BLUE MAG

Variety, that glorious entertainment industry daily reported the following the other day:

CBS:
Pickup — “Babylon Fields,” an hourlong zombie-themed hour described by CBS as a “sardonic, apocalyptic American comedy-drama where the dead are rising and as a result, lives are regained, families restored and old wounds reopened.” Gerald Cuesta and Michael Atkinson wrote the pilot and will serve as supervising producers. Michael Cuesta, who directed the pilot for “Dexter,” will exec produce and helm via 20th Century Fox Television.

Pickup — “Twilight,” a drama about a vampire/private eye who’s dealing with the fallout from being immortal, his foes in the vampire world and a budding love for a mortal. Joel Silver is exec producing via Warner Bros. TV. Trevor Munson (”Lone Star State of Mind”) and Ron Koslow (”Beauty and the Beast”) wrote the script and will exec produce.

CW:

Staffing — Mark Piznarski has signed on to helm “Gossip Girl,” the new dramedy from “The O.C.” creator Josh Schwartz and colleague Stephanie Savage. Piznarski directed the pilot for “Veronica Mars”; other credits range from feature “Here on Earth” to episodes of “My So-Called Life.”

FOX:

Pickup — “Hackett,” a single-camera laffer about a bad boy writer with female problems who leaves Yale in disgrace and ends up working as a public high school teacher in Ohio. Denise Moss wrote the pilot and will exec produce, along with 25C Prods.’ Sarah Timberman and Carl Beverly. Sony is the studio.

Pickup — “Two Families,” a single-camera laffer about two sets of adult siblings who find out they share the same bigamist father. Barbara Wallace and Thomas R. Wolfe wrote the pilot and will exec produce via HBO Independent Prods.

The most interesting of these to me is, of course, “Babylon Fields.” But on CBS the CSI station? Is that really the right network for a show about zombies? Look what they did with the high concept “Jericho.” There was something that looked great on paper but was (and is) just awful in practice. However “Dexter” was a great first season on Showtime so who knows.