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February 2018 Superdraft: Ship a Romantic Comedy


Pariah

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Our astronomical friend is correct! Assuming you're all caught up, you can make your final pick in a little over five hours.  I've updated the rosters; please let me know what I may have missed / forgotten.

 

Great work so far, everyone. I can't wait to read the upcoming stories!

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Marilyn Munster (played by Pat Priest) will be the other half of the Alpha couple. She is not creeped out by The Undertaker due to her family upbringing.

 

Dr Doom and Bruce Wayne are neighbours. They don't get on and regard each other with suspicion.

Walter and Dana are investigating weird going ons and think the Undertaker might be responsible. (he isn't, Bruce Wayne's excursions as Batman and Doom's technology and magic experiments have caused the FBI to come here).

One option will be a Wrestling Match each chapter or episode whereby wrestling opponents suddenly turn up and fight him.

If need be another option will be a revolving door of wrestlers coming in to fight the Undertaker.

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Some fiction I can post without revealing my last two picks....

 

Lemme Show You My Junk is a TV series that features an entirely inorganic cast, with a Cheers-like atmosphere based in Robby the Robot’s bar for mechanicals on the junk world of Sakaar.  Robots having very long existences, it has to be taken for granted that more or less all of them have been through a number of relationships over their “lives”, and expect to go through many more.  Our alpha couple, Bender and Rosie, have relatively recently had their last partnerships annulled; in Rosie’s case, she finally got fed up with her old partner’s limited vocabulary; Bender and his ex parted amicably after slowly figuring out that their misanthropies had less in common than they initially hoped (such is the way of all relationships that Don’t Work Out).  The humor is often ribald, playing off contradictions in terminology as employed to describe implied features of robots’ intimate relationships and the conventional meanings of the terms, referring to biological events which should be quite impossible for the robots.  There are also a couple of infrequently-used words (e.g., plog) which are never defined but seem to be shockingly rude in the robotic culture of the series.

 

Robby, whose history is frequently acknowledged to be lengthy and filled with ups and downs, has nearly all of it kept carefully hidden for the duration of the series.  (In fact, it is never specified whether Robby is presently in a relationship during the series.)  The one exception is the repeated invocation of a long-ago spectacularly unsuccessful hook-up with “Blanche”, who at times is described as if she was HMS Blanche, an old Royal Navy screw sloop.  Robby is an old hand at recognizing mechanical compatibility and gently steering singles towards each other, and in letting newly jilted individuals vent their frustrations in a non-destructive way, accelerating their recovery.  About half the screen time in the series is spent in Robby’s bar for robots, the salvaged ruin of Callahan’s Cross-Time Saloon.

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Final two picks time for Lemme Show You My Junk!

 

9.  (neighbor, and Rosie's ex) The Noo-Noo, from the kids' TV series, Teletubbies

 

10. (option, theme song) Johnny Cash's voice in a rendition of I've Been Everywhere, with altered lyrics; in the show, the voice is ostensibly Robby the Robot's.

 

First verse of the song as it is heard in the show:

Quote

(Spoken)

I was hauling my junk along the trashed-out Gallifreyan road
When along came a junk-barge with a hot and radioactive load
If you’re goin’ to Gallifrey, Mack, with me you can ride
So I ported to the cabin and I plugged myself inside
He asked if I’d been through zones with so much trash and harm
And I said listen, I’ve drifted through this and every spiral arm.

 

Quote

(Sung)

I’ve been everywhere, man
I’ve been everywhere, man
Crossed the Coalsack bare, man
Kessel run with that dipstick Han, man
If there’s junk then I been there, man
I’ve been everywhere

 

I've been to
Exxilon Bespin Mesklin Talos IV
Camazotz Azeroth Coruscant Zondor
Rossem Vulcan Arrakis Osiris
Terminus Discworld Rimmerworld Trantor
Ploor Chaar Jinx Thra Ork Mongo Majipoor
Gnarr-Kthun Klendathu
Is that enough for you
I’ve been everywhere…

 

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More plot / overview of the plan for Lemme Show You My Junk, the series....

