SYNOPSIS PAGE
To see the CAST PAGE click the link in the TOP RIGHT —-> —-> —->
Soon this Synopsis Page will be a video, so you can watch and not have to read.
_________________________________________________
_
A Wine Guy
A VERY FUNNY TV SHOW, WHICH TEACHES THE VIEWERS ABOUT WINE
Wine is a hot topic and big business now. Even with the number of books, magazines, web sites, movies, TV shows, and radio shows dedicated to wine, people are still confused and want to learn more. There are cooking shows on many networks and a network just about food, but no wine shows on TV.
Wine TV shows of the past failed in two ways; they were boring documentaries and taught nothing about wine; therefore even wine lovers who watched them to learn, were disappointed. This resulted in low ratings and lack of sponsors.
A Wine Guy is character driven, to achieve high ratings by appealing to a wide market, through a broad comedy/documentary format. It is not a sitcom or reality show.
“REALITY IS BORING, SO FICTION SHOULD BE FASCINATING FROM START TO FINISH.”
Alfred Hitchcock
STRUCTURE:
The show’s structure is in the vein of the Food Network’s award winning Good Eats. To capture the viewer’s attention, the first few minutes of each show are a silly comedy skit, which may include: Aliens, Zombies, or AWG on the psychiatrist couch; this leads into the wine topic of that show. It is followed by fifteen minutes of wine education, with interruptions by zany walk on characters, and concludes with the comedy skit.
THE MAIN CHARACTER:
Most wine experts go to great lengths to prove they are an authority. AWG is an authority, and the education is similar to a college wine class. But for comedy purposes his character is just the opposite. Similar to Tim Allen in Home Improvement, AWG is a wine expert, but also a comedic fool. Walk on characters suggest he is an impostor. Sometimes it is obvious that he is just plain lying.
For budget reasons, the first season of shows are shot on location in South Florida wine shops. After the comedy skit, AWG opens each show with the line, “Today I am in Bordeaux”, or another famous wine region that will be the topic for that show. The camera pans left and right, as-if to shake its head “no-he is not”, while the on-screen graphics give the actual name and location of the wine shop; so we know he is lying. By the twelfth show, the camera shakes its head “no” before AWG has a chance to lie about the location. AWG says, “You didn’t even let me say where I am; I wasn’t going to lie this time.”
The cameraman is a nemesis, always undermining AWG and stealing control of the photography. While AWG is lecturing, the cameraman occasionally, pans to, or focuses on, a sexy girl or something else in the background, as if he is distracted or bored. AWG has to remind the cameraman by saying, “I’m over here and it’s my show.”
Is AWG an impostor? As AWG is discussing wine, shoppers passing by recognize him. They make incriminating comments such as: “I bought a used car from you.”; “Honey, it’s our pool guy.”; and “Damn V, when did you get out of jail?” AWG looks at the camera, as if he has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, speechless, as if his true identity is being revealed. Another character fault is his flippant comments, which always cause him problems.
Other walk-on characters include; sexy women (including AWG’s helpers, Ralph, Frank and Hank), and cameos of famous personalities; who are used to interact with AWG. These comedy elements are infused throughout the show to keep the wine education entertaining.
NOSTALGIA COMEDY:
Nostalgia is a powerful emotional connection to our past; when life was simpler. Baby Boomers remember shows like: I Love Lucy, Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbilly’s, etc. Their comedy was simple, but well written and ageless. They are still being broadcast on “TV Land” 40 years after they originally aired; to a third generation. The comedy in A Wine Guy is much like these shows. Impersonators of the characters from these shows, appear as walk-ons, who disrupt AWG as he discusses wine. The premier episode of A Wine Guy, begins with a take-off of the Twilight Zone. AWG impersonating Rod Sterling does the Twilight Zone intro, There exists a land, located in a fifth dimension, somewhere between science and superstition, between the pit of mans fears and the summit of his pleasures. A destination quite unknown, located somewhere between isle 12 and 14, at your local supermarket, you have entered, The Wine Isle. The camera then tracks past him, down isle #13, where zombies, (like wine shoppers), are lost and confused, saying, “What does this taste like?”, “Where’s the Merlot?”, “Does this go with red meat?”, “What is the rating, I can’t see this wine’s rating?”
The entire “Champagne Show” is a dream sequence take-off on Green Acres. AWG dreams he is Oliver teaching the farmers about French Champagne. Lisa shows up and wants New York Champagne because it is “poofier.” AWG tries to explain but, like Oliver, becomes frustrated and loses the argument, as other Green Acres characters show up and want “poofier” New York Champagne as well.
SUB-PLOTS:
There are sub-plots that continue from show to show, to keep viewers coming back to see how they are resolved. In one sub-plot a famous California winery owner calls a mob-boss to, “take care of him”, because AWG insulted her wine. The hit men look like Jules and Vince from Pulp Fiction. When the mob boss sees them for the first time he says, “Where did we get these guys, Craig’s list?” We follow the comical progression of events leading up to the “hit.”
In another sub-plot, the Pope hires French secret agents Jules and Jim (who’s faces are always cut out of the frame of the shaky hand held camera), to discredit “the blasphemer”. This was caused by AWG calling a Jesus look-alike, a wine maker. And after tasting his wine saying, “God, It smells like somebody washed their feet in this (wine).” In keeping with the “spoof style” of the show, these sub-plots end in a very funny, unexpected way.
MY BACKGROUND AND THE WINE COMMENTARY:
I started making wine 50 years ago with my Grandparents; have been home brewing beer for 40 years, and rice wines and Saki for several years. I have a very good palate. I learned to make Brandy in France, from two ninety-year-old men, who spent their lives as Master distillers, for the top Cognac houses. Once I told them something that I had learned in a book about brandy making; they gave me an angry look and said, “We don’t make Brandy from a book! We are the book!”
