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breakinglight11This is totally banged out. I was working on other things today so I didn't really spend a lot of time on it. It's not refined in any way or nearly funny enough. But this is another scene for that (pointless) theoretical Frasier spin-off I was musing on. It would probably come before Day #14 - The Cousins Crane, as it sets Freddy up to find something to take him out of himself, rather than stewing constantly on his dissatisfactions.
Funny, it's the second TV show pilot scribbling I've done that involved the main character talking to a therapist. It's also the device I use for the opening scene of Bridesmaids, as in the first half Day #9 - Nothing Common and the second half Day #13 - About Me. It's a pretty convenient way to have them talk about their life and situation.
Day #15 - "Subtle But Unmistakeable Disappointment"
By Phoebe Roberts
INT. THERAPIST’S OFFICE - DAY
FREDDY CRANE, early thirties, fussily dressed, sits on the couch in his therapist’s office.
FREDDY
I guess I just feel like… this isn’t the life I’m supposed to be leading, you know?
THERAPISTCan you say more about that?
FREDDY
Well, I was gifted kid. I mean, a really gifted kid. Spelling prodigy, chess champ. Marbury Academy, Phillps Exeter, all the way to Harvard.
THERAPIST
Impressive.
FREDDY
Yeah, to everybody but the bullies. From the time I was a kid, everybody told me that when I grew up I’d be so successful I’d be able to buy and sell those guys. Well, here I am, grown up… and that hasn’t happened. My parents always figured I’d become a doctor or a lawyer or an Internet millionaire, but nope. A concentration in philosophy— a concentration, you see, they don’t have majors at Harvard —leading to a series of underpaid adjunct teaching jobs where I grade the boring, probably purchased papers from little snots whose parents pushed them into the gifted and talented track the same way I got pushed.
THERAPIST
Do you have a lot of contact with your mother and father?
FREDDY
Well, they’ve been divorced since I was a kid. My mother is your typical emotionless intellectual ice monster—
THERAPIST
Typical?
FREDDY
And my dad is a neurotic snob with a superiority complex concealing his inferiority complex, so…constantly, yes, they never stop calling me.
THERAPIST
You don’t sound happy about that.
FREDDY
When at worst they can’t stop wondering where they went wrong, or at best radiate a subtle but unmistakable disappointment? Yeah, they’re a barrel of laughs.
THERAPIST
Well, Freddy… it sounds to me like the problem is you’ve having difficulty reconciling your expectations with your reality.
Freddy turns to stare at the therapist.
FREDDY
That’s it? That’s the best you’ve got for me?
THERAPIST
I’m sorry, what?
FREDDY
Doctor. My father is a psychiatrist. My mother is a psychiatrist. Uncle, grandmother, all psychiatrists. Do you honestly think that’s something that’s never occurred to me?
He stands up and starts to pace.
FREDDY
Now, if you’d said I had a Millennial malaise, that would have been trite and dismissive, but it might have at least sounded like you were listening to me. Or if you’d said I was crushed by the weight of my parents’ hopes and dreams. My dad was a Freudian, even that might have had the ring of truth. But crushed expectations? Really? After a childhood of behavior experiments and my every youthful quirk examined for all possible psychological phenomena? Really, doctor, you disappoint me.
The therapist closes his book.
THERAPIST
All right, all right, Lucien Freud. You want something new? You’ve exhausted every possible course of self-examination. Why don’t you try something where, for at least a minute or two, you focus on something besides yourself?
Freddy considers.
FREDDY
So you think my expectations are off, huh?
Funny, it's the second TV show pilot scribbling I've done that involved the main character talking to a therapist. It's also the device I use for the opening scene of Bridesmaids, as in the first half Day #9 - Nothing Common and the second half Day #13 - About Me. It's a pretty convenient way to have them talk about their life and situation.
Day #15 - "Subtle But Unmistakeable Disappointment"
By Phoebe Roberts
INT. THERAPIST’S OFFICE - DAY
FREDDY CRANE, early thirties, fussily dressed, sits on the couch in his therapist’s office.
FREDDY
I guess I just feel like… this isn’t the life I’m supposed to be leading, you know?
THERAPISTCan you say more about that?
FREDDY
Well, I was gifted kid. I mean, a really gifted kid. Spelling prodigy, chess champ. Marbury Academy, Phillps Exeter, all the way to Harvard.
THERAPIST
Impressive.
FREDDY
Yeah, to everybody but the bullies. From the time I was a kid, everybody told me that when I grew up I’d be so successful I’d be able to buy and sell those guys. Well, here I am, grown up… and that hasn’t happened. My parents always figured I’d become a doctor or a lawyer or an Internet millionaire, but nope. A concentration in philosophy— a concentration, you see, they don’t have majors at Harvard —leading to a series of underpaid adjunct teaching jobs where I grade the boring, probably purchased papers from little snots whose parents pushed them into the gifted and talented track the same way I got pushed.
THERAPIST
Do you have a lot of contact with your mother and father?
FREDDY
Well, they’ve been divorced since I was a kid. My mother is your typical emotionless intellectual ice monster—
THERAPIST
Typical?
FREDDY
And my dad is a neurotic snob with a superiority complex concealing his inferiority complex, so…constantly, yes, they never stop calling me.
THERAPIST
You don’t sound happy about that.
FREDDY
When at worst they can’t stop wondering where they went wrong, or at best radiate a subtle but unmistakable disappointment? Yeah, they’re a barrel of laughs.
THERAPIST
Well, Freddy… it sounds to me like the problem is you’ve having difficulty reconciling your expectations with your reality.
Freddy turns to stare at the therapist.
FREDDY
That’s it? That’s the best you’ve got for me?
THERAPIST
I’m sorry, what?
FREDDY
Doctor. My father is a psychiatrist. My mother is a psychiatrist. Uncle, grandmother, all psychiatrists. Do you honestly think that’s something that’s never occurred to me?
He stands up and starts to pace.
FREDDY
Now, if you’d said I had a Millennial malaise, that would have been trite and dismissive, but it might have at least sounded like you were listening to me. Or if you’d said I was crushed by the weight of my parents’ hopes and dreams. My dad was a Freudian, even that might have had the ring of truth. But crushed expectations? Really? After a childhood of behavior experiments and my every youthful quirk examined for all possible psychological phenomena? Really, doctor, you disappoint me.
The therapist closes his book.
THERAPIST
All right, all right, Lucien Freud. You want something new? You’ve exhausted every possible course of self-examination. Why don’t you try something where, for at least a minute or two, you focus on something besides yourself?
Freddy considers.
FREDDY
So you think my expectations are off, huh?
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Date: 2016-08-16 04:15 pm (UTC)Just, you know. Saying.
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Date: 2016-08-17 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-17 02:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-17 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-08-19 06:52 pm (UTC)In other words: if the story works, the story works. And if you can't get NBC's attention, the story is *still* going to work pretty much as well with the names changed. I could probably name several major works (Watchmen comes first to mind offhand) that were initially designed for specific licensed characters, failed to get the license, changed the names and were at *least* as successful as they would have been with the license...