Jace Lacob takes a look at the 51 newly ordered series that are coming to broadcast network television next season, from ABC’s The Avengers spinoff series Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and David E. Kelley’s Sarah Michelle Gellar–Robin Williams comedy The Crazy Ones to ABC’s Josh Holloway–led procedural Intelligence and NBC’s J.J. Abrams supernatural drama Believe.
In single-camera comedy We Are Men (formerly known as Ex-Men), a guy finds himself rudderless when he's left by his fiancée at the altar. Moving into a short-term rental apartment complex, he finds companionship with the more experienced guys who are living there. The cast of the project, from writer/director Rob Greenberg (How I Met Your Mother) includes Chris Smith, Kal Penn, Jerry O'Connell, and Tony Shalhoub.
Sonja Flemming
Anna Faris (The House Bunny) stars in this multicamera comedy from executive producer/writer Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men) that revolves around a single mother, newly sober, who is attempting to pull her life together in the heartland of America's wine industry: Napa Valley. The project also stars Allison Janney (The West Wing), Nate Corddry, Matt Jones (Breaking Bad), Spencer Daniels, Blake Garrett Rosenthal, Sadie Calvano, and French Stewart.
Monty Brinton
From writer/director Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow) comes political drama Hostages, based on an Israeli format, which revolves around a Washington, D.C., surgeon (Toni Collette) who finds herself enmeshed in a conspiracy after she is selected to perform a surgery on the president of the United States and her family is taken hostage. In addition to Collette, the cast includes Dylan McDermott, Tate Donovan, Sandrine Holt, Rhys Coiro, Billy Brown, Mateus Ward, James Naughton, and Quinn Shephard.
In multicamera comedy The Millers (previously known as the Unauthorized Greg Garcia Pilot), a recently divorced man (Arrested Development's Will Arnett) finds his life extraordinarily complicated when his parents move in with him. The project, from creator Greg Garcia (Raising Hope) and director James Burrows (Cheers), also stars Margo Martindale (Justified), JB Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Mary Elizabeth Ellis (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Beau Bridges, Michael Rapaport, Eve Moon, and Cole Ewing.
Richard Foreman
Wait, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Robin Williams are playing a father-daughter pair? On CBS? In a David E. Kelley show? In single-camera workplace comedy Crazy Ones, Williams and Gellar play father-daughter advertising agency executives. No word yet on if they'll break into song. The project, directed by Jason Winer, also stars James Wolk (Mad Men), Hamish Linklater (The Good Wife), and Amanda Setton (The Mindy Project).
Fans of Sawyer can rejoice: Josh Holloway (Lost) returns to network television with procedural drama Intelligence, based on an unpublished novel by John Dixon. This taut drama, from writer Michael Seitzman and director David Semel, revolves around an agent with the U.S. Cyber Command who can access the entire electromagnetic spectrum through a microchip that has been implanted in his brain. Holloway is joined here by Marg Helgenberger (CSI), Meghan Ory (Once Upon a Time), Michael Rady, and James Martinez (Breaking Bad).
Chris Helcermanas-Benge
From writer Dana Stevens (Safe Haven, What About Brian) and director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Thirteen) comes Charleston-set legal drama Reckless, which depicts the "intense attraction" that unexpectedly develops between a Southern city attorney and a Yankee litigator as they find themselves enmeshed in a South Carolina police sex scandal, on opposite sides. The show's cast includes Cam Gigandet (Burlesque), Anna Wood (Deception), Michael Gladis (Mad Men), Georgina Haig (Fringe), Gregory Harrison, Shawn Hatosy (Southland), Adam Rodriguez (CSI: Miami), and Kim Wayans (In Living Color).
James Van Der Beek (Dawson's Creek, The B---- in Apartment 23) stars in multi-camera comedy Friends With Better Lives, about a group of 30-something friends who each think the others have it better than they do: one couple is married with three kids but discovers their passion is flagging; another couple is recently engaged to be married; another pair is divorcing. And then there's the lone female singleton who refuses to settle down. The project, from writer Dana Klein (Friends) and director James Burrows (Cheers), also stars Brooklyn Decker, Rick Donald, Kevin Connolly, Zoe Lister Jones, and Majandra Delfino.
