New TV Shows in 2008 - 2009

As another TV season dwindles down and ends its run, fresh news shows are now under development for the next one. What new TV series are underway? Which shows will you be following in the new season? What series will people be raving about next?

I’ve outlined a couple of them for you to keep tabs on. It’s grouped into two, Drama & Comedy. There are a lot of series adaptations in this bunch.

Let’s get started, after the jump… 

DRAMA

TITLE: Section 8
SYNOPSIS: Everyday people with exceptional neurological abilities recruited to work for a secret branch of a government agency
NOTE: It is written by Zak Penn, who wrote the movie X:Men: The Last Stand.

TITLE: Life on Mars
SYNOPSIS:  A story about a 21st century detective who, after a car crash, mysteriously finds himself working as a cop in the 1970s — based on the BBC’s sci-fi crime drama.
CAST: Jason O’Mara, Colm Meaney
NOTE: Adapted from a British TV Series.

TITLE: The Mentalist
SYNOPSIS: A mentalist uses his skills of observation to solve crimes as an independent detective working with the police.

TITLE: Ny-Lon
SYNOPSIS: A female New York record store clerk and a male London stock broker embark on a cross-continental romance — based on a British series.
NOTE: The British Series  starred Rashida Jones (The Office).

TITLE: Mythological X
SYNOPSIS: After learning from a psychic that she already has dated the man she’s supposed to marry, a woman revisits all her past relationships in the hopes of finding him.
NOTE: Writter is Diane Ruggiero, who worked on Veronica Mars.

TITLE: Can Openers
SYNOPSIS: Centers on a twenty-something woman and her fellow residents who fight to survive the intensely competitive boys club that is the seven-year neurosurgical residency.

TITLE: The Kingdom
SYNOPSIS: Medieval drama about four guys, one of whom is crowned king and reluctantly takes the throne despite preferring drinking and sex to procession and war.
NOTE: It has Barry Sonnenfeld as director. He’s been doing Pushing Daisies. This series was in the drawing board the same time as Heroes was under development.

TITLE: The Meant to Be’s
SYNOPSIS: Romantic drama about a young woman who dies, but in order to "pass over," she must return to Earth and help people improve their lives.

TITLE: Eleventh Hour
SYNOPSIS: A special science adviser to the government saves people from the worst abuses of science.
CAST: Rufus Sewell, Marley Shelton
NOTE: It’s a Jerry Bruckheimer production. Enough said.

TITLE: Flashpoint
SYNOPSIS: A struggling artist is recruited by a secret agency to fight comic book-type villains
NOTE: developed by and shared with Canada’s CTV.

TITLE: Tower
SYNOPSIS: A group of Chicago reporters treat breaking news as cases to be both investigated and solved.

TITLE: Harper’s Island
SYNOPSIS: A horror story unfolds over the course of a season as a group of friends
meet on an island off the Seattle coast for a destination wedding.

TITLE: How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls
SYNOPSIS: Yale-educated young woman is hired to be the live-in tutor/life coach to two rich heiresses in Palm Beach; based on Alloy’s book.
NOTE: In tradition of Gossip Girl…this series was ordered because of the latter’s success.

TITLE: The Oaks
SYNOPSIS: Follows the lives of three families, in different time periods, who all occupy the same house haunted by a restless spirit.
CAST: Sienna Guillory, Matt Lanter, Shannon Lucio, Romy Rosemont, Michael Rispoli

TITLE: Fringe
SYNOPSIS: Young, tough FBI agent is forced to confront the spread of unexplained phenomena and work with a XX scientist and his son
CAST: Anna Torv, John Noble, Joshua Jackson
NOTE: Dude, JJ Abrams is behind this….the guy responsible for Lost.

TITLE: Queen B
SYNOPSIS: Female workplace drama
NOTE: God, not another one of those SATC clones!

TITLE: Dollhouse
SYNOPSIS: A group of men and women who are imprinted with different personalities for different assignments
CAST: Eliza Dushku
NOTE: Two words - Joss Whedon

TITLE: Inseparable
SYNOPSIS: A modern-day Jekyll and Hyde tale about a partially paralyzed forensic psychiatrist (Toby Stephens) with a split personality whose alter ego is a charismatic criminal.
CAST: Toby Stephens
NOTE: They aren’t saying it but this sounds a lot like the British drama Jekyll/Hyde

TITLE: Untitled Samuel Baum
SYNOPSIS: A man adept at reading facial expressions and body language to determine whether someone is telling the truth pairs up with a female clinical psychologist and together, they help solve mysteries for the police as well as their private clients.
NOTE: Uhh, Monk?

TITLE: Knight Rider
SYNOPSIS: An updated version of the 1980’s television series.
CAST: Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Justin Bruening, Val Kilmer
NOTE: The backdoor pilot aired last February.

