Variety has announced that NBC has ordered production of three high-profile pilots. All three are dramas that are quite unlike anything NBC currently has on air. NBC, despite what I believe to be a severe improvement in the quality of its shows (just this year, they've brought us
30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and
Heroes), the Peacock still toils away behind ABC and CBS. NBC has begun taking chances, which is admirable, and they seem to believe that ratings will eventually be born of quality. This is the correct state of mind for a network. It's nearly impossible to predict what show will be a hit, especially at the script stage.
These are the three pilot orders:
Fort Pit
Fort Pit is based on a NYPD precinct where, according to one Sony executive, "bad cops go to finish off their careers and young rookie cops with no pull go to start their careers." Which sounds interesting enough, even before the fact that the show is being brought to us by the team who made
Rescue Me. Denis Leary and Peter Tolan will work as executive producers. No word on whether Leary will be involved in front of the camera. I'm guessing not.
Bionic Woman
Like the
Bionic Man but with, you know, lady parts. This resurrection of the 70's franchise is being exorcised by the same man who brought back
Battlestar Galactica, Douglas Eick. So, Fans of the Bionic, you're in good hands. Eick has turned
Battlestar into the most beloved Sci-Fi franchise on TV today. You should expect no less from
Bionic Woman.
Chuck
This is an action-comedy about twenty-something spies. Which is an okay premise, I suppose; it really depends on the tone and the actors to pull something like that off. And the writing, of course, but I'm not worried about that.
Chuck is being headed up by Josh Schwartz, creator of
The OC and a man I consider to be a very talented writer.
This, unfortunately, might spell ultimate doom for
The OC. At the very least, it does not bode well for a fifth season of the show. In our
interview with Schwartz last month, he was careful to be non-committal on
The OC for a fifth season, but you could tell that he felt that this season would be its last. Or, at least that's how I heard it.
Regardless, all three of these shows are exciting. To me,
Ford Pit and
Chuck are two shows that I'll certainly watch immediately if they end up making it to air. Remember, the ordering of a pilot does not guarantee it a spot on TV. Upwards of 80 or so pilots are shot every year; only a handful make it into a network lineup.
-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer