We continue our coverage of pilot season with three new greenlights and three new TAGs (Totally Arbitrary Grades). Still the same awesome "pilot season" photo.
• Absolutely Fabulous: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox has ordered a pilot filmed for an Americanized version of the Brit comedy, Ab Fab — despite the fact that 83 percent of PopWatchers said they thought the idea was drab, not fab, in an EW.com poll when the project was first announced. Having Arrested Development‘s Mitch Hurwitz among the producers is still comforting. As is the fact that Jennifer Saunders, who starred in the original series as drug-addled has-been fashionista Edina, is among the pilot’s exec producers. Still, we fear Fox won’t let them "go there." TAG: C
• Eastwick: ABC has ordered a pilot for this drama, loosely based on the 1987 film The Witches of Eastwick starring Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer, THR reports. It could be Desperate Magical Housewives. Sexy! TAG: A-
• Mercy: NBC is shooting a pilot for this "drama with comedic elements that revolves around three nurses bound together in friendship by the highs and lows of their personal and professional lives," THR says. Hmmm. I want to be a sister since this, like the other two pilots mentioned, calls for female leads, and it’s written and exec produced by Liz Heldens (Friday Night Lights). But I don’t want to think it’s the Peacock’s attempt at Grey’s Anatomy. TAG: B-
More on pilot season:
Will Absolutely Fabulous work as an American sitcom?
Pilot season: Grade Fox’s latest orders
I am still waiting to see the original “Witches of Eastwick” pilot called “Eastwick” from 2002, starring Jason O’Mara and Chris Evans! Can’t even find it on Youtube…
Didn’t they try to do a rip-off of Ab Fab in the U.S. in the 1990s already with “High Society”, which starred Jean Smart and Mary McDonnell?
Jennifer Saunders recently said in a UK interview that she’s basically taking the money & running, so I doubt she will have any actual involvement in the US remake’s development.
High Society, Cybil, Sex & the City all owe a debt to AbFab, but why the US have to remake everything is ridiculous !
Looking like it’s going to be another year of watching shows on cable. The networks just don’t get it.
can’t believe you’re remaking Ab Fab, no way will it be half as good as the original British one. You just can’t beat Saunders & Lumley sweetie!
so is that guy the offical EW pilot?
Mercy sounds like it could be like that very ill-conceived late-80s Aaron Spelling show “Nightingales.” NBC pulled it after only a few episodes after viewers and advertisers complained it was really just about slutty nurses in revealing uniforms.