I live in agricultural Zone 10 and my production company will be named Zone 10 Productions . I have planted 25 rare fruit trees in my yard. Even fruit growers considered my fruit superior to their groves, and bid on my crop. The wineries in Florida make sugar wine, with fruit added. I make 100% rare fruit wines, and distill them into “Eau de vies.” I had Peach, Pear and Apples (with a goal [a dream] to make Calvados) all growing in Zone 10. So I like grape growers. I have met over 200 wine makers from around the world. I enjoy asking them questions about the decisions that they make in their wine making process. I believe to make good wine, you need good grapes, not a fancy label. I feel wine critics are journalism majors, who never made a bottle of wine. I believe good wine has a personality, which can not be reduced to a numbered rating system. How objective are these ratings, when huge wineries spend millions of dollars advertising in these same magazines?
THE WINE GUYS:
The show not only contains my opinions, but the commentary of people in the wine business and aficionados. Also appearing, to taste and critique wines, are The Wine Guys. They are described not as wine experts, but as characters with seasoned palates and cast iron livers. I have met thousands of people at tastings, or in the wine business over the last 20 years; and these ten crazy characters are the best wine experts I know. The funny part is when we all argue and disagree (as we do in real life). This also allows for more crazy personalities to be developed in the show. I will exaggerate each personality’s idiosyncrasies, a few are:
Richard, a quiet withdrawn librarian who never says more than two words. When asked to describe a wine Richard says, “Good.” AWG takes advantage of his quiet nature by using him for the brunt of his jokes.
Ken, a Seminole Indian, is also a wine writer. When asked to describe a wine, Ken can give an endless grandiloquent oratory on wine, for marketing purposes; AWG calls Ken, “Chief Talking Bull.” I have an old Black and White photo of an Indian Chief in full headdress, with a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, and a man that looks like Col. Sanders with an electric Saxophone. We say the photo is of our great-great grandfathers who used to jam together after the Civil War. Someone off camera asks, “Where did they plug in their instruments?” We look at each other and say, “Their amplifiers.” Ken is also a wine writer for the show.
Mark, a Master Sommelier, an extreme conservative, who carefully chooses each word for its preciseness, and considers the ramifications before he speaks. He is the opposite of AWG, whose flippant comments always get him in trouble; which is part of the comedy. Mark is also a wine writer for the show.
Al is a frustrated older gentleman who likes expensive old wines and young beautiful girls. Unfortunately, he is not rich or as young as he once was, and can not get either.
Professor Bill is a real life college wine professor with shoulder length white hair. Bill is also a wine writer for the show.
Brenda is the only female ‘Wine Guy’, similar to a Rosanne Barr character, but her dead-on taste buds, sometimes show-up the other male experts.
INTELLECTUAL WRITING:
A Wine Guy is not just silly comedy. The highly successful CBS TV series, Northern Exposure was funny, but studies showed that a key to the show’s success was the intellectual writing. When references were made, the writers did not use a reference that the average person would use. Instead they used a reference that only someone who is knowledgeable in that field would use. Although it may have gone over the head of most viewers; it made the more sophisticated viewers feel good that they were smart enough to get it. Intellectual writing is an important part of A Wine Guy, for the ego of wine aficionados. Occasionally references to movies are used, for example the names of the French secret agents (Jules and Jim), are the names of the main characters in one of the most famous French movies; movie fans will be quick to catch these.
A QUALITY PRODUCTION:
This is not an web show, with someone talking in front of a $20 web cam on Youtube. A Wine Guy will have a film look; the only other TV show doing this is CSI: Miami. It will be shot with $100,000 worth of equipment including a RED ONE camera, at 4 times HD quality.
Directed by Joel Zwick. Joel directed twenty-one TV pilots all of which went on to have successful runs as weekly series. To name a few: Mork and Mindy, Lavern and Shirley, The Jamie Foxx Show, The Love Boat: The Next Wave, Two of a Kind, Two and a Half Men, The Suite Life on Deck, also films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
Director of Photography, William Garcia. FILM: Amor & Frijoles, Frat Party, There’s a Heaven Above You, The Soldier, Red Bird, & Loren Cass. TELEVISION: Arrest & Trial, Project My World, Get Out, MTV Making The Video, MTV Real World, Home Made Simple, & Take Home Handyman.
Post Production by Matt and Bradley at Cineworks. Cineworks has worked on over 50 TV shows and 30 movies, such as Burn Notice and The Glades. To view their work as colorists, click on Cineworks under the Links, on the right of this page.
THE SECOND SEASON:
In addition to the A Wine Guy show, which would continue as the original funny and educational show. I would like to add a second series A Wine Guy Travels. Where I would travel to wineries and interview the wine makers. This has been done many times. Unfortunately, every interview that has been done has been terrible (except for Jonathan Nossiter in the film Mondovino). These interviewers ask the wine makers simple-minded questions such as: “Who are you?”, “What do you do?”, “What kind of wine do you make?”, “How do you make it?” etc. Barbra Walters has not become one of TV’s best interviewers, by asking this type of simple-minded questions.
In Mondovino, through Jonathan Nossiter’s questions, it becomes apparent that there are two types of wine makers; those that want to make a quality product that is unique work of art; and those that just want to produce and sell as much as possible..
If I were traveling 3000 to 10,000 miles to interview a wine maker, I would have a specific reason to do so, which I would explain to the viewers. Also I would have specific questions regarding choices and decisions that the wine maker makes. I know what questions to ask because of my experience as a wine maker; because I have made wine with professional wine makers, and because I know many famous wine makers who I’ve questioned. Therefore my show would be much more informative.
