Help! I need an idea for a TV show. (1 Viewer)

[Patrick G]

We're playing network executive in business class, and I need to bring in 3 ideas for new primetime TV shows, in this format:

Title: "Bud and Thelma"

Concept: One hour, Drama. Bud is a truck driver and CIA operative. Thelma is a rodeo clown. She is also secretly married to Bud. Ride the highway with Bud and Thelma as they foil terrorist plots and run the rodeo circuit.

Any ideas?

By the way, if you know of a link to a site that explains how network execs. decide which shows to place in which time slots, I would be most appreciative! Or, if you happen to know yourself, please enlighten me!

 

[Paul D Young]

Title: "Who wants to marry Patrick D. Gamet - Home Theater Nut & OAR Activist?"

Concept: One hour, Reality. Thousands of women compete to be the one to marry a guy named Pat while he slips in pro-OAR comments thoughout the entire show. In the end they will all find out that not only is Pat already married, but he is A ROBOT! (meanwhile the word about OAR is already out).

 

[Francois Caron]

Ok. Since this involves a business class, that means originality and creativity are highly discouraged. What matters is that you go with something that has worked in the past and hasn't run its course just yet.

Reality shows are out. The latest ratings have shown this subject matter has pretty much run its course. Even Saturday Night Live did a parody last weekend for a new Fox TV show called "Who Farted?"

The airwaves are overrun with cop shows at this time. You'd be fighting off a lot of established competition from the very beginning, so that's pretty much out. And Mafia type shows? You'll endlessly be compared with "The Sopranos".

Comedies have always been popular even at the worst of times. In fact, I do believe there's a serious lack of decent comedies at this time. To move away from the current crop of shows, you could actually create a comedy that isn't filmed in front of a studio audience and doesn't have a laugh track.

I got it! "Upper West Side"! This series focuses on the lives of various couples living in the Upper West Side of NYC. It follows the rythm of successful movies such as "When Harry Met Sally" and "You've Got Mail" where even though not everything in life is peaches and cream, it's still a very comfortable life. You can throw in a few rough spots such as older man loses his job (he works in the computer field) and has to find another one. Or how about a young woman has to be content with a job as a bookstore clerk for the time being (eventually, she does get promoted to better positions and rapidly moves up the corporate ladder).

Have two or three storylines going on at the same time and you could actually save some money in the long run. You never have to hire writers on a long term basis and can pay them scale wages without any serious reprecussions. Also, if for some reason something happens during the shooting of one storyline that requires you to rethink your approach on that story, you'll always have other stories available as back-ups.

Make sure each storyline has a common link between them, but don't make it a story related link. Just make it a loose link such as distant family ties. This way, you can get people together for a few occasional specials which you'll broadcast mostly during the sweeps period. Also, make sure each storyline covers a different age group. You'll cover more demographics this way and help the show obtain more ratings than it actually deserves.

To save even more money, only film the more important NYC skyline shots in NYC, but actually film most of the series in a cheap and impersonal city such as Toronto! You'll get plenty of government subsidies, and you can find plenty of starving directors on the cheap! Just don't hire their writers. They're so used to writing terrible Government approved scripts that the stories will be bad from the start and your show will fail miserably. However, it's okay to hire Canadian writers that have already fled to the States since they've already demonstrated an attempt to free themselves of much of their "Canadianisms".

Finally, to make your attempts at becoming a network TV executive a complete success, steal these ideas, claim them as your own, and deny everything! That is unless the show tanks. In that case, you should call me every nasty name under the sun.

 

[Patrick G]

Reality shows are out. The latest ratings have shown this subject matter has pretty much run its course.

I guess you didn't see the ratings for the "Joe Millionaire" finale!

 

[Howard Williams]

Title: "Express Yourself"

Concept: Reality. 30 minutes. Stand on any busy street corner with a camera and a microphone. Passer bys have 1 or 2 minutes to express themselves on any topic. Low production cost, cross cultural, educational, quality televsion. Not sure if the last too can truly exist but....

As an option, since viewer voting/particaption is the current rave, you could further bastardize the whole "showgram" by letting the audience vote for categories like "Best/Worst/etc." You get the idea.

 

[Mike_Stuewe]

Do a show about nothing.

 

[CharlesD]

Get your TV show ideas from where real TV execs get their ideas from: other TV shows!

 

[Chris Moe]

Title: Taking it in the nuts.

Concept: Half hour of people getting hit by various objects (baseballs, feet, little kids) in the nuts. It works for Americas Funniest Home Videos.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Chris,

Title : Ghost of a Chance

A teenage boy has a traumatic car accident and wakes up able to see ghosts. He finds that his suburban home has been inhabited by several ghosts, who occasionally offer him advice from their respective time periods (Turn of the century, 60's, and recent). They get into all kinds of hijinks because he is always talking to them out loud and people mistakenly respond to his mad ravings. Think The Frighteners without the death.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

Patrick,

Title: "Bud and Thelma"

Concept: One hour, Drama. Bud is a truck driver and CIA operative. Thelma is a rodeo clown.

I don't know how, but you've stolen my idea!

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Title: "Jeff, Bob, and Their Half-Brother: SpIkE!"

It's a sitcom with these two brothers (who are from different ethnic backgrounds, one being white and the other being from India) living in an apartment, trying to make it in the big city. One day, they find out their dead mother was reincarnated as a dog and had a puppy. Now they live in their apartment with their half-brother, the dog named Spike!

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Title: The Cop & The Witch-Doctor.

Concept: half hour, comedy/action Det.Ted and his roommate Mugadoo solve crime with forensics, investigation, and helpful spirits. Every episode has at least one person jumping-over the hood of a car (ala Hawaii 5.0.).


Title: Criminals

Concept: hour, reality Criminals are followed-around by a camera crew as they commit crime. Similar to COPS but appealing to the more cynical & criminally-oriented viewership.

Title: Angst

Concept: hour, drama Trent is a bisexual, schizophrenic, former heroin addict, computer-systems hacker who fights a losing battle against cancer while putting up with the insane antics of his family, friends, and personafied delusions. Mercilessly hunted by the FBI, haunted by the ghosts of the people he accidently killed while robbing their homes for drug money , and battl;ing his never-ending desire to return to the gutter while simultaniously being helped and guided by a Holy-man who may happen to be the reborn christ, a crazed homeless man, or even a festering lifeless corpse that only Trent thinks is real.

 

[chung_sotheby]

Do Joan Millionaire, where there are fifty guys who have the chance to meet the sugar-momma of their dreams. The catch is that there are two girls who are supposedly sugar mommas, but one of them is dirt poor. This would surely be the seventh sign of the apocalypse.