Think Big

By Maria Elena Fernandez

March 27, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

IN Los Angeles and beyond, big, inexplicable things are happening. Nine people are being held hostage in a downtown L.A. bank. Scientists in Pasadena are responding to a massive meteor crash. On the Sunset Strip, a late-night sketch comedy series is unraveling. And in Florida, a young man is discovering he can swim underwater at 100 mph and communicate with sea life.

It’s pilot season, the time of year when next fall’s television lineup takes shape as potential new shows vie for precious prime-time network slots.

No matter which shows wind up on the schedule, though, one thing is certain: Last season’s fascination with the supernatural and extraterrestrial has waned. Next fall, things will not come out of the water or out of the sky, or from farther beyond, to attack us. (Except, of course, for Fox’s “Beyond,” which is more about the scientists and the aftermath of an Alaskan meteor impact than any cosmic threat.) The harm this season will come from flawed humans -- humans mired in deep, serialized conspiracies and multifarious relationships designed to keep viewers hooked for years.

Spurred by current serialized story lines on such shows as “Lost,” “24,” “How I Met Your Mother” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” this new drama and comedy slate is not for the commitment-phobic. Forget close-ended procedurals so popular on CBS and NBC; even shows with crime as a theme will focus on character and point of view.

“Everything we bought this year started with characters,” said Francie Calfo, executive vice president of development and current programs at ABC. “The more character-driven and the stronger the point of view, whether we were looking at dramas and comedies, that’s what we looked for.”

As it turns out, so was everyone else. Across the networks you will be asked to invest time, spirit and emotion as you wade through complex tales designed to keep you guessing. And if you want to keep track of what’s happening with your favorite characters, you will have to tune in again and again and again.

“As long as there is a way to keep the audience current or refreshed in terms of the events in a character’s life, they’ll stay connected,” said Nina Tassler, CBS president of entertainment.

In exchange for such viewer devotion, the networks are bringing out the big guns. In caliber of actors; pedigree of writers, directors and producers; the style of the shows and the ideas behind them, the buzzword for this year’s crop of pilots is “big.”

“There’s no question that there’s a desire for size and scope this year,” said David Nevins, president of Imagine Television, which is producing three pilots this year: “Shark” for CBS; “Beyond” for Fox; and a contemporary remake of “Friday Night Lights” for NBC. “People are thinking bigger for television.”

That includes actors known primarily from the big screen, such as James Woods (“Shark”), Ray Liotta and Virginia Madsen (“Smith” for CBS), and Jeff Goldblum as the title character on NBC’s “Raines.”

The roster of familiar TV faces returning in pilots includes: Matthew Perry (NBC’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”), Calista Flockhart (ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters”), Heather Locklear (ABC’s “Women of a Certain Age”), Brad Garrett (Fox’s “ ‘Til Death”), John Lithgow (NBC’s “20 Good Years”) and Patricia Heaton on ABC in an untitled sitcom she created.

“I’ve been so lamenting the horrible state of the movie industry the past few years,” said Woods, who plays a high-profile celebrity defense attorney who, after a crisis of conscience, becomes a prosecutor. “When I was young, everyone pooh-poohed television, and now every time I turn on the television, I see some extraordinarily interesting series.”

What isn’t big for fall is the available real estate on prime time. In an industry that is unforgiving (of the 120 pilots produced last spring, 48 were picked up for the fall, 15 of those have already been canceled, and two may never air), this season will prove just as ruthless. There are 100 dramas and comedies in various stages of production across five broadcast networks, all striving to land one of the fewer than 40 available spots on the lineups, which the networks will announce to advertisers in Manhattan in May.

With UPN and the WB going out of business, the new CW will have at its disposal both of those networks’ lineups as well as at least six pilots it is producing to fill just 13 hours of programming. “We have very few holes, so we’re focused on quality versus quantity,” CW Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff said.

NBC has jumped ahead of the pack by committing three pilots to its fall schedule, with 12 other shows hoping to find a home there. “We’re developing 365 days a year now,” said NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly. “So we’re picking up fewer pilots than expected because we will keep developing for spring and summer 2007 throughout the year.”

By contrast, ABC and Fox have had more typical development cycles and will pick up more shows than any of the competition. CBS, currently enjoying a phenomenal season, has already renewed 14 series for next year, leaving it with fewer places to launch new shows.

“The bar is very high,” said CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves. “You’re going to have to be very good to get on our network.”

Woods thinks his new show, which was created by Ian Biderman (“Cold Case”), is co-produced by Brian Grazer and Nevins (“24) and is directed by filmmaker Spike Lee, rises to that challenge. “I’ve never wanted to do a series, ever. But when I read this script, I saw that there’s actually some great writing left and good stories about people who have done things they’re not amped about, but they learned from their mistakes, and they go on to become heroic people.”

