Networks Greenlight SF and Fantasy Shows

Posted on January 31, 2007

Sci Fi reports on the fantasy and SF shows which have been greenlighted by the major networks.

David E. Kelley is writing and executive-producing Mars for ABC, about a detective who goes back in time to the 1970s. The Bionic Woman comes from David Eick (executive producer of SCI FI Channel's Battlestar Galactica), a "re-imagination" of the classic 1970s SF show that will focus on a woman's place in today's world.

Other pilot pickups include Fox's New Amsterdam, which centers on a cop who is hundreds of years old, while CBS' Twilight deals with a private eye who is a vampire. A list of other SF pilot pickups, by network, follows.

ABC: Eli Stone, about an attorney (Jonny Lee Miller) who begins to have larger-than-life visions; Mr. & Mrs. Smith, based on the hit feature film, about a married couple who are spies; Pushing Daisies, a detective show/romance/fairy tale about a guy who can touch the dead and bring them back to life.

CBS: Babylon Fields, a sardonic, apocalyptic comedic drama in which the dead are resurrected and try to resume their former lives; Demons, about an ex-Jesuit priest/psychologist who fights demons.

NBC: Journeyman, an epic fantasy about a man who travels back in time to fix the lives of people in trouble.

Fox: Sarah Connor Chronicles, based on the characters from the Terminator film franchise, about Connor (Lena Headey) and her son, John (Thomas Dekker), in present-day Los Angeles as they fight attackers from the future; Them, also from Eick, about an extraterrestrial sleeper cell that has infiltrated the human race.

The CW: Reaper, about a 21-year-old slacker who becomes the devil's bounty hunter.

We wonder who will be the next Bionic Woman? We hear that Jordana Brewster has been cast in the Angelina Jolie role in the TV version of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but there's no word on who the male lead will be. And speaking of Angelina Jolie, Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina's ex-husband, has an interesting role in Eli Stone as an attorney who starts having visions and who may be a prophet. We like Jonny Lee Miller but we're not sure about this one: prophets and attorneys? What was the pitch here? "It's Boston Legal meets Left Behind meets Jericho? We'll tune in for the pilot though.



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