NBC has ordered a pilot for ‘Beautiful People’, a spec written by Michael McDonald.  It will be a character-driven drama set 10 minutes in the future where families of mechanical human beings exist to serve the human population until some of the mechanical beings begin to “awaken.”

The spec was written by McDonald about 10 years ago and ABC originally had the rights to the script. After doing nothing with it for 2 ½ years, they ended up passing on it. Although NBC/Universal will now take it over, the pilot will be co-produced with ABC studios.

‘Beautiful People’ marks the first dramatic project for McDonald who is better known for work on ‘MadTV’, ‘Scrubs’ and ‘Cougar Town’ and is described as more  of a “low tech, high drama” type of show.

The premise sounds oddly similar to the ‘Terminator’ films without a Protector coming in from the future. The “what happens” when the robots become aware may seem a little tired, but I’m willing to give any show a try. If the makers of the mechanical humans are called Skynet, however, I’m done! Hopefully the pilot will show some promise.

Source: Deadline