[Griffith Lambert]

Lesson 5, Assignment 2

Griff’s Character Intrigue for my TV series, The Loner

What I learned: I think Bard is plugged into some gender stereotypes: In Lesson 3 Bard made my one female character pregnant, and in Lesson 5 Bard wants her to already have children, as if the only way a female character can be motivated is by answering her call to make babies. Come on, Bard, get with it!

The Loner

A quiet new neighbor moves into a suburban neighborhood, sparking suspicion from the nosey slacker neighbors.

Kim: Unemployed slacker living off dead parents’ social security.

Jo: Unfulfilled housewife (with NO CHILDREN) putting up with Kim’s (mostly) verbal abuse.

Rami: New neighbor who is supposedly waiting for his wife and child to arrive from Uzbekistan.

Byron: The cop wanna-be who doesn’t buy Rami’s story.

Kim

• A. Situational: Hopes to prove himself effective / Fear
  of inadequacy.
• B. Motivation: Wants respect / Needs affirmation.
• C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Self-criticism, shame /
  Public Mask: Bully
• D. Weaknesses: Drugs and alcohol; Insecurity, lacking
  focus, motivation.
• E. Triggers: Being told he’s wrong.
• F. Coping Mechanism: Analytical, salves himself with
  pornography.

Jo

• A. Situational: Hopes to pursue music or acting someday
  / Fears she will time out.
• B. Motivation: Wants to be admired for her talent and
  looks / Needs attention.
• C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Complainer. Public Mask: Care-free.
• D. Weaknesses: Drugs and alcohol, Unmotivated.
• E. Triggers: Sex, criticism.
• F. Coping Mechanism: Transference (shames others for exhibiting
  the same weaknesses.)

Rami

• A. Situational: Hopes to make an impact / Fear of
  discovery.
• B. Motivation: Want: Right wrongs / Need: Recognition.
• C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Temper / Public Mask:
  In control.
• D. Weaknesses: Lonely and susceptible to influence/manipulation
  by Jo.
• E. Triggers: Injustice (including Kim bullying Jo.)
• F. Coping Mechanism: Religious devotion.

Byron

• A. Situational: Hopes to prove himself / Fear: Nobody
  takes him seriously.
• B. Motivation: Wants to be seen as the hero / Need:
  Recognition of expertise.
• C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Bravado, braggadocio /
  Public Mask: Expert
• D. Weaknesses: Lying, exaggerating.
• E. Triggers: Being doubted.
• F. Coping Mechanism: Exaggeration, withdrawal (“okay, I
  won’t help you, you’re on your own.”

• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by  Griffith Lambert.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by  websystems.

[Griffith Lambert]

Lesson 5, Assignment 1

Griff’s Character Emotions for Riverdale

ARCHIE

• A. Situational:
  Hopes to be a songwriter and perform/Fear: He’s not good enough
• B.
  Motivation: Want: To be accepted/ Need: Affirmation
• C. Mask:
  Base Negative Emotion: Fear of humiliation / Public mask: Confident jock.
• D.
  Weaknesses: Lack of self-confidence
• E. Triggers:
  Hates bullying.
• F. Coping
  Mechanism: Pacifying even in unfair situations.

BETTY

• A. Situational: Hopes Archie will someday love her /
  Fear: Veronica will steal him.
• B. Motivation: Wants love from family and friends /
  Needs validation, approval
• C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Shame / Public Mask: Good
  Girl
• D. Weaknesses: Easily influenced
• E. Triggers: Rejection; Anything to do with Polly (sister.)
• F. Coping Mechanism: Pretending everything is fine.

VERONICA

• A. Situational: Hopes to be accepted for herself / Fear:
  stained reputation.
• B. Motivation: Wants to fit in with other students, new
  friends / Need: Assimilation.
• C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Chip on shoulder/
  Public Mask: Confident and in control.
• D. Weaknesses: Competitiveness
• E. Triggers: Being challenged.
• F. Coping Mechanism: Attack.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by  websystems.

[Griffith Lambert]

Removed.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by  Griffith Lambert. Reason: Removed, Posted to wrong forum

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff Lambert

Lesson 4, Assignment 2

What I learned: I’m learning to focus my prompts to get ideas from Bard that are not repeats of what I already have in place. In this case, it sent the whole TV series in a different direction, more of a psychological spy thriller, at least that’s how I’m interpreting the input. I think I like it!

My show: The Loner

For your Inner Circle characters, fill in any of the Intrigue items that apply.

• Character Name:
• Role:
• Hidden agendas:
• Competition:
• Conspiracies:
• Secrets:
• Deception:
• Wound:
• Secret Identity:

Kim

Role: Homeowner, curious neighbor of the new guy on the block, Rami.

Hidden Agendas: Kim needs to control Jo for later use.

Competition: Jo

Conspiracies: Kim is convinced that Rami is not what he seems.

Secrets: Kim encourages Jo’s drug use in order to keep her unmotivated so that he can control her.

Deception: Kim is playing the role of slacker, but actually has a diabolical use for Jo.

Wound: He has never proved himself capable of bigger/better things.

Secret Identity: Jo has no idea that Kim was planted here before she met him to look out for someone like Rami.

Jo

Role: Bored housewife, sexually frustrated in a loveless relationship

Hidden Agenda: Would like to find a purpose and break out of the cycle of mindless recreation.

Competition: Kim’s porn obsession.

Conspiracy: Jo is planning to leave Kim, but doesn’t understand why she can’t act on it.

Secret: Aspires to be an actress, but hasn’t got any motivation, and doesn’t realize that Kim has engineered her disinterest.

Deception: Jo is through with Kim, but inexplicably remains with him.

Wound: Prom Queen who failed to successfully launch.

Secret Identity: Movie star (in her mind.) Kim’s secret weapon – she’s been part of a sleeper cell all along, but in whose employ?

Rami

Role: New and mysterious neighbor.

Hidden Agenda: He’s a software developer who doesn’t seem to be developing any software.

Competition: Byron

Conspiracy: Rami is the tip of the spear of a terrorist plot against the US government.

Secret: The renovations to the house next door don’t add up. There seem to be no preparations to receive this wife and daughter.

Deception: Mild-mannered software geek and family man. Rami is actually very dangerous.

Wound: His country was destroyed by US intrigue and double-dealings.

Secret Identity: Terrorist out for revenge.

Byron

Role: Bumbling sleuth with a Bravado complex.

Hidden Agenda: Out to prove himself by solving the Rami mystery.

Competition: Actual cops. Kim is using him.

Conspiracy: He’s convinced Rami isn’t what he seems. Struggling for clues.

Secret: Obsessed with Jo.

Deception: Pretends casual, even disdainful, relationship with Jo but actually resents the way Kim treats her.

Wound: Didn’t make it in law enforcement.

Secret Identity: Byron would actually make a
good cop, but his abrasive personality has held him back.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by  websystems.

[Griffith Lambert]

Lesson 4, Assignment 1

Character Intrigue for Riverdale

Archie – his big secret is that he was at the lake with Ms. Grundry when the shot rang out and Jason disappeared. He is also very conflicted about his relationship with Geraldine, Betty’s feelings about it, working for his father, being on the football team, when what he really wants to do is write and play his songs.

Betty – She’s going to carry that torch for Archie forever. But what was up in that scene when she adopted the Polly personality and tortured that jock? Her deep wound is what Jason Blossom did to cause her sister’s (Polly’s) nervous breakdown. She also has a deeply antagonistic relationship with her mom.

Veronica – There’s no way she doesn’t resent being demoted from Big City Princess to Small Town Hottie. Something is smoldering beneath the surface in her relationship with Betty, and she is not done causing trouble.

Jughead – He’s got the goods on Archie and Geraldine, and he’s shaming Archie into coming clean. This has resulted in Geraldine resigning her teaching position and leaving town. Is Jughead satisfied that he pushed for this? Probably not. And now we find out that there’s a lot more to his desire to keep the drive-in going – without the drive-in Jughead is homeless. And his Dad? Leader of the biker gang?? So Jughead really has nowhere to go.

Cheryl Blossom – If ever there was anybody hiding anything it’s Cheryl, Jason’s sister. We can be sure that there’s more we don’t know about the day of Jason’s disappearance than we know. And Cheryl is certainly holding on to the answer.

Hermione – Big secrets, sure, but what is motivating her? Hermione has a secret deal with the mayor that smacks of corruption for both parties. But is Veronica’s mom carrying water for the hubby’s criminal schemes? Seems like it. And how is this going to backfire on Veronica?

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff’s Engaging Main Characters

BWTV AI Module 1 Lesson 3

Assignment 2

What I learned: So far AI hasn’t really been blowing my mind. I might be giving Bard too much information. I’ll try to be more tight-lipped in the next lesson.

My show: The Loner

Unemployed suburban couple Kim and Jo become obsessed with their reclusive new neighbor, Rami. Egged on by Kim’s wanna-be cop friend, Byron, Kim and Jo develop a paranoid idea that Rami has a secret plan that threatens National Security.

Main Character Circle:

Kim Conklin: 36, smart, failed MBA candidate. He gambles and buys Bitcoin online when not playing video games and drinking. Lives off deceased parents’ Social Security.

<div>
A. Role in the show: Chief paranoiac and full-time
slacker. In an abusive marriage with wife, Jo. The abuse mostly manifests
as neglect with the occasional violent outburst. </div><div>

B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: Online gambling,
Bitcoin, video games.

C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? Kim is
keeping his gambling from Jo and has lost interest in her sexually.

D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they
crossing? Kim will do whatever it takes to keep his slacker lifestyle and
not work a job.

E. Unpredictable: What will they do next? Kim will go
down the Rabbit Hole if there is some kind of reward for proving that Rami
is a threat.

F. Empathetic: Why do we care? His interest in exposing
Rami’s secret, if there is one, has rekindled his interest in Jo and,
anyway, he might be right about Rami.

</div>

Jo (Josephine) Conklin: The sexy Homecoming Queen who misfired young. Kim helped her engineer a disability hack that brings in money. Jo noodles with a guitar when not imagining herself an actress.

<div>
A. Role in the show: Bored housewife, occasional
tune-picker on the guitar, general malcontent. Puts up with Kim’s verbal
abuse and Byron’s disdain. Once energized, she becomes the surprising firebrand.</div><div>

B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: Jo is pretty, used to be
sexy, too. She has a little musical talent, but her triggers lie in her
sexuality.

C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? Jo is turned
on by dangerous sexual situations.

D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they
crossing? Jo lets Kim drag her into his paranoid fantasy and may ruin Rami’s
life.

E. Unpredictable: What will they do next? Jo becomes
sexually obsessed with Rami.

F. Empathetic: Why do we care? Jo is a limp dishrag
until she is sparked by Kim and Byron’s paranoid pursuit of Rami.

Rami: A brand-new American citizen who has
renovated this suburban home in anticipation of his wife and daughter
joining him when they emigrate from Uzbekistan.

A. Role in the show: New reclusive neighbor to nut-jobs
Kim and Jo.

B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: Software developer,
works from home. Keeps to himself.

C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface?
Preparing for his wife and daughter to join him, but there is no evidence
of him making a home for a family.

D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they
crossing? He responds to Jo’s flirtations.

E. Unpredictable: What will they do next? Rami becomes involved
in Kim and Jo’s abusive relationship.

F. Empathetic: Why do we care? Rami is trying to save
Jo from the abusive relationship with Kim.

</div>

Byron Baxter: A Police Academy dropout and full-time conspiracy theorist.

<div>
A. Role in the show: Troublemaker, busybody.</div><div>

B. Unique Purpose / Expertise: Security, spy gear,
conspiracy theories.

C. Intrigue: What is secret beneath the surface? Byron’s
blustering bravado belies a real knowledge of his pet subject, law
enforcement.

D. Moral Issue: What moral boundaries are they
crossing? Byron breaks into Rami’s house to help Kim and Jo prove their
fantasy.

E. Unpredictable: What will they do next? When things
go too far, Byron can’t pull them back.

F. Empathetic: Why do we care? Byron keeps putting Kim
and Jo in dangerous situations that make us fear for them.

What did AI have to say?

Bard pretty much matched what I created, except that he keeps trying to make my one female character pregnant! What’s up with that? Down, Bard!

</div>

[Griffith Lambert]

Module 1, Lesson 3, Assignment 1

<div>Griff Lambert’s Engaging Characters for Riverdale
</div>

Archie Andrews

A. Main Character – Betty’s best friend since childhood; love interest (or sex toy?) of Ms. Gundry; object of Betty’s desire.

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: Football jock, carpenter, sensitive artist/songwriter.

C. Intrigue: Having an affair with Ms. Gundry and was at the lake early on July 4^th, the day of Jason’s disappearance.

D. Moral Issue: Archie struggles morally: the affair with Ms. Gundry; keeping his presence at the lake a secret; wanting to help his father but preferring football and music.

E. Unpredictable: Comes forward with the truth about July 4^th but refuses to implicate Ms. Gundry.

F. Empathetic: Archie appears to be the victim of his emotions – his affection for Ms. Gundry, his deep friendship with Betty and not wanting to hurt her (he doesn’t pursue his attraction to Veronica, not really.)

Betty Cooper

A. Main Character – Good girl, popular girl, do-the-right-thing girl. Perhaps the moral compass of the show.

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: Editor of the school newspaper.

C. Intrigue: Huge crush on Archie. Her sister Polly was hurt so badly by Jason Blossom that she has been hospitalized with a nervous breakdown.

D. Moral Issue: Goes against her mother, Alice, when she befriends Veronica.

E. Unpredictable: Nearly takes revenge on the coach’s son too far when she and Veronica get back at him for humiliating Veronica, Ethel, and other girls.

F. Empathetic: We feel bad for Betty because we know he is attracted to Veronica but even more so because she has no idea about his ongoing relationship with Ms. Gundry.

Veronica Lodge

A. New girl, femme fatale, and Betty’s new bestie (or…?)

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: Mover and Shaker; makes the cheerleading squad without breaking a sweat.

C. Intrigue: Father Hyram Lodge is under indictment for as yet unspecified financial crimes.

D. Moral Issue: With a Big-city attitude and an Ice Princess chip on her shoulder, Veronica seems ready to step over bodies to get her way.

E. Unpredictable: Veronica pulled up short before taking it too far with Archie, not wanting to make trouble with Betty. And she seemed shocked when Betty impersonated Polly.

F. Empathetic: We feel sorry for Veronica and Hermione’s troubles stemming from Hyram Lodge’s legal troubles. (And what’s with the satchel of cash??)

Jughead Jones

A. Loner, egghead, Truthseeker. Jughead plays the role of the Outsider.

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: Writer, investigator. Betty gives him free rein to expose the Jason Blossom story.

C. Intrigue: Jughead discovers Archies’s secret about July 4^th and Ms. Gundry and pushes him to come forward.

D. Moral Issue: Won’t lie, even at a high cost to himself.

E. Unpredictable: When he thinks he’s got the goods on Dilton Doiley about the July 4^th gunshot, Jughead, and Betty both swear secrecy for access to a “better story” from Dilton.

F. Empathetic: We believe that whatever unethical behavior Jughead exhibits is in pursuit of the higher truth.

[Griffith Lambert]

Lesson 2 Assignment 2

Griff Lambert

My TV Series

What I learned: Character is plot. Well, I knew this already but Bard confirmed it by its response to the initial prompt. Good prompt and good results. I think this is off to a good start.

My show: The Loner

Kim and Jo don’t work. With little to do they become obsessed with their new neighbor, Rami. Egged on by their wanna-be cop friend, Byron, Kim and Jo develop the paranoid idea that Rami has a secret identity and is a threat to National Security.

Main Character Circle:

Kim Conklin: 36, smart, no ambition, MBA graduate who never went into business. He gambles and buys Bitcoin online when not playing video games and drinking. Lives off deceased parents’ Social Security.

Jo (Josephine) Conklin: The sexy Homecoming Queen who misfired young. Kim helped her engineer a disability hack that brings in money. Jo noodles with a guitar when not imagining herself an actress.

Rami Altrounami: A brand-new American citizen who has renovated this suburban home in anticipation of his wife and daughter joining him when they emigrate from Uzbekistan.

Byron Baxter: A Police Academy dropout and full-time conspiracy theorist.

Connected Circle:

Brenda, real estate agent.

Sam, the out-of-town Contractor who remodeled Rami’s house.

Terry, the local builder who didn’t get the job.

Rita, Byron’s wife.

Jesse, a supermarket manager.

Dora, supermarket cashier

Yancey, a local musician and Lyft driver

Environmental Circle:

Mall shoppers, townies, Sherrif, deputies, librarian, garbage collector

Input from Bard:

Bard suggested that Kim has a gambling problem, which I liked and incorporated. It also suggested to make Jo pregnant. I did not include that, but it might work.

Bard, interestingly, came up with a number of connected and environmental characters which I had already thought of.

