Three Vegas-based shows in running for spot on fall TV

A police station, a law firm and a Hooters-style restaurant.

They're no longer just where Charlie Sheen spent Christmas.

They're also the settings for the three based-in-Las Vegas series still in the running for spots on the networks' fall schedules.

Donald Faison ("Scrubs") would star in the unusual-cops drama "The Odds" -- not to be confused with last year's odd-cops drama "The Unusuals" -- for CBS.

CBS also could become home to "Defenders" -- not to be confused with the landmark '60s series "The Defenders" -- a legal drama starring Jim Belushi and Jerry O'Connell executive produced by "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" show runner Carol Mendelsohn.

And "Reno 911" creators and stars Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant head south on U.S. 95 for "The Strip," a potential NBC comedy about a former child star who runs a bar/restaurant on the outskirts of Vegas.

There almost was a fourth Sin City contender, but a proposed series that would have starred Penn & Teller as magicians-turned-reluctant detectives seems to have stalled out at ABC.

It's an impressive showing for Las Vegas this pilot season -- that magical time each year when TV executives begin deciding what you'll be watching come September -- considering just how little gambling the networks seem to be in the mood for this year.

CBS is counting on a spinoff of "Criminal Minds" -- one of the network's few dramas that hasn't yet been spun off -- that would focus on Sam Cooper, the profiler played by recent guest star Forest Whitaker. NBC, meanwhile, can counter with its own spinoff, "Law & Order: Los Angeles."

The two networks are neck-and-neck with remakes, as well. NBC is reviving "The Rockford Files," which would feel a lot more dubious if it weren't written by "House" creator and "Rockford" fan David Shore. CBS also is going back to the '70s with a new version of "Hawaii Five-O." And The CW joins the update game with a second small-screen version of "La Femme Nikita."

The networks aren't just banking on familiar titles, they're relying on proven winners behind the scenes.

NBC, still trying to recover from the devastating effects of "The Jay Leno Show," has the pilots with the best pedigrees. J.J. Abrams ("Lost," "Fringe") returns to the spy game he mined in "Alias" with "Undercovers," which focuses on a husband-and-wife CIA team. Jerry Bruckheimer (the "CSI" franchise, "Cold Case") is overseeing "Chase," an action drama about U.S. Marshals. And David E. Kelley ("Boston Legal," "Ally McBeal") is back with "Kindreds," another drama set in an unconventional law firm.

If you want to get a comedy on the air at CBS, it helps to already have one. Both Chuck Lorre ("Two and a Half Men," "The Big Bang Theory") and the duo of Carter Bays and Craig Thomas ("How I Met Your Mother") have romantic comedies in the works.

Others out to continue their behind-the-scenes success include Shawn Ryan ("The Shield," "The Unit") with the Fox cop drama "Ridealong"; Josh Schwartz ("Chuck," "Gossip Girl") with the CBS newlywed comedy "Hitched"; Shonda Rhimes ("Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice"), who's executive producing ABC's South American medical clinic drama "Off the Map"; Amy Sherman-Palladino ("Gilmore Girls") with "The Damn Thorpes," a CW family drama set on a Wyoming horse ranch; and Bruckheimer also is behind the ABC legal drama "The Whole Truth."

Not every potential new series is playing it safe this year. ABC is developing "No Ordinary Family," a drama about a household headed by Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz that suddenly develops superpowers. The network also is working on "Edgar Floats," a drama about a police psychologist ("Ed's" Tom Cavanagh) who sees visions of a dead cop and moonlights as a bounty hunter. And NBC is considering "Our Show," from "Seinfeld" and "Borat" director Larry Charles, about sci-fi fans in a small town who film new episodes of their favorite show after it's canceled.

But for the most part, networks are sticking with the tried and true. Take ABC, which, fresh off the success of Courteney Cox's "Cougar Town," continues to raid NBC's must-see comedies by developing new sitcoms for Matthew Perry and Debra Messing.

Things will become much clearer beginning May 17 when the networks start unveiling their fall schedules.

But when you consider how conservative the networks seem to be this year and how terribly the three most recent Southern Nevada series -- "Father of the Pride," "Dr. Vegas" and "Viva Laughlin" -- performed, another Las Vegas series may not be in the cards.

Christopher Lawrence's Life on the Couch column appears on Sundays. E-mail him at clawrence@ reviewjournal.com.