It’s been two years since I put the final bullet into The Presenters’ body. For those who are new here, The Presenters was an animated sitcom idea I developed in high school. For 4 years, I would come up numerous ideas for episodes/story arcs involving the Howardson family, his best friend Tom Flouderman, and his boss, The Editor. I felt like it was about time to revisit the series for a nostalgic retrospective to see just how unproduceable this series would’ve been. For the first time, I’m compiling all 3 seasons of The Presenters in a single post, but I’m also including “commentary” on every single episode except those I’ve already written about. With that hasty introduction done, let’s begin!
Season 1
We are introduced to Harold and his family, 15-yr old son Hal and 38 yr old wife [Blank] Howardson, a quirky yet relatable bunch. An unexpected occurrence at Harold’s job causes Harold to get the opportunity of a lifetime.
P102-The Dinner Party
Harold, a week into getting his new job, invites his only friend, Tom Flounderman and his boss known as the Editor, to his house for a dinner party. When neither Tom nor the Editor can show up, he hastily invites three random workers who pretend to be his new friends.
Commentary: This episode was meant to heavily highlight Harold’s insecurity, but most of the comedy would’ve been from Harold’s family’s interaction with the randos visiting his house. It was going to begin with a cute scene of Harold choosing between two different styled ties, hoping not to make a bad impression while his wife tells him, “You're 40.”
P103-The Double Date
When Hal’s double date hits an unexpected delay, Harold and his wife take advantage and go on the double date instead. The date goes well until Hal and his mother get to an unexpected emotional breakthrough and discuss their feelings at an ice cream parlor. Meanwhile, Harold and Hal’s date, Shelley, go to a movie theatre and practice tongue kissing techniques.
Commentary: This is a weird idea that I can’t believe I wrote down. Shelley is a reference to a short story I wrote in high school.
P104-Abbey Road
Harold gets a new assistant named Abbey Road and is oblivious to Abbey’s undying affection towards him until Abbey kidnaps Harold and locks him in a closet to be a part of a ménage a trois with Abbey and the local chess champion.
Commentary: This episode is very similar to Curb based on how a small incident grows larger in scale although the kidnap angle would’ve needed something quirky about it to be funny which is why I included the chess champion in the plot.
P105-The Therapist
Harold begins his therapy sessions, discussing his many problems with nail polish and picture frames, until the therapist rudely interrupts him and mentions he is falling in love, and Harold tries to help him out.
Commentary: Harold’s issues with nail polish and picture frames are based on potential ideas I had for a stand up routine in high school. The idea of Harold’s therapist having problems of his own was partially based on In Treatment, a well-made HBO series that was on the air at the time. The ending was going to be the therapist talking to Harold about how he almost asked out one of the women in the bar, only to inadvertently cause the bar to burn down, killing his date in the process.
Harold gets into a car accident and is forced to walk down the 405 while trying to remember how the accident happened, trying to deliver an important package to the closed post office, and trying to deliver a gallon of milk for his wife.
P107-The Teaching Job
Harold’s wife finally gets the teaching job at the local elementary school, and after some ‘advice’ from Harold, she begins her job. After two weeks in her seemingly blissful career, she winds up in the middle of a love triangle with the bisexual 1st grade teacher and the 4th grade teacher who’s been struggling to come out of the closet.
Commentary: This was the first episode to feature Harold’s wife in a prominent role. I should mention that I had a weird idea for a running joke that Harold’s wife’s name would be censored every time it would be mentioned. I don’t remember how I came up with the love triangle idea except that I might’ve been trying very hard to comment on a topical issue.
P108-The Book Tour
Harold reaches unprecedented levels of success when his first animated short is posted on YouTube and is critically acclaimed by everyone. When the publicity tour is announced by the animation company, Flowers United, he is all but excited when he realizes he will be interviewed by Reader’s Digest. But he first must have an interview with Cosmopolitan which he is all but nervous about.
