ABC Hasn’t Given Up on “V”, “Flash Forward”

It may appear that ABC has thrown in the towel on its two big fall genre series, “V” and “Flash Forward.”

But during this week’s TCA winter tour, ABC Entertainment Group President Stephen McPherson assured reporters that the alphabet network has confidence in both shows.

“The original [1984-’85] ‘V’ was two minis and then a series,” McPherson said. “The two minis did incredibly well, and the series did not do as well. Now there was a huge creative change between those two, but I think as long as you market them appropriately, I do think the audience is willing to come in for chapters.”

He went on to say that the behind-the-scenes revolving door at producer has been solved and that he thinks the future of the show is in good hands with Scott Rosenbaum.

“Scott has really got a vision for what that needs to be,” McPherson said. “Those shows are always about ‘How do you balance character with concept?’ Obviously, it’s a huge concept, but I think we were getting away early on, and the reason we put a stop to things is we were getting away from having a real character drive throughout. It was just literally burning through concept story, and I think he has a real sense of how this can have chapters, what each of those chapters will be, much the way Lost has been, certainly, in the past few years. They look at a season and they say, ‘Here’s the beginning, middle and end of the season.’ Maybe they’ll learn something from that and bring their own thing to it.”

As for “Flash Forward,” McPherson indicated that David Goyer has pitched an idea for season two and that fans may be reading too much into the pushing back of episodes. McPherson says he wants to create a feeling of an “event” for when the show returns for its final run of episodes.

“[Its prospects are] really good,” McPherson said. “We love the show. David’s been fantastic. He was talking about season two when he pitched the show. He’s had such a kind of long-term vision for it. That was one of the things that made us comfortable about it. So we’re excited to be able to air consecutive episodes. I think as much as taking the break has its downside, I think the ability to really take a beat after this fall launch, adjust some things, make some changes and move forward is great.”

Both shows return in March.