TAGLINE: “A Reality Trip Down Memory Lane”
GENRE: Reality series
CREATOR: Jason Skog, (WGA-e Reg. # I46158)
LOGLINE: Families that have spent years drifting apart are reunited to recreate a favorite family vacation, returning to old roles, revealing shocking secrets and perhaps reconnecting with one another.
SYNOPSIS: Everyone remembers the big family vacation from their youth: A stifling car trip to the Grand Canyon. A soggy canoe excursion through the Boundary Waters. A monotonous march around Washington D.C. A dreamy journey to Disneyland.
Now imagine taking that trip again today with those same people: Same seats. Same route. Same sights. Same fights? Decades later, Dad’s back at the wheel, Mom’s by his side and you’re stuck in the backseat middle straddling the hump between your two siblings.
And in “Déjà Vacation,” everybody has excess baggage.
The show opens with an introduction to each family member. We learn about their lives, families, careers, hopes and heartaches. Pictures and videos flashback to the original vacation, showing how they’ve changed – or stayed the same. The images also reveal a nation’s collective past. Clothing, hairstyles, music and cars all make good grist for the nostalgia mill.
Then we meet the family member who sought the reunion. We discover what made the vacation so long ago so very special, how the family grew apart and why they should come back together. But there’s an ulterior motive. This trip is a chance to right a past wrong, rewrite a piece of history or drop a bombshell. Something from that first trip was regrettable, and this could set things straight.
There have been differences to overcome (political, sexual, religious), distances to bridge (geographic, emotional, intellectual), or perhaps all of the above. After explaining what they hope to learn from this trip (or what they dread about it), they hit the road.
Twenty years ago, the same family loaded the station wagon and pointed it west. Bound for Yellowstone National Park, they hit Mount Rushmore, the Badlands and Wall Drug along the way. There was the usual backseat whining, crying, poking and prodding. But the trip was also a memorable montage of lush landscapes, national landmarks and spectacular sunsets. It was a time of togetherness and a distraction from the rigors of work, school and homemaking. It was a time to explore and discover new lands. It was one of the last times they had so much fun together as a family.
And it was a long time ago.
The journey begins at the house where they embarked on their original trip. Seeing their childhood home stirs emotions and signals that this is not a typical vacation. As they depart, the close confines of a car raise tensions and jumpstart conversations. Bickering over directions and accommodations – which they faithfully recreate – spurs real debate revealing true character.
The high-powered lawyer reverts to the tattling teen she once was. The gay brother fusses over the sleeping arrangements when – as before – he is stuck on a creaky cot. The youngest child speaks out as a peacemaker when a political debate careens out of control. The workaholic father listens tearfully as his grown children describe how they wish he made more time for them.
Cameras track every moment along their trek. We watch them relive great memories: sharing a favorite meal, singing silly songs along boring stretches of highway or savoring a spectacular sunset. But we wince as old wounds are reopened, sides are taken and feuds are rekindled.
And every night they are forced to face the events of the day and confront the camera, downloading their emotions and experiences directly to the viewer.
As the family approaches their final destination, they come to terms with their new reality. They compare and contrast this trip with that one. They find new comedy in old tragedy. They measure today’s Dad against the father from long ago. They cringe at Mom’s smothering maternal instincts. They relish a soft-spoken sister’s new voice. They wrestle with a son’s true identity.
The show ends with a parade of images: Pictures and video from the original trip blend with images captured on "Déjà Vacation." We see the family arm-in-arm at Mount Rushmore 20 years ago, and we see them in that spot again today. We see them savoring the grandeur of Yellowstone as they were then and again as they are now.
As the images pass by, family members share their final reflections. Can they be a better, closer family? Can they forgive old grudges and forge new friendships? As they make their predictions, a poignant musical score plays in the background.
For their fortitude, our travelers win a dream vacation -- a trip they can take on their own terms with their own family or friends. Perhaps we’ll see them again someday on “Déjà Vacation: A Reality Trip Down Memory Lane.”
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FOOD COURT
“Where taste tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
On Food Court, we settle differences of taste and opinion once and for all. Our celebrity judge and a hungry panel of jurors resolves competing claims between rival restaurants, reconciles longstanding feuds among famous chefs, and clears up quarrels between family members with simmering grudges.
Who really has the best Philly cheese-steak sandwich in the country? Is it Pat’s or Geno’s? Who truly makes the best pizza in New York City? Famous Ray’s or Grimaldi’s? Whose grandma has the tastiest chocolate chip cookies? Mine or yours? Whose ribs make him the undisputed king of the barbecue pit? Your Dad or your uncle?
