Charlie Sheen on the right side of the law? That's just one of the nutty concepts coming out of this year's pilot season — that time of year when networks pick their new shows for fall. Sheen's sitcom — which DreamWorks is developing with Spin City cocreator Gary David Goldberg — finds the troubled actor working in a New York police squad. Meanwhile, ex-NYPD Bluer Amy Brenneman stars in Shades of Gray, a CBS project about a single-mom judge who moves back in with her mother; Rosie Perez is teaming up with Sony's Columbia TV on a comedy about — no surprise here — a struggling Brooklyn actress (no network has yet signed on, and the show might end up going to HBO); and EZ Streets alum Jason Gedrick is lined up for CBS' Falcone, an adaptation of the film Donnie Brasco, about an FBI agent infiltrating the Mob. In other strange-but-true pilot news, Bound's Gina Gershon is expected to costar (along with Cupid's Paula Marshall) in David E. Kelley's detective drama, Snoops, and David Lynch has cast Billy Ray Cyrus as a seductive pool boy in the pilot of his ABC drama, Mulholland Drive.
At this point, there's only one emerging pilot trend: no costly megastar projects. ''There's a general trend against doing big deals,'' says one net prez, noting the failure of Nathan Lane's Encore! Encore! for NBC, as well as such aborted projects as CBS' Melanie Griffith sitcom and ABC's Mary Tyler Moore vehicle. ''Even if you score, you're still not making a lot of money.''
Someone should tell that to Sony execs, who are poised to shop around a Bette Midler sitcom — if they can come to terms with the star. (Last year, Carsey-Werner tried to get a Midler show off the ground but never could close a deal with the Divine Miss M.) Word has it that CBS is interested in nabbing the Midler project, which is odd considering the Eye's ongoing effort to attract more young men. But hey, who ever said pilot season made any sense?
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