[Griffith Lambert]

SU AI Module 1 Lesson 2

Assignment 1

Riverdale Character Circle

Main Character Circle:

Archie Andrews

Betty Cooper

Veronica Lodge

Jughead Jones

Connected Circle:

Cheryl Blossom

(Jason Blossom)

Kevin Keller

Hermione Lodge

(Hyram Lodge)

Fred Andrews

Alice Cooper, Hal Cooper

Geraldine Gundry

Sherrif Keller

Josie McCoy

Pussycats

Moose

Reggie

Blossom Parents

Pop Tate

Principal Weatherbee

Environment Circle:

Dilton Doiley, Smithers, Coroner, police, Riverdale High School students and teachers, football players, townsfolk

[Griffith Lambert]

SU AI Module 1 Lesson 1

Riverdale 5-Star Model

October 17, 2023

My show idea: “The Loner”

Logline: A stranger moves into the long-vacant house next door to two bored slackers, who proceed to make his life a living hell.

My Example Show: “Riverdale”

What I learned from this lesson:

I had completely overlooked Riverdale. I thought it would be silly fluff, based, as it is, on Archie comics. And while it seems to be aimed at a youth audience, it has surprising depth and complexity, not to mention great character development. Riverdale has intrigue and elements similar to those I would like to develop in The Loner.

5-Star Points

1. Big Picture Hook

The big hook of Riverdale is: Who killed Jason Blossom?

The town of Riverdale is established as the epitome of Small Town America. Geographically vague, it seems to be not too far from New York City when Veronica and her mother arrive with mysterious back-stories. But, far from being Happy Days, Riverdale appears to have more than its share of dark secrets.

The first episode introduces all-American teen hero Jason Blossom and his twin sister, Cheryl and quickly sets up a number of tantalizing questions:

A. What were the Blossom twins doing out on Sweetwater River that fateful day?

B. What did Jason do to Betty’s sister Polly to make Alice Cooper hate him?

C. What did Archie and Ms Grundy witness the day of Jason’s murder that they kept secret?

D. Who murdered Jason Blossom?

2. Intriguing Characters

A. Archie Andrews: Reluctant Jock, loyal friend to Betty, attracted to new-girl-in-town Veronica, had a summer affair with music teacher Ms Grundy with whom he shares a dark secret about the day of Jason Blossom’s disappearance. Archie may be on the football team and work construction for his father, but he’s a sensitive artist and talented songwriter at heart.

B. Betty Cooper: America’s sweetheart: impossibly pretty Good Girl who has a crush on Archie, her long-time bestie. Betty’s sister Polly was dating Jason Blossom and their breakup was devastating enough to put Polly in the hospital with a nervous breakdown. Betty’s domineering mother blames Jason and even hopes he suffered. When Veronica comes to town and shakes things up, Betty rebels against her mother and starts a friendship that Alice warns will end badly.

C. Veronica Lodge: New Girl and sexpot, arrived in Riverdale with mother Hermione and a checkered past. The notoriety of criminally indicted dad, Hyram Lodge, has mysteriously driven Hermione and Veronica out of NYC to Hermione’s old roots in small-town Riverdale. Veronica and Archie have an immediate attraction, but V plays it cool, choosing instead to foster a friendship with Betty (ulterior motives?) Veronica satisfyingly puts spoiled-brat rich girl Cheryl Blossom in her place and gets Betty placed on Cheryl’s cheerleading squad, to Alice’s chagrin.

D. Cheryl Blossom: Stuck-up rich girl and, by the way, what were she and brother Jason doing out on Sweetwater River that day? Hates/resents Betty and fears Veronica, a self-proclaimed Ice Princess. Cheryl is a bit one-dimensional in Episode One, but I’m sure she’s sitting on a bombshell, as she does come across as tortured. “To Be or Not To Be?” Obsess-worthy stuff, for sure.

E. Jughead Jones: doesn’t show up much in Episode One but certainly will become a main character in subsequent episodes. In the first episode, he is established as a cerebral loner and the narrator of the series backstory. He’s a tease in Episode One that helps to kick off the Bingeworthyness of the series.

F. Kevin Keller (was he an original Archie Comics character?) seemed at first the Token Gay, but they cleverly set up Moose to be attracted to him, resulting in their discovery of Jason Blossom’s body at the river mid-tryst. Between this and the kiss between Betty and Veronica during the cheerleader tryout, it is established that same-sexiness is normal and opens Riverdale to a wider audience of young people.

3. Empathy/Distress

A. Archie – deals with pressure from the football coach to play Varsity Football, from his father to participate in the family construction business, from Betty to become more than best friends, and from Ms Gundry to keep their dark secret. Poor guy! All he wants to do is write sensitive songs and be dreamy. He’s even spurned by The Pussycats! Then, along comes Veronica to complicate it all by being an irresistible Hottie.

B. Betty – Her long-standing crush on Archie won’t go away; Mom is controlling and domineering; sister Polly is hospitalized with a nervous breakdown and nobody seems to know what Jason Blossom did to cause this. Betty is constantly under pressure to be the Good Girl, the smartest one in the room, and the faithful friend. Veronica comes along and upends all this by inexplicably befriending Betty, appearing to root for Betty and Archie as a couple while making out with Archie in the closet at Cheryl’s after-party. Maybe Betty’s mother was right about Veronica?

C. Veronica – former Rich Bitch now taken down a few pegs by demotion from the Big Apple to Riverdale. Veronica handles the transition to small-town Riverdale High with confidence but she is still plagued by the shady reputation of her father, which has arrived in Riverdale ahead of her. She seems to temper her attraction to Archie in favor of fostering a relationship with Betty, but there’s no way she won’t live up to her Femme Fatale persona.

D. Cheryl Blossom – We know she knows something dark, really dark, and is keeping it inside. Her role as Queen Bee at Riverdale High is sure to be challenged by Veronica. Was she similarly threatened by Polly Cooper? Are there the tinglings of incestuous undertones afoot? In Episode One Cheryl is mostly an enigma, but something wicked this way comes, methinks.

E. Jughead – is going to be the Conscience of the series, the Stage Manager in Our Town. We don’t yet know what is going to distress him but I get the feeling that he will be working at getting to the Truth as the series gets its footing, and his distress will be that he is thwarted at every turn in his dogged pursuit, maybe even threatened.

F. Kevin Keller must certainly face some consequences for his lifestyle choices. We already know that he frequents a night spot with a reputation for catering to non-binary pursuits. In Episode One he seems to shrug off the few sidewise glances he gets and even enjoys some support, but I feel like that’s a fragile truce.

Character Tensions in Episode One

Archie/Betty; Archie/Veronica; Archie/Geraldine; Archie/Fred; Archie/Coach; Archie/Josie; Archie/Reggie

Betty/Archie; Betty/Veronica; Betty/Cheryl; Betty/Alice

Veronica/Betty; Veronica/Cheryl

Hermione/Fred Andrews; Hermione/Hyram (implied by bag-o-cash)

Kevin/Betty; Kevin/Moose

4. Layers/Open Loops

A. Who killed Jason Blossom?

B. What were the Blossom twins doing on the river? Why did Cheryl ask Jason, “Are you scared?”

C. What was the relationship between the Blossom twins?

D. What did Archie and Geraldine hear/see at the river?

E. Why didn’t they find Jason when they dragged the river?

F. Why did Hermione have to leave New York?

G. What did Jason do to Polly Cooper to make Alice hate him?

H. What does Cheryl have on her Hench girls besides her money?

I. Why does Josie seem so threatened by Archie?

J. What did Hyram do that was so bad? What’s the bag of cash about?

K. Is Veronica really trying to be Betty’s friend? Does Veronica have an agenda?

L. What will become of the Kevin/Moose connection?

M. Did The Coopers have something to do with Jason’s murder?

N. Is Geraldine ashamed of her affair with Archie or is it about what they witnessed at the river?

O. What will Jughead’s role at the school newspaper have to do with the investigation?

P. What did the autopsy of Jason reveal?

Q. Who will be taken into custody as a suspect in Episode Two?

5. Inviting Obsession

By the end of Episode One we absolutely must know:

A. Is there any hope for Archie and Betty as a couple?

B. Why did Jason and Cheryl Blossom go to the river together that day?

C. Is Veronica truly Betty’s friend or does she have a secret agenda?

D. Why is Geraldine Gundry avoiding Archie?

E. What are the consequences of Betty going against her mother?

F. What happened to Polly Cooper and will she be okay?

G. Can Archie’s relationship with Fred survive school, varsity football, and Archie’s musical aspirations?

H. What will happen with Archie’s music?

I. Will The Pussycats achieve notoriety or obscurity?

J. What was really going on between the Blossom twins?

K. Will Fred and Hermione rekindle their high school relationship?

L. Is the Kevin/Moose connection doomed?

M. Will Jughead expose himself to danger by writing about the investigation?

N. Why is Reggie such a douche? Is he dating Josie?

O. What’s the deal with the satchel of cash from Hyram Lodge?

P. What will the autopsy reveal?

Q. Who will be charged with Jason’s murder?

R. And, finally WHO KILLED JASON BLOSSOM? (and WHY?)

Stay tuned, because you can’t do otherwise!

[Griffith Lambert]

Hi, I’m Griff Lambert

I have seven completed feature screenplays and one TV project and bible I did in Bingeworthy and one that I have completed outside of SU.

<div>I have taken ProSeries, Bingeworthy, Re-write and other SU courses.</div><div>

I retired (gave up?) from 40 years in television production and will be soon moving permanently to Sicily, if we can ever navigate the Retirement Visa (insert headache here.)

Unique about me? I suffered a stroke almost two years ago and I am recently back to writing. I think AI may be able to help replace some of the brain cells that were scrambled in that stroke.

Looking forward to seeing everyone’s discoveries about AI.

Griff

</div>

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff Lambert

I Agree to the Terms of this Release Form.

As a member of this group, I, Griffith Lambert, agree to the following:

1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.

2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.

I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.

3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.

4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.

5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.

6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.

This completes the Group Release Form for the class.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by  Griffith Lambert. Reason: I had deviated slightly from the format and corrected that to comply

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff’s Pitch for The Last Straw.

What I learned doing this assignment: Allowing for imperfection lets the process flow.

PITCH FOR “THE LAST STRAW”

A. Genre: RomCom
B. Title: The Last Straw
C. High Concept: STEPHANIE AND BRAD, neighbors and exhausted single parents, “run away from home” in order to teach their troublesome teens a lesson.
D. Main Conflict: The stunt goes wrong and the parents are taken hostage by some inept Mexican drug runners to smuggle drugs across the border.
E. Transformational Journey: The parents find out that A) opposites attract and B) they have to rely on their kids for adult supervision.
F. Opposition: The drug smugglers posing as Mexican authorities won’t release the parents until they have accomplished their smuggling mission.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by  Griffith Lambert.

[Griffith Lambert]

I, Griffith Lambert, as a member of this group, I agree to the following:

1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.

2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.

I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.

3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.

4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.

5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.

6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.

This completes the Group Release Form for the class.

[Griffith Lambert]

Hello, my name is Griff Lambert.

I have completed 8 features and 2 complete TV bibles with pilots and 5 seasons outlined. I have been pitching one of these TV streamers recently until the Writer’s strike.

I want to re-write the original feature that inspired one of the TV streamers as it is over twenty years old and in need of an update (I think it still has value as a feature.)

I spent 10 years in the music business and 40 years in the TV business.

I look forward to meeting everyone in this class.

[Griffith Lambert]

Lesson 7

Griff’s 4-Act Structure.

What I learned doing this assignment: The brainstorming process can lead to multiple story directions that must eventually be corralled.

Concept: Rami, a reclusive software developer, buys a
house on the edge of a suburban neighborhood. Main Conflict: Kim and Jo, the next door neighbors, are
rowdy losers who won’t leave Rami alone.

Act 1:

Opening: Renovations begin at the house next door to
Kim and Jo. Kim has no luck satisfying his curiosity about the new owner.
The crew are tight-lipped and keep the place locked up.
Inciting Incident: Rami, the new owner, doesn’t even
make an appearance until the work is finished and the movers arrive with expensive
anvil cases but no furniture. Turning Point: Rami is not friendly and has no
interest in interacting with Kim and Jo. Kim is now suspicious.

Act 2:

<div>New plan: Kim and his wannabe cop buddy Byron hatch a
plan to find out what’s going on. Jo agrees to distract Rami by creating a
sexy diversion. Plan in action: Kim and Byron break in while Rami is busy
ogling Jo. Getting inside the house is very easy. Too easy. Midpoint Turning Point: Kim and Byron discover a dizzying
installation of electronic equipment inside. They also realize that a sophisticated
security system has probably caught them in the act of breaking and entering.
</div>

Act 3:

Rethink everything: Rami never mentions the break-in. He acts as if nothing happened.
New plan: Kim’s suspicion shifts to Jo. They have a big
fight and Jo takes refuge at Rami’s.
Turning Point: Huge failure / Major shift: Kim and
Byron confront Rami about Jo, who won’t agree to go back home. Things turn
violent, and Rami is injured in the confusion. Kim and Byron succeed in
removing Jo from the house.

Act 4:

Final plan: All is quiet at Rami’s. Have they killed him?
Jo is restrained and locked in a room. They can’t call the police and Jo
will certainly reveal the truth. Climax/Ultimate expression of the conflict: Kim and
Byron explain the situation and Jo agrees to go next door to check on
Rami. When she doesn’t come back they go investigate, walking into a booby
trap – Rami has rigged the house to blow up!
Resolution: Recovering from his burns in the hospital,
Kim is interviewed by the police. Jo and Rami are presumed to have
perished in the fire. A package arrives at the hospital for Kim,
containing a video game featuring Rami and Jo and includes the security cam footage of Kim and
Byron’s break-in antics.

[Griffith Lambert]

Lesson 6

Griff’s Developing Multiple Layers

What I learned doing this assignment: A story about some pesky neighbors smacks of comedy, but with layers it can turn into a deeper drama, a horror story, even science fiction. “The Hunt” could have been a simple story about hunting humans for sport, but its layers turned it into a deeper social satire.

1. Brainstorm potential plot layers.

Major scheme revealed: Rami has a not-so-innocent
agenda.
Mystery revealed: Rami is Kim’s long-time nemesis but
Kim can’t reveal that.

Thought it was one thing, but it is another: Just seems
like Kim and Jo are curious/suspicious of the new neighbor, but it’s more
complicated than that. Major shift in Meaning: What if everybody is a spy? Hidden history: Did Jo and Rami already know each
other? Hidden plan: Rami is there to upset Kim’s master plan.

2. Brainstorm potential character layers.

<div>Secret identity: Who is Rami, really? Who is Jo really?
Are they a sleeper-cell of some kind? Are Kim and Jo the sleeper cell and
Rami is there to expose them?

</div><div>

Intrigue layers: How are Kim and Byron able to get past
Rami’s security system? Hidden relationships and conspiracies: Rami and Jo: how
do they know each other? Hidden Character history: Jo met Rami in London.

</div>

3. Brainstorm potential location layers.

<div>Hidden operation: Rami has uncovered a long-disused
tunnel between houses. Deeper meaning: Did Rami know this before buying the house? Trap to draw prey: Is this all part of a plot by Rami? Unique sub-world: Rami’s high-tech build-out. The two houses
are connected by a tunnel.</div><div>

Surface Layer: Kim and Byron are just a couple of nosey
losers and Jo is an unwitting accomplice. Beneath That: Rami had a reason for buying the house
next door. How Revealed: Rami “discovers” the tunnel between the houses, but did he know it was there all along? Have Kim and Jo known about it, too?

</div>

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by  Griffith Lambert. Reason: Format out-of-sync

[Griffith Lambert]

SU CONTAINED

Lesson 5

Griff’s Character Journey!

What I learned doing this assignment: Character is plot!

Rami: A talented tech engineer from Afghanistan, educated in London, so he has an international aspect on living in the United States.

Beginning: Rami moves in next door to Kim and Jo. He tends to keep to himself.

Turning Point: Rami soon realizes that his neighbors are suspicious of him.

Midpoint: Rami catches Kim and Byron in the act of spying on him.

Turning Point 2: Jo has taken an interest in Rami

Dilemma: Rami’s interest in Jo has led him to want to help her leave Kim.

3rd Act Climax: All-out war between Rami, Kim, and Byron.

Ending: Rami’s house burns to the ground and he and Jo are presumed to have died in the fire.

Kim: A bright but ultimately lazy American with vague notions of patriotism. He prefers to game the unemployment and disability system rather than work a job.

Beginning: Kim stays at home playing video games and watching porn.

Turning Point: Rami moves in next door. Kim is suspicious: Why the security system?

Midpoint: Kim lets Byron fuel his paranoia and they are caught breaking in to Rami’s house.

Turning Point 2: Jo has taken an interest in Rami.

Dilemma: Kim is afraid that Jo will leave him for Rami.

3rd Act Climax: The situation blows out of control as Kim tries to prevent Jo from leaving, blaming Rami for the whole thing.

Ending: Byron rigs the house to blow up, but it ignites with Kim, Jo, and Rami inside.

Jo: The Homecoming Queen who never grew up. A promising marriage with Kim devolved into her participation in Kim’s schemes and conspiracy theories.

Beginning: Jo has lost interest in pretty much everything. She has learned to work the disability system from Kim.

Turning Point: Rami moves in next door. Jo is intrigued.

Midpoint: Fueled by Kim and Byron’s racism and paranoia, Jo participates in spying on Rami.

Turning Point 2: Jo begins to find Rami far more interesting than Kim.

Dilemma: To leave Kim for Rami or…?

