[Televisionary]

ABC had very little to announce for next season at this year's upfronts ; most of its pilots have yet to have been shot and won't film a single frame until later this summer. And the few things that ABC did end up ordering were either picked up from another network ( Scrubs ) or had been shot last year ( Life on Mars ). What's my point? I finally sat down last night to watch the pilot for Life on Mars with bated breath. After all, longtime readers know how bloody much I love the UK original series of Life on Mars --starring John Simm, Liz White, and Philip Glenister--and I had pretty low expectations for this David E. Kelley-created US remake, which keeps the basic plot intact (detective Sam Tyler gets hit by a car whilst investigating a serial killer and wakes up in 1972... or does he?), along with much of the dialogue, shot compositions, and graphics. (Kelley, for his part, won't be involved with the series; ABC has hired Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenbe

I am still trying to catch my breath. I'm talking about my reaction last night after reading Joss Whedon's brilliantly evocative script for his new seven-episode drama series for FOX, Dollhouse . If there's one thing that Dollhouse has been this development season in Hollywood, it's been THE script to try to get your hands on. After weeks of conniving, begging, and bartering, I finally managed to get my greedy mitts on the script and hungrily devoured the 54-page script in about fifteen minutes, seemingly without pausing to breathe. While I had extremely high expectations for Dollhouse (I always trust in the Joss), I was worried that, after all of the hype and hoopla, it wouldn't quite live up to my preconceived notions about the project. I am happy to say that not only were those expectations matched but they were exceeded. This isn't latter-day Alias by any stretch of the imagination: while there are still costume changes and choreographed fight sequences,

Question: what do Jimmy Smits, Hector Elizondo, Polly Walker, Nestor Carbonell, Rita Moreno, Paola Turbay, and Alona Tal have in common? Answer: they all appear in CBS' cracking and taut new drama Cane , which launches this fall. Cane charts the soapy twists and turns in the lives of the Duques, a wealthy family in the lucrative rum business who must fend off takeover advances from the shifty Samuels clan, who'd like nothing better but to put the business started by pater familias Pancho Duque (Hector Elizondo) and now run by adopted son Alex Vegas (an incandescant Jimmy Smits) firmly under their thumb. The matter at stake in Cane is the titular sugarcane, used in rum-making, which is now being considered by politicians as an ethanol fuel alternative... which means big bucks for who ever gains control of those massive sugarcane fields. Add to this the fact that there's bad blood--as in Shakespearean-scale blood feuds--between the two families (the Samuels may have played

What is it exactly that sparks our imagination when it comes to time travel? Is the notion of traveling beyond our lifetimes to catch a glimpse of a future world, unfettered by the bonds of our mortality? Or is the sense that we all would love a chance to travel backwards in time and get a shot and fixing the wrongs in our own lives? In NBC's new fall series, Journeyman , Dan Vassar (Rome's Kevin McKidd) gets an opportunity to do the latter when he finds himself unwittingly traveling back in time to points within his own life. It's the first time travel story on television that I can think of that doesn't use a time machine (thank god!); instead the wherefores and hows of Dan's ability are left a mystery... for now, anyway. Created by Kevin Falls ( The West Wing ), Journeyman deftly manages to combine several different genres--sci fi, relationship drama, action, romance--into one slickly produced package that is beautifully directed by Alex Graves ( The Nine ). The

Other than Pushing Daisies (already a favorite pilot/drama of mine for next season), the single best pilot script (among, yes, the 120+ scripts I read for work) was for FX's new legal thriller series Damages . Ask anyone in the television business who read the script and they'll tell you the same thing. Written by the writing team of Glenn Kessler, Todd A. Kessler, and Daniel Zelman, the script for Damages was a taut, gripping, be-careful-or-you'll-fall-over-the-knife's-edge sort of affair, a rare feat for a legal drama that also has the distinction of not having a single scene set inside a courthouse. (Legal drama-adverse readers, take note, the writers claim that this will carry over into Season One and promise nary a single courtroom cross-examine.) So I was breathless with anticipation when I finally got to see the completed pilot for Damages a few weeks ago. What exactly is Damages ? I can only describe it as John Grisham's The Firm meets Murder One , an in

One of the more interesting concepts this development season was the "re-conceptualizing" of 1970s cult drama The Bionic Woman . Ordinarily, I'd have sighed and bemoaned the lack of imagination of television creators for simply repackaging an old series with a flashy new cast and better special effects. But of course NBC's new drama, Bionic Woman , set to launch this fall, isn't just from any creator but from executive producer David Eick, who had his hand in re-conceiving another 1970s cult series, Battlestar Galactica , for Sci Fi. As any longtime readers will tell you, BSG is one of my favorite current series, so I had built up a lot of anticipation for this project, especially having read multiple versions of the pilot script over the last few months. So imagine my surprise when I finally saw the completed pilot for Bionic Woman a few weeks back and actually did enjoy it. Some of the concerns I had whilst reading the script had disappeared (a polish by Kid

