New ideas for sit-coms...
Does anyone remember this TV series? It had like six "friends" - three 'boys' and three 'girls' -and they kind of lived in this really obvious set in New York and the friends who were boys were Dorky/Slutty, Dorky/Sarcastic and Dorky/Mass Murderer and the friends who were girls were Sassy/Obsessive, Sassy/Self-Obsessive and Sassy/Certifiable? God, you're got to remember it! It was huge about eight years ago... You remember? It was called "Friends"? Maybe it wasn't on TV where you come from. Anyway - the point is, that somehow I just caught an episode of it - it's still on TV! - and goddam is it terrible. Absolutely excruciatingly awful.
So anyway, I'm talking to Kerry - you remember Kerry, he's my chum in LA - and we're trying to work out why anyone ever watched that show "Friends", and we're trying to think up brilliant alternatives and I think we've done terribly well:
Pitch One: My first suggestion was a bit of a doozy - basically it's a sit-com about hot naked gay men making out - What's not to love?! When you think about it it's a miracle that no one's thought of it before. Location ideas? Fraternity house shower room maybe? Kerry suggested a wrestling team theme - but that's no good. As I explained to him, US wrestling teams wear weird wrestling outfits. You have to have grown up with them to associate them with lustful feelings - no one else in the world understands that particular weird fetish. And foreign markets are so very important nowadays - you don't want to make a show that people in New Zealand think is lame, do you? I mean, do you? Essentially, the only truly international sit-coms - maybe the only truly international TV shows - are the totally naked ones. I mean - check out Oprah - do you really think that her show would have been popular in Kazakhstan if she'd been wearing clothes?
Pitch Two: How about a sit-com in which Shania Twain is brutally murdered in a different way each week? It's got loads of potential catchphrases and running jokes. Each week she could start singing some power pop piece of ... art ... and then - right in the middle - an anvil could fall onto her head, or she could look down and realise that she's been pushed off a cliff. It would be like Kenny in South Park, but infinitely more satisfying. And think of the potential for spin-offs! I mean just off the top of my head I can think of "Death to J Lo!" and "The Hideously Thrilling Regular Decapitation of Christina Aguilera!"
You know - I'm wasted working in community software. I should be working in Hollywood! They know how to reward visionary geniuses out there. I mean - look at Joel Schumacher! He gave Batman nipples!
Comments
Please stay on-topic, informative and polite. I reserve the right to remove comments for whatever vague capricious reasons seem reasonable at the time.
You know, I would believe that it was possible to find a problem with the naked concept, and eventually I got it. Of all the people in the world, I never want to see the majority of sit-com stars naked. I would have to poke out my eyes to escape the horror. But some sit-coms in the nude? Hey, I'm all for that as long as they cast them properly.
I don't say quit your day job, but take a small vacation. Go there. Give us gold to watch -- amongst other things.
→ Posted by: Nicklas at March 22, 2003 11:28 AM
You would love to have seen Mark Millar and Grant Morrison's sitcom submission to Jonathan Ross's company a few years ago.
It was for a series of one-off pilot programmes that were allegedly made in the 70s, but could never be aired because they were so offensive.
One was called 'Knickers in a Twist' - a sort of version of The Good Life, with the Briars and Kendall characters running a brothel next to an uptight Penelope Keith character.
Another was called 'Kiss My Royal Arse', which followed the exploits of a different member of the Royal Family every week, following their disbandment, as they try to re-integrate with common life. Each episode would portray a series of disastrous jobs for people like Prince Edward, ending with a sacking for the hapless Royal and a two-fingered 'Citizen Smith' style salute to the audience followed by a shout of "Kiss my Royal Arse!".
Another one was similar to Father Ted (way before FT was commissioned), but I can't remember the details - something about a bunch of priests getting a nun pregnant, forcing her to get an abortion, only to discover the terminated baby was the second coming of Christ.
They had an idea in there similar to Love Thy Neighbour too, but I can't remember the specifics.
→ Posted by: Maritn Conaghan at March 22, 2003 12:34 PM
I like your naked gay men sitcom idea. I think it should be set in a generic urban gay village that nobody ever leaves, and the 6 main characters should be played by the same buff tanned 19 year old actor - the only way to tell them apart will be by slightly different hairstyles or clothing. The show could be called "Clones", and there could be some other characters who'd also be stereotypes - a politically-aware lesbian with spiky blonde hair (possibly mixed-race too), someone plucky in a wheelchair, and a flamboyant black drag queen called Miss Ebony Tease who proffers sassy words of wisdom and a padded shoulder to cry on. It will show on BBC3 and be hugely successful. In fact, I patent it!
→ Posted by: Lubin Odana at March 22, 2003 1:54 PM
Didn't the BBC do that one already?
→ Posted by: john at March 22, 2003 4:44 PM
Thank God for Lubin! Who else could have researched such matters in such detail: "The loves and lives of the residents of Dyke Street. It looks a bit minimalist and has characters called Bev and Mandy, and they hang out at a bar that has a pool table and drink pints and play on fruit machines so if you're middle-class you'll probably be horrified at how common everyone seems." [link]
→ Posted by: Tom Coates at March 22, 2003 10:40 PM
If that was to ever happen I think I'd develop instantaneous terminal internalized homophobia and die on the spot.
→ Posted by: groc at March 24, 2003 2:06 PM
I watch Friends all the time. I love that show, it's so funny. I thought it was a new show.
→ Posted by: Sic code at March 25, 2003 10:52 PM
a sitcom or movie comedy called white and wong : atternys at large.
→ Posted by: jack b at November 10, 2005 10:26 PM
I had an interesting idea for a sitcom. Following the lives of medical students going to school in the caribbean. It would involve above average intelligence students who get their work done and manage to live life to the fullest. Owning boats, scuba diving, fishing, water skiing, and sexy run ins with tourists. A main cast of beautiful young adults flirting, having fun, studying hard, and having the show medically accurate as well. Also, involving, late night parties, bonfires, hooking up with other students and vacationers both. It would involve comedy and sex. It would take grays anatomy to a completely new level with students showing their tan skin on the beach everyday which would help draw in an audience. The main characters would constantly be living on the edge and getting into trouble at sea as well, hurricanes, shark attacks, the works. I think that it may have a great plot, what do you think?
→ Posted by: Dan at February 12, 2006 9:22 AM
Pitch 2: You miss Bill Hicks as well, huh?
→ Posted by: Chris at March 2, 2006 9:28 PM