The Rich and The Insane…my concept for a primetime drama

[TVLegend]

This is the thread where I’ll post about my fictional primetime drama titled The Rich and The Insane, which is about the trials and tribulations of the Cartwright, Andrews, Sharpe, and Lovett families as they all struggle to coexist among one another. The show is set in the fictional city of Glendale, Illinois.

Here’s the characters:

Howard Cartwright: The ruthless, arrogant, demeaning, and unfaithful founder, executive, CEO, and chairman of the board of Cartwright Enterprises and patriarch of The Cartwright Family. Howard has had many secret affairs, one of them currently being with his mistress, London, who happens to be his maid’s daughter.

Stephanie Cartwright: She’s the caring, passive-aggressive socialite and the wife of Howard. Stephanie is characterized as a woman of good character. Together, she and her husband have three children: Hayley, Jonas, and Aaron.

Hayley Cartwright: The distrustful and submissive heroine who’s in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend, Joshua. Hayley is the eldest child of Howard and Stephanie.

Jonas Cartwright: The second child of Howard and Stephanie, Jonas has a fiery personality and is known to be a “notorious screwup”. He is currently engaged to Amanda Mitchell.

Aaron Cartwright: He’s the homosexual youngest child of Howard and Stephanie. Aaron is characterized as an evil and devious bad guy and is known to get what he wants. Aaron is often at odds with his siblings, Hayley and Jonas.

Amanda Mitchell: She’s Jonas’ fiancée.

William “Will” Andrews: William is the level-headed husband of Victoria and father of Trevor and Donnie. He is also a doctor, Howard’s loyal friend, and is often the voice of reason.

Victoria Andrews: Victoria is a successful lawyer, the wife of William, and the mother of Trevor and Donnie. Despite appearing composed, classy, and elegant, Victoria is a manipulative, homophobic, scheming, catty, and vicious ice queen. Due to Victoria being set in her anti-gay, prejudice, and hateful ways, her son, Trevor decides to stay in the closet a little while longer.

Trevor Andrews: Trevor’s the ill-at-ease, conflicted, self-loathing, distant, closeted older son of William and Victoria who lusts after Aaron. Much of the series centers around Trevor regularly being persecuted and harassed by his mother.

Donnie Andrews: He’s the youngest son of William and Victoria.

Laura Sharpe: Laura is the mother of London and Manny, and the Cartwrights’ maid. She raised her two children as a single mother. Laura is religious, God-fearing, forgiving, and sympathetic and resorts to prayer and recitation of Bible verses in response to stress or hard times.

London Sharpe: London is Laura’s daughter, Manny’s older sister, and one of Howard’s multitude of mistresses who’s less than half his age. London is portrayed as a manipulative, vindictive, calculating, mischievous, and presumptuous jezebel who can easily bother people.

Manny Sharpe: He’s Laura’s son and London’s brother who works on cars.

Nancy Lovett Rhodes: Nancy is the former widow of the late Charles Lovett, the wife of Tim Rhodes, and the mother of Lacey and Mariah. She is portrayed as a jovial and flamboyant busybody with a vulnerable heart who feuds with Stephanie Cartwright and is the CEO and chairwoman of the board at Lovett Cosmetics.

Tim Rhodes: Nancy’s much younger husband.

Lacey Lovett: Lacey is Nancy’s older daughter.

Mariah Lovett: Mariah is Nancy’s youngest daughter.

Joshua Collins: Joshua is Hayley’s abusive boyfriend who’s deeply in the closet. Despite secretly cheating on Hayley with a man, Joshua denies being gay.

Landon: Landon is who Joshua has been seeing behind Hayley’s back.

Celia: Stephanie’s elderly mother who Howard put in a nursing home.

T.J.: He’s the COO at Cartwright Enterprises.

Piper: Piper is the secretary at Cartwright Enterprises.

[cpmaz]

I think that this has been done already. Only they named it Arrested Development.

[TVLegend]

Originally Posted by cpmaz

I think that this has been done already. Only they named it Arrested Development.

I don’t think this would be that much similar to Arrested Development.

[TVLegend]

So, what does everyone think?

[Wawwie]

Originally Posted by TVLegend

So, what does everyone think?

I think your mind might be racing too fast because you are juggling many writing projects at once. You've got Thelma's Family Crisis, Livin' the Life, Mastersons, Fallon Family Funeral, etc. You never even continued with Livin' the Life. I guess you abandoned that writing project? The stories for that one were pretty good.

[stevea]

Is Livin' the Life the one with Michael? I wondered what happened to that story.

[Wawwie]

Originally Posted by stevea

Is Livin' the Life the one with Michael? I wondered what happened to that story.

Yep, that was the one with Michael and his wise crackin' maid, Vera. That one had some funny scenes and was pretty good. I don't know why he abandoned that project.

