TV Show Story Outline
Nov. 17th, 2010 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleIn a comment to one of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eleanor_lavish's Hawaii 5-0 posts, svilleficrecs said that what she likes about the show is that it's about equals, partners. (I haven't seen it so I can't comment on how true I think that is of H50. It's just a jumping off point for me.) Then I logged into LJ at work today, which is the only time I ever see the main page, and the writer's block question is, "If you were a TV producer, what would be the premise of your first TV series, and who would star in it?" This seems like a message from the universe that it's a good time to admit that of all the things I'm going to do in my life, being a TV producer is not one of them and I should just tell you my TV show/meta-TV show producing idea.
My idea actually comes from an NPR (possibly Fresh Air) interview with Steven Bochco from several years ago. (I don't know how long ago. I think I was going to or from somewhere out of town with my parents, and I'm pretty sure it was dark and I was in the back seat of the car. I have a memory of leaning my head back towards the speakers.) In it, he talked about NYPD Blue and said that they eventually just stopped sending the scripts to the network. My thought was that you could do a show where you kept everyone out of it: the only people who know where you're going are the writers, the directors, and the two central actors - and you have them all sign NDAs and get them to believe in your vision so they don't break them.
The show itself is your typical New York cop show. One of the guys is the Italian Catholic one who's been in this precinct/unit for a while. The other guy is a WASP from money who's been in the NYPD for about the same amount of time but just transferred over to be the other guy's partner. I never got far enough to give them names, so let's call the Italian Catholic one A and the WASP B so I don't have to type out their descriptors every time.
The first couple of episodes are the setup where we watch them getting to know each other and solve a few cases. Then they come back to the precinct, and someone says, "A, a woman came looking for you. She's in interview two." A heads to interview two where there's a young woman who bursts into tears when she sees them. A promptly takes the chair next to her and puts his arms around her to comfort her. B raises his eyebrows and gets her a glass of water and a box of kleenex, then hovers at the edge of the room.
"I'm pregnant, and I don't want it, but that's a sin," the girl says.
A tells her something like she has to make her own choices, no matter what the church says.
The idea is that the viewer and B think A and the girl are together, until A introduces her: she's his sister Angela. (I don't know why she gets a name and no one else does, but there you have it.) Their parents have been dead for long enough that he feels very responsible for her. She's a student at Columbia, and he's been working very hard and living so frugally in a tiny apartment to support her.
She has the abortion.
Somewhere in the middle of the season, B goes to find A or runs into him or something and A is having lunch with another man. This should bring on all kinds of viewer reaction with fangirls saying, "He was on a date!" and other people saying, "They're just friends," complete with men chiming in to say, "I have lunch with other dudes all the time and we're not dating."
The season ends with a big two-part finale where they have this giant case that tests everyone, and someone dies - probably a suspect who was, in the end, completely innocent. It needs to be someone where the audience is invited to the funeral but A and B are not.
The closing of the season is a montage, set to music sung by a woman, possibly the song I remember from Third Watch but can't remember enough about to find with some quick googling. We see people arriving for the funeral, A and B finishing their day, Angela standing outside a church. Then we should cycle through everyone who's been involved in this episode. The music breaks for B to follow A up to his apartment where he says, "I don't think either one of us should be alone," and then they're kissing, slamming against the walls down the hall to A's bedroom. The music breaks at the funeral for some kind of stirring eulogy or sermon. It breaks again for Angela in a confessional saying, "Forgive me father, for I have sinned. It has been six months since my last confession." The last shot is A and B asleep in bed, clearly naked and with clothes scattered across the floor.
