The Fall television season doesn’t officially start until September but some of the networks have already released pilot episodes of their new shows to be reviewed by certain outlets. THR was able to get their hands on a copy of the new Dan Fogelberg comedy pilot ‘The Neighbors’ and here’s what they had to say.
First a little background on the sitcom. If you remember, ABC ordered the pilot which was written by Dan Fogelman whose best known for writing the screenplays for ‘Cars,’ ‘Tangled,’ and ‘Crazy Stupid Love.’ The premise centers on a family who moves into neighborhood only to find that everyone else living there are aliens. Starring in the sitcom are Lenny Venito (‘Men in Black III,’ ‘War of the Worlds’), Simon Templeman (‘Charmed,’ ‘The Event’), Jami Gertz (‘Entourage,’ ‘Still Standing’), Max Charles (‘The Amazing Spider-Man,’ ‘True Blood’), and Doug Jones (‘Hellboy,’)
The aliens in the show will be CGI’d and although most of the series will focus on their human counterparts, we do get glimpses of their real shorter, green, alien self. The main alien families, headed by Simon Templeton, seem to watch a lot of sports as they have named themselves after famous sports figures such as Larry Bird, Reggie Jackson, Dick Butkus and, Jackie Joyner Kersee. It’s also no surprise that the show will be about the difficulties of humans living in a neighborhood filled with aliens as the entire premise is immediately revealed in the pilot. After being outed by the young alien Dick Butkis, the neighborhood reveals themselves to the human Weaver family asking them to stay and guard their secret. Of course the family stays but part of the reason is that the housing market keeps them from being able to sell their house right away.
Other than the fact that Fogelman is the executive producer and writer on the sitcom, I don’t know how successful this sitcom will be. The description reminds me of the old ‘Saturday Night Live’ spin off ‘The Coneheads’ which doesn’t say much. ‘The Neighbors’ will have the coveted Wednesday 9:30pm slot following the big hit ‘Modern Family’ so it will get some help with viewers sticking around to watch ‘The Neighbors,’ but from what THR has given so far and the trailer that has been released (which you can see below), you may want to catch the show while you can as it looks like the neighbors may be moving on.
Let’s hope the series brings more to the screen when it actually airs than what’s seen so far in the trailer.
