The C Word - Pilot Outline

Woman with a secret. Dramatic irony. Catchy, memorable moments. Good set ups and pay offs. Great lead character. Cable comedy. We should study this script further. 

Written by Darlene Hunt

1. OUTSIDE CATHY’S HOUSE: Cathy hires a guy to build a patio. Her husband comes up and is perky but obviously frustrated with what appears to be their crumbling marriage. Cathy waves to a woman across the street but the woman does not wave back. This show has an easy way about it so far. 
2. DOCTOR’S OFFICE: Cathy reveals to Doctor Todd that she hasn’t told anyone, including her husband about her diagnosis. He encourages her to tell the truth and prescribes pot.
3. CAR, LATER: Cathy eats a pot cookie as she drives and sings along with the radio.
4. GROCERY PARKING LOT: SEAN lectures shoppers about the environment. Cathy picks him up and makes him get in the car.
5. MCDONALDS: Sean takes trash from a family for his meal. Lectures Cathy about how food waste is bad. She tries to give him money for him to take care of himself he says no. He says it’s a tragedy that his fun sister turned boring.
6. FANCY RESTAURANT: Cathy confronts Paul. She’s boring b/c he is immature and has all the fun. It’s an argument. She orders just desserts. (An echo of the ton of McDonald’s she ate earlier.) We are getting the strong sense that she was uptight and now has cancer and regrets it and wants to start living a little. 
7. OUTSIDE CATHY’S HOUSE: She enters.
8. INSIDE HOUSE, CONTINUOUS: Cathy runs into her 13 year old son, ADAM. He’s immature like his dad. He was gone for a month and now he’s back.
9. BACK YARD, NEXT MORNING: Cathy demands a pool. As big as they come.
10. DRIVEWAY, CONTINUOUS: Cathy approaches the unfriendly neighbor and the neighbor just walks away. Very rude.
11. SCHOOL, LATER: Cathy is a summer school teacher and she doesn’t give a shit. A fat girl insults her and Cathy privately lectures her, “You can’t be fat AND mean.” Cathy online shops for camping stuff. Then she sees husband Paul outside, eating an Onion like an apple (last scene with them established that he hates onions but she wants to cook with them). 
12. SCHOOL HALLWAY, CONTINUOUS: Paul is now eating the onion in an empty classroom. He pulls her inside. They start kissing. FADE OUT…
13. RESIDENTIAL STREET, LATER: Cathy’s brother Sean has chained himself to a water delivery truck and is screaming about how it’s poison.
14. CONTINUOUS: Cathy drives up beside Sean and lowers her window.. She bought him a sleeping bag. It’s organic but he refuses b/c she bought it new.
15. CATHY’S BACK YARD: The pool hole is getting dug.
16. CATHY’S KITCHEN: Son Adam pretends to cut his finger off, then he reveals that he couldn’t flush the toilet and refuses to plunge it. He treats his mom like shit. Then he leaves as Cathy hears sirens in the distance…
17. CATHY’S BACK YARD:  Cops come because she doesn’t have a permit and was reported by a neighbor.
18. NEIGHBOR’S HOUSE: Cathy barges into the house.
19. IN THE NEIGHBOR’S HOUSE: Cathy yells at her. Learns that the mean lady has a dead husband. Still tells her to mow her grass.
20. OUTSIDE CATHY’S HOUSE: Paul has a scraped leg and needs a band aid and a lollipop. 
21. IN CATHY’S HOUSE: She tends to Paul. Then Dr. Todd calls and leaves a flirty message and Paul freaks out. She doesn’t have a chance to tell him.
22. CAFE, THE NEXT MORNING: Cathy and Doctor Todd, flirty. We learn that they were each other’s “first.” First death diagnosis, first time getting diagnosed. 
23. SCHOOL, LATER: Cathy puts on a movie and walks out. 
24. OUTSIDE SCHOOL: Cathy smokes pot, sees fat Andrea…smoking. Commits to paying Andrea $100 for every pound she loses without smoking. 
25. CATHY’S DRIVEWAY: The mean old lady makes up with Cathy.
26. INSIDE CATHY’S HOUSE: Dissolves show Cathy smoking pot, watching a movie, counting $100s for Andrea, writing something on a post-it and sticking it to the front door. 
27. CAR, NIGHT: Adam drops Paul off.
28. FRONT DOOR: Adam reads the post it. It says “I love you.” He tears it of and enters.
29. CATHY’S HOUSE, CONTINUOUS: Adam enters, looking for mom. She’s not there. Then he sees a light on in the bathroom…
30. BATHROOM: Cathy cut herself and is now in the tub, filled with blood. Adam starts screaming and running in circles when he finds her. Cathy appears and IT WAS A JOKE. Cathy tells him she’s gonna raise him HARD now. She dumps chili in the toilet and locks him and and tells him to plunge it. 
31. GROCERY STORE: Sean is protesting some bullshit. She brings him chili. Then he realizes… She’s starting to get her weird back. 
32. CATHY’S BACK YARD, NIGHT: She confesses, she has stage 4 cancer and there’s no hope. Turns out, she’s confessing to the dog.

THE END


LESSONS LEARNED: OMG again they lead off with a piece of the whole story about what’s wrong with her but they don’t reveal it until the very last scene. So even though we know she has cancer and she’s gonna die… We don’t have those details, we don’t know HOW hopeless it is, and that subconsciously keeps us turning the page. Also, this is an incredible example of a show about someone who has A SECRET. She is not telling her family, at least not yet, and that is fueling a lot of what’s running beneath this pilot and series, at least for now. Also, this is a great look at suburbia and suburban issues in a compelling and real way. Having never seen the show, the pilot felt much more like WEEDS than I was expecting. Finally, this woman identifies so much as a care taker, and that’s obviously likable.