The What on The CW's Fall '06

Hardly seems worth the effort of listing The CW's few pilot approvals
so far, but here they are nevertheless. Why does this network even
bother?

COMEDY

GIRLFRIENDS SPIN-OFF - A group of women in various stages of
relationships with pro football players.

DRAMA

ATLANTIS - The twentysomething owner of a dive shop who's actually the
lost king of Atlantis.

David B...

Staying away from the Aquaman name, huh?

kaydigi...

Is that what it is suppose to be?? WOW!!!!!

Roy Knable...

Yeah, but all of a sudden, they're courting confusion with an
previously existing and ongoing show, namely Stargate: Atlantis.

shawn...

Heh.. The first thing I thought of was "Man From Atlantis." That was
the show with Patrick Duffy that didn't last long at all.

John Duncan Yoyo...

Actually it was Birds of Prey which was the other heroes of Gotham.

UNTITLED KEVIN WILLIAMSON PROJECT - A troubled teen moves to a gated
community in Palm Springs where he uncovers some dark secrets.

UNTITLED PALLADINOS PROJECT - A New York-based family mystery series
along the lines of "Nick & Nora."

Rob Jensen...

Given that it's (allegedly) a mystery series (like this
procedural-glutted environment needs YET ANOTHER MYSTERY SHOW?!), I
predict that Gg is going to have the Palladinos for at least one more
year, this time, with essentially six-episodes-worth of bonus pay.

-- Rob

Sharpe Fan...

[snipped]

Sharpe Fan...

I know nothing about the on-going discussion (and don't care that much
either), but this makes no sense at all.

[snipped]

Sharpe Fan

Mickey...

It's really simple. Serial in the first sentence is a predicate
adjective and in the second sentence it is a noun (predicate nominative).

Serial used as a noun is a genre, like the Flash Gordon serials. By
design, CRITICAL plot elements are MADE to overlap episodes: the
cliffhanger.

Serial as an adjective describes the more general condition of having
plots (of any criticality) overlapping episodes. Any fictional series
which employs the same character week to week cannot fail to have serial
elements. Characters (and situations) evolve (often slowly) and carry
over to from episode to episode.

So judging whether something is a serial or not is somewhat subjective,
whereas the question of whether something is serial (employs episode
spanning plots) is objective. There's a reason why they're called series.

Sharpe Fan...

Oops, I missed the "a" before the second serial. Sorry.

Sharpe Fan

Mickey...

I don't understand what is so difficult to grasp. If plots span
episodes, the series is serial. That's not to say that the series is a
serial. Determining whether or not something is a serial is where the
question of episode indepedence is relevent. In the case of Hill Street
Blues, I will agree that by the time the show ended it run, it had
devolved to being a serial. This was not the case during the first
season or two, when principle plot lines seldom extended beyond 3 episodes.

Mickey...

Above you make my point quite eloquently by trying to compare episodic
(an adjective) to serials (a plural noun). This type of thinking is
illogical on its face. A more valid approach would be to construct a
continuum with anthologies on one side and serials on the others. The
variable is the degree to which plot is allowed to spill over the edges
of show "installments," i.e., the amount of serial connection:
serialization. So the continuum runs from "Love American Style" to "Days
of Our Lives."

Take a look at a few dictionaries and you may discover that for
something to be episodic, it must also be serial, though not necessarily
a serial. The alternatives being one offs and anthologies.

Rob Jensen...

You totally misconstrued my point -- I'm NOT comparing
serial-the-adjective with serials-the-noun, I'm comparing serial
structure (which is not the serial genre) with episodic structure.
Episodic structure in TV means something *very* different than you're
making it out to be. Police procedurals are considered *just as much
an example of episodic structure* as both one-offs *and* anthologies.
The serialized subplots are stipulated and *ignored* in classifying
the episodes as a whole.

Moreover, I do not subscribe to using the terms "serial" and "series"
interchangeably just because they both can be used as nouns describing
types of strings of episodes concerning a single given idea. A serial
is simply a type (genre) of series. Not all series are serials and
not all (or even most) serials are soap operas. Anthologies are not
serials, even when they have serialized minor subplots. Shows are, in
fact, described as Episodic (well, "episodic") all the time in
Entertainment Weekly and other magazines when they consist primarily
of non-serialized stories featuring the *same* characters and settings
in every episode.