The stage for Food Court is a realistic courtroom complete with judge’s bench, jury box, a witness stand and gallery seating. Our “litigants” are introduced as they enter the courtroom. Judge and jury hear their pleas and see clips of them in action on their home turf as well as background on the history of the dispute.
After opening statements, the parties are sent behind bars to their kitchen “cells” where they must create their signature dish. Cameras track their work and jurors and viewers watch tightly edited highlighting the contrasts and similarities in preparation, ingredients, cooking and presentation.
When the dishes are finished, they are sent to the jury room for digestion and deliberation. The panel of jurors – which could include regular folks off the street led by a recurring “jury foreman” or a be returning cast of food experts – tastes the dishes and debates their various merits. They then kick out Food Court cameras and close the doors as they take a final vote.
Will it be a hung jury? Will it be a unanimous decision or just a narrow majority? In cases where the jury fails to reach a verdict, the judge renders a final decision.
After the litigants are called back into Food Court, the jury foreman passes the court clerk a slip of paper. The verdict is read and the courtroom erupts in cheers of victory or shouts of disapproval. The judge bangs the gavel: “Order! Order in the Food Court!” Both sides file out as a camera crew and reporter gets reaction from the parties involved.
Was it a fair process and a just verdict? Maybe. Maybe not. On Food Court, taste is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
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TITLE: “Fly Girls”TAGLINE: “Adventures with Alaska’s Female Bush Pilots”
GENRE: Reality/Documentary; 60 minutes.
LOGLINE: Dedicated and daring women fly critical missions through extreme conditions, dropping into remote and rugged areas of Alaska with medicine, food, supplies and services.
SYNOPSIS: The loaded single-engine plane carves a steep turn on its descent toward the snowy slope of a massive glacier. The nearest airport is hundreds of miles away. This will have to do.
The flaps drop. The engine slows. No control tower. No landing lights. Just snow-capped peaks and towering pine trees. A gust of wind blasts the small plane, but the pilot levels the wings just in time for a textbook touchdown. The landing skis slice across the glacier, spewing plumes of snow and ice.
It’s another stressful but successful off-airport landing for a plane delivering food, medicine and other vital supplies to an isolated Alaskan mining village. And as the cockpit door opens, the pilot shatters the image of an Alaskan bush flier. Out climbs Michelle Masden, the winter sun highlights her bright smile as a brisk wind tugs at her blonde curls.
Roads, highways and railways serve only a small segment of Alaska’s vast and rugged terrain. With airplanes acting as such a crucial cog in the transportation system, one out of every 59 Alaskans is a licensed pilot. And an Alaskan bush pilot is the third most dangerous job in the U.S. More than 500 Alaskan pilots have died since such wilderness flying began, and an average of 10 bush pilot die every year. For decades, men made up the majority of those brave (or crazy) enough to fly into the unforgiving Alaskan bush. Macho, maverick pilots, they are cowboys with cockpits.
Yet a small but equally able corps of women refuses to let their gender keep them out of the sky. Battling discrimination and distrust in a male-dominated pursuit, they navigate nasty weather in search of suitable landing areas. With surgical precision, these women take off and land in places where most conventional pilots would never dare: Frozen lakes. Dry river beds. Quiet highways. Abandoned logging roads. Snowy mountainsides. Sparkling bays. Swapping out traditional landing gear for tundra tires, skis and floats, these women can land anywhere depending on their location and the season.
For the pilots, passengers and the people they serve, every flight on “Fly Girls” is a matter of life and death.
At one of Alaska’s numerous commuter airlines, Diana Moroney shuttles passengers, medicine, rescue personnel and supplies into remote villages, depositing small planes on beaches and frozen lakes. When she’s not flying commercially, Diana flies with the Iditarod Air Force, providing air support for the grueling Iditarod Dog Sled Race.
“There are quite a few women who make their living flying into remote areas. In fact, most areas of Alaska can be considered remote,” Diana says. “Each and every woman flying into the bush is in their own way unique. And their backgrounds and activities outside flying are so very diverse.”
Katie Writer is a flight instructor specializing in float-plane flying teaching men—and other women—how to navigate some of the trickiest terrain in Alaska. She trades in her Super Cub’s floats for skis or wheels depending on the season. “But I don’t feel what I do is particularly dangerous” Katie says.
The perils of Alaska’s untamed wilderness are matched only its majesty. “The flying here does offer a myriad of challenges—but it has its rewards with the freedom and beauty that Alaska is so well known for,” Michelle says.
Each episode of "Fly Girls" follows the lives of these courageous and dynamic women—in and out of the cockpit.
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