In this episode, the hosts attempt to come up with an original idea for a situation comedy. They engage in a lively back-and-forth as they brainstorm different scenarios and characters, and consider how to infuse their ideas with humor and heart. Throughout the episode, they also offer insights into the creative process and serve as a cautionary tale for what not to do in the writers' room. Ultimately, the hosts demonstrate that developing an original idea for a situation comedy is a collaborative and iterative process and that the key to success lies in persistence, humor, and finding a professional to do it for you.
In this episode, the hosts attempt to come up with an original idea for a situation comedy. They engage in a lively back-and-forth as they brainstorm different scenarios and characters, and consider how to infuse their ideas with humor and heart. Throughout the episode, they also offer insights into the creative process and serve as a cautionary tale for what not to do in the writers' room. Ultimately, the hosts demonstrate that developing an original idea for a situation comedy is a collaborative and iterative process and that the key to success lies in persistence, humor, and finding a professional to do it for you.
Check out the Spotify Playlist for this episode here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0QTp8GEfcWhjAijcj1U2rL?si=e2a80c0e328a4836
Reach the pod at DontEncourage@gmail.com
Discourage us on Instagram @DontEncourageUs
Steve: He's a guy who's an actor who on set, he's one way offset. He's a completely different way, but now he's trying to, he's trying to
Jason: resolve that conflict. Yeah. And he is trying to, he's trying to accept himself. Figure out what describes him and defines him and accept that. But he's only able to do that if he believes other people are accepting him.
So you had a good workout. Yeah. It was a
Steve: good workout. It was. It was nice to break up the day like that. Yeah. Just realize I'm not as strong as. I used to be and it was kind of very eyeopening. I was like, oh God, starting over.
Jason: You know? That's weird. Cause I would've thought you were never very strong. See, there you go.
Steve: That's why I love having these podcasts. I leave here with a, a renewed
Jason: sense of self-esteem. I dunno if you need a whole gym to tell you these things, but you know, no, I just need you, you around
Steve: a weekly zoom. I'm all set. Damage for life, or at least for the rest
Jason: of the week. Okay. We gotta watch the negativity this week.
Oh yeah. It's very tempting, but that's our wheelhouse. We're good at it. We're throwing it out. There we're the insult Comics of life. There's a market for that. Oh yeah, it used to be. Mm-hmm.
Steve: Until that got canceled.
Jason: How tea got there? Well, I do not have a mildly caffeinated tea and it's, uh, kind of late in the day and I'm, my energy kind of flags, so I'm running the green tea and the herbal lemon tea.
Wow. Together. Never seen that before. Someone doing combo. No, it's, that's not even all of it. I have some Russian honey that was gifted to us and uh, just as an afterthought about a shot's worth of habanero, lemon moonshine that I bought. You're all in it's world flavors. I feel like, uh, will Smith just slapped me.
You off. You're done. That's right. So if I get a little punch drunk, it has nothing to do with what we're doing. And if
Steve: this episode goes well, The audience will, uh, feel that way too.
Jason: Yes. If it does go well in theory, and if it goes
terrible, we bury it. We've never seen light of
day. Okay. Be ready. Be ready to listen to a couple idiots.
Pretend like they know what they're talking about. I think that's it. You've got it. Is that the title of our podcast? I think
Steve: you just did the intro. We'll just tack that out at the end. Two Idiots
Jason: podcast. Perfect. So I think a good segment title here is Story Break, and I think it needs like a little song, you know, where we're like, it's time for story break.
Story break. It's time for you and me. Story break. Story break. We promise. No Cosby. You know, something like that. That's good. That's really good. Yeah, just kinda riffing a little bit. Get a nice theme going. Did he just make that up or you had that prepped? No, I just made that up. But it's a little out tune and it, it needs a guitar or something or somebody who actually can sing in tune the lyrics work.
Thanks. Well, I want people to feel safe. The first idea, I got a bunch of them queued up, but this one I like the idea is cuz a TV show, it's a sitcom. It opens with a family, and it's sort of the end of the episode. They're learning a lesson, they're getting over their disagreements, and then they all get together and sit down on the bed and have a big giant hug with the dad in the middle.
Then somebody elses cuts the episode that they're in ends and they all walk in different directions. Now you pull back, you realize they're on a set, they're filming a sitcom. The dad sits there and he appears kind of lonely and follows them around and like chases him out and wants to have the kind of onscreen relationship that he has with them.
Offscreen, trying to connect with them and have them be like family. You know, they all kind of go in different directions. They're not interested in talking to him. They have their own lives and things like that. And then he leaves, he goes home. You realize he lives in a tiny apartment. Uh, he doesn't have much money because he has three ex-wives who took all of his cash, and he used to be kind of famous, but he lost his money from all these bad marriages and now he lives alone and a tiny apartment, and it's very lonely.
So basically it's a sitcom about a sitcom.
