Pitch Your Series

Yeah, even here in England having a gay romance at the centre of a show is unusual. I'm pretty sure Torchwood didn't have it as the central plot in series one, teasing Jack and Gwen instead for a bit.

Still, as long as it was marketed properly, I doubt it would be a major issue in selling it. I can see Exec's fearing the lack of a straight romance so I could probably work something in with Lily/Alex/Maddy that could work with their animosity and add an extra dimension to the show. Hmmm, I'll have to think about that and see if it would screw too much with the plot.

Yeah, adding a straight romance (or even a lesbian one for Fanservice purposes, since men don't like watching other men kiss each other so that's the viewer base you're most likely to shed if you don't throw them a bone) would probably be a good idea.

My latest TV Show idea (warning, not very fleshed out yet... just have a concept for an Action Series and a cool name):

Devil Dogs

Concept: An elite USMC commando unit consisting entirely of werewolves kicks ass in the Middle East. So basically, something similar to Strike Back, except with supernatural elements and, considering their post-transformation lack of decorum, more nudity (yes, the unit does have female members, although Male Full Frontal Nudity will occur as well).

There's a plan percolating to add vampires into the mix eventually, and possibly have one of the deceased commando-unit members from Season 1 come back as a ghost later... pretty much anything supernatural that makes sense in the setting can and will be used. Since werewolves don't make pretty kills, expect it to be really gruesome as well.

I'm afraid I'm having difficulty interpreting that as anything other than 'super-special Americans kill lots of brown people in incredibly brutal ways, and occasionally fuck'.

This audience member, at least, needs some more convincing.

You're probably not the target audience, then. Sorry, but it's not exactly a highbrow concept.

Even lowbrow concepts, though, don't have to be overtly offensive. You could at least do something about the whole 'super-special Americans kill lots of brown people in incredibly brutal ways' bit. Hell, why not start by making them a Middle Eastern unit, if you're dead-set on the setting? It's not like the US has a monopoly on elite special forces.

Did you catch that the show's title is a nickname for the U.S. Marines? And that a show about werewolf soldiers wouldn't make as much sense without that title?

If people are offended, then they're offended. People are pussies that way, and I don't waste time on pussies.

So the most important aspect of the show is the pun in its title? In that case, why not go for, say, a Marine Corps base in the homeland suffering from a nasty bout of lycanthropy? If that sounds too low-key, you could go for one of the ones near a major city, and have the outbreak spread to there. Marine versus werewolf urban warfare, with thousands of civilians caught in the middle.

I must wonder, though, given the rapidly narrowing target audience for this thingy, why you chose to pitch it to a public forum in the first place...

Most projects with Dog in the title and aren't about dogs tend to suck. It comes off as Totally Radical.

Yeah. I've gotta agree with you—don't think I could watch that either. Military unit full of supernatural creatures: cool. Military unit full of supernatural creatures who only operate in Iraq: not so cool. Besides, why would they only deploy to Iraq? Iraq's an occupation area. Having creatures that randomly cause vast amounts of collateral damage by going berserk (including one would presume to civillian targets) would be counterproductive. Now if he had them being deployed all over the world as Spec Ops, that could be more interesting, especially if they ran into other supernaturals on occasion.

That might be cool. There would certainly never be a lack of material.

I never said Iraq, I said The Middle East. Firstly, that means we're talking about a much larger geographical area than just one nation, and that not just Arabs will be targeted by this unit (Israel doesn't exactly have dirt-free hands). Secondly, if I recall the U.S. has pulled out of Iraq, or is at least in the process of doing so. Unless the Republicans fucked that up for Obama too, and I just haven't heard about it yet.

As the "offensive" argument earlier... as I said, political correctness pisses me off. The pussies can whine if they want... I'll offer them cheese. Since my original vision for this project was essentially a longer-form Exploitation Film, it's supposed to be offensive.

But there's a difference between being offensive because it's gruesome and being offensive because it's racist. I'm not saying your intent is to sound racist, but bear in mind that it does kind of come off that way.

The withdrawal was yesterday. It was the top news story on the NBC Nightly News.

edited 15th Dec '11 10:48:17 PM by Buscemi

Again, your job is to pitch your series. Saying 'the audience can go suck it' is not exactly the optimal method of accomplishing that.

'Sides, why's it so important that it be offensive? Exploitation movies are beloved because of all the cheesy action, not because they were Mein Kampf with tits. What you're doing is like looking at the works of H.P. Lovecraft and deciding that they were successful because he called his cat Nigger-Man and wrote long screeds about how all foreigners were evil degenerates.

I wanted to post a quote from Homer Simpson about how much he hates his viewers and loyal customers, but I can't seem to find it. Instead, here's twelve lines of the word "pork".

pork

pork

pork

pork

pork

pork

pork

pork

pork

pork

pork

pork

edited 16th Dec '11 9:17:18 PM by Jergling

Okay, so the racism thing. It seems like Completely Missing The Point to me. Are you guys really saying that Reality Is Unrealistic to the point that setting any show in the location where the most important war (to its creator and probably very American cast members anyway) currently being fought in Real Life is an inherently racist thing to do? Because that's what I'm arguing against here... the assertion that my show is in any way racist against anyone besides werewolves is just fucking idiotic.

