List of SF and Fantasy pilots for the 6-nets. by millernate

OTHER SCIENCE FICTION SERIES

List of SF and Fantasy pilots for the 6-nets.

POSTED BY: MILLERNATE
UPDATED: Tuesday, April 1, 2003 14:13
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Tuesday, April 1, 2003 2:12 PM

Science Fiction and Fantasy Pilots for Fall 2003.

I’ve posted this a couple of other places (the official Firefly board and rec.arts.sf.tv to name the two) but I’ve updated a couple of the shows (particularly Joan of Arcadia) and I’m sure there are people here who do not go on those two forums. Also, before I begin my listing, I feel the need to get a couple of things out of the way. First, please be aware that these items are merely pilots and have more or less the same chance of getting made into a series as any other pilot. Secondly, an acknowledgement to http://thefutoncritic.com which provided the bulk of the information for this project (cast lists, descriptions) and the Internet Movie Database (imdb.com) which provided the career backgrounds for a lot of people (particularly the creative folks). Thirdly, it should be noted that cast and creator information can change before the show goes to air. Lastly, I would like to discuss the format that I’ll be using to run down the pilots which is as follows:

Title
What its about: Series plot/format
Who has been cast (if anyone)
Who is making it (includes past credits)
Nathan says: My take on the potential quality and what the odds are of it making the fall schedule.

Now away we go:

UPN

Kamelot
What its about: drama in which king arthur is resurrected as a hip revolutionary who reigns supreme in a camelot-like future society.

Who has been cast: no information

Who is making it: Wes Craven & Marianne Maddelena (Scream, and Craven was a director on The New Twilight Zone and an Executive Producer for the “Nightmare Café” syndicated series) Ron Milbauer & Terri Hughes (screenplay for Idle Hands, and Hughes was the creator of the 2000 series “Tucker”)

Nathan says: I tend to be sympathetic to King Arthur stories and Wes Craven has done some nice things in the past but I don’t like the concept for this (since when was Arthur a “revolutionary”?) and the fact that they have writers from the Idle Hands movie is not inspiring me with confidence. I’ve heard that this is very likely to get on the Fall schedule if Craven can find a “showrunner” to handle the show day-to-day stuff, though of course nothing is confirmed.

Newton

What its about: hourlong drama that at first seems to be about a simple american family living in the suburbs but instead, the family will end up living in what's essentially a testing ground for strange, beyond-state-of-the-art inventions

Who has been cast: Amy Pietz
("Caroline in the City", she played Annie Viola Spadaro who I think was the lead’s best friend and she earned a Screen Actors Guild Nomination for the role)

Who is making it: Joel Silver (Executive Producer of The Matrix and the Tales from the Crypt projects) Craig Silverstein (he was a writer/co-producer on The Invisible Man writing about ¼ of the episodes, he was also a writer/supervising producer on The Dead Zone), David Nadelberg (has no track record that I can find).

Nathan Says: While it has less of a chance of making the schedule than Kamelot does it has a better shot at being a better series if it does make it (and Silver seems to be able to sell networks on stuff…). Silverstein has written for some projects that I’ve liked and the concept is at least a little different from most of the other SF tv shows that I’ve seen tried. The rest of the cast could make or break this series.

Weapon X
What its about: revolves around a geeky n.s.a. tech guy (Christopher Gorham) who's accidentally infected with "nanobot" technology that turns him into the agency's top weapon.

Who has been cast: Christopher Gorham("Odyssey 5"), Marina Black ("Six Feet Under"), Matt Czuchry (Eight Legged Freaks, 5 episodes of “Young Americans”).

Who is Making It: Silvio Horta (screenplay for Urban Legend, writer/Executive Producer of“The Chronicle”), Gina Matthews & Grant Scharbo.

Nathan Says: Out of UPN’s SF/Fantasy offering this probably has the least chance of making it to series. Which is a bit of a shame as Horta is actually a very talented writer/producer who has a knack for getting the most out of his casts (I think he’s a bit like Joss Whedon in his style, though he isn’t great, just really good). I would mind seeing this and I have reasonably high hopes but I’d also like to see who the other writer/producers are before I hop on unreservedly.

Nathan on UPN: Recent talk has UPN looking to get away from “genre” television but they have renewed Enterprise and I’m hearing rumors of them taking Kamelot so I wonder. Plus there is the fact that UPN hasn’t greenlighted a lot of non-SF/fantasy drama pilots (at least according to thefutoncritic site). I’d put Kamelot down as having the best chance to make the fall schedule with Newton also have a good shot. While I really like Horta I don’t think that Weapon X will be making the schedule, though it might take the path that The Chronicle took and end up on cable somehow. Another issue is UPN’s recent financial troubles, which could make the issue of which series it picks moot relatively quickly.

