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UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
EXCLUSIVE: The Western genre continues to be hot at the TV networks. In a competitive situation, ABC has bought drama pitch Hangtown, from Battlestar Galactica developer/executive producer Ron Moore and Caprica writer Matt Roberts. Sony Pictures TV, where Moore is under an overall deal, is producing. Described as a Western with a procedural overlay, Hangtown is set in the early 1900s in a frontier town that’s begun rapidly expanding with the coming of the railroad. It centers on three characters: the Marshal, a Matt Dillon/Clint Eastwood type who prefers to solve crimes by his instinct; a young doctor from the East Coast who is interested in using the new field of forensics to solve crimes; and a young woman writer who is trying to sell dime novels to the publishing houses in New York about crime in the Wild West. Every week the instincts of the Marshal, the science of the doctor, and the young woman’s drive to tell a rousing good yarn to her editors combine to solve crimes in a wide-open, lawless town. This is the second drama Western project ABC has bought this development season, along with David Zabel’s Gunslinger, from ABC Studios. Additionally, TNT recently gave a cast-contingent pilot order to Bruce C. McKenna and Danny Cannon’s Gateway, set in the 1880s. Also interested in Hangtown was NBC, which ordered Western Reconstruction to pilot last season. Starting the current TV renaissance of the genre was AMC, which has the 1860s series Hell on Wheels coming up. Last season, CAA-repped Moore had fantasy/cop drama pilot 17th Precinct in contention on NBC.
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Could be intriguing, because it’s Moore, but I’d really been hoping for some movement on his proposed “Wild Wild West” redux. And, to be honest, hate to see him essentially just doing a procedural, even if it is in a different environment.
Don’t you prefer an original idea to a reboot? I would much much rather let Ron Moore deliver a brand new story.
Sure, BSG worked. I’m tired of remakes and reboots and “Battleship” and “Charlie’s Angels.”
This exact premise was on USA about eight years ago and it wad called Peacemakers. Trust me, no one wants to see CAI beats with 19th century technology. The premise sounds good but doesn’t really work.
I know, right? PEACEMAKERS was basically CSI in the old west. And this show is basically CSI in the old west.
And nobody seems to remember or care!!!
Amazing…
I do!
Remember the tag?
This isn’t your Father’s CSI–
It’s your Great Grand Father’s CSI!
Peacemakers didnt work because of the lead, not the premise.
I remember reading Moore was interested in doing a western. Honestly, it sounds like any number of procedural currently on television, but in the Western genre. Could be interesting. When Moore is firing on all pistons he can be quite good.
… unlike much of the last two seasons of BSG.
He had no more idea of where the whole thing was going than the Lost team did –and least they let you have characters you could uniformly still care about.
That’s not a western. That’s just a very old CSI.
This will follow the same path that 17th Precinct pilot. Western is dead!
His ideas are getting worse and worse.
What happened?
If the “Marshal” is a “a Matt Dillon/Clint Eastwood type” will his “love interest” be an Angelina Jolie/Judi Dench type? How about a Megan Fox/Meryl Streep type? No. SHE’LL be the love interest for the deputy who’s a Jonah Hill/Gene Hackman type.
They’re referring to Marshall Matt Dillon (James Arness’ character from Gunsmoke), not the actor Matt Dillon.
Matt Dillon was the sheriff in Gunsmoke…not the actor. Watch TV much?
I smell horse shit.
Love it! Can’t wait!
I’m all about making a western, but at least have the balls to bring something new to the genre or at least create a show we haven’t already seen before. I give props to the last few western ideas that have been purchased by the networks… at least they have guts.
You can smell fear all over this idea. You’re better than this logline, Ron.
Thumbs down to any procedural, Western or not.
If this guy can create a great show like Battlestar Gallactica, with many intricate plot threads and ongoing character development, why would he want to take a creative step backwards?
So that he can take a financial step forward.
No offense, dear reader, but why the thumbs down? The procedural basically keeps networks viable. They’re healthy in syndication and don’t require “appointment viewing.” I think there is always room for a creative way in to the procedural formula. I’ll go out on a limb and assume you’re not a television executive.
