![]() "The Nanny" is trying a spin-off idea to air as an upcoming episode. In some cases, the concepts are tested inside a going series. The TV movie focuses on Reggie Love, the defense attorney and recovering alcoholic played in the film by Susan Sarandon, up for an Oscar in the role. This season's samples: "Jag" (NBC), about one of the Navy's first female combat aviators and "The Client" (CBS), based on the John Grisham novel. In many cases, networks produce the pilots, often as two-hour "movies" that can be aired and then, if they get good ratings, expanded into series. Some pilots are canceled before they can be taped. This year, the competition has been widened with the addition of WB (Warner Brothers) and UPN (United Paramount Network), both of which need shows. There are dozens and dozens of pilots in the air, sometimes only as concepts on paper. ![]() An early look at the script sees sunny Malibu filled with violence and corruption, undercover cops, saucy (and shapely) women and fabulously rich men. ABC is hoping that primetime soap opera may be due for a comeback with "Malibu Branch," being readied by Esther and Richard Shapiro ("Dynasty"). But Chess wants to know who his father is. In a proposed "Daisy & Chess" sitcom at Fox, rock club waitress Daisy, played by Rosanna Arquette, is a reforming rock groupie who can't remember which bass player fathered her son Chess, now in the third grade. The producers say "The Shock," as he's nicknamed, is a mixture of Jim Carrey, Robin Williams and Max Headroom. CBS is working on "Shock Treatment," about a pre-teen whiz-kid who creates a computerized superhero who can spin in and out of cyberspace and cause havoc. When we left Harry Caul in the film, he was going insane - but TV has a way of fixing those things. Here's a sampler: NBC has cast Kyle MacLachlen as the wily electronic surveillance ace played by Gene Hackman in the film "The Conversation," with Francis Ford Coppola, director of the original movie, serving as an executive producer of the proposed series. Whether these test pilots will become series is problematic, but it's always curious to see what Hollywood comes up with. That makes springtime in Hollywood a whirlwind of new-show ideas and ideas that have been turned into proposed first installments of new series - pilot episodes. Networks generally decide by late April or early May what shows will join their schedules in the fall or be developed as possible replacements later on. They're in pursuit of new series for their ever-changing schedules. It's that time of the year when networks seem to be racing in circles, chasing their own tails.
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