The Pilots You Won’t Be Seeing This Coming TV Season

Paul Telfer

Julie Gonzalo

It is that time of year again. The time when all of the networks – both major and cable – are giving the green light to countless pilots, few of which will actually be picked up to series and even fewer still that will succeed once they are on the air and last more than one season let alone a few episodes.

Sammi Hanratty

Yannick Bisson

But, as has become tradition (at least for me), it is time to reveal the pilots for which you won’t be seeing this coming TV season because they only exist in my mind and are strictly my creation although based on some very solid (or at least cult favorite) shows from the past.

So, without further delay here are the pilots you won’t be seeing this coming TV season, and again, the list that follows are not legitimate shows that will be aired by any network, but it sure would be fun if they made it, wouldn’t it?:

Mike Erwin

Carlo Rota

Voyagers – Loosely based on the early 1980’s short-lived series of the same name, Voyagers will tell the story of Phineas Bogg (Paul Telfer, Hercules), a member of a group of people called Voyagers, who travel through time helping to keep history on the right path, giving it a push when needed. Phineas was a Marine, serving in Iraq, when he was chosen by the Voyagers to replace one of their fallen. He uses a seemingly innocuous gold watch, called an Omni, to travel through time but when the Omni malfunctions, he ends up in the home of the Jones sisters in the year 2015 where he not only inadvertently loses his valuable guide book – the one thing that helps him in his mission – but also ends up with both sisters as his unwilling companions. Jennifer Jones (Julie Gonzalo, Eli Stone and Veronica Mars) is a recently installed college history professor, specializing in both early American and European history, who winds up as the guardian of her Goth-like 17-year-old sister, Jessica (Sammi Hanratty, Pushing Daisies) after the tragic plane crash death of their parents. When Phineas Bogg inexplicably winds up inside their newly-inherited New York brownstone condo, calamity ensues and the sisters are sucked inside the Voyagers world. Meanwhile, hot on their heels is Voyager hunter Xavier Six (Yannick Bisson, Sue Thomas F.B.Eye) who will stop at nothing to change history by claiming the Omni for himself.

TAGLINE: “Travelling through time should SO be easier than this”.

Niall Matter

Sara Rue

MacGyver – This remake of the 7-season cult-phenom, MacGyver will star Mike Erwin (Everwood) as the grandson of Angus MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson), who, much like his grandfather goes only by the name MacGyver and is a certified genius. But just like his “Pap”, this MacGyver is quiet, mild mannered and deeply principled in a day and age where those values aren’t valued as they were in his grandfather’s time. MacGyver follows in his grandfather’s footsteps by working as a troubleshooter for the Phoenix Foundation, a non-profit international organization that supplies assistance around-the-globe to countries in their greatest times of need. Patrick Turner (Carlo Rota, 24) is MacGyver’s boss at the Phoenix Foundation and confidante, keeping all of MacGyver’s family secrets and acting as a surrogate father. Niall Matter (Eureka) is Jack Dalton, MacGyver’s best friend (since grade school), the bad boy with a gold heart. Jack is a pilot for the Phoenix Foundation, but his less-than-above-board side projects always land him in trouble. And, Callie McBride (Sara Rue, Popular and Less Than Perfect) is the acting CFO of the Phoenix Foundation, who is the on-again, off-again girlfriend of Jack, but who has a secret long-standing “crush” on MacGyver that has never been reciprocated despite the fact that MacGyver has been crazy about her since the first day they meet 10 years ago when he was recruited, right out of college, by Patrick.

TAGLINE: “It only looks this easy”.

Stephen Martines

Michael Cassidy

Fall Guy – Yet another remake of a popular 80’s series, Fall Guy will follow well-known stunt man Cal Stevens (Stephen Martines, General Hospital, The Vampire Diaries and The Closer), who moonlights as a bounty hunter within the states of California, Oregon and Washington. He has two partners: would-be stunt man Hank Monroe (Michael Cassidy, Smallville, The O.C. and Privileged), who is more suited for the courtroom than for action scenes on a film set and young stunt woman J. C. Barnes (Mika Boorem, Blue Crush), who grew up as Cal’s ward when her parents, both stunt people and best friends of Cal’s, were killed a terrible on-set accident when she was 10 years old.

TAGLINE: “These hunters will find you no matter where you go”.

Mika Boorem

Nolan Gerard Funk

Quantum Leap – This remake of the perennial classic time-travel series will feature Nolan Gerard Funk (Warehouse 13 and Spectacular!) as Dr. Sam Beckett, a child genius who graduated college at the age of 16 and went on to receive his master degrees in bio-mechanical engineering and astrophysics by the time he was 19. For the next seven years, Beckett worked with the military and government installations all the while creating the Quantum Leap Accelerator, a device that would allow well-equipped individuals to travel through time; but as his funding comes to an end, he is forced to prove the device works stepping inside the machine only to be lost to the past. His only connection to his time line is former Major Alicia Calvin (Lauren Cohan, Supernatural and Chuck), his silent partner in the accelerator program, who is able to contact him through a hologram program created and operated by Marley Swan (Malese Jow, The Vampire Diaries), a genius in her own right, who was brought into the program when she was just 15 years old.

Lauren Cohan

Malese Jow

TAGLINE: “Oh man! That wasn’t supposed to happen!”

Again, the above pilots are not actual television pilots under consideration by any of the major or cable networks. And while they are based on actual shows from the 1980’s and 1990’s, they are completely fictitious ideas created by yours truly. But wouldn’t it be cool to see these classic shows brought back? If only Hollywood were listening, right?