His reps are telling him he needs to get something on the air fast…
And so is that little voice in the back of his head.
Moore didn’t “create” Battlestar Galactica. That was done by Glen Larson and the show premiered on September 17, 1978. Moore simply told another story in a universe that had already been created by someone else. Research prior to posting is always a bonus.
Another white guy scoring a deal.
All these western pilots by white guys. Why westerns? Women couldn’t vote. African-Americans were still slaves. Asians were foreigners. Native Americans were savages. In the westerns, white men ruled. No wonder why white guys love writing them.
As if the somewhat anachronistic pandering insertion of the scrappy female writer doesn’t undercut your point?
Oh, and it was generally those evil white guys who invented the PC, internet and Web so you could bash them.
You mean the West as re-imagined by Hollywood. In the REAL Old West, a lot of the cowboys were Black.
Wow. What a surprise. The same poster who always makes the same racist comments about “white guys”.
Don’t feed the race troll, folks.
The problem is all the network execs are throwing darts to see what sticks. And they mostly are following AMC. If you go to meetings w/ execs or pitch in the drama realm, they all point to AMC. What’s the next Mad Men? Or what’s our “Mad Men” or what’s the next Walking Dead? What’s the next or our version of Hell on Wheels going to be? I am sick of one network going “they have a western, so we need a western… or they have a show about slick men in the 1960′s… so let’s also have a show about slick men and women in the 1960′s. Ron is probably just going where the network who gave him a HUGE DEAL($) wants him to go. And that is back to the wild west. Wild indeed.
Rick Ramage wrote this already. Peacemakers. Great script, great cast , good pilot. The series was a lil weird and barely got a shot out the door. Ron Moore knows how to write for sure but this doesnt feel like good Network contender. Cable maybe but ABC ? really??!
Loved Peacemakers pilot. Love Ron Moore.
With the right creative team this is a great adventure
SERIALIZE IT RON!! GO HUGE.
This just seems tried and derivative. Procedurals are already overdone. It seems like the old West won’t give the hi-tech snazzy stuff CSI fans crave, and the whole procedural angle will put off traditional Western fans.
The last western to make a network schedule was The Magnificent Seven in the late 90′s on CBS. It opened huge and flattened off to respectable numbers on Saturday nights for a couple of seasons. The show had a huge look, great cast and nobody watched but old men. TNT wanted the show badly but CBS went out of their way to make sure it either lived or died on their network which is fair game. Point is why is Sony Tv pissing away their investment in Moore with something like this that has no long term upside domestically or internationally. Sometimes the best studio executives are the ones that talk talent out of being their own worst enemy.
Fabulous Idea…The Indians are Cylons!!! and we can name the weekly train The “Transport Star America” and call the Raptors “Wagons” and the Vipers and Cylon Raiders “Horses” and The Cylon Base-ship “The Big Chief’s Tepee”! Seriously… Ron Moore done has nothing but write Science Fiction most of his career and now a Western? Thank Goodness he’s not stretching his creative legs with my money.
Still he did work magic with BSG so I am a big fan…When he’s done… Maybe they’ll talk him into a “Lost in Space” reboot.
Go Get Em Ron!!! Take it to the (network) man!!!
Sounds like the Howard Chaykin graphic novel “Century West” that Disney published a couple of years ago. Is this based on that, or material Moore had left over from his “Wild Wild West” reboot proposal (or both)?
Take note USA – you blew iit.
Gold star AbC for putting some historical into the mix.
About time networks!
“Hec Ramsey” redux?
Maybe I’m throwing cold water on this, but doesn’t this sound like The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr.? The Brice Campbell series from the ’90s. Clasic sherrif, youbg guy with forensics and a girl.
Some of you young pups will say WHO??, some of you my age will go..YEAH!!
But this is a remake, split 3 ways…it is Richard Boone as “Hec Ramsey”
Crusty tough lawmne with bvad rep, turned scientist/criminalogist
Gee is TV following movie’s sad remaking everything not nailed down