Let's Retire These Movie/TV Plots!

[Senator Jack]

Yep, that was on that list. Good one!

 

[jamespowers]

Dr. Faustus (With John Tesh as Mephistophales)

You mean he isn't really Mephistophales?! :eusa_doh:

Regards,

J

 

[Senator Jack]

Well, we did have him playing himself! He challenges the main character to a 'drek' competition for his soul. Whoever plays the worst song wins.

 

[jamespowers]

Well, we did have him playing himself! He challenges the main character to a 'drek' competition for his soul. Whoever plays the worst song wins.

He would win---hands down. Then again if you could have him compete with David Hasselhoff then.......

Regards,

J

 

[Senator Jack]

No we had him lose to Barney's 'I love you, you love me...' Even Mephistophales can't stand that one.

 

[jamespowers]

No we had him lose to Barney's 'I love you, you love me...' Even Mephistophales can't stand that one.

Oh geez, now I might have that stupid song in my head the rest of the day. :eusa_doh:
It is indeed worse than John Tesh.

Regards,

J

 

[HadleyH]

If Hollywood would stop remaking films over and over again that would be good too. It seems every ten to fifteen years something old is new again.


J

Absolutely :eusa_clap and not only every ten to fifteen years ,they do it all the time, like every year? That's all they do now in Hollywood, remake after remake [huh]
It's OK with me. I don't go to the movies anyway

(Ok, Ok, now and then something good AND new comes along, but that doesn't happen very often, really it doesn't )[huh]

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

Not so much a plot as a character: the brilliant/supernatural/idiot savant/technowizard/telekinetic wunderkind. This usually seems to come about because adult idiot savants are scary or weird, or because kids are otherwise usually useless to most TV/film plots and thus need some wierd abilities so they can become part of the "team."

 

[The Wolf]

You'll be sorry you got me started

What's the name of that movie about two cops that are partners and have a hard time getting along (I think one might be black and the other white) but by the end they learn to respect each other.
Wasn't there a movie based on true story about a teacher that goes to teach a dangerous class, everybody warns him/her against them but the teacher not only believes in these kids, they learn to believe in themselves.
Do you really want a bomb defuser that stops the explosive from going off with only seconds to spare?
How about the "different" person that everybody picks on until a popular kid stands up for the "freak" after learning how "special" they really are and that we are all "freaks" in a way.
Those can be good movies but are often predictable and treacly.

I don't like shows that sound like they came up with the name first. "Meet Tony "Dog" Dogowitz, tough social worker and uptight psychiatrist David Katz, they are Dog & Katz. Maybe Sammy Nichols and Billy Dymes or Bill Donnely is a lawyer at Wrights and Associates; he is "Bill of Wrights".

Personally, my favorite modern genre is master-criminal-forced -to-pull-one-last-job-get-away-trap-the-that-set-him/her-up -and-pull-off-the-job-with-panache-and-cool-gadgets. My favorite golden age genre is amateur-detective-who-solves-crime-while-cracking-wise-and-annoying-police. So to each there own I guess.

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Nathan Dodge]

What you object to is poor writing rather than the plot lines themselves. There is a limited number of plots. That's life. Live with it.

A good writer can create fresh entertainment from this limited number.

Time for you to go up to the attic and look for the sense of humor you lost so long ago.

 

[Travis]

Here's a plot nobody has ever used:

There is a school full of troubled urban youth who have no respect for authority. A new teacher or substitute comes and uses sports or music or something else along those lines and suddenly the kids become well adjusted students with respect for everyone. If anyone can sell this, they'll make millions.

 

[Senator Jack]

How about the 'Let's torture Charles Grodin' plot?

 

[Miss Lucy June]

This thread title made me think of a very funny Friends scene:

Chandler (being sarcastic): Oh, this is the episode of Three's Company where there's some sort of misunderstanding.

Phoebe: Oh! Well I've already seen this one! ::turns tv off::

 

[Miss Lucy June]

Years ago, my friend and I wrote a couple of pilots. One of them we called 'Sitcom!' and our premise was that the show would ONLY use recycled plots, but they would be done in a theatre of the absurd style. We had a list of about thirty right of the bat. They included:

Dividing an apartment down the middle
Evil Twin
Currently popular rock band makes guest appearance
12 Angry Men
Poker Night (including that tired joke "I guess that beats two pair. One pair of tens and another pair of tens.' Does any writer really believe he wrote that joke?)
Bowling Night
Ugly girl with glasses is beautiful
Running for local political office
Phony stock deal
Handcuffed
You saved my life
Getting stuck in bank vault/meat locker (We actually combined this into one episode. The characters are freed from the vault only to end up, by way of runaway guerney, in a meat locker)
Dr. Faustus (With John Tesh as Mephistophales)
Two dates on one night


That's all I remember, right now. Perhaps I can dig up the list with the rest of them.