Steve: Hmm. I like that concept. When you first started throwing it out, I thought of it as a movie. Where there's this lonely leading character. And then when he starts saying he's chasing them out and he wants that type of relationship, I thought, oh, it'd be a really cool thing if he, if you like, go into each one of those stories where he tries to develop those relationships with mm-hmm.
With the cast. And that becomes kind of, and I think he would really play with time with it too, like how he ended up on the sitcom. How each one of those people ended up part of that sitcom. Maybe he was part of the audition process or had a big influence in it. He picked them for specific reasons. You find out why.
Yeah, yeah. Or maybe it's a miniseries. I like that concept a lot though, where there's one cast member who takes all this really seriously. Mm-hmm. Or he really wants to have a connection with people and he's not able to. Maybe you throw in like the covid situation, that's where things started falling apart for him, right?
Mm-hmm. Cause he couldn't be mm-hmm. On sets in person. He had to stay home. He wasn't really good when they tried to do these. Like remember in the beginning of Covid they tried to do these episodes of, I think SNL might have done it, where everyone's like home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put together the episode.
Maybe he screws that up. That's kind of like the beginning of the, not the beginning of the end. For him. This is like his way of redeeming himself. With this new sitcom that he gets a chance, maybe it's a friend of his who's a producer who's putting it together. Yeah. So he like influences the casting and he brings all these people together for specific reasons.
Maybe later on we find out that each one had some type of history with him in the past, or he's trying to like, kind of make up for lost time. I don't know. You probably go a lot of different directions with this one.
Jason: No, I like it. I like where you're going. So, uh, movie or mini series instead of a sitcom.
In your opinion, is that where we're going with this? Yeah, I,
Steve: I think so. I think I would look at it more. It's kind of like a, it would be a dark comedy or more, something along the lines of like a Truman show. Mm. That kind of feeling. Mm-hmm. You know? Mm-hmm. Maybe if you do it as a sitcom, I don't know. I'm not seeing it that way.
Like maybe there's a way to really pull that off. What were you thinking of about it in terms of sitcom? If you were to like, play it out a little bit?
Jason: So if you do sitcom, you do it documentary style. The conceit is they're filming a documentary of the sitcom. They follow him and you get some of the footage shot in places you normally wouldn't get footage shot.
And because it's like Modern Family or the Office or something like that. So you have this guy who I was seen as, I don't know, I call him Bruce in my head, but I was seeing him as kind of like, You know when he is on tv, he's your funny little bit of Everybody loves Raymond. If everybody loves Raymond, You know what I mean?
Like he's the star, he's likable. The people look up to him, he's solving problems, and as soon as they call cut, he's, you know, following someone around and trying to be their dad or trying to be kind of their husband and, you know, have that dynamic, that same back and forth or closeness that they had on screen.
The whole sitcom is about his struggle to not be lonely and connect with people. You know, his career is flagging. He used to have something, the sitcom was a fallback. I see. So I was kind of going in that way. And then the documentary style to kind of keep it light, and then having a cast of interesting, flawed characters around him.
Steve: I see. I like that take. Yeah. I wouldn't have thought of that to have it be a light comedy. I guess I saw him more as a. Of like a depressed character that's trying to redeem his life
Jason: through this I that up characters. I think the way I pitched it, I set that up, right? I could have pitched it more comedically, but I really emphasized the loneliness early uhhuh, which I think is implied.
So probably didn't need to be stated explicitly, you know, like it'd be better to kind of show it than for me to even in the pitch or like explain how it seemed, instead of just saying it flat out. But I like your idea. So if it's like a dark comedy, then it's like, uh, Barry. Right. So Barry is a dark comedy on HBO o.
Have you seen that? No. It's a guy, he's used to be a contract killer. He's trying to break out of the game and he gets involved in acting in Hollywood and he, he's not very good, but he wants to succeed and it's, you know, funny and amusing and all that kinda stuff, but it's also pretty dark and they do what you're talking about, which is like, they go back in time.
I liked your idea a lot. It starts the end of an episode, and let's say it's after season one. Maybe it's the final episode. Maybe it's just an episode in season one. And he's chasing people around and it's funny and he's trying, it's light. He's trying to like dad the kid who's actually, you know, older and, you know, 25 instead of 18 and not really interested and it's awkward and it's, it's funny.
So I like that. But then showing him alone and bringing the tone down and then maybe going back to how he ended up in this place was a good sequence, right? Like he had a career, maybe he was a child star, maybe he did some great movies, or he had some really popular stuff going, and then something happened, like he got canceled.
You know, like he did something stupid on social media and. He got canceled and now this is him getting out of Hollywood jail and it's going okay. But over the course of the last 10 or 15 years, 10 years, let's say he's been married three times, or let's say 15, and all those marriages have ended bitterly.