Commentary: This episode demonstrates how little I know about animation as a career, especially with the amount of wonderful animators on YouTube that get very little press attention. I made Reader’s Digest Harold’s favorite publication since I was both reading and collecting Reader’s Digest at the time. I remember when the library was throwing out old editions of Reader’s Digest, I made an effort to pack in as much copies as I could in my backpack, never reading a single one. They’re probably rotting in my Dad’s garage right now. The Cosmopolitan interview would’ve been very awkward since the interviewer would randomly insert questions about Harold’s sex life.
P109-The Assistant
Harold is approached by Hal’s ex-girlfriend, Kiki, for a job during the summer and after being baffled by her ignorance towards animation, gets Kiki a job as his wife’s assistant. The choice unexpectedly ruins Harold’s reputation and his sex life.
Commentary: This was one of the last episode premises I came up with for Season 1. Unfortunately, I can’t remember exactly why Harold’s sex life would be ruined by Kiki. I probably just thought that would be a funny idea.
P110-The Funeral
The family heads out to Michigan for Harold’s best friend’s funeral. Harold decides to change his eulogy into a standup routine that offends nearly everyone at the funeral.
Commentary: The episode begins immediately in Michigan with Harold reminiscing his friend’s life while still remarking on his questionable decisions to become a daredevil dying in the most funny way possible. Harold’s choice to try a standup routine would be meant to be an offensive tribute to his best friend for making impulsive decisions. Harold’s family would be run out of the funeral and forced to hide in an abandoned car in an elaborate parody of Night of the Living Dead.
P111-Impact at Mach 5
Harold goes back to his old middle school to visit his art teacher. He listens to the selection of music offered by the class and is appalled. He promises to create a new mix for the class, which he enlists his friend Tom to do. Tom downloads a sound file called Impact at Mach 5 which ends up being an audio clip of a publicized sex tape.
Commentary: A really problematic idea that would work best as a short webisode instead of a 22-minute episode. The takeaway would’ve been the horrified expression on the art teacher’s face as she heard the moans and groans emitting from the speakers. This was based on how my high school art studio had a collection of student-made CDs that we would listen to while making our art pieces. A perverted tribute to simpler days.
Harold goes on a bus trip and winds up sitting next to his favorite actor, Tom Hanks and they have a long conversation about their lives.
P113-Pause, Go Get the Batteries
Harold gets fired from his job due to an intense rivalry with renowned animator Reni Danlau, and Hal suddenly begins failing his classes. All goes well until a good-intended trip to Home Depot leads to a halt in the family’s future plans.
Commentary: Reni Danlau is based on someone from high school that I had a random aversion to, something about her demeanor bothered me for some reason.
Season 2
P201-The Director
The worst director in recent history begins filming his sci-fi epic of a city on the verge of being swallowed up by a black hole(a small one, however). After catching one glimpse of Harold and his co-workers in a childish argument about exit signs, he immediately hires them for the movie.
Commentary: I don’t remember if the director had a name originally but he was based on Uwe Boll, an infamous director who’s made awful films about video games. I always thought that film premise was one of the funniest ideas I ever came up with and wish that people can start photoshopping fake posters for this film. “ A Wrinkle in Time”, oh wait…that’s already a movie.
P202-The Dead Best Friend
Harold, working on a long shift at Flowers United, suddenly sees his dead friend (buried in Season 1's The Funeral) right in front of him. Harold becomes horrified and tries to curse away the evil spirit, while the best friend tries to convince Harold that seeing him is worthwhile.
Commentary: I came up with this idea when I was working alone in the art studio in a late afternoon. When I’m sure I’m alone, that’s when I can improvise minutes of dialogue aloud. Sometimes I get weird ideas like dwarves calling someone a butthole, and sometimes I get something different. It was going to begin as an immediate parody of found-footage films like Paranormal Activity and play around with the idea of ghosts being able to talk back and argue that they shouldn’t be discriminated against for being scary. The second half was going to be a more existential discussion about the very meaning of life. The death of my professor, Antonio Candau, has inspired me to revisit this idea in a short film that’s still currently in the pre-production phase.