“Shark” is not alone in the ocean of early hype. Part of Reilly’s motivation in announcing three new NBC series so early is the “noise” factor he hopes to generate for the shows. TV veterans Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme (“The West Wing”) have again teamed up for “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” a drama starring Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford, about the people who produce a late-night sketch show. “Kidnapped,” a thriller about a wealthy family whose teenage son is nabbed, features a formidable cast: Jeremy Sisto, Delroy Lindo, Timothy Hutton, Dana Delaney and Mykelti Williamson. Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, who just won an Academy Award for “Crash,” co-created “The Black Donnellys,” a story about four Irish brothers who grow up to become mobsters in New York.

“We wrote it originally in 1996-1997 and then we stuck it in a drawer,” Haggis said of the script. “I trotted it out every few years to get it made and people would say, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ I always thought it was a unique story. I love that you get to twist these characters around for 22 or 24 hours on television. So I was very glad that somebody at NBC remembered it.”

Another industry long-timer, John Wells (“ER”), has created “Smith” for CBS, starring Liotta as the leader of a crew of criminals who desperately wants out of the life, and Madsen as his wife. The creators of “Smallville” -- Alfred Gough, Miles Millar and Greg Beeman -- are producing a spinoff for the CW, “Aquaman,” starring Justin Hartley of “Passions.” Fox has “13 Graves,” by Joel Wyman (“The Mexican” and “Keen Eddie”), about an ex-treasure hunter who travels the country in search of his brother, and “The Wedding Album” by Andy Tennant (“Sweet Home Alabama”) starring Bruno Campos, “Nip/Tuck’s” diabolical “Carver.”

“I was hoping to ... go to something very opposite of that,” Campos said. From playing a “knife-wielding drug addict to ... a jaded yet romantic and sentimental wedding photographer who is also very lost.”

Hank Steinberg (“Without a Trace”) and his sister, K.J. Steinberg, sold one of the most sought-after shows of the development season to ABC. The still-untitled drama follows the lives of nine people (including Chi McBride, Scott Wolf, Kim Raver and Tim Daly) who are held hostage in a bank robbery for 52 hours as they struggle with the trauma and reevaluate their lives. The mystery of the events that unfolds in the bank is revealed slowly throughout the season, a technique that has proven popular on “Lost.”

Meanwhile, family situation comedies seem to have vanished along with the aliens, as relationships, love and friendship emerge as themes. The pilots will run the gamut in format: traditional multi-camera, single camera and hybrids of both.

“People are going in a lot of different directions comedy-wise because nobody has the confidence that they know the formula,” Nevins said.

Among those attracting early attention are Fox’s “More, Patience,” CBS’ “The Class” and “The Angriest Man in Suburbia,” and ABC’s “Him and Us,” produced by Elton John and starring Kim Cattrall. Also generating buzz are “Everybody Loves Raymond” alums Garrett and Heaton. Garrett leads Fox’s “ ‘Til Death” about two couples in different stages of marriage, and Heaton stars in a sitcom she penned for ABC about a recent widow who finds comfort in joining the PTA.

“More, Patience,” is a half-hour comedy in the style of “Ally McBeal,” centered around a thirtysomething New York therapist who is in the middle of a divorce and has a vivid internal fantasy life. Written four years ago by Jed Seidel, a “Veronica Mars” writer, Fox decided to update it this year and produce it.

David Crane, one of the creators of “Friends,” is returning to the small screen with “The Class,” a multi-camera comedy about a group of people who met in the third grade and are reunited when one of them (Jason Ritter) throws a party. Although the show will be shot traditionally in front of a studio audience, its large ensemble cast allows for complex, serialized storytelling not used typically in sitcoms.

So who will land a time slot? The whirlwind of pilot production will not be completed until early May, giving network executives about two weeks to decide which shows will get a shot in fall.

“Everything is down to the wire,” said Craig Erwich, Fox’s executive vice president of programming. “Compare it to making a movie. You’re in casting, pre-production, production and post-production in a matter of two months. People make a lot of noise about what their strategy is, but at the end of the day, we’re just looking for hits like everyone else. And we’ll take them where we can get them.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Welcome back

Some of the familiar actors who may return to the small screen:

Timothy Busfield, “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” (NBC)

Bruno Campos, “The Wedding Album” (Fox)

Erin Daniels, “Julie Reno: Bounty Hunter” (Fox)

Ted Danson, “Help Me Help You” (ABC)

Taye Diggs, “Daybreak” (ABC)

Tina Fey, untitled comedy (NBC)

Swoosie Kurtz, “Big Bang Theory” (CBS)

Nick Lachey, “She Said, He Said” (CW)

Dylan McDermott, “A House Divided” (ABC)