Only when you're using it as a thinly-veiled (OK, not veiled at all) platform for tits and explosions, with the Iraqis existing as little other than hideous villains to be brutally dismembered. Your responses when we expressed concern about this possibility did not encourage us that you were going to avoid it.

Well, that and the fact that you appear to be concerned most about the opinions of the 'very American' cast members rather than, say, any Middle Eastern ones. Presumably, if you want to do this right (with a big budget, high-powered cast, et cetera), you're going to be open to multinational casting.

edited 18th Dec '11 3:28:11 AM by Iaculus

I'm not saying whether it is or isn't. I'm just saying that that's how people are going to view it. It's just something to bear in mind.

Also, if the Americans are the werewolves, how does that put the werewolves in a bad light? (Legitimately confused).

Why are you being so defensive, anyway? You yourself said it wasn't fully fleshed out.

More info on Blade:

Darker And Edgier: The one-hour special parodying Coraline. Played for laughs, but still grimdark enough to even earn a TV-PG rating. Getting Crap Past The Radar: If possible, in the occasional episode, similar to the Bloody GIR incident, there'd be a character flipping the bird in the background. Shout Out: So much it'd have two pages worth of it...since the first page almost overloaded TV Tropes' database!

Background character idea: The Star Girls. A group of provocative dancers that the boys have the hots for; since the show is TV-Y7, they wouldn't be able to appear much, but in the Darker and Edgier special, there'd be a moment where...(spoiler alert!)...

...it'd be implied they'd drop their towels in front of the boys, causing one of the brothers to faint and the other one to stand there with his mouth hanging out. TV-PG rating is my friend.

And these are selling points because...?

OK, I've done enough grumbling about other people's concepts. Time to pitch my own.

It's the year 2060, and the world is almost unrecognisable. Twenty years ago, a mysterious artefact crashed in the middle of Moscow, and the technology derived from analysing it has fuelled Russia's economic renaissance. The city is now nearly approaching Crystal Spires and Togas level - an ultratech metropolis that jealously guards its exalted place in the political and business worlds whilst discreetly brushing aside the urban decay and stark divides between the rich and poor that still plague it.

The impact has had other effects, though, and they are far stranger than a large, rich country becoming considerably richer overnight. Music has become a deadly weapon - with the adequate preparations, one can focus their soul through an instrument, creating spectacular and devastating effects, but gradually eroding the wielder's mind and senses... or worse.

Into this world steps Simon Roark, an accountant for one of the Irish crime syndicates that sprang up after the country's economic collapse. After an attempt to broker a deal with the Moscow underworld goes badly wrong, he is forced to flee into the crumbling streets of Old Moscow, pursued by foes on both sides of the law, with only an inscrutable, once-human bodyguard loaned by his now-deceased trading partners to aid him. There, he must make a living amongst the warring gangs and grinding poverty, even as freelance minstrels clash in the streets and a wave of disappearances sweeps the city.

Day-to-day survival may not be Simon's only problem, though. Moscow's song is reaching its crescendo, and the true purpose of the artefact at its heart is yet to be revealed. He has been targeted for a reason, and learning the truth may be the only way to preserve not only his life, but his very soul...

Wait, so are the instruments magic or technology?

Sounds like sufficiently advanced. Or both.

One way or another, "Roving gangs of bloodthirsty minstrels" isn't something I would expect from a serious show.

Something I meant to say a while ago: With the slough of supernatural-themed shows suggested in the last few pages, I think it's only fair that we get a few affectionate parodies in. Enemy Mayan had "Land of Enchantment," and that's a good start, but we need a lot more to balance out the magic. I have an idea for a show about stoner wizards, so we'll see how that pans out.

Already posted this in Writer's Block, but whatever.

The setting is basically a Zeerust planet modelled after the Italian Futurists's idea of SCIENCE!, as gathered through reading their manifestos.

On this planet, all agricultural and industrial devices were set on automatic mode ages ago, just as planned. A small elite of men take care of these machines. Society is now composed of Warrior Poet clans constantly feuding for the control of the factories and ressources. And fun, of course. With Humongous Mecha, Power Armor, ultra-fast bikes and gigantic tanks. There are no women in the clans. The women live in an underground complex in the center of the planet, and have no direct contact with the men. Each year , the clans bring the semen of the worthiest warriors at the black tower (where all fight is prohibited), because they know that if they don't, they will not have a new generation of fighters in 12 years.

The boys are brainwashed before they leave and all memories of the women are erased. The clans have an absolute disdain for history and the past. So, no libraries, no books, no cemeteries, no museums, etc. Bodies of slain warriors are abandonned to rot, and the bones and skulls are recycled to make cannon-powder, which is considered a great honor. The greatest chic is to replace lost biological body parts by mechanical ones or own robots. Much more care is given to machines than to men. The youth are generally much more honored than the elders, which are looked down upon if they are not of the Old Master type that can pilot a mecha and generally kick some young punk's asses.

-

As I see it, the protagonist would be a young boy who escaped from the black tower with his equally young love interest, and the serie would show his attempts to integrate in the warrior's society and the changes the presence of a girl brings to an otherwise entirely male society.

But since I am no scriptwriter, this is just a setting I find really cool and would love to see used one day.

That's an interesting concpet I'd love to see it in some form.