While Pushing Daisies is undoubtedly my favorite new series for this fall , I can now say that I've definitely found my runner-up: action dramedy Chuck , which launches this fall on NBC. Chuck is a perfect blend of kick-ass action, hilarious comedy, romantic intrigue and nerd humor. It also, like fellow Warner Bros. Television series Pushing Daisies , has one of the most instantly likeable, charismatic casts on television. For those of you not in the know, Chuck revolves around lovelorn twenty-something Chuck (Zachary Levi), the head of a Nerd Herd (think Geek Squad, only without the product placement) at a Buy More store; he's still after years hung up on a college girlfriend who left him for his far cooler roommate Bryce Larkin ( Traveler 's Matthew Bomer). Said roommate, a gymnast and engineer, has since moved onto bigger things. Like being a rogue CIA spy who breaks into a highly secure government facility to steal an image-based intelligence software program that enc

I can't tell you how heartbroken I am. It's always a sad day when something fails to meet your expectations and, while there were several pilots I was anxious to see, The Return of Jezebel James was definitely towards the top of my list. Let me begin by saying that I've been talking endlessly about Jezebel James for the past few months. As a huge Amy Sherman-Palladino fan, I've reported every single casting decision on the pilot and have been more than a little in love with the script since I read it back in December. Which made my recent viewing of the pilot all the more, well, upsetting. Quick 411 on the pilot: it's written and directed by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino (she of the whip-smart dialogue and penchant for wacky hatwear) and follows the complicated relationship between two very different estranged sisters: older sis Sarah (Parker Posey) is a children's book editor for a major publisher (one of her series of novels revolves around th

Every once in a while a pilot comes along that completely shocks and surprises you with its dazzling beauty, pitch perfect cast, and its casual ability to create a whole world that you never want to leave. I'm talking, gentle readers, about Pushing Daisies , which ABC recently ordered to series for the fall season. From the fertile mind of Bryan Fuller ( Wonderfalls , Heroes ), it's unlike anything you've ever seen on television, a Burtonesque vision of mortality, morality, and, er, pies that sucks you in from the very opening scene and never lets go. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld ( The Addams Family ), Pushing Daisies has a super-saturated color palette that jars sharply (and intentionally) with its life-and-death theme: Lee Pace ( Wonderfalls ) plays Ned, a lonely pie maker who, as a child, discovers that he has the ability to bring dead things back to life, a gift he uses to full effect, when his beloved dog Dibney is hit by a truck in the pilot's beautiful and bruta

Following yesterday's discussion of my personal favorites from the current crop of drama pilots up for consideration for the 2007-08 season, I'm today turning my attention to this year's comedy pilots. I do have to say that things are looking pretty grim for comedies this year. Sure, the TV landscape is surprisingly lush at the moment with quality comedies like The Office and 30 Rock , but this year's comedy pilot scripts were, at best, sub-par. Which isn't to say that there weren't a few gems glistening among the wreckage ( Area 57 , pictured, wasn't one of them). So which comedy pilot scripts did I like best? Let's find out. The Return of Jezebel James (FOX): What can I say? I loved it. It's a return to form for Amy Sherman-Palladino, revisiting the multi-camera set-up of her days as a scribe on Roseanne , and a female-driven comedy that crackles with wit and depth as it tells the story not of an unbelievable close mother and daughter, but an es

With the network upfronts scheduled for next week (I cannot wait!), I thought I'd take a look at this year's current crop of pilots, some of which will blossom into full grown series next week. I can honestly say that I have now read every single drama and comedy pilot at every single broadcast and cable network that is up for consideration for the 2007-08 schedule. (It's a demanding job but somebody has to do it.) Yes, ladies and gentlemen, every single one. From Cashmere Mafia to Marlowe , The Return of Jezebel James to I'm in Hell (a fitting title), no pilot is beneath this Televisionary's piercing gaze. So which drama pilots did I like and what new series do I hope will make it onto their respective networks' schedules? Sit back and find out. Dirty Sexy Money (ABC): Equally one of my favorite drama pilot scripts this year (save the remarkable Damages , which has been ordered to series at FX), it is a tantalizing combination of Arrested Development and D

Ah, May. It's the busiest time of the year, between season finales of your favorite series, the network upfronts, LA Screenings, and the massive culling of series chaff. Yet this year, networks are launching several new series at the end of the month. Some will be little more that warm weather burnoff while others make me salivate (CBS' Pirate Master , for example). Then there are the ones that I'm curious enough about to want to watch more than a single episode. ABC's new series Traveler definitely falls in the latter camp. (Originally intended to air last fall, ABC cut back the action series' episodic order from 13 episodes to 8 and pushed the launch to summer.) Traveler isn't perfect but it is intriguing, offering a respite from mindless reality shows, drama repeats, and whatever the hell VH-1 is airing. For those of you up not to speed, here's the skinny. Three best friends, newly freed from the shackles of grad school, girlfriends, and student housing