# What TV show would you make? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 2, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123 "2011-08-02T01:04:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/41 "2011-08-02T21:54:34Z")
Jon the Intergalactic Gladiator. A regular guy from Earth goes to space to participate in the Intergalactic Gladiating Entertainment (formerly the Intergalactic Gladiating Federation until that lawsuit by the space hippies), sort of a John Chrichton/Buck Rogers type though he does travel back and forth between Earth and planet Hacknor in his trusty ship the _Danger Sled_. He’s recruited to prevent the Earth from being destroyed even though few humans actually even know or believe it. Along the way he gets an unfunny monkeyboy sidekick, works with the Queen of the Galaxy, and becomes a Multiversal Lynchpin where his very existence helps to tether the many universes together in balance. Jon can be portrayed as both a stand up, does it right action hero with two pistols as well as the (slightly) goofy fish-out-of-water finding his way type. With this format, different characters from science fiction and other genres can be lampooned and/or homaged like Yoda, the Zerg, Starfleet captains, vampires, and Colonial Marines. Aliens generally look down upon Earth as a backwater, uncivilized, and underevolved planet but respect Jon as a gladiator as he has proven himself in the arena. The monkeyboy does really stupid hijinks and is a send up of those wacky sidekicks that are supposed to be fun but end up kind of lame. At some point it dies when its head is disintegrated and more wacky hilarity ensues. ---
**Author:** ![emcee2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emcee2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emcee2k)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/42 "2011-08-02T22:15:32Z")
> [@Shadowfyre](#): > > My dream project all through the 2000’s was a show called _Baghdad Blue_. Some American security contractors are tasked to work with the Baghdad Police and get them up to snuff. There would be corruption in both the Iraqi and American groups. Lots of firefights and bombs. Main characters would die. > > Kind of a cross between The Shield and Hurt Locker. Or maybe bring the insurgent POV into it and do it like The Wire. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > … > How about this: It becomes public knowledge that the Earth is going to be destroyed in about 200 years and there is absolutely no way to stop it from happening. Do we stay and die? Do we try to establish colonies on the moon or Mars? Finally, it is decided to take the big plunge and build a long range worldship capable of traveling at great speed over great distances for great periods of time. Building the monstrosity, deciding where to point it, and deciding who gets to go would make for great drama, imho. > [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > I’d hire the writers/directors from _Rome_ to do a series on the French Revolution/rise of Napoleon. The material’s a natural fit for that bunch, and the time period hasn’t been well-explored in television. It could be really, really great. These need to be made. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/43 "2011-08-02T22:22:53Z")
Celebrity Strip Club ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/44 "2011-08-02T22:33:03Z")
I would love to see a series ala **Rome** that as accurately as possible portrayed life when the Aztecs were at the height of their power. Start with some civic dudes deciding to build Tenochtitlan on top of Lake Texcoco - maybe have the first scene showing them seeing the bird with the snake in its talons. Show the temples at their glorious peak, everyone speaking Nahuatl and smoking chocolate. Life at the commoner level - how they traded and lived. Life at the royal level where they had to pull thorny cloth through their tongues. Disagreements with neighboring factions settled with a game at the ball court, replete with accurate detail and of course the losers losing their heads. It would end with Moctezuma’s reign and Hernan Cortes’ arrival and ultimate conquest. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/45 "2011-08-02T22:54:46Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > I would love to see a series ala **Rome** that as accurately as possible portrayed life when the Aztecs were at the height of their power. This is what I came in to say - although any MesoAmerican area/period would do. I just loved Apocalypto and In the Courts of the Sun. Technically an adaption, but it’s a classic - I don’t think there’s ever been a film or TV version of The Aeneid. It always gets passed over for the more popular Odyssey/Iliad. I’d love to see a well written time travel series with sharp continuity and easter eggs that makes it through to it’s planned last episode. I’m a little bit superstitious so I won’t share any of the more thought out ideas I have for series for fear of jinxing them. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/46 "2011-08-03T00:21:31Z")
On a more serious note than my previous post, I’d like to see a Harry Flashman series. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/47 "2011-08-03T01:28:51Z")
> [@stegon66](#): > > Hot Lesbians Vs. Zombies. > > I win. You’d have to pitch it to one of the adult channels to do it right, though. A few weeks ago I asked about what would make Northern Gothic distinct from Southern Gothic. I think I’d like to tackle that too. You know, a little bit of _We Have Always Lived in the Castle_ with the clannishness and distrust of outsiders, a lot of oppressive winter weather, and something **subtly** supernatural going on. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/48 "2011-08-03T03:52:40Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > Vampires. > > Not the current crop of whiney angsty vampires appealing to teen girls. I want all my vampires to be truly nasty, inhuman, undead monsters. There wouldn’t even be that one vampire who turns and works with the good guys. My vampires would be sexually alluring (more a power than just using sexy people), but unable to actually have sex. And I would keep religion out of it. And just vampires. > > I would focus the shows on both the hunters and the vampires, 50/50. Delve into what it is like to be a vampire - the power, the depravity, but also the fear and paranoia that comes with knowing that you are being hunted both day and night (especially the day part). Show how hunters are recruited, trained, and how they are essentially being sent to die at the hands of a vampire sooner or later. Lastly, I would set it in a world similar to our own…maybe even referencing the sexy vampires of TV and movies. But people wouldn’t believe in vampires, and we could show the fallout of a vampire infestation in a town and what happens when the hunters come in and get through doing their work. > > Don’t get attached to any of the characters, though. Expect high body counts on both sides. Sounds kinda like John Carpenter’s Vampires. The first one. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/49 "2011-08-03T04:19:59Z")
