By Rick Keir
In founding an innovative public relations firm, an ambitious entrepreneur attracts the most unusual clients while reinventing the PR industry.
Half-hour Series | Drama
Think of Jerry Maguire
meets The West Wing.
Synopsis
PR blasts off, heading for the stars
Exuding confidence, 23-year-old Ted Barnes launches his public relations company in LA with innovation and flair. He attracts the most unusual clients while reinventing the PR industry. Ted joins in a scheme to oust the Chairman of the Board of the worldwide Public Relations Organization (PRO), an association of PR practitioners. The Chairman heads the “old guard” who have held the organization back from embracing PR opportunities arising from social media, streaming, and cellphone innovations.
A PRO Board member behind the effort recruits Ted to come up with a campaign using these modern innovations to win PRO’s annual Best Campaign Award to convince a majority of the Board to oust the Chairman. With an opportunity to also become a Board member, Ted jumps at the chance and creates an Unknown Singer campaign to kick off the career of waitress Julie Jonson, the first client of his new company, Better Times Public Relations. Ted, his girlfriend Sue Gibbons, and his brother Ron, a music producer and songwriter, first saw Julie performing at Café Best in Santa Monica and know she is destined for stardom.
With Julie’s support, the three record songs and shoot videos obscuring her identity. They develop a fan base and announce that she will reveal her identity when the number of fans reaches the half a million threshold. The campaign is launched on a popular television talk show. However, another singer, Jim Williams, discovers Julie’s identity and threatens to reveal it, believing Julie has an inside track and unfair advantage. Jim’s wife, Sara, convinces him that Julie is playing fair and in a turnaround, Jim realizes he’s wrong and becomes a strong supporter. In fact, when Julie’s campaign plateaus, Jim is able to get her a major performance in disguise. A month later, Julie reaches her threshold of stardom and reveals her identity on the talk show. Her songs are hits, and she sings one on the show.
The pilot ends with a cliffhanger. Just as it looks like Ted’s success will lead to the ouster of the PRO old guard, the Chairman moves to kick the head of the dissenters off the Board.
Script
Bible