Day 7 Assignments

[Lois Wickstrom]

Lois’ TV Pitch Bible Investigation

What I learned… this lesson has nothing to do with my series idea. I’ve spent hours trying to figure out any other way to tell this story. Nothing is popping into my mind. Maybe if I had a team working with me, somebody might come up with something. But the example didn’t click for me. The questions didn’t click. I got nothing.

[Lisa Molenda]

Lisa’s TV Pitch Bible Investigation

What I learned doing this assignment is that brainstorming is hard, but the tools work to cause critical thinking and come up with ideas. I spent a lot of time on this assignment and got a little more behind than I was, but I know that it will be beneficial for my show in the long run.

I added a bunch of details and changes some things in the season descriptions. I also added a few more details in character descriptions and episode descriptions. I had to figure out where my new ideas should go in the show, so that was challenging, but I finally got it done after a lot of brainstorming.

[Griffith Lambert]

THE LAST STRAW

TV Bible

Griff’s Investigation

What I learned doing this assignment: I started with a very rough draft that still had a lot of bullet points needing to be fleshed out in prose. Going through everything to convert to a few paragraphs per episode uncovered layers I was able to exploit. Fresh character stuff also bubbled up in the process. It’s still a rough draft, but it is much further along than when I started.

Genre: Dramatic Series

Format: I hour Episodic

Concept

Two teenage brothers discover their mother has gone missing. To find her they must counter bureaucracy and survive life on the street to follow clues into dangerous and unknown territory.

World of the Show

Suburbia, as experienced by two single parents trying to do their best with some challenging teens and young adults.

Unique Sub-worlds

· The social services and foster care system

· The splintered homeless community and Southwest border encampments.

· The migrant world of Coyotes, border patrol, and abusive labor.

· A corrupt and violent immigration system.

Summary

How do two completely opposite teen brothers navigate adolescence with no father at home and a distracted single mother who is trying to forge a new career?

Brothers Randy and Todd are separated by only two years, but they are light-years apart in personality. Randy is small, athletic, and angry while his younger brother Todd, artistic and big for his age, is constantly being misidentified and the older of the two, leading to Randy’s incessant bullying of his “little” brother.

Single mom Stephanie is tired of shilling vanity products to young mothers, thinly disguised as a parental advice column. While she bids for more serious assignments at her magazine, Randy and Todd are constantly at each other’s throats and failing at school, putting Stephanie on notice that their messy home life needs some attention.

When the neighbor’s troubled daughter (and Randy’s crush), Marcey, drops a tantalizing scandal in her lap, Stephanie must find a way to pursue the story while keeping county social services from putting the unmanageable boys in foster care.

Pressures boil over and lead to a huge argument that spills into the street and brings out the neighbors and the cops. The next morning finds things settled down, except that both Stephanie and Marcey have gone missing.

At first separated and absorbed into the foster care system, Randy and Todd hatch their own plan to hit the road and find out what happened to Stephanie and Marcey.

Main Characters

Stephanie Sherwood: Single mother doing her best to raise two challenging teen boys while trying to break into investigative journalism.

Randy Sherwood: Seventeen, compact, and angry. He remembers just enough about his estranged father to miss him in his life. He relentlessly bullies his younger but bigger brother, Todd. Has a big crush on the neighbor’s daughter, Marcey.

Todd Sherwood: Fifteen but looks twenty-something. A big kid who seems slow-witted until he has something to say. He is secretly accepting martial arts tips from the neighbor as a way of defending himself from Randy.

Brad Collins: The nerdy music teacher across the street used to be a famous rock star. He keeps a low profile, trying to do the best he can for daughter Marcey. Brad blames his former celebrity avatar for the drug overdose of Marcey’s mother.

Marcey Collins: Twenty, fierce and fit, Marcey pretends to be an aimless party girl to protect her father from worrying about the real danger of leaving supplies in the desert for migrants crossing into Arizona.

Supporting Characters:

Harmony: Marcey’s best friend and partner in crime (and love.)

Agent Vaughan: Keeping an eye on Marcey, suspects her of illegally aiding immigrants.