I’ve joked before about doing a series set at that Alaskan radar base where they send (or threaten to send) all the mavericks, screwups, and people-who-know-too-much we always see in the movies. It must be an interesting place. 😃 And especially if you do it as a _drama_, or at least as a dry, dark comedy, rather than a “Hogan’s Heroes” revival. Failing that, I was thinking a Cyberpunk series, in a world where the Megacorps are powers unto themselves, and have their own nefarious private security forces. The show is _about_ the security force. Kind of like NYPD Blue, only with Blackwater. And working for [GENOM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bubblegum_Crisis_characters#GENOM_Corporation) (this season—their contract’s almost up, and there’s a bidding war coming). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/50 "2011-08-03T17:12:09Z")
A show about a woman who owns a big house and rents out rooms to gay guys only. The hook is that the woman is never seen, just talked about a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/51 "2011-08-03T17:18:03Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Sounds kinda like John Carpenter’s Vampires. The first one. Or even the book it was based on. The movie was decent, but the book was better. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/52 "2011-08-03T17:43:29Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > I would love to see a series ala **Rome** that as accurately as possible portrayed life when the Aztecs were at the height of their power. Pretty much any historical or pre-historical period could work if given the **Rome** treatment. I’d like to see such a show set in a period that Westerners haven’t had much exposure to; medieval India, China during the Three Kingdoms period, the Mali Empire, etc. . Maybe even centered around nomadic tribes long before civilization existed anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/53 "2011-08-03T20:02:27Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > A show about a woman who owns a big house and rents out rooms to gay guys only. The hook is that the woman is never seen, just talked about a lot. Whoever she is, she would be somebody VERY famous and appear in the last scene of the last show. Liza Minelli? Lady Gaga? I would like to see stories from Greek and Roman mythology. I was a total geek for that kind of stuff when I was young, everybody was watching Petticoat Junction and I was reading Bulfinch’s Mythology. Cupid and Psyche. Danae and Theseus. Leda and the swan! Orpheus descending, (with Alan Rickman playing the ruler of Hades). It’s always war, war, war, an army of beefy guys, done to death. There are a lot of other mythology stories. (I was also going to suggest fairy tales, but they’ve been done by Fairytale Theater.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/54 "2011-08-03T20:10:37Z")
> [@](#): > > (I was also going to suggest fairy tales, but they’ve been done by Fairytale Theater.) Jim Henson’s _The Storyteller_ did a few myths as part of a special Greek Mythology series, but they didn’t do that many. Still, their treatment of Perseus and Medusa is the most faithful to the general myth that’s ever been done. > **[Storyteller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Storyteller)** > > Storyteller, story teller, or story-teller may refer to: (Scroll down to Season 2) ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/55 "2011-08-03T20:49:50Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Or even the book it was based on. The movie was decent, but the book was better. I was thinking of the book, but I don’t think the book went deep enough into the motives of the vampires. I’d also remove the church from the equation. While I, too, liked the movie, I don’t want some toy that will make vampires daywalkers. And technically, the book was Vampire$. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/56 "2011-08-05T14:31:22Z")
I have another one. How about Lives of the Saints? Each week, a historical re-enactment of the life of a Saint. Could be a major one like St. Patrick, or one of the oddball lesser-known. There are some weird stories about some of the early saints, full of sex and violence, I find them fascinating! Here’s Saint Sithney, a mysogynic hermit of the 6th century. God offered him the post of Patron Saint of Girls, and he refused, said he’d rather be Patron Saint of mad dogs. Which he is. Saint Simon of Stylites - lived for 35 years on a tall pillar in the desert. And there is one, forget her name, a patron saint of young girls who was killed in a tussle with a neighbor boy who tried to rape her, in the early 20th century. She was declared a Saint and the murderer and her mother both attended the religious ceremony in the 40’s or 50’s! How strange is that???..Hey, where are you all going? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/57 "2011-08-05T16:00:37Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > …Hey, where are you all going? Out for popcorn of course…at the UA Cinema 16 downtown. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/58 "2011-08-05T18:21:39Z")
> [@vislor](#): > > Original? Not sure there IS anything original anymore. > _snip_ > Hopefully still some original ideas in there for the OP. What? I’ve been pushing my original idea for a movie for ages now but the studios don’t want to do it. They only want to go with things guaranteed to make money so they keep doing remakes. So I think my idea of **Vampire Werewolf Dinosaurs From Space!** would be perfect for a miniseries. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/59 "2011-08-05T18:38:35Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Probably a series on how in the annals of mankind geology has had an influence on history and civilizations; from the near extinction due to the Toba volcano to it’s effect on pioneer America’s westward migration across the Rockies, Great Basin and Sierras to men’s lust for gold, diamonds and strategic minerals, etc. Like [Hot Rocks](http://science.discovery.com/convergence/hotrocks/hotrocks.html)? Adding to the list of historical eras worth a _Rome_-quality adaptation: Byzantium! You could get several series out of that very long story… WWII? [How about](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_line): > [@](#): > > The Comet line (Le Réseau Comète) was a World War II resistance group in Belgium/France which helped Allied soldiers and airmen return to Britain. The line started in Brussels, where the men were fed, clothed and given false identity papers before being hidden in attics and cellars of houses. A network of people guided them south through occupied France into neutral Spain and home via British-controlled Gibraltar. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123/60 "2011-08-05T18:46:08Z")
A Roman miniseries about the Gracchus brothers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-tv-show-would-you-make/591123.md?page=4)