Strip Mined: A Fake Pilot
This meme:
Basically, someone else has given me seven actors/actresses and I've come up with a television show for them, with a blurb and character descriptions. In return, I'll give you seven actors/actresses and you do the same! I would love to see all the possible TV shows we can create seeing as how my friends-list is filled with fantastically creative people and because I want to live in that world.
has been floating around, so I got a prompt from leupagus (whose Queen of Denial is absolutely hilarious) and here this is. Note: the entertainment value of this fake show would really depend on how well Nadia Giosia and Alex O'Loughlin could do backwoods Kentucky accents. :)
Strip Mined
The Story:
Melissa Baker (Jean Smart) is a small-town judge executive fighting an uphill battle. A destructive, environmentally irresponsible strip mine has been proposed in the heart of beautiful Maybelle County, Kentucky, and she intends to stop it--which isn't easy when the coal company rep, Atlanta city boy Bobby O'Shea (Boris Kodjoe), is smooth and well-spoken and really, really hot.
Judge Baker manages to halt the proceedings, but it seems she's just won a battle, not the war. While working late one night, regrouping her efforts for another push, she gets a visit from FBI Agent Eileen Tran (Maggie Q). Turns out O'Shea isn't who he says he is. He's not from Atlanta, he's not a coal rep, and Bobby O'Shea may not even be his real name. In fact, Agent Tran informs her, he's working as an agent of mysterious organized crime leader Ian Cowdrey (Matt Smith), a.k.a. The Brit, and that uphill battle Baker's been fighting is on account of corruption at the city, county, even state level. There's no way she can say no when Agent Tran asks for her help rooting out the source of the corruption and bringing justice to Maybelle County and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Meanwhile, Baker's playing mom for the first time in a decade to gum-snapping dropout Kristy Baker (Nadia Giosia), who's reverted to her maiden name and previous place of residence after a messy split with ex-husband Jake Butch (Alex O'Loughlin). Just to complicate things, she's got seven-year-old daughter Jake Jr. (unknown child actress) with her, and Jake Sr.'s custody visits often end in screaming fights about whether seven is too young for BB guns and dirtbikes--or too old to keep calling herself Jake when her birth certificate says Mandy.
Between her day job as judge executive, secretly assisting the FBI, and finding herself suddenly a hands-on mom and grandma, how can Judge Baker possibly juggle everything--especially once Michael Sabhapathy (Danny Pudi), Jake Jr.'s second-grade teacher, starts showing up at odd hours for "impromptu PTA meetings" with Kristy? And that's before she realizes that the smoldering tension she feels with O'Shea isn't going away, con man or no con man...
Cast of Characters:
Nobody's ever mistaken Melissa Baker (Jean Smart) for your ordinary soccer mom; she's worked her ass off to get where she is, at the top of the heap in local government. She loves her daughter and granddaughter, but she's not the cookie-baking type--she always thought her dedication to her career and principles would set a good example from afar. However, now that they're living with her, she's got Kristy in one ear crying over her ex and Jake Jr. in the other asking to go to McDonald's now now now, and it's getting harder and harder to shake it off when she goes to deal with both her ordinary workload and her secret liaison with the Feds.
Bobby O'Shea (Boris Kodjoe) tells charming stories about growing up in Atlanta with his grandmother, Bubby, eating hot dogs at Braves games and going to business school to try to make his deadbeat dad proud. Unfortunately, they're all lies. Who is he really? All Melissa knows is that whenever he smiles, she finds herself inconveniently distracted--and he may be relying on that to take her down.
Eileen Tran (Maggie Q) is sick of working vice. Yes, she looks like a model--it's not that she doesn't appreciate hearing that--but "dress up as a call girl and infiltrate the suspect's hotel room" is getting old, fast. So when she sees a chance to take down notoriously slippery mob boss The Brit, she jumps. Sure, her bosses don't seem to have much confidence in her; and sure, it's not the most fun thing in the world to live out of a hotel in a rural backwater where everybody is afraid to say her last name in case they mispronounce it. But she's going to take Cowdrey down, and O'Shea with him, if it's the last thing she does--or even the last case she works.