3rd Act Climax: The battle of the next-door neighbors escalates.

Ending: Byron blows up Rami’s house with Jo, Kim, and Rami inside.

Byron: A wannabe cop who couldn’t hack the police academy and has focused instead on “security” fueled by a feverish imagination.

Beginning: Byron offers his casual take on new neighbor Rami, and it isn’t good.

Turning Point: Byron convinces Kim that Rami is “up to something” and they hatch a plan to break into the house.

Midpoint: Rami’s security system catches them in the act (Duh!)

Turning Point 2: Byron doesn’t know what to make of Jo’s visits to Rami’s house.

Dilemma: Rat out Jo to Kim?

3rd Act Climax: Byron has convinced Kim that the situation needs to be “dealt with.”

Ending: Byron’s paranoid plan puts Kim in the hospital with serious burns and Jo and Rami are presumed dead in the fire.

[Griffith Lambert]

SU CONTAINED

Lesson 4

Griff’s Character Depth!

What I learned doing this assignment: The characters will reveal themselves in this exploration.

Rami: A talented tech engineer from Afghanistan, educated in London, so he has an international aspect on living in the United States.

Kim: A bright but ultimately lazy American with vague notions of patriotism. He prefers to game the unemployment and disability system rather than work a job.

Jo: The Homecoming Queen who never grew up. A promising marriage to Kim devolved into her participation in Kim’s schemes and conspiracy theories.

Byron: A wannabe cop who couldn’t hack the police academy and has focused instead on “security” fueled by a feverish imagination.

Internal Character Depth – RAMI

<div>
Motivation: Bought a house so that he can bring his sister
to live in the US.
Secret: He can never go home.</div><div>

Wound: Rami’s family, besides his sister, was killed in
a US military action.
Subtext: Distrustful of American agencies of all kinds.
Layers: Feels that the US owes him for the tragedy of
his family.

</div><div>

Conflict: Living and working in the US while resenting
what happened to his family.

</div><div>

Hidden Agenda: Get as much out of the “system” as he
can.

Conspiracy: Would consider “payback” if the opportunity
arose.
Intrigue: Rami and Kim share a common notion of somehow
gaming the system.

</div><div>

Dilemma: Dependent on his visa status to continue
earning enough to bring his sister.

</div><div>

</div>

Internal Character Depth: KIM

· Motivation: Doesn’t want to work. Rents the house he and Jo live in.

· Secret: He is using false disability claims to get income from the state.

· Wound: Kim failed at all his past endeavors, couldn’t provide for Jo as they had hoped.

· Subtext: Blames everybody but himself for his shortcomings.

· Layers: Festering guilt at having under-achieved, thinks Jo resents him.

· Conflict: Suspicious of the new neighbor, Rami.

· Conspiracy: Out to prove that Rami is not what he seems.

· Intrigue: Allows Byron to fuel his base instincts of paranoia.

· Dilemma: Afraid that Jo will leave him if he does not come up with a plan to improve their lives.

Internal Character Depth: JO

· Motivation: Has settled into Kim’s scams to avoid productive work.

· Secret: She had much better prospects before marrying Kim.

· Wound: Jo’s wealthy parents were opposed to marriage to Kim and they have cut her off.

· Subtext: Jo has given up on improving her situation. She is adrift.

· Layers: Jo continues to take care of herself with a vague notion that “something will come along” to improve her life.

· Conflict: Kim has lost interest in her. They have no sex life.

· Hidden Agenda: Escape.

· Intrigue: Jo doesn’t share Kim and Byron’s racist take on Rami.

· Dilemma: Curious about Rami but can’t allow herself to be found out. Hates Byron.

Internal Character Depth: BYRON

· Motivation: Impress Kim with his knowledge of law enforcement “tricks.”

· Secret: He keeps a huge stash of weapons, many illegal.

`Secret Identity: Thinks of himself as a kind of private detective.

· Wound: He didn’t make it in the legitimate law enforcement world.

· Subtext: Nobody can challenge his “invincible ignorance.”

· Layers: Byron has long lusted after Jo.

· Conflict: Byron suggests Kim work with him to reveal Rami’s real identity.

· Dilemma: Rami’s tech-savvy thwarts Byron’s lame attempts to spy.

[Griffith Lambert]

SU Contained Lesson 3

Griff Lambert’s Right Characters

What I learned doing this assignment: It’s easier to suss out character motivation when backing into a strong hook.

Logline/Hook: A reclusive computer programmer buys a suburban house next door to some purposeless and rowdy renters who become hell-bent on ruining his life.

Genre: Uncomfortable Dark Comedy – Streaming Episodic

Contained Setting: Side-by-side suburban ranch houses.

Characters:

Rami: A well-educated computer programmer from Uzbekistan who went to school in the UK. He just wants to keep his head down and get his project completed. Neighbors Kim and Jo will not let him do that. But Rami and Jo make a connection that will change all their lives.

Jo: A sexy college-educated girl who just stopped trying. Rami moves in and at first, Jo buys into all of Kim’s stereotypes about him. But Jo’s curiosity is awakened and she comes to see Rami as a person, not a stereotype.

Kim: Average American, who loves sports, trucks, barbecue, and porn. He used to work, but then he discovered a disability hack and hasn’t worked in years. He applies every trope and stereotype to Rami as soon as they meet.

Byron: A wanna-be cop and general busybody who drags Kim and Jo down into the paranoid mud puddle of his life.

Incidental characters: Firefighters (4), local police (2), and an FBI guy. Probably also a FedEx or UPS delivery person.

1. Why are these the right characters?

Rami – Just wants to be left alone to work on his “projects.”

Kim – He’s home all the time playing video games so he has nothing better to do than scrutinize the new neighbor.

Jo – Kim has stopped seeing his wife as the sexy co-ed he married, leaving her bored and ripe for causing/getting into trouble.

Byron – Didn’t have what it takes to be a cop, but he does “cop stuff” as a hobby to salve his considerable ego.

These characters will all collide, and it won’t be pretty.

[Griffith Lambert]

Contained Lesson 2 – High Concept

Griff Lambert’s Great Hook

How did this process work for you? It was easy to generate ideas when there was no pressure to decide. After going through the process one idea stood out.

1. Taking your 5 ideas from the Pre-Lesson, use the techniques below to brainstorm possible major hooks.

IDEA #1

A. Intriguing Contained Setting: Maximum security federal
prison (Attica, NY)
B. Unique Device: The Opera Club w.ants to put in a
live performance.
C. Unique Monster/Villain: Rival Capo who wants to use
the performance as a cover for a jailbreak
D. Mystery: Who is the inmate on Death Row with the haunting
voice?
E. Impossible goal/Unsolvable problem: Escape from max
security prison.
F. Unique layers: The stratification and volatility of
the inmate population.

IDEA #2

A. Intriguing Contained Setting: Two suburban ranch
houses, backyards, street.
B. Unique Device: New homeowner moves in and the lowlife
neighbors are suspicious he’s “up to” something.
C. Unique Monster/Villain: Security guard bro-in-law eggs
them on.
D. Mystery: What’s the quiet neighbor really up to? Is
he “too quiet”?
E. Impossible goal/Unsolvable problem: Get inside his
house.
F. Unique layers: Wife is hot, lures the neighbor with
promise of sex.

IDEA #3

A. Intriguing Contained Setting: Bowling alley in a
small town.
B. Unique Device: Cash was stashed in the ceiling after
a bank robbery, ten years ago.
C. Unique Monster/Villain: The thief is back to recover
the money.
D. Mystery: What’s become of the stashed money?
E. Impossible goal/Unsolvable problem: How to find out
what became of the money without raising suspicion.
F. Unique layers: Crook falls in love with the bowling
alley owner.

IDEA #4

A. Intriguing Contained Setting: A lonely roadside
diner, close to closing time.
B. Unique Device: Pompous professor holds court and
doesn’t want to go home.
C. Unique Monster/Villain: Lone biker who is a PTSD-suffering
Vet.
D. Mystery: What triggers the biker to take everyone
hostage at gunpoint?
E. Impossible goal/Unsolvable problem: How to de-fuse
the situation without loss of life.
F. Unique layers: Professor’s young acolytes try to
defend him and themselves from the menacing biker.

IDEA #5

A. Intriguing Contained Setting:4-story Paris hotel
(residential building.)
B. Unique Device: Sylvie seems like a harmless,
eccentric cat lady who just wants to be left alone.
C. Unique Monster/Villain:The Finder – he’s a bounty
hunter specializing in missing secret agents.
D. Mystery: Why is The Finder after Sylvie?
E. Impossible goal/Unsolvable problem: How to get out
alive.
F. Unique layers: All the residents of the hotel are ex-operatives
hiding out from discovery.

2. Ask the High Concept Question.

Having to do with __IDEA #2_________, what haven’t we
seen before?

3. Pick one and do the Exchanging Components process.

<div>
List the components of your current concept.
Brainstorm many alternatives for each component.
Pick the most interesting and engaging.
</div><div>

</div><div>

HOOK: Nosey neighbors decide their reclusive new neighbor is up to something. Their paranoia shatters all their lives.

</div>

IDEA #2

A. Intriguing Contained Setting: Two suburban ranch
houses, backyards, street.

(Could be adjoining apartments or condos
Could also be a trailer or mobile home park with few
surrounding neighbors. )

B. Unique Device: The standoff-ish new homeowner keeps
to himself and the nosey lowlife neighbors are suspicious he’s “up to”
something.

(Maybe the new neighbor works nearby and is gone during the
day OR the new neighbor works at home and never leaves the
house.
The neighbor keeps getting deliveries, some in large
boxes.)

C. Unique Monster/Villain: Security guard bro-in-law eggs
them on.
(
The nosey couple doesn’t work, their racket is scamming
the disability and unemployment systems.
The nosey couple are paranoid they will be found out. )

D. Mystery: What’s the quiet neighbor really up to? Is
he “too quiet”?

Neighbor seems to work late at night, but on what?
Electronic communications can be heard late at night.

E. Impossible goal/Unsolvable problem: Get inside his
house.
( The neighbor catches the couple breaking in, and police get
involved. The neighbor has a security system and cameras installed.

F. Unique layers: The wife is hot, and lures the neighbor with
a promise of sex.

(Neighbor uses this ruse to plant cameras in the couple’s
house.)

</div>

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by  Griffith Lambert.

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff Lambert’s Covid Guidelines for FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL

What I learned doing this assignment: Covid 19 almost entirely killed the movie musical. Unless we were over those a long time ago and I just didn’t miss them.

Part 1: I have a story that can take place between two neighboring suburban homes or townhouses. A quiet loner moves in next door to the Neighbors From Hell. Tragedy ensues.

Part 2:

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL:

AS THEY DID IT:

A. People: A big cast of nicely dressed, beautiful people, some of them actors.

B. Stunts: Minor stunts mostly involving Hugh Grant falling down.

C. Extras: Plenty of these, scampering about various weddings and a …funeral.

D. Wardrobe: They are beautiful people so they want to be in fancy dress. Unless naked.

E. Hair and Make Up. Yes, yes, yes…

F. Kids and Animals: Bound to be some at the less well-heeled affairs.

G. Quarantine : Never heard of it.

COVID GUIDELINE VERSION:

First off, retitle to: FOUR FUNERALS AND A WEDDING

A. People: It’s just an older Hugh Grant as a dour funeral director and his embalmist, Igor. Set in a funeral parlor in a tiny hamlet, the cemetery is just out the back door. The funerals are all very small and sad, just a couple of mourners because the chapel isn’t big enough for a crowd. After four sad, tiny funerals Hugh Grant decides he’s in love with Igor and they get married in the chapel.

B. Stunts: None, except for Hugh Grant falling down.

C. Extras: None. The few mourners will all have speaking roles and be paid SAG scale.

D. Wardrobe: Gray and black, mostly suits. Could be reduced to one suit.

E. Hair and Make Up: Yes, please.

F. Kids and Animals: Maybe a dog that Hugh Grant adopts and then trips over.

G. Quarantine: Minimal crew and no Craft Service (hiring older actors like Mr. Grant will result in less on-set demand for snacks and require serving only weak tea.)

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by  Griffith Lambert.

[Griffith Lambert]

Name: Griff Lambert

I have completed ten screenplays. I have two streaming TV series I am currently pitching with a writing partner. I have been reviewing older items on my project list to update for streaming or to make them work as contained environments.

I was enrolled in last year’s Bingeworthy TV class but I suffered a stroke near the end and I have not finished, but the classwork informed my two current TV streamer pitches.

I hope to refine one of several ideas I have that fit into the “contained” model.

I have worked “behind the camera” in TV and film for more than 30 years. My wife and I are renovating a home in Sicily where we hope to relocate next year.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by  Griffith Lambert.

[Griffith Lambert]

I agree to the terms of this release form.

As a member of this group, I agree to the following:

1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.

2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.

I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.

3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.

4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.

5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.

6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.

Griffith Lambert February 6, 2023

This completes the Group Release Form for the class.

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff’s Set-Ups for Future Episodes

What I learned: I already have the major trajectory of the future of the first season built into the pilot when two of the main characters disappear without explanation.

I am adding two supporting characters who will motivate future episodes; a migrant laborer who was helped by Marcey’s efforts (although she doesn’t know that) and a mysterious detective who is snooping around Marcey’s desert activities.

Other set-ups:

A. Mystery dad “out-there” somewhere.

B. Brad former band might get back together via a convention in Las Vegas.

C. Randy’s crush on Marcey, which is futile, but he is clueless.

D. Todd and Brad’s surrogate relationship.

E. Stephanie’s ambition to prove herself, similar to Randy’s.

F. The separation of the two brothers into foster homes.

[Griffith Lambert]

SU Bingeworthy

Module 3 Lesson 8

Griff is adding Empathy and Distress

What I learned: I need to work on making the characters likable as well as relatable in order for the audience to react with empathy to their distress.

Stephanie’s distress about her unfulfilling work and the struggle she faces raising her boys is evident. If we like Stephanie we will feel empathy for her situation.

Randy is angry because he feels like he was dealt a bad hand in life, including the absence of his father. We need to see his vulnerable side in order to feel empathy.

Todd feels misunderstood and overlooked. By revealing his sensitive nature but also his inner strength we will tap into that empathy.

Brad is puzzled by Marcey’s fierceness and has no clue that she thinks she is trying to protect him. He is also tantalized by the notion that there is an opportunity for him to revisit his former fame. Brad is the easiest character to like.

Marcey is the fiercest of all because she is clear about what motivates her. We admire her sense of justice, now we need to relate to her and like her, or at least admire her drive.

I have added “save the cat” interaction moments for each of the characters.

[Griffith Lambert]

SU Bingeworthy

Module 3 Lesson 7

Griff’s Mysteries and Open Loops

What I learned: The mysteries and open loops are sprinkled through the framework like Easter eggs. Just gotta find ’em.

ACT 1

Essence: Stephanie struggles to balance a job and raising her two teen boys.

Mystery: There is no father around.

Open Loop: What’s caused Stephanie to become a single parent?

ACT 2

Essence: Neighbor Brad and his daughter Marcey are more than what they seem.

Mystery: Where does Marcey go?

Open Loop: Why is it so important to Marcey to keep her real agenda a secret, especially from Brad?

Open Loop: Will Stephanie and Brad’s respective parenting troubles bring them together?

ACT 3

Essence: Randy tries and fails to get picked for team sports.

Mystery: Why did Brad walk away from Rock-and-Roll at a peak of success?

Open Loop: What is Stephanie’s interest in Marcey’s activities?

Open Loop: How will Randy overcome his limitations to prove himself?

ACT 4

Essence: Stephanie’s job unravels as she focuses on the immigration story involving Marcey.

Mystery: Social worker questions about the boys’ father get conflicting responses from Stephanie and the boys.

Open Loop: Can Stephanie hold the family together?

TP: Stephanie follows Marcey to the desert and almost gets them all busted by Border Patrol.

ACT 5

Essence: Home life unravels.

Intrigue: The boys find out there is a chance they will be taken from the home by authorities.

Mystery: What is Stephanie’s angle on the story of Marcey’s desert excursions.

Open Loop: Can Marcey succeed in the face of exposure by Stephanie’s story?

Hidden Agenda: Not so hidden, Stephanie wants to make a splash using Marcey’s activities.

Strange Behavior: Stephanie and Marcey’s argument in the street is way beyond what anyone can understand.

Accusation: Marcey accuses Stephanie of trying to ruin her life.

TP: The police break up the neighborhood argument and send everyone home.

Lock in: In the morning Stephanie and Marcey are both missing.

[Griffith Lambert]

SU Bingeworthy

Module 3 Lesson 6

Griff Stacks Intrigue

What I learned: This seemed like a re-hash of Lesson 5, but as I got into it I found that I came up with some fresh angles on motivations with this stacking technique.

ACT 1

Essence: Stephanie struggles to balance a job and manage her two teen boys.

Intrigue: Stephanie has missed a deadline for her parenting advice column.

Mystery: There is no father around.

Secret: Stephanie and the boys’ father had agreed to separate amicably.

Secret Identity: Randy sees himself as a jock.

Wound: Randy is angry at the world, causing him to be a bully.

Hidden Agenda: Randy wants to prove himself to Marcey.