P203-Animatorcide
Harold's failure leads to a spiraling depression that leads to him making minimalist remarks of perfection. Since every animator at Flowers United knows about the mythic "animatorcide" that killed a famed animator, they keep a close eye on Harold to make sure he doesn't try to use it.
Commentary: This is already more serious in tone than previous episode ideas and I wonder how well it could’ve worked without hard- shifting into melodrama. Animatorcide is based on barbicide, the blue liquid barbers have that reportedly have been used for killing themselves.
P204-The Writer
When the studio realizes that their television program is on the verge of cancellation, they group together all of the writers for a show-changing brainstorm session. One writer isn't amused by the idea, curses everything in existence, and then quits. Harold goes on an impossible journey to replace him.
Commentary: I just wanted one scene of someone saying, “Fuck you. Fuck your mother! Fuck your father! Fuck your kids! Fuck your grandkids! Fuck the paint chips on your house! Fuck your fish that you won in a carnival! Fuck everything! I quit!” The scene would’ve been 2 minutes long.
P205-A Weird One For Sure
Hal finally gets his driving permit and drives around Los Angeles for two hours, celebrating. After a while, he drives in an unfamiliar neighborhood, and in a panic, drives in reverse into a homeowner's garage while the homeowner is still at home. The homeowner takes Hal in as a hostage until Hal is able to pay for a new garage door.
Commentary: I’ve heard many, many stories of people’s experience driving in high school and I had to do my own take on it. This is the first episode to heavily feature Hal as a character and would’ve shown him to be the polar opposite of his father. In actuality, Hal is based on my brother Gary Rodriguez. The hostage angle, in hindsight, seems to be very ridiculous which is probably why I went with it.
P206-The Cameo Spot
Harold gets the opportunity to work on another channel to increase his notoriety. Unfortunately, it requires a cameo on a television program he hates with a star he despises. When Harold tries to switch places with Tom and fails, he gets into a childish argument with the star and accidentally exposes the star's homosexuality.
Commentary: Around this time, I was watching a lot of Disney Channel. They would always feature the “hit” pop artists and their sitcoms would be the most formulaic material since Full House. I thought it would be funny if an awkward character like Harold was forced to interact with the hyperactive Disney Channel-like machine. Of course the person Harold would argue with would be based on Justin Bieber. It couldn’t work with anyone else, surely.
P207-Wellesian Connection
Harold meets an ambitious voice actor who notices Harold's stress and suggests he tries some weed. Harold refuses and sees the actor's vocal performance, only to realize he's become attracted to the actor's voice.
Commentary: At this point, I wanted to highlight different aspects of the animation process with this episode focusing on voice-work. The idea of someone falling in love with someone’s voice was inspired heavily by Morgan Freeman’s God voice which can move mountains if it really wanted to. Wellesian Connection is a direct reference to director and really sad Hollywood story, Orson Welles.
P208-A Nightmare Someone Else Had
After a long and frustrating day, Harold daydreams about meeting up with famous figures from horror movies(Chucky, Jason Voorhees, Alien(as a joke)) that ruined his childhood. It leads to a therapy session that the nightmares remorsefully give him.
Commentary: At the time, I hated horror movies with a passion and it all stemmed from my childhood experiences dealing with my fear of Chucky, the star of the Child’s Play films. When I would be taunted constantly by kids in elementary school calling me a baby for being scared of a doll that fucking kills people, I would go home to a father who warned me that Chucky is hiding under my bed and waiting to strike. Good fucking lord, no wonder I had to go to a therapist in 5th grade to finally deal with all this. This episode would have properly dealt with my childhood trauma while also poking fun at my own admittedly heightened hatred of the horror genre. I’ve since watched the first Child’s Play and want to watch more, just to see how much more ridiculous the series gets.
