Cops and chick lit get the go ahead at ABC, at least in pilot form. The Hollywood Reporter says the network has approved the production of four new pilots, three of them focusing on crime and punishment.

Castle, produced by ABC Studios and Beacon, is reportedly a one-hour drama about a horror writer who consults for the NYPD homicide department.

The Unusuals, from Sony Pictures TV and Apostle, is described as a one-hour dramatic comedy set inside a New York police precinct.

The Hollywood Reporter describes Finnegan as yet another one-hour crime drama about a tough female detective in the Los Angeles Police Department’s organized crime/vice unit.

And finally in a totally different direction, ABC has greenlighted a half-hour family pilot called Bad Mother’s Handbook. That show, also from ABC Studios, is described as a single-camera comedy about a 32-year-old woman who cares for her 16-year-old daughter and 48-year-old mother. The show is based on the novel by Kate Long. It is also a take-off of a British show that aired last year.

Only time will tell if any of these proposed shows make it into any kind of permanent time slot on ABC.