It's cost him his money, his friends. His reputation in the Hollywood community. Like he doesn't have a social circle. He just doesn't have, and he's making all these massive payments out that he, so he just lives in a crappy little apartment. Then we do flashbacks to see how really his strategy all along was to build a family by getting involved in casting.
Inappropriately and choosing people that he felt chemistry with, but not as an actor or professional, but that he thought could fill that role in his life without maybe even realizing he was doing. Right. I think that's kind of touching.
Steve: Yeah, and it's funny when you kind of go through the whole storyline the way you just did.
Yeah. Now in my mind, it goes back to a series.
Jason: I thought about some potential episodes, and I was thinking of it more as a half hour sitcom, so I was, so, they're a little light, right? So the themes are lighter and they're, they're not as thick or complex as they may need to be for something that's gonna be 45 minutes or an hour long per episode.
There's an episode where he has like a social media fail again or for the first time. And there's a rival actor who's trying to Charlie Sheen him, you know, and take over Uhhuh, you know, like kinda Ashton Kutcher his ass and Uhhuh, you know, slide into that role. Uh, that's
Steve: pretty funny. I could see where that could
Jason: go.
No, you can just see this guy kind of scrambling. In my mind, he was kind of neurotic. He's kind of ni, he's nice and he cares, but he's neurotic. When he is on screen, he's smooth and charming and you know, Alan thick, you know, so he's smooth TV dad, and then off camera, he's insecure, he's awkward, he's struggling, but his heart's often in the right place, but he's just not good at it.
You know, having this kind of competition from an actor who's younger and better looking and has a little bit more fame and heat on him, I think would be great. My idea for the pilot was the show had been on for like a year and they're on a cable channel and they have like a decent time slot on a cable channel.
And he thinks that's great cuz he's kind of old school and he thinks, you know, being on cable TV is where it's at, right? And everybody else wants to move it to streaming Uhhuh. And he just thinks like, who's gonna see that Uhhuh? You know who streams anyway, right? Like what do they gotta get a computer to watch tv?
They're gonna put it next to their television. How does that even make sense? So I thought that'd be kind of fun for the pilot. And part of that would be they're coming up on contract renewals. So he's going around trying to father each one of them into agreeing with him, basically Uhhuh and seeing that he's right.
And he knows, just like on the TV show, you know, father knows best kind of a thing where, and they're all just like urinated. They have different strong reactions to that. Oh, by the way, one of the characters, one of the fake actors on the sitcom has to be a Scientologist. Absolutely has to be a Scientologist.
I like it. I don't care Anything else about that character, but that's non-negotiable. Oh, there's some
Steve: really funny things you could do with that. Like one liners and you know, they know all the Scientology history inside and out. Mm-hmm. In any situation that comes up, he brings it back to Scientology.
Jason: That was pretty funny. Yeah. Absolutely right. And you know, there are all those, uh, implications that they're Hollywood connections with Scientology and it helps people get ahead in their career. And, you know, that's why certain people are as famous as they are and have the control they have and influence they have in Hollywood.
So having one of the actors on the show who's in a sort of lesser position kind of be a rising star. In part because of Scientology creates like a conflict where they're inherently threatening and they're really gonna resist any effort he makes to connect with them because they're part of Scientology and they're not really supposed to connect with other people.
But if we chip away at that over time and show the humanity and the like, you know, the real person behind the Scientologist of that character, I think that would also bring some art to it. I thought it would be fun to do an episode where, Bruce is trying to get in on the, you know, he's trying to get back into films on the side, like when they're on breaks and he wants to get in on the, uh, tough guy, like older actor action flicks, you know, so he signs on for this movie and he's filming it, and we don't really see that.
We just kind of hear him talk about it. And he thinks it's like taken Uhhuh, but with a dog, right? So he sees himself as like Liam Neeson. But the difference here is instead of rescuing his daughter, it's he's just trying to get his dog back. And to him that just seems like the perfect, tough older guy role for him.
And he's Uhhuh imagining he'll be able to do a bunch of these kind of things and be like, uh, you know, a Bruce Willis type or whatever long in his career. But then he finds out it's actually the movie he's in is a sequel to not Without my Daughter. Which was the Sally Fields movie, Uhhuh and just about the opposite of action as you can get.
And it's like a, a fraudulent sequels, like nobody from that original film is involved in the sequel and it's probably gonna end up being direct to video. And then he steals the dog from the movie because he is lonely and he connects with it.
Steve: That's good. That's a really funny episode. I can see it in my head.
I mean, this is a good concept because you can basically take it in any direction. You've got the ensemble, you've got the main character with his big flaw. Mm-hmm. His loneliness, which you can take into a strictly comedic mm-hmm. Getting him into all this trouble. Or you can take it, you know, a darker route if you want to.
