Home General Chat Creative Corner
If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.

Help/opinions with sitcom idea

Hi everyone.

I've been given a task to do for the screenwriting module of my course. the class was split into groups and given a task. Some had to create a series, some had to create a serial and so on. My group has to do a sit-com.

The group decided to make the sitcom animated and we set the parents out like this:

Dad
-48
- Works as a manager in a blu-tac factory

Mum
- 44
- Complusive clean freak
- full time houswife but is a part time dominatrix. Her family doesn't know

What we have to do now is each come up with an episode involving a family member. Im doing the parents visiting the in-laws (on the mothers side).

The thing is Im a bit stuck on what to choose for an episode and how to carry it on. I've picked a couple of ideas:

1) The parents arrive, the mother in law greets them but begins to boss around the dad by making him do all sorts of things but in his anger, hes paying close attention and winds up killing one of her pets by accident.

2) The parents arrive the mother in law greets them but is trying to seduce the dad.

Thats all I have so far.

Any ideas/thoughts welcome.
Beep boop. I'm a bot.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I supposed I'd be thinking about how the two situations you describe are actually related to the traits of the main characters, or how those traits work within the situation.

    At the moment you've got bossy mother-in-law and horny mother-in-law but it's how it plays out that really matters. Does the mother-in-law being bossy making him think of being on the factory line, does he end up organising a strike against the house work (oops, family guy did that...), does being bossed about by a woman turn him on and bring in his wife's hidden sex life for the resolution? How does the wife being a clean freak play out if he's not that good at what he's told to do.

    Killing the pet is alright, but it's an idea that doesn't seem to come from the characters, just something that will happen - Though I could imagine a 'Donald, you never put your foot down!' 'Well watch me!' Scrunch! moment...

    Same with the seduction plot line, how does the wife being a sex worker effect the sex life of the couple, and as a result how does that change the situation?

    When you look at most sit-coms it's nearly always a really basic situation but the characters create the plotting -

    Someone delivers the wrong mail to the house...

    Mork, being an alien, ends up thinking it's a valentine's day letter so ends up trying to organise a romantic meal for Mindy in the middle of August that goes wrong (seriously, anyone else find the whole Inter-planetary sex thing a bit creepy when you see repeats of the show?)

    Kramer gets some mail that should have been for Jerry and being so confident decides to attend Jerry's school reunion in his place as Jerry is away... though he doesn't realise Jerry is away because he's going to the reunion.

    In Coupling a package containing a new vibrator gets sent to one of the lads - Davenport would question his whole relationship, the confident guy would see it as a come on, the nerdy guy would be a sub plot with him confused about what it's actually 'for'...

    Then the resolution might spin out from that, at least enough to get a sense of what would and wouldn't work...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The pet killing idea is a good one. Although I just had an idea of doing something similar to what only fools and horses did with the canary.

    As for him being bossed around, he likes to think hes top banana at the plant but he is just in charge of the assembly line and has 2 supervisors above him so he puts on a facade that he has it made (think Kirk Van Houten in the simpsons)

    I was thinking his about the wife being pretty normal when hes around but from finding things around the house and rumors from other people give him an idea but he merely shugs it off due to her being so plain during the day.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I like the idea of a totally dysfunctional sitcom family, I mean, even in Shamless and Married with Children and Family Guy at the heart the family do care for each other - the idea of some mental deranged Dad spending all day bossed around inventing what he does at work and a sex-crazed prostitute wife whose given up on the marriage is quite refereshing - especially if it slowly plays out over the series with both willfully ignoring what is right in front of their eyes. (Oh hey, thanks for bringing in my lunch - it's just 'work on the assembly line day' for all managers... how did you say you knew it was Rory's Stag party last weekend?)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Off the top of my head and largely cliched but:

    The in laws have to be incredibly straight laced, well to do pillars of the community; that makes the dominatrix thing stand out more. It also opens the window to the local vicar popping in for tea and the wife realising that he's a customer.

    The father in law is a Nazi war criminal - but doesn't even try to hide it yet is still a pillar of the community because people just consider him an eccentric veteran who does a lot of good for the parish - German efficiency. Is frustrated that people don't believe that he was "like that" with the fuher. Insists in wearing full dress uniform - possibly injured and in a wheel chair, which he insists on calling his 'mobility panzer' and his stair lift a Stuka - shouts "dive, dive!" when coming down the stairs. The Dad would be the only person who realises father in law is a Nazi.

    Mother in law is also a part time dominatrix - running gag through the episode as mother and daughter each think that a piece of sex gear is theirs ad try to smuggle it into their bag.

    I'll try and think up some stuff that's actually funny.
Sign In or Register to comment.