Favorite sitcoms: The Good Place, Futurama, Parks and Rec, Community. Strong character based humor and interpersonal relationship humor.
TIMESCANNER05/01/2020
A sitcom and fictional sitcom review show combo would be a fun experiment. Release the two episodes on the same feed each release day. This would help the recommendation algorythms too.
[3:42 PM]
Dan and I worked out one possible premise:
TIMESCANNER05/01/2020
A sitcom produced and acted by a cult. So we'd do the sitcom and then do clips of other shows they're in and behind the scenes stories and anectdotes and interviews.
[3:54 PM]
We didn't come up with a premise for the actual sitcom though.
[3:54 PM]
Personally I like workplace sitcoms best.
[3:54 PM]
WORKPLACE SITCOM
[3:55 PM]
what personality types haven't really been represented much in sitcoms? and personality types from 20 years ago so we can do later seasons as "reunion seasons"
[3:58 PM]
It would be fun to go into sitcom workflows and formulas and work from those and explain those in the recap show.
[3:59 PM]
ORIGINAL SHOW IN 1990s
[3:59 PM]
LOOSELY INSPIRED BY TWIN PEAKS, BUT A SITCOM
[3:59 PM]
CULT LOOSELY INSPIRED BY FRANCIS COPOLA'S ZOETROPE FILMS COMPANY
[4:04 PM]
what kind of strange loops can we get the two shows into? What kind of workplace would the cult find humor in?
[4:05 PM]
A fair question would be "is this too high a concept?" "would it hurt the quality of the actual sitcom to do this?"
[4:06 PM]
Could we do a full season of the sitcom and then release a full season of the behind the scenes/recap show? Like leave it a surprise. "But wait there's more."
[4:06 PM]
BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE is a good title for a sitcom.
[4:07 PM]
infomercial inventor and his crew? Like a fictional Sham Wow/Ron Popeil.
[4:08 PM]
The cult would find it funny to riff on capitalism and marketing and how marketing uses mind control science.
[4:09 PM]
An ex-MK Ultra CIA agent and a sham inventor go into business making infomercial crap. We can make the weirdest possible inventions because we never need to see them, just hear about them.
[4:09 PM]
CHARACTERS:
[4:09 PM]
SCAM IMVENTOR
[4:09 PM]
EX-CIA MIND CONTROL AGENT
[4:10 PM]
HIS CO-HOST
[4:11 PM]
Community and found family are the themes I enjoy most in sitcoms and these would resonate with cultists as well, while having the dark side of being controlled by the leader.
[4:15 PM]
Would there be a laugh track? if it's a 90s show there would be but we'll have to do a test and see how that comes across.
[4:16 PM]
It should be as packed with jokes as Parks and Rec or The Simpsons
[4:16 PM]
22 minute episodes
[4:16 PM]
with fake advertisements?
[4:16 PM]
from the 90s?
[4:17 PM]
That could be backdoor pilots?
[4:17 PM]
An alternate dimension "Must See TV Thursday" lineup from a really fucked up alternate dimension Hollywood.
[4:20 PM]
Potential characters: Ron Popeil, ex-CIA business partner, TV producer, the onscreen co-host, the announcer, audience plants, camerapeople, factory representatives and managers and lineworkers. FIlmed in the factory?
[4:21 PM]
Personality types. look at DnD alignments and do one of each. You could do the anagram thing too. And tarot cards that represent them.
TIMESCANNER05/01/2020
ex-CIA= lawful evil, Ron Popeil=Chaotic good. They are the two leads and opposites on the alignment chart. Ron is definitely based on my character traits. severly ADHD, inventive, hates conflict in a way that gets him into trouble. Probably has PTSD from past experiences. Really wants to make things that work and will change the world. but his business partner wants to control the world including Ron Popeil.
[4:31 PM]
The pilot would have Ron's business as a comic failure. About to go bankrupt and everyone at factory and show about to be unemplyed. When they are approached by the CIA operative who offers to keep them afloat and make them profitable, but it's clear he will change the comany's morals and has alterior motives for their cultural and media potential. ex-CIA also has classified files of forbidden technology. Patents stolen from inventors and marked as "threats to national security."
[4:32 PM]
who would I cast for this show? Think first of tv and film actors to model them after. Then think of audio drama actors I would cast.
[4:37 PM]
ex-CIA=Nick Offerman, AGENT ALBERT TRUCKMAN
[4:40 PM]
inventor=Jeff Bridges, guy from Lodge 49, RON DONNIKER
[4:43 PM]
Donniker seems to be related to circus lingo and means thunder and lightning. A name that goes along with the idea of dazzling showmanship in the service of an entertaining grift.
[4:45 PM]
DON CO ENTERPRISES
TIMESCANNER05/01/2020
Special Agent Albert Truckman would be based on the MK Ultra scientist who once killed an elephant with too much LSD and also declared Jack Ruby insane after meeting him once and making him go insane and also has links to Charles Manson.
[4:53 PM]
Vaughn Donniker is also a good name VonCo
[4:55 PM]
humanism vs control would be the main theme of the show.