[TVLegend]

Originally Posted by Wawwie

I think your mind might be racing too fast because you are juggling many writing projects at once. You've got Thelma's Family Crisis, Livin' the Life, Mastersons, Fallon Family Funeral, etc. You never even continued with Livin' the Life. I guess you abandoned that writing project? The stories for that one were pretty good.

I finished A Fallon Family Funeral, I took a break from Livin’ The Life and The Mastersons, and I’m wrapping up Thelma’s Family Crisis. I’m just giving an overview of the characters for The Rich and The Insane, I’ll worry about storylines and other things another time. When I’m coming out with a project, it means that I’m either finishing, taking a break from, or about to finish another project.

Originally Posted by stevea

Is Livin' the Life the one with Michael? I wondered what happened to that story.

I took a break from that project because I ended up becoming bored with it. I might do another episode of Livin’ The Life in the future, but I won’t be frequent with it again.

[TVLegend]

Here’s a few scenes I came up with involving The Cartwrights, The Andrews’, and London having dinner together and Stephanie finding out about Howard and London.


London: Darling, you belong to your own business.

Victoria: And you belong on a corner. Need a pimp?

London: Victoria, your delusions of reality are sad to see.

Victoria: And you know what else is sad to see? You and Howard sleeping together behind Stephanie’s back.

Howard: Excuse me?

Victoria: Do you have gas? You heard me. You and London have sex. It’s an indisputable fact.

Stephanie (confused): What?

Victoria: Stephanie, I know it might sound sketchy and hard to believe, but it’s the truth.

Howard: It sounds sketchy and hard to believe because it isn’t the truth.

Victoria: Howard, I’m not about to lie to my best friend and I’m not about to sit here and let you lie to my best friend.

William: Victoria, I think you’ve had too much to drunk. Let me take your glass.

Victoria: Touch it and die.

Stephanie: Howard, what is she talking about?

Howard: Don’t listen to her.

Victoria: Listen to me. Your husband’s a no-good cheater.

Howard: Victoria, how are you gonna sit here and spin a lie like that? I thought we were friends.

Victoria: We are friends, but you’re getting too friendly with your maid’s daughter.

London (angrily): Oh, be quiet, Victoria!

Victoria: No, I will not be quiet! I don’t think you know me well enough to be speaking to me that way.

Stephanie: Howard, what is Victoria going on about?

Howard: Untrue things. That’s what she’s going on about.

Victoria: You might want to talk to your man, Stephanie.

Stephanie: Good idea. How about I do that? Let’s go outside and talk.

Howard: No!

Stephanie: Why not?

Howard: Fine, damnit! I’ve been unhappy with you and I’ve been seeing London.

London (shocked): Howard, what are you doing?

Howard: I’m doing what’s right.

Victoria: The truth came out, Stephanie. See how London called Howard by his name like that?

Stephanie: Well, what does that mean?

Victoria: Why is your maid’s daughter talking to your older husband like that?

*Stephanie slowly shakes her head in disbelief*

Stephanie (in disbelief): No. It can’t be.

Victoria: It can be.

Stephanie (in disbelief): Howard must be confused or something or maybe I’m hearing wrong.

Victoria: You aren’t hearing wrong. Howard fessed up, didn’t he? And I told you.

Stephanie: You really are seeing London, aren’t you, Howard?

Howard: Yes. That’s what I said, huh, woman? Look, not only am I seeing London, but…I want a divorce.

Stephanie: You aren’t married to London.

Howard: I want a divorce from you! You make my skin crawl, you’ve gained weight, and…things just aren’t the same.

Jonas: Dad, how could you do this? How could you cheat on mom with this slut?

London: Who are you calling a slut?

Jonas: You, slut.

Howard: See, that’s why I didn’t want to say anything. Too much drama. But since secrets are being kept, it’s time to bring them to the dinner table.

William: What do you mean by that, Howard?

Howard: You know exactly what I mean.


Howard: Let’s reveal some secrets, shall we? Amanda, I remember you went on about how stupid my son was.

Jonas: What?

*Howard nods his head*

Howard: Oh, yeah, Jonas. And William, my good buddy, I remember you told me how nagging and bitchy Victoria was.

Victoria: You said that, William?

*William quickly shakes his head*

William (nervously): No-No. No, I didn’t. I love you.

Victoria: Yes. You love nagging and bitchy Victoria.

Howard: Oh, by the way, feuding married couple, you might wanna watch out for your son, Trevor. Rumor has it that he wants to sniff my son, Aaron’s panties. Oh, I’m sorry. Aaron isn’t a female, he just acts like one.

Victoria: You’re gay, Trevor?

*Trevor quickly shakes his head*

Trevor (nervously): No.

Victoria: Good, because you know I’d beat your ass if you were.

Howard: Tonight was a good night. We should do this again.

Stephanie (still in disbelief): You’ve been cheating on me with London?

Howard (frustrated): Yes, you nutcase! Yes!

*Stephanie picks up a wine bottle from off the table and bashes Howard on the head with it. The bottle breaks and Howard passes out*

Hayley: Mom!

Stephanie: It serves him right!