An episode That might be funny. You mentioned Scientology in contract renewals. Like there's a contract renewal episode and there's a rumor going around that the head of the network is a Scientologist. So there's like all these like high jinks that occur with that one character or people trying to get on his good side to see if they can like set up a meeting.
Mm-hmm. With that network head, and you can put it in a good word. Like, just like the way they go about it is really funny and forcing him to say certain things about Z nnu, just drop it randomly in conversation,
Jason: you know? Yeah.
Steve: But then you find out that he's not at the end, but he might be like, it's got one
Jason: of those like, yeah.
You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. That'd be great. And then we could do an episode where one of the other cast members, let's say on the show, there's a daughter who's, I don't know, the hot daughter, right? Like, so she's supposed to be 19 on the show. And she's the Scientologist, let's say, uh, the actresses, but she has a boyfriend on the show.
There's an episode where he decides he's gonna become like part of a different, like a Quaker or like a, uh, what's that one? South Park did an episode on it. Um, Mormons Mormon, he's gonna become Mormon. Or like, and it's just this weird like natural rivalry when they start talking religion and they have to film scenes where they're this cute little couple and.
You know, he's kind of goofy and she kind of runs, you know, leads him around by the nose and then the minute they say cut, they go back to arguing about religion. That's really funny. Like X and Jesus and prophets. And she's like finding
Steve: the tablets in the desert and Salt Lake or whatever,
Jason: calling each other out on like BS magic stuff, you know?
I think we can just make that like a running bit. It's funny
Steve: and it's almost like a. A show that you could have for like the internet age where the episodes could be really, really short. Mm-hmm. Could be shorter than a normal episode. Yeah. Like one of 'em is Scientology, the other one's contracts like Yeah.
Everyone has like a name. Yeah. Of whatever the particular theme is, you know? Yeah. Telling this like longer story, but in much more broken up pieces that could work,
Jason: I think. Yeah. That could definitely work. I didn't even think of that. Yeah, I did think a couple running gags. A running gag of like a montage or short montages where Bruce is out in public doing different things and he runs into like fans or paparazzi or, you know, he's like working at a, um, like an event.
You know, he is been hired to like mc or appear at like a bar mitzvah or something. You have it just with music. So it's all just, you know, music playing and him being really awkward and weird with people and like embarrassing himself and creating awkward photos that end up on social media. And every episode could have like a montage.
There's a song. It always starts like that,
Steve: like it always starts with him in these like moments of fame that never worked out the right way. Exactly.
Jason: That would be very funny. Yeah. Like he's at Starbucks. Awkward, awkward interactions with
Steve: like fans. Yeah. And then it cuts into the episode. Okay. Like it's this really awkward moment with a fan or with a photographer or the guy at Starbucks or whatever it is.
Yeah. Around him being like kind of famous and then it cuts in. That could always be the lead in, but the first part is only like two minutes long. Yeah. And it's really awkward. Mm-hmm. He keeps track of his fame. With like a, kinda like a chart. Like there's something that he does to kinda know, like where he's at, like, you know, Starbucks three.
Like three people looked at him.
Jason: Yes. That's great. You know? Yeah. That'd be a great reveal. Like several episodes in, he has like a chart. What is that? On his wall, like a poster board. And it has like how many people recognized him at Starbucks and like how many photos were taken of him? Double taken count.
The street count's. Great.
Steve: Yeah, it could be a really silly like, I don't know what you'd call it, I guess like a serialized type of sitcom where it's not like super complex, but each one, like the characters are revealed. Like maybe the beginning episodes is like you have the ensemble, but you don't really get into each one of the characters and it just focuses on him.
And then each one of the subsequent episodes focuses in on like a character, but still part of that larger plot line, you know? Yeah, and then it goes back around. Or if you wanted to do it like a 10 episode thing, right? And then you break it up that way. Like each one has like a theme like Joey, Robin.
Yeah. Him could be
Jason: something. Yeah. No, I think that's good. I think that would work really well after the audience is more connected to the characters. I think if it's initial, I don't know. Actually that's a good question. Maybe it would work better if that's how it started. But it's
Steve: always with him. Maybe he's the anchor through the whole thing.
So he's always anchoring each episode. Okay. But each episode is following some, huh? Wait a minute. Maybe the whole thing is about these contract renewals. Mm mm-hmm. You see what I mean? Like let's say it'ss 10 episodes and it's like everything that occurs with each one of them around that. Cuz then you can spin it off into any type of story you want, right?
Yeah. Cause each one needs to renew for some particular reason. Each one could have their own manager involved. It could be something like that. Like it's, it's that season, but everything's based around that event and then everything that happens off of it, you know?
Jason: Yeah. So they kinda, I like that a lot into it all the time, you know?
Yeah. Yeah. That's a really good spine for a relatively tight, you know, eight episodes or seven episodes, and you can play off that bass, you know, off that anchor. For all of it. I think that's great
Steve: because maybe the problem is that the big issue is that the ratings are going down so they don't know mm-hmm.
