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I would love to sell it, or give it away. I think it would be a hit, but I want to watch it.
Imagine QE with Grandmothers.
Granny Squad.
Take five grandmothers and have them visit people expecting new children. The Grannies give them a family makeover.
As in QE, each has their specialty
Grandmother 1) Safety Lady Grandmother 2) Food (daddy, you have to make Tuna casserole.) Grandmother 3) Decor of the Children's rooms Grandmother 4) Fashion, for the parents and the kids Grandmother 5) Education (what books for what age, etc.)
The parents saved by the Granny Squad (or the Fam Five, as they would like to be known) would be a mixture of expecting parents, adopting parents, or childess fiances marrying into a family (Wife has three kids and new husband is scared. Husband has baby twins and mother is a spoiled preppy woman who has never changed a diaper.)
I don't see this as being a prime-time hit for the major networks, but I think it would be great on PAX, Discovery, Family Channel.
Any clues on how I would get someone to try this idea?
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:(Wife has three kids and new husband is scared. Husband has baby twins and mother is a spoiled preppy woman who has never changed a diaper.)
Dan, this is hardly fair. The childless man gets to be scared, but the childless woman is spoiled and sneerable? She's not scared about doing something she'd never had to do before?
quote: Dan, this is hardly fair. The childless man gets to be scared, but the childless woman is spoiled and sneerable? She's not scared about doing something she'd never had to do before?
Wow Dan! This is going to be a hit! Look! It causes controversy already, and it is just in the design stage!
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Ha! It didn't work! My SuperDuperSnarkPreventionFirewall must have detected it.
quote:Its usually the man who is scared of the diapers.
Dan, how do you know? I'm sort of scared of diapers - I'm not around babies much, and hold them under supervision. I'm not opposed; it just isn't my life right now. How is that different from a guy in the same position?
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Come on Kat. We all know that women folk are wired for birthing babies and changing diapers and that kind of thing.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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This fits in with some things Mack and I were talking about yesterday. We're not. There's about a thousand social graces and practical details of life that, I swear, SOMEONE has to do, and it's usually been women. In fact, it has so often usually been women that the assumption that a man who doesn't know how to change a diaper will be sympathetically scared, but a woman who doesn't know how to change a diaper is preppy and spoiled can actually glide on through.
No, it's not innate. Then where does that knowledge come from? Well, it comes from socialization, being around other women.
Which explains why I (and Mack - sorry to include you, honey) am/are so clueless about so many of those things. I don't have any sisters, I've never lived near female relatives, my friends I hung out with were usually guys, and my mother died before I started paying attention to the world outside my books. I never learned it. Mack's had her own potholes in the learning journey. And where are you supposed to learn all those things when there's no one to teach them? I didn't even know it had to be learned! I bought the "innate" as much as anyone else, which caused great distress when there was a need to call on knowledge that I'd never known I needed to learn.
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Sorry to highjack your thread, Dan. I love the idea for the show. I want it!
You need to pitch the idea to a production company -- someone who could actually pitch it to one of the networks and produce it. But you run the risk of having your idea stolen. Especially since you aren't already in the business. This would be the best way to go, but you need someone -- a lwayer or an agent -- who could provide some muscle so that the production company doesn't just steal your concept. And you need some sort of twist/tag line or something that can make your concept distinctive enough that it can be claimed that it's not just one of those things that was out in the ether.
-- Or --
I think PAX and ABC Family produce a lot of their own shows. What you need to do is find someone -- a casting agent, a freelance producer, an entertainment lawyer -- who can help put together a team and form your own company. You could then pitch the project to the studios that do the work for PAX et. al.
Pax's Web site doesn't help much, but if you are serious, try cold calling their corporate headquarters and asking to speak to someone with their production company. Stranger things have happened:
PAXSON COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION 601 Clearwater Park Road West Palm Beach, FLORIDA 33401 +1 561 659-4122 +1 561 682-4447
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Actually, I don't care if someone steals the show. I am just doing my part for good TV.
