If you had your own TV show...

[ajblaise]

I would hire a crew of people to perform and act out elaborate stunts and scenarios in front of an unsuspecting public. Often the public would be tied into the scenario instead of just looking on. Kinda Jackass-type stuff.

Or a show that has a few people visit all these drug taking indigenous and tribal societies in Latin America, Africa, and Asia... and do ingest the substances with them. There are places where people use all kinds of psychedelics, weed, salvia divinorum....

[Jack Flak]

I wouldn't have one! But if I did....

Some kind of Spalding Gray style spoken word performance. I'd only build up enough material about once a year though, so maybe an Xmas special.

[Jeffster]

OH MAN. Since I was a kid, tv show ideas have been one of the things I've come up with the most. I created my own entire fictional network when I was in 6th grade, with an entire program schedule with all the show titles, synopses, characters and the actors who played them. I would use magazines like TV Guide to make it as realistic as possible with the mix of comedies, dramas, variety shows, and the way the descriptions were written, right down to those little symbols that TV Guide used for closed-captioned, and in stereo and all that stuff.

I could fill up several posts with all the ideas I've come up with, but lately the one that's been in my head the most is a show called "Shelley" which amazingly enough is about a girl named Shelley. It's a sitcom with a character that is loosely based on a real person but with a lot of artistic license taken for giving her experiences that I have seen play out with other people that aren't the real Shelley, who I really only knew for a short time. I have waffled on who I want to play the lead role, but many times I've imagined it as Emily VanCamp, probably best known as Amy on Everwood, or as the older daughter from Mrs. Doubtfire. I have changed what job Shelley has many times, sometimes I've set the show in a fast-food place (I have worked in several for many years so I have a lot of experience to draw from) and sometimes she's in an office. But no matter where she is, she's definitely an ESFP. And a really hot one at that.

I've also had ideas lately for a sitcom about a single dad (there's a shocker) and a realistic family drama called "Dreamtown." That one's been in my head for at least 11 or 12 years, I picked out the theme song and went as far as coming up with a character profile sheet and episode titles.

Like Jack Flak said, I overflow with mind-blowing ideas.

[PinkPiranha]

Originally Posted by kyuuei

That WAS that movie's reference ^_^b.

Pink: We should have a season finale cross-over.

Done!

Episode: Will the plastic bag ever stop blowing in the wind?! Will it be captured and used to carry awesome things, like creepers!? It could! It might! Then, a gun battle!!

Originally Posted by Tallulah

A sketch show, with all the sketches having something to do with Oprah.

Do we get to grope her guest doctors while talking about "The Secret"?

[kyuuei]

Originally Posted by PinkPiranha

Done!

Episode: Will the plastic bag ever stop blowing in the wind?! Will it be captured and used to carry awesome things, like creepers!? It could! It might! Then, a gun battle!!



Do we get to grope her guest doctors while talking about "The Secret"?

OMG that show would rock!! It'll be all "TXT I<3SHO 1 if you want the plastic bag to be a creeper! 2 if you want the bag to explode! And 3 if you want the bag to be on around Sarah Jessica Parker's face!!!" .. Then we'll ignore all the votes and do what we want because no one's gonna know anyways!

...And I'm sorry. Everytime I see "O!!!!!!!" on anything, I think about the wrong capitalized O..

[colmena]

People would send in their own silent, short films, then I would put them to music.

Or basically Mock The Week without the punk music.

Or I'd dress up as Jonathan Meades and pretend to be clever; talking about stuff and maybe some things.

[Silently Honest]

Something of a mix between Doug, That 70s show, and a small pinch of King of the Hill.

[kuranes]

One show would be a talk show. There wouldn't be the emphasis, that I see on late night talk shows today, on using up the first half hour by making fun of how lame the monologue is. If I didn't have much to say that I thought was informative or funny, then we'd go right into the guests. On slow nights we'd really let the band go wild instead of them always just playing during commercials or the show theme. We'd have some celebrities, but we'd also have people that were just doing ordinary jobs, and get their opinions on things. A "Dilbert" take on business from an actual cubicle dweller talking about how some management fad consultants completely screwed up his former company, for example. If we thought that an ad was clever or funny enough, we might not charge the company as much to run it. There would be nights where we just run films made by artists, or have comic improvisation. Some shows would be taped live, but a lot of them wouldn't. So we might end up exceeding some arbitrary time parameter, which would mean that part of that show would have to be taken out when it ran in its time slot on TV, and used in another show. No biggie.

One show might be a TV version of discussions like we have on forums, and it would come in two versions. One would allow people time to think about their answers and be heavily edited. The other ( comparable to "speed chess" ) would be the opposite. You'd have to come up with your answer on the spot. The people would be in little windows like Hollywood Squares or something. Maybe there would be teams sometimes, and occasionally the audience would vote on who "won" a debate.

A third show would be a drama that was short on dialogue and that people would never be sure how to categorize. Crime show ? Detective ? Psychological mystery ? Surrealism ? There would be a kind of Lynchian weirdness around it, but never so much that people didn't try to puzzle out the plot and guess what was happening. Most of the time, what the audience would see would be visuals of people doing things. How do they all fit together ? This would become more clear later,, like things made more sense towards the end in the movie "The Sting". But by then there would be new mysteries. Sometimes one could hear characters talking, but most of the time it would just be the awesome soundtrack for audio, like a Michael Mann vehicle, except waay more. Moody music. Viewers would always be speculating with one another what was actually happening. Unusual camera angles and exterior location tracking shots. It might not be set in the USA. Maybe Venice or Hong Kong or Bangkok. Often there would be no clear "protagonist" to identify with.

Another show would be set in Morocco. There would be a lot of stories within stories, as different characters started telling their background, and the flashback ran. During that flashback, another character would begin to tell their story. Then that story would end, and you would find yourself following a storyline that you hadn't watched for a month or so. It would be mysterious, and probably not set in the present day. Periodically there would be fantastic elements in it, but it wouldn't be completely Arabian Nights.

[Anja]

I like your last idea, kuranes. It reminds me of "The English Patient."

[Beat]

A documentary type thing that goes through large cities and captures the weirdos, freaks, and the unique. I think it'd be interesting.