LPP Crew Predict 2017 ABC Pilot Pickups

ABC has announced their development slate for the 2017-18 television city. As we head into the upfront presentation in May, we will find out which of the following shows will make the cut for the upcoming season. In anticipation, the Laughing Place Podcast Crew have made their picks regarding which shows they believe will be picked up to series. Do you agree?

Note: Most of these shows have no imagery available, so we have found some fun Disney related images to act as placeholders. 

Charlie Foxtrot

Jason Biggs is the loveable, eager-to-please Charlie Taylor.  He is from a military family – but while his father earned a purple heart in Vietnam and his fearless brother Joe is about to be deployed to Iraq — Charlie plays a different role in the Army: he’s a dentist. His cautious nature makes him better at giving out advice on flossing than commanding the troops (or tending to his dating life).

He’s the opposite of his mother, Sue, a sharp-tongued widow who even her sons will admit is “not nice”. She disapproves of Joe’s fiancé Angelina, a headstrong single mom who plays by her own rules. Together with her two teenage misfits, Maria and Hector, she brings a little chaos in to Charlie, Joe and Sue’s regimented life on base at Fort Bragg.

Before he deploys, Joe asks Charlie to watch out for Angelina and her kids. It’s a solemn promise, and one he clearly expects Charlie to keep. Unbeknownst to Charlie, he asks the same thing of Angelina: watch over his brother, who could use a little help himself.

In Joe’s absence, the family has to pull together to make sure the kids stay on track, Sue and Angelina get along, and Charlie becomes a hero in his own right.

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: No
Alex: No
Kyle: No

Deception

Cameron Black is the world’s greatest illusionist. The Master of the Impossible! At least, that’s what people used to call him – before his greatest secret was exposed and his career destroyed. Even worse, Cameron has good reason to believe this was no accident. A criminal illusionist masterminded his downfall. Now, Cameron must find out who sabotaged him and expose them to the world. It’s a good plan… but maybe a little too impossible. Until…

… an FBI jet blows up in a hangar outside New York. It was transporting a cartel boss to prison. To the untrained eye it looks like an explosion, the cartel boss is dead. But Cameron knows this jet didn’t blow up. It disappeared! Is it possible the cartel boss used a criminal illusionist to escape? Is this the same illusionist who wrecked his career? To get answers, Cameron must convince FBI agent Kay Daniels that he can help her find the cartel boss.

Of course, he’s not exactly FBI material. Cameron’s antics and constant showmanship irritate Kay’s superiors, but this genius for illusion is her best chance to capture the cartel boss. And they make for a good team. Cameron’s unique abilities compliment Kay’s FBI training and street smarts, even when his over-the-top persona gets them into trouble.

They also have help. Cameron’s magic team (the geniuses behind his stage show) can build any trick or illusion for them. Kay has the FBI and her crack partner, Special Agent Mike Alvarez, who just so happens to be one of Cameron’s biggest fans. With both teams working together, they stage an illusion of their own that brings down the cartel boss and puts Cameron one step closer to finding his criminal illusionist. The FBI is impressed. They order Kay to put together a new team – the Deception Group. Their job: to solve any deception and outdo it with their own. Kay immediately recruits Cameron and his team. Together, they’ll take down criminals and spies and, along the way, go after the elusive illusionist who destroyed Cameron’s career.

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: Yes
Alex: No
Kyle: No

Household Name

Comedy legend Carol Burnett returns to television as 93-year old Vivian Valmont, a glamorous, Hollywood film star whose larger-than-life persona is larger than her current fan base. Alternately imperious, witty, needy and affectionate, it is hard to tell which Vivian you’ll get day-to-day, or even moment-to-moment.

Vivian has lived in the same magnificent home for 60 years, and never plans to leave, yet her current precarious financial state means she has no choice but to sell it.  But her best friend and manager, Edward Von Glimpse, has come up with an inspired plan to sell the house with a very odd provision – whoever buys the house has to let Vivian live in it with them for the rest of her life.

It’s not a condition most people would agree to, but Ted Peters, ever-the-optimist, convinces his skeptical wife, Wendy, to take the plunge, along with their two children, 12-year-old Jessica and 9-year-old Charlie.  The chance to live in this amazing home in the city’s best school district at a bargain price is too rare an opportunity to pass up in the out-of-reach real estate market of Los Angeles.