The meta story about the season finale is that at the time of putting it together, no one knows if the show's going to get picked up for a second season. Of course, the real meta story is that fangirls knew all along and you surprise everyone else into getting involved in characters who they didn't realize were gay.
eleanor_lavish's Hawaii 5-0 posts, svilleficrecs said that what she likes about the show is that it's about equals, partners. (I haven't seen it so I can't comment on how true I think that is of H50. It's just a jumping off point for me.) Then I logged into LJ at work today, which is the only time I ever see the main page, and the writer's block question is, "If you were a TV producer, what would be the premise of your first TV series, and who would star in it?" This seems like a message from the universe that it's a good time to admit that of all the things I'm going to do in my life, being a TV producer is not one of them and I should just tell you my TV show/meta-TV show producing idea.My idea actually comes from an NPR (possibly Fresh Air) interview with Steven Bochco from several years ago. (I don't know how long ago. I think I was going to or from somewhere out of town with my parents, and I'm pretty sure it was dark and I was in the back seat of the car. I have a memory of leaning my head back towards the speakers.) In it, he talked about NYPD Blue and said that they eventually just stopped sending the scripts to the network. My thought was that you could do a show where you kept everyone out of it: the only people who know where you're going are the writers, the directors, and the two central actors - and you have them all sign NDAs and get them to believe in your vision so they don't break them.
The show itself is your typical New York cop show. One of the guys is the Italian Catholic one who's been in this precinct/unit for a while. The other guy is a WASP from money who's been in the NYPD for about the same amount of time but just transferred over to be the other guy's partner. I never got far enough to give them names, so let's call the Italian Catholic one A and the WASP B so I don't have to type out their descriptors every time.
The first couple of episodes are the setup where we watch them getting to know each other and solve a few cases. Then they come back to the precinct, and someone says, "A, a woman came looking for you. She's in interview two." A heads to interview two where there's a young woman who bursts into tears when she sees them. A promptly takes the chair next to her and puts his arms around her to comfort her. B raises his eyebrows and gets her a glass of water and a box of kleenex, then hovers at the edge of the room.
"I'm pregnant, and I don't want it, but that's a sin," the girl says.
A tells her something like she has to make her own choices, no matter what the church says.
The idea is that the viewer and B think A and the girl are together, until A introduces her: she's his sister Angela. (I don't know why she gets a name and no one else does, but there you have it.) Their parents have been dead for long enough that he feels very responsible for her. She's a student at Columbia, and he's been working very hard and living so frugally in a tiny apartment to support her.
She has the abortion.
Somewhere in the middle of the season, B goes to find A or runs into him or something and A is having lunch with another man. This should bring on all kinds of viewer reaction with fangirls saying, "He was on a date!" and other people saying, "They're just friends," complete with men chiming in to say, "I have lunch with other dudes all the time and we're not dating."
The season ends with a big two-part finale where they have this giant case that tests everyone, and someone dies - probably a suspect who was, in the end, completely innocent. It needs to be someone where the audience is invited to the funeral but A and B are not.
The closing of the season is a montage, set to music sung by a woman, possibly the song I remember from Third Watch but can't remember enough about to find with some quick googling. We see people arriving for the funeral, A and B finishing their day, Angela standing outside a church. Then we should cycle through everyone who's been involved in this episode. The music breaks for B to follow A up to his apartment where he says, "I don't think either one of us should be alone," and then they're kissing, slamming against the walls down the hall to A's bedroom. The music breaks at the funeral for some kind of stirring eulogy or sermon. It breaks again for Angela in a confessional saying, "Forgive me father, for I have sinned. It has been six months since my last confession." The last shot is A and B asleep in bed, clearly naked and with clothes scattered across the floor.
The meta story about the season finale is that at the time of putting it together, no one knows if the show's going to get picked up for a second season. Of course, the real meta story is that fangirls knew all along and you surprise everyone else into getting involved in characters who they didn't realize were gay.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-18 01:51 pm (UTC)(And "The fangirls knew all along" made me laugh so hard.)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-18 04:43 pm (UTC)You'd have to have some kind of outsider pov to make it work as a book - and then you wouldn't be able to actually see the hookup at the end. Interestingly, though, the few books I've read recently where there's some kind of relationship that's not your standard het twosome have been very vague about what those relationships are on the back of the book.
Fangirls: they always know.