If their contracts are gonna be renewed or if the series is gonna be renewed in general. So that puts each one of them in this like kind of crisis state, cuz they all needed that for their own particular reason. Like he needed it because, He
Jason: was lonely. This is his family. Yeah. And that's his family.
Steve: But each one of those family members has their own Their own issue.
Yeah. Around why they need this sitcom. Like maybe it was a hit sitcom for a long time. Maybe it's been on longer than even a year. Mm-hmm. You know, they've all gone used to the fame, the money of it, and now it's like dropping off and maybe there's one of them who doesn't want to come back on causing all kinds of problems.
For the other ones, I don't know. It could go in a million different directions I think. Yeah. I like that, but the general plot set up I think is really strong to have a lot of choices into, like where you could take it, you know? Mm-hmm.
Jason: Yeah. I thought it would be funny if there's like a daughter character who on the show is supposed to be like 12 or 13, and there are a lot of plots about her, like kind of being a kid, but also kind of learning what it is to be a teenager and all that.
But the actress who plays her is older. And pregnant. But she's contractually obligated to be in every episode. Like her contract specifically states, she has to be in every episode. It's a running joke. It's a running joke that they have to Gets harder and harder. Yeah, and they have to come up with, they pitch like more and more ridiculous.
Like story ideas, you know, in order, like she's, you know, fat camp, you know, like she's gained a bunch of weight or she has a tumor, like they're just trying to pitch something and they're always filming it with like countertops and they have to redo the furniture, and
Steve: that's hilarious. I could see like a scene in the, like one of the episodes where it's like, They've been doing like a table read for this like very serious scene that they're about to do.
And then it cuts into the time to shoot and like the assistant director like walks in and like hands the guy a watermelon and they're like, okay, action. And he's like about to do this, like really serious, but he's like covering her stomach or she's having to cover her stomach with a watermelon as they're doing this like really intense scene about something.
Oh, that would be hilarious. But they don't, they don't tell 'em about it. It's just like three seconds before they're about to go. She's just holding
Jason: this watermelon to cover her stomach cuz she's pregnant and they're just gradually getting used to it. It doesn't even phase them when Yeah. And they just grab random stuff holding the garbage can.
Right. Exactly. The refrigerator door, you know, they're just, they're just used to it. Oh, that
Steve: would be really funny. And that could be like a running gag the whole time. Mm-hmm. Anytime she's in a scene. But she's like been pregnant for like way longer and everyone's afraid to like mention it. And some characters think she faked it to get sympathy from the director.
Cause they're kind of jealous.
Jason: Oh man. Some controversy after a while that maybe it's a fake pregnancy.
Steve: Like, you know, did you ever rub up against her? And it was like, it felt like it was a balloon or pillows,
Jason: like a que like squeaked a little bit. Like somebody said they brushed it and squeaked. That's good.
Steve: So what is this called? The
Jason: sitcom? Ah, that's a great question. All I got was a sitcom about a sitcom. That is my working title. Do you have any ideas? It works. Could be renewed. Okay. Renewed. I like that.
Steve: Simple. Or I was gonna say the onion, but yeah, that
Jason: won't work. I was thinking I did have one thought, brand new day.
I thought I liked it just because it's, it's upbeat, right? And it conveys that it's a comedy and it may be a dark comedy, which works even better. Frankly, brand new day works better if it's, if it's kind of dark humor at times, or sad. But I thought it was, uh, meant to be. This is a com. This is a fresh start for him, like his life is a disaster.
He's fallen very far. He's really just desperately like, as we get to know him, we realize he's clinging to this idea of making his sitcom family, his real family, because he really has nothing else, you know, and that's, that's all that's kind of holding his sanity together. He doesn't care about being famous again.
Which we think he does, cuz he acts like he does. But he only cares about that because he thinks it'll make people wanna be with him. Mm-hmm. And spend more time with him. And then they'll get to know him and then they'll like him for real this time Uhhuh. You know, because before when he was famous, he spent all of his time trying to be what he thought people wanted.
Mm-hmm. And he doesn't like that version of himself or he doesn't like that person cuz it's fake. And now he wants people to like him for who he is, but they won't stick around long enough to get to know him. So he's trying turn this sitcom family into his family. That's good. Yeah. But he's annoying. He's, you know, sometimes manipulative, uh, clueless.
A little bit. Very clueless. Self-awareness. Yeah. Not interested in learning what it takes to be a successful celebrity these days. Just if he hears of it or thinks of it, he's gonna try it. I like it. So you can have some interesting characters that are his sitcom family, but you can also have writer on the show or head writer.
You can have like behind the scenes, you can have cameraman, you know, kind of some more down to earth characters that aren't necessarily supposed to be actors. So they're a little bit more relatable and real and equally not interested in a relationship with him, right. Of any meaningful kind. If you wanted, you could have different guest actors come in as directors, you know, for different episodes if it's a sitcom.
