On Your Mark!
"On Your Mark!", is the original sitcom script by Matt Caruso that was chosen out of thousands of entries to be one of the ten finalists in the Situation Comedy contest sponsored by Bravo TV in connection with Nate and Lil Productions, Inc. and Hazy Mills Productions, Inc. Following a pitch to Situation Comedy's four executive producers, "On Your Mark!" was selected as one of five final scripts to be pitched to NBC. See below for a summary of "On Your Mark!".
OK...so what do we know so far? Despite not being selected by NBC to be one of the two finalists, "On Your Mark!" won, in a Reagan-esque landslide, the Bravotv.com poll which asked "which script that didn't make it to the top two, should have?". "On Your Mark!" also received a glowing endorsement from Executive Producer Stan Zimmerman in his BLOG also on Bravotv.com.
So what else has the public been saying about your favorite show that's currently not on the air (with apologies to "Cop Rock"). Well, the following quotes were taken from various message boards which I've stumbled onto in cyberspace:
"Meanwhile, two guys who gave good pitches and had interesting sounding shows, On Your Mark and Baked Alaska got sent home."
"I liked the guy who wrote "On Your Mark", seemed like a regular working schlub like me. Not having read the scripts, he's who I was rooting for."
""On Your Mark": That show was so straight-up NBC-friendly, I'm shocked it wasn't picked."
"Did I agree with NBC's decision for the top two? No way. My choices would have been Baked Alaska and On Your Mark."
Well, thank you all so much! All in all most of the feedback I've read has been pretty positive. Sure, you'll find an occasional killjoy who says that the format has already been done. I tend to disagree, but even if it has, so what? If the stories are fresh and the jokes are new, then who cares. Another criticism I've seen is that 'there have already been sitcoms about guys have jobs and live with odd roommates'. That may be true, but unfortunately employment and co-habitation are two pretty unavoidable facets of life. Not to worry though, that will be addressed in my next pilot about a independently wealthy dude who lives in the astral plane and just pops into the real world occasionally to do something funny!
Finally, I read that during the Situation:Comedy premiere my eyes bugged out too much. This one I agree with! Next time I'm on TV, I'm wearing dark shades the whole time. Someone even commented that I looked like Jennifer Wilbanks. I had to do a Google search to figure out that she was the Runaway Bride (as you may recall she's the one that, in a tearful interview said, 'I just want people to know me as Jennifer Wilbanks and not as the Runaway Bride!').
Oh well. Take heart, loyal fans. Keep sending those letters to NBC* and with some luck, we'll get "On Your Mark!" on the air!
* - this assumes that anyone has actually done this!
Show Summary:
"On Your Mark!" Three words heard at the start of every race. In the sitcom, "On Your Mark!" Mark Davis finds himself in the middle of a wild race that everyone has run.or someday will. That is, the race to make it on his own, the race to a successful career and the race to find that special someone. In the pilot, Mark, a twenty-five year old account representative at J&M Advertising, moves back into his parent's house in suburban Pittsburgh. His mother and father are preparing to leave for Japan, where his father has been transferred for a two year assignment, leaving Mark to take care of the house. Mark's dreams of a swinging bachelor pad are quickly dashed however, when he learns that his Grandmother's retirement home is closing down, and she will be coming to live with him. Mark barely has time to get used to the idea of his new housemate, when his best friend Derek shows up at his doorstep with a surprise; a stripper named Sunshine that he met, and married, while on vacation in Las Vegas. With nowhere else to go, Mark agrees to let Derek and Sunshine move in with him and Grandma. If finding the girl of his dreams wasn't hard enough already, it becomes even more so when Derek, Sunshine and even Grandma begin to take an active role in his romantic life. Mark quickly learns that, despite their best intentions, sometimes friends and family can cause more problems than they solve!
