Pilots in search of a home: In ritual rush, wannabe shows vie for air time

NEWTON, Mass. - Turreted and stately, the house on a quiet street in Newton had been vacant for a while.

But for a few days last month, its "For Sale" signs went away. Trucks, trailers, crews and actors converged along Lake Avenue after fliers in every neighbor's mailbox gave fair warning: This picture-perfect homestead would temporarily be occupied as one of several shooting sites around the Boston area for a CBS pilot called "Quinn-Tuplets."

This wannabe series features Amber Tamblyn, Kenneth Mitchell, Sam Witwer, David Giuntoli and Anna Chlumsky as all-grown-up quintuplets named Quinn.

But further details weren't available, or worth a viewer getting too excited about, yet. "Quinn-Tuplets" may never make it to the air.

"Quinn-Tuplets" is just one of 80-plus scripted pilots in production and due to be evaluated soon by the five broadcast networks. Each is bucking for a berth on a fall prime-time schedule. But only a handful will make the cut.

That means that if "Quinn-Tuplets" doesn't pass muster with CBS execs, it will be tossed, forever unseen by the public, on the lofty scrap heap of busted TV pilots.

Such is the game of win or lose played out each pilot season in a high-stakes, time-crunched scramble.

Lately, a year-round program rollout has found favor in the industry. Even so, the May "upfront" presentations - heralding a new crop of fall TV to advertisers and the world - remain. This half-century-old rite perpetuates the need for pilots to sustain it. Lots of pilots. Pronto.

Shawn Ryan, with series to his credit including "The Unit" and "The Shield," has a pilot in the works for Fox called "Ride-Along."

"When you're producing an ongoing show," he said one hectic day last week, "it feels like you're in an out-of-control car hurtling 100 miles per hour and you never know whether you'll get someplace, or crash. With a pilot, you start at a standstill, and you're told you've got to be at 100 miles per hour - tomorrow!"