ABC's Series Renewals and Pickups

ABC was busy late yesterday, releasing the nine new series it will pick up for the 2014-15 season and those current series that will return for next season. So, no wasting time, let's get right to it!

RETURNING SERIES:
Those current ABC series that received a renewal on Wednesday are DWTS, MODERN FAMILY, THE MIDDLE, AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D., GREY'S ANATOMY, THE GOLDBERGS, CASTLE, RESURRECTION, ONCE UPON A TIME,  REVENGE and SCANDAL.

OFFICIALLY CANCELLED:
There may still be a few series still up in the air, but two sitcoms got the bad news yesterday and will not return after this season. Comedies TROPHY WIFE, THE NEIGHBORS, SUBURGATORY, SUPER FUN NIGHT and MIXOLOGY are cancelled, to no real surprise. All have struggled in the ratings for most of their runs.

NEW SERIES:
ABC also released that nine pilots have been ordered to series for the 2014-15 TV season. There are four comedies and five dramas in the mix. We will start with the dramas first.

AMERICAN CRIME
A racial murder is the focus of this crime drama, which stars Felicity Huffman and Timothy Hutton.

FOREVER
This drama is about an immortal New York City medical examiner who studies the dead. The cast features Judd Hirsch, of TAXI fame.

HOW TO GET A WAY WITH MURDER
Another crime drama about a group of law students and their brilliant law professor.

MARVEL'S AGENT CARTER
The Disney synergy is on a roll with a new action drama from Marvel Studios. This one is tells the story of CAPTAIN AMERICA's Peggy Carter  trying to live life as a single woman in America after losing the man she loves, Steve Rogers. The character of Howard Stark will also have a major role in the series.

THE WHISPERS
Aliens possess children’s bodies to take down humanity.

A couple of note on the dramas. HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER is too long of a title and ABC never has success with series that have long titles. They gives us at least one a year and they are usually gone pretty quickly.  THE WHISPERS sounds very much like TNT's FALLING SKIES. AGENT CARTER, if paired with S.H.I.E.L.D. could be nice one-two punch for the network.

Now, let's get to the comedies.

BLACK-ISH
A sitcom about an upper-middle class black man, and his liberal wife, as he struggles to raise his children. Starring Anthony Anderson and Laurence Fishburne.

GALAVANT
The story of Prince Galavant and his quest for revenge over the king who stole his one true love, in this musical fairy tale.

MANHATTAN LOVE STORY
This romantic comedy explores the differences between men and women by highlighting the disparities between what they say and what they really think throughout the course of a relationship, by exposing their unfiltered thoughts.

SELFIE
Going from a dorky jr. high girl to a "instafamous" woman, with over 100,000 followers, Eliza Dooley realizes that being friended is not the same as having friends.

Non of the four sitcoms get me excited. GALAVANT sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. The mixture of musical, comedy and fairy tale, does not sound good.