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MIDSEASON

 

There is one new police drama coming to midseason along with the return of Undercover Boss. The new show, The 2-2, produced by Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal, is following six NYPD rookies as they patrol the streets of upper Manhattan. The cast include Leelee Sobieski, Adam Goldberg, and Terry Kinney. Another cop drama? Maybe with such a big name as Robert De Niro attached to it, the show will do okay.

 

SHOWS THAT DIDN’T MAKE IT

 

Some of you perhaps are wondering what happened to a highly anticipated new CBS drama Hail Mary with Minnie Driver as a lead and Ilene Chaiken as an executive producer? I was wondering as well so I did a little digging and this is what I found out. While still involved with The Real L Word, Ilene was all set to produce a medical lesbian drama Rhodes to Recovery. Not sure why Ilene abandoned that project (which is still listed as being “in development”) but she got involved with drama Hail Mary, which once was thought to be a front-runner for CBS.

Minnie Driver in “Hail Mary”

The show was about a suburban single mom (Minnie Driver) who got bored with her life and after her son was murdered, she teamed up with a street-wise hustler (Brandon T. Jackson) to solve crimes. Honestly, I don’t see the appeal, except for the pleasure of seeing Minnie Driver in a TV show. Wasn’t there a similar pilot with Erin Daniels as a single struggling mom who takes on a job as a bounty hunter? Oh yes, Julie Reno, Bounty Hunter, which was never picked up. According to reports, Hail Mary pilot “eventually lost momentum at the network and is now being shopped around to other networks”.

 

It seems that Ilene has been abandoning projects left and right because I remember news about several other shows that she has been involved with but after the initial announcements nobody heard anything else. She is still involved with the second season of The Real L Word, though it’s not clear how deep her involvement is. According to some of the cast, Ilene wasn’t even involved with all of the stories on the first season. Why won’t she just sit down and write a happy, romantic, and funny “L Word the Movie”, while none of the cast is working?

 

Another show that was almost picked up was Ringer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Gellar plays twins in this dark and twisty drama but CBS finally passed on it. Luckily for the series and Gellar’s fans, the show was picked up by CW, which once was a home to Gellar’s breakout series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 

You can read more about new shows and watch clips here http://www.cbs.com/primetime/fall_preview_2011