Morgan Blackledge: The estranged father of Randy and Todd. He’s been in the Amazon looking for the ingredients to patent new drugs.

Maria: A young migrant who is saved from death when she finds the supplies left by Marcey and Harmony.

El Jefe: Mexican drug kingpin with aspirations to save the world (his way.)

Environmental Characters:

School counselors; social workers; police officers and detectives; foster parents; homeless/houseless tricksters and angels; human traffickers; border patrol agents; Coyotes; drug smugglers.

12 Episodes

Pilot: “Form Follows Dysfunction” – In which we establish Stephanie’s hectic and harried home life with Randy and Todd.

Stephanie is jolted awake after falling asleep at her keyboard late the previous night. She has overslept again and must get her two boys to school. She manages to get them in the car in a cyclone of last-minute cajoling.

Rushing to class in order to avoid another tardy, the boys collide with some of the seniors. One of the lettermen is impressed at the solid wall that Todd presents while Randy scurries off before they can bully him.

Returning home to work on her now-past deadline, Stephanie is distracted by the neighbor’s party animal daughter, just coming in from another long night out.

Just when she thinks she can settle down to work, the school calls – the boys have got into another “incident” and she must come down and meet with the Vice Principal, who wants to set up a home inspection schedule to check on the boy’s welfare.

Episode Two: “Snot Sucker” – In which we find out why Stephanie is dissatisfied with her role at the magazine.

As Stephanie pushes for better writing assignments she is increasingly distracted on the home front. Randy and Todd voice their frustrations about getting to school on time and Stephanie’s erratic housekeeping. They feel like they need to take matters into their own hands.

Stephanie turns in her parenting columns despite feeling like a shill for manufacturers of products like The Snot Sucker. Stephanie lets her own cynicism creep into the advice column and one of her pieces gets some harsh criticism from readers.

Todd suggests that he and Randy start getting up early and walking to school so as to not rely on Mom. That would require Randy getting out of bed. Early.

Stephanie threatens to quit if her more serious submissions are not going to be considered. Her editor, calling her bluff observes, “And who will that inconvenience?”

Episode Three: “Life Isn’t Fair” – In which we explore everybody’s identity crises.

Randy takes his bullying of Todd to a new level after failing to impress Marcey with his basketball moves. To add insult to injury, he can’t do much damage beating up on Todd due to the kid’s size and density. It just serves to aggravate Stephanie.

Stephanie tries to improve her role at home with some inspired meal preparation. She can’t go far from the computer, however, and ends up trying to parboil her laptop.

Marcey attempts to pacify Brad but is still reluctant to come clean about her true desert adventures and her real relationship with Harmony. Brad deals with his frustration in the usual way, turning his amplifier up to “11” and blasting out some of the old Hell Toupee tunes.

Getting to school on their own isn’t working out any better than relying on Stephanie, and soon the school counselors are on the phone about serial tardiness and threatening a home visit.

Episode Four: “Gimme The Ball, Gimme The Ball, Gimme…” – In which we follow Randy as he tries to get on some sports team, any sports team at school.

Randy’s passion is sports. He spends much of his time shooting hoops in his backyard on a broken-down backstop. He almost never misses a shot.

He keeps going out for various sports but the bigger guys just can’t get beyond his small size. He frequently takes out his frustrations by beating up on his far bigger little brother, Todd.

The senior lettermen enjoy picking on Randy, but he’s usually too fast for them to get ahold of him.

When the lettermen follow Randy and Todd to the local Quik Mart, Randy is ready to fight. They show no interest in him, however, and he thinks they want to pick on Todd. Instead they try to recruit Todd for football. Randy goes ballistic.

Episode Five: “Martha Stewart You Ain’t” – In which Todd explores his artistic interests at school.

Todd, signing up for a Home Economics class in cooking, tries to keep it quiet because he knows what Randy will do if he finds out. But when report cards come out Randy not only finds out about the cooking class but that Todd is a straight-A student. If Todd thought Randy’s teasing was bad before …

Todd starts preparing lunches for himself and Randy. Stephanie is impressed, grateful, even. Randy reacts predictable, teasing Todd for being an overeater. But when he samples the delicious lunch and, later, the dinner Todd prepares for the family, he is at a loss for both words and punches.