While living with the unpredictable and demanding Vivian might be a steep price to pay to finally own their first home, the Peters discover that having someone with the kind of life experience Vivian has also comes with unexpected benefits.  Conversely, while Vivian has enjoyed her privacy and living a life without compromise, it’s hard to ignore the fact that this new family injects some much needed life and vitality into the solitary, out-of-touch existence she’d been living.  Together, this new, merged family learns to appreciate the value of having three generations under one roof.

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: Yes
Alex: Yes
Kyle: Yes

Jalen vs. Everybody

Current ABC/ESPN analyst and former 13-year pro-basketball star, Jalen Rose, stars as himself in this single-camera comedy inspired by his life. A single dad to a feisty teenager, Samantha, and bookish 6-year old, Nathan, Jalen struggles to keep up with his kids while juggling his commitments as a sports commentator. He also co-hosts his ESPN Radio show ‘Jalen & Jacoby’ with his good friend, David Jacoby.

This delicate routine is disrupted when Samantha begins demanding that her father takes her and her friends out for expensive sushi, and when Jalen discovers that his daughter is becoming social media obsessed. He realizes that he must change his “fun dad” tactics and start laying down the law before both his kids grow up too fast.

He tries his best to manage it all, along with his ex and his kids’ mother, Denise (Kelly Jenrette), but then again with Jalen’s jet set lifestyle, Denise doesn’t feel she that can fully count on him. Also keeping him in check are his mom and spitfire grandmother who insist that he take their calls no matter what he is in the middle of, and fiercely believe he should marry his much younger, fashionista girlfriend, Angela. Jalen’s loyal assistant, Becky, does what she can to help him keep it all afloat.

As Jalen struggles to keep everyone in his life happy, at work and at home, his status as a celebrity adds an additional layer of challenges. Wherever Jalen goes, the public is there to take pictures and post about him online. Social media stories, whether true or false, spiral out of control forcing Jalen to constantly explain himself to the press, his bosses, and worst of all, his family. And if these humiliations aren’t enough, strangers and colleagues are happy to remind him of that one epic game in which Kobe Bryant had the best game of his career, while Jalen was guarding him.

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: No
Alex: No
Kyle: Yes

Las Reinas

Miami Detective Alex de la Reina is as notorious for her homicide investigations as she is for her last name: she is the granddaughter of Gabriella de la Reina, the ruthless head of the city’s most powerful crime family. Alex turned her back on her family when she was sixteen, but that doesn’t stop her from using their influence to do her job; she is the only detective in Miami who can walk into a gang shoot-out and come out unscathed.

Alex’s new partner Andrew Somerset and her mentor Lieutenant Donald Worden fear that her risk-taking behavior has gotten out of hand. But Inspector Kathryn Geller of the Organized Crime Task Force doesn’t care how Alex gets things done; she needs her help. Karen Ruiz, the daughter of the De La Reinas’ most ruthless enforcer, has disappeared. If this girl dies, the city could see a gang war that ends in a blood bath.

Alex knows that she has no choice but to see her family for the first time in years, to ask them to stand down and stay out of her way until she can find out what happened to Karen. Gabriella and her consigliere Robert Ellison welcome Alex warmly back into the fold. After all, Gabriella is determined that Alex is the only one who has the strength to inherit her throne. But Alex’s younger brother Diego is not as forgiving; he felt abandoned when she left the family without taking him. Now, Diego is trying to prove that he deserves to take over the family business from Gabriella.

With Gabriella’s help and resources working in tandem with the police on Karen’s case, Alex starts making breakthroughs. But this favor puts her into a conflict she can’t resolve. For now, she must walk the murky line between the law and her family, and question her true destiny as a De La Reina.

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: No
Alex: No
Kyle: No

Libby & Malcolm

Libby Wright (Felicity Huffman) is a smart, opinionated Red-state Republican and Malcolm Black (Courtney B. Vance) is a smooth-talking Blue-state Democrat.  Polar opposites – except when it comes to love.  Against all odds, this unlikely couple just got married, and are now settling into their new home in Los Angeles along with Malcolm’s three kids:  nerdy and neurotic 11 year-old Malcolm Jr. aka MJ (Jahi Winston), confident 13 year-old Cassius (Sayeed Shahidi) who knows how to game the system, and 15 year-old Naya (Monique Green), the uber-smart, defiant daughter who has no interest in having a booty-less white stepmom.

Libby and Malcolm also co-host their new political show “Black & Wright”, where these fiery pundits go head-to-head on all of today’s hot button issues. Randal Martin (Gary Cole) is their crazy, bordering-on-sociopathic executive producer who loves to stoke their fire.  For this, he’s hired two segment producers to keep their arguments in overdrive: Zevina “Zev” Adler (Caitlin McGee), a techno journalist who lives by the tweet-based 24-second news cycle, and Bernie Wilson (James Lesure), a put-upon old-school newsman who hates the vapid Twittersphere.