What the entire federal government put together knows about Ian Cowdrey (Matt Smith), a.k.a. The Brit, could fit on a three-by-five index card: he's young, he's British, and he never, ever, makes a mistake. What they don't know is a longer list: why did he move to the American South to set up his crime conglomerate? Just how far does his influence extend? And why is he so interested in a little patch of farmland and scrub grass in the middle of rural Kentucky?
Kristy Baker (Nadia Giosia) is a manicurist by day, exotic dancer by night, proud mother of a whip-smart seven-year-old and a wild child from birth. She admires her mom, but their personalities couldn't be more different; Kristy's emotions live right on the surface, and she parties and fights with equal vigor. She still loves Jake Sr., but it took her twelve years to figure out they weren't good for each other. The single life is going to suit her just fine--as long as she doesn't accidentally rebound with Jake Jr.'s second-grade teacher.
Jake Butch, Sr. (Alex O'Loughlin) is a football hero who's gone a little downhill since he and Kristy were high-school sweethearts--but he's a good guy at heart, under the tattoos and the skinhead style and the occasional participation in illegal activities. He loves his daughter more than anything, but he's not so diligent about some aspects of parenting: safety-consciousness, for one, and basic nutrition, and watching his language...
Jake Butch, Jr. (unknown actress; the picture is from a random Google search for 'tomboy'), born Mandy Butch, sat down on the kitchen floor one day and refused to move until her parents started calling her Jake Jr; they decided to humor her until she grew out of the phase. That was two years ago. She idolizes her daddy and has already announced that she wants to get pictures on her skin just like him, much to Kristy's chagrin and Jake Sr.'s amusement.
Michael Sabhapathy (Danny Pudi), a.k.a. Mikey the Mouth, is an old classmate of Kristy's who fell for her on the playground. They're meant to be together, he knows it, and her divorce is just the opportunity he needed to make his feelings clear. Now if only she'd recognize his visits for what they are--declarations of undying love--instead of chewing his ear off about Jake Jr.'s spelling words...
Basically, someone else has given me seven actors/actresses and I've come up with a television show for them, with a blurb and character descriptions. In return, I'll give you seven actors/actresses and you do the same! I would love to see all the possible TV shows we can create seeing as how my friends-list is filled with fantastically creative people and because I want to live in that world.
has been floating around, so I got a prompt from leupagus (whose Queen of Denial is absolutely hilarious) and here this is. Note: the entertainment value of this fake show would really depend on how well Nadia Giosia and Alex O'Loughlin could do backwoods Kentucky accents. :)
Strip Mined
The Story:
Melissa Baker (Jean Smart) is a small-town judge executive fighting an uphill battle. A destructive, environmentally irresponsible strip mine has been proposed in the heart of beautiful Maybelle County, Kentucky, and she intends to stop it--which isn't easy when the coal company rep, Atlanta city boy Bobby O'Shea (Boris Kodjoe), is smooth and well-spoken and really, really hot.
Judge Baker manages to halt the proceedings, but it seems she's just won a battle, not the war. While working late one night, regrouping her efforts for another push, she gets a visit from FBI Agent Eileen Tran (Maggie Q). Turns out O'Shea isn't who he says he is. He's not from Atlanta, he's not a coal rep, and Bobby O'Shea may not even be his real name. In fact, Agent Tran informs her, he's working as an agent of mysterious organized crime leader Ian Cowdrey (Matt Smith), a.k.a. The Brit, and that uphill battle Baker's been fighting is on account of corruption at the city, county, even state level. There's no way she can say no when Agent Tran asks for her help rooting out the source of the corruption and bringing justice to Maybelle County and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Meanwhile, Baker's playing mom for the first time in a decade to gum-snapping dropout Kristy Baker (Nadia Giosia), who's reverted to her maiden name and previous place of residence after a messy split with ex-husband Jake Butch (Alex O'Loughlin). Just to complicate things, she's got seven-year-old daughter Jake Jr. (unknown child actress) with her, and Jake Sr.'s custody visits often end in screaming fights about whether seven is too young for BB guns and dirtbikes--or too old to keep calling herself Jake when her birth certificate says Mandy.