Randy is not the only one who begins to see Todd through a different lens – Stephanie realizes she has been overlooking Todd’s creative side. Just when things seem like they are improving Todd makes some lunches for Marcey and Harmony to take to the desert. Her gratitude toward Todd sends Randy into a tantrum.

Episode Six: “Whatever Became of Crash Damitch?” – In which we find out how much Brad misses his old life as a Rock Star.

Randy’s bullying causes Todd to seek out Brad as a kind of surrogate father. Brad has some eccentric interests, among them martial arts and firearms. Brad thinks some aikido training might be the remedy Todd needs to get Randy off his back.

Brad struggles to find satisfaction in his teaching when all his young students seem to want to do is mimic YouTube videos. As a guitarist, Brad didn’t come up as a shredder, and is not impressed by it. He wants his students to actually study music, not just technique.

Stephanie is concerned about the amount of time Todd has been spending with Brad, thinking that Marcey is probably a bad influence. Meanwhile, it is Randy that has developed a crush on Marcey.

.

Episode Seven: “Cul-de-sac Diplomacy” – In which Stephanie becomes aware of a spy in the neighborhood.

The mysterious Agent Vaughan continues to stake out the cul-de-sac, to the chagrin of both Stephanie and Brad. Brad thinks the narcs are about to come down on Marcey and Stephanie thinks it has something to do with her boys and their troublemaking.

The more Stephanie lurks around the more defensive Marcey becomes, telling to leave Agent Vaughan alone and to back off. Tensions flare as everyone starts to feel examined under a microscope.

Agent Vaughan won’t back off and won’t be exposed, either, preferring to keep the pressure on and see what boils over.

Stephanie finds out that anonymous tips have been phoned in that she is creating an unwholesome atmosphere at home by entertaining men when the boys are home. This complete fabrication nevertheless makes her situation with the county counselors worse.

Episode Eight: “ …And Your Enemies Closer.” Stephanie has pissed off the wrong stalker.

The day of the home inspection arrives and things couldn’t go worse – the boys get into a fight just before the social worker is due and Stephanie’s editor calls with bad news.

Trying to put the best face possible on it, they almost squeak through the interview when Agent Vaughan shows up at the door, pretending to be Stephanie’s boyfriend. He gets the reaction he expects from Randy and Todd, and Stephanie is warned that the report to the county is not going to be flattering.

To make matters worse, Marcey pulls up just when Agent Vaughan is leaving Stephanie’s door and confronts him about spying on her.

Episode Nine: “Do You Know Who I Used To Be?” – In which we discover the life Brad gave up to give Marcey a “normal” life.

Brad’s biggest fear is that Marcey will end up like her mother, a drug addict who overdosed. He doesn’t know that her party lifestyle is an act and that his daughter is far more serious and formidable than he thinks. His efforts to reign in her frequent disappearances amount to little more than lip service.

Marcey realizes Brad is worried about her, but her party girl charade allows her to disappear into the desert with Harmony, where they leave supplies for migrants crossing the border illegally. It is dangerous in itself but also risks being prosecuted by the Border Patrol if she is caught.

All the while, Brad’s past is tugging at him, and he discovers that the other members of the old band are planning to attend a nostalgic Rock convention in Las Vegas.

In the course of Stephanie’s prying into Marcey’s activities, she becomes aware of Brad’s celebrity past. Has Stephanie stumbled onto a story that could turn her career around?

Episode Ten: “The Border Crossed Us.” – In which the tragic death and legacy of Marcey’s mother are revealed.

Stephanie pays unwanted interest in Marcey and Harmony packing the SUV with water and supplies. She is skeptical that all this is for parties out in the desert.

Convinced that Marcey is sitting on a tinderbox that she can exploit, Stephanie decides to interview the mysterious man who has been staking out Brad’s house, because she assumes he holds the key to what Marcey is really up to.

