Fall Pilots

PREMIERING TONIGHT: THE SKED Pilot Report – NBC’s “Ironside”

Posted October 2, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  IRONSIDE:  Wednesday 10PM on NBC – Change the Channel “There are rules, dammit, and they need to be followed!”  That actual line is spoken, with a completely straight face, about four minutes into the pilot for NBC’s reboot of IRONSIDE, and it may rightly make your heart sink.  We know we’re in 2013, because […]

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Fall Pilots

PREMIERING TONIGHT: THE SKED PILOT REVIEW – NBC’s “The Blacklist”

Posted September 23, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  THE BLACKLIST:  Monday 10PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… NBC has made it very clear that its top fall priority is the launch of the new Monday drama THE BLACKLIST.  The show has been given the network’s plum post-The Voice slot, and clearly, NBC sees the series as a more consistent […]

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Pilot Reports

PREMIERING TONIGHT – THE SKED’S FALL PILOT REPORT: FOX’s “The Mindy Project”

Posted September 25, 2012 by Mitch Salem

    THE MINDY PROJECT: Tuesday 9:30PM on FOX – DVR Alert Companion shows don’t come more perfectly designed than FOX’s THE MINDY PROJECT.  When FOX launched New Girl last fall, it became an instant hit, with a quirky, likable heroine in Zooey Deschanel, a very strong supporting cast, and a sophisticated, urban tone.  it’s […]

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Midseason Pilots

THE SKED PILOT REVIEW: “Mixology”

Posted February 26, 2014 by Mitch Salem

  MIXOLOGY:  Wednesday 9:30PM on ABC – Worth A Look MIXOLOGY is the most ambitious of ABC’s new comedies, although “ambitious” in this case means resembling one of those omnibus rom-com movies that simultaneously tell half a dozen stories, all turning out to be tangentially related to each other.  At its best, that subgenre is […]

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Articles

THE SKED PILOT REPORT: ABC’S “Scandal”

Posted June 1, 2011 by Mitch Salem

> Disclaimer:  Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall.  Pilots are often reedited and rescored, and in some cases even recast or reshot.  So these critiques shouldn’t be taken as full reviews, but rather as a guide to the general style and content of the […]

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Pilot Reports

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Take Two”

Posted June 22, 2018 by Mitch Salem

  TAKE TWO:  Thursday 10PM on ABC ABC’s TAKE TWO has an unusually classy set of auspices for a summer broadcast series.  Its co-creator is Andrew W. Marlowe, who gave the network its long-running hit Castle (his writing partner on the new show is Terri Edda Miller, a Castle writer/producer and also Mrs. Marlowe), and […]

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Pilot Reports

THE SKED SERIES PREMIERE REVIEW: “Major Crimes”

Posted August 14, 2012 by Mitch Salem

  MAJOR CRIMES:  Monday 9PM on TNT – If Nothing Else Is On…   As soon as plans for the Closer spin-off MAJOR CRIMES were announced, the central question was always how a series could work whose main protagonist was going to be Internal Affairs Capt. Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell), the least likable, most humorless […]

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Pilot Reports

THE SKED PILOT REVIEW: “The Originals”

Posted May 16, 2013 by Mitch Salem

  Planted spin-off pilots are almost always awkward, and THE ORIGINALS, which aired as an episode of The Vampire Diaries, was no exception.  The timing of Originals was particularly odd in the Vampire universe, because it yanked two of the show’s most notable supporting characters, original vampires Klaus (Joseph Morgan) and his brother Elijah (Daniel […]

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