Making Your Own TV Series

Nalkarj
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Making Your Own TV Series Jun 13, 2018 12:07:33 GMT paislene and drystyx like this

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Post by Nalkarj on Jun 13, 2018 12:07:33 GMT

I feel like I’m always doing this on here, but I just love reading everyone else’s concepts for books, movies, TV shows, etc., that they’d like to write. (I have the “Plot It Yourself” and “Twilight Zone Episodes” threads, which are both vaguely similar, but they seem to have fallen quiet recently, unfortunately.)

So, inspired by drystyx’s thread here, do you have any ideas for television programs? They could be spin-offs of other shows, but I’d love to read some original concepts.

Two of mine (both comedies)…

Loose Cannon: a parody of cop shows, in the Sledge Hammer mold. The protagonist, “Loose Cannon,” is a gritty, insane, ugly-as-sin drunk and loner who (of course) also has brilliant detective skills but is more than overjoyed to shoot, kill, and destroy as much as he can. Every episode, someone screams, “My God! You’re a loose-cannon cop, but you get the job done!” He has a younger, college-educated, “bleeding-heart” partner who is yet unable to stop his ranting and raving. Everyone wonders how on earth this guy could still be a cop, a question that is never answered.

Spy Nun: Sister Betsy Marlow looks like a sweet little old lady but is actually a tough-as-nails spy for the Vatican Secret Service, tracking down both human and supernatural threats. The stories would be treated completely straight; the humor comes from the absurdity of the premise. In one episode she infiltrates a TV studio where Loose Cannon is being filmed.

I should probably try my hand at serious stuff—but what say you?

“Always keep your bowler on in times of stress, and watch out for diabolical masterminds.”

Nalkarj
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Making Your Own TV Series Jun 13, 2018 21:27:01 GMT paislene likes this

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Post by Nalkarj on Jun 13, 2018 21:27:01 GMT

I forgot to mention a concept for a serious program that I thought up yesterday—one based on the life and cases of real-life private investigator Ken Brennan, who brilliantly solved what Vanity Fair magazine called “the Case of the Vanishing Blonde.” (I highly recommend reading the article. It reads like a book—a fair-play Golden Age detective story. Another brilliant Brennan case here.)

He’s an ex-cop and ex-federal agent, retired from the Suffolk County Police Department (Long Island) and the D.E.A. respectively, and he now makes a living as a PI in Florida. He’s also brilliant: imagine combining Philip Marlowe’s moral code and approach to life, Columbo’s doggedness and warmth, Sherlock Holmes’s analytic skill and arrogance, and Ellery Queen’s penchant for a shocking solution—along with a thick Long Island accent and a sailor’s mouth. I keep comparing this real person to fictional gumshoes, but if you had specifically tailored a sleuth for a TV show you couldn’t have done any better.

Obviously, for a TV show, one would have to create a fictionalized version of Brennan, and I’m sure that the show might have some troubles fictionalizing some of the real cases. But I think a character based on Brennan would make for an excellent TV detective show.

Last Edit: Jun 13, 2018 21:27:21 GMT by Nalkarj

“Always keep your bowler on in times of stress, and watch out for diabolical masterminds.”

paislene Junior Member @paislene Posts: 1,182 Likes: 510	Making Your Own TV Series Jun 13, 2018 22:49:07 GMT Nalkarj likes this Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by paislene on Jun 13, 2018 22:49:07 GMT Great Ideas , Salzmank ! I would certainly pick up your ideas and use them , if I could ! They're better than all the crass plagiarized and processed procedurals available now !

Chalice_Of_Evil
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Making Your Own TV Series Jun 14, 2018 10:15:22 GMT Nalkarj likes this

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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jun 14, 2018 10:15:22 GMT

Originally I was going to post this in a thread about ‘worst ideas for a movie’ or whatever its subject title was...but I couldn’t manage to locate that thread, so instead I’m posting it in here (since what can be considered a ‘bad' idea by some people can be considered a ‘good' idea by others).

