One of the greatest wrestlers of all time (in my humble opinion) Bret Hart said that professional wrestlers can be evaluated on three characteristics:
- In-Ring Ability
- Appearance
- Mike Skills
It was that simple.
Evaluating Broadcast TV Pilots can also be reduced to three characteristics. Over my 35 years in the business, and having seen hundreds of pilots, I can pretty much tell whether something has potential by asking myself three questions:
- Quality...Pretty simple. Was it good. Well produced. Cast right. Did it hold my attention. Were there people to root for or care about.
- Is it commercial...Can it attract a large broad audience. That is important for the BUSINESS of broadcast television which still relies, to a large extent, on ad sales. Is there more than a niche audience here.
- Sustainability...Is this a TV show or just a solid pilot. Can you see episode 50. Are there enough stories that can be told and characters whose journeys you want to follow.
Pilots that hit this trifecta and hit it big are rare and by no means am I saying that there aren't shows that have long successful careers that come up short on one or more of these criteria. Clearly other factors come into play but when you screen the pilots, hear the research and put together a schedule you need something other than your gut.
I have gone through many pilot seasons without seeing a home run on my network or the other nets. Once in awhile the heavens do open though. Since coming to FOX in 2000 there are four pilots that exploded for me:
24
MODERN FAMILY
JANE THE VIRGIN
EMPIRE
The EMPIRE pilot was so good that I remember telling our head of Drama development that he finally made a pilot that lots of people may actually want to watch. Yeah I'm an asshole...never denied it.
Well I watched 37 pilots and sadly I have to report that none of them popped on all three criteria. If I had to characterize this year's crop of pilots I would call them "competent". There are a lot of familiar ideas here. Several of them are pre-sold with the hopes that a franchise, be it film or TV series, will attract eyeballs. Comedy continues to be a bitch and, to be honest, sometimes the nets make it harder on themselves than they have to. If you look at the small list above three of the four are family shows and the fourth, 24, started out its life as a family drama.
Maybe I'm getting old and cynical...no I AM old and cynical...but one thing I sensed this year was the cookie cutter nature of most of the characters in this year's class. There was something rather predictable about everyone's actions as if writers went to the character playbook and followed the recipe with little deviation. I felt that there was a lack of trust that viewers can figure these people out on their own. There was little effort to add complexity.
Even in a solid pilot like DESIGNATED SURVIVOR it felt really important to keep Kiefer Sutherland in a Cornell sweat and to give him horn rimmed glasses to drive home the point that this is an academic thrust into the role of President. He's fucking Jack Bauer man. That's why people are gonna watch this.
So I have my check list for judging the pilots and, of course, I have the 35 years of experience, and I give each pilot a grade of A through F. Without getting into the plusses and minuses here was this year's breakdown. Oh and of course the nets will now potchkie with several of the pilots...recast, add a character,change a plotline or ending etc. generally making things worse but this is what we have right now:
A
24 LEGACY
B
THE MICK
TRIAL AND ERROR
DESIGNATED SURVIVOR
PURE GENIUS
THIS IS US
THE PITCH
LETHAL WEAPON
TRAINING DAY
STAR
SHOTS FIRED
C
SPEECHLESS
KEVIN CAN WAIT
MAN WITH A PLAN
A GOOD PLACE
THE GREAT INDOORS
GREAT NEWS
DOWNWARD DOG
MAKING HISTORY
CONVICTION
NOTORIOUS
BULL
TIMELESS
NO TOMORROW
FREQUENCY
DOUBT
TIME AFTER TIME
TAKEN
MIDNIGHT, TEXAS
APB
PRISON BREAK
RIVERDALE
D
AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE
IMAGINARY MARY
POWERLESS
MARLON
THE EXORCIST
A lot of those C's were competent, just not inspiring. There are four shows that I will personally check out in the fall. There are others that may work but I won't be watching. The four I intend to follow are:
DESIGNATED SURVIVOR
24 LEGACY
STAR
TRAINING DAY
A few other observations
I felt that FOX had the best development. I'm not just saying that because I worked there for 15 years. In fact they refused to share their pilots with me. I'm saying that as a broadcast professional.
I love the ABC family comedies so I was scratching my head at this year's comedy choices. I think there's a reason why ABC has had the success it has had in comedy and there seemed to be a conscious effort to avoid servicing that audience. To CBS's everlasting credit they know who their audience is and they service them and they did it again this year.
There were two pilots whose premise was billionaires know how to do things better than institutions (APB-law enforcement and PURE GENIUS-medicine) Hmmmmm
There were two pilots which I gather were written by the same dude. Both had a big reveal at the end which sort of changes the narrative and makes you wonder what the series is. I won't say which two they were but both got very low marks for sustainability.
There was a lot of time travel this year. I DM'd Shawn Ryan after his pilot TIMELESS was picked up over at NBC to wish him the best and emphasize how important the rules are for sci-fi in general and time travel shows in specific. I am not a fan of sci-fi on broadcast. They generally have a niche audience and these viewers often bail if there is an inconsistency in the rules of the show. If TIMELESS sees itself as more of an adventure show and less sci-fi it may have a chance but this is a tough nut to crack.
I was a little disappointed in the CW. They are doing a great job over there and in the last two seasons have really delivered something special in JANE THE VIRGIN and CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND. I guess they felt NO TOMORROW was the next one in that space but it wasn't. FOX initially developed RIVERDALE and, when it suddenly appeared as CW development, I was excited to see the finished product. It was OK...sort of more WB than CW if you know what I mean. I probably set a higher bar for CW than the other nets.
Well those are my thoughts on the pilots and again just one person's opinions. Judge for yourself.
So if you missed the MASKYS on Twitter here they are:
BEST FALL ONE HOUR – “DESIGNATED SURVIVOR”
BEST FALL HALF HOUR – “THE GREAT INDOORS”
BEST TIME TRAVEL SERIES – “THIS IS US”
BEST IP (MOVIE) – “TRAINING DAY”
BEST MID-SEASON HOUR “24 LEGACY”
BEST MID-SEASON HALF HOUR – “THE MICK”
BEST DRINKING GAME – “STAR” (TAKE A SHOT EVERY TIME THE WORD
“BITCH” IS UTTERED)
BEST PLEASANT SURPRISE – “PURE
GENIUS” (TERRIBLE TITLE THOUGH)
BEST USE OF VOICE FOR AN ANIMAL, IMAGINARY CHARACTER OR
INANIMATE OBJECT – “MAN WITH A PLAN”
THE “PRETTY LITTLE ARCHIES” AWARD – “RIVERDALE”
BEST USE OF THE CBS EYE AS A TIME MACHINE – “TIMELESS”
