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<\/a>Even without an Emmy win for outstanding drama series (which is a dang shame, IMHO), NBC\u2019s family drama \u201cThis Is Us\u201d <\/a>is a megahit \u2014 both critically and commercially, as the 2016-17 season\u2019s highest-rated new series \u2014 and represented a real shot in the arm for broadcast television. \u201cThis Is Us\u201d returns for a hotly anticipated second season Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 9 p.m. ET\/PT.<\/p>\n From a recent story in The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n A huge family drama on a broadcast network? Not possible, until NBC\u2019s top-rated series arrived to break records, mint stars, score 10 Emmy noms and set high expectations (try $750K for a Sept. 26 premiere ad): \u201cIt\u2019s like suddenly we\u2019re on \u2018Lost.'\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n UPDATE: And it was a ratings smash<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Of course, the big question is, how did Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia), the father of the three siblings at the heart of the show, die? The show operates in two time frames: in the past, when Jack and wife Rebecca (Mandy Moore) were raising their children \u2014 two of a set of triplets (the third was stillborn), and an adopted son, all nicknamed The Big Three; and in the present, when the siblings (Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley, Sterling K. Brown) are in their mid-thirties.<\/p>\n Somewhere in there, Jack died, and Rebecca wound up marrying his best friend Miguel (Jon Huertas) \u2014 but no one \u00a0knows exactly what happened to Jack.<\/p>\n UPDATE: Here\u2019s what we learned about that<\/a>.<\/p>\n The season-two opener, which, like the pilot, takes place on The Big Three\u2019s birthday, may reveal that \u2026 or not. Apparently the last scene of the episode was omitted from the scripts that were sent around, to ensure there wouldn\u2019t be leaks. And, per a story <\/a>in Entertainment Weekly<\/em>, the scene was shot well after the rest of the episode.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a tease:<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/LT-STaJAhAQ<\/p>\n So, you\u2019d expect that something this hot, this beloved, this much of a hit, would have been madly cloned at ABC, CBS, Fox or even NBC itself. Since \u201cThis Is Us\u201d burst big out of the starting gate, it\u2019s not like the success snuck up on anybody at the end of the season. Normally, one would have thought that development execs at the broadcast networks and screenwriters would have spent the last few months frantically creating the next \u201cThis Is Us.\u201d<\/p>\n But, it hasn\u2019t happened. At this past summer\u2019s Television Critics Association Press Tour, Mark Pedowitz, president of The CW, assured me that his midseason show, \u201cLife Sentence\u201d<\/a> \u2014 about a young woman whose whole life is oriented to the idea she\u2019s dying of cancer, until she\u2019s cured, that is \u2014 is the proper \u201cThis Is Up\u201d follow-up. Right now, that remains to be seen.<\/p>\n I took advantage of being at TCA to try to find out why the show hasn\u2019t yet been cloned, asking network execs, a PR exec from 20th Century Fox, which produces \u201cThis Is Us,\u201d and some TV producers.<\/p>\n Here are the working theories (in no particular order, and to one degree or another, probably all of them are applicable):<\/p>\n Basically, we\u2019re working on it. Check back next year.\u00a0On the other hand, this hasn\u2019t been an issue for other sorts of shows, so why this one?<\/p>\n We move on to \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Unlike a procedural \u2014 legal, cop or medical \u2014 or a superhero show, workplace sitcom, space adventure, or crusty-but-brilliant cop\/doctor\/lawyer\/detective who clashes with authority but always comes through in the end, there really isn\u2019t an easy template for a family drama. This is especially true of one that doesn\u2019t have a medical element (as \u201cEverwood\u201d did), a sports element (like \u201cFriday Night Lights\u201d) or a crime element (as \u201cBlue Bloods\u201d does). You just can\u2019t take \u201cThis Is Us\u201d \u2014 a delicate blend of personalities, interlocking stories and a time element \u2014 and reproduce it with a slight twist.<\/p>\n Fair enough, and there\u2019s also \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cThis Is Us\u201d must be heartwarming but not cause heartburn; it must be sweet but not syrupy; done with sentiment but not too sentimental; and earn each of its emotional twists and turns, leaving the audience in tears but not feeling overly manipulated. That creator Dan Fogelman pulled off this high-wire act for a full season is impressive; if he can keep it up for two more, it\u2019ll be a minor miracle. It\u2019s undoubtedly true that not a lot of writers can do it \u2014 at least not over a sustained period of time.<\/p>\n And to add to the complication, there\u2019s \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In episodic TV, the \u201cstory engine\u201d is the element that feeds fresh material into the plot. For example, in \u201cBlue Bloods,\u201d the family members are lawyers and cops, so there\u2019s always going to be another crime or case to mix in with the family dynamics. Certain professions, like lawyers, cops and doctors, ensure that a new human problem is going to walk through the door every week.<\/p>\n With a family drama that doesn\u2019t have this, it\u2019s trickier, especially in today\u2019s highly competitive environment. The economics of network TV require a certain level of viewership, which means a show has to keep drawing people back episode after episode, year after year.<\/p>\n The pressure to put out something easily understood, highly marketable and attention grabbing has become intense.<\/p>\n When a show is pitched, the executives need to have a sense of where the show is going and what will sustain it, before they\u2019ll commit. It\u2019s a credit to NBC Entertainment President Jennifer Salke that she had the vision and trust in Fogelman to give \u201cThis Is Us\u201d a chance. And it didn\u2019t hurt that its pilot had a huge, promotable twist \u2014 that the three adult siblings were in fact the three babies (if you recall, the fact that the two plotlines took place in different decades was hidden for most of the first episode).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, can we expect a \u201cThis Is Us\u201d-type show in 2018? An Emmy win would have assured that, but I think they\u2019ll still try. And I suspect that the love for this show in the creative community may inspire a few writers who\u2019ve been hankering to do a family drama to feel confident to make that pitch.<\/p>\n In the meantime, keep your eye out for \u201cLife Sentence\u201d early next year, and we\u2019ll see if Pedowitz is right.<\/p>\n Image: Courtesy NBC<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Don\u2019t miss a thing: head over to my other home, as Social Media Manager at\u00a0Family Theater Productions<\/a>; and check out FTP\u2019s\u00a0Faith & Family Media Blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NBC’s hit family drama “This Is Us” is back for season two, but no new shows like it are on the network-TV fall schedule. Why not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2174,"featured_media":4343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[751,752,750,676,1062,753,675],"class_list":["post-4341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","category-television","tag-chrissy-metz","tag-justin-hartley","tag-mandy-moore","tag-milo-ventimiglia","tag-nbc","tag-sterling-k-brown","tag-this-is-us"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
Theory A \u2013It\u2019s Just Too Early in the Development Cycle:<\/h4>\n
Theory B \u2014 You Just Can\u2019t Reverse-Engineer a Show Like This:<\/h4>\n
Theory C \u2014 Not Many Writers Could Pull This Off:<\/h4>\n
Theory D \u2014 What\u2019s the Story Engine?<\/h4>\n