 

The Bender-Christine breakup occurred some time before the series opens, with only occasional flashbacks put on-screen; these two exes are guardedly civil to one another when both are present.  Rosie’s final frustrated split with the Noo-Noo happens on-camera in the Saloon in the third episode of Season I, drawing heavily on robotic innuendo and rude sound jokes as Rosie gets more and more angry and shrill, while the sounds of Noo-Noo’s increasingly frenzied slurping protestations get the other “female” customers in the Saloon more and more uncomfortably aroused over the course of the half hour.

 

Rosie and the Noo-Noo have “topside” jobs as janitorial staff in the Grandmaster’s complex; Galaxina similarly has a topside job as placard girl and general eye candy in the stadium and broadcasts of the Grandmaster’s stage combats.  Bender has an unspecified tech job somewhere topside as well.  R2-D2 is described as independently wealthy, with an unspecified million-year pension as a war hero.  Robby seems to be associated only with his bar, but there is no suggestion of any financial difficulties, only occasional interruptions in shipments of the potables he sells, which get played for humor in episodes that break up the monotony of pure “romantic” comedy.

 

Another ongoing comedic element throughout the series is the use of subtitles and what ought to be an entirely redundant anonymous human sign language interpreter (a motley collection of them, the changes being entirely random as far as the audience can tell, even having changes within an episode at times).  The subtitles and sign interpreters translate the dialog of those characters who speak Binary or other nonhuman languages, even though frequently those are merely robotic vulgarities.  Both subtitles and sign interpreters are unreliable narrators, however, and occasionally such is employed for comedic impact.  One such gag is R2-D2 going on a forty-second tirade of beeps and buzzes gradually increasing in loudness (with shots of the other bar patrons getting increasingly uncomfortable), while R2 deploys and stows various inexplicable electronic appendages, gesticulating as he “talks”.  Through this the subtitles are all but blank -- only the three ellipsis periods cycling over and over, like a web page slow to load -- and the sign interpreter looking nervously over his shoulder several times with expressions of increasing shock and finally falling down, apparently fainted, out of camera.  Only in the final two seconds of the long monologue does the subtitle finally appear, saying briefly, “Go f**k yourself.”

 

The bizarre cross-species attraction hinted at in Who Framed Roger Rabbit with the married couple of Roger and Jessica Rabbit is revisited in a less G-rated way with the happy but inexplicable relationship between R2-D2 and Galaxina.  The latter is obviously “eye candy” for the viewership of the show, but Galaxina is portrayed with a keen intelligence and a fully aware (and self-aware) and self-respecting persona.  (I regret I have been unable to compose a tag line for Galaxina as good as Jessica’s “I’m not bad; I’m just drawn that way.”)  The unquestioned affection for each other in this odd beta couple — each of them expressive, competent, and strong-willed — as they and Robby gently steer Rosie and Bender together is a challenging piece of screenwriting that sadly cannot be sustained after the first four seasons.

 

Late in Season II and dominating the action in Season III, Christine and the Noo-Noo get hooked up together.  Manrobot-to-manrobot and womanrobot-to-womanrobot talks between the alpha characters and the cross-exes provide several episodes of comedy material.  It is not clear at the time of this broad sketch-plan how many humans get offed by Christine and cleaned up by the Noo-Noo.

 

Postscript:

Also considered as a theme song (and it does get incorporated into the performances in the Saloon during one musical episode) is a mangling of Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs' Woolly Bully, with starts off with

Quote

Klaa!
Tu!
Klaa! Tu! Barada! Nikto!
(power chords)

 

Ultron told Voltron
About a thing he saw
Had a big fat bottom
And an anti-charm
Tensor meson!
Tensor meson.

But, I decided that the speculative particle physics was merely a distraction, and the tweak on I've Been Everywhere made a better fit for the show.

