You're reading PILOT BUZZ CENTRAL!
#13 Swingtown
Who picked it up? CBS
When does it air? Midseason
Who stars? Grant Show, Miriam Shor, Josh Hopkins, and others!
Why should you care? This is, hands down, the best scripted show to air on CBS in the last ten years. It's sexy, it's provocative, it takes risks. The characters are multidimensional, and the cast really works well together. Most of all, the show is NOT about sex -- it simply uses sex to tell the story. A breathtaking masterpiece!
Why should you worry? CBS doesn't know how to handle anything that doesn't have a crime element.
Bottom line? It is hard to imagine where CBS could air this program. If this were an ABC pilot, it would easily rank in the top 5 of this countdown. If it were an HBO pilot, then all the talk of what HBO is going to do after The Sopranos would be stifled. But it is a CBS pilot, and CBS doesn't know what to do with anything that even remotely has some element of character development or commentary on the state of life. If what CBS is claiming, though -- if they really want to get out of the crime procedural rut before the bottom drops out -- then this is their golden ticket. They'd better treat it well.