Posted on 04/08/2014 6:33:56 PM PDT by SkyPilot
Got an idea for a sitcom? NBC wants to hear from you.
The broadcast network announced “an unprecedented effort to discover fresh comedic voices” on Tuesday by launching a national campaign offering aspiring comedy writers from around the country the chance to pitch their sitcom ideas.
“We are taking a bold, alternative approach in what we hope will uncover original comedy minds who are looking for a way to get into the television business,” said NBC entertainment president Jennifer Salke.
The initiative, dubbed “NBC Comedy Playground,” pledges to reach beyond the traditional talent labs of film schools and comedy clubs by giving everyday people the opportunity to submit ideas directly to the network.
NBC has enlisted a roster of well-known producers and actors to help them choose the winning concepts. The panel includes Aziz Ansari, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, Mindy Kaling, Adam McKay, Seth Meyers, Mike Schur, Amy Poehler, and several others. “We love that an incredible A-list roster of producers, writers, and performers have jumped in to help us find that untapped talent,” Salke said.
Here’s how it works: Comedy writers will submit their idea via an NBC site set up for the contest (below). The network will choose up to 10 finalists. NBC will fund each finalist to produce a pilot presentation based on their pitch. The producer-actor advisory board, in consultation with NBC, will pick two winners from the 10. The winners, who will be paid, will have their show broadcast on NBC (a pilot plus up to four additional episodes, at the network’s discretion).
The crowd-sourcing concept is yet another way that the television development process is becoming increasingly democratized. Amazon previously broke the pilot season mold by putting all their pilots online for viewer voting.
(Excerpt) Read more at insidetv.ew.com ...
How about this one?
Dolla Dollar Bills Y'all!
Plotline: Join in each week with the wacky cast as they scheme and connive their way into free money from the Federal and State governments. A host of adorable characters, including "Ponzi" - a lovable rogue heroin addict who walks around with stacks of EBT cards in his wallet, collects unemployment, and managed to bribe a doctor who declared him eligible for Social Security Disability of life. Roll in the aisles with laughter as the studio audience reacts to his side splitting catch phrase "Ayyyyyy,,,,,,,Paaaaaayyyyy Dayyyyyy!!!" that he uses with perfect comedic timing at every opportunity.
The Studios and Writers Guild will only buy it if the church going father is a military veteran who we learn is really a closet gay hypocrite, and the mother is a nympho-manic slut.
Brilliant. I'll call Bobcat Goldthwait's agent - I don't think Bobcat has been getting many offers lately, and I think the Studio can tie him into the script.
I think there is room on HBO for that one. The network can put up a brief disclaimer for "Adult Situations, View Discretion is Advised" - and the censors will buy it.
I think NBC might actually pick that one up.
Oh, I get ya! I was thinking more on the terms of Reggie Love - you have the Jeb Bush angle. Very, very good.
The script will need some White Protestant bigots who live next door written into it for comic relief.
The President is a black guy, a community organizer. His wife is a $300 grand per year affirmative action hire. They have a song “we’re movin on up, to the big house, the big house in the sky”
They have a neighbor, a black man, neuro surgeon, that comes to visit and talks about budgets and living within your means. The mother in law shoos him out. They have another guy, also black and bald. He gets fired early on but gets paid under the table for rabble rousing. There is another character, a really funny man that tries like Barney Fief, to enforce the laws but always screws up.
The daughters get up every morning and go to school and are seldom seen but come home and complain that the caviar for lunch was too salty and they couldn’t eat it.
A reporter comes from a TV network to interview the President and is treated to a teleprompter with answers to the questions submitted the day before.
Burbank, November 2015: NBC Studios announced this morning that a 4 alarm fire broke out on the set of their newest comedy series "MALIBU BURKHA BABES". The LAPD is investigating, with an anonymous official telling Channel 5 Eyewitness News that the fire might be "suspicious." The overnight fire follows on the heals of a string of suspicious suicides in recent days, including Director Danny Mayerberg, who was found beheaded in the garage of his Malibu home on Thursday. Police are investigating, but so far have ruled the death as accidental.
(E)The people on a charter boat (or maybe a Malaysian airliner) out for a three-hour ride get stranded on a deserted island and no one can find them. Their adventures are amazing, improbable, and hilarious.
(F)The dictator. Have a show in which the ruler of a former communist country makes the bumbling arrogant idiot running the former greatest country on earth look ever more foolish, each episode.
-PJ
Al Sharpton plays a bumbling, crooked FBI informant.
Good point! I'm thinking their best American friend, Uncle Jeb, could play a major role as the neighbor who is an expert at hiding in plain sight.
NBC you want a plot for a tv show, how about a family friendly lineup without lesbians, gays or Muslim people. Gillian’s Island, Leave it to Beaver, The Brady Bunch or My Three Sons would be nice...
How about “veep”. The best thing is they could just use Biden sound bytes and speeches. Maybe have an aide that is only filmed in shadows narrate and tie each episode together.
The other idea is”totus”. It would be about a president that causes disaster and confusion whenever he fails to use the teleprompter. Told from the point of view of totus who would need a personality kind of like Max headroom.
The best part of both of these would be that they would not have to hire actors just use in aired footage from the news department.
When Rescue Me was on firefighters would email Dennis Leary things that had happened in real life. Hubby emailed one and it actually showed up as part of an episode on the show.
No doubt the dialog will be peppered with crawfish, Biegnets, lagniappe, po-boys, oysters, shrimp, king cakes, chicory, etc.
It's about a poor back-country family that accidentally discovers oil on their property.
Laughs abound as the uneducated family is forced to deal with slick EPA officials and wiley environmentalists who are trying to prevent the family from getting rich. A conniving banker befriends the family in the hope of taking control of the mineral rights in order to sell the oil to the Chinese.
-PJ
Brilliant. I’ll call Bobcat Goldthwait’s agent - I don’t think Bobcat has been getting many offers lately, and I think the Studio can tie him into the script.
Get on it, kid, and get back to me.
;)
“The Studios and Writers Guild will only buy it if the church going father is a military veteran who we learn is really a closet gay hypocrite, and the mother is a nympho-manic slut.”
Right on.
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