ABC's "No Ordinary Family"

[carrrnuttt]

http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/05/abc-picks-up-no-ordinary-family.html

NBC might opt to ditch "Heroes," but there's a new group of superheroes coming to primetime next season.

ABC has picked up "No Ordinary Family," starring Michael Chiklis ("The Shield") and Julie Benz ("Dexter").

The ABC Studios project is from Greg Berlanti ("Everwood," "Dirty Sexy Money") and writer Jon Feldman and centers on a family that suddenly develops special powers and have to learn how to deal with their new abilities.

Here's a new extensive new logline for the show:

The Powells are about to go from ordinary to extraordinary. After 16 years of marriage, Jim and Stephanie’s relationship lacked the spark it once had, and their family life now consists of balancing work and their two children; leaving little time for family bonding. During a family vacation set up by Jim in an attempt to reconnect, their plane crashes into the Amazon River. But this is where the fun starts for the Powells as they soon discover that something’s not quite right. Each of them now possesses unique and distinct super powers. But saving and savoring their family life will be equally important as they try to find purpose for their new power and embark on a journey to find out what defines and unifies them. The Powells are a totally relatable family that happens to be a little bit amazing.
​

First, I can't believe there isn't a thread about this show already in SHH, of all places. Then again, this might be a repost. I did a search, and came up with nothing.

Second, it's been a while since I started a thread in this forum (TV forum). The last two I started were the one's for Chuck and the other was for Leverage. I hope this show goes the way the other two have went so far, critics aside. Especially with the demise of Heroes. We all know 99.9% percent of us in here want to see a live-action superhero TV show succeed on primetime.

Either way, love the premise (very "Unbreakable"), love the known actors. I hope they didn't hire any writers from Heroes OR Smallville.

 

[Harry_Lime02]

Sounds more like The Incredibles than Unbreakable.

 

[carrrnuttt]

Sounds more like The Incredibles than Unbreakable.

I thought that too, except the parents in The Incredibles already knew they were super-powered. This is like a combination of the two, which isn't a bad thing.

 

[Keyser Soze]

I liked Eli Stone, and felt it got cancelled before it's time, so I'm interested to check out Greg Berlanti's next project. And of course, I LOVED The Shield (one of my favorite shows of all time), so I'll be eager to check out Michael Chiklis' next TV project. The trailer seems a little cheesy, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

 

[Sawyer]

I liked Eli Stone, and felt it got cancelled before it's time, so I'm interested to check out Greg Berlanti's next project. And of course, I LOVED The Shield (one of my favorite shows of all time), so I'll be eager to check out Michael Chiklis' next TV project. The trailer seems a little cheesy, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

You think this is cheesy? Check out the trailer for The Cape.

 

[Jake Cassidy]

Julie Benz is in it. That's enough for me. I actually started watching Desperate Housewives because of her. Is that obsession?

 

[LightningFlash]

I suppose Trinity needs to kill Julie on this show as well.

Trinity: "You're a terrible actress, stay dead!"

 

[Sawyer]

 

[Asgard]

Sounds awesome.

Unlike Heroes, theres only four superpowered people that have to be dealt with so it should be better managed.

 

[Prison Mike]

is the trailer up on youtube?

 

[Sawyer]

Yes.

 

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9_a3z67Rmk

It looks like fun, Vic Mackey is now indestructible! t:

 

[flash13]

I like the look of this.

 

[Ratcrawler]

Looks fun. I love how the dad seems to want to be a superhero more than his kids. So what's the son's power? He's just super smart?

 

[Raiden]

Sounds awesome.

Unlike Heroes, theres only four superpowered people that have to be dealt with so it should be better managed.

For now. But I'm sure that once the show gets some traction, the writers will introduce other people who had landed in Amazon and got special abilities eventually. Chiklis seemed like he has some of the Thing's superpowers, like invincibility, albeit he can also jump very high. Julie Benz (who plays the wife/mother) is very hot-looking imo. I can't tell what powers the daughter has, though. I guess the son is like Reed Richards but only has intelligence but not Reed's superpowers.

Btw, I'm glad to see Chiklis get to play another superhero since F4 is getting a reboot (ugh).

 

[SuperBatman]

This actually looks interesting. However I think they need to add a super bad guy into the miz unless the family uses their superpowers just to stop crime.

 

[Nivek]

kind of wish I got more out of the trailer, but I'll give it a shot. I don't watch anything on ABC usually.

 

[carrrnuttt]

I can't tell what powers the daughter has, though.