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Option#1:  Marci Maven (Monk). She has become Peter's assistant in the production of the YouTube documentary series, Mr. Monk and the Zombies.  Of course, Marci is obsessed with Monk.

 

image.png.d28b78f299d1d212780e8958142fddc9.png

 

 

Option #2:  Newly appointed LAPD Commissioner of Police, John Taggert (Beverly Hills Cop)

 

image.png.e6834cb93da41fae850666ac39b8568f.png

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On ‎2‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 11:37 AM, Pariah said:

 

 


Draft Details:

 

 

  • Wacky Neighbors (1-3 picks): These are the other colorful characters in your neighborhood: the friendly beat cop, the Latina lady who runs the local laundry, the quiet kid who’s secretly a superhero, the irritable guy at the coffee shop, the arms dealer next door, or whatever. These are the characters the Alpha and Beta couples will interact with most. Choose at least one. Any picks not used on Wacky Neighbors will be shifted to Options.
  • Options (2-4 picks): Use these for pretty much anything else you can think of for your story. Additional characters or locations, MacGuffins, theme music, whatever. These picks are exclusive, unless there’s a good reason for them not to be.
  • Title: You don't need to use a pick for this, and you can announce your title at any time.

 


 

 

On ‎2‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 7:39 PM, Lucius said:

 

1. Location: The world of Greek Mythology, from Hades to Olympus.

2. Alpha Couple Male: Eros

3. Alpha Couple Female: Psyche

4. Beta Couple Male: Ares

5. Beta Couple Female: Aphrodite

 

How many more do I need at this point?

 

 

Okay, Options

1. Delta Couple, Hades and Persephone

Although already married, they've had a separation and are going through a prickly reconciliation. Other characters joke that they seem to go through this on a regular basis.

 

Wacky Neighbors

 

1. Hephaestus

A major obstacle for Ares and Aphrodite, given that He's married to Aphrodite.

 

2. Zeus

Usually pursuing romantic D plots of His own, which He tries to get Eros and/or Aphrodite to help with.

 

3. Demeter

Persephone's mother and Hades' interfering mother in law. Catch phrase: "That goes against My grain."

 

Aphrodite will serve in the romantic obstacle/ interfering mother in law role for Psyche and Eros; given She's also part of a couple, is it necessary to draft Her a second time?

 

Still thinking of a title

 

Lucius Alexander

 

____________________ : A Palindromedary Enterprises Production

 

 

 

 

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11 minutes ago, death tribble said:

I need an update to the roster and a ruling on the options before I can do anything else.

 

I should be able to update the rosters later today. (I realize that may be tomorrow for you, sorry.)

 

As for the ruling on options, what was your question?

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On 14/02/2018 at 5:39 PM, death tribble said:

Marilyn Munster (played by Pat Priest) will be the other half of the Alpha couple. She is not creeped out by The Undertaker due to her family upbringing.

 

Dr Doom and Bruce Wayne are neighbours. They don't get on and regard each other with suspicion.

Walter and Dana are investigating weird going ons and think the Undertaker might be responsible. (he isn't, Bruce Wayne's excursions as Batman and Doom's technology and magic experiments have caused the FBI to come here).

One option will be a Wrestling Match each chapter or episode whereby wrestling opponents suddenly turn up and fight him.

If need be another option will be a revolving door of wrestlers coming in to fight the Undertaker.

The questions are in bold

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On ‎2‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 10:38 PM, Lucius said:

 

 

Aphrodite will serve in the romantic obstacle/ interfering mother in law role for Psyche and Eros; given She's also part of a couple, is it necessary to draft Her a second time?

 

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

My Big Fat Greek Mythological Romance : A Palindromedary Enterprises Production

 

 

 

 

 

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On 2/14/2018 at 10:39 AM, death tribble said:

One option will be a Wrestling Match each chapter or episode whereby wrestling opponents suddenly turn up and fight him.

If need be another option will be a revolving door of wrestlers coming in to fight the Undertaker.

 

No Option necessary.  Weekly guest-stars are a staple of the genre.

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