And they come in and this actor is that episode or that week's director for the sitcom episode and then you can kind of play off of different directors and you can rotate 'em back in and do kind of fun stuff for that. He could try directing an episode, right? That could be in his contract and really screw that up and and be trying to manipulate people that way.
Uhhuh. I just think there's a lot of kind of fun ways to play off of that where it's. It's in the style of those documentaries, those fake documentary comedies that are so good. It's a little bit like the Office and a little bit like Modern Family, but it's a, a whole different arena.
Steve: Second chances, ratings drop.
Oh, okay. That could be something. Mm-hmm.
Jason: Could just be ratings. Yeah. I think ratings is a good, or like views or whatever, right? I think there's something there, especially if you tie it in with streaming versus it's not streaming, like the numbers for the sitcom are going down, not necessarily because it's not that good, but because like the contract is.
They're done with season one, but none of those episodes will be available to stream for three more years, Uhhuh, right? Because the parent company is launching their own streaming service and it won't be up and running for another three years, and then they're gonna dump what you know, season one episodes and their plan is to release one season per year.
So that they have content, right? So there's likelihood everyone else is thinking that the sitcom's gonna be canceled by the time it's available on a streaming service. Uhhuh, right? So viewership's going down, but that's only because viewership is going down for everybody on cable Uhhuh, right? And that's where, you know, he believes it'll rally and this is where you want to be.
And you know, that's creating that conflict. But I don't think. Every, I don't think like the concept of the show is tied to ratings. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. Like that, that's a, that can be a bit, it can be a season, it can be something that pops up regularly, but I don't think it's the heart of the show and I think the title should tie more to that.
But that's, you know, you figure that out later. Yeah. I think,
Steve: yeah. I see your point. Views is an interesting title. Yeah. Mm-hmm. It's tied into it in such a dramatic way, but it's still, it could be a sitcom,
Jason: right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It'd be great if we could find a word or a phrase that has a little bit of a double meaning or double application to both watching a show or binging a show, or consuming a show on TV or being a viewer and.
Being part of a family or head of a family or connecting with human beings. There's probably some perfect phrase in there. Looking glass, that's very modest looking glass. You have glass on your pirate ship. Yeah, a lot of people are gonna relate to that for sure. Picture. And picture.
Steve: How's that?
Jason: I did like your idea of taking the montage. You know, it's two minutes and maybe he's at Starbucks, maybe he's at, uh, the grocery store trying to get noticed. You know, maybe he's picking different clothing and it's, but it's all silent. Like there's no sound from what he's doing. It's all visual jokes, and I thought it'd be fun to put a song over that.
And the song that I picked out is called Shades After Sunset by the Grandma Files, just as like a example of the kind of song, because it's all about cool. Oh, I see. So definitely recommend that one. I also thought that it would be fun to have a song by Big Wild called Awaken, and it has a really great intro up to about a minute 15.
So, So you could have him like going home. It's kind of sad. He's lonely. You realize how lonely he is, and then at one minute, 15 seconds, you drop the volume and he's watching like an Entertainment Tonight style show, like entertainment news. There's like some really sad news about him. You know, like something where he like tried to be famous or he's embarrassed himself again somehow and or how he didn't get a part right.
And then that story ends and then the music picks back up at a minute, 57 seconds. So it's just about 40 seconds or so of time to slot that in and it fits perfectly with a song. Oh, nice. So I love that. And there were a few other songs that I thought might capture the feel of different scenes. And originally when I was thinking of it as sitcom, I picked these songs, but I actually think some of them might work better with your 45 hour long dark comedy kind of show, like HBO style show that I'm picturing.
But they also might work if there was sort of a shorter like web episode or YouTube. Kind of 15 minute and just have one song that sort of captures the flavor of that episode. I see. So I put those songs on a playlist and it's available on, uh, Spotify under my handle. All this Yes. A L l t h i s y e S. So I put it out there, I made it public.
So if people wanna listen to the songs that I'm talking about and think about what episodes or how they would approach this, it's available. I like it. All right, so last question that I can think of, unless you have something, how would you add romance?
Steve: It would be kind of funny and kind of crazy if he had one of his ex-wives on there and then there was a new love interest that was cast.
Ooh,
Jason: yeah. I like
Steve: that. I would create all kinds
Jason: of, yeah, and it's the one casting decision he was not part of Uhhuh. Because it's, it's like a character and they were trying to create a little bit of tension on the show, a little romantic tension, and he wasn't interested in that because he's focused on establishing that connection with the actress playing his wife.
So he really didn't have anything to do with that casting. And this actress rolls in on a day one of his ex-wives is visiting. And I really envisioned each of them as being a unique different character that was very different from the others. And they just kind of roll in and roll out and create chaos and problems and in different, very different ways representing his attempt to find so right, but being absolutely clueless how to do that.
