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ABC - 2009-2010 Pitch meetings and schedule

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ABC announced its schedule for 2009-2010 and it offers the complete antithesis of what NBC put out there. Earlier I wrote about my imagined meeting of NBC execs and plebes coming up with ideas (or lackthereof) for next season. Let's take a walk through ABC's meeting rooms and get a glimpse of one of their pitch meetings.

To start, here is a link for ABC's actual scehdule for next fall. Now on to the meeting:

ABC executive: Okay cretons, we have a bunch of time to fill here. We need ideas and we need them quick. Let's put those Ivy League minds to good use. Go

A flurry of commotion, papers flying everywhere, everyone's voice going at once shouting louder to be heard above the din:
Kelsey Grammar! Lawyers! More Cold Cases! Docu-Comedy! Courtney Cox, remember her? Courtney Cox!!!! Old Ladies! Cougars! Updike meets Desperate Housewives! Small town intrigue! Tiiiimmmmeeee TRaavvveeelll!!!!!!!!

ABC Executive: Whoa, whoa, whoa people. Not to worry. I love all those ideas. There's plenty of room for everybody. In fact, we are going to use everything you just suggested. Mumbling: too bad we can't do it all in one show.

Where NBC lacked anything new of substance. *** ABC is throwing everything but the kitchen sink out there (and they might even have a show about a kitchen sink starring Joey Tribiani or something like that. We could call it Joey's sink. Bam, there's another show). Some of the programming looks like recycled parts from already recycled garbage, but there is some promise here.

Flash Forward: I have now read three descriptions of this show and still have very little idea what it is all about. It involves glimpses of the future and Jospeh Fiennes and that is about all I know. The uncertainty alone makes me want to watch. Replacement for Lost? Never.

Happy Town: I can't tell if this is more Twin Peaks or Desperate Housewives, but reading the summary I am inclined to think it falls somewhere in between. Here's a new idea: everyone in town has a secret. Run with it.

Modern Family: I am firm believer in the docu-comedy format (Office, Parks and Recreation) and this show could be fantastic. The cameras following around a "normal" family is a concept that could really work if done correctly.

Other than that, it is more of the same from ABC. Cold cases, actors trying to get sitcoms up and running again (Grammar, Cox), law firms, etc. Nothing of consequence although I suspect one or two will catch on because of the minion television watchers who trend toward anything that has to do with courtrooms or dead bodies.




***Caveat here: NBC's fall schedule is abyssmal, while their mid-season programming has a bit more promise (but not much)

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