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CBS’ ‘Vegas’ Vs. ‘Elementary’ And What Makes A Procedural: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday July 29, 2012 @ 3:00pm PDTTags: CBS, Elementary, Greg Walker, TCA, Vegas

Diane Haithman contributes to Deadline’s TV coverage.

Is it a procedural, or is it not a procedural? This question has come up twice at today’s ongoing CBS TCAs: Once in the case of the drama Elementary, the network’s new take on Sherlock Holmes updated to contemporary New York, and later at the panel on the ‘60s period drama Vegas. It’s a natural question given the collective body count of CBS’ hit procedurals, including the various CSI’s, NCIS, Hawaii Five-0, etc. In both cases, the producers claimed that their new series would go beyond the standard procedural by delving into character and story.

Related: CBS’ ‘Partners’ Creators Cope With Complicated Back Story: TCA

Earlier, Elementary executive producer Rob Doherty said he “respects” shows that are specifically procedurals” but “they’re not my bag, it’s not what I like when I tune in.” He said that his series is more interested it the “intricate pieces of Origami” that go into the creation of the mind of Sherlock Holmes.

Related: CBS Keeps ‘Elementary’s “Secrets” But Teases Moriarty: TCA

And, for Vegas, executive producer Cathy Konrad echoed those sentiments, saying she was happy CBS was not placing this drama, based on the true-life character Las Vegas sheriff Ralph Lamb, “in the procedural bucket.” CBS entertainment president “Nina Tassler said that she saw this as an epic story,” said Konrad. “Although I enjoy a procedural now and then, we paint with a bigger palette. We’re seeing the savvy of how cable is playing in that arena.” Konrad added that character development and continuing story lines was behind the show being able to land a star-studded cast, which includes Dennis Quaid, Michael Chiklis and Carrie-Anne Moss.

Related: CBS’ ‘Made In Jersey’ Aims To Confront Stereotypes: TCA

In this morning’s executive situation, Tassler said CBS was sold on the idea by seeing Nick Pileggi’s “scriptment” for the story, originally intended for a feature film, rather than the standard pitch. According to Konrad, this document was about 130 pages long. Pileggi, screenwriter of the 1995 movie Casino, is executive producer of the series with Greg Walker, Arthur Sarkissian, James Mangold and Greg Walker. Walker and Sarkissian were on the panel.

Walker called Vegas a mix of a procedural and a character drama. “We have, I don’t want to say the crime of the week,” he said. “We have an investigation for the team, but interwoven with this larger campus.” In style, Walker added that Vegas seeks to be “a hybrid cable-broadcast TV network show.“

The series features an actor who segued to Vegas from a serialized drama, Fox’s Terra Nova. Jason O’Mara, who toplined Terra Nova, didn’t mince words about Fox’s decision to cancel the pre-historid drama, calling it “a premature decision.”

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Greg Walker Teams With Olé For CBS Detective Drama, Richard Shepard To Direct

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday September 13, 2011 @ 3:05pm PDTTags: Bryan Furst, CBS, CBS TV Studios, Greg Walker, Olé, Richard Shepard, Sean Furst
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Former Without a Trace and The Defenders showrunner Greg Walker has sold a second drama project to CBS this season. Red on Red, from CBS TV Studios and Richard Shepard and Sean Furst and Bryan Furst’s Olé, is based … Read More »

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CBS Teams With Nicholas Pileggi For 1960s Vegas Drama Helmed By James Mangold

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday August 11, 2011 @ 3:09pm PDTTags: Cathy Konrad, CBS, CBS TV Studios, Greg Walker, James Mangold
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Welcome to the 1960s, Las Vegas style. CBS has put in development Ralph Lamb, a drama project set in the early ’60s from Goodfellas writer Nicholas Pileggi based on the true story of Ralph Lamb, a cowboy-turned-Las Vegas sheriff in the ’60s and ’70s. CBS TV Studios, which is producing the project, has assembled a formidable feature team. James Mangold (Walk the Line) is on board to direct. He will executive produce with his producing partner Cathy Konrad and another film producer, Arthur Sarkissian (Rush Hour). Pileggi will co-write the script with TV writer Greg Walker (Without a Trace). Pileggi originally developed the project as a movie at MGM with Sarkissian who got the rights back when MGM went through bankruptcy.

Ralph Lamb was Clark County’s longest-serving and most famous sheriff who was in charge for two decades — from 1961 to 1979. Known as the cowboy sheriff as he was often seen riding his horse, Lamb modernized the department, brought in a modern crime lab, assembled the city’s first SWAT team and oversaw the merger of the Las Vegas and the county law enforcement agencies into the Metropolitan Police Department. But he was probably best known for his tough stance on the Mafia, which still controlled most of the casinos at the time. He famously roughed up Chicago mobster Johnny Rosselli in public and sent him to jail. After making bail, Rosselli’s was never head from again until his corpse was found floating in a 55-gallon oil drum off Miami 10 years later. There has been speculation that that if mobsters were causing too much trouble, Lamb’s men simply killed them, but Lamb has denied such murders have ever occurred. Read More »

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