ABC Resurrects "October Road"

I guess October really is a month of ghosts returning to life.

Following a series of surprising development moves lately (like the CW's revival of failed 2004 Rod Lurie pilot Captial City), comes another resurrection, this time at ABC. The network has ordered six episodes of October Road, which was originally developed for this season but never ordered to series. The drama revolves around a young, successful novelist (Prime's Bryan Greenberg) who finds himself confronting the past he left behind when he returns to his hometown to teach at the local college and deal with his estranged family. (Hopefully Greenberg's character doesn't encounter killer clowns, a shocking homicide rate, or Poppy Montgomery... as the protagonist in Kevin Williamson's similarly themed Glory Days did.)

The pilot for October Road also co-starred Tom Berenger (who coincidentally also co-starred in Lurie's Capital City) and 7th Heaven's Geoff Stults. ABC is said to have kept the pilot under consideration by extending the actor's options beginning in July. It's not clear, however, if the series is intended for midseason or if it will be instead scheduled for next summer.

Disney/Touchstone is producing the series with GroupM Entertainment, comprised of advertising firm WPP's media agencies MediaCom, Mediaedge:cia, and MindShare, so expect a whole lot of integrated product placement to be popping up all over the place on October Road.

Let's just hope the gratuitous product placement isn't as creepy as those Audrey Hepburn Gap ads that seem to be airing on constant rotation and seem far too eerie, even for Halloween.