Hidden Layer: Todd is secretly helping out by making lunches and being ready to leave on time.

Strange Behavior: Todd could wake up his mom and Randy to get to school on time, but he doesn’t.

Accusation: Randy accuses Todd of only making himself lunch, which turns out to be untrue.

TP: Stephanie gets the boys to school late. Again

ACT 2

Essence: Neighbor Brad and his daughter Marcey are more than what they seem.

Intrigue: Neighbor Marcey disappears for days at a time, which worries her father, Brad.

Mystery: Where does Marcey go?

Secret: Brad is a former rock star keeping a low profile.

Deception: Marcey plays the Party Girl while secretly helping migrants cross the Arizona border.

Conspiracy: Marcey keeps the truth from Brad.

Secret Identity: See deception.

Wound: Marcey’s mother died of a drug overdose.

Hidden Agenda/Layer: Brad has been talking about getting the old band back together.

Strange Behavior: Stephanie begins to monitor Marcey’s comings and goings.

Accusation: Marcey thinks Stephanie is spying on her.

TP: Stephanie confronts Marcey about her lifestyle. Marcey warns her to mind her own business.

ACT 3

Essence: Randy tries and fails to get picked for team sports.

Intrigue: Todd, younger but bigger, gets invited to try out for football even though he’s only a freshman.

Mystery: Why did Brad walk away from Rock-and-Roll at a peak of success?

Secret: Brad blames himself for Marcey’s mother’s death by overdose.

Deception: Marcey thinks Brad will worry about her less if she’s just a Party Girl.

Conspiracy: Marcey and her friends seek to save the lives of migrants crossing into Arizona.

Secret Identity: Marcey and her girlfriend Harmony are lovers (sorry, Randy!)

Wound: Randy is infuriated that Todd got recruited by the lettermen.

Hidden Agenda: Brad offers Todd some self-defense instruction to protect himself from Randy.

Hidden Layer: Todd has found a new interest in martial arts.

Strange Behavior: Todd begins to spend more time at Brad and Marcey’s.

Accusation: Randy accuses Todd of taking an interest in Marcey.

TP: Social workers visit the home

ACT 4

Essence: Stephanie’s job unravels as she focuses on the immigration story involving Marcey.

Intrigue: Pushback from one of Stephanie’s podcasts angers her employers.

Mystery: Social worker questions about the boys’ father get conflicting responses.

Secret: Stephanie is still married to the boys’ father, and he does something “shadowy.”

Deception: Todd seems big and slow, but he hides a sharp intellect from Randy (for fear of further abuse.)

Conspiracy: Todd throws Stephanie under the bus during the social worker interview.

Wound: Todd feels overlooked at home, and blames his mother for the father’s absence.

Hidden Agenda: Stephanie suspects Marcey holds the key to a story that could launch her career as an investigative journalist.

Hidden Layer: Randy remembers his father enough to miss him, but Todd hardly knew him.

Strange Behavior: Randy, usually the bad actor, behaves himself during the home interview.

Accusation: Marcey accuses Stephanie of interfering in her life.

TP: Stephanie follows Marcey to the desert and almost gets her busted by Border Patrol.

ACT 5

Essence: Home life unravels.

Intrigue: The boys find out there is a chance they will be taken from the home by authorities.

Mystery: Why can’t Dad be a part of the family?

Secret: Dad has a dangerous job and doesn’t want the family worrying all the time.

Deception: Marcey tries to throw Stephanie off her trail.

Secret Identity: Stephanie wants to expose immigration corruption at the border but needs Marcey to do it.

Wound: Marcey thinks Stephanie is using her and putting her at risk.

Hidden Agenda: Not so hidden, Stephanie wants to make a splash using Marcey’s activities.

Strange Behavior: Stephanie and Marcey’s argument in the street is way beyond what anyone can understand.

Accusation: Marcey accuses Stephanie of trying to ruin her life.

TP: The police break up the neighborhood argument and send everyone home.

Lock in: In the morning Stephanie and Marcey are both missing.

[Griffith Lambert]

SU Bingeworthy

Module 3 Lesson 5

Griff’s Layers and Reveals

What I learned doing this assignment: The layers and reveals can be teased out of the framework from places they may be hard to see at first look.

ACT 1

Layer: Stephanie is unhappy with her job.

Reveal: Stephanie misses a deadline.

Layer: Randy is angry at the world.

Reveal: Randy bullies his brother, Todd.

Layer: Todd feels overlooked by his mother.

Reveal: Todd does nothing to wake up Randy and his mother to get to school on time.

TP: Stephanie gets the boys to school late. Again

ACT 2

Layer: Stephanie wants better writing assignments.

Reveal: Stephanie is pigeonholed and held back.

Layer: Marcey is a party girl who disappears into the desert for days at a time.

Reveal: She is disrupting Stephanie’s work from home.

Layer: Stephanie doesn’t really buy Marcey’s frivolous persona and asks Brad about it.

Reveal: Marcey warns Stephanie to let it alone.

Layer: Randy has a crush on Marcey.

Reveal: Only Marcey is aware that Randy can shoot hoops like a fiend.

Layer: Todd confides in Brad about Randy’s bullying.

Reveal: Brad gives Todd some self-defense pointers.

TP: Stephanie confronts Marcey about her lifestyle.

ACT 3

Layer: Randy can’t get picked for team sports because he’s small.

Reveal: Randy takes out his frustrations by bullying Todd.

Layer: Todd is big for his age but not interested in sports.

Reveal: Todd is invited to try out for football, which infuriates Randy.

Layer: Stephanie tries to enlist the boys’ help in making a good impression on the social worker.

Reveal: The boys are not enthusiastic.

TP: Social workers visit the home

ACT 4

Layer: Randy, surprisingly, puts on a good face for the home visit.

Reveal: Stephanie nearly succeeds in presenting a convincing home life.

Layer: Todd behaves strangely during the home visit.

Reveal: Todd blurts out his anger towards Randy and Stephanie.

Layer: Stephanie gets push-back from one of her blogs.

Reveal: Stephanie has a plan to break away from her silly writing gig.

TP: Stephanie follows Marcey to the desert and almost gets her busted by Border Patrol.

ACT 5

Layer: The boys walk to school but are turned away as truants.

Reveal: The boys are brought home by the police.

Layer: Stephanie has had it with the boys’ antics.

Reveal: They get into a loud argument that spills out into the cul-de-sac.

Layer: Marcey confronts Stephanie for nearly getting her busted.

Reveal: Stephanie outs Marcey and her real motives to Brad.

TP: The police break up the argument and send everyone home.

Lock in: In the morning Stephanie and Marcey are both missing.

[Griffith Lambert]

SU Bingeworthy

Module 3 Lesson 4

Griff’s Character Story Lines

What I learned doing this assignment: I have been focusing on the wrong Protagonist. If this is a coming-of-age story the Protagonist(s) must be the brothers. It’s difficult to juggle this in an ensemble cast because the parents and the daughter of the neighbor are also equally important characters. I also think I have a least one and maybe two unnecessary characters to flesh out in the pilot. They can come in later since most of the first season will be told in flashback.

Randy’s Story Line Structure:

Opening: Randy is an angry teen who misses his father and challenges his mother. He relentlessly bullies his younger (but bigger!) brother, Todd.

Turning Point 1: Randy can’t get anybody to select him for team sports due to his small size.

Midpoint: Randy acts out, continually getting in trouble at school.

Turning Point 2: Randy and his brother are picked up by police and brought home. The cops are confronted by the neighbor’s daughter, Marcey, who defends the boys.

Dilemma: Sports is Randy’s passion, but he is not taken seriously. He takes out his frustrations on his brother and his mother, Stephanie.

Major Conflict: School authorities have threatened to intervene in the household if Stephanie can’t be effective in getting the boys to school on time. Then Mom disappears.

Ending: Randy is left to face the mystery of his mother’s disappearance and must work together with his brother.

Todd’s Story Line Structure:

Opening: Todd is the younger but bigger brother of Randy. He is a smart and sensitive kid who must endure Randy’s bullying and a home with no father.

Turning Point 1: Todd is approached by a couple of school lettermen about joining the football team. This infuriates Randy.

Midpoint: Neighbor Brad observes Todd being picked on by Randy and offers to show him how to defend himself.

Turning Point 2: Todd becomes tired of the drama at home and mentions it to a school counselor, which he later regrets.

Dilemma: Todd is a good student but plays dumb so as not to antagonize Randy. This backfires.

Major Conflict: Todd and his brother are in danger of being removed to foster care if Stephanie can’t get it together.

Ending: When Stephanie disappears foster care is inevitable, but Todd and his brother feel guilty about pushing things this far, and they decide to work together to find Stephanie.

Marcey’s Story Line Structure:

Opening: Marcey appears to be an irresponsible Party Girl, taking off to the desert for days at a time for what her father, Brad, assumes to be Raves. In fact she is part of a group leaving supplies for immigrants crossing the border into Arizona.

Turning Point 1: Stacey confronts Marcey about her lifestyle.

Midpoint: Marcey becomes concerned that she has a stalker.

Turning Point 2: Marcey has to warn Stephanie to back off and mind her own business.

Dilemma: Marcey’s cover story gives her father terrible angst, but she thinks its better than telling him the truth.

Major Conflict: Marcey’s cover story is about to be blown by Stephanie, who is looking for a sensational story to break her out of her rut.

Ending: Marcey is also missing.

Stephanie’s Story Line Structure:

Opening: Stephanie is a frustrated writer overqualified to write a parental advice column.

Turning Point 1: Stephanie becomes overwhelmed with deadlines and the responsibilities of raising her two challenging teen boys.

Midpoint: Stephanie is increasingly interested in what Marcey across the street is up to.

Turning Point 2: Stephanie is confronted by her boys about the scant time she has for them.

Dilemma: Stephanie needs to pay more attention to her boys but the opportunity to get a major story is a distraction.

Major Conflict: School authorities threaten to remove the boys to foster care.

Ending: Stephanie goes missing. Did she run away from her stressful situation, or is there foul play involved?

Brad’s Story Line Structure:

Opening: Brad is the nerdy music teacher across the street and Marcey’s father. His secret is that he gave up being a rock star to raise Marcey after her mother died of a drug overdose.

Turning Point 1: Brad finds there is interest in getting the old band back together.

Midpoint: Brad confronts Marcey about her lifestyle, not knowing it’s a cover for her more dangerous activities helping migrants cross the desert.

Turning Point 2: Brad offers to help Todd learn some self defense tactics to protect himself from his bullying brother.

Dilemma: Brad is not sure Stephanie will approve of the skills he is teaching to Todd, especially the handgun lessons.

Major Conflict: Marcey finds it impossible to keep up her slacker image in order to protect Brad.

Ending: When both Stephanie and Marcey go missing, Brad wants to help Randy and Todd find their mother in hopes it will also lead to Marcey.

Randy (R) Todd (T) Stephanie (S) Marcey (M) Brad (B)

Teaser:

Essence: Shadowy figures are sneaking around in the
desert at night.
Turning Point: The people are surprised and scatter
when they get lit up by Border Patrol vehicles.

ACT 1

Essence: (S Opening) Stephanie is an overwhelmed single mother with 2 teen boys who push her buttons constantly. She is unhappy with her work and wants to break a big story.

(R Opening) Randy is infuriated that he can’t get on a team at school but Todd gets offered to join the football team.

TP Stephanie can’t get the boys to school on time and they rack up another tardy.

ACT 2

Essence: Stephanie comes under more scrutiny from school while her video blogs get viewer push-back and her job is threatened.

(S Opening) Stephanie misses a deadline trying to get the boys to school but they are still late.

(TP1) When Marcey comes loudly home Stephanie confronts her about her slacker lifestyle.

(Midpoint) The boys are sent home from school.

(TP2) The school wants to schedule a home visit with a social worker.

ACT 3

Essence: Stephanie is threatened with foster care for the boys.

(R Opening) Randy and Todd are picked up by police while they are walking home after being sent home early by school VP.

(TP1) Marcey confronts police. Turns out she knows a little something about civil rights.

Midpoint: Stephanie assumes the boys were sent home for misbehaving when it was really her fault for being late again.

Act 4:

Essence: Stephanie tries to talk to the boys, but they
confront her about their absent father and her unavailability.
Turning Point: The confrontation escalates to a major
blowout argument.

Act 5:

<div>
Essence: The argument between Stephanie and her boys
spills out the door and into the cul-de-sac, where it escalates to involve
the neighbors.
</div><div>

(TP) Police are called and everyone is ordered to go home.

</div><div>

Lock In: Next morning, the boys wake to find Stephanie
missing. They soon discover that Marcey is also missing.

</div>

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff’s Pilot Structure

What I learned doing this assignment. This was surprisingly easy due to the previous lessons in Module 2 and the first two lessons of Module 3.

Teaser:

Essence: Shadowy figures sneak around in the
desert at night. They are removing items from backpacks.

Turning Point: When they get lit up by Border Patrol vehicles the surprised people drop their backpacks and scatter.

Act 1:

Essence: Stephanie is jolted awake by her alarm. She
has overslept due to staying up late to meet a deadline.

Turning Point: Despite her best efforts she is unable
to get the boys to school on time.

Act 2:

Essence: After dropping her two boys at school
Stephanie faces constant interruptions while trying to finish her work,
including the neighbor’s daughter Marcey coming home after yet another party
excursion into the desert.

Turning Point/Midpoint: Stephanie confronts Marcey.
There is subtext tension between the two women.

Act 3:

Essence: The boys get into trouble at school and
Stephanie has to go pick them up.

Turning Point: Stephanie is warned that she needs to
provide a more stable home life. The school counselors set up a home
visitation.

Act 4:

Essence: Stephanie tries to talk to the boys, but they
confront her about their absent father and her unavailability.
Turning Point: The confrontation escalates to a major
blowout argument.

Act 5:

Essence: The argument between Stephanie and her boys spills
out the door and into the cul-de-sac, where it escalates to involve the
neighbors. Police are called and everyone is ordered to go home.

Lock In: Next morning, the boys wake to find Stephanie
missing. They soon discover that Marcey is also missing.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by  Griffith Lambert. Reason: Remove typos caused by copy/paste

[Griffith Lambert]

Module 3 Lesson 2

Griff’s Amazing Inciting Incident

What I learned doing this assignment: In order for the pilot to set up the inciting incident, season one has to be a flashback about how things got so out of control and what’s really behind Stephanie’s disappearance.

THE LAST STRAW

PILOT AS INCITING INCIDENT

· The pilot opens with Stephanie oversleeping and getting the boys to school late. It’s clear that this is a pattern.

· When Stephanie returns home to work on an already past deadline, she is interrupted by Marcey, the party girl across the street, loudly coming home after a night out. There is a lot of tension between the two.

· Then school calls – the boys have got into trouble again. Stephanie is warned that social services may step in if things don’t improve.

· When they get home the boys start fighting with each other, and that sets off a battle royale that spills into the street and involves the neighbors.

· Eventually the cops sort things out and everyone goes home after threatening to run away from home for the umpteenth time. In the morning the boys wake up to find Stephanie gone.

Episode two will begin the flashback/flashforward of Season One as the story of how things got so out of hand is revealed.

· Intriguing Concept: Two teenage brothers awake to find their mother missing, presumably ran away from home.

· Act One: Stephanie can’t get the boys to school on time. The counselor threatens to have Social Services intervene.

· Midpoint: Stephanie doesn’t get her work done due to interruptions including the young woman across the street. The boys get in trouble and have to be picked up from school. A big fight spills into the street and involves neighbors and the police.

· Lock in: In the morning Stephanie is gone and the boys are suddenly on their own.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by  Griffith Lambert. Reason: Changed intriguing concept to focus on the boys

[Griffith Lambert]

Module 3 Lesson 1

Griff’s Big Picture Components

What I learned doing this assignment: I realized that I have to tell this story in flashback, that is, the pilot must set up the inciting incident, then most of the episodes of Season 1 will give the backstory as to how we arrived at the inciting incident in the pilot.

Series Info:

· World: Suburbia near the US/Mexico border with Arizona; the corrupt world of immigration policy.

· Main Mystery: Where has the single mother of two teenage boys disappeared to and what does the daughter of the neighbor have to do with it?

· Impossible Goal: The boys must elude foster care and find Mom themselves.

Main Conflict: Mom was more focused on breaking a big story for her magazine than keeping the boys out of trouble, so they ended up in foster care.

· Second Mystery: The neighbor’s daughter got into a bitter dispute with Mom right before she disappeared. The daughter is also missing. What’s the connection?

· Season 1 Arc: The boys must stop fighting each other and learn to cooperate in order to find their mother.

· Season 1 Protagonist Journey: Two brothers, already feeling neglected with no father at home, have to discover each other’s strengths and weaknesses in order to work together in a dangerous environment once they hit the road to find their mother.

Pilot Info:

· Pilot Conflict: Brothers Randy and Todd are constantly at each other’s throats and their mother, Stephanie, is having no luck controlling them.

· Randy Sherwood – 17, compact and angry. Todd Sherwood – 15, Randy’s younger but bigger brother. Stephanie Sherwood – the boys’ single parent struggling to work a job she hates while looking for a better opportunity. Brad Collins – across-the-street neighbor, nerdy music teacher, used to be a rock star. Marcey Collins – Brad’s daughter (and Randy’s crush) who appears to be an aimless party girl but is hiding a much more serious agenda.