Together, Libby and Malcolm duke it out on-air to sway an audience of millions, hoping to get their polarized viewers to vote “red” or “blue” on the show’s signature Lean-O-Meter.  But when this fiercely competitive couple drops the ball at home, they realize they have to set aside their differences and find the middle ground to raise Malcolm’s three kids and prove the skeptics wrong about this marriage of total opposites.

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: Yes
Alex: Yes
Kyle: Yes

Liberal Arts

The Johnson’s eldest daughter, Zoey (Yara Shahidi) heads off to college and quickly discovers that not everything goes her way once she leaves the nest.   Black-ish creator Kenya Barris partners with Larry Wilmore (The Nighty Show, Bernie Mac) to create a contemporary take on the issues facing both students and administrators in the world of higher education. Yara is joined by Black-ish’s Deon Cole (Charlie) who moonlights as an adjunct marketing professor as well as funny new characters both in the administration and student body who all reflect the complex and hilarious points of views currently populating college campuses.

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: Yes
Alex: Yes
Kyle: Yes

Losing It

Marvel’s Inhumans

 Ordered Direct to Series

Raised by Wolves

Sheila Gable is a tough Midwestern mom who doesn’t sugarcoat anything—well, except her famous “Dr. Pepper Ham.” Recently laid off after a factory closure, Sheila’s been applying for entry-level jobs with no luck. She has five kids to support and the family’s budget has dwindled from “small” to “pathetic.” Luckily, the Gables have their trademark gallows humor— and shared love of pop culture— to carry them through these lean times.

Sheila’s 14 year-old daughter, Dusty is a legend in her own mind— an outgoing, boy-crazy diva who makes onlookers cringe. 13 year-old Dolly is the sardonic, bookish foil to her older sister. Next, we have sweet, dreamy 10 year-old Yoko who just wants to save the world’s bees, 7 year-old Banksy, who wishes he wasn’t the only boy in the house, and 5 year-old Beebee, the cheerful mascot of the family.

Sheila’s father, Paul “Grampy” Kosinski is a pathological narcissist who always seems to need something from his daughter. Right now, he needs a roof over his head. The timing couldn’t be crappier, but he vows to pitch in and help Sheila as much as he can. Can Grampy redeem himself after decades of jackassery? (Probably not.)

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: No
Alex: Yes
Kyle: No

Salamander

We open on a heist: the robbery of sixty-six specific safety deposit boxes housed in an exclusive private bank. The robbers break open the boxes, but the boxes don’t contain money or valuables, just personal effects: thumb drives, photos and documents. The following morning, when the bank manager, Kant, discovers the robbery, surprisingly he doesn’t call the police – leaving us to wonder: just who do those 66 boxes belong to?!

Meanwhile, Ethan Anders is on a blind date with Nora Schaller.  It is not going well. They come from totally different worlds, and it’s awkward. Nora is a psychiatrist for Homeland Security with an expensive education and an uptown brownstone. Ethan is Queens through and through, and the gains he’s made in life are because he worked his ass off to get them. The two realize that they are far from an ideal match and end the date, thinking it is goodbye forever.

Ethan works at a boutique security firm as a design engineer alongside his ebullient and impulsive brother, Kevin. The firm provides security for the bank from our opening, and Ethan notices that someone at the firm shut off the bank’s security system the night before – an “inside man” to the robbery.  Worse, Ethan suspects the culprit was his brother.  Troubled, he seeks counsel from his best friend and AA sponsor: David Vargas, a former police detective. Vargas tells Eddie that he’s got no choice but to confront Kevin with what he knows… But when Ethan returns to the office, he discovers a total blood bath. Everyone at the firm, including his beloved brother, has been shot dead.

Ethan is taken for questioning by two police detectives.  But, on the way there, one of the detectives kills his partner and tries to kill Ethan… who barely escapes.  Ethan is terrified – whoever robbed the bank not only killed his brother to cover it up, but was willing to kill everyone else in the office in the process – and whoever they are, they have reach into the NYPD.  Ethan doesn’t know where to turn. He’s too afraid to return home, or to any of his friends.  So, he goes to the only place he can think of — he arrives on Nora’s doorstep, begging for help.

Upon hearing his story, Nora fears that Ethan might be paranoid or insane – but he pleads for her to trust him, and, reluctantly, Nora decides to help him out. Using his brilliant cyber skills and her government credentials, they start to dig into this mystery and discover that the safety deposit boxes share a common code word – Salamander — and that the boxes are each linked to politicians, industry heads, and financiers.  But, why?  And what is their significance?