P209-Wait, Say That Again?
Harold, who decides to walk in on the animators working, meets Arlill Rodriguez, a 25-yr old animator brimming with possibility. When Harold recalls their first meeting, he begins to realize that it might be a reincarnation of him, a theory everyone dismisses. Harold's suspicions are heightened when Arlill refuses to open the door for him.
Commentary: This episode is more meta than I can handle. This only becomes more complicated considering that Arlill was my American name that I used instead of Arley since, for whatever reason, Arlill is easier to pronounce in English, only to find out that Arlill was, and had always been, my birth name. This is on top of considering how the character of Harold was meant to be an exaggerated version of myself that exists in The Presenters universe. It’s so meta that I’m creating a dimensional paradox as I type this up.
P210-Flowers United Inc.
Harold is woken up by a sudden phone call from The Editor. The Editor blames Harold of not being a team player, so Harold is forced to leave his house early to go to work. Arriving, he's surprised to see that no one is there except the Editor who sits in his disorganized office. Harold works on the filing while the Editor regales him on a tale of just how Flowers United was established.
Commentary: Considering The Editor’s name, you can already imagine exactly what his personality is like, and yes, it is a carbon copy of J.K Simmons’ performance as J. Jonah Jameson. Like “A Weird One, For Sure”, this episode was meant to expand on The Editor’s character by unveiling how exactly the startup animation company came to be. In general, it would’ve been a parody of the Walt Disney origin story although The Simpsons’ send up of that is much funnier than anything I could’ve done. I vaguely remember one conversation between The Editor and one of his associates talking about how roses are whores and tulips are like the Virgin Mary but I don’t know how that would’ve fit with the rest of the episode.
P211-The Bartender
Harold slips out of the office one day, and sneaks into a bar where he meets a bartender who hates people but wants to become a barber. The bartender's existence fascinates Harold and Harold gives him his contact information. After a week of no replies, the bartender begins stalking Harold.
Commentary: This is one of the earliest episode ideas I had but I thought the audience needed more time with Harold as a character for the idea to work. Given the somewhat absurd setup, I’m not sure how I could’ve ended the episode.
P212-The Awkward Conversation Between Two Boys
Harold notices his son Hal is finished with his homework and is now watching TV. Harold uncharacteristically walks up to Hal and begins asking him about every aspect of school, including awkwardly enough, Hal's past romantic experiences which Harold can recite from memory and in consecutive order.
Commentary: Very similar to “A Trip With Mr. Hanks”, the episode would begin familiarly with the Howardson family talking at the dinner table. Harold’s wife would encourage Harold to try to talk earnestly with his teenage son, and Harold would begrudgingly walk over to the living room. The rest of the episode would focus on a single conversation between Harold and Hal. This episode would be a challenge of its own to attempt to both develop the characters and create an entertaining conversation that could last 20 minutes. I don’t know if any writer could pull this off with gusto.
P213-The Sandwich
Harold meets up with Sarah, an old friend from high school who wants to break out as a voice actress. As they're having lunch, Sarah suddenly leaves in a hurry. She leaves her sandwich behind, completely untouched, and Harold becomes tempted to eat it. He slowly slides the plate towards his side. Looking left and right, he takes a bite and has an orgasm. Harold wonders if it was the fact that she made the specific order or the sandwich itself that made his body react so strongly.
Commentary: I had a very long crush on someone called Sarah in high school and only her transferring to another school was enough to eventually get over it. This episode was my twisted way of both dealing with the crush and riffing on cafe scenes in general. A very Seinfeld-esque idea.
Season 3
P301-The Secret to Human Interaction
Harold discovers his wife has been drinking to alleviate her stress of being married to him. When he notices how much easier it becomes to talk with her, he applies this knowledge to become more sociable and irritable.