The daughter's seems like at least telepathy, and possibly mind control. She sounded like she said that the girls on her team was listening to her mind and she was listening to theirs.

 

[carrrnuttt]

Looks fun. I love how the dad seems to want to be a superhero more than his kids. So what's the son's power? He's just super smart?

I love how ANYONE in the show actually wants to be a superhero as soon as they discover their powers. Not this emo BS about being a freak that Heroes gave us. You'd think the dad's reaction would be the normal reaction to this kind of situation.

 

[Prison Mike]

I love how ANYONE in the show actually wants to be a superhero as soon as they discover their powers. Not this emo BS about being a freak that Heroes gave us. You'd think the dad's reaction would be the normal reaction to this kind of situation.

That's why people love Hiro so much. He actually embraced his powers when he discovered them.

I think the daughter has the power to read other people's thoughts. I was wondering what the son's powers were but I guess being a super genius is pretty cool too. I would actually love that power.

 

[Raiden]

That's why people love Hiro so much. He actually embraced his powers when he discovered them.

I think the daughter has the power to read other people's thoughts. I was wondering what the son's powers were but I guess being a super genius is pretty cool too. I would actually love that power.

Mind-reading doesn't seemed that interesting, although if they later expand her power to be a telepath like Prof. Xavier she might become the most powerful member of the family.

 

[carrrnuttt]

Mind-reading doesn't seemed that interesting, although if they later expand her power to be a telepath like Prof. Xavier she might become the most powerful member of the family.

That's why I mentioned where in the promo, she seems to say that her teammates read her thoughts as well. Which, if true, means that she was able to "push out" her thoughts as well as picking them up, which is the very definition of telepathy.

 

[Keyser Soze]

You think this is cheesy? Check out the trailer for The Cape.

Oh, I saw it alright. If No Ordinary Family is a little cheesy, then The Cape is A LOT cheesy.

One thing that could really hurt this show's chances. ABC have apparently decided to put it head-to-head against Glee.

 

[carrrnuttt]

That's why I mentioned where in the promo, she seems to say that her teammates read her thoughts as well. Which, if true, means that she was able to "push out" her thoughts as well as picking them up, which is the very definition of telepathy.

Nevermind. I watched the promo VERY late last night, and I got my references wrong. The daughter only mentioned mind-reading. Oh well.

 

[carrrnuttt]

Here's a good sign: http://www.mediafreakblog.com/2010/...ese-are-the-fall-shows-they-come-up-with.html

That blogger watched the pilots of most of all the new shows, and lambasts pretty much all of them, including The Cape:

But any credit Fox deserves gets wiped out by dreck such as The Cape, a soon-to-be-failed attempt at a superhero-type crime fighter. I mean, it was just awful.

With the major exception of No Ordinary Family:

While ABC offered up a few diamonds in the rough (Michael Chiklis returns to prime time in No Ordinary Family, about a family that develops superpowers and doesn't know what to do about it), but both the Shonda Rhimes medical drama set in the Caribbean (Off the Map) and the Dana Delaney remake of Quincy screamed "Cancel us now!"

Oh, and here's an awesome take on the show: http://www.cinematical.com/2010/05/19/new-show-is-like-live-action-version-of-the-incredibles/

Fans of superheroes on TV will lose one series this year (Heroes) and gain another, ABC's No Ordinary Family, which may seem very, very familiar to anybody who has seen Pixar's The Incredibles. The show follows a family of four, including a son and daughter, all of whom have super powers. Dad is super strong, Mom is fast, Sis can read minds and Bro can, umm, do calculus? Oh, but it's not exactly like The Incredibles because they weren't born with their abilities. As seen in the NOF trailer, they acquire them while on vacation when their plane crashes into a body of water with "a phosphorescence." Which makes it like Fantastic Four. Which is funny since the show stars Michael Chiklis, who played The Thing in the Fantastic Four movies. Of course, Fantastic Four was also an obvious inspiration for The Incredibles, so the show isn't off the hook for its slight deviations.

So, should Disney be unleashing its army of lawyers? Well, as it turns out No Ordinary Family is produced by the Disney-owned ABC. How about Marvel Comics? Oh yeah, Disney owns them now, too. So even if supporting star Romany Malco ends up with Frozone-like powers, or Linda Hunt shows up looking like Edith Head, or the family does the obligatory sitcom thing of having a new addition, and the baby is named Jack-Jack, there will still likely be no legal ramification.