NBC Orders Mechanical Human Drama Pilot Beautiful People

NBC may be dabbling in robot-drama as the network has given a pilot order for a project by Cougar Town consulting producer/director Michael McDonald called Beautiful People. The pilot is described as an hour long “what if” and “low tech, high drama” project.

Robots becoming self aware is always a recipe for disaster. Why can’t the machines just stay machines and continue to do things for us, I ask. But, I guess that wouldn’t be much fun, science-fiction-wise. In the case of Beautiful People, according to the Hollywood Reporter, the mechanical humans, which were originally intended to serve people, begin to “awaken,” and drama ensues. I also expect that these mechanical human beings are especially pretty, which would explain the title.

McDonald’s TV credits include work in front of and behind the camera for ABC’s Cougar Town as well as NBC’s Scrubs.

Beautiful People is set to take place “ten minutes in the future,” which I’m guessing to mean it’ll be in our current reality, except for the fact that technology has advanced enough to give us human-like robots. Given how dramatic things got on Battlestar Galatica, what with all of the sexy Cylons roaming around, there's definite potential for a series like this.

Kelly West
Assistant Managing Editor

Kelly joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006 and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before moving over to other roles on the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing feature content on the site. She an expert in all things Harry Potter, books from a variety of genres (sci-fi, mystery, horror, YA, drama, romance -- anything with a great story and interesting characters.), watching Big Brother, frequently rewatching The Office, listening to Taylor Swift, and playing The Sims.