When a television network decides to air the $10 million pilot of a television show that it hasn’t actually ordered more episodes of, and to air it as a holiday special, a pretty clear message is sent. And that’s:
“Look, we don’t think this will fly, but we’ve spent so much money on it already that we’d like to try to at least get some of it back.”
Show creator Bryan Fuller, no stranger to shows canceled before their time, however, says differently.
If we get a huge number [he told TV Guide], all the cast are in line to be picked up and to go to series. And that was one of the things that NBC wanted to make sure, that they had all of the cast deals in line — so that if we did get a big number and audiences proved their appetite for this type of show, that they could move very quickly.
There was talk initially of putting it on in the spring and doing 5 or 6 episodes. But I think because it’s Halloween and because Grimm is doing very well for them, their impetus was, “Let’s get it out there to the audience now and have audiences really react to it.”  I stand by the show, so I’m like, great, let’s get it out there, let’s get people to watch it. At its core it’s a story about a family trying to carve a path in the world for a son who has challenges. It’s intimately relatable, but we get to tell that story with monsters.
If Fuller isn’t bursting with confidence that the show will get picked up, he’s definitely optimistic. According to him, NBC is simply attempting to present Mockingbird Lane in such a way as to attract the most widespread audience, tricky job for a monster/family/drama/comedy. Which is a legitimate, if oft heard excuse for underestimating the pull of genre stories. He stresses that the pilot has a definite beginning, middle, and end, so even if we don’t get the show, we’ll get a whole and complete story, and compares it both to Pushing Daisies and Once Upon a Time.
You can read the whole interview over at TV Guide. Maybe if you show it to some folks they’ll tune in, too, and we’ll have a show on our hands.