After days of unofficial buzz that ABC had ordered The Avengers spinoff Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the network finally pulled the trigger on the series order. In Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Avenger’s Clark Gregg reprises his role as Agent Phil Coulson, who assembles a team of agents from the worldwide law enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D. to "investigate the new, the strange, and the unknown across the globe, protecting the ordinary from the extraordinary." ABC offered little in the way of plot, but did give press a breakdown of the characters who will appear in the show: "Coulson's team consists of Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), highly trained in combat and espionage; Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen), expert pilot and martial artist; Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker), brilliant engineer; and Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), genius biochemist. Joining them on their journey into mystery is new recruit and computer hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet)." The project hails from executive producers Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Avengers), Jeffrey Bell (Angel), and Jeph Loeb (Smallville); the pilot was written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen (Dollhouse), who also serve as executive producers. Whether Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. can capture the big-budget excitement of The Avengers remains to be seen, but this is one project that already has fans shaking with anticipation.
Wendi McLendon-Covey (Bridesmaids), Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm), George Segal (Don’t Shoot Me), Hayley Orrantia (The X Factor), Sean Giambrone, and Troy Gentile (Good Luck Chuck) star in single-camera comedy The Goldbergs (formerly known as How the Hell Am I Normal?), a period family comedy set in the 1980s. Told from the vantage point of the family's youngest child, he reflects back on his dysfuctional family ... and how he managed to turn out so normal. The pilot was written by Adam F. Goldberg (Breaking In) and directed by Seth Gordon (Identity Thief).
Single-camera comedy Trophy Wife, from writers Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins and executive producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, centers on reformed party girl Kate (Malin Akerman) who has just become the third wife of Pete (Bradley Whitford) and inherited a family complete with three stepchildren and two ex-wives. Despite the fact that everyone is rooting for Kate to fail, she's determined to make her marriage work. The series also stars Marcia Gay Harden, Michaela Watkins, Natalie Morales, Ryan Scott Lee, Albert Tsai, and Gianna LePera.
Workplace drama Lucky 7 is based on BBC series The Syndicate, about a group of people whose lives are changed forever when they win a lottery jackpot. In this case, the winners are seven gas station employees in Astoria, Queens, who have been chipping into a lottery pool for months, never thinking they’d actually win. While their windfall could make things better for them, it also comes with a host of unexpected complications. The cast of the series—from writers David Zabel and Jason Richman and executive producer Steven Spielberg—includes Isiah Whitlock Jr., Matt Long, Stephen Louis Grush, Lorraine Bruce, Anastasia Phillips, Summer Bishil, Luis Antonio Ramos, and Christine Evangelista.
Single-camera comedy Back in the Game revolves around a single mother and former all-star softball player (Maggie Lawson) who, along with her son, must move in with her estranged father (James Caan), "an opinionated, beer-guzzling, ex-athlete who never quite made the cut as a single father or professional baseball player." While she attempts to navigate her new life, she starts to coach her son's misfit Little League team. Created by Mark and Robb Cullen (Lucky), Back in the Game also stars Lenora Crichlow, Griffin Gluck, Ben Koldyke, Kennedy Waite, J.J. Totah, and Cooper Roth.
Rebel Wilson's sitcom finally heads to television after a jaunt at CBS last season. In Super Fun Night, Wilson plays junior attorney Kimmie Boubier who has had a standing Friday-night date with her two best friends Helen-Alice (Liza Lapira) and Marika (Lauren Ash) for the last 13 years, but Kimmie’s recent promotion at work—as well as her attraction to a dashing British attorney (Kevin Bishop)—may wind up messing with a Friday-night tradition. The project, from executive producers Conan O'Brien and David Kissinger, is written by Rebel Wilson (who also executive produces) and directed by John Riggi (30 Rock).
Craig Sjodin
It was a given that ABC's Once Upon a Time spinoff, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, would score an order for the 2013–14 season. Sophie Lowe stars as Alice, a Victorian girl who tells a story of a strange and wondrous land that's accessible via a rabbit hole, but the doctors she encounters believe that her talk of talking playing cards, an invisible cat with a devilish smile, and a hookah-smoking caterpillar are the stuff of mental illness. But Alice isn't ready to give up her dreams, particularly as she fell in love with the enigmatic Cyrus (Peter Gadiot) during her time in Wonderland. Before she can undergo some radical treatment, Alice is saved by the appearance of the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha) and the White Rabbit (John Lithgow); together, they head for that rabbit hole and the magical land that lies beyond. Emma Rigby also stars in this fantasy drama from writer/executive producers Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.
