Thread V

[Schillaci]

If you could make your own tv show, what would it be about? How would it differ from the googolplex of shows already out there?

 

[Mango]

I am actually working on a fictional TV show at the moment. I will keep you guys posted if you're interested. :biggrin: Well actually, I am still deciding wether to go ahead with it. It is so much like all the other sci-fi shows. If I can give the show something to make it a little different I will go ahead.

 

[goldenboy]

Alright, get your rotten tomatoes and garbage ready to fly, I've got an idea.

I was trying to work out an idea over at after-darkness.com. I don't know how to write stories. But I know what I like. Noir, gothic, action-adventure...

So, I was thinkin, it would be a neo-noir, but maybe set in a southern city like Atlanta or Charleston. It would have an urban/noir feel mixed with a southern gothic feel. The lead would just be some average schmoe, like an auto mechanic or something.

Maybe he's an ex-con, or...just has issues, from his past. He's just trying to live his life, mind his own biz. His estranged sister approaches him asking him for money. She really wants to get out of town for some reason. She gives him a sealed, ornate antique box"”for safe keeping. She won't really explain what it's all about. "You have to trust me" she says. It's something that their mother had apparently kept for years. Before she can actually get outta Dodge, she turns up dead. The timing is suspicious, but she seems to have actually died from natural causes, a heart attack. Our poor schmoe is stunned and upset, obviously. That's when things start to get really bizarre, interesting.

Now that he's in possession of this box, he occasionally starts seeing what seem to be apparitions...they look like Confederate soldiers, Union soldiers, slaves, Southern belles. Some seem to be completely oblivious to him, others seem to want to tell him something. Not only that, but he finds his apartment has been broken into, trashed. "WTF!" he's thinking...he's getting truly paranoid now.

The point is, this guy has stumbled onto something huge, and it relates to this object his dead sister gave to him. Something that involves American history...the Civil War, slavery, the Confederacy...and ghosts are giving him clues...

It would be a very arc-heavy, gradually unfolding mystery. As our hero slowly unravels things, he learns more about his own family, meets long lost relatives, sexy dames, homicidal thugs, etc...so it's Genre, obviously. Filled with all the trappings and cliches, but hopefully there's enough to hold someone's interest.

Starring Nathan Fillion, Amy Acker, J August Richards, Giovanni Ribisi, Gary Oldman, Michael Clarke Duncan, Alexa Davalos, Gina Torres, Terry O'Quinn, Linda Fiorentino, Frances McDormand, who else...hmm...

 

[nerd4hire]

I could see Tim Minear as showrunner there GB, because of the noir thing, and the idea of unique spins off a well-traveled plot device (the mysterious object story). Unfortunately you'd probably only get 13 eps with Tim 😉 but so what. 13 eps of Tim Minear is better than 7 seasons of almost anyone else.

Love the cast.

 

[What happened to good TV?]

I'm always juggling around ideas but never actually get into writing one.

I had an idea of having an episode per person/family/group of friends ect. about their reactions to being told the world was gonna end. It may sound silly but I had quite a few ideas. It has endless possiblities, especially genre wise, I origonally planned to make it a serious drama, but realised that every episode having a different persons reactions could incorporate a different genre per episode. eg. some fat guy (Not dissimliar to a certain fat guy who crash landed on an Island named Hurley)going on a mission to get laid, AND a murderers guilt making him admit his sins to the church, and trying to rdeem himself before the world ends. ect. You get the idea.

opinions more than welcome

 

[goldenboy]

I had an idea of having an episode per person/family/group of friends ect. about their reactions to being told the world was gonna end. It may sound silly but I had quite a few ideas. It has endless possiblities, especially genre wise, I origonally planned to make it a serious drama, but realised that every episode having a different persons reactions could incorporate a different genre per episode.

There's a short piece by Richard Matheson, apparently first published in Amazing Stories in 1953: The Last Day. Basically, word comes that a huge asteroid is coming, folks have a day to make peace, talk to loved ones, whatever. A surprisingly moving, freakish story for 50s sci-fi. It's in one of the Richard Matheson collections now, not sure...

Seems like most disaster movies have at least a scene or two with that sort of confessional, "I'm gonna die" moment. Would be interesting to explore for a whole series...see where you can take it...

A lot of the networks in the States are experimenting with formats in the wake of 24's success. ABC has a new show coming where each ep is about the same day. A wedding, shown from a different person's perspective each episode.