Remember when everyone — including ourselves — got all excited about Charity Wakefield, who, back in January, was being touted as the new Ally McBeal? Well, it turns out that all of that research we did about her on Wikipedia and the IMDb was for naught. Just as NBC hinted they might last week, the network officially passed on green-lighting David E. Kelley’s Legally Mad, which also was set to star the bubbly Kristin Chenoweth. And just to demonstrate how much Ben Silverman and his crack team of television scientists disliked the show, this move triggers a hilarious contractual clause that will result in NBC forking over some $2 million to Warner Bros. TV. We know we’re not in the television industry, but to us, that sure seems like a lot of money to pay for a TV show that will never air. Meanwhile, in another spot of bad news for fans of television shows that feature single female protagonists who are no longer in their teens, ABC has cooled considerably on the untitled Lauren Graham project.
Sorry, Gilmore groupies, but things are looking very dire for the pilot that was scripted by Alex Herschlag (Will & Grace) and starred none other than Lorelai Gilmore herself. According to a Variety report, “ABC execs remain fans of Graham – but the pilot, about a talk show host who must follow her own advice when her life falls apart, is said to have fallen flat in the screening room.†This information has yet to be confirmed by network officials, but don’t expect for things to turn considerably for the program in the short time between now and the ABC upfronts.
So, what does this all mean? From our vantage point, it looks something like this: unless they’re doctors, detectives or ghost whisperers, women will be totally out of style this fall. We blame Sarah Palin.
NBC passing on ‘Legally Mad’ [Variety]