May 2, 2020
TIMESCANNER05/02/2020
SUPER MINOR ROLES (BARISTA, GAS STATION ATTENDANT) WOULD HAVE SERIES LONG ARCS
[11:19 AM]
[11:19 AM]
The 2 part hourlong series would be a “sitcomockumentary.” After 3 seasons as an audio drama I would pitch it to FX and other networks willing to gamble on an experimental show. Half Parks N Rec Part What We Do In The Shadows.
BWTM-an unimpressive inventor teams up with a shady CIA agent to take the Infomercial Business by storm.
MOBWTM-A cast member and a superfan investigate the bizarre story of how this show was created by an ex-art film auteur to fund his cult after his family wealth was used up, and also how the show disappeared from cultural significance and from the internet.
Cast: Vaughn Donniker- Ian from star tripper
[11:19 AM]
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE
PILOT EPISODE
Welcome to the More on But Wait There’s More Podcast. In fitting with the cancelled cult classic tv show that is the subject of this show, the format for this show will be a little unorthodox. Each week we will post 2 episodes on the same day, The audio from an episode of But Wait There’s More, because it was never released on home video and all records of the show after cancellation seem to have been wiped from the internet, and we will also post a re-watch and investigation episode. Along the way we will go into the insane backstory of how this show came to be and also investigate how it is that such a pop culture phenomenon could have never been released on home video or streaming and how something like that can actually have been scrubbed from the internet. Here now is the pilot episode of But Wait There’s More in the form it originally aired on September 21st 1991.
[11:20 AM]
MORE ON BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE
PILOT EPISODE
Welcome to More On But Wait There’s More. We are your But Wait There’s Morons, and taking you on a wild ride behind the scenes of the long since cancelled cult (literally cult) hit TV show one episode at a time.
Tonight we’re going over the pilot episode, in all it’s iterations. The original pilot, the recast pilot, the european theatrical cut and the recent special edition re-issue pilot.
Yes. We’ll have clips from the different versions, tales about how the show came to be, and new and archival interviews with the surviving cast and crew of the show.
—-
carry timescanner theme thn you cards and fill them out for people. Include pins sometimes.
__
interstitital mysic and theme song and no laugh track
TIMESCANNER05/02/2020
logline:
__
when INCITING INCIDENT HAPPENS, PROTAGONIST, must TAKE SPECIFIC ACTION to OVERCOME PROTAGONIST/OBSTACLE.
[11:31 AM]
LOGLINE FOR BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE:
[11:37 AM]
"With his factory on the edge of bankruptcy, a well-intentioned but unimpressive inventor makes a business deal with a CIA operative with ulterior motives to transform his small business into an infomercial home shopping empire and introduce previously classified forbidden technologies into the culture.."
[11:38 AM]
and the Logline for MORE ON BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE is:
[11:41 AM]
"When rumors surface of a cult-produced sitcom from the 90s has been completely erased from the internet, a fan and a bit actor on the show investigate how the show came to be and how it could have been deleted from the web."
[11:43 AM]
Take that Reply All episode of the missing song as inspiration, and also Twin Peaks and Zoetrope Records, and the Heavens Gate cult, and new age religions, and jered leto and cory feldman.
TIMESCANNER05/02/2020
Alternate LogLine formula:
[12:06 PM]
PROTAGONIST AND ANTAGONIST TAKE ACTION TO GOAL WITH THESE STAKES
[12:10 PM]
SHOW BIBLE:
[12:10 PM]
ONE PAGE PITCH
[12:10 PM]
LOGLINE
[12:10 PM]
TONE
[12:10 PM]
CHARACTERS
[12:10 PM]
FUTURE EPISODES
[12:10 PM]
WORLD BUILDING
[12:12 PM]
3 or 4 characters
[12:13 PM]
a quote or catch phrase that summarizes that character
[12:14 PM]
5 or 6 future episode ideas that illustrate your characters can go on endless journeys and continually improve themselves while maintaining a core identity. This is what gives a show legs.
[12:16 PM]
tone: what is it like. what genres and what similar shows is it related to? "Legion meets Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy meets Doctor Who" might work for The Infinite Now.
[12:18 PM]
world building would have descriptions and mood boards.
[12:22 PM]
THE PITCH
[12:23 PM]
ORIGINS-HUMAN HOOK-CHARACTERS-DESIRES-OBSTACLES-HIGHLIGHTS-OPEN ROAD
[12:30 PM]
A sizzle reel would use imagery and voice over to explain and set up the pilot of the show, often with past work or examples you shot yourself in order to show them you are the man for the job.
[12:35 PM]
For TIN I would take audio content I produced and add footage in the style I am aiming for to sell it. The thing I watched said web series were a foot in the door, but fiction podcasts should be as well. At least for selling your idea to others. If you want to do it all yourself you'd have to get to where they'd trust you to do that.
[12:39 PM]
If I spend a weekend dreaming about an idea, a good stopping place would be to complete a pitch and a show bible.