Agent Vaughan rebuffs Stephanie’s interest, telling her to mind her own business. She is not in the habit of being told to F-off.

Randy and Todd’s friction becomes more pronounced until Todd applies an Aikido move that completely surprises his brother. Randy begins to regard Todd in another light.

Stephanie confers with Brad and gets the whole background about the drug overdose death of Marcey’s mother and finds out some more biographical information, like her Hispanic heritage.

Marcey does her best to be elusive, but Stephanie is determined to get a scoop out of it, thinking there’s some scandal to be exploited. Following Marcey and Harmony out to the desert, she inadvertently leads the Border Patrol to the girls.

Episode Eleven: “Land of Opportunity” – In which the plight of migrant workers like Maria is illustrated when one of their own collapses and dies of preventable asthma.

Maria tries to tough out the poor conditions at the labor camp because she needs to send money home to her family in Mexico. It becomes clear to her that the bosses play the workers off against one another.

Maria may be small, but she is no pushover. When she stands up to bullying the bosses punish the other workers and turn them against her,

In the fields, Maria tries to get help for a pregnant girl who has collapsed with asthma. She begs for transportation to take the girl to a clinic. The bosses are in no hurry to help out, and the girl dies.

Episode Twelve: “Take A Number” – Season One Finale – In which all the stress of coping boils over and everybody lines up to run away from home. Who will that leave?

Stephanie, trying to make a deadline, is late to pick up the boys from school. They decide to walk over to the Quick Mart, and Todd shows off some of the moves he learned from Brad. A passing squad car sees two boys fighting and the cops pick them up.

Stephanie loses it, not so much angry at the boys as with herself and the situation. But the boys don’t see it that way. Shouting and accusations spill over and the boys and Stephanie all threaten to run away from home.

Marcey, already on edge with Stephanie’s prying into her business, gets into the act, taking the boys’ side. The argument spills out into the street and attracts the neighbors and the cops.

Things eventually settle down and everyone goes to bed. However, in the morning Stephanie and Marcey are both missing.

Five Seasons

Season 1: Running Away From Home – Stephanie disappears after an argument with the boys and Marcey.

Season 2: Where Did Mom Go? – The boys break out of foster care to find their mother.

Season 3: Who Is This Dad Guy, Anyway? – Stephanie’s estranged husband turns up and teams up with the boys to find their mother.

Season 4: Bring Mom Home or Bust – Stephanie and Marcey are reunited but fall into the hands of the Cartel. Marcey re-focuses Stephanie’s story from Border Patrol abuse to the plight of migrants working without health care while being exposed to toxic chemicals.

Season 5: All is Forgiven. – Stephanie and Marcey convince El Jefe to fund the conversion of Brad’s tour bus into a mobile clinic for migrants in exchange for a white-wash job in Stephanie’s story.

Season 1: Running Away From Home

Stephanie Sherwood is the harassed single parent of two teenage boys. She struggles to keep up with deadlines at the magazine for which she writes a parental advice column. Life at home is hectic and Stephanie must keep her boys, Randy and Todd, from killing each other.

Randy is the angry, bullying older brother who gets in the most trouble at school and at home. He is smaller than younger brother Todd and angered by the fact that he gets overlooked for sports, his passion.

Stephanie compares parenting woes with her neighbor, Brad, whose daughter appears to be wasting her time hanging out in the desert with a bunch of losers. What Brad doesn’t know is that Marcey uses the slacker persona to cover up her risky forays into the desert in order to help migrants survive crossing into the US from Mexico.

When Marcey accidentally spills the beans about her secret life, Stephanie knows that this is the opportunity she has been waiting for.

A. Concept: A single mother struggles to raise two troublesome teenagers while trying to break a big story for a magazine.

B. Arc/Journey: Stephanie stumbles onto a big story that requires her to tail Marcey, leaving the boys to fend for themselves

C. Main Conflict: Stephanie tries to keep Social Services at bay while pursuing her lead.

D. Mystery/Open Loops: What does Marcey do out in the desert?

E. Cliffhanger: After a big argument with the boys Stephanie goes missing.

B Story: Agent Vaughan has already taken an interest in Marcey’s activities.

