Pilot Season: High-Concept Dramas, Male- Centered Comedies & Zombies On The Menu

Ray Richmond, who is contributing to Deadline TV coverage, is taking an analytical and irreverent look at the recurring themes in these year's crop of broadcast pilots. In assessing the 79 series pilots that are competing for primetime slots at the five broadcast networks during the 2011-2012 season, a few trends quickly emerge, namely: manhood is under siege, parents are obsessed with meddling, zombies are alive and well (relatively speaking), opposites attract, and just about everybody seems to be on some sort of rebound. Moreover, pretty much every permutation of domestic life and dysfunction is being trotted out for a once-over as the networks seek to uncover the next Modern Family or Two and a Half Men. And the popularity of Glee has helped to inspire a musical bent for three pilots. Multicamera comedy is making a strong showing beyond its usual singular home of CBS. Too, high-concept drama is having a modest resurgence ? and both period soaps (ABC?s Pan Am, NBC?s Playboy) and reboots of past classics (NBC?s Wonder Woman from David E. Kelley, ABC?s Charlie?s Angels) are again in vogue, at least in the pilot world. Another hour (ABC?s Grace, from writer-exec producer Krista Vernoff) sounds remarkably like the plotline for the 1979 Bob Fosse film classic All That Jazz, with this one starring Eric Roberts in the lead as a famed choreographer who sleeps with his dancers and has three daughters with different mothers. Besides Grace, those tuneful contenders ... Read More »

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2011/03/pilot-season-high-concept-dramas-male-centered-comedies-zombies-on-the-menu/

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