I’ve come up with a new idea for a web series, called “The Misadventures of Detweiler and Detweiler, Inc.” It’s about a pair of estranged, cash-strapped brothers who run a fledgling business partnership from their apartment.
One is a strait-laced yet sneaky con man, the other a silly yet morally centered inventor. Though their business ventures always backfire, they nevertheless attempt to dig themselves out of their dire financial situation, and to overcome their differences.
I’m still trying to figure out ideas for the 6 episodes I’m hoping to produce, but here is the show bible as I have it so far. Would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on it. Thanks!
Logline: Strait-laced yet sneaky entrepreneur Jack Detweiler and his goofy yet wise younger brother Sam fight against their landlord - and often, each other - as they operate a suspect business operation from their apartment.
Synopsis: Jack Detweiler (47) is a no-nonsense, respectable businessman - or at least he portrays himself as one. In fact, Jack is the prototypical con man; one who sweet talks his victims into schemes that are too good to be true. Having been fired from his minimum wage telemarketing job, he’s had to rely on those scams to help him pay the bills. His younger brother Sam (39) is a good-humored yet skilled inventor with a strong moral center; one that Jack ignores all too often whenever his business schemes go awry.
While most siblings grow out of acting contemptuously of each other, Jack and Sam have had a sibling rivalry that’s gone back since their childhood. That’s when Sam (then 9) found out that Jack (then 17) took the money he saved for supplies to help him build a motorized robot arm for a class project - and spent it on fake IDs for him and his girlfriend to drink beer and rent X-rated movies.
When Sam loses his well-paid scientific research job (and the apartment that paid for it) due to budget cuts at a local university, Jack convinces him to move into his decidedly smaller pad across town. Jack’s apartment is owned by his obnoxious landlord and frequent foil Irene Maxwell (54). Unlike Jack, Irene truly acts like someone who is no-nonsense and respectable. The resourceful Irene often gets her revenge on Jack and Sam in imaginative yet highly legal ways.
Knowing that Sam is strapped for cash, Jack offers him a co-equal partnership in his upstart business. Sam is initially reluctant to partner with Jack, but Jack uses his signature charm to convince Sam to team up with him. As part of that arrangement, Sam will work on creating the otherwise legit products that Jack will peddle - and, unbeknownst to Sam, eventually sabotage so he can reap the profits. Thus, Jack and Sam embark on a series of half-baked business ventures that fail spectacularly but end up bringing the estranged brothers even closer.
Character bios:
Jack Detweiler - 47, older brother of Sam Detweiler. On the surface, he acts like an honest salesman but is actually a disingenuous con man. In fact, he’s pulled off hundreds of inventive schemes since childhood. Despite his suspicious methods, he just wants to be able to get himself and Sam out of a seemingly desperate financial situation and to make up for his own poor treatment of him.
Sam Detweiler - 39, younger brother of Jack Detweiler. He’s a skilled scientist who’s determined to help people while helping himself to make his life better. While his sense of humor is palpable, his sense of morality is just as strong. Since childhood, though, he’s frequently been manipulated by Jack’s devious tactics, and his relationship with him has been strained as a result. Reluctantly, he takes Jack’s offer to join his new business venture but still wonders if he’s again being taken advantage of.
Irene Maxwell - 54, Jack and Sam’s landlord. Bossy, committed to keeping order and obsessed with keeping her apartment complex a respectable operation, but often at the expense of her relationship with her tenants. Plays by the rules, and frequently uses those rules to get revenge on Jack and Sam once their schemes collapse.