Based on a Dutch drama, suspense drama Betrayal revolves around an unhappily married photographer (Hannah Ware) and a high-powered attorney (Stuart Townsend) who find themselves enmeshed in a powerful sexual affair. But their affair leads to further entanglement: he is defending a murder suspect who is being prosecuted by her husband, pitting these lovers on opposite sides of a high-profile murder investigation, the kind that makes or breaks careers and lives. Betrayal, from writer David Zabel and director Patty Jenkins, also stars James Cromwell, Henry Thomas, Chris Johnson, Wendy Moniz, Elizabeth McLaughlin, and Braeden Lamasters.
Craig Sjodin
Supernatural drama Resurrection (formerly known as The Returned), based on a novel by Jason Mott, imagines a world in which the dead come back and disrupt the lives of those they had left behind and centers on the small town of Arcadia, Missouri, where the appearance of a long-dead 8-year-old triggers a mystery about what has brought these people back to life. The project, from writer Aaron Zelman (Damages) and director Charles McDougall, features a sprawling cast that includes Omar Epps, Matt Craven, Devin Kelley, Frances Fisher, Kurtwood Smith, Sam Hazeldine, Samaire Armstrong, Nicholas Gonzalez, and Landon Gimenez.
Bob D'Amico
From Kyle Killen, the creator of Awake, comes workplace drama Mind Games (formerly known as Influence) about two brothers with unique talents. Clark (Steve Zahn) and Ross (Christian Slater) Edwards operate an agency that solves clients’ problems using psychological manipulation. Clark, a former professor and expert in the field of human behavior, suffers from bipolar disorder; Ross is an ex-con and grifter. Together, using psychology, they can tackle any problem, though they often turn their skills on one another. The project also stars Megalyn Echikunwoke (CSI: Miami), Cedric Sanders (The Social Network), Gregory Marcel (The Good Shepherd), and Wynn Everett (The Newsroom).
Mystery drama Killer Women, based on an Argentine series, centers on Molly Parker (Tricia Helfer), the only female member of the all-male Texan Rangers. Molly's colleagues in law enforcement want to see her fail, though her compadres in the Rangers always back her up. While her divorce from her no-good husband is about to get under way, Molly begins an affair with a DEA agent (Marc Blucas). Killer Women, from writer Hannah Shakespeare and director Larry Trilling also stars Marta Milans, Vic Trevino, Alex Fernandez, and Michael Trucco. Executive producers on the project are Sofia Vergara, Martin Campbell, and Ben Silverman.
Bob D'Amico
Single-camera comedy Mixology follows a group of singles looking for love over the course of one night in one of Manhattan's coolest bars. From writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (The Hangover) and executive produced by Ryan Seacrest, Mixology stars Blake Lee, Andrew Santino, Kate Simses, Adam Campbell, Craig Frank, Vanessa Lengies, Alexis Carra, Sarah Bolger, Ginger Gonzaga, and Adan Canto.
Mitchell Haaseth
Action/adventure drama The Blacklist, from writer Jon Bokenkamp (The Call) and director Joe Carnahan (The Grey), centers on the world's most-wanted criminal, Raymond “Red” Reddington (James Spader), who one day mysteriously turns himself in to authorities and offers to reveal the names of his accomplices and help the FBI catch a notorious terrorist, Ranko Zamani, who has long been thought dead. But he has a demand: he only wants to work with one specific FBI agent, Liz (Megan Boone), a rookie profiler with whom he shares a connection and who has just left Quantico. As NBC describes the thrust of the series: "What follows is a twisting series of events as the race to stop a terrorist begins. What are Red’s true intentions? Why has he chosen Liz, a woman with whom he seemingly has no connection? Does Liz have secrets of her own? Zamani, we come to find out, is only the first of many on a list that Red has compiled over the years: a 'blacklist' of politicians, mobsters, spies and international terrorists. He will help catch them al l… with the caveat that Liz continues to work as his partner." Whether Red and Liz wind up in syndication or only make it through 13 names on that list remains to be seen.
