ABOUT THE PROJECT
How did we end up here?
My 88 year old grandfather taught himself how to screenwrite, and transformed his very own original novel (yes, he wrote a novel too) into a full feature length screenplay. This is my inspiration. If he can do it, so can I.
I’ve always loved writing, and have also always toyed with the idea of screenwriting. I almost applied to USC’s undergraduate screenwriting program back when I was a senior in high school. I also almost decided to be a FTVM major at University of Michigan. Finally, I almost took a screenwriting course my last semester of college. So many almosts. I never did any of these things though, and when I finished reading my grandpa Herb’s screenplay, I knew this was the genre I needed to explore.
My grandpa is a retired doctor, who attended medical school in the 60s. He wrote his screenplay about a scrappy kid from New York who makes it to med school only to fall in love with an impressive, wealthy city girl. Their love story has many speed bumps along the way, involving family differences and career aspirations. According to my grandfather, it is only very loosely based on his own life. I decided to explore some of these same themes, but in today’s world. And in addition to that, I threw in the element of a grandfather and grandchild relationship because this is something that I also explored in my gateway project a few years ago.
WHERE ARE THE WOMEN IN EXTENDED STAY AND WHERE ARE THE WOMEN IN HOLLYWOOD?
Let me explain myself, but not excuse myself.
The toughest decision I made in this project was opting for a male lead as the grandson, instead of a granddaughter like myself. Shonda Rhimes is one of my favorite screenwriters in television because of the way she gives so much power and respect to her female leads. I most definitely did not want to conform to stereotypes, or give in to cliches. Yet I did. I conformed to stereotypes. Choosing a granddaughter and grandpa would have been more fitting to everything about this project. But I couldn’t write that story. In all honesty, it felt like too much pressure. My relationship with my grandfather is not something I can write about in a television series. It’s very real, it’s very personal. I wanted to be able to have creative freedom and to be able to create a relationship that wouldn’t just feel real to me, but to any other viewer too. So as I developed the story in my head, everything made more sense with 4 male characters navigating the plot. I hated at first that this was the case.
For one, the entertainment industry has not done an adequate job casting and showcasing female roles. I never intended to contribute to this inequity. According to studies done in collaboration with Women and Hollywood in 2019-2020, 42% of streaming programs had clearly identifiable sole female protagonists, 27% of cable programs had female protagonists, and 24% of broadcast programs featured female protagonists. These are low numbers, no question. If this show was produced, it would undoubtedly be contributing to this data. That said, I am a female screenwriter which, in itself, breaks a mold. The LA Times reported that in 2018-2019, 77% of TV programs had NO women creators. Yikes. This isn't to say that female creators aren't out there...they're just not getting their work produced at the rates that males are. So why did I have such an easy time writing about men? Even in my interview with my grandfather, he expected me to write about a young woman. Shouldn’t my background and identity have made it easier for me to cast more people like me?
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You’d think so. But the camaraderie and trust I was able to build amongst four males for some reason clicked in a way I could not get it to with a female protagonist. Maybe this says something about the TV I watch, maybe it says something about the media I consume. Whatever it says, it also means that there lies imperfection in most things we do in life but at the end of the day we can either ignore these imperfections and pretend they don’t exist, or we can acknowledge them and discuss them and figure out how they got there. And that is my intent.
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TLDR;
[too long, didn't read]
This story is random and complete fiction, but it also holds small realities throughout it. It is my goal that Episode 1 will leave my readers and viewers with the desire to learn more about these complex people that could be out there in the world. A mix of drama, comedy, and romance the show would be aired as a Netflix original that gets binged in a day or two. The drama is slow and subtle in its build, but enough to pull viewers in to watch from start to finish.