ABC's schedule is high on serialized sci-fi
Network president Stephen McPherson discusses his decision to add three serialized shows to its lineup while everyone else is going standalone.
It was ABC’s turn to unveil its schedule today, and as usual, The Alphabet is chock full of programs that immediately catch the eye. Aliens bent on taking over Earth, odd world-wide occurrences, and sexy witches–we would expect nothing less from ABC. Network president Stephen McPherson gave us the lowdown on his 2009-2010 schedule.
Rule of ‘engagement’: Produce addictive sci-fi serials
“Engagement” is a word we’re hearing a lot at the annual network upfronts in New York–network execs are using the word in reference to their efforts to keep viewers “engaged” in a show week after week. ABC is hoping at least three new serialized shows announced today will work the same “engagement” magic as Lost or Desperate Housewives.
Based on clips shown to reporters this morning at ABC headquarters, V looks like the best of the three. This is a regular-series remake/update of a 1980s miniseries about beings from another planet arriving suddenly on Earth and promising to greatly improve the lives of earthlings with their superior technological know-how. However, their real motives are sinister. This show, starring Elizabeth Mitchell of Lost (she’ll juggle work on both productions, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson told reporters), looks spectacular, thanks to special effects in which hulking flying saucers are seen hovering over the world’s largest cities. V is set for midseason.
The other two serials for which ABC has high hopes: Flash Forward, about an incident in which everyone on Earth suddenly blacks out for a few minutes and has visions of the future while unconscious (it’s supposed to be a show about fate, McPherson said), and Happy Town, about a storybook-perfect town in Minnesota that turns out to harbor all kinds of secrets, like Twin Peaks, which McPherson invoked in describing Happy Town.
The Leno effect
NBC’s Jay Leno juggernaut–scheduling the late-night star every weeknight at 10 p.m. this fall–is the one big wild card in ABC’s and CBS’s scheduling efforts as they try and figure out how best to take advantage of it. Not surprisingly, ABC’s McPherson looks at it as an opportunity (or so he insists).
“We think it’s an opportunity,” he said, referring to, among other things, ABC’s grim new 10 p.m. Tuesday drama from Jerry CSI Bruckheimer about unidentified dead people, The Forgotten. “We think [Leno at 10] throws up audience for CBS and us,” McPherson said. “Throws up”? Now there’s an interesting choice of words.
Plumbing the zeitgeist
The dictionary defines “zeitgeist” as “the general intellectual, moral and cultural climate of an era” and ABC thinks its new Wednesday lineup–comprising four new comedies, plus a one-hour drama adapted from The Witches of Eastwick (it’s just called Eastwick, but the women are still witches)–capture the zeitgeist of an economically challenged America.
The four comedies are Hank, starring Kelsey Grammer as a high-flying corporate CEO whose business goes belly-up, forcing him to–gulp–”engage” with his family; The Middle, about a middle-American family (in Indiana), starring Patricia Heaton as the stressed-out mom; Modern Family, about three couples (one of whom is gay) whose lives are depicted mock-documentary style, like The Office (Julie Bowen’s the best-known of this show’s stars); and Cougar Town, starring Courteney Cox as a randy, divorced mom–you know, one of those cougars who are all over the place these days (but only on TV, not in real life).
“The Kelsey Grammer thing is certainly a zeitgeist kind of show right now,” McPherson said, “and I think Courteney Cox speaks to a certain thing that’s going on for a lot of women and families out there.”
Zeitgeist or not, it’s just plain fascinating that Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, who couldn’t work it out as the co-stars of their own sitcom–Back to You on Fox–are now to be featured back-to-back in separate shows on ABC. Good luck, you two!
