LOLA'S

Treatment

Introduction

What happens when an urban refugee gets a fax machine?

Theme

This series centers around the conflict between a big city professional and a rural businesswoman, who happen to be the same person.

Storylines

Julie Forth, a sophisticated New Yorker, becomes disenchanted with her personal and professional life. Under mysterious circumstances she is given property in a one-slot machine town in Nevada. She and her daughter move there, and Julie assumes ownership of "Lola';" a former bordello, now a boarding house/antique shop. Using a computer and a fax machine, Julie struggles to continue her career as a publishing company editor.

In a variation of the urban vs. rural conflict, Bert and Dale compete for Julie's affections. Bert is a successful Wall Street stockbroker; Dale is an honest, hard working Midwesterner.

Julie's daughter, Cindy, does not want to be an urban refugee. She tries to turn a town with one street in to Times Square.

Characters

Julie Forth is an attractive thirty-two-year-old and a single parent. Raised by a single mother, then orphaned in her teens, she longs for traditional family life. She worked her way through college and up the corporate ladder, becoming a successful editor of children's fiction in New York. her sense of humor has enabled her to prevail over the rough and tumble of modern life. Although she can play hardball, she is a soft touch and retains some of her chilkhook childhood. Having striven hard for her achievements and comforts, she has a keen appreciation of the value of money.

Cindy Forth, age fourteen going on twenty-one, is the paradigm of rebellious youth. She stubbornly resists authority, and, at last count, has been thrown out of four schools. She is clever, assertive and endearing. With no effort, she attracts boys, and is more than willing to reciprocate their attentions. She is bonded to New York.

Doc Dixon, a spry sixty-year-old, is a retired family physician. He stopped practicing ten years earlier. Doc's pleasures are limited to fishing and playing gin. He has memory lapses. Women still want him, But sometimes he forgets why.

Dale Brockton is a Jimmy Stewart type with a Will Rogers sense of humor. He is an Ohio form boy, but his ambition and creativity exceeded the limits of his home town of Wapakoneta. He tried to make it as an actor, but discovered that his values were at odds with Hollywood's. His simple and direct manner masks his intellect.

Bert Brent is a hard-driving Wall Street investment broker, who lives and dreams stocks and bonds. He is pushing forty and the panic button. He resents his dominating mother. Because of their relationship, he is unable to make the commitment of marriage to Julie. he is unintentionally funny.

Amarillo Garcia, age twenty-one, is Chinese. At the age of one, he fell out of a pick-up truck in Amarillo, Texas when his parents were in route back to China. Amarillo was adopted and raised by Mexicans. He cannot reconcile the conflict between his Mexican hat and his Chinese genes. He is the deputy sheriff of Silverload County.

Blaze Trail and Bobbie Blender are former employees of the bordello. They now assist in the running of the boarding house and the antique business. They are the national officers of NAWW (National Association of Working Women). Blaze is tough and experienced, but beneath her caustic shell her set soul remains intact. Bobbie is a plump motherly type. She remembers fondly the good old days when the bordello was renowned throughout the west. Occasionally, these ladies have been tempted to come out of retirement.

Point of View

LOLA"S is developed from Julie Forth's point of view. It is her conflicts, concerns and relationships that form the core of the series.

Story Evolution

The first episode will establish the conflicts between Julie's urban present and her rural future.

Julie will arrive in Sunrise, Nevada to inspect Lola's, which was given to her by an anonymous benefactor. After she learns that Lola, who disappeared fifteen years ago, is her grandmother, Julie will decide to remain in Sunrise.

Subsequent Episodes

Julie will agree to become a cook book editor, even though she knows little about cooking. Because of her value as an editor, Julie's employer will allow her to work out of Sunrise with the aid of a computer and fax machine. Julie will have many unusual experiences testing the recipes included in the proposed books of her writers. She will live upstairs in the former boudoir of Lola, the madam of the bordello. With the help of her friends, she will manage the boarding house/antique shop. She will return periodically to New York because of her continuing relationships with her publisher and with Bert. She will be unable to choose between Dale and Bert. She will have many visitors from the literary field, including her client, author Madeline Sweet, her mother and her psychiatrist. Julie will become active in NAWW. In her spare time Julie will write short stories under the pseudonym "Harry August."

Doc Dixon will restart a half-hearted medical practice operating out of Lola's. Comic situations will develop because this lovable doctor has lost part of his memory and many of his skills. he will be pressed in to occasional service by extraordinary circumstances and the prodding of Julie and his other friends. They will have to assist him in his work because he is no longer capable of doing the job alone. Several widows in Sunrise will try to catch him.

Previous patrons and employees of the bordello; tourists seeking antiques; city friends and associates of Julie; residents of the town; and patients with out-of-the-ordinary problems will converge on Olla's.

Dale will decide to stay in Sunrise because he finds Julie more attractive than seed corn. he will turn down his father's offer to become a partner in the family's grain-storage business. he will become an exotic animal rancher.

Amarillo will become the pawn in a power struggle between his Chinese family and his Mexican adoptive family.

Bert will devise various schemes to lure Julie back to New York. When she declines, he will convince local miners to go public with their mine and make him chairman of their board. he will instigate plans to make Sunrise a Vacation Mecca. These promotions will provide him the opportunity to be near Julie frequently. Competition for Julie's attention will continue between Bert and Dale.

Lola will reappear.

Locations and Standing Sets

The Primary Site is Lola's, a large Victorian house built during the silver rush days to be the finest brothel in Nevada. Other sites are Bert and Julie's luxury New York apartment and the offices of the prestigious publishing company where Julie worked.

Amid the vestiges of its former glory, The Front Room Of Lola's has become a hodgepodge of furniture and antiques. Included in the room are an old barber chair and pole, a cola cooler, a horned mirror/hat stand, and a rack of costumes. An imposing staircase to the second floor is upstage center. On the wall beneath it is a large fir bell and a sign reading, "ring bell for service." Close by is a wall telephone, next to which is a cow-shaped calendar. On the stage left wall is the outline of the place where a large painting had hung. Stage right, is the entrance to the former parlor of the bordello. There are doors leading to the kitchen, to the basement and to the outside.

The Parlor contains a bar and a player piano.

A pilot, five episodes and a number of episode treatments have been prepared.  For coverage, go to Mike.

Home