Fox orders four new dramas, four comedies for next season

Fox on Wednesday announced that it has picked up four new dramas and four new comedies for next year.

DRAMAS
Almost Human (working title), starring Karl Urban, Michael Ealy and Lili Taylor, is a police drama set 35 years in the future, when cops pair up with human-like androids. It has uber-producer J.J. Abrams' prints on it.

Gang Related, starring a goatee'd Terry O'Quinn (!), Ramon Rodriguez and RZA, follows a rising star in a Los Angeles gang task force that goes after the city's three most dangerous gangs, including one he has ties to.

In Rake, Greg Kinnear becomes the latest movie star to jump to the small screen, as a self-destructive defense attorney who takes on cases no one else will touch. Based on an Australian series. Sam Raimi directed the pilot.

Sleepy Hollow, proof that adaptations are never as beaten to death as you think they are. From Deadline: "Ichabod Crane is resurrected and pulled two and a half centuries through time to find that the world is on the brink of destruction and that he is humanity's last hope, forcing him to team up with a contemporary police officer to unravel a mystery that dates all the way back to the founding fathers." So there's that. Stars Tom Milson and Nicole Beharie. Co-created by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Transformers, new Star Trek, Fringe).

COMEDIES
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, from "Parks and Rec" producers Dan Goor and Michael Schur and starting Andy Samberg and Andre Braugher. About a detective who doesn't take anything seriously and his new by-the-book boss. Sounds like it's pretty by-the-book itself.

Enlisted, about three brothers getting to know each other again on a small Florida Army base. Starring Geoff Stults, created by Kevin Biegel (Cougar Town, Scrubs).

Rom-com Us & Them, based on the British series "Gavin and Stacey," starring Jason Ritter and Alexis Bledel.

Surviving Jack, based on author Justin Halpern's book "I Suck at Girls." Starring Christopher Meloni as a dad to a teenage son in 1990s Southern California.

Plus there's Dads, previously ordered, a live-action, multi-camera show from Seth MacFarlane that stars Seth Green and Giovanni Ribisi as two successful guys whose dads (Martin Mull and Peter Riegert) move in with them.

This news comes as a precursor to next week, when the networks hold their "upfront" presentations for advertisers and the media, unveiling new series for the 2013-14 season and announcing renewals and such. I'll do my best to collate the big/important stuff each day. I'll be especially on the lookout for the fate of NBC's "1600 Penn," which stars Pacific Grove's Amara Miller. NBC presents Monday.