Commentary: I thought that it was weird that after 2 seasons, I hadn’t dealt with alcoholism yet. My family has had a very long history of alcoholism so I wanted to have an entertaining premise that never became an after school special about alcohol. There would always be a running joke of Harold talking about how he doesn’t know why his wife ever married him and this episode would finally answer that question while also dealing with Harold’s insecurity head-on. I always thought that if I ever started drinking, I’d be an angry drunk. Turns out I’m an offensive drunk. Make of that what you will.
P302-When Harold "Somethinged" Marcy
Harold tries to become more open with the writers at Flowers United and befriends one of the main writers, Marcy. After Harold inadvertently damages Marcy's reputation, Harold tries to apologize by pretending to be Bruce, her "secret" admirer.
Commentary: The series still had not introduced a comic foil for Harold yet, the Squidward to Harold’s Spongebob, but I thought it would be funnier if Harold inadvertently bothered Marcy or offended her accidentally. Marcy doesn’t really have much of a personality beyond that, though. I loved her as a character, however, so I tried to come up with episode ideas involving her, none of which ended up in the final version of Season 3. The title is a reference to When Harry Met Sally.
P303-Cannibal Kittycat Killers
Harold's parents drop by much to the dismay of The Howardsons. Harold unpacks his parents' luggage and finds a stolen Francis Bacon of kittens being mutilated. Harold rushes to his car to return the painting while his parents chase after him.
Commentary: This idea was co-written by Gary and was the very last episode idea we came up with. We were struggling to fill up the season with 13 episodes and just went with any crazy idea that seemed “Presentersy”. We hadn’t introduced Harold’s parents yet and rather than just make fun of my parents’ personalities and shortcomings, we instead decided to make them insane master thieves.
P304-The Contradiction
Hal gets accused of being a slacktavist at his high school. In a moment of desperation, he decides to live like a homeless person for 1 whole week.
Commentary: Slacktavism is a common criticism people have of activists only working through social media but not actually doing anything substantial. Examples include change.org and their petition format, and the Ice Bucket Challenge. I do notice this when people have an important issue they want to address but first they must raise awareness of the issue in many ways including, most notably, colored ribbons. The description doesn’t adequately explain why Hal makes his choice. A big mistake on my part.
Harold, in a Dante's Inferno-like journey, has his atheism challenged by none other than the devil himself who enjoys elaborate dance sequences.
P306-Academic Viewing
Commentary: Structurally, this episode would be very typical despite pairing up Harold and Hal again. This would be another episode that would revel in the film references and heavily parody the selection of films that are usually shown at Sundance. Many of us can relate to the first time we had to talk to our parents about masturbation (unless you were the lucky few who got away with it) and I wanted to have this moment in the series but with exploitation films in place of masturbation.
P307-Acceptance
With the holidays quickly approaching, Harold wishes to brighten up his cowokers' spirits by inviting them to a "Coexist" dinner. His curiosity gets the better of him when he accidentally riles up everybody's stance on their respective religions.
Commentary: This episode feels very Curbish especially with the promise of a loud argument between everyone. Cynical people can definitely find something ridiculous and patronizing about Coexist (and Coexist bumper stickers), but with this being the holiday special, it would’ve ended with a positive outlook on the issue and everybody hugging their issues out…unless the test audiences were instead looking for a huge brawl to break out.
P308-Harold Meets a Time Paradox
Renowned performance artist Daniel Plainview visits his newest exhibit at the local art museum. Harold anxiously meets Daniel and as a sign of good faith, criticizes Daniel's work fairly although Daniel takes the criticism very personally.
Commentary: Who saw There Will be Blood?! Yeah, I did, too. After seeing DDL’s mesmerizing performance, I had to include his character in the show somehow and came up with this ridiculous idea of Daniel Plainview existing in modern times. Now I can make my own milkshake reference! I wanted to go beyond that and make Daniel a threatening character to Harold, going so far as to vandalize Harold’s desk and interrupt Harold’s presentation.
