Recently, I've seen dozens and dozens of failed TV pilots...and with most it's very obvious why the networks never picked up these as a series. Generally, the writing sucked...and although some folks might think writing isn't all that important, common sense says it is! Bad laugh tracks, characters who were more like caricatures and sloppy writing spell disaster for a potential TV show. But in a few cases, it's not so simple. The shows really were NOT bad and yet they somehow didn't make it. Bad writing simply wasn't the issue with "The Omen"...it was brilliantly written. But I think the biggest problem is that the show really was NOT "The Omen" from the movies....and perhaps TV execs thought the old 1970s films were dumb. I know Harry Medved sure did, as he named "The Omen" (1976) as one of the worst films ever made!
Shortly after the story begins, a crazed man deliberately runs over a poor young lady. When the lady arrives at the Emergency Room, a weird spirit-like entity leaves the dying woman's body and inhabits her sister, a nurse on the unit. Soon, she's behaving not so nice...and a strange man (Norman Lloyd) arrives to tell Jack and Dr. Linus that the entity is there and must be stopped! Apparently, the creature feeds off fear and torments folks in the process...and so it's going to be tough for the three to stop it without themselves being possessed.
In so many ways, the show is like "The Exorcist" and the great TV show "The Invaders" combined. This is because like "The Invaders", only a few people KNOW what is going on....and those who don't simply cannot believe the threat is real. Overall, so much potential and so exciting....it's just a darn shame the pilot wasn't made a decade or so later, as with the proliferation of Netflix, AMC, Hulu and Amazon Prime, such a show seems like a natural.
