Tons of new pilots were picked up on Tuesday! Two of the most noteworthy are Seth MacFarlane’s six-episode series order for Dads at Fox; the half-hour multi-camera comedy will detail two successful thirty-somethings whose pain-in-the-ass fathers unexpectedly become their roommates. MacFarlane is executive producing. Fox will also bring Greg Kinnear back to television with Rake, a dramedy about “a brilliant but self-destructive criminal defense lawyer” who represents clients accused of wild, plot-driving things like cannibalism and bestiality and terrorism (oh my). Kinnear will co-exec produce the adaptation of an Australian series.
NBC picked up The Sixth Gun, a supernatural western about “six mythical guns, each with its own other-worldly powers,” adapted from a graphic novel. Lost co-showrunner Carlton Cuse will man the ship. Speaking of Lost, NBC grabbed the comedy Holding Patterns, featuring “a group of friends whose lives completely change after they survive a plane crash.” Also on deck is Girlfriend in a Coma, written and executive produced by Nurse Jackie creator Liz Brixius. That one centers on a 34-year-old woman waking from a coma to meet the 17-year-old daughter she didn’t know she was pregnant with when she became comatose. Kill Bill without the killing! Also also: Jason Bateman and DJ Nash will co-exec produce a single-cam comedy about “a son who idolizes his blind father and is bemused by his mother’s newfound adolescence who watches his family come closer together post-divorce.”
Back at Fox, Justin Halpern (Shit My Dad Says) is getting his second shot at a show, teaming with Bill Lawrence for an untitled single-camera comedy based on his book I Suck at Girls. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci’s modern-day Sleepy Hollow got the go-ahead, with direction from Len Wiseman (Underworld, the Total Recall remake). Friends and Family will be an adaptation of the BBC comedy Gavin & Stacey, and House Rules will revolve around “an introverted, neurotic Wisconsin family [that] lives in a community of over-sharers,” with production from Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin. The Devil Wears Prada theme will get resurrected for To My Assistant, about New York City assistants leaning on each other to “cope with the obnoxious, overbearing bosses who challenge their sanity on a daily basis.” Delirium will take place in “a world where love is deemed illegal and is able to be eradicated with a special procedure.”
At ABC, there’s an order for Betrayal, about “a beautiful but unhappily married female photographer begins a torrid affair with a lawyer for a powerful family. When he turns out to be defending a murder suspect who is being prosecuted by her husband, the relationship and the case begin a spiraling series of betrayals with cataclysmic results for everyone involved.” Brad Pitt’s Plan B banner is producing The Returned, written by Aaron Zelman (Damages, The Killing), an exercise in wondering what happens when deceased loved ones “suddenly appear on your doorstep as if not a day’s gone by.” McG will direct Venice, featuring “two rival families and a forbidden and dangerous romance emerging between them as the two families battle for control of Venice.” And The Office’s Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky will write Pulling, about “three dysfunctional women in their 30s living their lives the way they want, even if society tells them they should have it all figured out by this point.”
