Togetherness - Pilot Outline

Natural. Wonderful and funny. Everything Duplass rocks. Also some random snippets I admired at the end of this post along with a few general thoughts (I think). 

​Written by Jay Duplass & Mark Duplass
Story by Jay Duplass & Mark Duplass & Steve Zissis

INT. ALEX’S APT, BEDROOM – MORNING
Alex thinks he’s being robbed, but he’s actually being evicted.
 
INT. ALEX’S PARTMENT, LIVING ROOM – MORNING
Alex calls Brett for help. Needs a U HAUL.
 
EXT. BRETT AND MICHELLE’S HOUSE – MORNING
Establishing.
 
INT. BRETT AND MICHELLE’S HOUSE – MORNING
Brett strategizes, trying to dry hump Michelle.
 
JUMP CUT
 
Michelle is asleep again, and he’s back at it. This time jacking it to the sight of her butt.
 
INT. KITCHEN – MORNING
Brett sees many missed calls from Alex.
 
EXT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY
Brett picks Alex up, in a hurry to get home for “family day.”
 
EXT. ALEX’S APARTMENT – DAY
The Uhaul door shuts.
 
INT. UHAUL – DAY
Alex tells Brett he’s giving up on acting.
 
EXT. BRETT AND MICHELLE’S HOUSE – DAY
Alex wants to leave town, but Brett convinces him to say, explaining that his erect family life is actually pretty rough.
 
EXT. CRAIG WEETS HOUSE – DAY
Establishing. The lawn is annoyingly perfect.
 
INT. CRAIG’S HOUSE, BEDROOM – DAY
Craig and Tina chat.
 
INT. CRAIG’S LIVING ROOM – DAY
Tina floats the idea of moving to Cali. Then Craig tells her to wait on the porch for her sister.
 
EXT. CRAIG’S HOUSE – DAY
Craig is a dick to Tina. He clearly doesn’t even want to meet for dinner that night.
 
INT. MINIVAN – DAY
Brett and wife have tense conversation about taking their baby in the ocean. She wants just them to do it, with no Alex involvement.
 
Alex and Tina birth a contentious relationship.
 
EXT. BEACH – DAY
Montage. Brett ane Alex had fun. Michelle feels left out and resentful.
 
INT. MINIVAN – DAY
Brett tries to patch up. Tina and Alex talk about Tina’s vibe w/ Craig Weets.
 
INT. BRETT AND MICHELLE’S – DAY
Brett and Michelle put their kids down.
 
INT./EXT. BATHROOM – DAY
Tina primps in the bathroom. Meanwhile the married couple has a terse conversation in the hall.
 
INT. KITCHEN – DAY
Alex is sweet to Tina.
 
INT. BEDROOM – DAY
Brett finds his wife with a vibrator. They argue.
 
INT. BATHROOM – DAY
Tina gets broken up with over text.
 
EXT. PORCH – DAY
Michelle helps Tina outside. Invites her to date night so she feels better.
 
EXT. LA POUBELLE – NIGHT
Tina spots her ex with a younger girl and accosts him. Alex saves her by acting like an ape.
 
INT. 7-11 – NIGHT
Alex and Tina by stuff to ruin Craig’s house with.
 
INT. MINIVAN – NIGHT
Alex preps the gang for mischief, forcing them all to chug wine.
 
EXT. STREET, STOPLIGHT – NIGHT
They beat some hipsters in a race.
 
EXT. CRAIG’S HOSUE – NIGHT
His truck is not in the driveway.
 
INT. MINIVAN – NIGHT
They approach the house.
 
EXT. CRAIG’S HOUSE – NIGHT
Alex and Tinna TP Craig’s house.
 
INT. MINIVAN – NIGHT
More tension b/w Michelle and Brett. She cuts it by burping. Then a car comes.
 
EXT. CRAIG’S HOUSE – NIGHT
Alex and Tina hide from the oncoming car.
 
EXT. CRAIG’S HOUSE – PORCH
Tina flops right onto Alex.
 
EXT. EAST SIDE TACO TRUCK – NIGHT
Gang has fun. They escaped. Tina decides she doesn’t wanna go to the airport. She wants to stay here.
 
INT. BRETT AND MICHELLE’S BEDROOM – NIGHT
Brett comes out with it, asking why M doesn’t wanna have sex anymore. She responds that she doesn’t know.
 
INT. LIVING ROOM – NIGHT
Tina makes the couch into a bed. Notices Alex alone out on the porch.
 
EXT. PORCH – NIGHT
They bond over the fact that neither of them have their shit together at all. 

GENERAL THOUGHTS...

Alex says, “I need you to feel where I’m at and stop trying to put a positive spin on it.” I relate there.
 
Note: This is just an easy read. Nothing is trying to hard. No one is trying to be funny. This is just people, doing their normal stuff, and that’s what so good about it.
 
Brett: “Oh perfect. That’d be awesome.”
 
Brett doesn’t really find it awesome, and Michelle knows it.
 
EXT. BEACH – DAY
 
MONTAGE
 
- Music plays as we jump cut the painstaking steps of bringing young children to the beach: (list begins)
 
Action line: Michelle puts Frank in his crib. Angelic sleeping faces offer a glimpse of the magic of parenthood.
 
ACTION LINE: Key in on Alex. He sees something in Tina here. He feels the pain and rejection.
 
DESCRIPTION: The gang is eating street tacos. Lots of laughter. Kids with Ramones t-shirts are skateboarding in the background.
 
ACTION LINE: Michelle looks at him earnestly, defenseless. “I don’t know.”
 
Note: This is good because NO ONE is having an easy time of life. Single people, married people, whatever. No one life seems any better than the other. Both representations just seem honest, with no judgement from the other side. That’s a good way to design a show. NO ONE IS HAVING AN EASY TIME. Just an investigation into the problems with all different walks of life.

GREAT CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS...

Slivers of light creak through crummy venetian blinds as ALEX PAPPAS (37), a balding chubby Greek-American snores heavily. Above his bed are posters of Tom Hanks in BIG and Marlon Brando in THE GODFATHER.
 
A woman’s sleep t-shirt is hiked up her back ever so slightly, revealing an inkling of “side boob.” This is the side boob of michelle pierson (36), A SWEET-NATURED HARDWORKING FULL-TIME MOM WHO IS SOUND ASLEEP.
 
The person staring creepily at this side boob is her husband BRETT PIERSON (37), who’s tall, skinny and picky. Brett is wide awake, trying to figure out what to do about this side boob.
 
TINA MORRIS (39), an energetic hotty with a Texas accent, finishes putting on her high heels in Craig Weets’ immaculately clean and sparse bedroom. She’s wearing hoochie clothes most definitely rom the night before.
 
CRAIG WEETS (45) is getting dressed, revealing his perfectly ripped torso. He dons a polo shirt, court casual type shorts and a nifty cap, all branded with the “Scarab” logo. 
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