Based on the 1960s procedural that starred Raymond Burr as the titular detective, Ironside is rebooted for 2013 by writer/executive producer Michael Caleo (Rescue Me). The drama stars Blair Underwood (Dirty Sexy Money, The Event) as a tough and sardonic police detective who is in a wheelchair after being shot in the line of duty ... and who continues, two years after his shooting, to solve New York City's most complex and difficult crimes with his handpicked team of crime specialists. The project also stars Brent Sexton (The Killing), Spencer Grammer (Greek), Pablo Schreiber (Lights Out), Neal Bledsoe (Smash), and Kenneth Choi (Sons of Anarchy).
Mike O'Malley, Mary McCormack, Joey Haro, Ella Rae Peck, Ricardo Chavira, Justina Machado, and Aramis Knight star in single-camera comedy Welcome to the Family, from writer and executive producer Mike Sikowitz (Rules of Engagement), about culture clash in the face of young love. For parents Dan and Karina, seeing their daughter graduate high school is one of the happiest days of their lives, until they discover that she's pregnant. Across town, Latino valedictorian Junior gets a text that his girlfriend is pregnant in the middle of his speech. What ensues is a whole lot of conflict when they decide to get married and bring together two very different families with very different attitudes about everything.
NBC
This multicamera comedy revolves around a divorced gay father, struggling at work, whose 14-year-old daughter moves in with him, while he must also deal with an extremely temperamental new boss at the office and his overbearing mother. The project, from creator Victor Fresco (of the much-mourned Better Off Ted) and executive producer Sean Hayes, stars Hayes (Will & Grace), Thomas Lennon, Echo Kellum, Linda Lavin, Lindsay Sloane, Samantha Isler, and Vik Sahay.
In this semiautobiographical single-camera comedy, Michael J. Fox stars as Manhattan news anchor Mike Henry, a father of three who has put the breaks on his career in order to focus on his family after he is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease ... but five years later, Mike has realized that his kids aren't so young anymore and that it's time for him to get his own life back on track again. And thanks to his crafty former boss (Wendell Pierce), Mike may be back in the game again. The project, from writer Sam Laybourne (Cougar Town) and director Will Gluck (Easy A) also stars Betsy Brandt, Kate Finneran, Juliette Goglia, Ana Nogueira, Conor Romero, and Jack Gore.
Based on the classic Bram Stoker story that kickstarted the entire vampire craze back in the 19th century, supernatural drama Dracula once again tells the story of the infamous Count Dracula (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), here depicted as a mysterious gentleman masquerading as an American entrepreneur who wants to bring modern science to Victorian London, and particularly the new science of electricity. But Dracula is in London for more sinister reasons: he's out for revenge against those who cursed him with immortality and his plan is unfolding exactly as he had intended until he meets a woman who is a dead ringer for his dead wife. Rhys Meyers is joined by Victoria Smurfit, Thomas Kretschmann, Jessica De Gouw, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Nonso Anozie, and Katie McGrath in this 10-episode series from writer Daniel Knauf (Carnivale) and executive producer Gareth Neame (Downton Abbey).
Supernatural drama Believe, which hails from executive producer J.J. Abrams and writer Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), focuses on the extraordinary and unusual relationship that forms between Bo, a mysterious 10-year-old girl (Johnny Sequoyah) with psychic abilities (including telekinesis, precognition, and the ability to control nature), and a wrongfully imprisoned death-row inmate named Tate (Jake McLaughlin) who is assigned to protect her from those who would do her harm. (And, yes, I'm being deliberately vague about the connection between these two disparate characters.) The project also stars Kyle MacLachlan, Delroy Lindo, Sienna Guillory, Jamie Chung, and Arian Moayed.
From creator Rand Ravich (Life) comes conspiracy thriller Crisis, which revolves around an international plot to "bring everyone from CEOs to the President of the United States to their knees" by threatening the thing that they hold most dear in life: their children, who are taken hostage during a field trip. The kidnapping forces the FBI and these high-powered targets to work together to thwart the unknown puppetmaster pulling everyone's strings. The cast of this global thriller includes Dermot Mulroney, Gillian Anderson, Max Martini, Rachael Taylor, Lance Gross, Halston Sage, Max Schneider, Michael Beach, Joshua Erenberg, James Lafferty, and Stevie Lynn Jones.
First it was a novel (by Nick Hornby) and then a highly successful 2002 feature film (starring Hugh Grant) ... and now About a Boy is an NBC single-camera comedy charting the dynamic between a perpetual bachelor (David Walton, so fantastic in NBC's short-lived Bent)—who is stuck in a state of arrested adolescence—and the boy (Benjamin Stockham) who moves in next door with his unstable mother (Minnie Driver). The pilot, which was written by Jason Katims (Parenthood, Friday Night Lights), also stars Anjelah N. Johnson, Leslie Bibb, and Al Madrigal.
