TVSquad

Here's an original idea: create a sitcom based around two brothers with different political beliefs. Make one of these men liberal and the other one conservative. Also, make sure the liberal is the intellectual one and the conservative is an obnoxious blowhard. Now, to try and distract from the complete lack of originality inherent in this sitcom, put the conservative guy in a wheelchair. See? He's not just some cookie-cutter stereotype, he's a crippled cookie-cutter stereotype.

Anyway, that's the gist of a new pilot called Playing Chicken that was recently ordered by FOX. Perhaps the show will actually make fun of these stereotypes rather than perpetuating the nonsense that all conservatives are obnoxious and all liberals are erudite snobs, so I won't judge too harshly until I actually see it. Actually, who am I kidding? I'm going to judge it quite harshly.

Slap another "supernatural" series on the pile. Heroes writer and executive producer Bryan Fuller is creating a drama pilot for ABC called Pushing Daisies about a man who can bring people to life just by touching them. I'm pretty sure there was a book that used this same idea. Now what was it called? Oh, right, the New Testament. Damn, if only Jesus stuck around for the TV age he could be rolling in dough right now. I mean that literally: he would have so much money he could buy lots of cookie dough and roll around in it. You may think that's sacrilegious, but my God is a party animal.

iF Magazine quotes the dailies, which are calling the new series a "romance-tinged procedural." A procedural of what, exactly? Resurrection? Is this a common practice with an actual procedure that must be followed? Are there classes one has to take to learn to raise the dead? I assume all of these questions will be answered when the show debuts this pilot season.

ABC wants to know what's ahead for What About Brian. The network has ordered four additional scripts, on top of the initial 13-episode order it made for this fall season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. What About Brian is about a lone bachelor among a group of 'attached' friends. It barely got a second season after just five episodes last spring, but viewership is growing. The hour-long drama has consistently placed third in its Monday 10 pm time slot, with an average of six million viewers. Last week, however, it edged out Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip to rank second in the ratings.

ABC has also ordered four more scripts from Men in Trees, Help Me Help You and The Nine, on top of the 13-episode commitment. The only new show on ABC this fall that hasn't received another script order is J.J. Abrams' Six Degrees (What About Brian is also an Abrams production). The network has not yet given a greenlight for the extra scripts to actually go into production, but the order is a good sign.