Good ideas for sitcoms

[Utter Shit]

Just for a laugh like.

A guy I know just brought up an idea for a sitcom that could, I think, work very nicely. A kebab house in the early hours of the morning. Regular characters behind the counter, but the customers would change every week (perhaps with a couple of regulars to keep it ticking over). It'd have to be very character-driven because the setting would obviously be very small and claustrophobic...but yeah, everyone knows a comic kebab man, so why not turn it into a fantastically amazing sitcom?

Your turn!

[Mr. Analytical]

That's not much of an idea.  There are loads of sitcoms that feature shops as a means of continuously bringing in new characters.  I mean what else was Central Perk in Friends? Or Cheers?  or the book shop in Black Books?


OPENING SHOT : the gang sitting in Central Perk.

Phoebe walks in.

Phoebe : "OH MY GOD!  someone just sent me a plot device through the mail!"

Everyone reacts!

Roll Credits!

"so no one told you life was..."

But yeah... a Kebab shop would work.  Just so long as it wasn't full of pathos as the drunks reflect on the mistakes they've made.  In that case I'd have to stab you in the eye for writing such bollocks.

[The Duck Man]

Nah, because Central Perk and Cheers are simply backdrops for the cast, it's not about the bar or book shop or whatever.

I think Utter Shit's sort of suggesting a "Help" style sit-com, with a small cast and then different people coming in each week. It sounds good.

Racial stereotype (sort of) but Omid Dijali for the owner?

[Utter Shit]

That's not much of an idea.  There are loads of sitcoms that feature shops as a means of continuously bringing in new characters.  I mean what else was Central Perk in Friends? Or Cheers?  or the book shop in Black Books?


OPENING SHOT : the gang sitting in Central Perk.

Phoebe walks in.

Phoebe : "OH MY GOD!  someone just sent me a plot device through the mail!"

Everyone reacts!

Roll Credits!

"so no one told you life was..."

But yeah... a Kebab shop would work.  Just so long as it wasn't full of pathos as the drunks reflect on the mistakes they've made.  In that case I'd have to stab you in the eye for writing such bollocks.

I'm not bloody writing it! I just want to watch it, and maybe make a little bit of money off someone else's work for spawning the original idea.

[Utter Shit]

Nah, because Central Perk and Cheers are simply backdrops for the cast, it's not about the bar or book shop or whatever.

I think Utter Shit's sort of suggesting a "Help" style sit-com, with a small cast and then different people coming in each week. It sounds good.

Racial stereotype (sort of) but Omid Dijali for the owner?

Got to have him in there somewhere, on account of him being fantastic. Kebab shop owner would be fine. I think it would be important that he would be a nice guy, but at the same time you know that he has it in him to suddenly snap and stab you with his kebab skewer. You know, keep a bit of realism about the show. All kebab owners have that look about them, nice but scary.

[The Duck Man]

I'm excited about this already!

[Utter Shit]

Right, so it's decided. This is definitely going to happen.

[Utter Shit]

As the night wears on, I can see this taking an OFAH-style turn for the worse, suggestions becoming more and more ludicrous. Juuuulia Roberts.

[Village Branson]

I think his wife should help out in the shop as well, forced close relationships are good for some laughs.

Also she should be called Donna, and be the owner.

Now, a name for the shop....

[Utter Shit]

Bromley Kebab House?

[Utter Shit]

Actually scratch that. Legal issues aside, it's essential that the place be called Abrekebabra, on the basis that it's the greatest name for anything, ever.

[Village Branson]

Ok, but only if his catchphrase is "oh SH.....ish kebabs".

My apologies to the original author of this thread-oh, it's utter shit, he's doing it to himself.

Oh in that case, the owner is striving for a higher class of customer, and hilariously has little or no tolerance for anyone inebriated.
Also his wife is a vegan.


So anyway, Donna K Babs...

(and as village branson descends into the sub lee and herring whimsy that kept him up but merely a decade ago, he realises the many merits of sleep, for both him and others)

[wheatgod]

Bowing to government pressure, the shop tries to make their kebabs more healthy... by putting EVEN MORE salad in!!!
(salad in kebabs eh? whats the point etc?)

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Sounds like a great idea. Of course it'd have to have an in-joke guest appearance by Harry Enfield.

[Custard]

I had an idea a while back of a show called "Internet Meet-Up", where 10 or so "friends" from the internet meet-up in a pub and get up to various hilarious japes, and indulge in Office-style conversations which lead to lengthy, awkward silences. There's MONEY in them silences, DONTCHAKNO?

A series of 6 half-hour episodes, all done in "real-time", so it covers the entire 3-hour meet.

The 2nd series could be a 2nd meet. And a Xmas Special to finish, featuring two people kissing near the end (smashing up their laptops & walking off hand-in-hand to be decided).