In Episodic form, exemplified by anthologies, one-shots *and* police
procedurals (EVEN THOSE LIKE CSI THAT HAVE MINOR SERIAL SUB-PLOTS),
*among other genres,* each episode is a discrete, unified whole (ie: a
story unto itself). In serials of all stripes, episodes *may* be
discrete unified wholes, but even then, the meaning of the episode is
wholly subservient to its place in developing the meaning of the
ongoing storylines and in explicating the meaning of the series as a
whole.

There's an even simpler way to put it: The Episodic non-serial CSI is
*far* closer to The Twilight Zone than it is to Gilmore Girls in story
structure. Because both CSI and The Twilight Zone are anthologies. On
CSI, the entire CSI team takes the place of Rod Serling -- it's just
that the only other significant structural difference (besides
substituting crime fiction for science fiction) is that they put the
story together after the fact rather than presenting it to us as it
happens.

Similarly, Quantum Leap is an anthology, not a serial, despite the
cliffhanger-esque gimmickry of having Beckett leap into his next case
at the end of any given self-contained story. Similarly, the original
Battlestar Galactica was NOT a serial, it was an anthology -- as were
the Love Boat, Fantasy Island, ChiPS, the Dukes of Hazzard, Three's
Company, The Brady Bunch, All in the Family, MASH and virtually every
other anthology series defined by done-in-one, Episodic story
structure. In these series what *little* serialization existed was
used to *expand* a given Episode (installment, case, story) of the
anthology to a longer length or to recapitulate the themes of the
anthology in the series' final few episodes (or occasionally, when the
series was unexpectedly renewed, they might do a final, series
-capping arc two years in a row). The minor, minimal amount of
serialization doesn't make these series any less the Episodic
Anthologies that they actually are.

-- Rob

PS: Sharpe, don't worry about where this came from -- all this is
going to lead eventually to explaining why Gg's primary genre(s) --
contrary to Gordon's assertion that set off this discussion -- is/are
NOT soap opera.

Ian J. Ball...

I figure they've gotta have more in the vault than this.

Even assuming the bring over all of SMALLVILLE, GILMORE GIRLS,
SUPERNATURAL, EVERWOOD, BEAUTY & THE GEEK, & REBA (WBN) and VERONICA
MARS, EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS, GIRLFRIENDS, AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL &
SMACKDOWN! (UPN), they'll still need some new shows, for mid-season if
nothing else.

So I've got to figure they got more than this available (maybe they'll
pick up some of CBS's cast-offs?....).

No winners here for sure..

Taylor...

PLEASE... PLEASE DROP THE "The" FROM THE NETWORK NAME!!! It's just not

Obveeus...

I blame 'The WB'.

Taylor...

Yes, that's right and now it's a hard habit for people to break.

videonovels...

What does CW mean anyway? CBS/Warner?

Donna B...

That's where the letters come from, yes. It doesn't mean anything *yet*!

videonovels...

CBS = Columbia Broadcasting System
WB = warner brothers

CW = Columbia-Warner?

IMHO it might have made more sense to start-off as "UPN/WB" for brand
recognition for viewers. Else they'd be asking, "Where'd my Smallville
- WB go???". Then later they could have a viewer naming contest to
generate interest.

hmmm.

Imagine that. I'm paid nothing & even I can come up with better way to
handle this merging than the high-paid media "experts".

Donna B...

Check the archives 2-3 weeks back. As soon as this news broke we began on
the new [cough cough] name & logo. You're in a long line, but, hey,
you're with us.

Roy Knable...

"Can't Watch." Typical audience reaction.

necessary. Just try to adjust your thinking to drop the "the" from your
conversation when mentioning the new network.

right: "It seems this fall, Fox's line-up is strong in the areas of..."

wrong: "It seems this fall, The Fox's line-up is strong in the areas of..."

right: "It seems this fall, CW's line-up is strong in the areas of..."

wrong: "It seems this fall, The CW's line-up is strong in the areas of..."

William George Ferguson...

Sharpe Fan...

Why do you assume it will be a procedural? There have been lots of TV
mystery shows that are not.

I can't see ASP and DP doing a knock-off of L&O or CSI. That is not their
strength. Wasn't there something said about the Thin Man being more of an
inspiration?

Sharpe Fan

Okay, here's a more complete list of the combined WB/UPN (now CW)
development slate, including script orders. Data is from the
FutonCritic, and I've eliminated from this list any listing that was last
updated earlier than fall of 2005 (except the Palladinos' series order).

Show Status Studio Updated

Ian J. Ball...

One of these will go forward (likely "Juniper Hall"), and one of these
won't. Just a guess. ;)

Ian J. Ball...

I hope this one never gets picked up, just because its title will
confuse with my hoped-for American version of "The Tribe". :)