Here’s my take on the “End of an Era” edition of Sketchwar.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
INT. TV STUDIO – DAY<\/p>\n
THEME MUSIC PLAYS and a “Showbiz News!” logo briefly appears over a slick TV studio.<\/p>\n
LOGAN (30, ‘talking hairdo’) sits opposite JOE (40s, average-looking, haunted).<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
Welcome back to Showbiz News! With me now, Joe Targonski, creator and executive producer of That Nutty Moose, which just finished a ten-year network run!<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
Glad to be here.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
Joe, how did you keep coming up with the comedy?<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
We kind of repeated ourselves. We’ve done a dozen episodes where Max and Larissa have a fight, and then Moosey gets them back together. Eventually you just go with what works. Over and over and over again.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
And hey -- the people love it!<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
Y’know, the only people who talk to me about That Nutty Moose tell me it embodies everything awful about TV.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
No, we love Moosey! How’d you come up with that ‘talking moose’ idea, anyhow?<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
Not my idea. The network added the talking moose early in the first season.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
Wow. What would That Nutty Moose be without Moosey?<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
It would be an tender, affectionate look back at the Minnesota town I grew up in.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
Phaugh! And then, of course: upgrade! Moosey became a CGI<\/i> talking moose!<\/p>\n
Joe shudders.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
Which opened the door to dance numbers! I just love it when Moosey raps. It’s so fresh!<\/p>\n
Joe pulls out a flask and takes a drink.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
I gotta ask this: how about that “Who shot Moosey?” storyline?<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
Yeah. That. The network made us say, “It was all a dream!”<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
Such a twist! And then season 2, when the whole cast tried to force Moosey into a wood chipper!<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
We got some network pushback on our original ending to that.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
It’s like you’ve tried to kill Moosey, over and over again, violently, but the network won’t allow it!<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
Oh, that’s ridiculous, Logan.<\/p>\n
Swig.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
Just joshin’ you, there! But, seriously: a ten-year run. That Nutty Moose has practically been your whole life, for a decade!<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
I even have dreams about it.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
Wow.<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
Boring, clich\u00e9d dreams.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
Will you maybe do a spinoff?<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
NO!<\/p>\n
An INTERN hands Logan a sheet of paper.<\/p>\n
Logan reads it.<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
I mean, I think we’ve finished the story of Moose Hollow.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
Hey, hold the phone! Looks like the network has opened up five hours of prime-time real estate! Maybe your show will go another season?<\/p>\n
Joe lays his head on the desk and stares into the distance.<\/p>\n
LOGAN<\/p>\n
Hey, Joe, before we go to commercial, you wanna sing the theme song with me?<\/p>\n
JOE<\/p>\n
I want to die!<\/p>\n
The “Showbiz News!” logo reappears.<\/p>\n
A bit of the THEME SONG TO THAT NUTTY MOOSE PLAYS:<\/p>\n
SINGERS (O.S.)<\/p>\n
He’s wacky and Canadian! \/ He’s that nutty moose!<\/p>\n
FADE OUT.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Peter’s take on the “End of an Era” edition of Sketchwar: “That Nutty Moose”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[208],"class_list":["post-1571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sketches","tag-the-end-of-an-era"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}