SYNOPSIS

         Larry Timmerman intended to pitch a sit-com about two fiercely competitive, status-conscious families that live next door to one-another.  What he sold, much to his dismay and surprise, was Keeping Up, an unscripted series about two families who are forced to compete with one another for “status symbols” in the hopes of garnering the most of these prizes over the course of the season in order to win “the ultimate status symbol, a fully paid off mortgage!”  Now listed as a producer rather than the writer as which he thinks of himself, Larry feeds the contestants funny lines to use on camera, hoping to get at least a little of his original concept onto the screen.

             Sandy Spooner, a lovely young woman in her early thirties, came from an education in journalism and a decade of disheartening work as a documentarian.  A bit embarrassed to have bought into the world of unscripted TV, she strives to maintain her journalistic integrity.  She strives to capture the experience of these two competing families in as raw and un-contrived a fashion as possible despite the ridiculous nature of the weekly challenges with which they are arbitrarily presented and the manipulations to increase the level of tension and competition between them.

             Dave Wilkens, network liaison, knows from television.  He knows what sells and he knows what keeps people watching.  He does all that he can to keep the show dense with drama, adding twists at a whim and fomenting discord within and between the on-screen families.  He also sees Larry and Sandy as a potential couple.  He does not hesitate to manipulate his co-workers as readily as he does the families who make up the reality program’s cast, to whom he refers as the “so called talent.”

             Isabella Lunis, young, attractive and ambitious serves as the show’s editor.  Eminently competent, she can carry on fast paced, nuanced conversation while assembling a complex visual sequence, cutting seventeen seconds somewhere in the middle and still maintaining the continuity of both the video product and the discussion in which she is engaged.  She serves as confidant to both Larry and Sandy and conspires with Dave to get them together.

“THE SO CALLED TALENT” on the show-within-the-show mostly show up in passing and in the cold opens and closes. Each episode opens with a “Previously On Keeping Up” sequence and ends with a “Next Time on Keeping Up” sequence.  These bookends are the only view we get of the reality show around which our comedy is centered.

THE BANKS,  self-described “god-fearing Americans,” genuinely believe they deserve to win the competition because they properly represent the country with their values.  Karl Banks works as assistant principal at a public school.  His wife, Katie crafts and takes care of the home.  Their older daughter, 16 year-old Riley, gets high after school and makes passes at the camera men and production assistants when her parents are not around.  Thomas, 13, hates the whole idea of being part of the reality show, resents his parents for getting him involved in it and makes passes at the camera men and production assistants when his parents and his sister are not around.

THE GRANTAS, very serious about their commitment to the environment and alternative energy, write angry letters to FOX news that do not get on the air.  Ronnie and Cynthia used to think of themselves as activists but with their children has come a sense of responsibility.  Cynthia writes a weekly column on Energy-saving tips for the home that runs in a major national magazine and Ronnie installs solar panels for a green energy company . . .  and feels guilty about the large, soot-belching company truck he has to drive around for the job.  Their kids, Louis, 15 and Gabby, 12 attend the school at which Karl works.  Louis is a math wiz and is hyper aware of the hypocrisy of his parents’ lifestyle.  Gabby hopes some day to be an influencer.  Or a princess.  She thinks this show might just be the start of a long career as some kind of a celebrity spokesmodel and then, once everyone knows her name, a politician.  Sadly, she might be right.

Both families seek competitive advantages through manipulation, deception and any other means they find.  So certain are all the adults that they deserve to win, that they feel absolutely justified in doing all they can to push toward that outcome.  Regardless of what is going on for the production staff who make up our show’s central cast, the adult  Keeping Up competitors remain blissfully unaware that anybody’s focus is on anything other than them, anything other than their chances of winning the idiotic competition.

Each week, Larry, Sandy and Dave think up new ways to torment and test the competing families, all straining against one another’s agendas.  When the workplace is an entertainment factory that manufactures fake reality for mass consumption, nobody gets away with clean hands.  It’s all about absurd compromises, surreal choices and for all the on-camera illusions and Hollywood tinsel delusions, this is As Real As It Gets.

EPISODIC STRUCTURE

This series is to be shot cinematically, single-camera.  The tone will carry the snarky, insider cynicism of THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW while the pacing and spirit of the series will be more akin to Aaron Sorkin’s SPORTS NIGHT.  Each episode will contain its own emotional story arc for our central characters while continuing stories of budding romance, professional animosities, emerging resentments and so on will carry over from episode to episode.  Unlike legacy television sit-coms, things do not always end exactly as they began, reset for a next episode in a static world. In the first season of this serialized comedy, romance between Larry and Sandy slowly blossoms as David struggles with a sense of rejection from Isabella and the need to keep things professional while having very personal feelings.  Meantime, the two competing families grow ever more ruthless in their desire to win in a game whose rules can never be clearly defined.

The show within the show appears only in multi-camera glimpses that bookend the show.  Each episode opens with a “LAST WEEK ON Keeping Up” sequence, reviewing bits of out-of-context drama from the fictional series and ends with a “NEXT WEEK ON Keeping Up” that similarly previews next week’s never-to-be-actually-seen fictional episode.  These dynamic, fast-cut sequences serve as reminders of the actual product that so absorbs the attention and sparks the passion of our central characters, the men and women behind the scenes working to make it all happen.

The central story of each episode will revolve around the difficulties that confront our characters as they each push toward their individual goals both for their own careers and for the show as a whole.  Episodes will focus on Larry’s efforts to infuse humor into a show that features fairly humorless and self-important participants, on Dave’s certainty that outing Thomas to his parents will make for good television, on disagreements as to which three minutes Isabella should lose from the second act to make the time work out, on decisions over whether or not to award a prize that is being provided by a company that has just contributed a ton of money to a right-wing anti-gay political cause.  These simple issues serve as the coat rack on which complex issues of ethics hang elegantly and without seeming heavy or too well worn.  Meantime, office romances, the idiotic ploys of the narcissistic on-air competitors, the turn-on-a-dime logistics of creating unscripted television keep the laughs coming, the pacing brisk and the mood light.