Besides, being from the midwest, and gainfully employed, I don't have the leisure of producing a hit TV show, or the financial backing.
I will take your advice and send my idea to a few production companies for them to steal.
As far as the parental Gender roles--I was going for laughs.
Big macho man afraid of baby poo is funny.
It has been a standard of American Humor, from Mr. Mom, 3 Men & a Baby, Archie Bunker, and a thousand other sit coms.
This does not mean I believe that men are generally afraid to change diapers.
Spoiled woman freaking at a filthy diaper is also a funny idea. It has shown up in a few tv Sit-Coms and a couple of movies as well. The humor is not that women who don't know about diapers must be spoiled and snotty. The humor is that snotty and spoiled women deserve a good diaper dosing.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I have never ever understood why someone who was being shown that what they said was unintentionally horribly sexist would then think it would be funny to make a few intentionally sexist remarks as a joke to follow that up.
This happens incredibly often, mostly by my dad and older brother, and it's completely inexplicable to me.
Just turn it around. Say I made a remark which unintentionally called someone's manhood into question. Then it was pointed out to me how wrongheaded and rude a thing that was to say. Would it then be smart for me to try making two or three more feeble blatant-manhood-questioning jokes to extricate myself from that situation? Would that be the thing that would go over well, you think?
To me this says nothing other than "so yeah, okay, you're right, I DO have rude bigoted views, wanna start something about it?" Am I misinterpreting somehow? I'd like to think it was possible that I am. In my dad and older brother's cases, I honestly, to the best of my ability, believe that's what they did/do, in fact, think.
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But changing just-potty-trained-toddler's clothing-- that's tough. First because you're much more likely to get messy with a rambunctious toddler than you are a baby; and second, kids get deeply embarassed about accidents, and you have to sort out the emotional situation. Do you punish him? Do you let it go? A talk? A walk? Should you go back to training pants?
Oh, the agony.
Dan-- I understood what you meant. . . maybe it's a guy thing?
[ February 20, 2004, 06:48 AM: Message edited by: Scott R ]
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I have three in diapers right now, and the one who's potty training is indeed the most difficult.
What a great show idea! I sure could've used that.
I think the Grannies should came with accessories; e.g. one should demonstrate the many uses of a Shop-Vac.
Now, when in people's lives would the grannies come? Right before a baby is born? Right after? Both?
Will they be watching on a secret monitor and running into the room when parents are dissovling into frustrated tears?
And what would the Fashion Granny DO, exactly? Is she trying to persuade them that babies should blow out only on expensive clothes? Or will she bring lotas of wonderful sweat suits for everybody and help them realize that parenting isn't always pretty?
Posts: 575 | Registered: Jan 2004
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1) To point out what would be a GENUINELY offensive thing to say.
2) To assure you that they do, indeed, know what causes offense, and weren't deliberately intending to offend.
This is typical guy response, and is generally expected among guys; I don't know if women do the same thing.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I DO that. I've learned to control it around a few my friends (of both sexes) because it ticks them off and doesn't help the situation, but some (of both sexes) handle it just fine. A few think it's hilarious, and that's what I'm going for.
It's not a male trait. It's a people trait. The stereotypes don't fit.
Fashion Granny would show what is and is not good for kids at what ages.
This assumes that many of the episodes would not have standard family situations--expectant mother.
Other times she would be Practical Fashions, inexpensive and confortable.
She could also be the diaper expert, and I don't mean changing diapers, but with numbers and sizes.
The Payoff shots I haven't figured out yet. In QE they show off their new creations to friend/family/coworkers.
Here, we would have to have a several month pause between filming and pay off shot. Basically, on a random day in the future, Grannies return to the home and check out how the new parents are doing.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I DO that. I've learned to control it around a few my friends (of both sexes) because it ticks them off and doesn't help the situation, but some (of both sexes) handle it just fine. A few think it's hilarious, and that's what I'm going for.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
