PILOTS
Beyond Suffern
A half-hour comedy with all the right intentions: Pilot episode and Development Bible
Two ultra-politically correct Brooklyn families reject their inauthentic consumerist lifestyles to found a sustainable Intentional Community on a “farmette” (bordered by suburban townhomes), where they will battle the social, cultural and environmental missteps of our times, with extraordinary incompetence. Green Acres for the Whole Foods generation, with a streak of liberal righteousness that sometimes rings as dogmatic as All in the Family. A KassGallini Project, written with Mark Gallini
The Low Country
An hour-long dramatic series
Pilot episode and development bible for a long-running period drama based on historical facts. Just after the Civil War, a now-impoverished Philadelphia family returns to their ancestral rice plantation on a South Carolina island at exactly the same moment as their newly freed former slaves arrive to the only home they had ever known. Both groups are equally determined to establish a means of survival after the devastation of the war. Like an American version of Downton Abbey, the series follows both contingents simultaneously, exploring the high-stakes social, emotional and political consequences of their painful shared past — and the unprecedented challenges of constructing a viable new society in radically reframed circumstances. A KassGallini Project, written with Mark Gallini
The Doctor Stories
Pilot Episode. Part one of a 4 part, one-hour mini-series. Evocative, visually stylized story-telling interweaves the autobiography and the unique short stories of the passionate, personally conflicted doctor/poet William Carlos Williams, who dedicated his professional life to providing affordable health care for working class families around Rutherford, New Jersey, while spending his nights writing some of the most artistically significant American poetry of the 20th century. A KassGallini Project, written with Mark Gallini
TV CONCEPTS IN DEVELOPMENT
Gemini
One hour dramatic series
Development Bible and Pilot Script in process. When a bi-racial, Harvard-educated attorney is passed over for a partnership after twelve years at her Philadelphia law firm, betrayal, rage and financial necessity drive her to invest her expertise at defending the firm’s sketchy, dubiously-connected clientele — and her entire severance package — in the impulsive purchase of a marginally-profitable strip club. An edgy, fast-paced ensemble show set in a shadowy dimension between day and night, where human passions and bureaucratic regulations provide equal and opposing tension in every episode. An aging Philadelphia gentleman’s club, Gemini represents a milieu almost obscenely mundane to those familiar with it, yet tantalizingly exotic to those who exist in the G-rated universe ten minutes away.
The Social Evil
One hour dramatic series
Development Bible and Pilot Episode Treatment for a long-running period drama based on historical facts. A sweeping political and family drama centered on the exploits of Godwin Leverett Chilton, a ruthless Boston blueblood scion with a genius for empire building, a twisted, prurient sexuality and enough money to buy his political views into law. In Boston, early in the 20th century, a cadre of deep-pocketed, puritanical Brahmins unite in secret to dictate morality to the less educated immigrant classes flooding their previously homogeneous city — with the theoretical agenda of maintaining a functional social order. Their devious maneuvers, featuring corporate money, political intrigue and when necessary, illegal entrapment, spawn the "banned in Boston" era and a battle for a more inclusive society that continues up to the 1960s, when a famous Catholic from an “immigrant family”, John F. Kennedy, is elected president. A KassGallini Project, written with Mark Gallini
99 Miles From New York
Half-hour TV sit com concept
A now middle-aged punk-rocker attempts to revive her music career, while single-parenting teenage twins, caring for divorced, incompetent parents and juggling the geographical undesirability and gossip-mongering of her suburban Philadelphia community.
The Marry Me Bill
A non-romantic comedy
Now that American marriage has been optimized into an ultra-practical system of Five Year Renewable Cohabitation Contracts (FYRCCs), idealistic 20-something Kat and her seasoned Partner-to-be Wendy unwittingly trigger a major relationship crisis for Kat’s unconventional parents while negotiating their first official contract. These days, with 70% of traditional marriages ending in divorce, loving couples visit a pre-nuptial counselor before committing, to choose amongst a range of standardized Partnership Horizon options, then negotiate a customized, closed-end contract that best suits their mutual relationship goals (including optional dalliances. When a couple completes the contracted commitment amicably, friends and loved ones gather to witness their joyous Uncoupling. Judging by its tumultuous effect on Kat’s partnership, on her passionate, free-spirited parents and on the unruly children of both families, it seems that the FYRCC is not yet refined enough to handle every nuance of human emotions — especially where love is concerned. A KassGallini Project, written with Mark Gallini
The Big Package
Feature length dramedy
A darkly comic look at the underbelly of American greed, the film presents the rise and fall of fortyish Steve Garcia, who pulls himself up from homelessness to become King of the California home repossession industry, only to find that the shark tank he thought he ruled over is full of bigger, smarter, nastier fish than himself. Set amidst the surreal landscape of the apparently endless California housing meltdown, the film introduces a classic American anti-hero in this former surfer and unemployed actor, who represents the walking embodiment of everything that has gone wrong with our nation’s economy. At once victim and perpetrator, Steve is a firm believer in an American Dream that celebrates unlimited opportunity, individual genius and guaranteed prosperity — while actively compromising his own hopes for stability (or even good karma), with every short-sighted, questionable decision he makes to push another human being out of their house. A KassGallini Project, written with Mark Gallini