TVSquad

It looks like ABC is prepping Flash Forward to eventually succeed Lost, which is slated to end next season. Flash Forward, a mythology-laden show based on a Robert J. Sawyer novel, is only one of six new dramas the network has ordered for next fall.

Continuing its trend of green lighting quirky, high-concept shows, ABC is moving ahead with V, a revamp of the 1980s sci-fi series/miniseries, and Eastwick, a character-centric drama based on the John Updike novel and the Jack Nicholson movie, The Witches of Eastwick. Actor Paul Gross will play the Nicholson role on Eastwick.

ABC's Web site calls Eastwick "a devilish blend of Desperate Housewives and Charmed," which figures, but that's exactly what I hoped it wouldn't be.

It's still unclear if V will return to TV as a miniseries or as a weekly series, but Variety reports that ABC is expected to order 13 episodes of the show. V stars Firefly alums Morena Baccarin and Alan Tudyk, which will make it worth watching for me, and a million other sci-fi geeks.

Hopefully, V will get a full-season order. It might have worked best as a miniseries in the 1980s, but with the loss of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox and the end of Battlestar Galactica, I'll be looking for a new weekly sci-fi TV addiction.

ABC also picked up two new crime dramas. The Forgotten, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, is about a crew of amateur sleuths, and Happy Town is a murder mystery set in Haplin, Minnesota. The show stars Amy Acker (another Joss Whedon vet) and Sam Niell. The legal drama The Deep End is expected to be picked up, possibly as a mid-season replacement.