Blog:My Series Idea
Birds of the Bays is an upcoming show for Cartoon Network. It is about 9 birds having an adventure in the city of San Francisco in the California Republic (a fictional country). Every character is a bird including the background characters.
Meet the characters:
Roman (Blue Tit) is an arrogant, sarcastic, obnoxious, impulsive, and selfish person, but he can be ambitious and cunningly wise. He speaks with a New York Accent. He act snooty toward people that aren't his friends. He is allergic to kiwis and have a fear of cats. Despite this, he know that breaking the law is not a good idea and he is still a fun-loving, and sociable with his friends despite he is selfish and rude at times. He has a pet Virginia Opossum named Joey which there are some debate about Joey's gender, but Roman assure Joey is a boy. Joey tend to have combined dog-and-cat behavior similar to a real-life Virginia Opossum. Roman is left-handed. He does have some immature behavior when he lose a game or make overreacting face resembling a raging trollface meme while waving his wings like crazy.
Philip (Common Bullfinch) is Roman's best friend. He is more of a mild-mannered, laidback and responsible than Roman. He is very good at cooking. He has stated he is Japanese and his name is actually his middle name, his real name is Isamu Philip Takeuchi. He is also a chef for his group and can be gluttonous, but he loves seafood. His full name is revealed in the game "Wing Wrestle!" which when you choose one of the 9 to fight against the toughest people, a card with Philip show his real name. He was diagnosed with asthma. He first met Roman in a middle school at age 12 when Roman moved in.
Ernest (Monk Parakeet) is a grouchy and cynical guy, but he can be social when he sees everybody being productive and is willing to give some help if needed. He has a Moe Howard-esque voice. He is Armenian, evidence point to his last name being Grigorian. He has stated he was born in Seattle. He also have a pet Black Moor Goldfish named Goldie who can be smart goldfish when he not around, Goldie can survive out of water, but not for long. Ernest lives with his mother who often argues a lot. It is shown that he is older than Jay, birthday is confirmed to be September 21, 1975.
Jay (Eurasian Jay) is a genius, having created many inventions. He has similar behavior to those with Asperger's Syndrome and is stated to be Jewish (Reform Judaism). He is 35 years old. He never directly call others by their names, instead by "Mister" and "Ma'am/Madame". He usually keep a straight face 70% of the time. He speak with a German accent that make him sound smart. Beside science and inventing stuff, he also like to play puzzle, translate languages, great map memory, and also studied plant life, health and political science. According to him and his diploma, he graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1997) and Stanford University (2000). He met Beto at a community center which he was reading a book about politics that caught the attention of Beto and the two quickly became best friend. He is born on February 29th, 1976. Jay is ambidextrous meaning he can use his right hand/wing and his left hand/wing equally.
Beto (Baltimore Oriole) is a gothic-like character. He is Mexican American. He doesn't wear gothic makeup, but he still acts like one. At first glance he may look so depressed, but he is just as serious, persuasive, contemplative, sardonic, but can be very solemn. He is 15-years-old, but he is still a progressive social justice activist who cited Bernie Sanders for it. He is a vegan/vegetarian, and is best friends with Jay. He wanted to go to University of California in either Berkeley, San Diego or Los Angeles to earn a bachelor's in political science and economic. He is not just into politics and debating, he also like comic books, rock music, Mexican Hot Chocolate, making Papel picado and hanging out with his friends. He is raised by a single-mother named Elena who is a lawyer who fought for Hispanic women's voice and is a feminist. He has a pet Veiled Chameleon named Gil. He has a crush on another 15-year-old named Anita García (Western Tanager) who is Salvadoran American girl.
Naomi (Fox Sparrow) is sassy and the voice of reason. Her catchphrase are "Seriously? That’s your plan?" and "Listen up if you want to get [Random things when Roman and Philip want something]". Naomi is South Korean. Her best friend is Dana despite Naomi is more into girly-girl stuff. Naomi is shown to be the second smartest one, only beaten by Jay, but when Jay is not around, she's the one to answer. She is around Roman and Philip's age.
Dana (Hooded Warbler) is a tomboy girl. Dana is confident and adventurous, though there are some instances where she gets a little shy. She doesn't do usual girl stuff, instead she plays sports and video games, wears typical tomboy shirts and baseball caps, and love Jazz Music. Dana's favorite sport is soccer and like to do jazz trumpet. It is shown that she is 2 year younger than Naomi, but the two are best friend. She is the second strongest, but is the fastest person.
T-Bone (Northern Mockingbird) is a practical joker. He maybe a narcissist, but he rarely shows gentleness and is a very tough guy, he sometimes, but not always show empathy to people. He makes terrible puns that annoy others, and he is from Texas, speaking with a Southern accent. His real name is Tobias Avery, his last name is a reference to cartoonist Tex Avery. He's the strongest person.
Felix (Varied Bunting) is goofy. He is the only one who likes T-Bone's jokes and he is best friends with him. He is loyal, joyous and supportive friend, but he is not the brightest and makes a lot of stupid decisions. He is stated to be African American/African Californian, he speak with a lisp. Despite his sizes, he is able to carry any things under his feathers and will pull it out (e.g. is he can pull out a raft when one of his friends say they need a raft or he can pull out an anvil out of his feathers).
