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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsNew plots for TV shows
I'm sick to death of old shows getting re-made, especially when they weren't that good the first time around. And reality shows. Really hate those. My new favorite is "Designated Survivor". Totally hooked.
What's your idea for new plots/premises? How about a famous portrait artist that gets involved in his subject's lives? Or a gardener whose plants come alive and talk to him? Oh oh! Even better, the earthworms in his garden come alive and eat him. Or......
Kablooie
(18,641 posts)A guy inherits an old vintage car and discovers that his dead mother's soul inhabits the radio.
A whacky comedy to be sure!
ashling
(25,771 posts)Don't know why nobody ever thought of it before.
Chasstev365
(5,191 posts)Go into the crumbling, inter-city schools to expose the conditions and then build nice, new classrooms.
CurtEastPoint
(18,668 posts)Chasstev365
(5,191 posts)OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)Last edited Sat May 27, 2017, 07:00 PM - Edit history (1)
that exposes the danger, the intrigue, the lengths that employers will go too -- usually spending far more on union avoidance consultants than they would spend giving workers raises.
Characters could include bad bosses, spies playing both sides, family members of illegally fired union supporters, clueless onlookers, greedy consultants, backbiting co-workers, all the people you find in and around a workplace. Plus it would have the added bonus of educating Americans about how unions are not just naturally shrinking, but it is part of the Republican strategy.
Laffy Kat
(16,389 posts)OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)irisblue
(33,036 posts)OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)I'm available to join the writing team! LOL!
LeftInTX
(25,607 posts)I've seen some older movies about unions and they're pretty good. Grapes of Wrath comes to mind, but there are also some great low budget ones.
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)ashling
(25,771 posts)greatest movie ever!
NJCher
(35,764 posts)I will be a consultant for this show. I am on the executive board of my union and as such, am in the midst of negotiations on a new contract. Let's have an episode or two about academics going up against greedy administrators who make--even at community colleges!--half a million bucks a year.
We have an academic vice president who walked into a meeting and announced she was wearing a $700 pair of shoes. That would be one month's salary for an adjunct teaching a single course.
This same AVP sits in meetings playing Candy Crush on her iPad. Swear to Dog. Oh, and she has an online Ph.D. in education.
Cher
TeamPooka
(24,264 posts)Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)When I was a little kid, around 1950 or so, and my dad was newly promoted to management, striking union thugs threatened and intimidated my poor mom. She was terrified, and I don't blame her; young country girl, new in town with a young kid to raise, strong-armed by guys that looked like central casting versions of Mafia hoods. So whatever the premise of the show, don't whitewash it and idealize one side and demonize the other. There was plenty of scum on both sides.
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)There is no excuse for what happened to your mother, and it is indefensible. I'm sorry your family had to live through it. If this idea were ever made into a real TV show, I am sure you would see lots of characters who were operating in grey areas, with few characters or groups being portrayed as perfectly good or perfectly bad.
However, I feel compelled to say that I believe the use of the phrase "union thug" to be prejudicial and demonstrating a lack of respect toward union members (and the history of the word "thug" isn't really all that great either). Unions are no more and no less perfect than any other institution or any other group of people. There are good and bad bosses, good and bad public servants, good and bad lawyers, good and bad wait staff, good and bad Catholic priests, good and bad police officers, good and bad whatever.
The fact is that threats and violence toward union members is far more common that threats and violence by union members:
http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/the-haymarket-affair/
https://zinnedproject.org/materials/ludlow-massacre/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_union_busting_in_the_United_States
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1998/09/more-perfect-union-buster
If I had proposed a show about a racial or religious minority, I am positive you would not have said, please show that not all ______ are good people, because this one time a _______ person threatened and intimidated my mom. So to me, it is not OK to say it about union members. I think it is a given that there are people in all groups that behave odiously, and I don't see a need to point out that some union peeps are bad. Just my opinion, which you are under no obligation to agree with.
This being the Lounge, I will say no further on the subject. I generally come here to retreat from the animosity of the other fora.
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)You're right. Such discussions do not belong in the lounge.
CurtEastPoint
(18,668 posts)after all...
oh... what? Oh, OK... never mind.
shenmue
(38,506 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)there's not much to choose from. I like Designated Survivor too, and the sinister and quirky Orphan Black, and there is an offbeat Sci-fi comedy, People of Earth about a support group for kooks who claim they were abducted by aliens, that is actually run by the aliens.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Mr. Dixie loved the first episode, then we lost track of it.
ashling
(25,771 posts)also Madame Secretary
First Speaker
(4,858 posts)...and their total control over the world's financial, media, and political systems. We could see them giving their orders to pols of both parties; see the Marx Brothers antics of a few independent "journalists" trying desperately to "expose" the puppet masters, and the amusement of said puppet masters as every single "clue" the journalists get is given to them by the Illuminati, partly to confuse them, but mostly for their--the Illuminati's--own amusement; see the rulers of the world laugh like hyenas every time they see some Talking Head on TV ranting about those wicked "conspiracy theorists"; see guest appearances by such notables as Lee Harvey Oswald, Elvis, Michael Jackson, Princess Di, and even Generalissimo Francisco Franco. (Even though he's still dead.) An amusing little combination of Robert Anton Wilson, Hunter Thompson, Robert Ludlum, with maybe a little Steven Spielberg uplift for some seasoning...
wyldwolf
(43,870 posts)OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)jmowreader
(50,567 posts)In that case, how about a mixup of "Route 66" and "Nickel and Dimed"?
Wolf Frankula
(3,602 posts)Cops who step outside the law to put the cops who step outside the law behind bars.
Doctor Trump. A show about an incompetent M.D.
Wolf
NJCher
(35,764 posts)Jane and Barton are two upper income professionals with thriving careers. To the outside world, their lives are the picture of the American dream. Behind closed doors, however, their lives are run by three cats who dictate their every move: midnight runs to Whole Foods for a favored flavor of cat food and the humans sleeping on the edge of the bed while the cats occupy the middle of a Hollywood king.
The couples' careers are no respite, as their every move is dictated by the cats via cell phone apps connected to in-home cameras.
Neighbors becomes curious when the lawn is replaced with a landscape of catmint and cat nip, which is kept suspiciously trim.
The series moves to its peak when Barton is promoted to a new position in another city and the couple finds their house, which is now encased in an outdoor catio, is unable to be sold.
Cher
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)Do they talk to each other? Is it more realistic?
NJCher
(35,764 posts)through their eyes, however, in the production, there should be a special voice which interprets the telepathic communications. I like the voice in Mike Kister's Sad Cat Diary, however, it would have to be something totally original.
Cher
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)Could Henri be one of the cats?
NJCher
(35,764 posts)through the entire clip.
I think Henri has a book out. My library had it. But the voice is everything!
Cher
Bayard
(22,181 posts)Hollywood, are you listening?
FM123
(10,054 posts)Imagine that orange idiot trying to compete with President Obama - even W would wipe the floor with him. Bigly.
littlemissmartypants
(22,839 posts)Like the dating game but instead of a date you identify the pain in the ass in your life. That ass gets a make over and the player, a vacation.
?
mainstreetonce
(4,178 posts)Secrets hidden in the implants in his scalp.
Initech
(100,108 posts)And then he wins for some unknown and very shady reasons. And he's about to find out that being the president is much harder than it seems! Not only that, he's stacked his staff with the dumbest and most incompetent people in the entire world to run the free world! And his supporters are stark raving mad white supremacist lunatics.