#9 – A week with your whole family is A LOT. 19 people in a confined space for 7 days could be a recipe for disaster. But not my family, not the Calderones. We took our vacation, a week’s worth of Saturdays if you will, and turned it into a way to make millions.
“Oh, Charlie”
My family is convinced, and I mean convinced, that we have the makings of a hit television show on our hands. The conversation probably started about 2-3 years ago sitting around the dining room table. It was one of those lunches that somehow magically just transitions into dinner if you sit there long enough. Anyways, now before I just go giving away the plot of what’s sure to be an Emmy-award-winning show for a decade straight, let me ask you something. And I want you to stop me if you’re heard of shows like this before…
A show about nothing.
A show about a suburban dad and his family.
A show about the seemingly endless quirks of its main character.
Ringing any bells?
Seinfeld, The Brady Bunch, Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens, The Big Bang Theory… No? Still not clicking?
Well, our show, the show that my family has convinced itself is the greatest concept since sliced bread is… Drumroll please… Exactly that. It has all of those exact qualities, it’s exactly like all of those shows, except in their minds it’s completely different.
Why? Because we have Charlie. We have our star. Our inspiration. Our guiding light.
Story time starts rolling along at the dinner table and the episodes practically write themselves. There are arguments, there are accidents, there are injuries; it has it all.
Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you I’ve written the entire show over the course of a single week, but I’ve got a start. I’ve experienced plenty of episode-worthy moments in just a very short time.
When you’re traveling together in a big group like we were there’s nothing better than reminiscing about old stories and our family certainly has it’s favorites. Stories that have been embellished and shared thousands of times over the years, but still manage to stand the test of time and garner a cheap laugh. At the same time, traveling together opens you up to a whole world of possibilities for new stories. These are stories that are hysterical in the moment and leave you wondering how many times they’ll have to be told at holiday gatherings before you start to hate them. We made plenty of new ones this week. We’ll see how long they stay funny. A sitcom laugh track can fix just about anything…
So, CBS, Fox, FX, Netflix, this is our official pitch to you. If you’re looking for a show full of laughs, drama and chaos. A show that’s exactly like every show that has ever existed, but is also exactly unlike them at the same time, let’s talk. We’ve got a show for you.