Children of ‘Revolution’

Every year, hits get a little harder to come by for the broadcast networks. Competition from cable, the Internet and even PBS is intensifying, with some of TV’s most popular shows — AMC’s “The Walking Dead” and PBS’ “Downton Abbey” — airing somewhere other than ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and the CW.

In spring, Hollywood stays busy making pilots — the first episodes of a series that will either turn into a long-running series such as “NCIS,” or, more likely, premiere to low ratings and quickly be forgotten. And the bar is lower than ever for what qualifies as a hit.

Last fall, NBC’s “Revolution,” about a future with no electricity and lots of civil unrest, was the only show that can arguably called a breakout hit, averaging 12.32 million viewers an episode when live broadcasts plus a week of digital video recordings (DVR) were tallied.

Viewers can expect many more high-concept visions of today and tomorrow this fall.

“I do think there are more big-concept shows this year,” says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and director of research for Horizon Media. “I think the networks have come to terms with the fact that they had a pretty bad development season last year.”

J.J. Abrams, one of “Revolution”’s executive producers, as well as the creator and executive producer of ABC’s “Lost” and “Alias,” and Fox’s “Fringe,” has two shows in development for next season. Fox is developing “Human,” a futuristic drama starring Karl Urban in which LAPD police officers are partnered with androids, while NBC’s working on “Believe,” a futuristic relationship drama starring Kyle MacLachlan (“Desperate Housewives”).

Joss Whedon, king of such cult faves as The WB’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel,” and Fox’s “Firefly,” is working on a small-screen adaptation of Marvel Comics’ “S.H.I.E.L.D” for ABC. Most recently, Whedon wrote and directed the wildly successful “Avengers” movie, which hints at “S.H.I.E.L.D.” and prominently features its hero, Nick Fury, portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in the movie.

“If I had to pick a show that will definitely get picked up, it’s ‘S.H.I.E.L.D,’ ” says Adgate. “With 64 percent of its audience being female, ABC really needs the male viewers. And coming off of “Avengers,” that show has a pretty good chance of becoming a series.”

The popularity of films and movies about vampires — “Twilight,” “Vampire Diaries,” “True Blood” — continues to conjure supernatural series. ABC’s “Gothica” is a present-day soap with a mythology that includes Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein and Dorian Gray. Similarly, shows based on fairy tales, such as ABC’s “Once Upon a Time” and NBC’s “Grimm,” also seem to work, which is why NBC has a TV version of “Dracula” in development as well as “Wonderland,” set several years after “Alice in Wonderland” leaves off.

Fox’s “Delirium,” starring Emma Roberts, is a supernatural drama set in a future where love is not allowed.

The CW is going heavily supernatural and sci-fi this fall, with a “Vampire Diaries” spin-off called “The Originals” in the works, as well a “Oxygen,” in which a human girl (Aimee Teegarden) falls in love with an alien boy, “The Selection,” in which a young woman is chosen by lottery to compete for a prince’s hand 300 years in the future, and “The 100,” is set nearly a century from now, after a nuclear Armageddon has erased most of civilization except for one group of one 100 lucky — or not-so-lucky — survivors.

With all these far-fetched and far-flung shows in the works, it may come as a relief to some viewers that books still provide plots for television dramas. A few of next season’s more grounded shows also are based on books, including Fox’s “I Suck at Girls,” based on the novel by the same title, and CBS’ “Anatomy of Violence,” based on Adrian Raine’s non-fiction book. CBS’ “Backstrom” comes from a series of Scandanavian novels by Leif G.W. Persson and stars Dennis Haysbert as a brilliant (yet crotchety) criminologist.

Brilliant yet crotchety is a running theme in pilots such as “Rake,” starring Greg Kinnear as a gifted defense attorney, and “Doubt,” about an ex-cop turned low-rent attorney. Finally, NBC has “I Am Victor,” based on an upcoming book and starring John Stamos, about a — you got it — brilliant but crotchety high-powered defense attorney.

Reboots and spin-offs remain popular, with CBS spinning off “NCIS: LA,” which was a spin-off of “NCIS,” which was a spin-off of “JAG.” The new show, starring John Corbett, isn’t spinning off too far, with its title: “NCIS: Red.”

NBC and Jason Katims (“Friday Night Lights” and “Parenthood”) are working on a TV version of the 2002 Hugh Grant movie “About a Boy,” and NBC also is considering a reboot of “Ironside,” starring Blair Underwood. CBS is working on turning two other movies — “Bad Teacher,” starring Ari Graynor and Kristin Davis, and “Beverly Hills Cop,” executive produced by Eddie Murphy — into series as well.

Even with all of those potential series, there remain the standard cop and lawyer dramas as well as sitcoms. We won’t know which series get the green light until May, when the networks announce their fall schedules.