Regards,

Senator Jack

How about pretty girl and the best friend. best friend is in love with pretty girl, but she dates some guy that (we know) is a total jerk...and then she ends up with the best friend. This is like 1/2 of all chick flicks ever made.

Throw me a curve ball people!

 

[Senator Jack]

And then there's always that old standby of the Presbyterian chicken rancher that refuses to sell his land to the nefarious adult novelty company that's buying up all the valley. The owner turns out to be a sexy, sophisticated Branch Dividian, but despite their animosity, they find themselves strangely attracted to each other. A court battle wins him a temporary injunction, and, in relief, he's able to go to Bermuda to enter a high-stakes Parchisi tournament so he can pay the bank loan. Little does he know that the owner is one of the top-ranked parchisi players in the world and they end up facing off in the finals. The top prize may be $25,000 and a pizza baked by the Pope himself but it's the side bet that's more interesting. If he loses, she gets the ranch, and if he wins, she becomes his slave for life. Later, when he finds she purposely threw the game, he declares his love, asks her to marry him, and she becomes his slave for life anyway.

Good lord, how I hate that plot!

 

[The Wolf]

The hunky guy falls for the nerdy girl after she dresses differently, loses her glasses and changes her hairstyle.
The beautiful gal falls for the nerdy guy because of his personality and doesn't have to change a thing.[huh]

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[carebear]

What I find realistic is when the noble (and soul-sick) white guy comes along and, healed by their inherent spirituality, saves the red/black/yellow people from other white people.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

Years ago, my friend and I wrote a couple of pilots. One of them we called 'Sitcom!' and our premise was that the show would ONLY use recycled plots, but they would be done in a theatre of the absurd style. We had a list of about thirty right of the bat. They included:

Dividing an apartment down the middle
Evil Twin
Currently popular rock band makes guest appearance
12 Angry Men
Poker Night (including that tired joke "I guess that beats two pair. One pair of tens and another pair of tens.' Does any writer really believe he wrote that joke?)
Bowling Night
Ugly girl with glasses is beautiful
Running for local political office
Phony stock deal
Handcuffed
You saved my life
Getting stuck in bank vault/meat locker (We actually combined this into one episode. The characters are freed from the vault only to end up, by way of runaway guerney, in a meat locker)
Dr. Faustus (With John Tesh as Mephistophales)
Two dates on one night


That's all I remember, right now. Perhaps I can dig up the list with the rest of them.


Regards,

Senator Jack

You dirty postmodernists.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

I do not like to see films where the hero gets beat up beyond all belief and then gets up to punch out the bad guy(s). I saw a Lethal Weapon movie in which Mel gets tied up and beaten over and over again, ad nauseum, the bad guys hitting him in the head with a shovel several times, and, in the end he gets up and dispatches them. My thoughts on this are: (a) the man should have been dead ten times over, or so hideously brain damaged that he might as well be dead and (b) what about young boys and teenagers seeing this and then believing they could do that to someone they want to beat-up on, and that the person would then get up and walk away.

I don't even like to see that in cartoons because I think there are a lot of kids out there who won't understand that a human head/body cannot take that kind of punishment.

I have also found the stereotyping of certain people to be annoying, whether it be the computer genius who is a nerd, or the psychotic Vietnam Vet (I had a number of friends who served honorably in that awful war and came home to live decent productive lives. For a time, if there was a program or movie with a Vietnam vet in it, you knew at some point in the story, he was going to go whacko), or the big, dumb loveable guy who says stupid things and/or sexist remarks about women, and then the wife or girlfriend smiles and proves him wrong, indulgently, as if to say, well, after all, he is just a big dumb loveable guy. Please! This insults men and women both.

I think we are stuck with the ugly gal who becomes a beauty queen and gets the hunk/prince. The human race loves the Cinderella/Pygmalion story.

karol

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Years ago, my friend and I wrote a couple of pilots. One of them we called 'Sitcom!' and our premise was that the show would ONLY use recycled plots, but they would be done in a theatre of the absurd style. We had a list of about thirty right of the bat. They included:

Dividing an apartment down the middle
Evil Twin
Currently popular rock band makes guest appearance
12 Angry Men
Poker Night (including that tired joke "I guess that beats two pair. One pair of tens and another pair of tens.' Does any writer really believe he wrote that joke?)
Bowling Night
Ugly girl with glasses is beautiful
Running for local political office
Phony stock deal
Handcuffed
You saved my life
Getting stuck in bank vault/meat locker (We actually combined this into one episode. The characters are freed from the vault only to end up, by way of runaway guerney, in a meat locker)
Dr. Faustus (With John Tesh as Mephistophales)
Two dates on one night


That's all I remember, right now. Perhaps I can dig up the list with the rest of them.


Regards,

Senator Jack

Please do! I was laughing hysterically reading these. lol


Lee
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