ABC has announced that its spring drama Happy Town will take the 10pm Wednesday slot starting April 28 after Ugly Betty wraps up its series run.
This is from ABC's original press announcement in May, 2009:
“HAPPY TOWN”
Haplin, Minnesota, “Happy Town,” is approaching almost a decade of peace after being riddled for years by unsolved kidnappings. But in the wake of this small town’s first crime in seven years, some dark truths are being revealed about some familiar faces. They say every town has its secrets… that doesn’t even begin to describe Happy Town.
“Happy Town” stars Geoff Stults as Tommy Conroy, Lauren German as Henley, Amy Acker as Rachel Conroy, Dean Winters as John Haplin, John Patrick Amedori as Andrew Haplin, Sarah Gadon as Georgia Bravin, Jay Paulson as Larry ‘Root Beer’ Rogers, Robert Wisdom as Roger Hobbes and Sam Neill as Merritt Grieves.
The series is from ABC Studios. Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Scott Rosenberg are executive producers and co-writers. The pilot was directed by Gary Fleder, who is also an executive producer.
Expected move, I hope it’s going to go well in that timeslot.
Cool, Its from the Creator of one of my all time favorite shows, October Road which was sadly cancelled 2 years ago, I miss it sooo much. I will Watch HT.
Show looks good but not sure whether to watch it.
I’ll watch the show. It has an interesting theme and I like Amy Acker and Steven Weber.
(By the way, Dean Winters has been replaced by Steven Weber and John Patrick Amedori by Ben Schnetzer.)
But given the track record of ABC’s Wednesday night shows (DSM, Eastwick, Betty) I’m not very hopeful. Add to that that 8 (?) episodes were ordered so it will run through June. It’d have been better if they had saved it for September…
Sounds differents. I like Steve Weber but not since wings. Sam Neill is wonderful though.
Who else thinks this is like Desperate Housewives? On the outside, it’s like a place you’d love to live, then when you look closely, you go HOLY CRAP! So much drama!
I’ve been waiting for this announcement! Cant wait for this! I guess it will be running until June 16th.
This is going on comedy wednesday??
It’s Comedy 8-10 Wednesday, or at least it was when Eastwick was still there, not sure if you’d classify Betty as a drama or a dramedy.
Ugly Betty is officially considered comedy if we base it on the EMMYs, they are classified there.
Wednesdays 10pm is a tough slot for ABC, so good luck with this show
Could it be Twin Peaks? That would be very interesting.
Then need a dramedy category for shows like “Ugly Betty” and “Desperate Housewives”.
Now I really think this one is going to bomb out.
I agree with Stefan that with ABC’s track record in this time slot on Wednesdays, that I’m going to predict that it gets cancelled.
It would be interesting to see how many shows in this time slot in the past years have gotten cancelled. I know Dirty Sexy Money, Eastwick, Ugly Betty, Life on Mars, and The Unusuals were all cancelled, but what else was? I know there was more especially when they tried to put a new show on after Lost when it was on Wednesdays. The odds are not in Happy Towns favor.
Looks good. Definitely will watch but given the track record of ABC’s Wednesday night shows at 10PM Dirty Sexy Money, Eastwick, Ugly Betty, Life on Mars,Invasion, The Nine and The Unusuals were all cancelled.
This was an obvious move once they announced Betty was ending in April w/2 less eps. The show is totally different than what the broadcast competition has on. It also goes along with ABC’s female targeted shows with a soapy touch: DH, Grey’s, B&S(Now with Gilles Marini full time). Happy Town might have a chance, it’s quirky, soapy, but still sounds mainsteam enough to catch on. Unless it’s not as interesting as the previews.
Wednesday at 10:00 on ABC? Hmm… yeah I’ll give it a try, but I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t last long.
abc should move brothers and sisters here. (i mean it’ll totally die in that timeslot–but if it can take a certain percentage of viewers with it from its sunday run abc should be happy with it.)
its true–i don’t know why abc didn’t wait til fall for this–unless they just want to get rid of it but even then they could’ve sat on it til june no problem—i think they’re hoping against hope for a baseline hit here.
given jeremy renner is now oscar nominated actor jeremy renner i wonder if they’re perhaps kicking themselves for not giving The Unusuals another shot. (particularly in its ABC Comedy Wednesday timeslot where it was airing last season) Prob not given that it was still bleeding viewers from Lost last year–but still it was a quality shot with quality actors—Ehh what can you do?
I can’t imagine ABC has that much faith in this show if there waiting that long to premiere it.