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).