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Tuesday, April 1, 2003 2:13 PM

MILLERNATE

The WB

Chasing Alice

What its about: drama about a female inspector from scotland yard (sophie winkleman) who moves to new york to find her missing sister, alice; along the way, the character encounters characters inspired by the "alice in wonderland" mythology.

Who has been cast: Sophie Winkleman ("Waking the Dead")

Who is making it: Scott Lobdell ("ball & chain", the upcoming Tommy Lee Jones movie Cheer Up), Michigan j. productions, Suzanne Daniels

Nathan Says: I’m not sure if this is SF/fantasy or merely sureal but Lobdell has a pseudo-genre background (I think this is the former comic book writer) and the idea sounds somewhat fantastic. I’m not real sure about Winkleman as I’ve never seen her and she doesn’t have a lot of experience. If I’m right in guessing that Michigan J. Productions is the Warner Brothers production house then this one has a decent shot at making the Fall schedule. I’d be interested to see who will end up as the “showrunner” (as Lobdell doesn’t have enough TV experience to have the position) as that will determine a lot.

Family Curse (previously titled Shadow Walkers )

What its about: drama revolves around married archeologists and their teenage kids, who must track down creatures from folklore they accidently release from a Pandora's box;

Who has been cast: Ted Mcginley ("Married with Children"), Lindsay Frost (The Ring, Smoke Jumpers with our very own Adam Baldwin),
Brian Sites ("Eight Simple Rules"), Britt Irvin ("Taken")

Who is making it: Dan Angel & Billy Brown (writer/supervising producer for the Animorphs series, creator/writer/executive producer of the short-lived “Night Visions”, story editor for the X-Files, this is for Angel and Brown both)
Mel Gibson (yes that Mel Gibson), Bruce Davey, Greg Coote & Jeff Hayes (no idea, imdb lists 2 producers names Jeff Hayes, one of who wrote for Flipper, Time Trax and the 1988 Mission Impossible series and the other one is a professional producer of things like Law & Order who doesn’t have a writing credit on imdb).

Nathan Says: The poor performance of the similarly themed “Veritas” might hurt Curse’s chances of making the fall schedule. As for quality? Well a part of this depends on which Jeff Hayes is involved but Angel & Brown’s track record after leaving the X-Files is spotty and I’m not overly thrilled at the premise either. Which is a shame as I’d like to McGinely have a successful series as he’s one of the more unfairly maligned actors in TV (with the whole “Jump the Shark” theory…man people need to learn what a fool the guy who started that mess is judging by his comments any time he plays “pop culture critic”).

Fearless

What its about: drama based on Francine Pascal's series of young-adult novels about a girl born without the gene for fear (Rachael Leigh Cook)

Who is in it: Rachael Leigh Cook ("She's All That"), Eric Balfour ("Veritas: the Quest")
Ian Somerhalder ("Young Americans"), Bianca Lawson ("Save the Last Dance").

Who’s making it: Evan Charnov & Vincent Ngo (neither are anyone I’ve heard of), Jerry Bruckheimer & Jonathan Littman, Jeremy Carver

Nathan says: Depending on the popularity of the source books these could have a good shot at making it on the air (especially with the name Jerry Bruckheimer attached). Though I wonder about one Usenet critics comments about the concept namely if the lead character can’t feel concern why should we?

The Spaces

What its about: comedy follows the exploits of a family living in a space colony, including their slacker teenage son -- the first boy born in space

Who is in it: no casting is yet known

Who is making it: Dan Milano ("Greg the Bunny"), Laura Ziskin, Kevin Chinoy

Nathan Says: I’ve been waiting for a good SF comedy aside from Red Dwarf (and, on its good days, Futurama to a lesser extent) and I expect that I’ll still be waiting. A lot of people have said good things about “Greg the Bunny” but I sure didn’t see any when I tuned in. The fact that this seems to be a standard teen-sitcom transported into space is also cause for concern. WB has been looking to try to establish some sitcoms so this stands a better shot than it deserves, but WB also has a lot of more promising sitcom pilots on the shelf so I would predict that this won’t make the Fall schedule.

Tarzan

What is about: A futuristic show about animatronic gorillas ruling the world…
seriously though: contemporary take on Tarzan (Travis Fimmel) who as a young man is brought from the jungle to his childhood home, New York, by his uncle, the head of powerful Greystoke enterprises, and centers on Tarzan's relationship with Jane (Sarah Wayne Callies), a fiery police detective.

Who is in it: Travis Fimmel, Sarah Wayne Callies, Miquel Nunez Jr. (Juwanna Man), Sarah Jane Potts (“Felecity”).