TITLE: Kings
SYNOPSIS: A contemporary soap loosely based on the story of King David.

TITLE: Blue Blood
SYNOPSIS: Based on the 2004 bestselling autobiography by New York police officer Ed Conlon, the show is about a rookie NYPD officer who is a Harvard grad who decides to return to the family beat — law enforcement.
CAST: Alex Fernandez, April Lee Hernandez, Kate Levering, Larenz Tate

TITLE: The Philanthropist
SYNOPSIS: A hedonistic maverick with billions goes out of his way to help those in need.

TITLE: Robinson Crusoe
SYNOPSIS: A drama based on Daniel Defoe’s classic novel.

TITLE: The Listener
SYNOPSIS: The show centers on Toby Logan (Craig Olejnik) as a young, big-city paramedic withthe power to listen to people’s thoughts
CAST: Craig Olejnik
NOTE: developed by and shared with Canada’s CTV.

TITLE: Untitled Luke Reiter
SYNOPSIS: A legal thriller about unapologetic lawyers at a prestigious New York civil firm who will do whatever it takes to win their high-profile cases and outmaneuver one another.
CAST: Alan Tudyk, Andrew Lincoln, Megan Dodds

COMEDY

TITLE: The Goode Family
SYNOPSIS: Animated comedy about a family obsessed with doing the "right" thing
NOTE: A twist to a British series called Honest?

TITLE: Untitled Kohan/Mutchick
SYNOPSIS: Multi-camera comedy about two men — one straight, one gay — who are lifelong best friends and business partners
NOTE: The Will & Grace team

TITLE: Literary Superstars
SYNOPSIS: Sexy and sassy literary publicist (Jenna Elfman) fights for the rights of her authors while balancing a busy social schedule
CAST: Jenna Elfman

TITLE: Untitled Cedric the Entertainer
SYNOPSIS: Family man (Cedric) who always has been the proud breadwinner has difficulty adjusting when his wife’s (Regina Hall) hobby turns into a multimillion-dollar enterprise.
CAST: Cedric the Entertainer, Regina Hall

TITLE: The More Things Change
SYNOPSIS: A quartet of male friends explore how male friendships endure through change.

TITLE: This Might Hurt
SYNOPSIS: A single-camera comedy set at a private medical practice owned by a fifty-something pediatrician with a great bedside manner but woefully old-fashioned methods, his brainy internist son with whom he’s in constant conflict, and an OBGYN who has an inherent distrust of all men.

TITLE: Worst Week
SYNOPSIS: Young couple must navigate the politics of their soon-to-be in-laws during a family holiday
CAST: Kyle Bornheimer, Erinn Hayes
NOTES: based on the BBC series "The Worst Week of My Life."

TITLE: Single White Millionaire
SYNOPSIS: Multi-camera comedy about an unassuming millionaire in his thirties who is ready to settle down.

TITLE: My Best Friend’s Girl
SYNOPSIS: The relationship between two male best friends becomes complicated when one starts dating the other’s ex-wife.
CAST: Tim Peper, Josh Cooke

TITLE: Ex Life
SYNOPSIS: Carter Thomas moves into a shot-term housing complex populated primarily by divorced, after he is jilted and left at the alter.

TITLE: Outnumbered
SYNOPSIS: Parents struggle to raise three intelligent and curious children
NOTE: Based on a British series.

TITLE: The Pitts
SYNOPSIS: Animated comedy based on Fox’s 2003 live-action comedy series about the unluckiest family in the world.
CAST: Allison Janney, Dylan Baker, Lizzy Caplan, Andy Milonakis

TITLE: Saint of Circumstance
SYNOPSIS: Centers on Wayne (David Denman), a man going through a midlife crisis who quits his dead-end office job to be a paramedic on the night shift
CAST: David Denman
NOTE: Zach Braff is working behind the scenes as Director. His brother is writer. 

TITLE: Sit Down, Shut Up
SYNOPSIS: Animated comedy about the lives of seven staff members at a high school in a small northeastern fishing town who are preoccupied with their own needs and agendas, which means the students always come second.
NOTE: Based on the live-action Australian series.

TITLE: Spaced
SYNOPSIS: Revolves around two strangers who pose as a married couple in order to rent an apartment and become intimately involved with the other misfits in the building
NOTE: Based on a British series.

TITLE: Starting Under
SYNOPSIS: Multi-camera comedy focusing on a larger-than-life and opinionated man who, after a divorce, finds himself living with and working for his introverted twenty-something son
CAST: Bernie Mac

TITLE: Don’t Bring Frank
SYNOPSIS: Frank Spencer is an overly energetic, under-coordinated guy whose every move precipitates havoc.
NOTE: Based on a British series.

Source: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, FUTON CRITIC