2013-2014 NBC Pilots in Contention

Next week, the broadcast networks will begin revealing their schedules for the 2013-2014 television season. While a lot of attention has been put on what bubble shows will eek out another season, the focus will soon shift to the latest offerings that will try to find a foothold in an increasingly crowded television landscape. Over the rest of the week, we’ll be providing you with a list of pilots in contention from each of the networks, posted in the order in which they’ll be announcing their schedules. Included will be titles, cast lists, and a brief, officially released summation of the show’s content.

NBC is up first, as they have their upfronts the morning of Monday, May 13th with their schedule likely leaking the previous day. They’ve already picked up one new show for the season in The Michael J. Fox Show, which was given a blind 22-episode commitment, and will be looking to build on their fairly solid dramas and rebuild a comedy roster that won’t include both 30 Rock and The Office.

Which pilots do you think sound the best? What type of shows should NBC pick up? How will their fall schedule look this year?

EDIT: According to Deadline, NBC has begun notifying the projects that are not going forward. Among them are Brenda Forever, The Gates, The Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives, Joe & Joe & Jane, Holding Patterns, and The Hatfields & McCoys.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the network has passed on The Sixth Gun and Bloodline.

EDIT (2): NBC has picked up About a Boy, Happiness (retitled Sean Saves the World), Believe, Untitled Rand Ravich (now titled Crisis), and …Then Came Elvis (retitled Family Guide).

EDIT (3): The Night Shift, The Blacklist, Ironside, Welcome to the Family, Undateable, and the Chicago Fire spin-off have been picked up. I Am Victor, the Craig Robinson project, and Assistance still have life in them, while everything else is dead.

DRAMA:
After Hours (retitled Night Shift)
Who’s in it: Ken Leung, Freddy Rodriguez, Jill Flint, Brigid Brannagh, and Robert Bailey, Jr.
What’s it about: The graveyard shift in the ER at the San Antonio Medical Center.

Believe
Who’s in it: Delroy Lindo, Jamie Chung, Kyle MacLachlan, Sienna Guillory, and Arian Moayed
What’s it about: A girl in possession of a great gift/powers – which will come into their own in seven years – and the man who is sprung from prison to protect her from those trying to hunt her down

The Blacklist
Who’s in it: James Spader, Diego Klattenhoff, Harry Lennix, Ryan Eggold, and Megan Boone
What’s it about: The world’s most wanted criminal, who turns himself into the FBI and offers to give up everyone he has ever worked with in exchange for working with a newly minted agent whom he seemingly has no connection

Bloodline
Who’s in it: Chris Zylka, KaDee Strickland, Jonathan Banks, Skyler Samuels, and Tom Everett Scott
What’s it about: A smart and irreverent teenager who finds herself caught in the middle of an epic struggle between two warrior families

The Hatfields & McCoys
Who’s in it: James Remar, Virginia Madsen, Sophia Bush, Annie Ilonzeh, and Rebecca De Mornay
What’s it about: A centuries-old family feud in a contemporary urban setting

I Am Victor
Who’s in it: John Stamos, Matthew Lillard, Terry Kinney, Angela Sarafyan, and McKaley Miller
What’s it about: A high powered divorce attorney with a unique view of relationships

Ironside
Who’s in it: Blair Underwood, Brent Sexton, Kenneth Choi, Neal Bledsoe, and Spencer Grammar
What’s it about: Revival of Raymond Burr-led 1967-1975 series about a San Francisco police detective who’s forced to find new ways of fighting crime after being paralyzed by a gunshot

The Secret Lives of Husbands and Wives
Who’s in it: Jesse L. Martin, Laura Allen, Nicole Ari Parker, James Tupper, and Martin Henderson
What’s it about: Based on Josie Brown’s book about the secrets and lies of three suburban California couples exposed in the aftermath of a murder

The Sixth Gun
Who’s in it: Aldis Hodge, James LeGros, Michiel Huisman, W. Earl Brown, and Chin Han
What’s it about: Based on the Oni Press comic about six pistols of otherworldly power in the Old West, the most dangerous of which falls into the hands of an innocent girl named Becky Montcrief who – alongside shadowy gunfighter Drake Sinclair – must battle vile men thought long dead that have set their sights on retrieving the gun

