ABC Picks Up The Forgotten, Eastwick, Hank And The Middle

ABC handed out a series pickup to the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced drama The Forgotten, along with the drama Eastwick, Hank, starring Kelsey Grammer, and The Middle, starring Patricia Heaton.

Written by Mark Friedman, The Forgotten revolves around a team of amateur detectives working on cases of unidentified victims. The cast includes Anthony Carrigan, Michelle Borth, Bob Stephenson, Rochelle Aytes, Rupert Penry-Jones and Reiko Aylesworth. Friedman and Bruckheimer are executive producing.

Loosely based on the John Updike novel and the feature film The Witches of Eastwick, the Maggie Friedman-penned Eastwick follows three young witches (Rebecca Romjin, Jaime Ray Newman, Lindsay Price) who come into their powers when a mysterious man comes to town.

Hank stars Grammer as a hot-shot Wall Street executive loses his job and is forced to reconnect with his small-town family. Everybody Loves Raymond writer Tucker Cawley wrote the script and is executive producing with Tom Werner, Mike Clements and Grammer.

This was ABC’s second chance with The Middle, originally ordered to pilot two years ago with Ricki Lake as the lead. DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler wrote the project, about a middle-class Midwestern family through the eyes of the mother (Heaton). The series co-stars Neil Flynn of Scrubs. For him, The Middle is in first position.