Mockingbird Lane: Should Networks Air ‘Failed’ Pilots?

By now you’ve probably heard about Mockingbird Lane, NBC’s aborted Munsters update that is set to air as a TV movie this Halloween.

Lane launched with high hopes almost 2 years ago but despite a starry cast (Portia De Rossi, Eddie Izzard, Jerry O’Connell) and the writing talents of Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) and directing skills of Bryan Singer (X Men), NBC never felt the show quite gelled and passed on a full series. But after spending over 10 million on the show pilot… well that’s a lot of money to recoup! So NBC have decided to air Mockingbird Lane as a TV movie.

Here’s the trailer:

Now here’s my take. Personally I don’t think the Mockingbird trailer is stunning. The jokes feel pretty feeble and I’m not really a fan of Fuller’s in the first place whose Pushing Daisies was the epitome of style over substance.

But you know what – I wish more networks would air their ‘failed’ pilots… because you just never know!

There’s a chance – a small chance admittedly given its Friday night slot – that Mockingbird Lane could rate well. And if it does, well maybe NBC will give the show a second look. Let’s be honest, the network is hardly overflowing with hits at the moment. Mondays are in good shape with The Voice and Revolution but Wednesdays and Thursdays are a disaster zone. I honestly have no idea why NBC brought back such struggling series as 30 Rock, The Office, Community, Parks And Recreation, Whitney and Up All Night instead of taking a chance on a newer show. Seriously could Mockingbird Lane possibly perform worse than Up All Night which last week scored just 2.88 million viewers and a 1.1 18-49 share. There are numerous cable shows that regularly rate higher than that. These shows have had their chance and they didn’t work.

But it’s not just NBC… I actually think all the networks would benefit from airing some of their shot and edited pilots – after all, you never know! Nets often have to resort to repeats to fill the TV season and summer is a dead zone all round. Wouldn’t it make sense to try out a few ‘failed’ shows here and there – giving audiences the chance to evaluate and grade them themselves rather than some artificial focus group (who often get it wrong!)

Sure networks may argue the pilots aren’t as good as they should be, hence the reason why they’re not going to series. But plenty of shows make it to series with pretty terrible pilots. The first episode of Partners was atrocious. ABC’s The River took a great idea and killed it stone dead. And V could have been huge – it launched big after all – but was so ill thought out that it quickly collapsed. Wouldn’t it have made sense to launch V as a TV movie, test the water, and then develop a follow up series before rushing ahead with a disaster? Shouldn’t that be the model for all high concept shows like Charlie’s Angels and Melrose Place – it sure could have saved ABC and The CW a LOT of money!

Who knows how Mockingbird Lane will turn out – or what audiences will make of it – but in this economy it just doesn’t make sense to me that networks spend tens of millions of dollars in development costs and then junk many of their pilots. Heck – at least put them online… you never know!

But what do you think? Would you like to see more unaired shows going to air? And will you be watching Mockingbird Lane? Comment away…