Production:
Produced by Cartoon Network Studios and animated by Rough Draft Studios. Most of the crew members are from SpongeBob SquarePants so you might see that this show has a lot of SpongeBob SquarePants vibes to it. There will be a lot of vibes from Regular Show, Uncle Grandpa and The Simpsons. While there is some original music, you can hear APM Music (the music that you hear on SpongeBob SquarePants, Ren & Stimpy and Camp Lazlo). It will be storyboard-driven meaning the storyboard artists are also the episode's writers. I do not like the idea of script-driven series since there could be too much writers in the episodes. The animation styles while it will look like 2010s, it will be similar style to 1960s. It will be animated traditionally.
What jokes does it have?:
They will have satire, animated comedy, animated sitcom, black comedy, surreal humor and slapstick jokes. You might hear some political jokes, but not too much. (an example: "Who's the Conservatives? Who's the Liberals?"). If they want to do stereotypes of countries, I am only focusing on positive ones to avoid xenophobic jokes (like Canadian people being nice and South Korea being a futuristic land). Though, U.S. States can still have negative stereotypes (e.g. Texans being fat, Florida as a fascist kingdom, etc.). Returning to jokes with guns (however, to avoid being in bad taste, only pistols, shotgun, and hunting rifle are shown), mild language (only "crap") and mature jokes (like in Rocko Modern's Life and Ren & Stimpy). 1 episode will make fun of Fox News and their controversial comments. Classic stuffs you see in SpongeBob and Ren & Stimpy is some gross close-up and photoshop animation. It will references old meme: For example after Roman tricked Pedestrian 1d (Blue white-faced Budgies) into eating a lemon dressing it as an apple. Pedestrian 1d said it was good before realizing, he made the face that is like "Y U NO"'s Guy face meme after the intense sour reaction.
Setting:
It is located in the California Republic where California finally got its independence from the U.S. The show is set in San Francisco. They also might have some adventure in some other Bay Area cities. They all hang out at Roman and Philip's Victorian house which they treat like a clubhouse. It is owned by Mr. Harvey (Australian Magpie) who is a strict, yet kind-hearted landlord who sometimes drop by, he is their neighbor, but across the house meaning the "clubhouse" is across from his house on the opposite side. He speak with a Melbourne accent indicating he is from Melbourne, Australia. While kind-hearted, he get really irritated with the excessive noise.
Elements:
It will probably not take places in modern times, rather late 2000s to Mid 2010s (specifically 2007-2013). However, there will be some products based on real one like Yes Cola is similar to OK Soda and Coke Cola, Chuckle is based on Snickers, Cookie Crunch is based on Cookie Crisps and Hurricane Energy is similar to Monster Energy and Red Bull.
Rules:
While I hope I get a lot of freedom. Here are some rules and restriction my crew members has to follow.
Number 1: No humans allowed. (unless the show is referencing other media).
Number 2: Never reveal Beto's father, because his mother is a single mother.
Number 3: No reboots for a different target audience, to avoid the same mistakes that Ren & Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon and Velma made.
Number 4: The characters cannot express bird-like traits. They do not eat seeds, worms and insects, they do not live in nest and especially no flying (The only exception is one scene where Roman is sliding down a hill with a sideboard so fast and when get launched, he was flapping his wings like crazy to balance before forgetting he is a bird and shrug before crashing into the cliff).
Number 5: Never reveal Jay's middle initial. His full name is Jay E. Bloomfield.
Number 6: I am forbidding modern technologies in the show because not only it is taking place in Late 2000s to Early 2010s (2007-2013), but also I am not making it look too modern. This is why Rugrats 2021 was ruined because they had babies on smartphones when they are too young to do so, having online dating which I have a bad feeling about this because of how some are showed to be creepy folks pretending to be kids or teen and I am not allowing 2020s slang because it is either nonsensical (e.g. skibidi) or too weird (e.g. Rizz) which I know slang is not related to technology, but I am including since the modern 2020s slangs is weird or just dumb. Only slangs is from 1960s to 2000s (e.g. Cool Bean, Rad, Boogie, All that and a bag of chips and BFF) will be allowed. Social Media will still be referenced, but as an early version (e.g. Early Instagram parody and YouTube). They all use Flip phones and I am only allowing pre-2014 smartphones, they all listen to things based on MP3 or IPods instead of streaming services, and I am allowing DVDs or have a video rental stores. There will be Internet Cafés to or have them share a family computer.
Influence:
This show could get a lot of vibes from SpongeBob SquarePants. My primary influences is Stephen Hillenburg, but also the animators from the Golden Age such as Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Jay Ward and Max Fleischer. I have also cited Matt Groening and Joe Murray as well as the cartoonist Bill Watterson and George Herriman.
Audiences:
I hope it get rated TV-PG or TV-Y7-FV. Without trying to hip with the kids, it still have references to Social Media (e.g. Kookaburra is parody of pre-2022 Twitter and their rival E is paordy of X), Celebrities (e.g. Doctor Robin Williams is named after actor Robin Williams, Evan Kust is parody of Elon Musk), cell phones and famous brands (e.g. Mr. Jeffrey's is parody of McDonald's). Even then I will avoid hipping with the modern fans. If it going to have cell phone, it will mostly likely only having 2005-2015. Even then, I do not think it is made for kids. It's made for everybody, yes some dirty jokes, but in Rocko's Modern Life and Ren & Stimpy's (1991) style.
Your recommendations:
Give a score from 1 to 10 on how you like the idea. If you like it, great! If you feel like it's flawed, then explain the flaws and give me something that I could fix. If you like it, but still think it needs work, then give me some suggestions. Thank you for reading.