With an increasing number of major TV shows premiering during the summer months, Film Music Reporter presents a listing of this summer’s original shows and their composers. Featured in Part 1 of the Summer TV Roundup are the original shows on the networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), as well as on USA and Showtime. Check back for Part 2 to appear on this page soon.
ABC:
Airing every Tuesday night on the network is the drama Combat Hospital. The show centers on a group of doctors and nurses from Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and other allied countries saving lives and limbs in a war zone military hospital modeled on a real facility in Afghanistan. Deborah Kara Unger, Michelle Borth, Elias Koteas, Terry Chen, Arnold Pinnock and Luke Mably are starring. The show’s music is composed by Edmund Butt (The Dark, Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes) and additional music is written by Samuel Sim (The Deep). For more information on the show, visit ABC’s Combat Hospital website.
ABC is also airing new episodes of the police drama Rookie Blue every Thursday night. The show is currently in its second season. Ron Sures is composing the score for the Canadian TV series starring Missy Peregrym, Gregory Smith, Charlotte Sullivan, Enuka Okuma and Travis Milne that follows the lives of five rookie cops who have graduated from the Academy and must learn not only to deal with their duties as police officers, but also deal with the problems and expectation of their families and friends. To learn more about Rookie Blue, visit the show’s official website.
NBC:
Currently airing on Thursday night is the one-hour comedy Love Bites that premiered earlier this summer. Danny Lux (Grey’s Anatomy, Ally McBeal) is scoring the show created by Cindy Chupack (Sex and the City) and starring Becki Newton, Greg Grunberg and Constanze Zimmer. The comedy also features many guest star appearances by such actors as Craig Robinson, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Krysten Ritter, Michelle Trachtenberg, Frances Conroy, Beau Bridges and Jaime King. For more information on the show, visit NBC’s Love Bites webpage.
CBS:
CBS’ summer lineup includes the crime drama Flashpoint. The Canadian show about a special tactical team that rescues hostages, busts gangs, defuses bombs, and takes on other tough cases stars Hugh Dillon, Enrico Colantino, David Paetkau, Amy Jo Johnson, Sergio Di Zio and Michael Cram. Emmy Award-nominated composers Amin Bhatia and Ari Posner (Get Ed) are scoring the show, which is currently in its fourth season. To learn more about Flashpoint, visit the CBS show website.
Currently finishing up its premiere season run is the action comedy drama Chaos about a group of rogue CIA spies in the division of Clandestine Homeland Administration and Oversight Services (CHAOS). The show created by Tom Spezialy (Reaper) and produced by Brett Ratner stars Freddy Rodriguez, Eric Close, James Murray, Tim Blake Nelson, Carmen Ejogo, Christina Cole and Kurtwood Smith. David Schwartz (Arrested Development, Northern Exposure) has composed the music for the show. More information about Chaos is available on the official show website.
USA:
One of USA’s new shows this summer is the legal drama Suits created by Aaron Korsh, produced by Doug Liman and starring Gabriel Macht, Patrick J. Adams, Meghan Markle, Rick Hoffman and Gina Torres. The show centers on a top Manhattan corporate lawyer who recruits a brilliant but unmotivated college dropout as a new associate. The show’s score is by composer Christopher Tyng (Futurama, The O.C.). Suits is currently airing every Thursday night. For more details on the drama, visit USA’s show website.
The other new USA show is Necessary Roughness created and produced by Liz and Craig Shapiro and starring Callie Thorne, Marc Blucas, Mehcad Brooks and Scott Cohen. The drama follows a tough and sexy Long Island divorcee who gets a job as the therapist for a professional football team in order to make ends meet. Adam Gorgoni (Waiting…, The Dead Girl) is scoring the show and Tree Adams (Californication) scored the pilot with additional music by Gorgoni. For more information about the show airing every Wednesday night, visit USA’s Necessary Roughness website.
