Amazon lets viewers vote for new TV series
- Amazon is screening 10 new pilots and asking viewers to pick which become series
- Two dramas%2C three comedies and five kids shows are available to stream on Instant Video app
- Malcom McDowell%2C Jeffrey Tambor%2C Titus Welliver%2C Natalie Zea among stars
Amazon is ready to let viewers pick its next batch of streaming TV series.
Ten pilot episodes, including three sitcoms, two dramas and five kids shows, are available to watch now on Amazon.com and on Amazon Prime Instant Video app, available on Kindle, iPad and other devices.
Last year, among 14 pilots, fans picked to Alpha House, Garry Trudeau's Washington comedy starring John Goodman; Betas, another comedy set in the tech world; and three kids shows due soon. That "customer feedback turned out to be predictive," says Roy Price, head of Amazon Studios, as the shows' fates "depended on how many customers respond well to them" in viewership levels and reviews on Amazon and IMDB.com.
This year, Amazon looked at what its customers were already watching to help focus its development plans. "We try to look in genres," Price says, and Amazon "has done very well with sci-fi."
So it went to Chris Carter, creator of Fox's The X-Files, for The After, a drama about eight strangers, initially thrown together in a stuck elevator, after a mysterious, cataclysmic event strikes Los Angeles. Adrian Pasdar, Sharon Lawrence and Jamie Kennedy are among them.
Also on tap is Bosch, based on Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch book series, about an LAPD homicide detective (Titus Welliver) who is chasing the killer of a teenage boy while standing trial himself on charges he murdered a serial killer.
The comedy lineup:
• Mozart in the Jungle, a behind-the-scenes glimpse at a fictional Manhattan symphony, whose conductor (Malcom McDowell) is replaced by an upstart (Gael Garcia Bernal). Saffron Burrows, Bernadette Peters and Peter Vack also appear in the series, produced by Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman and based on the memoir by Blair Tindall.
• Transparent, about a dysfunctional Los Angeles family led by a dad (Jeffrey Tambor) harboring a secret. Gaby Hoffman, Jay Duplass and Amy Landecker play the kids, and Judith Light is Tambor's ex-wife.
• The Rebels, a comedy about a hapless Los Angeles football team whose owner dies, leaving his wife (Natalie Zea) to run it. Michael Strahan and Ice Cube are among credited producers.
The pilots will be available for streaming for the next month, and Amazon will probably decide in April which ones will go forward, Price says.