NBC recently announced that “Chicago Justice” will be its latest show with Chicago in the title, joining “Chicago Med,” “Chicago P.D.” and “Chicago Fire.”
This is how TV works now. A network believes that viewers are thinking, “I like that show set in Chicago. What’s another show set in Chicago?”
Dick Wolf, the producer behind the “Chicago” series, says he even has an idea for a fifth Chicago show.
What will poor Dick Wolf do when he runs out of Chicago ideas?
We are here to save the day:
• “Chicago Library”: A librarian (Megan Hilty) uses her book smarts to solve “Da Vinci Code”-style mysteries but can’t solve the mystery of how to find a decent guy in this darn town, despite somehow managing to be both smart and blonde at the same time.
• “Chicago Pizza”: This sitcom centers on Jim Polaski (Jim Belushi), a former cop who was shot in the line of duty and now owns a Chicago pizzeria while presiding over the misfits who frequent the joint, including his former partner (Aasif Mandvi) and his TV-age-appropriate wife (Blake Lively).
• “Chicago Mercantile Exchange”: Chicago meets “The Big Short” in this look at the big-shot traders (Michael C. Hall, Christina Hendricks, Blair Underwood, Evangeline Lilly) who work at the “The Merc,” as it’s called, a financial and commodity derivative exchange in which they spend their days trading various financial instruments, including equities, interest rates, currencies and … hey, where are you going? They’re also sleeping with each other.
• “Chicago School”: The teachers at Scottie Pippen High School (Jon Hamm, Anna Paquin, Justin Long, Romany Malco) balance their personal and professional lives as they attempt to mold the minds of students who just do not get it, with the occasional cameo from the Chicago Public School superintendent (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) and Mayor Rahm Emanuel (Rahm Emanuel).
• “Second Chicago School”: This collective of midcentury architects led by Mies van der Rohe (Brian Cox) make innovations in steel and glass construction and the framed tube structural systems that helped build such skyscrapers as 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments and the John Hancock Tower.
• “Chicago on Tour”: This docuseries follows the band Chicago as it finishes up its fifth decade of touring the country, as members explain the joys of playing “Saturday in the Park” for the 1,200th time and what “Twenty-five or Six to Four” is really about.
• “Cleveland Fire”: Other cities have fires too, apparently. In this “Chicago Fire” spinoff, a veteran fireman (Rob Riggle) gets rejected for a spot in a Chicago fire house and has to settle for a job in Cleveland, where there aren’t as many fires and not as much stuff to do downtown in the evenings.
• “Chicago Chicago”: A failed Broadway director (Christian Borle) reluctantly returns to his home town of Chicago to head a production of the musical “Chicago” that stars his old Juilliard sweetheart (Anika Noni Rose), who is unhappily married to the man who’s playing Billy Flynn (Rob Lowe).
• “The Good Wife”: Like “Chicago Justice,” it’s a law show set in Chicago. But, you know, better.