Single-camera family comedy The Family Guide revolves around an 11-year-old boy who sees his family—comprised of his heroic father who happens to be blind, his pipe-smoking mother, who has regressed to a state of adolescence, and his 1980s obsessed sister—unexpectedly become closer after their divorce, even though the arrival of a guide dog signals another massive change to the Fisher household. The project hails from writer DJ Nash (Up All Night) and executive producer Jason Bateman and stars Parker Posey (The Good Wife), J.K. Simmons (The Closer), Harold Perrineau, Eli Baker, Ava Deluca-Verley, and Lance Lim. (Jason Bateman, meanwhile, lends his voice as the adult version of Eli Baker's Henry.) UPDATE: Posey's role will be recast.
From writer Neil Cross (Luther) comes pirate drama Crossbones, heading to Friday nights on NBC next year. John Malkovich stars as pirate Edward Teach, also known as the diabological Blackbeard who rules a "rogue nation of thieves, outlaws, and miscreant sailors" with an iron fist ... but there are forces that would like to see Blackbeard deposed. Enter Tom Lowe, an undercover assassin, who is sent to infilatrate the Bahamanian island of New Providence and take down Blackbeard. The only problem is that Tom begins to fall for Blackbeard's political ideals, though he's not the only weakness that Blackbeard has.
No one (and I mean NO ONE) could have predicted last September that we'd be talking about a second season of NBC's Chicago Fire, much less a spinoff, and yet here we are in May and the Dick–produced Chicago Fire is getting a second iteration with Chicago PD, which will star Jason Beghe as Sgt. Hank Voight, the head of the Chicago Police Department's Intelligence Unit, and Jon Seda as Det. Antonio Dawson, who hopes to run the unit one day, despite the animosity between him and Voight. The unit itself is said to fight Chicago's major crimes, including "organized crime, drug trafficking, high-profile murders" and more. The rest of the cast will also include Kelly Blatz, Scott Eastwood, Tania Raymonde, and Melissa Sagemiller. The project will be executive produced by Wolf, Matt Olmstead, Michael Brandt, and Derek Haas, along with Joe Chappelle (who directed the pilot), Danielle Gelber, and Peter Jankowski, who worked on the Law & Order franchise (of which this seems to be NBC's attempt to replicate its success).
Formerly known as After Hours, this ensemble medical drama revolves around the doctors who work the night shift at a San Antonio, Texas, hospital, several of whom are ex-Army medics, and the constant battle between saving lives and the politics of running an urban hospital. The cast of the show—from executive producers Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah—includes Jill Flint, Eoin Macken, Ken Leung, Brendan Fehr, and Freddy Rodriguez.
Multicamera romantic comedy Undateable, from executive producer Bill Lawrence (Cougar Town) and writer Adam Sztykiel (Due Date), revolves around a confident slacker who takes on a new roommate—a nice guy who happens to be completely inept with women—and his group of equally undateable guys. The project, based on Ellen Rakieten and Anne Coyle's forthcoming book Undateable: 311 Things Guys Do That Guarantee They Won't Be Dating or Having Sex, stars Chris D'Elia (Whitney), Bianca Kajlich (Rules of Engagement), Brent Morin, Matthew Wilkas, Rick Glassman, and Ron Fuchas.
Set 35 years in the future, drama Almost Human—from executive producers J.J. Abrams, J.H. Wyman (Fringe), and director Brad Anderson—imagines a reality where police officers are partnered with sophisticated androids who look human. But when one particularly robot-averse cop is paired with an android who is experiencing genuine, human emotions, they forge an unexpected connection. The cast includes Karl Urban (Star Trek), Michael Ealy (The Good Wife), Lili Taylor, Minka Kelly (Friday Night Lights), Mackenzie Crook (The Office), and Michael Irby.
Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are behind Sleepy Hollow, a modern-day take on the classic Washington Irving thriller, which will revolve around Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison), who is resurrected 250 years in the future after his fateful gallop through the quiet New England town ... only to discover that the world is in peril and he is the only one who can stop the coming destruction. Together with a female cop (played by Nicole Beharie), Ichabod sets out to unlock a mystery whose origins stretch back to the founding of America. The pilot—directed by Len Wiseman—also stars Orlando Jones and Katia Winter.