Also airing on USA is Covert Affairs starring Piper Perabo, Christopher Gorham, Peter Gallagher and Kari Matchett. The show about a young CIA trainee, who is mysteriously sent out into the field to work at the Domestic Protection Division is currently in its second season. While the first season of the spy drama was scored by Christopher Tyng, Toby Chu (The Riches) is writing the music for the new season. Covert Affairs is airing every Tuesday night and more details can be found on USA’s show website.
Currently in its fifth season is the action drama Burn Notice created by Matt Nix and starring Jeffrey Donovan, Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless. The show about a spy who is disavowed by the US Government and uses his Special Ops training to help others in trouble is scored by composer John Dickson. Burn Notice airs every Thursday night on USA. For updates, trailers and more features, visit the official show website.
Another returning show on USA is White Collar. The show created by Jeff Eastin and starring Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay and Willie Garson. Jon Ehrlich (House, Parenthood) has been scoring the show about Neal Caffrey, a convicted con-man who helps other criminals as part of a work-release program. Ehrlich has been scoring the crime drama since its beginning. For more information on White Collar, visit the show’s official website.
The comedy drama Royal Pains starring Mark Feuerstein, Paulo Costanzo, Jill Flint and Reshma Shetty is currently airing its third season. The show about a young E.R. doctor who, after being wrongly blamed for a patient’s death, moves to the Hamptons and becomes the reluctant “doctor for hire” to the rich and famous is created by Andrew Lenchewski and John P. Rogers. James Levine (Nip/Tuck, Weather Man, Glee) is scoring the show. To learn more about Royal Pains, visit USA’s show website.
The final USA show is the crime drama In Plain Sight created by David Maples and starring Mary McCormack, Fred Weller, Paul Ben-Victor and Nichole Hiltz. Liz Phair, Marc Dauer and Evan Frankfort (90210, Swingtown) are scoring the show about must find ways to balance her professional life of protecting witnesses, her professional relationship with her partner and her problematic personal life. The trio has been scoring the show since its third season. The previous seasons featured music by W.G. Snuffy Walden (Season 1) and Tree Adams (Season 2). Jeff Beal wrote the show’s main theme. For more information on In Plain Sight, check out USA’s website.
Showtime:
Currently airing its second season is the comedy drama The Big C starring Laura Linney as a suburban mom, who is diagnosed with cancer and tries to find the humor in the disease. Linney has won a Golden Globe for her performance in last year’s first season. The film’s score is composed by Marcelo Zarvos (The Good Shepherd, Remember Me). As reported on this page, a soundtrack album featuring songs from the first season, as well a score suite by Zarvos has been released last month by Epic Records. The Big C airs every Monday night on Showtime. More information about the show can be checked out on Showtime’s official website.
Also airing every Monday night is the seventh season of the hit comedy drama Weeds created by Jenji Kohan and starring Mary-Louise Parker as a suburban mother turned marijuana dealer. Brandon Jay and Gwendolyn Sanford are scoring the show, which also features numerous songs. Several soundtrack compilations with songs from the show have been released. For more details about the hit series, visit Showtime’s Weeds webpage.
Premiering this summer on the cable channel is Web Therapy starring Lisa Kudrow as a self-professed psychotherapist who treats patients via webcam in weekly, three-minute sessions – a modality she believes more effective than the traditional 50-minute talk-a-thons heralded by other mental health professionals. Some of her patients are portrayed by Courtney Cox, Jane Lynch and Rashida Jones and Victor Garber and Lily Tomlin also appear on the show produced by Kudrow, Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex) and Dan Bucatinsky. The music for the series is written by John Swihart (Napoleon Dynamite, Youth in Revolt). The first episode of the show will premiere on Tuesday July 19 on Showtime. For more information, check out the official Web Therapy website.
Check back soon for our second and third part featuring this summer’s shows on TNT, HBO, FX, Syfy, Starz, Lifetime and ABC Family.
