July 9th, 2008
A timon a place
Dear Commissioning Editor,
I have an idea for you.
I have noticed that you have a soft spot for historical drama, and we all know that you would much rather commission a series that, in many ways, is exactly the same as another successful series. With this in mind I present to you Athens.
It’s still at a very high concept stage, and there are no actual scripts as yet, but I envisage it to be exactly like the ‘popular’ historical drama, Rome, except this time, rather than ripping off Deadwood I thought we could make it a bit like The West Wing mixed with Will and Grace.
My production company has already got Sean Bean on board and we can supply our own togas.
Let me know what you think,
Adam
You get a massive amount of geek points if you can explain the vague and obscure pun in the title without the aid of a search engine.
Timon was a misanthropic Athenian philosopher. Some dude named Shakespeare titled a play after him, as well.
Do I get a geek cookie?
You get a virtual cookie, in fact you get several…. hell, take the packet.
I’m rather impressed.
I went through an Ancient Greece phase when I was a teenager, shortly after my Shakespeare phase. Timon was one of those that got caught in the crossfire. I’m still tempted every once in awhile to write an epic poem about Phryne.
The West Wing and Will & Grace?
What about Dynasty or Dallas meets Brisco County Jr..
Oh, that sounds even better… Dynasty in togas… I’m sold.
The togas would have to have shoulder pads.
*giggle*
I’d watch that.
Why not Grease and Gladiator??
That gives a whole new meaning to “grease lightning.”
You’re the one that I’d stomp! woo oo oo oo.
I’m hopelessly enslaved to you.
Toga party!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and how!
[...] The Flowfield Unity: yesterday [...]
Do I get a cookie if I point out that they didn’t wear togas in Greece, they wore chitons? Or do I just have to wear the pedant’s hat?
You will be made to wear the pedant’s toga.
If you get any of the cookie (yes, you still get one as you are right) crumbs on the toga it becomes a permanent fixture.
I would use a pomegranate instead of cookie, and Hades instead of a toga, but, y’know, they’re tricky to get hold of.
What is with the fascination with pomegrenates?
They are boring. I used to have two trees in my back yard.
They are full of seeds, taste seedy and look seedy.
Tho I would like to brew a mid strength alchamaholic beverage out of some.
Ack! I would imagine it’s because you Aussies have no idea how to grow a proper pomegranate. I had four trees in the front garden of the house in Greece (isle of Crete, for anyone interested), and they were amazing. I’ve not had a really decent pomegranate since I left — these Arizona ones here in the states are alright, but it’s like the difference between Mediterranean oranges and Florida oranges…. It’s better from the climate it evolved in.
any show with togas
has *got* to be a hit
especially late night
three sails to the wind.
“three sails to the wind” – That has to be the first episode title of Athens.
I’d watch it.
In terms of production values and costuming, though, would your Athens surpass Merlin, Xena, and Dinotopia?
Or would it be campy too?
Mmm, Ancient Greece… camp… I’m not sure those two things could be seperated.
I saw my first episode of Dinotopia a month or so ago… wow, it’s special… not entirely logical, but who cares when you have dinosaurs, right?
You know, I wonder if it would turn a profit, a “Flowfield Creative Group.” Between the ideas you turn out, and the way things get churned through this community, there are so many great creative ideas floating about… TV serieses, animations, books of bar codes (I’m still willing to pull a fair share on that one, by the way… how come no one’s sending me bar codes?), etc.
Or a school of art… a hundred years down the line, people will refer to the “Flowfield school,” perhaps:
“Adam York Gregory, the founder of the Flowfield school, and his fellows, scattered across the globe but linked closely by the then-young Internet, injected humour into serious art in a way that hadn’t felt so strongly by the public since Duchamp exhibited The Fountain for the first time.”
The problem is that this a place where ideas are treated with a certain amount of flippancy… we give them away like kittens… I could have seriously pitched ‘Athens’, for example, and I’m sure it would have got some interest, but for some reason it all seems a little childish, playing that game…
Anyway, the majority of the ideas on this site belong to you (collectively) not me. I just draw the illustrations. But they are all recorded here (and backed up elsewhere) think of it as an excersise in copyrighting as much as possible as quickly as possible.
Oh, and the barcodes thing… hang on in there, I’m working on something to do with it….
I like kittens.
Curses!
“…that hadn’t been felt so strongly…”
*Roo finds his been*
Just a quick update… I’ve had a few emails sent to me by fans of Sean Bean (the actor mentioned in the post) and some lazy magazine writers… Many of these emails were inquiring if I could give them any more information about Sean, and his new series ‘Athens’.
I’d just like to make it absolutely clear, neither Sean Bean, nor the TV series, ‘Athens’ actually exist… it was a work of complete fiction.
So the series isn’t historically accurate then?
Is it like myths and stuff from the Athens era?
I think Sean Bean does exist.
Dunno.
Magazine writers? Seriously?
I dunno man, I think you should feed it to the tabloids, try to get a really media circus going around it. Might be funnnnnnnny.
Indeed, the worst thing is that they actually picked up the story from a link in a Bean fan forum, where they were discussing this comic. The fans there understood that it was fictional… I was even asked to explain why I picked Sean Bean:
And this is what the magazine writer neglected to read.
The idea does seem to have legs, but I think that’s because it is a very close parody of the BBC/HBO series Rome… and since TV likes to recycle it sounds plausible.
I’ll consider this a win if I get Sean Bean’s agent on the phone. In the meantime, feel free to spread the rumour… and if you have any suggestions for a cast list (or indeed characters) go for it.
You never specified who Bean would be playing. Timon?
Why not?
if the historically inaccurate toga fits…
Kevin Sorbo needs to be in there somewhere… and Lucy Lawless. Not sure what roles they ought to have though. Ideas?
That is hilarious. You should answer them with a lot of made up details and see if/where they publish them.
Oh yes you must turn this into a grand hoax. Come up with a believable feature cast and some producers and production companies involved and start leaking information to the press.
That’s hilarious! and kinda puppy-in-the-park.