Well, two years after my initial publicising of some long-held dreams of mine (see previous post), my tv-show-development ship has still not come in. So here are some ALL NEW! ideas for shows. If you're an important tv-type person, get in touch to buy these ideas off me while you still can!
Random Number Generator
Most of us have, at some point, turned on the television late at night/very early in the morning in the hopes for something to lull us to sleep. Something mindless, thoroughly unlikely to engage us, yet to distract us sufficiently from whatever irritating thoughts can't be gotten rid of. Until now, the default choice for such television has been home shopping programmes, but there's a problem with them: they're just too ridiculous, and while the prospect of a 45-minute infomercial for a revolutionary type of sponge might seem like just the thing to put one to sleep, the reality is that there's something compulsively viewable about that sort of broadcasting.
So here's my solution: random numbers (in white) appear against a black background, stay there for 15 seconds (which is longer than you think - it's longer than most story arcs on Glee, for instance) before being replaced by another random number. (Whole integers only, thank you.) A computer-generated voice reads out the number (once), but otherwise the show is silent. I anticipate that this would become a hypnotic and addictive programme, enjoyed equally by the tired and the inebriated. It's like Keno, only without the distracting gambling stuff.
Fun & Games With Existentialism
In this show, my overt attempt at critical praise and awards, drama and the blackest comedy freely intertwine. Four friends are dying, all in different ways. One has cancer, one has a mysterious and undiagnosed illness, one from a heart that is steadily declining and the final is dying, through some temporal trickery, after a violent attack by some random thugs. (Each episode covers a couple of days for each of the first three, but only a minute or two for the last.)
Conscious of their own respective mortality, each of the four friends tries to deal with their looming death in their own way. One draws on their deep religious faith, seeking solace in those beliefs ingrained since childhood. The second is comforted by their unshakeable conviction that death is no more meaningful than life and that therefore dying cannot really be said to actually matter. The third goes into deep denial, believing in nothing other than that by refusing to accept the reality of their imminent demise, they can stave it off indefinitely. And the last panics, flicking week by week between different beliefs, philosophies and religions, seeking something they can believe in as they face the idea of their own death with horror.
Reflecting on life, death, faith, philosophy and friendship, Fun & Games With Existentialism combines heart-wrenching drama with pitch-black comedy. Sure to be a hit with critics and discriminating viewers!
Play Home-School
Drawing on the recent trend towards parents removing their children from schools in favour of educating them at home, Play Home-School is based on the long-running and much-loved ABC children's programme, but with a 21st-century twist. The presenters are endearingly ill-prepared and awkward in front of the cameras. The show rarely starts on time and is regularly bolstered by transparent filler. Arcane and discredited ideas are presented as irrefutable truths and some subjects are skipped over entirely. Simple stories illustrate ever-relevant morals like the dangers of friendship or social skills of any kind and the importance of trusting in everything your parents tell you. History is explained through ancedotes about great-great-uncles and their experiences and science experiments revolve around sand, water and salt.
Play Home-School may not teach your child everything, but it will teach them everything they really need to know!
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