1/2 hr multicam network sitcom
To request script, email dave@davebarish.com
Finalist, Filmmatic Comedy Screenplay Awards 2019
Logline: Former college roommates, Doug and Mark, bunk up again twenty-five years later to tackle life after divorce while single parenting their teen daughters.
“Very well-written and funny. This concept is so much fun and clearly jumps off the page in regards to heart, story, and conflict off the bat. It’s so obvious where the comedy will pour in with these two characters + their surroundings.” – Carli Haney, executive producer, former head of development for Kevin Heart’s production company
Brief Synopsis: For Gen X dads, Doug, a stay-at-home dad in Los Angeles, and Mark, an overworked banker in New York, life hasn’t turned out as they planned. Doug’s wife recently left him and their 13-year-old daughter, Audrey, for a high-powered attorney job in New York. Meanwhile, Mark got laid off just after his wife ran off to Miami with a reality TV star, leaving him broke and the primary caretaker of their 16-year-old daughter, Akira, for the first time.
After going their own ways, Doug and Mark reunite in Los Angeles with the hopes of getting their lives back on track. But now, not only are their philosophies on living life polar opposite, so are their parenting strategies, dating styles and future goals. Doug is ready for new adventures while Mark is determined to hunker down and rebuild his nest egg. Their daughters are also opposites to their dads and each other and will often clash over their forced “sibling” arrangement. But they will also find temporary common ground when “pranking” their dads.
Theme: The show will explore themes around growing up and growing older.
Characters:
Stay-at-home dad, DOUG (47), is desperate to feel young and relevant again. Now that he’s divorced and Audrey’s on the verge of “adulthood” at 13, he wants a second chance at new adventures, to find his life’s passion, to live the life he once imagined. And what better way to kick it off than bunking up with his former college roomie. But Doug’s bumbling, impulsive, hopeless everything ways keep him from finding success. His youthful outlook, though, helps him connect with their daughters. Audrey is still his little girl, after all.
MARK (47) His play it safe, risk-averse, overanalyze everything nature cost him his marriage and keeps him stuck in the work grind. Now that he’s the primary caretaker for the first time, it’s turned him into a helicopter parent too. Despite his past experiences, he’s desperate to get back on the corporate ladder and rebuild his nest egg. Deep down, though, he always wanted to open a karate dojo. Post divorce, he’ll need a dossier to step out with a prospective date.
AUDREY (13) A lone wolf that got her mother’s neurotic, sarcastic personality. She can’t wait to be independent and is already obsessing about Ivy League schools. Her biggest fear is failing at life and working at Forever 21, for, duh, forever. She loves Shakespeare, sweatpants and sugar. Hates sharing a room with Akira and is determined to make her life miserable.
AKIRA (16), a high school sophomore who’s allergic to homework, is a diva in the making and has her dad wrapped around her finger. She wants to become an overnight TikTok sensation and is bummed there are no “fashion” seasons in LA. She’s pissed about the move but is confident she’ll be the queen of the “it” crowd in no time. She’s expecting a BMW junior year for having to bunk with Audrey.
Supporting characters include neighbor, BROOKE, a successful, attractive woman in her mid-forties. She’s everything the dads are not and often plays the mother role to the girls. And KLAUS, a boomer and owner of The Den, who has a love/hate relationship with his Millennial customers. The mothers, LAURA and TATIANA, the reality TV star, KING, and Doug’s narcissistic, therapist mother, ELEANOR, will make appearances.
Pilot Synopsis: Doug hasn’t seen his college buddy, Mark, in years and is super excited he’s coming over to watch the college football game. But Mark shows up with his daughter and a ton of suitcases, stressed out, and in need of a place to crash. Doug decides impulsively that it’s time to re-ignite the bromance and insists they move in permanently, much to the dismay of their daughters. Mark is hesitant, he’s got to run his analysis before he makes another big decision.
Undeterred by the resistance and Mark’s need to think, Doug rolls out the red carpet treatment and piles on the pressure, including dragging Mark to a new hip hangout called The Den to catch up. Meanwhile, Doug’s daughter, Audrey, works to sabotage this unholy family union and Mark’s daughter, Akira, plots what she can get out of her dad for leaving her New York life behind.
After Doug forgets to tell Mark about a slam dunk job interview, Mark’s ready to pack up. But not before Doug finally gets to watch the football game, a come-from-behind victory that rallies them all together. By the end, Doug has bonded with Akira and Mark with Audrey. Mark realizes Audrey would be a model student for Akira and he needs parenting help. Doug is ready for a fresh start. And the girls conclude that their dads really need each other and forge a temporary truce.
Why Me/Why Now: The genesis of Off Peak Dads was a conversation with my childhood buddy about living together again, this time with kids. I’m a divorced Gen X dad raising a middle school daughter every other week. He’s married with tween children. Would our kids get along? Would we compete for the attractive neighbor? Would we end up acting like a “married couple”? Just like Doug and Mark, we’re like Kirk and Spock, heart and head. It shouldn’t work but it does.
Off Peak Dads is timely because many Gen Xer’s are approaching their 50s reassessing their lives, wondering if there is more, and trying to stay relevant. Additionally, views of masculinity in modern American society are shifting as men take on larger, more diverse parenting roles. Lastly, generational differences between the dads, daughters, and the Millennials at The Den is evergreen.