· Inciting Incident of Season 1: After a big argument involving the whole neighborhood and a few cops, the boys wake in the morning to find Stephanie gone. She remains missing, along with Marcey.

[Griffith Lambert]

Module 2 Lesson 11

Griff’s Edited TV Bible for THE LAST STRAW

What I learned doing this assignment: No matter how good it is, it can be better.

Genre: Dramatic Series

Format: I hour Episodic

Concept

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

World of the Show

Suburbia, and all is not well. Two single parents trying to bring up challenging teens and young adults have enough on their plates without being launched into trouble with the law.

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 younger brother Todd, a big kid for his age, is constantly being misidentified as 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 which 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.

Randy and Todd are shocked and puzzled – did Stephanie finally have enough and run away? Has she been abducted? What does Marcey have to do with it? In order to find out, the boys are going to have to elude foster care and stay together. Then what? Hit the road to find out what became of their mom, that’s what!

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 – she leaves 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”

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 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 – they 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”

As Stephanie pushes her editor 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 pushback from readers.

Todd suggests that he and Randy start getting up early and walking to school to avoid relying on Mom. That would require Randy getting out of bed. Early.

Stephanie threatens to quit if her editor doesn’t take her seriously. Her editor, calling her bluff observes, “And who will that inconvenience?”

Episode Three: “Life Isn’t Fair”

Randy takes bullying 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 his “little” brother’s size and density, and it just serves to further 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…”

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 takes out his frustrations by beating up on Todd. Todd confides in Brad, who has an idea to give him some self-defense training.

Stephanie continues putting out fluff parenting pieces, but becomes distracted by Marcey and Harmony’s comings and goings. Is Marcey the shallow hedonist she pretends to be?

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

Episode Five: “Martha Stewart You Ain’t”

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?”

Randy’s bullying causes Todd to seek out Brad for some adult supervision. 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 to 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 study music, not just tricks and 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”

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.”

On the day of the home inspection 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 as Agent Vaughan is leaving, and confronts him about spying on her. Agent Vaughan is bemused, pleased with the results of his agit-prop.

Episode Nine: “Do You Know Who I Used To Be?”

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 her in fail.

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 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.

During 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.”

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 up to.

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 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”

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

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.

Late that night things eventually settle down and everyone goes to bed.

In the morning Stephanie and Marcey are both missing.

Five Seasons

Season 1: Running Away From Home

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 and Marcey are 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’s 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.

[Griffith Lambert]

Module 2 Lesson 10

Griff’s Riveting Episode Titles for THE LAST STRAW

What I learned doing this assignment: Episode titles can come from anywhere. As long as there is even the loosest connection to what’s happening in the episode you can find something evocative. My favorite place to go brainstorming is the Classics – Shakespeare, Machiavelli, Plato, Oprah – whatever! This was fun!

Pilot: “Form Follows Dysfunction”

We meet the chaotic Sherwood household – Randy, Todd and Stephanie.

Episode Two: “Snot Sucker”

Stephanie turns in her parenting columns despite feeling like a shill for manufacturers of products vanity products like The Snot Sucker.

Episode Three: “Life Isn’t Fair”

Randy bullies Todd, taking out his frustrations at being smaller than his younger brother.

Episode Four: “Gimme the Ball, Gimme the Ball, Gimme…”

Randy’s passion is sports but he can’t get considered for a team due to his small size.

Episode Five: “Martha Stewart You Ain’t”

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.

Episode Six: “Whatever Became of Crash Damitch?”

Brad struggles to find satisfaction in his teaching and longs to get the old band together.

Episode Seven: “Cul-de-sac Diplomacy”

The mysterious Agent Vaughan continues to stake out the cul-de-sac, to the chagrin of both Stephanie and Brad.

Episode Eight: “…And Your Enemies Closer.”

On the day of the home inspection, 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.

Episode Nine: “Do You Know Who I Used To Be?”

Brad’s biggest fear is that Marcey will end up like her mother, a drug addict who overdosed.

Episode Ten: “The Border Crossed Us.”

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.

Episode Eleven: “Land of Opportunity”

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.

Episode Twelve: “Take A Number

Stephanie loses it, angry 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.

[Griffith Lambert]

Module 2 Lesson 9

<div>Griff’s Elevated Intrigue</div><div>

</div><div>

What I learned doing this assignment: Separating the wheat from the chaff is as much a part of the process as wordsmithing. I did as much deleting of unnecessary prolixity as I did additional exposition as I went through the Bible line-by-line.

</div><div>

Title: THE LAST STRAW

</div>

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.

Randy and Todd are shocked and puzzled – did Stephanie finally have enough and run away? Has she been abducted? What does Marcey have to do with it? In order to find out, the boys are going to have to elude foster care and stay together. Then what? Hit the road to find out what became of their mom, that’s what!

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”

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 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”

As Stephanie pushes her editor 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 pushback from readers.

Todd suggests that he and Randy start getting up early and walking to school 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”

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 his “little” brother’s size and density, and it just serves to further 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…”

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”

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?”

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 study music, not just tricks and techniques.

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”

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.”

On the day of the home inspection, 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 as Agent Vaughan is leaving, and confronts him about spying on her. Agent Vaughan is bemused, pleased with the results of his agitprop.

Episode Nine: “Do You Know Who I Used To Be?”

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 her in fail.

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 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.

During 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.”

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 up to.

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 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”

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

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.

Late that night things eventually settle down and everyone goes to bed.

In the morning Stephanie and Marcey are both missing.

Five Seasons

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. After a big argument, Stephanie disappears. The boys are absorbed into Foster Care and separated.

Season 2: Where Did Mom Go? – The boys break out of foster care and team up to find their mother. They are unprepared to deal with street life as they try to follow some tantalizing leads left by Marcey and Harmony.

Season 3: Who Is This Dad Guy, Anyway? – Life on the road for Randy and Todd doesn’t last very long before they are found and given into the care of a father they haven’t seen in years and who Todd barely knows. Morgan, however, is a swashbuckling character who is up for the chase, and the search for Stephanie continues with renewed energy.

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. Maria comes to work in the mobile clinic.

[Griffith Lambert]

Module 2 Lesson 8

Griff’s Intrigue Patterns

What I learned doing this assignment: Every sentence in the TV Bible can be elevated using this process.

The sentence I pulled out of my TV bible for THE LAST STRAW:

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.

My more intriguing sentence to replace it:

Randy and Todd are shocked and puzzled – did Stephanie finally have enough and run away? Has she been abducted? What does Marcey have to do with it? In order to find out, the boys are going to have to elude foster care and stay together. Then what? Hit the road to find out what became of their mom, that’s what!

[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.

[Griffith Lambert]

Module 2 Lesson 6

Griff’s Show Summary for THE LAST STRAW

What I learned doing this assignment: I have been waffling about the main character(s) but now I see this as a coming-of-age story about the brother’s journey, not primarily about the mother’s.

Format: Engage us in the main mystery.

How do two completely opposite teen brothers navigate adolescence with no father at home and a single mother who is distracted by forging a 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 younger brother Todd, artistic and big for his age, is constantly being misidentified as 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. Even as 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.

Separated then absorbed into the foster care system, Randy and Todd team up and hatch their own plan to hit the road to find out what happened to Stephanie and Marcey.

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff’s Engaging Episode Descriptions for THE LAST STRAW

What I learned doing this assignment: I am reminded that “the difference between fiction and non-fiction is that fiction has to make sense.”

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

· Hook: Stephanie is a working single mother with two challenging teen boys.

· Journey: Stephanie must learn to navigate home life and work.

· Conflict: Stephanie tries to work at home but the boys make it hard.

· Action: The boys’ antics cause Stephanie to miss a deadline.

· Cliffhanger: The school counselor wants a home inspection.

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.

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 – they 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.

· Hook: Stephanie’s parental advice column is a fluff piece which is hard for her to take seriously.

· Journey: Stephanie must find a way to get more respectable assignments at the magazine.

· Conflict: Stephanie tries to get her editor to consider more serious pieces from her.

· Action: One of Stephanie’s columns sparks a negative reaction from readers.

· Cliffhanger: Stephanie’s boss threatens to pull her column from future issues.

Stephanie writes her Exhausted Parent column despite feeling like a shill for manufacturers of products like The Snot Sucker. Stephanie lets her own cynicism creep into the advice column.

Continuing to pitch more serious pieces to her editor, Stephanie is becoming frustrated with being pigeonholed at the magazine. Her editor calls her bluff to quit if she doesn’t get a shot at a serious piece.

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

· Hook: Everybody feels like they are not seen for who they really are.

· Journey:

· Conflict:

· Action:

· Cliffhanger: .

· Randy bullies Todd for being a “wimp”

· School counselors ask for a home evaluation.

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 tries out for baseball. He’s got the chops, but he is not picked.

· Randy tries out for basketball. He can shoot and pass and runs circles around the other kids. Still not picked.

· Randy tries out for wrestling. That was dumb.

· Randy tries out for football? Nah.

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 too fast for them to get ahold of him, generally.

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 signs up for a cooking class and must endure Randy’s derision.

· Todd attempts to keep his excellent grades a secret for fear of Randy.

· Stephanie becomes aware that she has inadvertently been overlooking Todd’s sensitivity.

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

· Brad patiently explains to a student the importance of learning music fundamentals before trying to show off.

· Todd hangs out more and more, avoiding Randy. Brad decides to help him out by showing him some ninja moves.

· Brad is frustrated when a student pulls off a shredding stunt he learned on YouTube.

· Stephanie becomes concerned with the amount of time Todd spends at Brad’s.

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 to mimic YouTube videos.

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.

· Stephanie confronts a man in an unmarked car who appears to be staking out the cul-de-sac.

· The man won’t be dissuaded and Stephanie’s inner Momma Bear is aroused.

· Brad is convinced the cops are about to come down on Marcey for drug offenses.

· Stephanie thinks it has something to do with her boys, but she’s wrong about that.

· Marcey warns Stephanie not to antagonize the stalker. Why?

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

· Agent Vaughan to be claims to be in law enforcement but will not identify himself.

· Stephanie becomes aware that someone is making trouble for her with the school and Child Protective Services.

· A visit to the Sherwood home by social workers does not go well.

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.

· Hook: Brad attempts to intervene in Marcey’s “party” lifestyle.

· Journey: Brad needs to explore whether he can revive his Rock n’ Roll career.

· Conflict: Brad can’t “control” Marcey because he’s got it all wrong. She begins to feel conflicted as to which is worse – Brad worrying about what she’s doing or about what she isn’t doing?

· Action: Water and food left by Marcey saves the life of a young migrant, Maria.

· Cliffhanger: Brad takes off in the old Hell Toupee tour bus for a Las Vegas convention.

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 designed to put him off the scent of her real mission – to help migrants survive in the desert.

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 is revealed.

· Hook: Stephanie becomes curious about Marcey’s desert activities, not buying the Party Girl act.

· Journey: Stephanie prods Brad for more on Marcey’s background and gets the story of the tragic death of Marcey’s mother. Brad is now becoming wary of Stephanie, too.

· Conflict: Stephanie thinks there is a story lurking in Marcey’s disappearances.

· Action: Stephanie tries to follow Marcey out into the desert.

· Cliffhanger: Marcey and Harmony are arrested by Border Patrol. Stephanie bails them out.

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.

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 leaving supplies in the desert for migrants crossing illegally into the US.

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.

· Hook: Maria experiences abuse at the labor camp; her few belongings are confiscated.

· Journey: Maria tries to find out who are her allies and who are her enemies.

· Conflict: Maria stands up to the bosses and looks for support.

· Action: The bosses threaten retribution against Maria for starting trouble.

· Cliffhanger: A young pregnant woman collapses in the fields and dies of an asthma attack.

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.

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?

· Hook: The boys get into big trouble at school again and are brought home by police.

· Journey: The boys begin to realize that they may be separated from their mother.

· Conflict: The school notifies Social Services that the boys are not receiving adequate care at home.

· Action: All the stress leads to a huge argument which spills into the street.

· Cliffhanger: The morning after the big blowup Stephanie and Marcey are both missing.

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. 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.

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

[Griffith Lambert]

SU Bingeworthy

Module 2 Lesson 4

Griff’s Episode List Rough Draft

What I learned doing this assignment: It’s not as hard as I thought it would be to brainstorm episode ideas, but I had to let go of being perfect.

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

· Stephanie can’t seem to get the boys to school on time.

· Stephanie hates her job writing a parent advice column.

· Randy and Todd bicker constantly.

· Stephanie’s on thin ice with the school counselor and the boys fault her for it.

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

· Stephanie encounters a typical young mother after a testy morning with the boys.

· She can’t get her editor to even read a serious piece of hers.

· Cynicism and dark humor begin to creep into Stephanie’s advice column to young parents.

Episode Three: “Life Isn’t Fair” – In which we compare and contrast Randy and Todd’s very different but equally screwed-up school lives.

· Randy can’t get anybody to pick him for a sports team due to his small size.

· The school jocks keep approaching the bigger Todd for sports, infuriating Randy.

· Randy bullies Todd for being a “wimp”

· School counselors ask for a home evaluation.

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 tries out for baseball. He’s got the chops, but he is not picked.

· Randy tries out for basketball. He can shoot and pass and runs circles around the other kids. Still not picked.

· Randy tries out for wrestling. That was dumb.

· Randy tries out for football? Nah.

· The lettermen approach Randy and Todd outside the local Quik Mart and Randy 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 signs up for a cooking class and must endure Randy’s derision.

· Todd attempts to keep his excellent grades a secret for fear of Randy.

· Stephanie becomes aware that she has inadvertently been overlooking Todd’s sensitivity.

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

· Brad patiently explains to a student the importance of learning music fundamentals before trying to show off.

· Todd hangs out more and more, avoiding Randy. Brad decides to help him out by showing him some ninja moves.

· Brad is frustrated when a student pulls off a shredding stunt he learned on YouTube.

· Stephanie becomes concerned with the amount of time Todd spends at Brad’s.

.

Episode Seven: “Cul-de-sac Diplomacy” – In which we examine the relationships between the Sherwoods and their neighbors, Brad and Marcey.

· Brad keeps mostly to himself and his guitar students, but seldom misses a chance to ogle his hot neighbor, Stephanie.

· Randy has a crush on the formidable and unapproachable Marcey.

· Brad decides Todd needs a little self defense training against his bullying brother.

Episode Eight: “Dude, Chill” – In which Stephanie becomes aware of a spy in the neighborhood.

· Stephanie confronts a man in an unmarked car who appears to be staking out the cul-de-sac.

· The man won’t be dissuaded and Stephanie’s inner Momma Bear is aroused.

· Stephanie thinks it has something to do with her boys, but she’s wrong about that.

· Marcey warns Stephanie not to antagonize the stalker. Why?

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

· Brad tries to have a serious conversation with Marcey about her mother.

· Brad is tempted to attend a fan convention that will honor his old band, Hell Toupee.

· Stephanie has no idea that Brad used to be the famous front man of Hell Toupee.

· Marcey disappears into the desert for days on end, letting Brad think she’s partying.

· While comparing parenting notes with Brad, Stephanie gets wind of a tantalizing scandal that Marcey seems to be at the fringes of.

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

· Marcey and Harmony load her SUV with bottled water and food several times a week, to be left in the desert for migrants crossing from Mexico.

· Marcey deflects Brad’s inquiries by passing herself and Harmony off as party girls.

· Stephanie learns about Marcey’s mother from Brad (her Hispanic heritage and death by drug overdose) and begins to put two-and-two together.

· Maria is saved by the water and food left in the desert by Marcey and Harmony.

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’s meager belongings are confiscated for “safekeeping.”

· Maria is tossed together in a bunkhouse with other migrants in a very unwholesome environment.

· When Maria stands up for herself the bosses beat the weakest of them and blame Maria.

· Maria is determined to tough it out so she can send money back to her family in Mexico.

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?

· Randy and Todd are escorted home by the police for fighting at school.

· School counselors set up a home visit by Social Services.

· Todd surprises Randy by repelling one of his usual attacks.

· Marcey warns Stephanie to stay out of her business.

· Brad tries and fails to clamp down on Marcey’s nocturnal meanderings.

· Both families end up in the street shouting and threatening each other.

· Randy and Todd wake up the morning after the blowup to find Stephanie missing and no sign of Marcey.

END OF SEASON ONE

[Griffith Lambert]

SU Bingeworthy Lesson 3

Five Seasons

Griff’s Five Seasons for THE LAST STRAW

What I learned doing this assignment: This is a very fluid creative process. I have tried not to get sidetracked by perfection and allow unanswered questions to percolate.

How does a talented journalist break the biggest story of her life while struggling to raise two troublesome teenagers?

Stephanie, a single mom, is tired of shilling vanity products for young mothers, thinly disguised as a parental advice column. Her two teenage boys are constantly at each other’s throats and failing at school.

When the neighbor’s troubled daughter inadvertently drops a tantalizing scandal in her lap, Stephanie must find a way to pursue the story while keeping her hectic home life together before the county steps in to take away her two boys.

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 her more dangerous avocation of aiding migrants crossing into Arizona.

