Pilot Season 2009 [** Spoilers **]

Basq

Looks like the first of the pilots was just released.. so below is the skinny (*):

* shamelessly "borrowed" from Dave's thread last year!

** Do not ask where to get these pilots. Discussion of sources and provision of links will be removed without prejudice, and the poster in question will receive a 1 week ban from the Television forum**

To prevent 15 new threads with polls appearing over the next 3 weeks (sorry user45701!), lets try and keep all Pilot discussion/announcements to one thread.

A Pilot is when a production company creates a test episode of a new show to get feedback (and hopefully sell) new shows to networks. Pilots can be quite different to what becomes the final episode 1x01 (actors are changed, scenes are dropped, plots can change), but they give a good idea of how a show is going to turn out.

The first of the pilots have just been released:

The Cleveland Show: From the twisted mind of Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, American Dad, and The Winner) comes The Cleveland Show.

The show will chronicle the life of Cleveland Brown, a hit character of Family Guy, after he moves from Spooner Street to Stoolbend, Virginia, with his high school sweetheart Donna, along with his son, and Donna's daughter. His surrounding neighbors will include a family of stereotypical rednecks, a British family stuck in the past, and a family of bears.

Once more.. with feeling: Do not ask where to get these pilots. Discussion of sources and provision of links will be removed without prejudice, and the poster in question will receive a 1 week ban from the Television forum

Mr E

About frickin' time.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

oooh, where do I dl the cleveland show pilot?

AlmightyCushion

Did anyone else think it was odd that cleveland got his own show? I can't imagine it being in any way decent. His character just doesn't seem to be good enough to be the main character.

phasers

Wasn't the point of Cleveland that he was boring?

ixoy

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Did anyone else think it was odd that cleveland got his own show? I can't imagine it being in any way decent. His character just doesn't seem to be good enough to be the main character.

Always found his character quite dull, to be honest, but I believe they're hoping he'll appeal to a particular demographic that the other characters mightn't.

Basq

Captain Mords Spiced Bum wrote: »

oooh, where do I dl the cleveland show pilot?

Just to re-iterate what was said in the post above.. twice!

Do not ask where to get these pilots. Discussion of sources and provision of links will be removed without prejudice, and the poster in question will receive a 1 week ban from the Television forum

Captain Mords Spiced Bum banned for a week.. let this be a lesson to the rest of ye!

Basq

Christ.. 'The Cleveland Show' was even worse than I imagined... and then some.

It was an utter mess from start to finish. Didn't laugh one.. didn't smirk. Mostly cringed at the obvious jokes and similarities to Family Guy / American Dad characters (Rollo = Stewie in FG, The Bear = Roger in AD).

But 'American Dad' did improve after that terrible pilot too. Still, I don't think I'll bother keep watching.

AlmightyCushion

phasers wrote: »

Wasn't the point of Cleveland that he was boring?

ixoy wrote: »

Always found his character quite dull

Exactly. It'd be like dedicating a show to Fr Stone from Fr Ted.

ballybay_eh

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Exactly. It'd be like dedicating a show to Fr Stone from Fr Ted.

C'mon! We all know that'd be fantastic!

"Oh no! It's Fr. Stone"

Also Starring LeVar Burton

I quite enjoyed the Cleveland Show pilot. Family Guy got old ages ago, although it had a lot of potential - just that characters like Peter and Quagmire and Stewie just got incredibly irritable, so the Cleveland Show could be an opportunity to start afresh. I'll give the series a shot anyway - watch the first few episodes and see how they go - although judging by my track record with animated comedies after the first few episodes I'll stop watching it anyway and just catch it on occasion when nothing else is on.

Roll on more pilots. Personally looking forward to the new ABC comedies - The Middle, Modern Family, Hank, Cougar Town...

Gingervitis

Cleveland Show, absolute muck. Some of the audio didn't sound finished, but still absolute muck. Says a lot when the funniest part of the episode was at the start before he left.

Richard Dower

basquille wrote: »

Just to re-iterate what was said in the post above.. twice!



Captain Mords Spiced Bum banned for a week.. let this be a lesson to the rest of ye!

LOL!...ooh come on!, he was obviously taking the pee!

J-blk

Gingervitis wrote: »

Some of the audio didn't sound finished, but still absolute muck.

Aren't most of the pilots that show up around this time of year unfinished/incomplete in some way though? For live action shows, it's usually missing special effects or some minor scenes and in some cases a pilot can be completely retooled/recast before the final version airs in the fall ("Life on Mars US" comes to mind from last year).

In any case, haven't watched the Cleveland show yet but the buzz doesn't seem positive here. Though in fairness, American Dad started as a pretty lame show IMO and has improved greatly (but on the other hand, Family Guy has really turned to crap lately) - I wonder what way this will go and if FOX will give them more time than they gave "Sit Down, Shut Up"...

lostexpectation

prickteasers

Basq

BUMP!

Sons of Tucson


Meh, felt (the typically great) Tyler Labine was absolutely wasted in this. It's not by-the-numbers lazy comedy (see Fox's other new comedy 'Brothers' for a prime example of this) but it's not exactly enthralling watching either.

Also, putting 3 kids as leads in comedies does not typically bode well. 'Malcolm in The Middle' was the exception because they could act and had impeccable comic timing.. unlike the 3 kids in those who are both piss-poor actors and have zero comedic timing. (not their fault.. probably too young and in-experienced. They may improve over time.)

PS - Jake Busey is always welcome though!

Also Starring LeVar Burton

basquille wrote: »

BUMP!

Sons of Tucson


Meh, felt (the typically great) Tyler Labine was absolutely wasted in this. It's not by-the-numbers lazy comedy (see Fox's other new comedy 'Brothers' for a prime example of this) but it's not exactly enthralling watching either.

Also, putting 3 kids as leads in comedies does not typically bode well. 'Malcolm in The Middle' was the exception because they could act and had impeccable comic timing.. unlike the 3 kids in those who are both piss-poor actors and have zero comedic timing. (not their fault.. probably too young and in-experienced. They may improve over time.)

PS - Jake Busey is always welcome though!

They're replacing two of the kids apparently. About to check this out now - looking forward to it.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Sons of Tucson

I really enjoyed this - it has a lot of potential for a series.
I agree with Basquille in regards to the child actors not being great, but as I already said I heard somewhere that they're replacing the eldest and youngest brothers and the middle brother wasn't too bad anyway, so if they cast the right actors in those two roles the show could be great and will probably do very well in the timeslot it has anyway.

Really like Sons of Tucson, this may have something to do with the fact that I just had the best nights sleep in years but who knows. It's light and easy going fodder which has a lot of potential to turn into something fantastic.

My biggest fear atm is that it's going to turn into another Everybody Hates Chris as it heads down cliche alley and the simply reuse every cliched story in the book.

Edit: Just watched Community and like Sons of Tuscon it's easy going fodder but I don't see it lasting. Pretty much all the cast are playing the same character we've seen them play before and the writing seems lazy due to it's reliance to pop culture references. While quoting the Breakfast Club repeatedly referring to it just isn't funny or interesting. I'll definitely give it a few episodes before I make up make up my mind but on first glance things are not looking good.