Wishlist

A while ago, TWOP posted this article about hypothetical directions that 24 could go in, depending on who picked up the reins. Some were pretty hilarious. I also got to thinking about what shows I would want some of my favorite creators to make. Because we need more good television and less…Celebrity Apprentice and Deal or No Deal.



Aaron Sorkin
As many of you know, I hold Sports Night in some of the highest regard. I first watched it when it aired (admittedly, a lot of it was lost on me then) and fell in love with it all over again in sophomore year. Unfortunately, he abandoned it to focus on his more successful series, The West Wing. Finally, Studio 60 was rumoured to be what television needed to pick itself up by its bootstraps. Sadly, Studio 60 eventually just fell flat on its face. The tv show believed to save television could not save itself.

Why couldn’t Studio 60 or even Sports Night hold onto an audience quite like The West Wing? I mean, it certainly wasn’t a difference in writing; Aaron Sorkin is notorious for reusing plot lines. No, it has to do with setting. Sorkin’s power lies in creating serious drama in life-or-death situations. Dire situations are captivating when the country faces nuclear attack. It’s a lot harder to sell the same peril in reference to a show within a show.

And what is the only thing more dangerous than trying to govern the free world? Obviously it is the life of the high schooler. Aaron Sorkin could easily write an epic, critically acclaimed series that ultimately gets cancelled (following in the footsteps of My So Called Life and Freaks and Geeks). Sorkin’s signature walk-and-talk is perfect for the hallways and passing periods common to high school. His sharp rhetoric is a perfect match for the erudite elite, competing for valedictorian. And his own mortality can as easily be reflected in these teens as it can in tv show writers.

It’s been voiced before that teen dramas should include as little influence from adults as possible and while I may agree I can’t help but cast the entire school (perhaps a spin-off is in order?): Bradley Whitford as the principal concerned with raising test scores, Joshua Molina as the naïve, young journalism teacher and debate coach (and our protagonist’s surrogate parent), Felicity Huffman as the vetern English teacher, and Matthew Perry would guest star as a substitute Social Science teacher, who has a host of stories from his worldly travels, which excite and inspire the students.

Our protagonist, Charlie, would be a slightly cocky junior from an upper-middle class family, suffering through his parents’ divorce. While building the extra-curriculars of his transcript, he discovers a passion for the debate team and struggles to balance his newfound love with his commitments to the basketball team. He has aspirations to go to Georgetown and try his hand in either economics or political science.

His best friend since elementary school, and the team’s captain, Paul, is worried that they are drifting apart since our protagonist is spending more and more time with the debate team while simultaneously facing coming to terms with the surrounding drug culture that is becoming increasingly apparent with his friends. He also struggles to keep hidden from public knowledge his parents’ dire economic status. He is hoping for a sports scholarship so he can get into a decent state school

The object of affection of our protagonist is the new transfer girl, Claire, serious about journalism class and has a knack for the culinary arts. She becomes relatively popular, it doesn’t hurt that her dad is a studio musician who has a lot of celebrity contacts. Though she forms an early and close bond with a mutual friend of Charlie’s, Katie. It is slowly revealed that she transferred after losing a friend to suicide and her subsequent spiral into the bowels of depression. She drinks a lot, more than people assume.

Katie is a cheerleader and has known Charlie since middle school. Initially, he had a little crush on her, then she on him, but they could never get the timing right. Now, their relationship is more of a brother-sister thing. A little shy, she’s always wished she could be as assertive as Charlie.

In the season finale “What Kind of Day Has it Been?” Paul is falsely charged with drunk driving, which Charlie can clear him of, at the price of implicating his own involvement in the incident. Claire starts coming clean about her substance abuse. Katie faces moving away for good.

Judd Apatow
Following the logical progression in his tv series career, we move from high school, to college, to now yuppie life.

Seth Rogen stars as a 20-something in Manhattan who works a boring job but eventually (mid-season) gets laid off from his job at Merrill Lynch and uses it as his ‘get out of jail free’ card. Leslie Mann will have a reoccurring role as his boss, before he is fired. He’s been kinda passive all his life and decided to change that. He’s gonna try and make it as a stand up comic.

His best friend, played by Paul Rudd, is the cautious but supportive friend, following the path that was always expected of him. He’s in his second year at law school and is surprised at how much he loves what little shreds of life he still has left. When standing next to his best friend, he seems quite the ladies man, but that doesn’t mean all too much.

Carla Gallo plays their mutual friend and the manager of the diner (or possibly coffee shop) where much action takes place. Sassy and sweet, she has inner self-doubt on acting on her feelings toward Paul Rudd.

Busy Phillips plays a fellow co-worker at the diner (or possible coffee shop) and is an integral part of the gang. She met Seth Rogen in undergrad and they’ve stayed pretty good friends. She’s had an emotionally traumatic childhood and rarely talks about her family back home in California.

Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon should make a new tv show. I don’t care if it’s like old British ghost story that would explore the theme of lonliness. Joss needs to stop making comic books and get back to tv. Starring Anthony Stewart Head.