Supporting Characters:

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

Agent Vaughan: Mysterious operative keeping an eye on Marcey. Stalker?

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.

Five Season Arc

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 teenaged boys. She struggles to keep up with deadlines at the magazine for which she writes a parental advice column. Home life 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 his 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, Randy, and Todd 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.

[Griffith Lambert]

Lesson 2

Griff’s Compelling Characters for THE LAST STRAW

What I learned doing this assignment: Exposing the layers of one character leads to peeling back layers of the connected characters.

Stephanie:

· Role in the show: Single mother of Randy and Todd

· Noteworthy traits: Fiercely protective; dogged tenacity, strong moral compass

· Intriguing History: MBA in journalism; still connected to ex husband

· Intrigue? Mystery? What really happened to the Ex?

· Drive conflict: Argues with her boys, disappears without a trace.

· Irony: Talented journalist doing “fluff” pieces for a small publisher.

· Opposing agendas: Breaking a story/taking care of her boys

· Unpredictable: Temper.

· Intriguing relationships: Unknown friction with Marcey

Start: A struggling single mother of two challenging teenaged boys

Middle: Gets the opportunity to prove herself as an investigative journalist

End: and is torn between breaking the story and keeping her parental responsibilities.

Stephanie is a struggling single mom doing her best to raise teenaged sons while plugging away at a less-than-satisfying writing gig for a local publisher. Always on the lookout for a story that could break her into investigative journalism, she thinks she may be onto it through Marcey, her neighbor Brad’s daughter.

The more distracted Stephanie becomes in pursuit of her big break, the more discontent her boys Randy and Todd become with her parenting. As she loses control of the boys she comes under the scrutiny of school counselors and social services and begins to feel cornered.

Randy:

· Role in the show: Older son of Stephanie, older brother of Todd

· Noteworthy traits: Angry, hot-tempered, bullying.

· Intriguing History: Randy had a mother and father all to himself until Todd came along.

· Intrigue? Mystery? Randy claims to excel at sports but nobody other than Marcey has seen it.

· Drive conflict: He bullies Todd and Stephanie.

· Irony: Randy is small while younger brother Todd is big.

· Opposing agendas: Randy thinks Todd needs to learn to defend himself.

· Unpredictable: Randy gets into fights at school and is hard to discipline.

· Intriguing relationships: Has a big crush on Marcey

Start: Randy is small for his age

Middle: Younger brother Todd is big for his age. Randy has anger issues.

End: Randy feels like he has never had the same attention from his mother since Todd was born.

Randy is small for his age and therefore feels cheated in life. His frustration is exacerbated by the fact that younger brother Todd is built like a linebacker. All Randy knows is that life was pretty good at home until Todd was born, so he naturally associates Todd with his father’s exit from their lives.

When their mother goes missing after a nasty argument with not only the boys but spilling over to the neighbor’s daughter, Marcey, Randy is left to wonder if Stephanie’s departure is directly related to his own behavior.

When he and brother Todd are shunted around in the foster care system they decide to band together, following tantalizing clues that the grown-ups don’t consider important.

Todd

· Role in the show: Younger (but bigger) brother of Randy

· Noteworthy traits: Analytical, calm, introspective, smart.

· Intriguing History: Misses a father he never knew.

· Intrigue? Mystery? He has been tutored in survival training by neighbor Brad.

· Drive conflict? Blames Stephanie for father’s absence.

· Irony: He feels protective of Randy.

· Opposing agendas: He wants Randy off his back but is protective of him at the same time.

· Unpredictable: Todd can be sullen and has a thin skin.

· Intriguing relationships: Neighbor Brad is a mentor (for better or worse.)

Start: Todd came along right about the time that Stephanie and her husband parted ways.

Middle: Todd suffers the anger issues of his brother Randy and feels overlooked by Stephanie.

End: Todd outs his mother’s parenting to his counselor, then feels badly about the consequences.

Todd’s father left home when he was a baby and Stephanie has frustratingly little to say on the subject. When home life becomes chaotic and Randy is particularly bullying, Todd retreats into his own world and eventually finds a mentor in neighbor Brad.

As annoying as Randy is, Todd has a strong big-brother instinct to protect him, even though he is the younger brother.

Knowing that his mother would strongly disapprove of the tutoring in Survivalism that Brad can offer, Todd keeps his interest in martial arts and weapons a secret. No one had any way to predict how useful this would become.

Brad

· Role in the show: Stephanie’s neighbor and father of Marcey.

· Noteworthy traits: Patient, talented, worldly.

· Intriguing History: He was once a famous rocker who gave it up to raise his daughter.

· Intrigue? Mystery? Marcey’s mother died of a drug overdose – Brad carries guilt.

· Drive conflict? He rides Marcey hard about her Party Girl lifestyle.

· Irony: Brad was a famous rocker now teaching guitar to kids.

· Opposing agendas: Caring for Marcey while wanting to get the old band back together.

· Unpredictable: Brad lapses into reveries about the “old days.”

· Intriguing relationships: Is attracted to Stephanie. Serves as Todd’s mentor.

Start: Brad is a nerdy music teacher with a secret history as a rock star.

Middle : Brad gave it all up to raise his daughter, Marcey, after her mother overdosed.

End: Brad’s concern about Marcey’s party lifestyle is fueled by guilt over her mother’s death.

Brad Collins was at the top of his game as Crash Damitch, lead guitarist and singer of the platinum-record-selling band “Hell Toupé.” When his ex-wife died of a drug overdose Brad gave it all up to move away and raise his then 10-year-old daughter, Marcey.

Now in her early ‘20s, Marcey’s habit of disappearing for days at a time makes Brad fear that she will end up like her mother. He finds some parenting solace in Todd, who appears to be in need of a father figure in his life. Todd and Brad share an interest in Survivalism.

When one of Marcey’s excursions goes on too long and appears to coincide with neighbor Stephanie’s disappearance, Brad feels like he must take the search into his own hands.

Marcey

· Role in the show: Brad’s daughter, Stephanie’s neighbor.

· Noteworthy traits: Secretive, dismissive, fierce.

· Intriguing History: Mother died of a drug overdose, then she came to live with Brad.

· Intrigue? Mystery? Marcey pretends to be an aimless party girl while protecting her father from her true avocation of human rights activist.

· Drive conflict: Lies to Brad and Stephanie but Stephanie is onto her.

· Irony: Seems like a slacker but is really on a mission to help others.

· Opposing agendas: Doesn’t want Brad to worry but needs her independence.

· Unpredictable: Marcey takes off into the desert for days at a time.

· Intriguing relationships: Girlfriend Harmony.

Start: Marcey’s girlhood was interrupted by the tragic death of her mother.

Middle: Marcey feels a strong identity with her mother’s Hispanic ethnicity.

End: Living in a border town has made Marcey keenly aware of the plight of migrants and refugees wanting to come to the US for work or asylum.

Marcey’s mother tried to give her as normal a life as possible in the shadow of Brad’s celebrity, but the high-life eventually claimed her as a victim. Coming from Los Angeles to live a quiet life in the Arizona suburbs with her father was truly a culture shock.

Marcey’s proximity to border culture inspired an interest in her Hispanic lineage and an interest in border politics. Immigration policies radicalized her in her teens and she decided to dedicate herself to change, adopting a party girl persona to mask the real dangers of her activism in the desert.

Marcey and her girlfriend regularly joust with the Border Patrol agents, risking arrest and injury to leave supplies in the desert for migrants and refugees making the dangerous crossing. She explains her disappearances to Brad as a fictional never-ending party.

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff’s Concept and Unique World

What I learned doing this assignment: When I was writing this as a feature screenplay I had Stephanie (the mom) as the protagonist and the boys were left behind. Now I see it as a coming-of-age story and the two brothers act together as the protagonists.

Concept

· Two teenage brothers…

· …discover their mother has gone missing

· …and must counter bureaucracy and survive life on the street

· …to follow clues into dangerous and unknown territory.

Unique Sub-world

· The social services and foster care system

· Previously unexplored: The splintered homeless community

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

· The unseen: A corrupt and violent immigration system.

· Unheard of dangers from cops, street villains, and Coyotes.

· The reason to do this: Find Mom.

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff Lambert is ready for feedback BINGE WORTHY FRAMEWORK.

[Griffith Lambert]

SU Bingeworthy Lesson 11 Irony

Griff’s Creating Irony!

What I learned doing this assignment: Irony can be injected into the situation and characters to add depth and take the story in unexpected directions.

Assignment 1

Stranger Things Ironies

Situational Irony:

Hawkins is a typical, quiet small town but has a terrible secret.

Character Ironies:

Hopper is supposed to be the law but he will break the law to get to the bottom of what’s going on.

Joyce is acting crazy since Will’s disappearance but she is the only one seeing clearly.

Mike seems like the leader of the nerdy science geeks but he is impetuous and makes rash decisions.

Dustin appears to be the most immature of the boys but he has wisdom and analytical thinking.

Nancy wants to be one of the cool girls but she is not comfortable being the slutty girlfriend.

Steve appears to be the strutting BMOC but he is really more sensitive than that.

Will is the most innocent and vulnerable of the four boys, but when he returns from being “missing” he is channeling a monster from the Upside Down.

Jonathan is the socially awkward outlier with surprising talent and courage.

Eleven show up as a frightened and vulnerable child but she is a dangerous weapon.

Assignment 2

THE LAST STRAW Ironies

Situational Irony:

Neighbors Stephanie and Brad are single parents dealing with challenging children, but Brad has a mysterious history, Marcey has a secret life, Stephanie has a hidden agenda and Randy and Todd are walking contradictions.

Character Ironies:

Stephanie plays single mom, working a demeaning writing gig while waiting for the chance to break a big story.

Brad is a nerdy music teacher keeping his celebrity past a secret.

Randy is small and angry but has the talent and ability of an athlete.

Todd seems big and dumb but is actually smart and has taken defense training from Brad on the sly.

Marcey appears to be an out-of-control party girl but is secretly an activist helping migrants across the border.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Griffith Lambert.

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff’s Plot and Character Layers

What I learned doing this assignment: Plot layers continue to suggest Character layers and vice versa.

Assignment 1

Stranger Things Plot Layers

Surface: Hawkins is just a typical small town

Layer 1: Experiments at Hawkins Research Lab are causing bizarre physical anomalies in the area.

Layer 2: One of the residents claims her daughter was abducted and held at the Hawkins facility. She has since had some kind of “stroke” that has rendered her unable to communicate.

Layer 3: Chief Hopper has a murky past that seems to involve antagonism with Hawkins Labs.

Layer 4: Joyce is raising her two boys by herself and there is some difficult history with Lonnie, her Ex.

Stranger Things Character Layers

Surface: The town’s people seem like a typical cross-section of small town folks with the usual foibles.

Layer 1: Hopper has a history with Joyce (high school sweethearts?) and has a suspicion of Lonnie.

Layer 2: Nancy is dating the school BMOC, Steve, but is uncomfortable with his tendency to be a bully.

Layer 3: The four boys (Mike, Dustin, Lucas and Will) are the school science nerds, always being picked on by the “jocks.”

Layer 4: Nancy has the “good girl” reputation, A student, etc. When she begins to date Steve she has to start lying to her parents, and she is uncomfortable with this.

Layer 5: Joyce is excitable, and her older son Jonathan is a social outlier at school. When her son Will disappears, she is not taken seriously at first.

Layer 6: When Eleven turns up she is virtually mute, but learns to communicate with Mike and the boys very quickly. She is clearly “different.”

Assignment 2

THE LAST STRAW Character and Plot Layers

Plot Layers

Surface: Stephanie and Brad are neighbors, both single parents, and their kids are giving them fits.

Layer 1: Stephanie is having difficulty holding home life together as she pursues a writing career.

Layer 2: Brad keeps a low profile as a music teacher but his daughter, Marcey, disappears into the desert for days at a time with her friend Harmony. Brad assumes this is self-destructive behavior.

Layer 3: Stephanie’s boys, Randy and Todd, regularly get in trouble, and Stephanie is struggling to keep Social Services at bay.

Layer 4: Stephanie thinks there is more to Marcey’s unexplained disappearances in the desert than can be explained by the Party Girl image she projects.

Character Layers:

Stephanie:

Surface: Struggling single mom who writes a syndicated parenting advice column for a regional newspaper.

Layer 1: Stephanie is a qualified investigative journalist who is looking to break a big story.

Layer 2: Stephanie and the boys’ father are separated by mutual agreement, not divorced.

Layer 3: The separation is for the protection of the family.

Secret Identity: Investigative Journalist

Randy:

Surface: He is a typical angry teen who is frustrated that his younger brother is bigger than him.

Layer 1: Randy is a good athlete who does not get team opportunities because of his small stature.

Layer 2: Randy and Todd’s sibling rivalry is exacerbated by the absence of a father in the home.

Layer 3: Randy feels like his mother neglects her parenting responsibilities.

Layer 4: Randy has a crush on neighbor Marcey, and she is the only one aware of his athletic abilities.

Secret Identity: Jock

Todd:

Surface: Todd is a gentle and smart kid who is big for his age.

Layer 1: Todd is not interested in sports but keeps getting recruited for teams because of his size.

Layer 2: Todd feels the absence of his father more keenly than Randy and blames his mother for driving Dad away.

Layer 3: Todd has secretly been coached in self-defense by neighbor Brad.

Secret Identity: Ninja

Brad:

Surface: Reclusive music teacher dealing with a worrisome young adult daughter.

Layer 1: Brad carries guilt for his ex-wife’s death from a drug overdose.

Layer 2: Brad is a former rock star who is making amends for his previous lifestyle by caring for his daughter.

Layer 3: Brad badly wants to get the old band back together.

Secret Identity: Rock Star

Marcey:

Surface: Marcey lives at home with Brad but regularly disappears for days into the desert for what are assumed by Brad to be drug parties.

Layer 1: Marcey is involved with a group that gives aid to migrants crossing into the US via the desert. She keeps up the Party Girl persona to protect Brad.

Layer 2: Marcey’s mission is personal, as she identifies with her mother’s Hispanic heritage.

Layer 3: Marcey has agreed to share information with Stephanie that may lead to a big story.

Secret Identity: Human Rights Activist

[Griffith Lambert]

I had posted my module 1 Lesson 10 here in error.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Griffith Lambert.

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff’s Open Loops

What I learned doing this assignment: Brainstorming is a great process to pull new ideas to the surface.

Assignment 1

Stranger Things Season One Open Loops

What happened to Will in the Upside Down?

Is Barb still alive in the Upside Down?

Will the Hawkins Lab succeed in getting Eleven back?

How is Hopper going to protect Eleven?

Is Nancy and Steve’s relationship going to survive her interest in Jonathan?

Can the Monster and the bleed of the Upside Down be controlled?

Assignment 2

THE LAST STRAW Big Picture Open Loops

Goals:

A. How is Stephanie’s goal to be an investigative journalist related to her disappearance?

B. Can Randy ever prove himself as an athlete?

C. Is Marcey’s goal to help migrants in the desert doing any good?

D. Who was the “stalker” parked on the street that Stephanie chased away?

Consequences:

A. Can Randy and Todd hope to find Stephanie on their own?

B. Randy and Todd are effectively fugitives after running away from their new foster homes.

C. When “Dad” shows up, will he be a help or a hinderance? What’s his agenda?

D. What does Brad read into Marcey’s disappearance after Stephanie goes missing?

E. Brad had made an ambiguous (sexually charged) comment to Stephanie – could that implicate him in her disappearance?

Solving Problems:

A. How are two kids going to search for their missing mother?

Relationships:

A. Randy and Todd need to work out a way to get along.

B. What was the underlying relationship between Marcey and Stephanie?

C. Did Stephanie and Brad have “a history”?

D. Is Marcey’s estrangement from Brad intentional in order to protect him?

E. How did Randy and Todd’s father turn up at the same time Stephanie disappeared?

F. Is Todd secretly glad that Stephanie disappeared?

Danger/Survival/Risks

A. How do Randy and Todd survive on the street after running away from foster care?

B. Are Randy and Todd in danger from the mysterious “stalker” that Stephanie confronted?

C. Is Dad here to help, or…?

D. Marcey was clearly involved in risky activity – has something happened to her?

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff’s Mysteries

What I learned doing this assignment: Mysteries are easy to think up, but not so easy to plot.

Assignment 1

Stranger Things Mysteries

Where did Will go?

What is the Upside Down?

What is the nature of the monster?

Who is Eleven, really?

What happened to Barb? (Is she dead or still in the Upside Down?)

Assignment 2

THE LAST STRAW

Shocking Event Mystery

A. Shocking Event: Stephanie disappears.

B. Secret: Did she abandon the boys after their argument or was she abducted?

C. Investigation: With whom did she have contact besides the boys prior to her disappearance?

D. WWWWW and How

a. Stephanie had a big argument with Randy and Todd.

b. There is some connection between Stephanie and Marcey that nobody can figure out. They were speaking urgently together the evening Stephanie disappeared.

c. What is Marcey hiding from everyone?

d. Who is the man who was staking-out Brad’s house in the days leading up to Stephanie’s disappearance?