Who is making it: Laura Ziskin (Spiderman), Mike Webb & Michael Colleary (Tomb Raider, Face/Off), David Nutter (“Smallville”)

Nathan Says: Not really SF/Fantasy but close enough that I’ll include it. Frankly none of the names on this jumps out to me and Tarzan hasn’t had a good track record in recent years (I believe the Tarzan syndicated series of awhile back did not do particularly well). The fact that it has a “Smallville” producer involved gives it a shot at making the schedule but I’m not optimistic about either its chances of making it or its chances of quality.

Young MacGyvor

What its about: new version of the 1985-92 abc series focusing on macgyver's nephew (jared padalecki) who is brought into the fold of the phoenix foundation, the good-guy organization his uncle belonged to, on a lark

Who has been cast: Jared Padalecki (Gilmore Girls), Kiele Michelle Sanchez (That Was Then), Ron Canada (Philly)

Who is making it: Henry Winkler, Sam Baum, Steven Downey & John Rich

Nathan says: An awful lot of old shows have been remade in recent years (Family Affair, Twilight Zone…) but I don’t think this will happen here. I don’t think all that many people are really clamoring for MacGyvor. Of course I also wasn’t a fan of the original series so I might be just a tad biased (though if it doesn’t get picked the producers can always “blame Canada” * groan * ).

Nathan on the network: WB has been moving away from SF/fantasy programs for awhile now and probably will continue to do so. If I had to pick I’d expect only one of these shows to get picked up (to pair with the returning Charmed). In which case Chasing Alice looks to be the most promising and Fearless looks to be the most compatible. I won’t pick beyond narrowing it down to those 2.

Fox (*pauses for the inevitable booing and hissing * )

Heroine

What its about: described as a cross between "run lola run" and "groundhog day," the drama revolves around a woman who graduates from college and discovers that she's able to save lives by changing the course of events.

Who is in it: Eliza Dushku (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Angel”, City by the Sea), Matt Reeves (Auto-Focus)

Who is making it: Rob Cohen (XXX), Philip Noyce (directed Patriot Games among other things), Jon Feldman (“American Dreams”), and Marty Adelstein.

Nathan Says: Zack Stentz (who I think writes for the current Twilight Zone) recently said that the script reminded him of a combination of Run Lola Run and “Early Edition” both of which are nice things to get compared to. I’m a very big Dushku fan and the people behind it have decent, though not spectacular track records. I expect that this will suffer the same fate as any genre programming unlucky enough to get picked up by Fox. A Friday at 8:00 timeslot and crap promotion until it gets cancelled by December. I also expect that I’ll end up watching every episode.

Maid of the Mists

What its about: described as Amelie meets The Royal Tenenbaums the drama features a twentysomething woman (Caroline Dhavernas) to whom inanimate figures offer cryptic info on how she can intervene in the lives of others

Who is in it: Caroline Dhavernas (Lost and Delirious), Kate Finneran (Noises off on Broadway), Tyron Leitso (Dinotopia)

Who is making it: Bryan Fuller (Star Trek: Voyager), Todd Holland (Malcolm in the Middle)

Nathan Says: I’m not terribly excited about this. It seems to be intended as possible exploitation and neither of the creators have track records that are anything to get excited about (though Fuller is listed as being an executive producer and writer for the upcoming Showtime series Dead Like Me so he might not be involved).

N.Y.P.D. 2069

What its about: drama that revolves around a present-day new york city cop (josh hopkins) who finds himself transported to 2069

Who is in it: Josh Hopkins (Ally McBeal), Mark Pelligrino (NYPD Blue), Danny Pino (Men, Women, and Dogs), Giancarlo Esposito (“Girls Club”, Do the Right Thing), Annie Parisse (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days)

Who is making it: Steven Bochco, Nick Wootton & Mark Olmstead (NYPD Blue), Gregory Hoblit (Hart’s War)

Nathan Says: Look a cop show in space. I’m sorry but I’m not a huge fan of the “transport standard genre television into SF environments” style storytelling (the worst failure of this sort was the “Lets make a Doctor show, but set it on a satellite” which resulted in the awful Mercy Point). I’m also not a fan of Mr. Bochco’s more recent efforts but I expect that this show will get on the schedule based on Bochco’s name if nothing else (and at least it gets Giancarlo Esposito a role, which is a good thing).

Nathan on the network: Fox hasn’t really given SF/Fantasy programming much of a slot in the last several years and they haven’t really ordered many pilots of this type. I think that Heroine has a very good chance at getting picked up for a season (especially since they’ve ordered additional scripts and the pilots set to be directed by Philip Noyce). N.Y.P.D. 2069 has an outside chance of getting picked up but I’m not entirely sure, especially because another network has its own “Cops in the future” series in the works (more on this later) which could be hurt it or help it getting picked up.

