ABC Fall – R.I.P. V, Poe a No Go, Once Upon a Time a Go, The River Runs Later
Steve Barton
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Deadline
http://www.deadline.com/2011/05/abc-starts-new-series-pickups-with-orders-to-tim-allen-and-apt-23/
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Next week the major broadcast networks will officially present their fall schedules. ABC today announced its pick-ups and cancellations. The news is bad for alien invaders and Gothic authors. The news is good, however, for fairy tales and the Paranormal Activity guy.
Much to the great sadness of Uncle Creepy and The Woman in Black, ABC has pulled the plug on alien invasion series “V”, which is not surprising given the show has floundered ever since its highly rated premiere episode. Ditto the superhero family series “No Ordinary Family”.
Also dead at the network owned by the House of Mouse is “Brothers & Sisters”, which, while not actually a supernatural program, seemed to be a show that would not die and has frequently inspired comments from a co-worker that Sally Field is actually a zombie and Calista Flockhart intentionally keeps herself super skinny so that there won’t be enough meat on her bones for Field to feast upon.
On the pilot front it looks like “Poe”, the 1840s detective series that would have seen a horribly miscast pretty boy portraying Gothic writer Edgar Allan Poe solving mysteries of a macabre nature, is a no go. Reported by Deadline Hollywood at one time to be a personal favorite of ABC’s new head of programming, the pilot flopped with preview audiences, including our own Mr. Dark. Read his “Poe” review here to get a better idea why ABC will not be quoting the raven this fall.
“Desperate Housewives” creator Mark Cherry’s mix of good vs. evil and gospel music “Hallelujah” also will not be saying “amen” on the American Broadcasting Company this fall. The pilot was said to have gotten very mixed reviews, and even ABC execs were said to be divided as to whether or not it would fly.
News today was better for the Steven Spielberg/Oren Peli produced “The River”, which has been given the greenlight. The mysterious cinema-verite series is described as “a horror drama in the mold of Paranormal Activity about a family who travels to the deep Amazon to locate and rescue their missing father.” Do not be surprised if this river doesn’t run until mid-season, though.
ABC has also picked up “Once Upon a Time”, about a woman with a troubled past who is drawn into a small town in Maine where the magic and mystery of fairy tales just may be real, that “Lost” co-creator/exec producer Damon Lindelof is involved with in some capacity. One thing that Deadline reported a week or so back that may have helped the Jennifer Morrison-starring fantasy pilot get picked up for series is ABC’s parent company Disney seeing it as a great way to cross-promote some of their own fairy tale properties. It’s called synergy, people!
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