Confinement. Abuse. Betrayal.
Life inside… a Reality Show.
LOGLINE
A reality comedy series about 6 ex-D-List celebrities who get “booted off the island” and try to cope with life on the outside. Faced with the harsh reality of their meaningless fame, they fall back on drugs, alcohol, partying and… therapy.
But there’s a catch – behind the façade of a support group, ‘Celebrities Anonymous’ is actually a reality show about ex-celebrities… on the brink of losing it.
LOOK & FEEL
Featuring recognizable, real-life ex-reality show participants, Celebrities Anonymous will poke fun at reality television while providing a satire that is in itself a prime example of the genre.
FORMAT
Single camera, 26-minute and four acts, Celebrities Anonymous is tailored for a half-hour TV slot. It will be shot in full HD.
AUDIENCE
The series is directed to the young M/F public,16-34, A/B/C.
SYNOPSIS
Desperate for a new hit, TV producer Chuck Shurnick meets Annie Steen, an underemployed Psychologist at a DoGa, a Yoga Studio for Hollywood wannabes and their pooches. A light bulb then goes off in his mind: Reality show rejects + Pop Ph.D. Psychologist = Group Therapy reality show: Celebrities Anonymous.
Of course Annie jumps at the chance – she could then finally exercise her psychology skills on actual humans.
From her tenure as Canine Therapist, Annie developed some special skills which now may play a crucial role in her new position as support group therapist. And despite having no experience and being a total pushover, she throws herself in, seeing a pathway to her dream of following in Dr. Phil’s footsteps.
Chuck then starts recruiting D-list reality actors with larger-than-life egos and no sense of their place in the world for sessions in an AA-style setting.
All very therapeutic except… that there will also be cameras filming the whole thing.
THE SETTING
The DoGa™ Studio, in Brentwood, is a unique space where dogs and their owners can find serenity and enlightenment together through the ancient art of Yoga.
Frequented by a mix of rich housewives, eco-orthodox vegans, and out-of-work actors, the latter see the venue as a possible place to bump into fresh-blooded managers, agents or lawyers who might resuscitate their careers. And they’re not too off the mark.
Among the heaps of Hollywood hopefuls, there are scores of producers-wannabe, who also see the space as a shopping window for potential stars.
CHARACTERS
Annie Steen, 34, Psychotherapist – From Greensboro, North Carolina
A large girl who is unfortunately also extremely vain, Annie is perpetually battling her weight. Afflicted by body weight complexes as a teenager, she developed a quasi cultish following to self-help television.
At college, discouraged by every major that required knowledge beyond that imparted by The Oprah Winfrey Show. Naturally, she was driven to a career in Psychology.
A few years later, she obtains her PhD., albeit without ever having had an actual patient – of her own species, that is. Immediately afterwards, she leaves for Hollywood, to chase her dream of becoming a celebrity therapist.
But… as prospects were bleak around 2008, Annie sees an opportunity when she comes across the DoGa Therapy™ Studio, “Where pets and their owners can find serenity and enlightenment together through the ancient art of Yoga”.
And for the next five years, she takes comfort in thinking that canine therapy… is still therapy.
Chuck Shurnick, 44, Producer – From ‘The Valley’
Considered a has-been by his colleagues, Chuck is finally able to get a pitch meeting at a network, and desperately needs a sellable concept.
With a couple titles that gathered accolades over a decade ago and no hits since, he jumps on the reality show bandwagon as a last-ditch attempt to make something that sells.
A Hollywood cliché, Chuck has been under the knife more times than he can count, in addition to all the cosmetic procedures required for an industry guy battling the advance of age. He tries to act young by driving a BMW convertible in all kinds of weather, and lives on a downtown in a loft he can hardly afford – financing both by playing online poker into the wee hours.
Tony Bronzino, 34, Bodybuilder/actor – From Jersey shore
Tony is a tough, good-looking guy, with more brawn than brains. When he was 29 and cast in the obscure reality show Love on a Beach, Tony stood out among the twenty men shipwrecked on a remote island competing to survive and ultimately win the heart of a bachelorette.
Tony won, but in an unforeseen twist, the bachelorette decided she really wasn’t interested in marriage and ran away with the show’s camerawoman.
After the show ended, he returned to his hometown and was treated like a celebrity for a while, but as his fame was fading the producers of the Love show asked Tony to come back and star in his own reality dating show in LA, Tony’s Second Chance.
It seemed like an unmissable opportunity, but the show got cancelled after the first three episodes.
Now, five years after the show, Tony struggles with the fact that no one remembers, nor cares, who he is. His ego is still as big as the day he left Tony’s Second Chance, but his bank account is definitely not.
Kane Bass, 45, Ex- Rock Star, from Bristol, UK
Usually sullen, and always in impossibly tight pants, Kane is a British rocker has-been who had a couple of hits in the 90’s. After a very public fight culminating with the thrashing of his bandmates in the Tabloids, he hit bottom and checked into rehab 3 years ago.
Since then he’s been on a short-lived reality show and tried to bounce back into fame, but no one’s paid any attention. Angry, Kane went back to drinking, and usually picks up girls by doing an awesome impression of himself in the LA Karaoke circuit, where he’s recognized as a lookalike of himself.
Yolie Molina, 26, WWE Wrestler – From Miami by way of Havana
An ex-stripper, this is a feisty Cuban drama queen. Once a contestant on Kane’s reality show, she was eliminated at the final round. Since then, she’s been a star of tabloid drama trying to recover with tequila therapy. It’s going to get ugly when she inadvertently gets cast on the same show as Kane – again.