E. Part Withheld: Stephanie’s motives and her interest in Marcey.

Over Time Mysteries

A. Cover-Up: Marcey has a secret life (at least it’s a secret to Brad.)

B. Secret: Marcey’s trips to the desert are not for partying, it is to help migrants survive crossing the desert. Brad has been secretly coaching Todd in survival techniques and martial arts.

C. Reveals: Stephanie and Marcey were together the night Stephanie disappeared and Marcey appears to be off on one of her binges.

D. WWWWW and How

a. Why is Brad a paranoid recluse?

b. How are Randy and Todd going to investigate their mother’s disappearance with adults trying to manage (and protect) them in Stephanie’s absense?

c. Where and who is the boys’ father?

E. Part Withheld: Brad is a former rock star who gave it all up to raise his daughter after Marcey’s mom’s death by drug overdose.

[Griffith Lambert]

SU Bingeworthy Lesson 7

Griff’s Empathy/Distress

What I learned from doing this assignment: CHARACTER IS PLOT

Assignment 1:

Stranger Things

Empathy/Distress for:

Nancy: Undeserved misfortune: Feels responsible for Barb’s disappearance. Trying to navigate a relationship with Steve. Also concerned about what happened to Will. Distress: lying to parents.

Eleven: Undeserved misfortune: She was imprisoned, abused in the Hawkins institute. Distress: Remaining hidden from “Papa” and the other scientists at Hawkins.

Mike: Undeserved misfortune: Will disappears, disrupting the inner circle of friends. Distress: sneaking around to find Will, lying to parents.

Hopper: Undeserved misfortune: His daughter’s death. Distress: his investigation is stonewalled and he is threatened by shadowy forces.

Joyce: Undeserved misfortune: Will’s disappearance, bad divorce from Lonnie. Distress: Convinced Will is not dead, just lost.

Jonathan: Undeserved misfortune: Father abandoned the family. Will disappears. Distress: he is a social outlier. His estranged father tries to come have a presence in his life.

Assignment 2

THE LAST STRAW

Empathy/Distress for:

Stephanie:

A. Undeserved misfortune: She is a struggling single mother.

B. External Character Conflicts: Her boys are driving her nuts and school counselors are getting in her business.

C. Plot intruding on Life: No time to develop the writing career she is qualified to have.

D. Moral Dilemma: Parenting conflicts with Stephanie’s work life.

E. Forced Decisions: Taking off on a road trip.

Randy:

A. Undeserved misfortune: He is small for his age.

B. External Character Conflicts: Randy is overlooked for athletic opportunities by his peers.

C. Plot Intruding on Life: Constant friction with mother and younger brother.

D. Moral Dilemma: Support his struggling mother or report her for neglect.

E. Forced Decisions: Tells his counselor that Stephanie is not a good mother.

Todd:

A. Undeserved misfortune: Absence of father since early childhood.

B. External Character Conflicts: Todd can’t get bullying brother Randy to leave him alone.

C. Plot Intruding on Life: Stephanie disappears.

D. Moral Dilemma: Todd blames Stephanie for his father’s absence.

E. Forced decision: To shake off adult supervision and go looking for Stephanie.

Brad:

A. Undeserved misfortune: Daughter’s mother died of a drug overdose.

B. External Character Conflict: Bumps heads with Stephanie about parenting her boys.

C. Plot Intruding into Life: Stephanie and Marcey both go missing.

D. Moral Dilemma: How tough to be with daughter Marcey?

E. Forced decision: Goes after Marcey when she goes missing.

Marcey:

A. Undeserved misfortune: Mother died of drug overdose when she was ten.

B. External Character Conflict: Stephanie tries to get into her business.

C. Plot Intruding into Life: She is being stalked by someone investigating her “desert activities.”

D. Moral Dilemma: having to lie to her father (Brad) all the time by putting on a false Party Girl persona.

E. Forced Decision: Has to keep going to the desert to carry out her “mission.”

Randy and Todd:

A. Collective undeserved misfortune: Their mother disappears.

B. External Character Conflict: Foster care system steps in to take over their lives after Stephanie disappears.

C. Plot intruding into Life: they are thwarted in their efforts to participate in finding Stephanie by layers of bureaucratic officialdom.

D. Moral Dilemma: They are expected to cooperate with the authorities.

E. Forced Decision: They evade authorities and take off on their own to find Stephanie.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Griffith Lambert. Reason: Include Assignment 2
• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by  Griffith Lambert.

[Griffith Lambert]

Bingeworthy Lesson 6 – Relationships

Griff’s Relationship Maps

What I learned from doing this assignment: Relationships are dynamic and can (do) spill over into the various facets of story. For instance, the complex relationship between Nancy and Jonathan in Stranger Things directly affects Steve, but has deeper implications when Steve sees Jonathan’s bravery against the monster. Steve will come to respect Jonathan even though he is his rival for Nancy.

In my series THE LAST STRAW the relationship between the mother, Stephanie, and the neighbor’s daughter, Marcey, is beginning to have a life of its own. I was originally going to have Brad, Marcey’s father, as the third relationship in my map, but Marcey popped up as more interesting.

Assignment 1

Relationship Map for “Stranger Things”

Nancy’s Relationship to Mike:

Nancy to Mike Surface: He is her little brother.

Nancy to Mike Common Ground: Annoying parents.

Nancy to Mike Conflict: Sibling Rivalry

Nancy to Mike History: Mike is a thorn in Nancy’s side.

Nancy to Mike Subtext: Mike enjoys teasing Nancy.

Nancy to Mike Arc: Nancy eventually takes Mike seriously.

Nancy’s Relationship to Steve:

Nancy to Steve: Surface: Boyfriend

Nancy to Steve Common Ground: Sexual Attraction

Nancy to Steve Conflict: Steve is a douche ad a bully.

Nancy to Steve History: Steve is BMOC and full of himself, which Nancy tries to ignore.

Nancy to Steve Subtext: Steve knows he puts on bravado for his friends.

Nancy to Steve Arc: Steve gains some self-awareness when he and Nancy are put in danger together.

Nancy’s Relationship to Jonathan:

Nancy to Jonathan: Surface: He is Will’s brother and a school dropout.

Nancy to Jonathan Common Ground: Find Will.

Nancy to Jonathan Conflict: Jonathan took photos of Nancy at Steve’s party.

Nancy to Jonathan History: Jonathan is not part of the inner circle of friends.

Nancy to Jonathan Subtext: Jonathan has a crush on Nancy.

Nancy to Jonathan Arc: Jonathan gains confidence because of Nancy’s interest in him.

Assignment 2

Relationship Map for THE LAST STRAW

Stephanie’s Relationship to Randy:

Stephanie to Randy Surface: Randy is Stephanie’s older son.

Stephanie to Randy Common Ground: Love

Stephanie to Randy Conflict: Hectic home life.

Stephanie to Randy History: Randy criticizes everything Stephanie tries to do.

Stephanie to Randy Subtext: Randy needs constant validation from Stephanie.

Stephanie to Randy Arc: Randy finds himself when he and Todd must work together to find Stephanie.

Stephanie’s Relationship to Todd:

Stephanie to Todd Surface: Younger son.

Stephanie to Todd Common Ground: Love

Stephanie to Todd Conflict: Todd needs some of the attention that Randy hogs.

Stephanie to Todd History: Todd blames Stephanie for chasing away his father.

Stephanie to Todd Subtext: Disapproval.

Stephanie to Todd Arc: Stephanie appreciates Todd’s calm demeanor once they are separated.

Stephanie’s Relationship to Marcey:

Stephanie to Marcey Surface: Neighbor’s daughter.

Stephanie to Marcey Common Ground: Need to do something worthy with life.

Stephanie to Marcey Conflict: Marcey seems to be setting a bad example for Stephanie’s boys.

Stephanie to Marcey History: Stephanie still sees Marcey as a little girl acting out.

Stephanie to Marcey Subtext: Marcey is wounded by the death of her mother.

Stephanie to Marcey Arc: Stephanie discovers that there is depth and purpose to Marcey.

[Griffith Lambert]

SU Bingeworthy Lesson 5

Griff’s Internal Struggles

What I learned doing this assignment: Delving into the inner struggles of characters who are still in development provides depth that comes to the surface in surprising ways. I’m getting to know my own characters, and they are surprising me.

Assignment 1

Example Series: Stranger Things

Internal Character Struggles

Mike

A. Hope: That Will is alive/ Fear: Will is dead.

B. Want: To be the leader/ Need: Validation.

C. Mask: Base Emotion: Self-Doubt/ Public mask: In charge.

D. Weakness: Hot tempered.

E. Triggers: Being doubted, confronted.

F. Coping Mechanisms: Anger, bravado.

Joyce

A. Hope: That she finds Will/Fear: Will is dead.

B. Want: To be proved right about Will/Need: Validation

C. Mask: Base Emotion: Outrage/Public Mask: Mama Bear

D. Weakness: Despair

E. Triggers: Being doubted, ridiculed for believing Will is alive.

F. Coping Mechanism: Moral outrage.

Hopper

A. Hope: There’s a simple explanation for Will’s disappearance/Fear: Something weird is involved.

B. Want: To uncover the mystery/Need: Solve the mystery of Will’s disappearance.

C. Mask: Base Emotion: Fear/Public Mask: Control

D. Weakness: Self-doubt

E. Triggers: Being lied to or disobeyed.

F. Coping mechanism: Violence

Assignment 2

Griff’s Series THE LAST STRAW – Character Internal Struggles

A. Situational: Hope / Fear
B. Motivation: Want / Need
C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion / Public Mask
D. Weaknesses
E. Triggers
F. Coping Mechanism

Stephanie

A. Hope: To do important work/Fear: Relegated to fluff assignments.

B. Want: Published investigative journalist/Need: Validation

C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Overwhelm/Public Mask: Control.

D. Weaknesses: Self-doubt, quick temper, passive/aggressive.

E. Triggers: Being lied to, disobeyed, or bullied.

F. Coping mechanisms: Punishment (then feels guilty.)

Randy

A. Hope: To be recognized as an athlete/Fear: Nobody will give him a chance.

B. Want: To get on the team/Need: Validation.

C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Anger/Public Mask: Cool

D. Weaknesses: Quick temper, violent temper.

E. Triggers: Confrontation, snubbing (being overlooked.)

F. Coping Mechanisms: Arguing, bullying, fighting.

Todd

A. Hope: Father will turn up someday/Fear: Not being loved

B. Want: A more tranquil home life/Need: Nurture

C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Low self-esteem/Public Mask: Not caring.

D. Weaknesses: Fear of confrontation, cowardice.

E. Triggers: Bullying, stupidity.

F. Coping Mechanisms: Withdrawing, eating.

Brad

A. Hope: Daughter Marcey will be okay/ Fear: Marcey is on a self-destructive path.

B. Want: Marcey will settle down and go to school/Need: Emotional security.

C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Judgemental/Public Mask: Permissive.

D. Weaknesses: Self-doubt, a pushover.

E. Triggers: Threats to Marcey, unjustice.

F. Coping Mechanism: Humor, often inappropriate.

Marcey

A. Hope: She can help “her people.”/Fear: It’s all futile and the world is a shithole.

B. Want: For Brad to trust her and not worry/Need: To protect Brad.

C. Mask: Base Negative Emotion: Pessimist/Public Mask: Bravado

D. Weaknesses: Self-doubt, quick-tempered, doesn’t suffer fools.

E. Triggers: Unfairness, bullying, confrontation.

F. Coping Mechanisms: Secrecy, outrage, fighting.

[Griffith Lambert]

Lesson 4: Griff’s Intriguing Character Layers

What I learned doing this assignment: As I go through the Intriguing Characters Model the characters reveal themselves just in the process of asking the questions.

Assignment 1

Stranger Things – Layers of Character Intrigue

There is intrigue in Stranger Things almost from the first scenes of the first episode. By the third episode nearly everyone is hiding something or trying to find out something that is hidden from them.

Mike, Justin, and Lucas are hiding Eleven.

Nancy is lying to her mother about dating Steve.

Chief Hopper continues to get stonewalled in his investigation of Will’s disappearance.

Joyce is convinced Will is alive and is driven to extremes to prove it.

Jonathan thinks Joyce is coming unhinged and wants her to stop her weird behavior.

Barb disappears and Nancy lies about it.

Eleven is clearly wounded and knows a lot more about the lab than she wants to let on.

Chief Hopper, Joyce, and Jonathan are all clearly dealing with deep wounds.

Something really fishy is going on: the “Staties” intervene in the investigation after Will’s “body” is found in the quarry.

Assignment 2

THE LAST STRAW – Layers of Character intrigue

Randy Sherwood

Role: Outraged, exasperated sibling.

Hidden Agenda: To prove his athletic prowess and best his betters.

Competition: Pretty much everybody with a pulse but especially brother Todd.

Conspiracy: Tells school counselor things about life at home which are not entirely true.

Secrets: He has been writing to his father for years, but has never revealed any response.

Deception: He steals money from his mother.

Wound: Abandonment issues.

Secret Identity: Jock. He really is, but nobody pays any attention. Only Marcey across the street has noticed.

Todd Sherwood

Role: Randy’s suffering younger brother.

Hidden Agenda: Todd is going to be the one who “fixes” everything.

Competition: Todd refuses to compete with Randy for his mother’s attention.

Conspiracy: Todd thinks his mother is to blame for their father’s absence.

Secrets: Todd seeks a surrogate father relationship with Brad across the street.

Deception: Todd accepts survival arts and firearms training from Brad.

Wound: Father abandoned the family.

Secret Identity: Survivalist Ninja.

Stephanie Sherwood

Role: Randy and Todd’s exhausted and harassed single mother.

Hidden Agenda: Out to prove she can do more with her writing career.

Competition: Other staff writers who get better assignments.

Conspiracy: She is onto a story that could turn everything around for her.

Secrets: She has remained in touch with her Ex. Also, there is some unspoken connection between she and Marcey across the street.

Deception: The boys father didn’t really abandon them, and Stephanie knows that.

Wound: Seen only as Mom and Homemaker.

Secret Identity: Investigative Journalist.

Brad Collins

Role: Eccentric neighbor. Nerdy music teacher.

Hidden Agenda: Making the best life he can for daughter Marcey.

Competition: Marcey’s “desert friends.”

Conspiracy: He controls the licensing to his old band’s music.

Secrets: He is teaching Todd survivalist things that he’s pretty sure Stephanie would not approve of.

Deception: Pretending he is not a famous has-been rocker.

Wound: Blames himself for the death of Marcey’s mother.

Secret Identity: Famous ‘90s rock star.

Marcey Collins

Role: Brad’s daughter and Randy’s sex obsession.

Hidden Agenda: Lets Brad assume she is a party girl while she leaves water in the desert for migrants.

Competition: Border patrol trying to thwart her efforts to help migrants.

Conspiracy: See above.

Secrets: Friend Harmony is her lover.

Deception: She is not a drugged-out slacker, but lets people think that to deflect her real mission.

Wound: Loss of mother to drugs.

Secret Identity: Human rights activist.

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff’s Engaging Character Model

What I learned from doing this assignment: Character is plot.

Example Series: Stranger Things

Assignment 1

Main Character(s): In a way, I could roll the four boys into one main character because they often act together. But Mike Wheeler is really the leader among them and embodies all the aspects of an intriguing main character.

Mike Wheeler

A. Role In The Show: Leader of the conspiracy to find Will and protect Eleven.

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: He is curious, intelligent, resourceful, loyal, protective, and persuasive. He is expert in science (the four boys are all science nerds) and strategy (the boys play World of Warcraft together.)

C. Intrigue: Mike is secretly leading the search for Will against the admonitions of parents and Chief Hopper. He is also the one protecting Eleven from discovery.

D. Moral Issue: Lying to everyone. Mike must not be found out while he both searches for Will and protects Eleven. To do this he must deceive all the authority figures while he tries to keep a normal face on the home situation.

E. Unpredictable: We never expected Mike, Dustin and Lucas to go out looking for Will the night they discover Eleven in the woods. We certainly never expected him to bring Eleven home with him and enlist the other boys into his deception and protection of Eleven.

F. Empathetic: We care about the boys because they have lost one of their inner circle of friends with whom they have a special bond. We forgive Mike his deceptions and prevarications because we know its all in service to the search for Will and protecting the seemingly innocent and helpless Eleven.

Joyce Byers

A. Role In The Show: Alarm sounder. As the mother of missing Will Byers, Joyce’s hysteria and agony keep the ticking time bomb ever-present.

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: Joyce is the best equipped to predict Will’s behavior and recognize clues (she interprets the weird phone calls and flashing lights as communication from Will.)

C. Intrigue: At first Joyce is embarrassed to let on that she thinks she is getting messages from Will from “The Beyond” but eventually it becomes clear to Will’s brother Jonathan and even to Chief Hopper that Somebody or Something is trapped in the walls of the house.

D. Moral Issue: Joyce will stop at nothing to goad everyone into focusing on Will’s disappearance, there is no one she won’t cast suspicion on or throw under the bus.

E. Unpredictable: Joyce goes off the deep end wiring up the house to receive Will’s communications.

F. Empathetic: We forgive Joyce’s eccentricities at first because we know she is in distress over Will’s disappearance, then later because we become convinced she might be onto something. Something really weird.

Eleven

A. Roll In The Show: Guide to the underworld. Eleven has escaped from a nightmarish situation that is beyond what anyone could imagine in terms of twisted reality, and she is the only one who can lead us back there.

