ABC Picks Up 'No Ordinary Family'

No Ordinary Family, The Greg Berlanti-produced drama about a family of superheroes has been picked up to series, ABC's first new series order this season. The pilot starring Michael Chiklis had already been staffing. Berlanti wrote No Ordinary Family with Jon Feldman. The two are executive producing the ABC Studios drama with Morgan Wandell and the pilot's director David Semel. The cast of the show also includes Julie Benz, Autumn Reeser, Romany Malco, Jimmy Bennett, Kay Panabaker and Christina Chang. Also meeting with potential writers is another ABC drama pilot Generation Y, and the Shonda Rhimes-produced Off The Map is making "if come" deals with writers.

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This are wonderful news

Sounds interesting. Great cast!


No Ordinary Family Synopsis: The Powells are about to go from ordinary to extraordinary. After 16 years of marriage, Jim and Stephanie's relationship lacked the spark it once had, and their family life now consists of balancing work and their two children; leaving little time for family bonding. During a family vacation set up by Jim in an attempt to reconnect, their plane crashes into the Amazon River. But this is where the fun starts for the Powells as they soon discover that something's not quite right. Each of them now possesses unique and distinct super powers. But saving and savoring their family life will be equally important as they try to find purpose for their new power and embark on a journey to find out what defines and unifies them. The Powells are a totally relatable family that happens to be a little bit amazing.
source: daemonstv.com

Trailer for 'No Ordinary Family'. Will you watch the new show?

Julie Benz on Her Super New Role

Julie Benz, best remembered as Rita, the sweet wife of Dexter who met an untimely death at the hands of a serial killer (evil John Lithgow), has now found a happier home on ABC’s new show No Ordinary Family. With Heroes canceled, Benz and The Shield’s Michael Chiklis will carry the superhero torch this fall, and we chatted to Benz about the show that is already being called ‘event television.’

You have a new home with ABC. Did you know from the beginning that this was a good pilot to pick?
Haha…I believe that everything I do is great. I definitely felt this one was special, but with pilots you can never tell and everyone thought from the very beginning that this was “the one.” They were right, but I’m so gun shy after years and years and years of being in the industry…I felt it was special, I had a wonderful experience with Michael Chiklis so that was really all I was focused on. So for it to get picked up is so exciting.

Why is this show event television?
I think it’s like nothing we’ve seen before. First of all it’s very uplifting. We’ve had so many shows that have been like, ‘end of the world,’ ‘doom and gloom’ and the tone of the show is very uplifting. We’re just an ordinary family that ends up developing these super-abilities. And it’s a very family oriented show as well. It’s a show that the whole family can sit down and watch at 8 o‘clock on Tuesday nights and enjoy. I think that definitely makes it special. And it’s a hybrid of sorts. It’s been described as Heroes meets "The Incredibles" meets Brothers & Sisters with a little Dawson’s Creek thrown into it and it really has everything. It has the drama, it has comedy, it has action, it’s a complete hybrid. They’re going to have to invent a new Emmy category for us.

What is your super power?
I develop super speed. I become really fast. I’ve been in hard core training for it. I’ve had to bump up my sprinting. So you can catch me sprinting through the streets of LA!

The show will air this fall on Tuesdays at 8pm on ABC.

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Julie Benz: Why She's Part of No Ordinary Family

On Dexter, Julie Benz may have thought her character was part of an ordinary family. But viewers knew differently.

After Rita was killed off that Showtime hit, the actress appeared for a few episodes on Desperate Housewives - but now she's a found a new, more permanent home: Benz and Michael Chiklis will anchor ABC's No Ordinary Family this fall.

What makes this upcoming drama so special, aside from the abilities of the main family's parents and children? Benz explained in a recent interview with TV Guide Magazine...

"It’s like nothing we’ve seen before," Benz said of the series, which will air on Tuesday nights. "First of all it’s very uplifting. We’ve had so many shows that have been like, ‘end of the world,’ ‘doom and gloom’ and the tone of the show is very uplifting. We’re just an ordinary family that ends up developing these super-abilities. And it’s a very family oriented show, as well."

Added the actress, whose character will possess super speed:

"I’s a hybrid of sorts. It’s been described as Heroes meets The Incredibles meets Brothers & Sisters with a little Dawson’s Creek thrown into it and it really has everything. It has the drama, it has comedy, it has action, it’s a complete hybrid. They’re going to have to invent a new Emmy category for us."

We like that confidence!

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No Ordinary Star: Why Dexter's Julie Benz Refuses to, Um, Bathe

Julie Benz is an easygoing gal, but don't you dare put a certain something within her sight line on her TV show set: a bathtub.

While promoting her new ABC series by Greg Berlanti, No Ordinary Family, Julie told me this tragically funny (more tragic than funny for Dexter fans) little secret:

The No Ordinary Family set builders put a big, fancy bathtub in the bathroom she shares with onscreen hubby Michael Chiklis, and she tells me she has asked them to remove it.

It seems we fans aren't the only ones still dealing with a little post-traumatic stress after that most recent season finale.

Major spoiler alert if you're behind on Dexter: Julie's character, Rita Morgan, was brutally slain in a bathtub at the end of last season, and she confesses she hasn't gotten into a bathtub since she last shot the show—well, until she shot the opening scenes for the new season of Dexter, which picks up right where they left off.

And beyond that? Will she be back?

"Rita's presence will definitely be felt throughout season five. However, my actual physical presence will not be there. I don't know how else to say it."

Sunday at the TV Critics press tour in Beverly Hills, show runner Greg Berlanti (Everwood, Eli Stone, Brothers & Sisters) had this to say about his reasons for doing No Ordinary Family, a fall dramedy about a family who acquires supernatural abilities when their plane crashes in Brazil (a magical place!): "With this we wanted to make something that the whole family could watch together, and unfortunately I think those shows are getting fewer and far between."

And Chiklis wanted it to be known: "This isn't Heroes. This isn't The Incredibles. This is No Ordinary Family...It borrows from a lot of different shows that we love. And because it's an amalgam of them, it ends up being something completely new."

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