CBS

Century City

What its about: legal drama set in the future

Who is in it: Ioan Gruffudd (Horatio Hornblower), Eric Shaeffer (First Years), Viola Davis (Antowane Fisher), Hector Elizondo (Chicago Hope)

Who is making it: Paul Attanasio & Katie Jacobs (Gideon’s Crossing and Attanasio was the creator of Homicide: Life on the Street and wrote the screenplay for Quiz Show), Ed Zuckerman (The Agency)

Nathan Says: I’m somewhat curious as to why this is set in the future because there doesn’t seem to be a lot that you can do with legal drama that can’t already be done in a show set in the present. Having said that it has a solid cast and Attanasio has done some some good work in the past so if it makes it I may check it out.

Joan of Arcadia

What its about: project revolves around a contemporary joan of arc who sees god in a different form each week

Casting Information: Amber Tamblyn (“General Hospital”, The Ring, guest spots on “The Twilight Zone” v. 3.0 and “Without a Trace”), Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard, “Ink”, “Gulliver’s Travels”)

Who is making it: Barbra Hall

Nathan Says: No idea. Imdb lists 2 Barbra Hall’s who have written for television. One wrote for Newhart, Moonlighting, Anything but Love, and New York News while the other is a former writer/producer on Northern Exposure, Chicago Hope and Judging Amy (though both entries have a Moonlighting credit, I suppose its possible that they are both the same person and imdb screwed up). Tamblyn has been decent in what I’ve seen her in and Steenburgen is an Academy Award winning actress. This might not technically be fantasy in the strictest sense but Hall’s track record suggests that it might be good if it makes it to series and the lead has been pretty good in what I’ve seen her in.

Nathan on the network: CBS is one of the more conservative networks, which is why its somewhat surprising that they have 2 pilots that could be termed “SF/Fantasy” (though Joan of Arcadia is tenuous). Having said that Joan of Arcadia looks to be something of a shot in the dark as I haven’t heard anything about it one way or the other. Century City looks to be a legal drama that merely takes place in the future (so CBS could be seen as hedging their bets here). Century City has a decent shot at getting on the air with its creators and cast. I’ll keep an open mind on it but I’m not a huge fan of lawyer shows.

NBC

Future Tense

What its about: revolves around an elite law enforcement unit in the future

Who is in it: Christopher Titus (“Titus”)

Who is making it: Javier Grillo-Marxuach (writer/producer for Boomtown, The Chronicle, The Pretender, the first season of Charmed), Joel Silver

Nathan Says: I don’t know about this one. Grillo-Marxuach has never been in charge of a show before (though I quite liked his work on The Chronicle) and it seems to be a cop show with SF props, which I’m not particularly predisposed to like. The big hurdle is that this is being pitched to NBC, which does not have the strongest track record with SF and Fantasy TV, which means that it is not terribly likely that this will make fall.

Spellbound

What its about: a romantic comedy about a male witch (Richard Ruccolo) who falls in love with a mortal (Andrea Anders).

Who is in it: Richard Ruccolo (Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place), Andreas Anders, Fred Willard (Best In Show)

Who is making it: Rob Greenberg (Fraiser), Suzanne Martin (Maybe its Me)

Nathan Says: This is more of a traditional sitcom than a fantasy show, but I liked Maybe its Me quite a bit (and, given WB’s usual sitcom performance, even this year, it might have been smart to renew it at the time) so I might give this a shot if it makes it. The last sitcom done by a Fraiser veteran was Bram & Alice though, so there is some cause for concern. The John Laroquette starring Happy Family pilot and the Americanized Coupling stand better chances of getting on NBC’s sitcom line-up (and Tom Selleck has a comedy pilot in the works too so it has a lot of competition).

Overall: Well it’s a relatively poor year for true SF/fantasy series (as opposed to Cop/Lawyer shows using fantastic props) and worse, a lot of the shows with true promise are on either Fox (which screws them over) or UPN (which is experiencing severe financial troubles and who’s future is in doubt). Out of the shows listed Newton, Heroine, and maybe Chasing Alice or Weapon X look to have potential based on the premise and who is doing them though of course its hard to judge based solely off a premise, some casting info, and producer credits. Some other shows have people with solid track record helming them but on the whole things are looking worse for SF/Fantasy television than at any time since 1980 (which started the “dry period” of genre television that ran through around 1987).

Nathan
"It looks like a great adventure...That's what it is; that's what it feels like. When I saw the pilot, it was really engaging. It was exciting. It was unusual. It threw me off every now and then. I think people will be grabbed by it." - Ron Glass, on the pilot, during an interview with the Indianapolis Star

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