USA Says 'Halo’ to Originals Slate
And NBCU Sibling Sci Fi Will Cross Genres, Platforms
By Linda Moss & R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 7/22/2007 6:00:00 PM MT
Beverly Hills, Calif. — There was plenty of series and development news from sister services USA Network and Sci Fi Channel when NBC Universal Cable closed cable’s portion of the Television Critics Association summer press tour.
USA, which is presenting six scripted originals this summer, a first for any cable network, ordered a dozen episodes of To Love & Die, which is set to debut in 2008. The show stars Roswell alum Shiri Appleby as a young woman who tracks down her hit man father (Tim Matheson) and realizes she has a talent for his line of work.
Meanwhile, USA’s development slate for next year features concepts reinforcing its “Characters Welcome” brand. In Halo, a less-than-heavenly average Joe wakes up one morning with a halo over his head. While trying to get rid of it, he reluctantly starts finding himself doing good deeds.
In The Expert, a reclusive librarian with a unique condition called synesthesia works with the police. Synesthesia allows her to mix her various senses — she smells sounds, hears colors and feels words — enabling her to explore unconventional ways to pursue criminals.
And in Citizen’s Arrest, a young boy, convinced that he is a police officer, is institutionalized for delusional behavior. Finally released as an adult, he goes “undercover” to clear the name of his surrogate “Uncle Jimmy,” who was marked as a dirty cop.
For its part, Sci Fi announced at its July 15 session that it has green-lit projects across an array of genres.
In October, Sci Fi will begin to deliver to Battlestar Galactica fans an eight-week series of exclusive two- to three-minute minisodes that will lead up to the Nov. 24 premiere of the show’s two-hour special Battlestar Galactica: Razor. That will provide a backdrop to events unfolding in the swan song for Galactica, which will conclude its four-season run in 2008.
On the reality front, the network green-lit Run for Money, a competition series; Brain Trust, which uses science technology to solve daily mundane, small problems; What Can’t I Do?, which puts infomercial products to the test; and UFO Hunters, a takeoff on series Ghost Hunters, which will investigate claims of UFO sightings and otherworldly experiences.
Elsewhere, Sci Fi touted The Awesomes, an animated series following past-their-prime superheroes, that was described as “Super Friends meets The Office.”
On the scripted front, series include God Inc., based on a Web series developed by filmmaker Francis Stokes, and Going Homer, a miniseries retooling of the classic Odyssey tale in which a young boy encounters Greek and Roman deities unseen to others that walk among us in the 21st Century.
The network will resurrect popular space series Farscape with a 10-part series of Webisodes on broadband video site Sci Fi Pulse. Executive vice president and general manager David Howe said some of the show’s original cast would appear in the installments.
Another digital series, Invent This!, will seek the world’s quirkiest inventions and reveal the secret behind what brings these contraptions to life.
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