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Thoughts on the ABC teaming up 9-1-1’s Ryan Murphy again in a brand new straight-to-series medical drama Dr. Odyssey with Joshua Jackson onboard for late 2024

by Sports Benches

ABC has just made a big call today and it’s going to be a brand new straight-to-series drama show being led by 9-1-1’s Ryan Murphy that will begin later this year alongside High Potential called Dr. Odyssey. If they need a new medical drama to fill in for the soon-to-be-finished The Good Doctor, it’s gotta be at the right place at the right time in none other than this show where 9-1-1 meets The Love Boat on a cruise ship. More details will come at a later date including filming dates with Joshua Jackson playing the main character (definitely Dr. Odyssey who relies on charms to get what he wants) and will also do a bit of behind the scenes work as an executive producer with Murphy under the Disney owned 20th Television studios umbrella.

Great to see 9-1-1 finding its strong ground at ABC after Season 7 began last Thursday, having been with FOX over the first couple of seasons and ABC going for a new medical show with someone (Murphy) who can craft all about medical/first responders stories well is simply excellent timing after a few unsuccessful medical pilots over the past few years such as Triage and The Hurt Unit. I can see this replacing the also soon-to-be-outgoing Station 19 fire drama soon enough and have it sandwiched between 9-1-1 and Grey’s Anatomy on Thursday nights or like for like in place of the Good Doctor on Tuesdays.

Let’s hope since there has been another restructure within the network executives upstairs over the past year, I’m sure they won’t make another reverse cancellation of these straight-to-series orders like it has been in the past & instead give these new ones like Dr. Odyssey a go. Now with two upcoming series order dramas & two new comedy pilots being lined up for Fall in September/October, we have yet to see any involvement from ABC Signature other than the guaranteed High Potential show regarding the choice of these next pilot orders (comedy and/or drama) with the main network but it will come sooner rather than later. For now, congratulations to Ryan Murphy and Joshua Jackson with the new medical drama show Dr. Odyssey.

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Entertainment

Thoughts on Ty Burrell’s new comedy project Forgive & Forget moving onto the pilot stage at ABC after it began developing in early 2023

by Sports Benches

Last week, one star name has returned to ABC in Tim Allen (The Santa Clause, Home Improvement, Last Man Standing & Toy Story) who will be playing Matt for a new comedy pilot being considered for the 2024-25 TV season called Shifting Gears. His new project will be about a widow and a father running a restoration car shop while also undergoing his own personal matter once his daughter and her kids move into his home. Now the network has made a 2nd comedy pilot order today and Forgive and Forget will be up for contention with Modern Family alumni Ty Burrell leading the way as Hank who unexpectedly has dementia and wants to reconnect these memories again with his adult son Hank, having first started this project just over a year ago. Don’t forget both Allen and Burrell will also play a part in their respective new projects beyond acting as executive producers behind the scenes and both of the new comedy pilots will be under 20th Television with no new ABC Signature linked projects just yet. I’m sure there will be a couple more comedy pilots to consider before filming begins and then be assessed soon enough. However, it remains to be seen which brand new drama pilot will be up next in the hope of impressing the ABC executives & join the long-awaited High Potential in September-October over the next few weeks through April-May.

Looking at Forgive and Forget, like the idea of someone – who would have to getting used to living with the condition – wants to make the most of his new memories in the hope of being forgiven & forget what happened prior to his diagnosis as if he hasn’t done anything before & unable to recall anything from a long time ago since there’s no cure. If the show goes forward, it hopes to inspire others & raise awareness for those currently living with the disease as well as spreading the word to prevent it & add further medical research. The final decision will will depend on The Conners (Season 6 now with the possibility of bowing out but maybe 1 more) and Not Dead Yet (currently season 2 but too early to tell right now) also at the same time while Abbott Elementary has been their No.1 comedy show for a few years now and will be back for another season. But ABC likes to pick quality than quantity since two of the 2023 comedy pilot candidates Keeping It Together (another US attempt of the UK Motherland show) & Public Defenders unfortunately didn’t pass the screening test that wouldn’t benefit much with the wider audience & they would also have a huge focus on unscripted content/reality TV going forward post-2023 Writers & Actors strikes. Other than that, it’s great to see Burrell back after a great run as Phil on Modern Family (2009-2020).

