Everwood

Things change fast in TV. Last year, producer Greg Berlanti had three shows on the air simultaneously (Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Brothers & Sisters) and was probably the busiest showrunner in Hollywood. Now two of those shows are gone, and he’s merely the producer of one successful show. Not that that’s any kind of fall from grace; it’s just that he’s gone from being the next superstar producer to being one of several good producers with one TV show and an upcoming movie (Green Lantern) — until things change again and he winds up with another two or three shows on the schedule.

This interview with Berlanti is worth reading, especially for his description of the problems of doing “character” dramas (dramas without procedural hooks) and his failed attempt to fuse his kind of drama with the procedural in Eli Stone, as well as his thoughts on the programming strategy of his network, ABC. Berlanti used to mostly work on WB shows, writing for Dawson’s Creek and creating Everwood. He argues convincingly that ABC has sort of taken over the now-defunct WB’s strategy of doing glossy character-based dramas with a lot of female appeal; the difference is in demographics, with ABC trying to get WB viewers after they’ve gotten a little older:

Fans of Everwood, the show that started Greg Berlanti’s iron-clad reign over the entire TV universe and provided the last hurrah for the WB network, will be happy to learn that the second season finally seems to be planned for DVD release. Some of the music is being cleared, some isn’t, so, as always, hang on to your tapes.