i have ideas for TV, part II

i'm realizing, just now, that the two ideas i have for TV are actually just series "sequels" to shows i've enjoyed, and i wonder if they have any creative merit to them at all. anyways, they're my ideas, and they're what i've got.

IDEA 2:


"Three Rivers"

remember the show "My So-called Life"?
it was on about ten years ago, for a whole season, and then it was cancelled. it was where Claire Danes got her break (as well as Jared Leto -- possibly the hottest man in the universe) . Until Aaron Sorkin created the West Wing, it was the best show that had ever been on TV. it was created by Winnie Holzman, who co-wrote that show thirtysomething (which aired past my bedtime when it was doing its thing), and was involved with the show "Relativity" which was also quickly cancelled, though not as painfully as "My So-called Life"

that show was my hero in highschool. it got so many things right. and the writing was just breathtaking. ten years later, it still holds up. i miss that show like nothing else. it makes me all nostalgic and melancholly for the time i spent writhing in agonizing hatred for my highschool and the highschool personalities i dealt with every day. weird, eh? anyways. the show ended after a season, and everyone was upset; there was a big internet movement to get it back on the air, but it was just not in the cards, in the stars, nor otherwise ever meant to be.

a lot of the show was Claire's character, Angela Chase, just figuring out life, and her parents trying to figure out how to deal with someone figuring out life. it was so completely the suburban middle-class experience that those of us who've lived it now try to hide.

it took place in a fictional suburb of Pittsburgh, PA, called "Three Rivers".......if you've ever been to Pittsburgh, and i have, you'll notice three things, which i did: 1) it is a hill-ridden city, which makes it more interesting right off the bat (you know what they say about cities with topography)...2) its got some suprisingly interesting architecture for a steel-town, and 3) the city is carved up by three charming rivers running directly through it, and it is beautiful in that old rust-belt city with character kind of way. and this is where the fictional suburb gets its name; and everything about it is perfect -- it catches all the quaintness, all the romantic everyday-ness that My So-called Life so expertly captured. which is why i think it would make a fine title to the follow-up series.

as a weird aside that i'm sure i'll regret having people know about, i somehow always identified more with Angela's character than any other (except for maybe some of the awkward sensitivity of Brian Krakow)...she made so much sense to me, like i had lived the boy-version of her life....which i think now is due to the fact that the show, and its writers, managed to tap into something universal about the teen experience that it transcended so many boundaries. at any rate, not because the lead teen character couldn't be a girl, but because i am an ego-maniac, it would star a young male character based largely upon yours truly. if a 15 year old girl can be universally accessable especially to someone like me as a teen, then someone like me as a teen could probably be universally accessable as well. and besides, the first rule of writing is "write what you know," and, well, what i know is me.

in my first idea for the follow up series, the adult lead originally was going to be based on my high-school guidance counsellor who was actually a very cool woman, and contrary to the stereotype, really did give some sound advice -- i was just too stubborn to listen (if i had, i probably wouldn't be the lovable loser i am today). her name was Heidi Glick-Kerr. i kind of had a crush on her too; she had great legs for a guidance counsellor. she was not, in any way, your typical marm manning the guidance office. she was young and tough and full of you-know-what and vinegar. but best of all, she was confident in me, and that was strange and helpful and comforting all at the same time. and the adult lead can still be more or less based on her, but i'm thinking less now that she should be an official guidance counsellor. my roommate had a fiery activist History/Psychology teacher in highschool that meshes well with the type of character the lead should be: perhaps an English teacher who was an English and Psychology double major in college, who, because of cutbacks, has to take on a small percentage of the guidance counselling duties. and there is where we get the two leads together; a student-teacher dynamic duo, pupil and mentor both full of potential. we follow the teen lead through the labyrinth of the universal teen experience, and the adult lead through the complex life of the Gen Y-er ascending into the role of real, live grown-up -- two journeys that are both very near and dear to my heart.

then the idea struck me: what the hell is Claire Danes doing now? she made one good movie after she left MSCL, and a pantload of crappy ones, and then fell off the face of Hollywood. Rumour has it that the real reason MSCL ended as quickly as it did was because Claire would have rathered do film than sign away the next howevermany years of her life to tv. which is fine except her movies sucked. she's a great actress, but...come on...Brokedown Palace? the Mod Squad? hardly the meaty material she was being dealt on a WEEKLY basis @ MSCL, the kind of stuff real actors would kill for. so...why not give her a second chance?

for years, i was against the whispers of MSCL revival that tickled the edges of the internet -- you can't go back. the series was its own thing, a phenomenon that, in trying to revisit, to recreate that world, would ultimately fail: you can't go back. that ship has already sailed. the writer in me recognizes that the best you can do is create something new that holds to the spirit of the series -- new characters tapping into the same universal relatability that made MSCL as spectacular as it was. i still am against the idea of "revival" of the series. but the writer in me now is looking at the neatness, the cleannes of dropping a grown up Angela Chase into the role of funky English teacher/counsellor, and it is outrageously appealing. a great way to tie it back to the old series, i think, without trying to relive it: you can't go back -- but you can move forward.

now all i need is ten days in a cabin, a computer, and the number for Claire Danes' agent.......