A new
writers' assistant, insecure about his image, discovers his
self-worth as he saves from cancellation a sitcom that is so
far gone it doesn’t even know what its image is anymore.
SYNOPSIS:
Two people
who've never held a job in Hollywood before find themselves
the newest writers' assistants on "The Rusty Quinn Show", a
netlet sitcom barely clinging to the edges of the
entertainment industry. The two are JOBY UNWIN and his
ladder-climbing friend-who-happens-to-be-a-girl TAYLOR, who
uses Joby to get herself hired alongside him.
We follow
the story through our unlikely hero Joby, who’s self-image
issues lead him to loneliness, eventually coming to where he
rates his days as good or bad based on how much attention he
is paid by Taylor, on whether he is able to elicit a laugh
from her or, on particularly good days, a light touch.
Introducing
Joby and Taylor to the world of this marginal sitcom is the
head writers' assistant ROB, a sarcastic Vince Vaughn
wanna-be through whom they meet writer BAMBI STEAMERS, a
former porn star who kept her stage name; HOMELESS ACTOR
GUY, a one-time child actor, now jobless and destitute, who
is allowed to sleep on the studio lot as long as he keeps
going to AA meetings; and MAGGIE, the assistant to the head
writer, who accentuates, then blends her two principle
emotions - manic and depressive - like an artist using a
palette of crazy.
Colorful
characters providing the backdrop, Joby learns the show is
in trouble. And with cancellation a real possibility, the
writers demand that the show start pushing the envelope. The
show's head writer GUS knows that by "edgy" they mean
"pornographic and gross" and tries to argue against it, but
he is a spent force in the twilight of his career, and
quickly acquiesces to the writers' demands.
Joby
discovers, however, that behind the push to debase the show
is staff writer ADAM, who has his own pilot ready to be
picked up as a mid-season replacement by the network if one
of the current shows gets yanked. Joby also finds that
Taylor already learned of the scheme and blackmailed Adam
into granting her a job as producer on the new show in
exchange for her silence.
As the
ratings continue to slide down as fast as the show’s lurid
content lurches up, it is left to Joby to save the show by
discovering its original purpose in being a fun and funny
family program. Joby becomes friendly with the daughter of
the head of network, eventually gaining for himself the
opportunity to suggest to the head of network directly that
the show be given another chance – by going live. Joby then
secretly brings the cast and other writers together to
create a clean, funny show while Adam revels in the gutter
script he and Taylor wrote. But Joby must learn to take
responsibility for his own image and purpose – honestly
confronting the true reasons for his infatuation with Taylor
– before he has the show do the same.
The
true story of the
legalized drugging of a child and the efforts of his grandparents to save him
from the system.
SYNOPSIS:
The Harts have raised their
daughter Sally to be a loving and responsible young woman, but something
happened along the way. The Harts are in mystery as to what happened to their
daughter but must deal with the reality that their daughter isn’t the same girl
they knew.
This became even more apparent
when Sally gave birth to Noah, a bright and happy child ready to take on the
world. Sally didn’t seem to be aware of his existence. She didn’t seem to know
that taking care of a child isn’t the same as taking care of a rock. She
neglected him, even left him unattended in a bathtub full of water. And then she
began to drug him in order to become eligible for Social Security Disability.
The Harts soon became aware
that if the child is to have any chance of outliving his childhood they must
obtain full custody of him. But how to do it when Sally refuses to give up
custody of her son in a state which doesn’t recognize grandparents’ rights?
And how do grandparents fight a system which condoned legalized drugging of
children?
Thus begins the long, painful
and exhausting struggle of the Harts to gain custody of their grandchild, and
how the child barely survived his childhood.
Like Gulliver’s Travels, our
Hero has been on a fantastic journey - or so he says. He insists he’s immortal
and has been searching for the same woman for 5,000 years.
SYNOPSIS:
JOHN PAYNE starts out as
a homeless bum in Santa Monica. He claims he’s actually a New York billionaire
who's been searching for his beloved for 4,952 years. Clearly he’s a little
nuts, but it turns out some of his story is actually true - he is a billionaire
who’s suffered some kind of breakdown.
He’s whisked away to a
sanatorium in Westchester County New York that’s more like a 5 star hotel. He’s
been tricked to sign himself in temporarily for the next 30 days. Our Hero
quickly discovers that his trusted Assistant, Lawyer, and the Head Psychiatrist
are actually in cahoots - if they can get him committed here permanently they
can take over his estate and steal his vast fortune.
This betrayal wakes up our
Hero, and he quickly looks for a means to escape, gradually becoming more and
more involved with the other patients. Payne knows all about keeping the dream
alive and before long finds it impossible not to help his fellow inmates regain
their
passion for life. But in the process he has to tell them his story which makes
it easier for the villains to prove he’s truly mad.
Payne has met Vincent Van Gogh
(in fact he inspired him to paint “Starry Night”), was a hero of the French
Revolution, helped cure the sick during The Plague, and competed in the original
Greek Games during the time of Helen of Troy. All the while he’s struggled
physically, emotionally and spiritually to overcome the great hardships of life.
He learned one great lesson - to never give up no matter what, there's always
hope. Payne is either an incredible voyager whose life encompasses the
remarkable, vast story and struggle of mankind, or he’s just plain crazy. In the
end, he does escape and continue his incredible journey. In a surprise ending,
we learn the truth.