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Entertainment

Thoughts on Tim Allen’s potential return to ABC with the network’s new first comedy pilot order for 2024 called Shifting Gears

by Sports Benches

It’s been a long time since we haven’t heard any pilot orders for about a year now when the strikes took place for most of last year but now ABC has made its first move on what is going to be a huge year ahead for the Fall 2024 window and it’s going to be a half-hour comedy pilot led by the legendary Tim Allen called Shifting Gears whose studios and distribution will be run by 20th Television (a subsidiary of Disney). He will be playing Matt & will also be an executive producer of the show, who runs his own classic car restoration shop and is a widow where things about to change for his own personal restoration once his estranged daughter & her teenage kids move into his house – Interesting. As said, the network will stick with quality than quantity when choosing new shows including mid-season for January-February 2025 with the first step is looking at new show projects/ideas that is worth looking at for a year, then some will be selected to be put into the test (pilot run) & hope for the best before only a few will be given the chance to stand things out on TV. After this show, let’s see which new drama pilot will be up next while we haven’t heard much in-development progress since the end of 2022 with the Front Line (another medical drama involving Michael Strahan), a reboot of Ally McBeal from the late 90s & a legal drama from The Rookie’s Alexi Hawley.

ABC hasn’t produced any new comedy shows since Not Dead Yet in February last year where two of the 2023 candidates Keeping it Together and Public Defenders unfortunately didn’t meet the standard they were hoping for that was set by Abbott Elementary. So there’s some chance Shifting Gears might not make it depending on what other new comedy pilots they will order in the next few weeks/months, but with Allen as the star show and as long as the plot/writing is good, it’s about time they make the move as if they really made a straight-to-series order just like they did to High Potential at the same time in May last year (a police dramedy adopted from France whose mother of three has a huge IQ in solving cases which was originally set for October last year but the strikes have pushed back to this October). It’s great seeing Allen getting back along with the network regardless of the outcome, having been with them before such as Home Improvement (1991-1999) & Last Man Standing (2011-17 for six seasons on ABC & 2018-2021 with last three on FOX). And he also played Santa again this time as a Disney + show after huge success on The Santa Clause movies back in the 1990s-2000s. Yes, there’s rumours that the series might not come back just for this year but maybe next year considering the scripted world is catching up right now.

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Entertainment

Thoughts on ABC Network continuing to order scripted TV pilots while CBS & FOX are leaning on new shows straight off the bat

by Sports Benches

The talk of having pilots coming out for the next US TV season in late 2024-early 2025 has emerged recently with CBS choosing not to make any orders & will select future shows via the long-term development process just like Fox whose system nowadays relies on the straight-to-series order process. But ABC will keep on ordering pilots both for the drama and comedy side as they will continue to choose quality over quantity (like 1-2 new shows for drama & comedy) once they’ve reviewed them following the pilot stage.

No surprise there considering they will have one new show that was postponed from last year in High Potential (a crime comedy drama based from France) whereas most of this Fall will focus on the storylines from most returning dramas and comedies that was interrupted during the first half of this 2023-24 prime-time TV season due to the Hollywood strikes including a few more reality/unscripted content. With that being said, a couple of new shows after High Potential would be introduced in January-February of 2025.

We don’t know which shows will be up in contention as time will tell later on but they did have a couple of comedy pilots being lined up after they decided not to order any new sitcoms into series last year when Keeping It Together & Public Defenders failed to meet the requirements they were hoping for being set by Abbott Elementary. 

So all in all, ABC won’t follow Fox & even CBS for the foreseeable future by having all of their future shows being available to the public when most unsuccessful pilots are locked up somewhere in a vault & will most likely never been seen again. I wish they can have all of their yearly unsuccessful pilots being put out only online though like they did with Bad Management (an unsuccessful half-hour sitcom pilot) back in late 2013 but don’t think they will do that again I’m afraid.

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