As they are reeling from this, they discover that Helen Barrett, a U.S Senator, has just been arrested for blowing up a ferry in the east river. Ethan and Nora are stunned: Helen Barrett’s name is on the Salamander list. Just what is going on here?  Is someone using the contents of the boxes to blackmail their owners into doing horrible deeds. But who? And why?  Ethan and Nora realize that, despite the fact that they barely know each other, and have almost nothing in common, they may be the only ones capable of solving this mystery and discovering who is responsible for the murder of Ethan’s brother and is now trying to kill him to keep their enterprise a secret.

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: No
Alex: No
Kyle: Yes

Schooled

It is 1990-something at William Penn Academy, the same Philadelphia area high school featured in The Goldbergs.  Adam, Barry and Erica have all graduated, and it is the first time in memory the faculty has not had to deal with number one smother, Beverly Goldberg.  But despite this welcomed development, devoted gym teacher, Coach Rick Mellor (Bryan Callen), faces an even bigger challenge.

School counselor John Glascott (Tim Meadows) has just been promoted to Head of School and is ready to make big changes.  Armed with a PhD, he has a modern vision of education and is ready to abolish the stale teaching techniques of the 80s.  He describes it to Mellor in terms he can understand – everyone gets a trophy.  Mellor’s old school philosophy is the complete opposite.  He believes in competition and personal achievement and vows to prove to Glascott that his teaching methods still have value.

Glascott’s job only gets tougher as Mellor’s energy and contrasting philosophy drives him to bigfoot Glascott’s big plans and take over his “all community share session”, turning it into a pep rally.

Complicating his life even more, Glascott has hired his sister Lucy as his secretary, allowing her three socially-challenged kids to attend William Penn.  They are 16 year-old Felicia who, since her parents’ divorce, has been on a rebellious, destructive path; 14 year-old Gigi, a positive and quirky kid; and Gigi’s twin brother Oscar — a gentle, shy giant.  Lucy initially embraces the opportunity for her know-it-all big brother to be an influence in her childrens’ lives, but she soon secretly turns to Mellor and his old-school techniques to keep them out of trouble.

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: Yes
Alex: Yes
Kyle: Yes

Somewhere Between

Ordered Direct to Series

Splitting Up Together

Lena and Martin have finally made the decision to divorce. The romance has died, as well as the sex, and they have become more like camp counselors for their three children 13 year-old Mae, 11 year-old Mason, and 7 year-old Milo.

Lena’s sister Maya, her parents Henry and Alma, and best friends Arthur and Camille are surprised by the news and confused when they find out that the couple will still live together. They wonder what will happen when they start to date other people.

Their arrangement is unusual: Lena and Martin will live in separate parts of the house, and split up parenting duties on a weekly basis. On the ‘off-duty week’ that parent lives in the garage and is free to do whatever he or she wants. The kids seem to go with the flow, at least at first.

Lena, the supermom control freak, is just waiting for Martin to be overwhelmed by the household and kid duties, but is surprised when he isn’t. Not that everything is perfect. During Lena’s on-duty week, Martin is touched that she comes to him for help, something that never has happened before.

As the couple starts to see each other in a different light, they realize this divorce could be the best thing for their marriage.

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: No
Alex: No
Kyle: Yes

Start Up

Alex Schuman (Zach Braff) is a brilliant radio journalist, husband, and father of two who is about to plunge into the great unknown. He’s been working on the same radio show for 16 years and is tired of having his most original pitches rejected for fluff pieces. So he decides to put everything on the line, quit, and start a podcast company of his own to tell the stories that he believes in.

His wife, Noush, is not thrilled about giving up his income, but loves Alex and so decides to support his leap, even though she still she has some concerns.  She knows he is a great storyteller, but questions his ability to raise money and manage a small business. For this, he assembles a dream team to round out his skills: radio producer, Deirdre Riordan, who’s only a little bit in love with him; and his best friend from high school, fast-talking salesman Eddie Ramirez, a slick numbers guru with a business degree. The team quickly rents some office space that they share with other unlikely entrepreneurs trying to make big things happen, too.

After Alex makes some disastrous pitches for funding, it’s his kids, 11 year-old budding magician Ben and 5 year-old Soraya, who give him the focus and confidence to fight for his dream.

Will it Make It?

FanBoy: Yes
Alex: Yes
Kyle: Yes

Ten Days in the Valley