So one of them rolls in the same week, they're filming an episode or shots or parts of an episode with. This new actress, they cast to do kind of a love triangle thing or to like do a cute sitcom story about adults being attracted to other people when they're married. You know that? So it's like real sweet and rated G onscreen in the story, but he's actually attracted to her maybe and having a hard time maintaining the separation because he doesn't usually have to do that Uhhuh, but he's basically the same person, or he tries to be onscreen.
He tries to be the same person he is onscreen, offscreen, and now he has to kind of separate that a little bit. There's more internal conflict. Uhhuh. That's good. I like that. I
Steve: think adding that level of tension could make for good comedy, right? Because you have the dynamics between the two women. You have the dynamics between him and each one of those women, and you have them fitting into the rest of the cast.
There's a lot of opportunity for storylines to go off from that, you know? Yeah. I kind of imagine the ex-wife, like, what's that show called? House of Lies, I think with Don Cheadle, who was on Showtime for a while. Where they were consultants. Did you ever see it? No. And his ex-wife is kind of insane and she always causes all kinds of drama cuz she's a consultant too.
So she's in that same world as they are. He's either avoiding her or like sleeping with her and they have a son together. Yeah. So there's all this tension over how the son is raised and who's in his life more and who should be, et cetera. So it just made me think of that. But they threw her in there as like a wild car.
So every time she would show up in the show, you knew it was gonna be a crazy episode.
Jason: Yeah, I like that. Maybe it's too much. But if his, if this new woman who's cast, you know, let's say she ends up with a reoccurring role, maybe it's too much, but maybe she's like sister or related to one of his ex-wives, you could do
Steve: it.
Yeah. I mean, that could cause other problems too,
Jason: you know? Yeah. I don't know. That's, that's an interesting, because you always have
Steve: the tension with him if you do it, I think in a really profound way that has a lot of different ways to move the story. He's getting rejected by the one he wants. Mm-hmm. The one that he doesn't think he wants, he starts wanting, but it's too late, you know?
Yeah. Yeah. Having that kind of thing go, because I think this idea of him. His onscreen persona and his offscreen persona and those being in conflict makes for a lot of good storylines too. Cuz is he trying to change? Is he trying to give up that celebrity life? Does he want to be more like himself in public?
Is that causing problems? Mm mm-hmm. Is he trying to take his at-home persona and bring it on set? Does that cause issues too? And with who? You know? So there's a lot of ways to take him. Because he sounds pretty complex from the way you're describing him. That's good. Yeah. Because he is not just a lonely guy.
He's a guy who's an actor who onset, he's one way offset. He's a completely different way, but now he's kind of, he's trying to resolve
Jason: that conflict. Yeah. And he is trying to, he's trying to accept himself. Figure out what describes him and defines him and accept that. But he's only able to do that if he believes other people are accepting him.
Mm-hmm. And so it throws him back to the fake persona where he's accepted every week, Uhhuh. Right. Because that's the one that works. Right. That's what he can believe. That can be part of what separates him from everyone else is that he thinks that that's the persona that people want. That's what could get him what he wants.
But he's not that person and he doesn't have writers follow him around. So when he tries to deliver the same advice and be that same type of person for other people, it comes out garbled and mixed up and confused and kind of backwards sometimes because that's not who he is. He's a very different
Steve: person.
Uhhuh, I like this idea of like the office style for the show, right? And I think the interviews. That they do, you know, like the in between scenes or whatever. I think those would add some levity to it as well.
Jason: Yeah, I like that. But what if, and let's what if. We try it that way, but we also try it more like, have you ever watched a documentary of a TV show or a movie, like when they do a documentary, they film parallel with filming the TV show or the final episode or the movie or whatever?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So when you watch that, they grab people all the time. And they get little snippets from 'em, or they ask 'em questions and they're like on the set because they're in between takes or, you know what I mean? Like they're in the dressing room, they're getting dressed right. Like that kind of thing.
So I would wanna meld what you're saying with that. That's what I, and Okay. Right. So instead of it feeling a little less staged than the interviews and other, like those interviews are, they create a stopping point, like a pacing mm-hmm. Change because you've cut to this, people are talking and the audience gets used to it, and it doesn't disrupt the pacing.
But with this, I like the idea of it being integrated to what they're doing. Much more often, Uhhuh like, and we can let go of filming them outside of the set or. Other places or, you know what I mean? We can come up with a conceit that explains like maybe somebody's following him to get this documentary.
You know, like, I don't know. But we can figure out how to get footage wherever we want footage as part of it. But I, again, like that would explain why there's no sound when they're outside the studio, you know, and there's a song playing over it instead of hearing what they're saying or, you know, what Bruce is doing as he is, you know, trying to get someone's attention and be recognized at the grocery store.
