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If ABC had ordered INSIDE THE BOX from its ABC TV Studios, the network would have made it three series on the air for Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice showrunner Shonda Rhimes. Alas, I'm told this morning that the network has sent Inside The Box into "redevelopment" -- but there's no word on whether the busy Rhimes even wants to do that. "Too bad, it was a great pilot," my source says. It's about a guy who works in a Washington DC newsroom penned by a former journalist (who's also ex-NBC Universal TV exec Katherine Pope's husband). Rhimes has been trying to get a journalist-centric TV series on the air for some time: years ago, she wrote a pilot about women war correspondents that prompted Disney to hire her and led to Grey's Anatomy.
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I can’t help but feel this may have to do not only with the retooling of this show, but Shonda Rhimes other two projects currently on air, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice. Both shows have received a lot of publicity for how poorly they have been written with Practice’s ratings so low that to save it, ABC put it behind Grey’s which is also suffering a slide in ratings and critical scorn on storylines. With fans very unhappy with gimmicks used to push Grey’s ratings lately, and all the drama that surrounds her shows currently, perhaps it’s wise to enter with caution no matter hwo promising this pilot may seem at first.
The concept sounded like standard soap in DC. The last thing ABC needs is another show with the same showrunner that’s got her other 2 shows getting flack for being poorly managed & written with disgruntled viedwers. ABC should send the other 2 shows into redevelopment also.
The ratings for Private Practice were not poor. Typically they were the top, or second top rated show for their time slot on their given night. They consistently beat ER, even with their stunt casting. And this was when the show was sandwiched between two really low rated shows, Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone. Private was the only bright spot on Wed nights for ABC.
I have heard INSIDE THE BOX is one of the two best pilots made this year. That it was simply outstanding work. Agents, writers, actors are all saying it. Too bad. Because TV stinks and needs good shows.
And she stole the whole “George is mutilated because he pushed someone out of the way of a bus” thing straight form ER’s “Omar Epps is mutilated because he pushed someone out of the way of a train” thing. It had the same exact ‘reveal’ moment. An act of theft so shocking I can’t even believe no one pointed it out.
I read this script thought. It was a pretentious disaster.
Her shows are way too melodramatic, I imagine that this one would be extra so with tragic news and just over the top, she needs to tone it down a lot.
I read the Inside The Box script. It was very much not good, despite the appealing concept.
shows about journalism never work.
there are no stakes to “getting the story.” the era of watergate is LONG GONE. this is the 21st century. we blog, yell at each other on TV, and it all winds up on youtube.
All this talk about Grey’s and Private being problematic are a joke. You all understand that the business of television is to get viewers? Nobody actually cares if the show appeals to you, or if you think they stole something, or if you think they moved Private Practice to “save” it. Shonda Rhimes knows how to bring viewers, and ABC loves her for it. Putting Private behind Grey’s was the intelligent programming that ABC should have done a long time ago.
As for Inside the Box, some people love the script and some didn’t. Its not really objectively “good” or “bad” – it was intended for a specific audience and it fit the bill of what ABC wanted to develop, and the pilot was a competent execution of the script with a solid cast.
The fact that the show wasn’t picked up is not a decision I pretend to understand since people at ABC seemed to really love it.
If she knows how to bring viewers why did Grey’s sink to new lows this year and jump repeated sharks? Face it, it was a one-hit wonder that peaked during the first two seasons. Now it is a backstage disaster with more drama being the cat fighting among the cast.