Untitled Chicago Fire Spin-Off Project
Who’s in it: Tania Raymonde, Jon Seda, Scott Eastwood, Kelly Blatz, and Melissa Sagemiller
What’s it about: Potential spin-off of the drama set in the Chicago Police Department

Untitled Rand Ravich Project
Who’s in it: Dermot Mulroney, Gillian Anderson, Lance Gross, Rachael Taylor, and James Lafferty
What’s it about: An idealistic secret service agent who finds himself at the epicenter of an international crisis on his first day on the job

COMEDY (SINGLE-CAM)
…Then Came Elvis
Who’s in it: Parker Posey, J.K. Simmons, Harold Perrineau, Eli Baker, and Ava Deluca-Verley
What’s it about: A 14-year-old boy who watches his family – blind father Mel, immature mom Joyce (Parker Posey), rebellious older sister Katie and their dog Elvis – come closer together post-divorce

About a Boy
Who’s in it: David Walton, Al Madrigal, Anjelah N. Johnson, Minnie Driver, and Leslie Bibb
What’s it about: Based on Nick Hornby’s book-turned-film of the same name about the relationship between a bachelor man-child and the young boy who moves in next-door with his kooky single mother

Assistance
Who’s in it: Krysten Ritter, Peter Cambor, Zach Cregger, and Vinette Robinson
What’s it about: A magnetic hyperactive workaholic (Krysten Ritter) who tries to juggle the demands of her long-time boyfriend (Peter Cambor), her smug work-husband (Zach Cregger) and her powerful boss

Brenda Forever
Who’s in it: Ellie Kemper, Daija Owens, David Krumholtz, Da’vine Joy Randolph, and Stephnie Weir
What’s it about: High-concept comedy which follows the title role both as a 31-year-old woman and a 13-year-old girl

Gates
Who’s in it: Ken Marino, Stephen Guarino, Greg Germann, Kathleen Rose Perkins, and Christina Kirk
What’s it about: Based on the U.K. series about the hijinks that ensue when parents drop off and pick up their kids at school each day

The Michael J. Fox Show
Who’s in it: Michael J. Fox, Wendell Pierce, Betsy Brandt, Katie Finneran, and Jack Gore
What’s it about: A husband and father of three from New York City dealing with family, career, and challenges — including Parkinson’s — all loosely drawn from Fox’s real life

Untitled Craig Robinson Project
Who’s in it: Craig Robinson, Larenz Tate, Jean Smart, Amanda Lund, and Amandla Stenberg
What’s it about: An impulsive, good-hearted musician (Craig Robinson) who adjusts to his new life as a music teacher in a big-city middle school

Untitled Robert Padnick Project
Who’s in it: Eric Andre, Adhir Kalyan, Ellen Woglom, and Mike Castle
What’s it about: Four hopeful city-dwellers who step through the endless mine field of their romantic entanglements

Welcome to the Family
Who’s in it: Mary McCormack, Ella Rae Peck, Aramis Knight, Ricardo Chavira, and Mike O’Malley
What’s it about: Two teens whose disparate families are bonded together after they fall in love and get pregnant

COMEDY (MULTI-CAM)
Happiness
Who’s in it: Sean Hayes, Linda Lavin, Lindsay Sloane, Thomas Lennon, and Vik Sahay
What’s it about: A man (Sean Hayes) who must figure out how to become a full-time dad to his teenage daughter as well as navigate his temperamental new boss at work

Holding Patterns
Who’s in it: Erinn Hayes, Luke Jones, Nelson Franklin, Humphrey Ker, and Oscar Nunez
What’s it about: A group of friends whose lives completely change after they survive a plane crash

Joe & Joe & Jane
Who’s in it: Dave Annabale, Lauren Lapkus, Will Greenberg, Asif Ali, and Sally Pressman
What’s it about: A conflict-avoidant children’s book author caught in an ongoing tug of war between his wife and his co-author/best friend

The John Mulaney Show
Who’s in it: John Mulaney, Elliott Gould, Martin Short, Nasim Perdad, and Seaton Smith
What’s it about: Young ensemble loosely based on his life

Undateable
Who’s in it: Chris D’Elia, Briga Heelan, Matthew Wilkas, Brent Morin, and Bianca Kajlich
What’s it about: A bromantic comedy about two very different guys who are bonded by their common inability to attract women