So that's, that's great. I think we got the romance. I think we have some music ideas. I think we have maybe some episodes, but we haven't really decided on tone. That's the only thing that we haven't really nailed down that I think is sort of critical. So I guess that'll just be up to the audience, huh?
Steve: Yep. In my mind it's very blurry cuz there's so many options. Almost like there are too many options. You could see it as a movie. But again, it has to be really, I think, more simplified. You know?
Jason: Yeah. If it's a movie, it's fun, but it misses out on, I, I mean, it could work better to be honest. You know, you write it and wherever it goes is wherever it goes.
But I feel like you miss out on all the fun of the, like ripped from the headlines, sitcom, controversies over the years because every one of those is an episode Uhhuh, you know, every single time something dramatic has happened and messed up a sitcom. Like, what was it? Um, Martin. Martin Lawrence. Yeah, Martin.
Wasn't that in the name of his sitcom? Yeah. Yeah. All the stuff that came out later about the conflicts behind the scenes and like how they fought and there was harassment, right? You can spin that and lighten it and make it comedic. If it's a darker comedy, you can keep it edgy, maybe lighten it, make it funny, but keep some of the edge or the darkness to it, and then include that.
Just literally anything that's ever happened with a sitcom that people have, like one of the characters not being attractive as they get older, like gaining a bunch of weight or getting outta shape or like any of that kind of stuff. People recasting, you can do a whole episode where they're trying to recast one of the kids.
Mm-hmm. And they brought in another actor and they're filming scenes and you know, the main character, Bruce just can't stand that. And he keeps intentionally messing up the scenes and trying to prove that there's bad chemistry, even though this actor is just spectacular and a perfect fit for everybody, you know, or you go in a different direction.
If it's a darker comedy, that person is undermining everybody's chemistry. It turns out, and Bruce saves the day, but people end up presenting him. You
Steve: know? Yeah. It could be a really lighthearted kind of feel good type of sitcom if you really think about it.
Jason: Yeah, yeah. Or you can do your dark comedy idea where it has some comedic elements, but they're not so much laugh out loud, funny.
It's more just an amusing situation. And then there are some darker moments where people have real human problems. You know, with substances or, I mean, you don't have to look far in Hollywood to find what success can do and what failure or pressure can do to people. Yeah. When they, when they're actors.
Have some money or they have some attention. Mm-hmm. You know, the relationship you can get into. I mean, this whole idea of bits about him trying to get recognized could go really lighthearted and funny where, you know, he gets someone to recognize him, they get a photo together and then the guy ends up following him.
Right. And that's hilarious cuz now he is, he's both enjoying the attention, but trying to get away, but also enjoying the attention. You know, Uhhuh, he likes having a stalker, but it's making him nervous. But he likes it and it's kind of fun, but it's scaring him, you know? So you can do that kind of fun, lighthearted thing, or you can take it in a darker way and have him end up sleeping with a fan or something.
And then, Wanting more from that relationship than the fan wants, and playing that out in kind of a dark, comedic way where he's trying to connect with someone who really just saw it as kind of a, a lark, but isn't really interested in him as a real person. Right. They
Steve: liked the character. Yeah.
Jason: They thought it was character.
It was fun to sleep with a celebrity. Right. And that's kind of it for them, but he, he's lonely enough that he's trying to make more of it. Yeah. You know, that's unusual. Very dark. Yeah. Yeah. That can get
Steve: very dark very quickly.
Jason: Yeah. So I like your idea. I think either one works and no whole 13 year old pregnancy could really go either way.
You know, it can be lighthearted and funny it in moments, so, and then you can also make it darker. All right. That was good. Anything else before we wrap up? My terrible idea of the week, that was a good
Steve: idea. I thought that No, you set up a really good premise, I think to have you go in a lot of different directions with it.
It's complicated enough to be a comedy, a sitcom, and I think there's a lot of directions to go as a movie or even a mini series.
Jason: Yeah. I liked your, your web series idea too. You know, where it's, it's kind of shorter episodes that are tighter. Instead of having multiple plot lines, you just have your main plot line, and then maybe you jump characters in order to get what you miss when you cut subplots.
Steve: Right? Yeah. You'd have to make it really like I. I think those things would've to be written out a lot longer and then just cut down to just the essential moments to kind of drive the plot forward. Almost thinking about it like you would a really good commercial. Or a podcast. Or a podcast.
Jason: Just cut the crap.
Just cut it all out. I think we got a solid, solid 30 seconds out of this recording. Pretty sure This one? I think so. Yeah, we could probably pull that sparkling 33 seconds.
Steve: It's a new thing. It's a TikTok ready podcast. Oh. I quit six to ten second episodes. Today's movie is blank Show Roll Credit,
Jason: and that is all for today. Thanks for listening. Reach out to us at Don't Encourage gmail.com and let us know what you think the best version of this idea might be. We'll be back next week. Look forward to seeing you then.