Second Update: Well, ABC has picked up another show. (That makes four — count ’em — FOUR shows today!) This one’s called Poe and, according to Deadline, focuses on a “criminal procedural following Edgar Allan Poe, the world’s first detective as he uses unconventional methods to investigate dark mysteries in 1840s Boston.” What do we say to this? We simply facepalm. It’s just the latest example of studios whoring out great figures in history just to make a few bucks.
Update: ABC is lining ’em up and knocking ’em down today with all this news about picking up shows. While they may be picking things up left and right, some of these ideas seem like the network may fare better if they leave them where they found them like one of those pennies you find on the sidewalk that’s heads up but looks like it went through a trash compactor before serendipitously finding it’s way to that patch of pavement. It seems like good luck, but you’re probably going to get a weird fungus from it.
First up, the 1960s drama, Pan Am. Well, I think it’s fairly obvious that TV producers are jumping on the Mad Men band wagon (oh, only FOUR seasons after it became one of the best shows on television), but even though the decade fits for the ad men hit, it doesn’t need to be the go-to time period for every other network too. (Starz is also diving into those waters with their upcoming series, Magic City.) Pan Am is about the pilots and stewardesses – ahem, it wasn’t deemed politically incorrect to use that term in the 60s, folks – as they fly the friendly skies for the iconic airline. Unimpressive, right? If I wanted to seem Mad Men 2.0 in the air, I’d watch Mad Men.
Second, the network just picked up Lost and Found. It’s another multi-camera sitcom and an annoying one at that. A self-centered bartender and “party girl” has to reevaluate her life when the 18 year old son she gave up for adoption shows up and starts sharing conservative wisdom which contradicts with her loose-living ways. Really ABC? Could you at least be a little more subtle when you try to teach us to lead better lives? Also, Raising Hope is already giving this whole thing a shot, except that instead of an 18 year old dude, they have a cute little baby and a cute baby wins every time.
Earlier: Good news! Friends is coming back to television! Well, not really; sorry about that. But, the people who made Friends are, so, woot! According to Variety, ABC has ordered a half-hour multi-camera pilot from former Friends writers and producers Andrew Reich and Ted Cohen called Work It.
The show sounds kind of funny, but that’s not really surprising considering most new sitcoms nowadays are based on Twitter feeds, but anyway, it’s about “two out-of-work car salesmen – both husbands and fathers – who dress as women by day to get jobs working as pharmaceutical reps. At night, they hang out at their local bar, where they can be themselves.” So, you know, that won’t stereotype genders at all. But really, with the news about Work It, let’s get to the real question on everybody’s minds: when’s the next sitcom based on a Twitter feed featuring characters in blackface? Are you listening, CBS?
