ARTISTIC LICENSE - SERIES THREADS
30 minute single-camera comedy

Download series info

STORY ARCs
Over time, several long-running threads will serve as subplots that will carry the story and develop the characters and their relationships. These elements will comprise the storylines of the first season.

1. BRIANCA/JULIE FEUD
As set up in the pilot, Julie is number one on Brianca’s shit-list. Although she has authority to fire her, Brianca finds it more sadistic to keep her on and torture her slowly. In one instance, she forces her to work side by side with Dustin (who is painfully in love with her). Another time she creates a fictional elaborate Reality TV show to lure Julie to audition for. Not to be outdone, Julie has her own ways of torturing Brianca in return. Playing on Brianca’s fear of driving, she falsifies a memo from the State demanding that Brianca get her license renewed. Playing on Brianca’s weight problem, Julie pays a man to come on to Brianca and then reject her for being too fat. Their feud escalates until everyone else knows better than to get in between them. Finally, at the season finale, they arrange a shaky truce, which is only made possible by the arrival of a common enemy…

2. THE PHOTO BOOTH
David is determined to make the best photographic experience for the bewildered DMV patrons. In this effort, he is constantly lobbying Brianca for enhancements and new equipment that will improve the photo station. His demands range from the understandable to the inane. First he just wants some lights and a better camera, but soon he’s adding props, backdrops, and eventually he is demanding a window be built near the photo station so he can light his subjects with natural sunlight.

3. BRIANCA HATES DRIVERS
It’s an ironic fact that Brianca doesn’t drive. She takes the bus and prefers that everyone else does to. She instates a mandatory “take-the-bus-to-work” day, but when everyone is horribly late, she rescinds it. She modifies the written tests to insure that more people fail. She tweaks the eye charts so some of the letters are plain illegible, encouraging more and more drivers to require glasses. She is constantly working to slow down the never-ending rush of new drivers. But why? In a rare moment of seriousness, she reveals a fatal accident that changed her life forever, and sent her on the path to insuring that whoever does get a license, really does know how to drive safely.

4. DUSTIN LOVES JULIE
Julie hates men. She’s not gay; in fact, she dates new guys frequently (especially reality TV producers, but that’s a different episode). She doesn’t trust men, thinks they’re all cads and perverts. Dustin is the sweetest, dopiest, most innocuous guy around, and he is hopelessly in love with Julie. She knows it, everyone knows it, and everyone knows that she will never go out with him. But he doesn’t care. He takes her abuse (sometimes even reveling in it), he buys her flowers (which at one point are mysteriously responsible for a clogged toilet that causes a building-wide flood), He remembers her birthday. And to all this kindness, she just grows crueler and crueler. She theorizes (over a cigarette break with David) that secretly Dustin loves her because she is mean to him. If she turns around and is nice, he will be turned off. And so, David dares her to try it. And she does. She leads Dustin on, but instead of losing interest, he gets more and more into her. She pushes it further and agrees to go on a date. Dustin gets so happy that everyone at the DMV is begging her to stop before she completely destroys him, but she is enjoying it all too much. It all comes to a head when Dustin surprises her on their date and asks her to marry him. You’ll have to watch the show to find out what she does.

5. THE SECRET CALL CENTER
On the second floor, above the DMV is a locked room staffed by a special government crew. None of the DMV employees is allowed in and no one knows exactly what goes on there, but everyone has their theories: A federal spying facility, secretly monitoring who comes in and out of the DMV. An INS/FBI data center, a prison-labor camp making license plates… The theories get wilder and wilder, and every so often a clue is found: A telephone repairman comes and reveals that there are 200 phone lines wired into the facility. The building is surrounded by Police and shut down because a security breach upstairs may be of importance to national security… At one point or another, everyone attempts to sneak in, just to see what it is that goes on there, but they are always thwarted. Except once, when JOHN SMECKLER accidentally gets trapped inside for two days. When he comes out he’s totally changed. But still, won’t speak about what’s inside. Even Brianca has only very limited knowledge of what goes on up there, and she’s not telling.

OTHER EPISODE IDEAS:
Celebrity Visit
Celebrities need driver’s licenses just like everyone else. Unfortunately they also have private security firms to keep away the autograph seeking masses. When a secret celeb is planning to come in to have her license renewed, the whole crew gets up in arms. Brianca can barely control them, but all hell breaks loose when David finds out that the celebrity is bringing her own photographer.

Handicapped Drivers
A new law requires the DMV to issue license to a new class of handicapped drivers. This requires a change of all the tests and they even need to retrofit some of the doorways to improve access for new kinds of wheelchairs, etc. Brianca worries that it’s going to mean more unsafe drivers on the road, and begins constructing obstacles (both physical and procedural) to prevent the change. Despite her efforts, the law passes and when she is faced with meeting the new drivers, she realizes that one’s physical abilities often don’t determine what kind of driver they’ll be.

Secret Shopper
The State Board of Motor Vehicles sends a spy to check that the DMV branches are following conduct and code, and reviews the local branch. The “secret shopper” finds loads of ways that they are not following the rules, though in many cases, the changes are for the better. Still the State Board demands that they change their policies to better follow the rules, which sparks outrage from the employees. Brianca is stuck in between, wanting to defend her peeps, but must also execute the laws from on high. In the end, while they do have to give up some of their “customizations” to the process, one of their ideas makes its way into the state run rules, vindicating their maverick spirit.