P309-The Council
Harold learns of a supposedly good animated film called The Council which has been banned for nearly 50 years for its approval of bisexual polygamy. Harold and Tom plan a public screening of The Council while his wife and his son, Hal, unbeknownst to him, try to sabotage the screening.
Commentary: Bisexual polygamy. Has that ever happened? Animation is no stranger to controversy and this episode would be a love letter to every controversial issue animation, as a genre, has ever faced. It would’ve included references to the Censored Eleven, war-era propaganda cartoons, Ralph Bakshi’s entire filmography, and other notorious shows like South Park and Family Guy. The episode would also make its own stance about free speech except nothing on the level of South Park’s 201. I didn’t have a real reason that Harold’s family would try to delay the screening. I just thought that would’ve been an interesting conflict to have.
P310-The Motivational Speech
News of Flowers United getting into a financial crisis depresses everybody. A well-intended motivational presentation has the opposite effect on everyone, including The Editor who decides to pursue his life's dream of becoming a controversial issue.
Commentary: Everything about this episode seems very lazy but necessary in parts. This is very similar to the last season of the Larry Sanders Show but in this case, everything happens very suddenly and has the illusion of building up to something huge.
P311-Harold Howardson's Wife
After two and a half seasons, Harold's wife embarks on a journey to find out what her actual name is or at least to beat up the censor who's been bleeping out her name.
Commentary: The strangest running joke in sitcom history is finally addressed. This began very lazily at first since I didn’t know what Harold’s wife’s name should be so I decided it would be bleeped out although the characters would speak normally as though nothing was different. It would be the only information that would be deliberately kept from the audience although others could perceive it as an unnecessary draw for controversy. I felt that, since this was the last season, it would be worthwhile to finally name Harold’s wife while also giving her a full-fledged episode. It would’ve been another challenge to continually break the fourth wall without being obnoxious about it.
P312-Presenting This Man and His Comedy
Harold performs at a comedy club and debuts his 20-minute routine.
Commentary: I put this episode at the end of the season because I knew how different it was going to from any other episode and how difficult it would be to execute an animated comedy special. As it turns out, comedian David Huntsberger was able to successfully kickstart an animated comedy special so this proves it can be done!
P313-Nazi Sensibilities
In a desperate attempt to save Flowers United from bankruptcy, The Editor begrudgingly approves the production of Nazi Sensibilities (NS), Harold's ambitious short film. Notice of the studio's closure creates a lot of tension during NS's production and everyone but Harold, Tom, Marcy, Reni, and The Editor decide to abandon the project. Meanwhile, Hal is transferred to a private boarding school for his academic excellence. Harold and his recently named wife, Elizabeth, prepare Hal's luggage and drop him off at the airport. As Harold and Elizabeth return to their home, now lacking of their son and his possessions, Harold gets a phone call from The Editor. The phone call prompts Harold and Elizabeth to have one more conversation together.
Commentary: Both the longest description and the longest episode, this one would’ve tried its best to wrap up the entire series in a satisfying way which is a nearly impossible task. Thinking about it now, it doesn’t make much sense to approve an expensive animated project when your company is almost bankrupt. The tone for this episode also seems to be more serious than even “Animatorcide” and I can only imagine how suffocating it would be for a comedy to be deadpan intense on its last run. I also think that Hal going to boarding school is a lazy way to introduce more conflict for the Howardsons. The final conversation between Harold and Elizabeth was a callback to the experimental episodes of the series like “My Trip With Mr. Hanks” and “The Awkward Conversation Between Two Boys” and felt like an appropriate end for the series, even if the lead up to it wasn’t. The final shot would’ve been Harold and Elizabeth, sitting on their couch, embracing each other closely as the camera moves back slowly until cutting abruptly to black.
Happy holidays, everyone.
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