Between her day job as judge executive, secretly assisting the FBI, and finding herself suddenly a hands-on mom and grandma, how can Judge Baker possibly juggle everything--especially once Michael Sabhapathy (Danny Pudi), Jake Jr.'s second-grade teacher, starts showing up at odd hours for "impromptu PTA meetings" with Kristy? And that's before she realizes that the smoldering tension she feels with O'Shea isn't going away, con man or no con man...
Cast of Characters:
Nobody's ever mistaken Melissa Baker (Jean Smart) for your ordinary soccer mom; she's worked her ass off to get where she is, at the top of the heap in local government. She loves her daughter and granddaughter, but she's not the cookie-baking type--she always thought her dedication to her career and principles would set a good example from afar. However, now that they're living with her, she's got Kristy in one ear crying over her ex and Jake Jr. in the other asking to go to McDonald's now now now, and it's getting harder and harder to shake it off when she goes to deal with both her ordinary workload and her secret liaison with the Feds.
Bobby O'Shea (Boris Kodjoe) tells charming stories about growing up in Atlanta with his grandmother, Bubby, eating hot dogs at Braves games and going to business school to try to make his deadbeat dad proud. Unfortunately, they're all lies. Who is he really? All Melissa knows is that whenever he smiles, she finds herself inconveniently distracted--and he may be relying on that to take her down.
Eileen Tran (Maggie Q) is sick of working vice. Yes, she looks like a model--it's not that she doesn't appreciate hearing that--but "dress up as a call girl and infiltrate the suspect's hotel room" is getting old, fast. So when she sees a chance to take down notoriously slippery mob boss The Brit, she jumps. Sure, her bosses don't seem to have much confidence in her; and sure, it's not the most fun thing in the world to live out of a hotel in a rural backwater where everybody is afraid to say her last name in case they mispronounce it. But she's going to take Cowdrey down, and O'Shea with him, if it's the last thing she does--or even the last case she works.
What the entire federal government put together knows about Ian Cowdrey (Matt Smith), a.k.a. The Brit, could fit on a three-by-five index card: he's young, he's British, and he never, ever, makes a mistake. What they don't know is a longer list: why did he move to the American South to set up his crime conglomerate? Just how far does his influence extend? And why is he so interested in a little patch of farmland and scrub grass in the middle of rural Kentucky?
Kristy Baker (Nadia Giosia) is a manicurist by day, exotic dancer by night, proud mother of a whip-smart seven-year-old and a wild child from birth. She admires her mom, but their personalities couldn't be more different; Kristy's emotions live right on the surface, and she parties and fights with equal vigor. She still loves Jake Sr., but it took her twelve years to figure out they weren't good for each other. The single life is going to suit her just fine--as long as she doesn't accidentally rebound with Jake Jr.'s second-grade teacher.
Jake Butch, Sr. (Alex O'Loughlin) is a football hero who's gone a little downhill since he and Kristy were high-school sweethearts--but he's a good guy at heart, under the tattoos and the skinhead style and the occasional participation in illegal activities. He loves his daughter more than anything, but he's not so diligent about some aspects of parenting: safety-consciousness, for one, and basic nutrition, and watching his language...
Jake Butch, Jr. (unknown actress; the picture is from a random Google search for 'tomboy'), born Mandy Butch, sat down on the kitchen floor one day and refused to move until her parents started calling her Jake Jr; they decided to humor her until she grew out of the phase. That was two years ago. She idolizes her daddy and has already announced that she wants to get pictures on her skin just like him, much to Kristy's chagrin and Jake Sr.'s amusement.
Michael Sabhapathy (Danny Pudi), a.k.a. Mikey the Mouth, is an old classmate of Kristy's who fell for her on the playground. They're meant to be together, he knows it, and her divorce is just the opportunity he needed to make his feelings clear. Now if only she'd recognize his visits for what they are--declarations of undying love--instead of chewing his ear off about Jake Jr.'s spelling words...