In gritty action-drama Gang Related, an up-and-coming member of Los Angeles’s elite Gang Task Force—who has his own ties to one of the city's gangs—teams up with a longtime member of the squad to take down three of the most dangerous gangs in the City of Angels. The series stars Ramon Rodriguez, Terry O'Quinn, Robert "RZA" Diggs, Sung Kang, Jay Hernandez, Cliff Curtis, Inbar Lavi, and Shantel VanSanten. The pilot was written by Chris Morgan and directed by Allen Hughes.
After a year of female-centric comedies, the pendulum seems to be swinging back to male-dominated comedies again. Case in point: Dads, which stars Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi as highly successful business partners—best friends since childhood—whose lives are thrown into chaos when their tyrannical fathers move in with them. The dads will be played by Martin Mull and Peter Riegert in this multicamera comedy from executive producer Seth MacFarlane.
From Dan Goor and Michael Schur (Parks and Recreation) comes Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a single-camera workplace comedy set in a Brooklyn police precinct that features a chalk-and-cheese cop pairing. More specifically, the show charts the sparks that fly when a slacker detective (Andy Samberg) gets a new "by the book" boss (Andre Braugher). The comedy also stars Terry Crews, Joe Lo Truglio, Stephanie Beatriz, Melissa Fumero, and Chelsea Peretti.
Based on an Australian drama series, Rake stars Greg Kinnear as Keegan Deane, described as "a brilliant and frustratingly charming defense lawyer with zero filter." Like Gregory House before him, Keegan is a gifted genius with zero social skills: "His staggering lack of discretion and inability to self-censor land him the cases that nobody else will touch, but behind that lies a resolute optimism and belief in justice that fuel his dogged determination to defend those who seem beyond redemption. He always tries to do the right thing, but at the same time struggles to save himself from the many self-destructive elements that plague his own life, such as his overindulgence of various excesses, including women and gambling." The project—which hails from executive producer Peter Tolan (Rescue Me), director Sam Raimi, and writer Peter Duncan (who also created the original series on which the show is based)—also stars Miranda Otto, Ian Colletti, Bojana Novakovic, John Ortiz, Tara Summers, and Necar Zadegan.
In family comedy Enlisted, three brothers—played by Geoff Stults (The Finder), Parker Young (Suburgatory), and Chris Lowell (Veronica Mars)—get to know one another as adults when they are assigned to take care of a small Florida Army base ... and specifically to watch over the families of the soliders who are deployed overseas. The project, from creator Kevin Biegel (Cougar Town) and executive producer Mike Royce (Men of a Certain Age), also stars Angelique Cabral and Keith David.
Based on Justin Halprin's semi-autobiographical book, "I Suck at Girls," single-camera coming-of-age comedy Surviving Jack stars Christopher Meloni (Law & Order: SVU) and Connor Buckley as a father and son who are both going through transitions into adulthood. The project—from executive producer Bill Lawrence (Scrubs) and creator Justin Halprin—also stars Tyler Foden, Kevin Hernandez, Alex Kapp Horner, and Claudia Lee.
Based on the stellar (and much beloved) BBC Three comedy Gavin & Stacey, single-camera ensemble comedy Us & Them revolves around a young couple—played by Jason Ritter (Parenthood) and Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls)—whose path to wedded bliss is extremely complicated by their eccentric families and friends, the geographical distance between them, and some cultural differences. Whether this emotional and hysterical romantic comedy can translate overseas remains to be seen, though this is the first time that an American remake of Gavin & Stacey has made it to the screen (though others have tried). The project will also star Ashlie Atkinson, Kurt Fuller, Jane Kaczmarek, Kerri Kenney-Silver, and Dustin Ybarra.
New animated comedy Murder Police, from executive producers David A. Goodman (Family Guy) and Jason Ruiz, centers on a group of lazy, perverse, and often corrupt cops in an urban police precinct. The plot follows inept cop Manny (Jason Ruiz), his arrogant and corrupt partner Tommy (Will Sasso), Randall (Chi McBride), as well as "Justice (Jane Lynch); undercover cop Donel, Captain Rushour (Peter Atencio); Manuel's ex-wife, Rosa (Justina Machado); and their son, Mario (Ruiz)."
Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) returns to Fox with a limited-run tentpole event series entitled 24: Live Another Day. While details are still scarce, here's what we do know: there will be 12 episodes for this limited series, it will still contain a high-octane thriller plot told in chronological order over a single day (though some hours will be omitted, thus condensing it), and it's possible that it could spawn a further sequel. Will there be some hairpin twists? Yes. Will there be yelling? Absolutely.
Are you having a Twin Peaks experience? Based on Blake Crouch's novel Pines and executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Wayward Pines stars Matt Dillon (Crash) as a Secret Service agent who is brought to the sleepy town of Wayward Pines in search of two federal agents who disappeared. But as Dillion's Ethan Burke begins to investigate this mystery, he uncovers hard truths about himself and "the terrifying reality that he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive." This event tentpole, the second high-profile new franchise from Fox, will premiere in summer 2014.
From executive producer/writer Julie Plec and director Chris Grismer comes supernatural drama The Originals, a spinoff of the CW’s long-running and blood-soaked drama The Vampire Diaries. Starring Joseph Morgan, Daniel Gillies, Claire Holt, Phoebe Tonkin, Charles Michael Davis, Daniella Pineda, Leah Pipes, and Danielle Campbell, the series revolves around the original vampire family, which swore a pledge to one another 1,000 years ago to remain together. But those bonds have been broken and the Original Family has been ripped asunder. When Klaus (Morgan) uncovers a plot against him in New Orleans, he returns to the city that his family helped build centuries earlier. In the French Quarter, Klaus encounters his former protégé, the vampire Marcel (Davis), who wields control over the city’s population. But tensions are flaring up between New Orleans’ supernatural factions … and Klaus and his brother Elijah (Gillies) are determined that their family should rule once more.
Bob Mahoney
Based on the cult U.K. 1970s science fiction series of the same name, The Tomorrow People revolves around young people from around the world who collectively represent the next step in human evolution, and each possesses paranormal abilities, including teleportation and telepathy. Together, they must band together to fight the forces of evil. The Tomorrow People, written by Phil Klemmer (Political Animals) and executive produced by Greg Berlanti, will star Robbie Amell, Peyton List, Luke Mitchell, Mark Pellegrino, Madeleine Mantock, and Aaron Yoo. It's not the first time that a revival of The Tomorrow People has been launched: 25 episodes of a revival series aired on Nickelodeon in the 1990s.
Travel back in time and witness "the previously unknown and untold story of Mary Queen of Scots' rise to power" as the future monarch (and rival of Elizabeth I of England) arrives in France as a 15-year-old with her three closest friends as her ladies-in-waiting. Betrothed to Prince Francis, Mary struggles to survive at the vicious French Court "amid fierce foes, dark forces and a world of sexual intrigue." The project, from writer Stephanie Sengupta and director Brad Silberling, stars Adelaide Kane, Megan Follows, Toby Regbo, Torrance Combs, Jenessa Grant, Celina Sinden, Caitlin Stasey, and Anna Popplewell.
From creator Meredith Averill (The Good Wife) comes Star-Crossed (f.k.a. Oxygen), a science fiction/romantic drama based on a Spanish series. Confused? Don't be. Humankind gets an interspecies romance when a human girl (Aimee Teegarden) and an alien lad meet cute, when he and eight other members of the Orion 9 are integrated into a suburban high school. The move comes 10 years after members of their race arrived on Earth and were forcibly placed into internment camps. While these nine alien kids are now living a dream of unity, there are hundreds of their kind living in inhumane conditions ... and this pilot program is greeted with suspicion and discrimination. The cast includes Teegarden, Matt Lanter, Malese Jow, Titus Mankin Jr., Grey Damon, Natalie Hall, Chelsea Gilligan, Greg Finley, and Maggie Elizabeth Jones.
Skip Bolen
Science fiction drama The 100 is based on the upcoming YA novel series The Hundred by Kass Morgan. 97 years after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization as we know it, a spaceship containing the few remaining human survivors assigns a mission to 100 juvenile delinquents: travel back to Earth and explore whether recolonizing the planet is possible. The project, written by Jason Rothenberg and directed by Bharat Nalluri, stars Eliza Taylor, Henry Ian Cusick, Kelly Hu, Isaiah Washington, Paige Turco, Eli Goree, Bob Morley, Christopher Larkin, Marie Avgeropoulos, and Thomas McDonell.
Cate Cameron