Four women, with seemingly no connection whatsoever, discover that they do in fact have something in common when they attend the funerals for their spouses who all died together in an “accident” and it’s revealed that their spouses all worked as minions for an evil corporation run by a supervillain where they ended up as collateral damage in an ongoing battle between the supervillain and his arch nemesis – the city’s most beloved superhero. The four women band together and decide to “punish” both the superhero and supervillain who they blame for their husbands’ deaths, but in doing so they discover that they never really ‘knew’ who they were married to, as more secrets are revealed.

Nalkarj
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Making Your Own TV Series Jun 16, 2018 1:40:00 GMT Chalice_Of_Evil likes this

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Post by Nalkarj on Jun 16, 2018 1:40:00 GMT

Thanks, paislene—I appreciate it. Now if only you and I can convince a producer…

“Bad idea”? Perish the thought, Chalice_Of_Evil—I think it’s very good indeed. It could work even without the superhero stuff, though—just the initial set-up (four widows find out their husbands all shared a common secret) sounds intriguing. If you did decide to go with the superhero and -villain, though, I wonder if it would be OK not to introduce that element until about halfway through. It would be a very shocking twist—“wait, this isn’t only a mystery-thriller, it’s a superhero story!”

One more idea from me: I mentioned a children’s book that I thought I remembered on the ‘Books’ thread, but I might well have conflated two different books or even just dreamt it. (No one’s been able to find it, and I wasn’t even sure from the get-go that it was an actual book.) Here’s the synopsis I remembered:

Protagonist was a young (or maybe teenage?) boy, interested in history, who awakes one morning in an alternate universe. Twist is that the British won the Revolution and the U.S. are still 13 colonies or something like that—either way, there's an absolute monarch ruling the land. (Yes, I know that's not historically accurate even in George III's time.)

Hero finds three friends who are like Dumas' Musketeers—dashing, brave, and bold. He is the D'Artagnan to their Athos, Aramis, and Porthos, and thus joins their merry group and goes on great adventures.

The problem is this: the people who believe in liberty and democracy, and wish to break free of the absolute monarchy, are considered terrorists in this world. They have a group—possibly called "The Sons of Liberty"? (Not sure about that.) The majority of the populace, however, consider democracy a quaint 18th century fad at best and a murderous ideology at worst. The hero's friends are loyal subjects of the king and fight determinedly against the "Sons." The question for the hero is if he is doing the right thing. He loves his new friends but cannot reconcile his (and, most likely, the reader's) ideals with what those friends are fighting for.

I remember there is a scene in which the "musketeers" (for lack of a better word) rescue the hero from the "Sons" and carry him to a boat waiting in the harbor.

There is also a scene in which the leader of the "Sons" reveals that he knows the hero is from a different universe—he might be from "our" universe as well?

Can't remember the ending (if I finished it at all). It's not Dreyfuss and Turtledove's The Two Georges, though I know there are many similarities.

Any help is, of course, greatly appreciated.

If it’s not actually a real book (or even if it is), then I think it would make a grand TV show.

“Always keep your bowler on in times of stress, and watch out for diabolical masterminds.”

Chalice_Of_Evil
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Making Your Own TV Series Jun 16, 2018 10:42:37 GMT

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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jun 16, 2018 10:42:37 GMT

Jun 16, 2018 1:40:00 GMT Nalkarj said:

“Bad idea”? Perish the thought, Chalice_Of_Evil —I think it’s very good indeed. It could work even without the superhero stuff, though—just the initial set-up (four widows find out their husbands all shared a common secret) sounds intriguing. If you did decide to go with the superhero and -villain, though, I wonder if it would be OK not to introduce that element until about halfway through. It would be a very shocking twist—“wait, this isn’t only a mystery-thriller, it’s a superhero story!”

That could work. I like it.

Making Your Own TV Series

Post by Nalkarj on Jun 13, 2018 12:07:33 GMT

Post by Nalkarj on Jun 13, 2018 21:27:01 GMT

Post by paislene on Jun 13, 2018 22:49:07 GMT

Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jun 14, 2018 10:15:22 GMT

Post by Nalkarj on Jun 16, 2018 1:40:00 GMT

Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jun 16, 2018 10:42:37 GMT