Failed Pilots for the 2011 TV Season

[Geekyfanboy]

We almost got to see The Dark Tower, Wonder Woman and a new Charlaine Harris paranormal series this fall

We've been hearing a lot the last couple of days about the pilots the networks have picked up, but except for a few high-profile possibilities like Wonder Woman, not so much about those they didn't. But there were plenty more series passed over than that!

According to New York magazine, the networks were pitched thousands of series for the latest season, and of those, bought scripts for 429 of them. Of those, we've culled the 30 that seem as if they would have contained sci-fi, fantasy and horror elements.

Check them out and let us know whether you think the big TV brains made a mistake and they should have picked up one of these rather than Grimm or Once Upon a Time.


ABC

Human Alien being occupies a person's body.

Ghostworld Couple can see future and supernatural worlds.

Inhuman Great criminals have been psychologically cloned; investigators must find them.


CBS

Untitled Larry Kaplow Project Time travel.

Untitled Matthew Federman & Stephen Scaia Project Time travel.

Untitled Kam Miller Project Based on Charlaine Harris's Harper Connelly mysteries, in which Harper speaks to the dead.

Untitled Susannah Grant Project Surgeon takes instruction from his dead ex-wife; Jonathan Demme directs.


FOX

Untitled Kevin Cecil & Andy Riley Project Fifties family travels to present day.

Fail Siblings are beaten down by life as their father narrates from beyond the grave.

Magical Law Legal-supernatural procedural.

Untitled Rick Eid Project Ambitious D.A. is aided by a ghost.

Black Chapter CIA unit uses paranormal means.

Untitled David Hubbard Project Prosecutor finds herself caught between two realities.

Smokers Alien exterminators in space.


NBC

Untitled Mo Mandel Project Meteor is headed for Earth.

Emerald City Group of New York twentysomethings, each a character from The Wizard of Oz.

Wonder Woman David E. Kelley's reboot.

SFX Special-effects house works with the CIA to solve crimes.

Untitled Bryan Fuller Project Modern-day version of The Munsters.

Untitled Michael Green Project Cops use artificial intelligence.

Mission to Mars NASA-like agency plans the trip.

Untitled Mark Frost Project Cop with artificial intelligence.

Ritual Crime Unit Paranormal-crime investigators.

S.A.N.D. Men Inception-like show about dreams.

Vines Horror show set at a winery.

Nine Lives Supernatural thriller about people who've had near-death experiences.

The Dark Tower Based on Stephen King's novels. King executive-produces.

Echoes Young woman, when touching an object, experiences the thoughts of people who have touched it before.

Ghost Angeles Young L.A. woman realizes that she can talk to the dead.

Zombies vs. Vampires Humans, zombies, and vampires all co-exist.


So ... do any of these sound like something you would have watched? Did the networks make a mistake?

[Rico]

You know what I wish?  I wish more people got to see these pilots.  Maybe they should start putting them up on the web, send them out via Hulu, Netflix, TIVO, etc. and have people vote.  I have a hard time thinking a bunch of execs really have the pulse of what people want to see.  And you know, maybe shows would end up doing better and get better ratings this way.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

You know what I wish?  I wish more people got to see these pilots.  Maybe they should start putting them up on the web, send them out via Hulu, Netflix, TIVO, etc. and have people vote.  I have a hard time thinking a bunch of execs really have the pulse of what people want to see.  And you know, maybe shows would end up doing better and get better ratings this way.

Definitely.  I mean, we are the ones paying for the service are we not?  Why can't we have a say in what we watch?

King

[WillEagle]

The only thing I think I would have been interested in would have been Wonder Woman.

[X]

Definitely.  I mean, we are the ones paying for the service are we not?  Why can't we have a say in what we watch?

King

No, no you're not paying for the service. Every network listed is broadcast. Also, we do have a say in what we watch, but we don't have a say in what they decide to develop. Again, it's a business and they need to do what's best for getting them paid.

My opinions are simple. Give everyone a say and you lose. Sure, you could vote on shows to make it, but we kind of do already, they call it the Nelsons. Also, you have to factor in the losses that a vote would generate. Nothing turns someone off to giving something a chance like them know beyond a shadow of a doubt that something that they actually voted on and wanted to see wasn't picked up because of the show that won. People can be very petty and spiteful.

Lastly, we're getting to be a little too spoiled. Programming is the job of the network on a global scale and the end user on a personal one.  We have thousands of options to place into our personal time slots. I say let the execs do their jobs and cull the wheat from the chaff. Also, if I were someone that put together a show and it was passed on, I won't allow the people that passed on it to show the pilot. What if I want to rework the pilot and try again? Better still, what if someone else decides to pick it up later? Should the company that passed me by get to make a dime off my efforts? Not a chance.

[Rico]

They are actually called the Nielsen's.  And statistically, a pretty weak measurement of who is watching what.  Especially these days.

[ElfManDan]

All that money put into these projects to get scraped. I agree with you guys, I'd like to see what was made of some of them.

[davekill]

NBC
Mission to Mars, NASA-like agency plans the trip.

To bad, that looked pretty interesting.
Maybe a spin-off of the Gary Sinise / Tim Robbins movie, Mission to Mars???