I was thinking that bloke who played Nathan Barley as the "Forum Moderator / Piss-Up Organiser", and Angus Deayton as the older gentlemen who's depressed cos his wife left last year with the Milkman.

Actually, reading this back it looks like i'm maybe mocking the meets on this board, which isn't the case. It's genuinely an idea i quite like the sound of. Well, apart from the utter lies of the paragraph directly above this one.

Also, how about "Fishy Business", involving two retired best-mates who go fishing and end up discussing their incident-full lives over a can of Vimto & a round of sandwiches by the river. Again, in real-time, and it could have a happy ending of them catching the biggest fish known to man, and then ultimately deciding that life isn't so bad afterall. After 3 hours of hilarious incidents & awkward-silences, obviously.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Nah, because Central Perk and Cheers are simply backdrops for the cast, it's not about the bar or book shop or whatever.

I think Utter Shit's sort of suggesting a "Help" style sit-com, with a small cast and then different people coming in each week. It sounds good.

Racial stereotype (sort of) but Omid Dijali for the owner?

Got to have him in there somewhere, on account of him being fantastic. Kebab shop owner would be fine. I think it would be important that he would be a nice guy, but at the same time you know that he has it in him to suddenly snap and stab you with his kebab skewer. You know, keep a bit of realism about the show. All kebab owners have that look about them, nice but scary.

Omid Djalili played a similar character to this in "Small Potatoes" I think.

If you're going for a kebab house, why not bring back Harry Enfield's "Stavros"?  It's not like he's got anything better to do these days.

[George]

Make it into a pornocom, and that's my two penneth or moneyshot....

[Uncle Gripper]

A call centre could and would be a good basis for a s(h)itcom.  And don't go stealing my ideas, notebooks out plagarists.

[Gradual Decline]

A sitcom set in a shoe shop. In Doncaster?

It works for me.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

A fantasy/swords and sorcery/wizardry/dwarf/elf type comedy!

No-one's done that yet!

Have they?

[pandadeath]

Erm... Alan Carr (overly camp rubbish comedian) already wrote a sitcom based in a call center, ITV turned it down though apparently. It was obviously shit anyway, so, you could probably still go ahead with it, but the ghost of Alan Carr will be watching.

[wheatgod]

yeh that sounds original at least. at the moment though it would probably descend into a LOTR spoof though, which would probably be shite.

*cos elves aint a fantasy

[session9]

How about setting a sitcom in one of those Asylum-seeker compounds with sadistic guards, a non-english-speaking character that occasionally says something completely disgusting in english they've picked up from TV/staff etc? A guy who pretends he's a Kosovan but was really born in Barking and is trying to hide out from the Child Support Agency/Telemarketers/Whoever. It could be an updated Porridge, or a mixture of Oz and Mind Your Language.

------

Or a sitcom set on a sitcom set (that was confusing, but you know what I mean). The cast is the cast and crew. The sitcom itself is terrible, and the main character is a formerly dangerous (think Bill Hicks) type standup, trying to come to terms with selling out to the man while wearing a shit-eating grin, reciting the laziest hack jokes ever. Could be played by Denis Leary, in an ironic fashion.

The child star of the show-in-a-show is a foul-tempered, foul-mouthed drug addict (think pre-teen Drew Barrymore or any of the Diff'rent Strokes kids). You could have a trio of writers, and a TV executive who they constantly try to sneak suspect material past. The director has delusions of cinematic grandeur. One of the characters has a porn past. One of them auditions for other shows all the time and tries to keep it a secret but the others know, or find out with disastrous/hilarious consequences. Real guest stars turn up in the sitcom-within-a-sitcom. Fill in the other characters as you like. I know, it's a tired idea, basically "Larry Sanders" meets "The Garry Shandling Show".

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

yeh that sounds original at least. at the moment though it would probably descend into a LOTR spoof though, which would probably be shite.

*cos elves aint a fantasy

The more I think of it, it's a great idea....you'd need a cast of about 4-6 main characters, and an evil baddie!

However, in MY sitcom the baddie will actually be exceptionally competent and only keeps the "heroes" alive because he's actually bored of being an all-mighty ruler of the Empire, and knows they're such losers that they're never really going to threaten him.

There's a lot of scope for ripping the piss, not only of LOTR, Harry Potter etc, but also D&D-style games.  Maybe at the end it will be revealed that they're all controlled by a bunch of teenagers.

(Do teenagers still play D&D anymore, or is it all computer games)?

[The Duck Man]

You'd need to have it on the same sort of level as Blackadder and Maid Marian. Aware of the setting, but not making in the sole focus for gags.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

Oh yeah, of course it would be the same level as Blackadder!

Or maybe Red Dwarf.

Or a little better than Hyperdrive if I were actually to write it myself.

[session9]

Well I thought the second idea might work, anyway. Maybe not. But if I see it on telly next year, though, show me the money.

edit: I am the Thread-Killer! Cower In Fear!