Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Fantasy Network Mogul: Part 3 - FOX

Part 1: ABC
Part 2: CBS

And now we come to FOX, in what might be the hardest network for me to handicap this season, at least in the comedy department. They've got eight comedy pilots and seven dramas. The comedies are a mix of family comedies and high-concept material, while the dramas are dominated by action-adventure type-stuff.

Canceled: Running Wilde
Endangered: Bob's Burgers, Human Target, Lie to Me, Traffic Light

Comedies -

Chicks & Dicks
Logline: An optimistic Midwestern woman moves in with three juvenile men in New York City.
Cast:Zooey Deschanel, Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield
Creatives: Liz Meriwether (writer), Jake Kasdan (director)
Thoughts: I'll be honest, I'm making this guess on two factors - the talent, and the fact the premise just screams "FOX."

Little in Common
Logline: A single camera comedy series centering on a three families (one white, one Hispanic and one African-American) who are brought together by their kids' sports teams.
Cast: Paula Marshall, Rob Corddry, Kevin Hart, Gabrielle Union
Creatives: Rob Thomas (writer), Adam Bernstein (director)
Thoughts: It sounds like an attempt to do a Modern Family-style show with multi-ethnic appeal. Fox won't be able to resist giving this a chance.


Dramas

Alcatraz
Logline: Revolves around Alcatraz Island and the efforts of a team of investigators to track a group of missing prisoners who mysteriously reappear decades after they disappeared.
Cast: Sarah Jones, Santiago Cabrera, Robert Forster, Jorge Garcia, Parminder Nagra, Sam Neill
Creatives: Elizabeth Sarnoff (writer), Danny Cannon (Director)
Thoughts: JJ Abrams' Bad Robot is producing, which instantly increases its odds. It's got a supernatural mystery that will probably pair it well with Fringe, and a strong cast. For Fox especially, it's a no-brainer to order this.

Locke & Key
Logline: The three Locke children are still reeling from the brutal murder of their guidance counselor father by a deranged student when their mom, Nina Locke, moves the family to a small island off the coast of Maine and they discover a mystical doorway in their new home.
Cast: Miranda Otto (Nina), Sarah Bolger, Nick Stahl, Jesse McCartney
Creatives: Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Josh Friedman (writers), Mark Romanek (director)
Thoughts: It's another one that fits in that Fringe style of drama. I've heard mixed things about the script, but this feels like a go.

Terra Nova
Logline: A family from 100 years in the future travels back in time 150 million years to prehistoric Earth in order to correct the damage that has been done to the earth and save the world.
Cast: Jason O’Mara, Shelley Conn, Stephen Lang
Creatives: Brandon Braga, Rene Echevarria (writers), Alex Graves (director)
Thoughts: It's already been ordered to series. Steven Spielberg is executive producing.

Part 4: NBC
Part 5: The CW

2 comments:

  1. Hey! No fair picking “Terra Nova.” That being said, I’m starting to wonder if it’s ever actually going to air. Curious to know what you think (or didn’t think) about “Touch.”

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  2. As far as Touch goes, I'd need to see a pilot script on that one. The logline is: "A man learns that his autistic child has the gift of foresight." I don't have any other information about the tone or the plot, though with Kiefer Sutherland attached and Tim Kring writing, I guess action-oriented is a safe bet.

    I'm just not feeling this one's odds the way I feel the other high-concept stuff they've got on deck.

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