Pilot: The Producer's POV
Dan sat in his comfortable, leather producer’s chair watching the dailies and sipping on some whisky just as he had been for the past couple of hours. They were hilarious. More hilarious than what he thought they’d be when the project was first presented to him a few months ago. It took a lot of convincing to persuade him to let a small camera crew shoot a documentary at a small business. A paper business of all places, in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania.
“You’re gonna love his audition tape,” Tom had told him.
“Check out this manager, he totally thinks that he’s the star of some hit reality show. There’s comedy gold in this place, Dan, comedy gold.”
Dan didn’t share his colleague’s vision, but Tom was so persistent, he gave the green light, letting a couple of guys go out to Pennsylvania to shoot. The Company of Broadcasting Nationwide was coming in fourth in the ratings (behind the damn alphabet network and their soap operas) and Dan was willing to try anything at this point. What would it hurt?
So, Dan popped in the first of the returned material expecting to find your average, run of the mill, office drivel. Oh, no, Dan thought happily. This schumk of a manager, this Scott guy was going to put CBN right back on top. He had never seen anyone so clueless, expect maybe the manager’s zany assistant.
Dan had spent so many hours cooped up in his little office, laughing at all the stupid things the manager was saying that he didn’t hear Tom come into his office.
“Hey, Dan, I have the last bit of footage for you,” he said handing a videotape to the producer.
“Oh, great, great,” Dan said excitedly, wanting desperately to see what kind of craziness this Scott guy was going to do next. “Pop it in, I was just about done with this one anyway.”
“We decided to cover some of the other employees,” Tom explained as he exchanged tapes. “You know, get some of more of the office. I think we did good.”
Dan watched a bit of it but he didn’t understand what Tom found so fascinating. All he saw was the mousy looking secretary chatting with a scrawny kid salesmen. “This isn’t funny.” He said seriously to Tom. He wanted more footage of the manager.
“It’s not supposed to be,” Tom said, knowing that Dan could be dense about these things.
“What am I missing?”
Tom rewound the tape, “Don’t you see it?”
“I’m not seeing anything but lull time between the idiocy. I mean, the kid was pulling pranks on the assistant guy, we should keep that in. But the girl is nothing special.”
“Dan, you have no heart.”
“I…what?”
“Can’t you see the sexual tension between the two?” The screen was paused on a shot of the boy and girl, each looking like they were going through a great deal of discomfort.
“Eh, maybe,” he wasn’t convinced. “So, they’re screwing around after hours and don’t want anyone to know about it. Big deal.”
“Sex sells, Dan,” Tom reminded him.
Dan thought about it a moment but said nothing.
“And she’s engaged,” Tom continued. “To some big guy that works in the warehouse, which means there’s only a matter of time before something’s gonna burst.”
“Which means a fight,” Dan said, beginning to like the idea.
“Right, right,” Tom encouraged. “So, we have the idiot manager and a love story going on, which means we’ll get all the demographics, which means…”
“I don’t have to listen to Shonda brag about her medical drama anymore…” Dan thought aloud. (He hated Shonda and her medical drama with its high pull.) His grin spread wide. “Are we sure, though, that someone’s going to watch these guys. I mean this girl is so…plain. And the kid needs a haircut.”
“No, Dan,” Tom interjected, “these are real people. None of the fake reality crap, we’ve got real people! We keep everything the same and see how it unfolds. That’s how we’ll market it. A reality show that really is about real people. The audience will eat it up.”
“I love it,” Dan exclaimed, gulping down the rest of the whisky and slamming the glass down on his desk. “You have my permission to get more footage…and pronto.”
Tom was thrilled with the news. “Oh and one more thing,” he added on his way out, “We’ve got to get this thing going as quickly as possible.”
“Why?”
“Apparently, there are a couple of guys in England with the same idea.”
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© 2006-2023 More Than That | Skin created by Kali