pickup. Auspices: Ranberg, Chuck and Flett-Giordano, Anne (EP/W pilot); Whitesell, John (D pilot). Talent: Amy Yasbeck, Sean Faris, Greg Cipes. Logline: A comedy in the vein of “Kate & Allie,” except starring a man and a woman who each have kids and decide to platonically share the same household.
WAYDOWNTOWN
Brad Grey Television pilot pickup. Auspices: Engleberg, Wendy and Engleberg, Amy (EP/W pilot); Grey, Brad (EP); Whitesell, John (D pilot). Logline: A female buddy comedy set in New York City. The dynamic between the characters is reminiscent of “Laverne & Shirley,” but without the working-class sensibility.
drama
ABC
CAPITAL CITY
DreamWorks Television; Touchstone Television pilot pickup. Auspices: Lurie, Rod (EP/W pilot/D pilot); Frydman, Marc (EP-N/W). Talent: Leslie Bibb, David Paymer, Tom Berenger, Kyle Chandler, Katharine Ross, Peter Fonda, Jeffrey D. Sams, Brian Goodman. Logline: A two-hour pilot for a dramatic series set against the political machinations in Congress. The lead character is a young female rookie congressional staffer.
LARRY GELBART PROJECT
Touchstone pilot pickup. Auspices: Gelbart, Larry (EP/W pilot); Dinner, Michael (D pilot); Topolsky, Ken (EP). Talent: Robert Sean Leonard. Logline: A corporate ensemble drama in the vein of Mr. Gelbart’s HBO telefilm “Barbarians at the Gate,” revolving around a family business empire built on greed and an insatiable desire for power.
PARANORMAL GIRL
Touchstone pilot pickup. Auspices: Brady, Pam (EP/W pilot); Fleming, Andy (EP/D pilot); Inch, Kevin (P Pilot). Talent: Kevin Kilner, Stacey Travis, Terry Chen, Tyler Andrews, Eddie Jemison, Seth Adkins, Sasha Barrese, Angela Sarafyan. Logline: A dramatic series about a 14-year-old girl with paranormal abilities.
CBS
CSI SPINOFF
CBS Productions; Jerry Bruckheimer Productions; Alliance Atlantis pilot pickup. Auspices: Bruckheimer, Jerry (EP-N/W); Donahue, Ann (EP); Mendelsohn, Carol (EP/show-runner); Zuiker, Anthony (CoEP); Canon, Danny (D pilot). Talent: Emily Procter. Logline: A planted spinoff episode that will offer another crime scene investigation locale and team.
HACK
Columbia TriStar; Pariah pilot pickup. Auspices: Koepp, David (EP/W pilot); Polone, Gavin (EP); Carter, Thomas (D pilot). Talent: David Morse. Logline: A dramatic series about a former police officer who now drives a taxi
and helps the “little guy” by solving crimes.
LEFTY
Brad Grey Television pilot presentation pickup. Auspices: Stallone, Sylvester (EP/W pilot); Grey, Brad (EP); Cidre, Cynthia (W pilot). Talent: Danny Nucci. Logline: A former military man/war veteran becomes an unconventional priest in a low-income urban neighborhood and takes his message to the street.
MICHAEL MANN & BARRY SCHINDE PROJECT
Studios USA pilot pickup. Auspices: Mann, Michael (EP); Schnidel, Barry (W pilot). Logline: A dramatic series centering on morally ambiguous police officers, a la the feature film “Training Day.”
PRESIDIO MED
Warner Bros.; John Wells Productions pilot pickup. Auspices: Wells, John (EP); Woodward, Lydia (EP/W pilot); Chulack, Chris (EP/D pilot). Talent: Anna Deavere Smith, Sasha Alexander. Logline: A dramatic series set in a medical facility in San Francisco.
FOX
FIREFLY
Twentieth pilot pickup. Auspices: Whedon, Joss (EP/W pilot/D pilot). Talent: Nathan Fillion, Sean Maher, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, Gina Torres, Ron Glass, Summer Glau, Rebecca Gayheart. Logline: A science-fiction drama that takes place 500 years in the future and centers on the iconoclastic crew of a small spaceship.
DAVID E. KELLEY FEMALE LEGAL DRAMA
Twentieth Television; David E. Kelley Productions pilot pickup. Auspices: Kelley, David E. (EP/W pilot). Logline: A dramatic series about three female lawyers who live together in a San Francisco loft that explores the women’s personal and professional lives.
SEPTUPLETS
Twentieth pilot presentation pickup. Auspices: Koenig, Kip (EP/W pilot). Logline: A dramatic series about septuplets who run a hotel in Santa Monica, Calif.
