J.J. Abrams is at it again. As if he wasn’t busy enough launching television series at every television network, Abrams sold another pilot called Revolution, this time at NBC. Revolution follows a family trying to reunite in a post-apocalyptic world where technology and energy has blacked out. Sounds like your average Abrams pitch mixed with post-apocalyptic elements from comic books The Walking Dead and Y: The Last Man mixed in with it. Supernatural head writer Eric Kripke will write pilot and Bryan Burk (Super 8) will executive produce. Abrams also sold a hotel management dramedy pilot to the CW earlier this week called Shelter (formerly titled Maine).
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Abrams is one of the busiest men in the business as filming has begun on the Untitled Star Trek Sequel and he currently has three television series airing on two of the four major networks: Fringe and Alcatraz on Fox and Person of Interest on CBS. While not a constant presence on either show, Abrams does serve as executive producer on each project and has served as a writer and music composer on many of his shows as well. If Revolution successfully launches on NBC, that would give him a stake in three of the four major networks. (Let’s also remember that Abrams had a long standing relationship with ABC including five seasons of Alias, two seasons of What about Brian?, and six with Lost.) That is dependent of course if Fringe sees a fifth season.
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After the winter session of the TCAs, Fox left fans dangling and waiting for the future of Abrams’ Fringe despite its imaginative storytelling and ability to fill the science fiction network void sufficiently. Fringe has a loyal following but in four seasons it has not grown that base to a point where it is profitable. If we’re being honest, its days are numbered. It’s marketed poorly. Fox would rather put its energy towards more reliable horses like American Idol and Kiefer Sutherland’s Touch, understandably. So once again we circle around the old issue of science fiction and genre television and their lack of support on major networks. It’s not unreasonable to achieve numbers that any cable network would be proud to have for multiple seasons. But to be kept on the air at Fox, ABC, NBC or CBS, shows need to shoot for and bring in total audiences of eight figures on a weekly basis.
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One wonders whether or not NBC of all places can sustain a high concept series in the sci-fi genre, much less another Abrams-produced show. His first run with NBC was with Undercovers, which only got to air 11 of the 13 episodes made before getting the ax in November 2010 and that was a spy show. The reality-based alien dramaThe Event was a drawn-out exercise in futility, trying to capture the legions of Lost fans still wandering in the wake of losing their favorite show. Unlike Fringe, The Event‘s relatively loyal though continually dwindling fan base could not pull it through to the 2011-2012 TV season. We recently put to rest Chuck, a geek-friendly spy series where NBC tortured its fans for the last three seasons. If that wasn’t enough to build a case against NBC’s handling of genre material, I’ll briefly utter the words Heroes and Wonder Woman pilot. I think I made a few people shudder on that last sentence. Really, J.J., this network has as much hospitality towards sci-fi as much as a Howard Johnson hotel in the middle of Gary, Indiana.
This season Grimm was launched late in the fall season and has somehow survived despite bombarding viewers with modern fairy tale genre, newly established on TV by ABC’s Once Upon A Time, while adding to the endless chain of weekly procedurals at the same time. Genre fans are already fearing NBC’s other promising new sci-fi show, the Inception-esque crime show Awake, which will debut in March 1. Response from the pilot has been superb, but let’s be honest, we’re going to be watching halfheartedly knowing that it will likely struggle in the ratings too. How much faith can you put in a show when the first thing you ask is, ‘How long a leash will NBC give it?’ Will we be asking the same thing about Revolution? Unfortunately, this is how we’ve become primed with NBC dramas. It’s a rarity when something isn’t canceled or is on the bubble, especially if it falls outside the law and order classifications. The network is a farm for half-hour comedies and talent shows.
Needless to say I am less than enamored that Revolution landed at NBC. They are a struggling network that is trying to redefine itself and because of that uncertainty, who knows if they’re the best place to land Abrams’ latest pilot? Revolution sounds as interesting as any other Abrams project, though not so special that I can’t wait. I’m sure it will have that promise of many years of stories and the sci-fi elements will be subtle in the beginning to lure as big a crowd as possible before it gets too nerdy and scare the mainstream away. NBC will likely stop promoting the show after its premiere and will hope and pray as it does so often with its marginal performers–praising it but not offering any creative way to really feature the show on a consistent basis. I hope I’m proven wrong, I’d be glad to see a TV “Revolution” begin at NBC. If not, maybe the CW will give you a nice deal for two pilots. At least we know it’ll last six or seven seasons there. In fact, I’ll take bets on which lasts longer, Shelter or Revolution? Trust me, you’ll get better odds on this Sunday’s Super Bowl.
I will give Abrams plenty of credit for getting the networks to buy into his shows–no doubt a difficult feat–but I’ll be honest. Before launching all of these other series, it would have been nice to see Abrams focus a majority of his mojo into getting Fringe to stick around long enough to leave on its own terms. Star Trek 2 isn’t even on anyone’s radar yet and won’t hit theaters until 2013, yet there he is. And let’s say that NBC picks up Revolution for the fall or the 2013 mid-season schedule, and the unavoidable you-know-what hits the fan, will Abrams be around to make sure it defies NBC’s genre curse or will he be selling his next sci-fi pitch to the network who bids the highest? Either way, let’s just save fans the trouble and see if another network is interested, otherwise I’ll be practicing “Taps” in the corner.
