Author: Marc Boyajian aka Marc Boyd
Title of Show: Teenage Escapades
Genre: Reality Series; Partially Scripted
CV number: CV6392
WGA Intellectual
Property Registry 1544048
Logline: Struggling teenagers facing new challenges and obstacles as they move through High School surrounded by depressed adults, disheartened teachers, debauched gangs and an indifferent government that take matters into their own hands and carve out their future.
Target Audience: The show is suitable for ages 13 -93, from teenagers to grandparents, men, women, and children regardless of religious belief, sexual orientation, or social status, nationwide.
Show Duration: 60 minutes
Classification: Comedy, Drama, Educational
Purpose: a. Not enough attention has been paid to our younger generation, the dangers they face, and the sacrifices their parents have to make. This
show will do that; it will bring the attention needed;
b. No one, including our government, has any solutions for any of these problems. This show will offer real and achievable solutions.
Cast: 1. several students as main characters consisting of a variety of looks,
build, and abilities. Plus guest characters, as needed, for special situations addressed in certain episodes.
2. One main character teacher (The frustrations, the goal, achievements)
3. One single mother (facing the challenges of raising a teenager alone
with two jobs)
4. One pair of grandparents (for generational gap issues)
Location: A cooperating and open-minded High School Principal who gains fame by successfully implementing solutions the show will generate that other High Schools adopt for themselves
Subjects: Life of high school students in general.
The effects of family composition and lifestyle on the students, such as: Divorce, separation of parents, loss of parents, abusive parents, abusive family members.
Teachers’ frustrations expressed and what they do or should or could do.
Lack of understanding, support and funding and what can be done to fix it.
Peer pressure, dating, sex
The availability of drugs and the consequences of falling for it
Drug dealers, pimps and gangs preying in and around the school
Financial issues, financial readiness
Grants, scholarships, applying to college and student loans
Synopsis: As the new school year begins students, teachers, and parents who are arriving at school and dropping their children off are introduced. In the corner from campus, drug dealers, pushers, and gang members are visible casing the school to identify potential targets. Inside, there are both strong and weak students evidencing severe bullying issues to come. The teenager being dropped off by her grandparents displays an intense attitude towards them, indicating her belief that they are to fault for her misfortunes; that she owes them neither respect nor gratitude for all they do to care for her. Another student exhibits an obvious potential for success and is anxious to find the right subject to study and prepare for college. A third student, having lost his older sister to suicide caused by incessant bullying, is on the lookout for signs of potential bullies and their targets. Another teenager displays acts of carelessness and irresponsibility under the assumption that she is only going to school because her mother wants her to and feels unloved and neglected by her.
It is obvious that nowadays a majority of parents do not have the time for their kids anymore because they have to work long hours, and sometimes multiple jobs to make ends meet. Or, they are unemployed, stressed out and tired of looking for employment. Teachers cannot teach the way they want to due to budget cuts and loss of authority caused by lawsuits. Teachers have to try and hide their frustrations or simply give in and act as baby-sitters instead of being the teachers they aspired to be. The government is asleep at the wheel and there is no hope of any change in the near future. Government officials’ jobs are secured, their kids attend private schools, and all they have to do is shake some hands, make some promises during elections and then forget all about the people (their constituents). It’s working for them because the people hardly have time for their own family and kids to hold them accountable, so the mice play since there are no cats to run after them.
This show will expose these problems, will explore solutions and offer them for the public to adopt voluntarily. Hence our
Motto: Don’t tell them what to do; Guide them to see the pleasure and the benefits of doing the things you want them do.
Characters:
James (Jimmy): clean cut, handsome, drives an average car, down to earth, but serious in securing a good future
John: a little overweight, presentable, some hand gestures pointing towards gay behavior, however, he is not sure yet, he hasn’t experimented. He could be a possible bullying target. He lost his older sister to suicide caused by being bullied. John’s mission is one, not to be bullied himself, and two, not to let anyone else be a victim of bullying as much as he can, he is looking for a solution to stop bullying in schools.
Michael: a teacher in his thirties, a very nice individual who became a teacher with high hopes of helping kids learn and establish themselves in society and guide them to a bright future. He is disappointed, frustrated, and on the verge of giving in. He is on the lookout for the right person with whom he can bring some change to achieve his goal.
Robert: the grandfather of Kimberly assigned as her guardian with his wife (Nancy), a teenage girl, because of her father’s unannounced departure from his responsibilities, and a mother who could not handle the pressures of being a single mother and left her daughter at her parents’ house and lost herself to addiction.
Richard: School Principal, very organized, a nice person wishing to make a difference, has tried many things and will try anything that he thinks stands a chance of enhancing the school system.
Kimberly (Kim): a teenage girl who is left under the guardianship of her grandparents because her parents abandoned her at a very young age.
Nancy: Grandmother of Kimberly, more tolerant than her husband, although frustrated and confused on how to handle the teenager with such a tremendous generation gap.
Pamela (Pam): the attractive popular girl. She eyes James and sees him as a challenge to be tackled. She promises her sidekicks that she will “get him” before the week is up. She will not succeed, but it will go on for a very long time despite all of her efforts. The more she tries to pursue him, the further James pulls away. Eventually, after a few years in pursuit of him, she realizes she does not deserve him if she continues her act. Slowly she begins to change and turns into a very responsible person by paying attention in class and doing her homework. Her sidekicks begin to move towards another popular girl. We haven’t decided yet if we are going to connect them, Pam and James, or keep them separate.
Cindy: A teenage girl, whose mother is a single parent and she resents her mother.
Angela: Cindy’s mother, a single parent, who works two jobs and hardly makes ends meet. She is frustrated with her schedule and her situation. Her daughter is growing up fast and she has no time for her. She deeply loves her daughter, but hasn’t been able to express her love for her or pay her the proper attention that a child craves from a parent.
Tina: Drug pusher casing the school for potential targets, clients.
Gor: Gang member recruiter
Episodes:
1. Introduction: as students, parents and teachers arrive to school the first day, all the main characters are introduced and positioned in their roles.
2. First day in classroom: teacher lays the foundation of how he wants his students behave. Students listen and ask questions, introduce themselves to each other and discuss their interests. On the other hand, outside the school, exploring the grandparents’ state of mind and conversations between them expressing concerns about their granddaughter. One of the single mother’s workplaces, how she works in such miserable conditions and how much pressure is exerted on her all day long. The drug pusher and the gang member reporting to their “bosses” on what information they have gathered so far and how many potential clients they have identified. They discuss some basic strategies and what tools they will need.
3. Individuals: This episode starts going into the details of what the problems are and what each student, teacher and parent or guardian wish upon to make them happy. We will provide a hint of how at least one of them will start tackling the problem in hopes of finding a solution.
|