THE UNDERSTUDY
Twentieth Television; David E. Kelley Productions pilot presentation pickup. Auspices: Kelley, David E. (EP); D’Elia, Bill (EP/D pilot); Menchell, Ivan (EP/W pilot). Logline: A dramatic series about a 21-year-old woman who moves from Pittsburgh to New York City to pursue her dream of performing on Broadway. The series will incorporate musical elements. She moves into the Chelsea Hotel, lands a job as an understudy and finds a group of like-minded friends.
drama
NBC
BOOMTOWN
NBC Studios pilot pickup. Auspices: Yost, Graham (EP/W pilot); Avnet, Jon (D pilot). Talent: Donnie Wahlberg, Mykelti Williamson, Jason Gedrick, Gary Basaraba, Neal McDonough, Lanna Parilla. Logline: A dramatic series described as being evocative of the Akira Kurosawa film “Rashomon,” which explored a crime from the perspectives of four witnesses. This version applies this storytelling technique to the police.
KINGPIN
Spelling pilot pickup. Auspices: Mills, David (EP/W pilot); Spelling, Aaron (EP): Vincent, E. Duke (EP); Coulter, Allen (D pilot). Talent: Yancey Arias, Steven Bauer, Sheryl Lee, Brian Benben, Angela Alvarado Rosa, Ruben Carbajal. Logline: A dramatic series in the vein of the feature film “Traffic,” centering on the drug trade.
MS. MIAMI
NBC Studios; Handprint pilot pickup. Auspices: Duggan, Michael (EP/W pilot); Surjik, Steve (D pilot). Talent: Roselyn Sanchez. Logline: A dramatic series focusing on a Latina cop in Miami.
ZERO EFFECT
Warner Bros.; Castle Rock pilot pickup. Auspices: Kasdan, Jake (EP/W pilot/D pilot); Green, Walon (EP/W pilot). Talent: Alan Cumming. Logline: A dramatic series based on the feature film of the same name about an eccentric private detective.
UPN
EMPIRE
Greenblatt Janollari Studio; American Zoetrope pilot pickup. Auspices: Ridley, John (W pilot); Coppola, Francis Ford (EP-N/W); Greenblatt, Bob (EP-N/W); Janollari, David (EP-N/W). Logline: A dramatic series about two African American brothers who own a hip-hop record label.
HAUNTED
CBS Productions; Viacom Productions; Industry Entertainment. Auspices: Ramage, Rick and Cosby, Andrew (W pilot); Levisetti, Emile (EP-N/W); Wechsler, Nick (EP-N/W); Addis, Keith (EP-N/W). Logline: Haunted by the ghost of a murder victim, a private investigator uses information from the spirit world to solve missing-persons cases.
LEGACY
Warner Bros. Television; Jerry Bruckheimer Productions pilot pickup. Auspices: Kinberg, Simon (EP/W pilot); Bruckheimer, Jerry (EP). Logline: A dramatic series about a young assistant district attorney in New York City who brings comic books villains to justice.
ONE FOR THE MONEY
Columbia TriStar Television; Wendy Finerman Productions pilot pickup. Auspices: Sutton, Phoef (EP/W pilot); Legan, Mark (EP/W pilot); Finerman, Wendy (EP-N/W); Evanovich, Janet (author). Logline: A dramatic series based on the book by Janet Evanovich. The story centers on New Jersey’s Stephanie Plum, a laid-off discount lingerie buyer. Desperate for bucks, she pursues a career as an “apprehension agent,” tracking down scofflaws for her bail bondsman cousin.
TWILIGHT ZONE REMAKE
Trilogy Entertainment; New Line Television pilot pickup. Auspices: Densham, Pen (EP/W pilot); Stern, Mark (EP-N/W); Watson, John (EP-N/W); Frakes, Jonathan (D pilot). Logline: A remake of the legendary anthology series that offered stories of the unexplained-with a twist.
WB
BRATS
Spelling pilot pickup. Auspices: Hervey, Winifred (EP/W pilot); Miner, Steve (D pilot); Spelling, Aaron (EP); Vincent, E. Duke (EP). Talent: Rob Estes. Logline: A heartfelt drama about a military family whose father has just returned after two years away, bringing news that he must yet again uproot the family and head to a new base in Southern California.
IN MY LIFE
Columbia TriStar Television; American Zoetrope pilot pickup. Auspices: Ungerleider, Ira (EP/W pilot); Coppola, Francis Ford (EP-N/W); Glatter, Lesli Linka (D pilot); Suro, Maira (EP-N/W). Talent: Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Mark Moses, Billy Kay, Edwin Hodge. Logline: A family-oriented drama series set against the backdrop the Civil Rights Movement in 1964 about a group of high school boys who come of age in Baton Rouge, La., and whose lives are changed by school integration.