C Story: Brad is itching to get the old band back together.

D Story: Supplies left in the desert by Marcey and Harmony save the life of Maria, a young migrant girl.

Season 2: Where Did Mom Go?

A. Concept: Brothers Randy and Todd are cast into the foster care system and separated.

B. Arc/Journey: The authorities ignore the boys’ insights into what happened to Stephanie and so the boys resolve to find her themselves.

C. Main Conflict: The boys must elude capture and learn to cooperate in order to survive a hostile homeless environment.

D. Mystery/Open Loops: Randy and Todd make allies and enemies in their quest to find Mom.

E. Cliffhanger: Estranged father, Morgan, finds the boys and joins in the search for the missing Stephanie.

B Story: Marcey discovers Stephanie following her in the desert. She misunderstands Stephanie’s motives and they are first chased by Coyotes and then arrested by Border Patrol.

C Story: Marcey is sprung from custody by Brad before the shadowy Agent Vaughan can get to her, so he takes Stephanie captive instead.

D Story: Maria ends up in a farm labor camp and is victimized by co-workers and bosses.

Season 3: Who Is This Dad Guy, Anyway?

A. Concept: Randy and Todd end up in protective custody but are finally released into the care of their estranged father, Morgan Blackledge.

B. Arc/Journey: Morgan is an eccentric Indiana Jones character who, surprisingly, signs up for the mission of tracking down Stephanie.

C. Main Conflict: Morgan and sons follow tantalizing leads that take them into dangerous drug cartel territory.

D. Mystery/Open Loops: Morgan begins to suspect that Agent Vaughan is not actually a law enforcement agent of any kind.

E. Cliffhanger: Morgan and the boys are taken into “custody” by Agent Vaughan and re-united with Stephanie.

B Story: Brad sets out in the old tour bus to find Marcey but succeeds only in crossing paths with the drug cartel.

C Story: Maria stands up to the farm bosses and is beaten and left in the desert to die.

Season 4: Bring Mom Home or Bust!

A. Concept: Stephanie, Morgan, and the boys find themselves detained by Agent Vaughan.

B. Arc/Journey: Randy and Todd must learn to embrace their differences and work together. Stephanie and Morgan’s reunion reveals that they never stopped being in love.

C. Main Conflict: Morgan and Brad expose Agent Vaughan’s unwholesome intentions towards Marcey.

D. Mystery/Open Loops: El Jefe encounters Agent Vaughan and vows to find out who he really is.

E. Cliffhanger: Stephanie changes the focus of her story. Will it have the desired impact?

B Story: El Jefe turns out to be Brad’s biggest fan.

C Story: Coyotes find half-dead Maria in the desert and turn her over to El Jefe’s men.

Season 5: All Is Forgiven.

A. Concept: Stephanie struggles to get her life back together and to publish her story.

B. Arc/Journey: Randy and Todd re-enter “normal” life as celebrities. Brad’s tour bus is converted into a mobile clinic for farmworkers.

C. Main Conflict: Stephanie has trouble finding a publisher for her story until she ties in the sensational idea of the drug lord with a “heart of gold.”

D. Mystery/Open Loops: Where did the money come from to convert the bus?

E. Cliffhanger: Agent Vaughan resurfaces.

B. Story: Brad gets the old band together for a reunion tour and donates his share of profits to the clinic project.

C. Story: Maria comes to work for the mobile clinic.

[Brenda Clarke]

So to get started, I actually opened a new word document and started copying and pasting from our assignments to make a first rough draft of the TV Pitch Bible. I then went about trying to implement this “investigate” section and merely scratched the surface. I need to spend more time on this to make further improvements.

QUESTION: For the Character Descriptions do you write out a summary for each?

OR

list traits etc as per our BW Framework (in point form)?

I noticed that others have listed a/b/c/d/e etc for the Season descriptions, I did the same, however, should this be written in paragraphs?

Also EPISODES: I listed them under the headings: Hook/Intrigue,

Journey, Challenge/Conflict, Action/Reaction, Cliff-hanger. Should this also be written in paragraphs?