The Pilot Thread

[Paul Raven]

Marie, SS Casino, Vampire, Hot Stuff and a few others did air as specials or TV movies over the course of the season or in Summer.

[Khan]

Many of those pilots sound just plain awful, lol!

[Franko]

Death and Taxes, intended for NBC in 1993. Starring Teri Garr and Craig Bierko, with a supporting cast including Cynthia Harris, Iqbal Theba, Patrick Warbuton, and Dakin Matthews and guest star Wallace Shawn. Watch it on YouTube for co-creator Darrell Vickers' candid commentary.

ETA: Are Teri and Craig in the living room from Family Matters?

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And, courtesy of Variety, a rundown of NBC's 1993 pilots slate.

https://variety.com/1993/tv/news/nbc-seeks-young-and-the-rest-105297/

Edited November 17, 2024 by Franko

[jasonminer1974]

Art Hindle is a Great guy

[DRW50]

Thanks. Never heard of this or seen it. Teri had some bad breaks on TV. 

Patrick really was all over TV in these years. A very unique presence.

They also have a pilot up for the attempt at revamping It Had To Be You, and a blog post about their struggles.

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FAYE DUNAWAY (PART NINE) | Nicholls and Vickers

[Vee]

Oh dear God. It Had to Be You. I've been dying to hear more about this.

[Franko]

Much appreciated, @DRW50! I'm always up for some good backstage stories.

ETA: I'm enjoying the dish about "Boris & Natasha"

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Edited November 18, 2024 by Franko

[DRW50]

@Franko I forgot they helped Lois & Clark run aground. They later wrote for Supernatural, and fans always derided their episodes. An infamous one had poor Mishael Morgan as a dog on a leash, and while in human form, was the servant/sex partner of a white warlock (played by ever-handsome Christian Campbell).

[Franko]

Taking a shot in the dark, I'm going to guess that the unfunny male writing team from a recently-concluded series would be Danny Margosis & Robert Horn, who would have worked with David Steinberg on Designing Women.

[Khan]

Faye Dunaway in a sitcom.  It's a memory I'll never be able to repress.

They also co-created and show-ran "Scarecrow & Mrs. King" before Kate Jackson - another "difficult" actor - forced them out after the first 10 episodes.

Fun fact: Eugenie Ross-Leming, a Second City veteran, was in the "Park Moms" scene in the movie "Baby Boom" with Diane Keaton, Dori Brenner and Jane Elliot (yes, THAT Jane Elliot).  Ross-Leming is the brunette who's kvetching with the other Upper East Side NYC moms about making sure their toddlers get into the right pre-schools that will set them up for life.

"Death & Taxes" sounds like a show about a tax auditor who also runs a funeral parlor.

You're probably not wrong.  The last season of DW was pretty [!@#$%^&*] awful.

Edited November 19, 2024 by Khan

[Franko]

Throw in an estate lawyer, and you've got a one-stop shop for widows and widowers.

[Vee]

They've got like nine entries about It Had to be You on their blog connected to that Teri Garr pilot! It's quite a ride.

[Franko]

Speaking of that, they didn't write in depth about Death and Taxes, did they? The blog is nice, but a little hard to navigate.

[Khan]

It reminds me of when I came across this tea room/tattoo parlor in NYC.  Even now, I can just imagine the kind of clientele they had at that place, lol.

[Khan]

I'd have to agree with "the suits": Twiggy, whom Faye Dunaway replaced, can't carry a series.  Moreover, Terence Knox, who was cast as the male lead before Robert Urich, is too just intense to be on a sitcom.  Anyone who watched "All is Forgiven," as I did (for Bess Armstrong), could tell you that, lol.

John Steven Owen (RIP) was onto something when he created IHTBY as a Tracy/Hepburn-style romance for the '90's.  (Remember, IHTBY premiered the same season as "Frasier," when intelligent, witty, character-driven comedy still had a place on network TV.)  In order for Tracy/Hepburn-like romances to work, however, I think the couple has to have something in common, or something that keeps them in each other's orbit, or else it makes no sense for them to still be together after a certain point.

For example, Sam and Diane had Cheers.  David and Maddie ("Moonlighting") had the Blue Moon Detective Agency. Tony was Angela's live-in housekeeper on "Who's the Boss?".  Even George and Katherine had little Webster!  But what did Mitch Quinn have in common with Laura Scofield beyond renovating her office or whatever?  And is THAT going to be the engine that keeps the series going long enough to go into syndication?

Then, you add in the fact that Mitch was a widower with not one, not two, but THREE kids (and all boys).  Sure, you could argue that a lot of humor could be gotten from someone like Laura, who's never been around kids, now having to adjust to being with a man with kids literally crawling over him, but THREE KIDS??  That's veering into Miller/Boyett territory; and that's also blending two styles of television comedy - specifically, romantic comedy and domestic/family comedy - that target different audiences with different sensibilities.  When you do THAT, you're creating an identity crisis for your show, because just who exactly are we writing and producing this show FOR?  ("Who's the Boss?" suffered from the same problem, IMO.  Angela had the baggage of being a single mom when Tony as the single parent would have sufficed).

At best, Mitch could've had just ONE kid, and maybe an older father figure in his household - his own father, or maybe his father-in-law - to serve as his sounding board as he navigates his relationship with Laura.  Again, that doesn't really solve the series' central problem - what business do a book editor and a carpenter have being with each other? - but it does help to focus more on the rom-com aspects and, God willing, keep the second-act hug-and-learns with the overly precocious kids at bay.