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: Eleven has paranormal powers that can counter the Monster and protect her friends.

C. Intrigue: Eleven was a part of the secret experiments going on at the laboratory that led to the release of the Monster.

D. Moral Issue: From time to time Eleven has to use her powers to harm in order to protect.

E. Unpredictable: Eleven is unnerved whenever she encounters Dr. Brenner (Matthew Modine) leading us to wonder as to the nature of the relationship between Eleven and Brenner (is he her father? she calls him “Papa”)

F. Empathetic: We have nothing but empathy for this little girl who is obviously being hunted by bad guys who want to return her to an abusive and dangerous situation. It also becomes clear that there is good reason to fear her.

Assignment 2: Griff’s Engaging Characters for The Last Straw

Journey: Two teenage boys must deal with the disappearance of the only parent they have known and are accelerated into adulthood.

Randy Sherwood

A. Role In The Show: Outrage. Randy is the older brother who is somehow much smaller than his younger brother, Todd. Randy represents the outrage against unfairness in life. He is motivated by anger, which often blinds him. He must learn to slow down, stop reacting and start pro-acting.

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: Momentum. Randy, while hot-headed, is also clever, resourceful, and driven. He will never give up. His need for constant action pushes the story forward, sometimes recklessly.

C. Intrigue: Randy’s secret is that he is an outstanding athlete, but has never had a chance to shine in sports due to his diminutive stature; he has always tried to prove himself in sports that advantage size over skill, so he carries a chip on his shoulder about being overlooked.

D. Moral Issue: Guilt. Randy feels like his mother’s disappearance after a nasty argument is all his fault because he accused her of bad parenting. Stephanie is not around to forgive him, and he can’t forgive himself.

E. Unpredictable: Randy will often act impulsively, throwing himself and those around him into difficult situations.

F. Empathetic: We relate to Randy’s fear of losing his mother, but also his turmoil at feeling as if it’s all his fault.

Todd Sherwood

A. Role In The Show: A Cooler Head. Todd is Randy’s younger, bigger, and arguably smarter brother. He doesn’t react to things the way Randy does, but that does not mean that his reaction to their predicament is more mature. His Achilles heel is letting Randy goad him into arguments.

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: Todd is analytical whereas Randy is choleric. Todd is sometimes able to settle Randy down and get him to focus. They can then come up with solutions together.

C. Intrigue: Todd seems like a big, dumb lummox, but his lack of loquaciousness belies a cooly analytical mind. His interests tend toward artistic endeavors and reading. All the while the kids at school try to get him on their sports teams because of his size, something that drives Randy nuts.

D. Moral Issue: Todd secretly condemns his mother for running out on them.

E. Unpredictable: Just when Todd seems like an inert marshmallow, he manifests physical strength to protect his brother.

F. Empathetic: We feel sorry for Todd losing his mother, but also for the constant harassment he has to take from Randy.

Stephanie Sherwood (Mom)

A. Role In The Show: Catalyst. Stephanie is a single mother struggling to raise two teenage sons while trying to prove herself to be a talented writer worthy of more important assignments.

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: Stephanie is actually a skilled and resourceful parent who has done well by her two boys in the face of daunting challenges. It is unfortunate that her life crisis happens at a time when the boys need her the most.

C. Intrigue: Stephanie has a secret connection to the daughter of the across-the-street neighbor, Brad. Marcey is perceived as an out-of-control Party Girl, but it turns out there is much more to her than that, something that Stephanie has discovered and exploited.

D. Moral Issue: Stephanie puts her career ahead of her responsibility to her two children at a critical time.

E. Unpredictable: Although we don’t know why in the first season, Stephanie’s disappearance is much more like something we would expect from Marcey than the usually rock-steady Stephanie.

F. Empathy: If Stephanie really did “run away from home” we can somewhat sympathize with this as a reaction to no one in her life appreciating her for who she really is.

Brad (neighbor across-the-street)

A. Role In The Show: Trickster. Brad is nerdy and eccentric. He also turns out to be full of surprises.

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: Sleuth. Brad has a talent for worming his way in where he is not welcome and finding out … stuff.

C. Intrigue: Nerdy Brad turns out to have an alter ego: he was once a famous rock legend. He left that life behind years ago in order to bring up his daughter, Marcey. Brad feels that his former lifestyle directly contributed to Marcey’s mother’s death.

D. Moral Issue: Brad feels like he can never make up for the loss of Marcey’s mother and is easily manipulated by her.

E. Unpredictable: When Marcey goes missing longer than usual Brad becomes a bit unhinged.

F. Empathy: We feel sorry for Brad due to the way Marcey appears to mistreat him.

Marcey (Brad’s 20-something daughter)

A. Role In The Show: Conscience. Once we are disabused of the notion that Marcey is a self-destructive Party Girl we find that she is focused on a mission of very great importance to her.

B. Unique Purpose/Expertise: Strategist. Marcey is driven to a purpose by her mother’s death. She feels like she has to make her life count for something.

C. Intrigue: Marcey’s Party Girl persona is a mask to protect Brad from worrying about her because what she’s really up to is far risker than going out in the desert and doing drugs with her friends.

D. Moral Issue: Marcey can’t sit by while injustices go on around her.

E. Unpredictable: Marcey plays it that way to keep Brad and others off her trail. Eventually, Stephanie finds out about her secret life and gets sucked into it.

F. Empathy: When we find out how her mother died we understand what drives Marcey to seek justice for “her people.”

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by  Griffith Lambert. Reason: Typo corrections
• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by  Griffith Lambert. Reason: Adding Assignment 2 to complete Lesson 3

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff’s Three Circles of Characters

What I learned doing this assignment: The character circles are a good way of keeping the characters on task to build the story. For my series pitch about two adolescents dealing with the disappearance of their mother, putting the two main characters in that first circle helps to keep these unruly and unpredictable teens from bleeding random chaos into the storyline. Chaos is fine, it is the state from which ethos arises. I just want controlled chaos.

Assignment 1:

Stranger Things

Circle One – Main Characters: Schoolmates Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will (who goes missing.) Eleven, the mystery girl.

Circle Two – Connected Characters: Joyce (mom), Jonathan (Will’s brother), Hopper (Chief of Police), Nancy and Steve (adorable pubescent couple.)

Circle Three – Environmental Circle: Martin (evil scientist), Lonnie (estranged father), parents, police officers, scientists.

Having watched the first two seasons of Stranger Things, I’m tempted to put Martin and Lonnie in the second circle, but as of Season One Episode Two, they have not yet elevated to the second circle of characters. And…where do I slot in the Monster?

Assignment 2:

In my series pitch for The Last Straw:

Circle One – Randy and Todd, two brothers with a struggling single-parent mother. These two teenagers would be typical, except that Randy, the older brother, is much smaller and seems younger than Todd. For this reason, there is constant tension and competition between them.

Circle Two – Connected Characters: Stephanie, the struggling single mother, is a writer doing mercenary fluff work disguised as parenting advice for a video blog while she tries to be taken seriously as an investigative journalist. Also in this circle is her across-the-street neighbor, Brad, another single parent, who is trying to deal with a headstrong daughter, Marcey, who is prone to unexplained disappearances.

Circle Three – Environmental Characters: Stephanie’s editor, Brad’s music students, various teachers, a social services psychologist, Marcey’s friend Harmony, a mysterious law enforcement officer, a drug dealer, an undocumented migrant worker.

In the first episode, the boys will have a big argument with Stephanie. At the end of that episode, Stephanie goes missing.

During Season One the boys will deal with the disappearance of their mother, the eccentric next-door neighbor, police, school administrators, teachers, social workers, and well-meaning foster parents all trying to “help.” By the end of Season 1 they will no longer be teens acting out as they are re-united with their estranged father (a mixed blessing) and find the neighbor’s missing daughter (another mixed blessing,) all while being pursued by a mysterious gumshoe (think Inspector Javert.) They do not find Stephanie, but collect numerous clues as to what may have happened to her, and strong evidence that she is alive. Their journey: boys to young men, accelerated.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by  Griffith Lambert. Reason: Left out a main character in Stranger Things
• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by  Griffith Lambert. Reason: Incorporating the rest of Assignment 2 for Lesson 2

[Griffith Lambert]

Lesson One – Five Star Model

What I learned doing this assignment: Character is at the core of creating the BIngworthiness of Stranger Things. Ten major characters are introduced in 55 minutes and at the end of the episode I was totally invested because I was either worried for, empathized with, was suspicious of, or found the characters adorable and complex. Because half the main characters are kids, the monster set-up put me on edge from the beginning. My obsession will grow out of concern for their welfare. Cheap trick? Maybe, but it works like Gangbusters.

Stranger Things – 5 Star points

1. Big Picture Hook: Monster! The cold opening of Episode One makes it clear there’s a monster on the loose. This will imbue everything that happens with tension and foreboding.

2. Intriguing Characters: The four boys are smart, exuberant, irresistible. When Will goes missing we feel a visceral loss, even though it’s only a few minutes into the episode. Will’s mom and older brother are stunned and incredulous – we feel their helplessness. The police chief is there to counter hysteria and inject cynicism. Nancy and Steve are self-obsessed and seem unaware, but that just makes us feel like they will soon get sucked in to …what? Then Eleven shows up on the run with no backstory and makes an electric fan stop with her mind. WTF? How did she get away from the guys with the guns?

3. Empathy/Distress: The disappearance of Will is certainly distressing, but the arrival of a mysterious team of Hazmat-suited technicians lets us know something greater and more sinister is going on. Mom’s panic is completely relatable, as is Will’s brother’s attempts to keep peeling her off the ceiling (Winona Ryder is pitch-perfect here.)

4. Layers/Open Loops: What about the monster? Did it take Will? Who is Eleven? What are they doing in this secret facility? Did they make the monster? Why do they need to kill Benny when they find Eleven in his diner? When did Matthew Modine get so old?

5. Inviting Obsession: Where is Will? What is this laboratory? Are the other three boys the next to disappear? Is Nancy setting herself up to be hurt by Steve? Is Mom going to lose it? Is the brother somehow involved? Why are guys with guns chasing Eleven? When the boys go out to look for Will against the strict orders of the Chief, they run into Eleven in the woods. We are SO hooked!

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff Lambert

I have written eight feature-length screenplays and one six-episode historical miniseries. I have participated in ScreenwritingU courses starting with PS39B several years ago.

The project I want to work on in the Bingeworthy TV course is a story originally written nearly twenty years ago as a feature and which I have never been able to contain successfully in 115 pages.

Interesting about me: I graduated from USC in the late 1970’s with a degree in Architecture but got sidelined in the Cinema Department, which led to many years doing studio coverage and script doctoring. I am now retired from 30-plus years in TV and film art direction.

[Griffith Lambert]

Griff Lambert

I agree to the terms of this release form.

GROUP RELEASE FORM

As a member of this group, I agree to the following:

1. That I will keep the processes, strategies, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class confidential, and that I will NOT share any of this program either privately, with a group, posting online, writing articles, through video or computer programming, or in any other way that would make those processes, teleconferences, communications, lessons, and models of the class available to anyone who is not a member of this class.

2. That each writer’s work here is copyrighted and that writer is the sole owner of that work. That includes this program which is copyrighted by Hal Croasmun. I acknowledge that submission of an idea to this group constitutes a claim of and the recognition of ownership of that idea.

I will keep the other writer’s ideas and writing confidential and will not share this information with anyone without the express written permission of the writer/owner. I will not market or even discuss this information with anyone outside this group.

3. I also understand that many stories and ideas are similar and/or have common themes and from time to time, two or more people can independently and simultaneously generate the same concept or movie idea.

4. If I have an idea that is the same as or very similar to another group member’s idea, I’ll immediately contact Hal and present proof that I had this idea prior to the beginning of the class. If Hal deems them to be the same idea or close enough to cause harm to either party, he’ll request both parties to present another concept for the class.

5. If you don’t present proof to Hal that you have the same idea as another person, you agree that all ideas presented to this group are the sole ownership of the person who presented them and you will not write or market another group member’s ideas.

6. Finally, I agree not to bring suit against anyone in this group for any reason, unless they use a substantial portion of my copyrighted work in a manner that is public and/or that prevents me from marketing my script by shopping it to production companies, agents, managers, actors, networks, studios or any other entertainment industry organizations or people.

This completes the Group Release Form for the class.

+1

[Griffith Lambert]

Hi Brian – I’m a fellow musician. I had the idea of starting a Geezer band back in the San Francisco Bay area where I lived, but that never happened. Maybe I’ll try it again in Sicily – there seem to be plenty of Old Codgers around with musical talent. But what do I do with six accordions??

Looking forward to this AI journey with everyone.

[Griffith Lambert]

Nice to meet you, Pablo.

I love Barcelona, have visited three times and I had the ambition to live there when I read a story about a Londoner who commuted on Ryan Air at less than the cost of a flat in London! But Italy won out and I now have a viletta in Sicily.

I look forward to this AI journey with everyone here at SU.

[Griffith Lambert]

Hello Veleka, nice to see you again. I was in the ProSeries with you a few years ago.

Did you live in N.O. back then? I was just thinking about the Fairmont Hotel when I met a professional accordionist in Taormina, Sicily, over the weekend. I was telling the story of being in Sazerac restaurant (now gone, I think) when an accordionist and tenor entered the room. Being a musician, I expected the worst. But they were wonderful!

I haven’t been back to ‘Nawlins since Katrina and I hope it has regained some of its former glory and not been too consumed by the big corporate interests.

I have been down the Robert McKee and John Truby paths, not to mention Blake Snyder (RIP.) I don’t usually mention them here as I think it gives Hal the heeby-jeebies.

Look forward to working with you on this AI journey.

Griff Lambert

[Griffith Lambert]

Hi Kevin,

Sicily sort of found us. Italy has been our preferred destination for 25 years, then we made some good friends in Catania on the east end of the island from Palermo. We rented their weekend house in Brucoli once, then casually asked if there were other opportunities in that community, and about a year later they found us a house that we have been renovating.

We also considered Spain as we have a good friend near Malaga and we also love that area, but the opportunity in Sicily won out. And, no, it wasn’t one of those 1-euro deals (see my reply to KZ here in the forum.)

In Portugal, we attempted to find a bad wine, but we failed.

My only Rolling Stones story is running into Ronnie Wood at Dan Tana’s in Beverly Hills back in the early 80’s. I think it was he who ran into me on his way to the floor after falling off his bar stool.

There are a lot of great opportunities in Sicily and elsewhere in Italy (friends of ours are renovating a house in Abruzzo) so if you want some pointers stay in touch!

Buon divertimento!

[Griffith Lambert]

Hi KZ,

Taormina is hardly dying, but that’s not where I have built. Our renovation is on the other side of Catania about 75 kilometers away in a town called Brucoli, near Siracusa.

We did not sign up for any of those 1-euro deals, although some are legitimate. Friends from Catania found this place for us as they have a weekend home very nearby. There are a lot of great opportunities in Sicily and other places in Italy, but when you hear of those cheap deals to keep villages alive they are fraught with strings attached (such as you must use a particular contractor that the local “commune” has a relationship with,) and in many cases it is in order to drive out squatters who have made the town unattractive to buyers. It’s then up to you to figure out how to get the existing residents to leave, as Italian law favors the occupant over the property owner!

Lorraine Bracco’s experience in Sicily is not typical but it is instructive. She’s had to throw a lot of money at the project, but I think she will find it worth it.

Sicily is beautiful! There are a lot of popular misconceptions about it, but if you really have an affinity, study your Italian (I did an immersion course in Tuscany 25 years ago) and go for it! Property values are affordable and the cost of living is way below most US major metropolitan areas. We live in the San Francisco Bay area not far from Napa Valley, so our cost of living is among the highest in the US. If we can navigate the bureaucracy, we will be living here full-time in a couple of years.

Buona fortuna!

[Griffith Lambert]

What did you do on the tour?

[Griffith Lambert]

Vincent Price signed my cookbook, too! Back in the late ’70s I made his acquaintance through Eddie Albert and family. What a nice man he was!

[Griffith Lambert]

SOMETHING has got to save the world (at least human beings) and it’s as likely to be a great TV script as anything else, eh?

[Griffith Lambert]

A fellow live production professional! Nice to meet you.

[Griffith Lambert]

Ha! I can’t remember which ProSeries I did either – I think it was 40-something.

Nice to meet you here.

[Griffith Lambert]

Hello KZ,

I also have a place in my heart for Paris, where I spent a few years with my petite copain. And I grew up in NYC before coming to Los Angeles, where I began a 40-year TV career.

My French is rusty today because I threw France over for Italy about 20 years ago. My wife and I have renovated a home in Sicily and we are currently getting away from construction chaos in Taormina.

I am skeptical about AI but also very intrigued, so I think that this deep dive will let me see if I can use AI as a tool to complete an ambitious TV series I started in the Bingeworthy course.

Piacere di conoscherela

[Griffith Lambert]

Good luck with your secret plan. I mean it.

[Griffith Lambert]

Welcome back to the Biz, Marla! This should be fun.

Griff Lambert

[Griffith Lambert]

Thank you, Marla, I am definitely on the mend and bringing my “A” game. Be seeing you!

Griff