Real Storytelling

There are thousands of compelling stories of real people who dream big, do the right thing, set their direction, take their compass and never stray from the path. These are people who live a relentless, positive storm every single day of their lives. Their stories deserve to be told on the largest stages we can create. It is what television was always meant to be.

Here’s the real hope and promise of television: it should take us into worlds that are inspirational, comforting, meaningful and important to our daily lives. If the storytelling doesn’t take us to that level, many of us won’t watch. We need to re-define what television means to families in Middle America routinely overlooked by writers and showrunners.

Human beings have been telling stories from the dawn of civilization. Before there were scientists and lawyers and businessmen, there were storytellers. It is the common thread that runs through the entire history of the human race. Stories, or parables, make it easy to relate to and understand things beyond our grasp. It is what we are most comfortable with.

You can tell compelling stories of real people trying to change the world, make a difference, compete, educate, inspire and entertain. This is real television – not reality television, which is artificial and contrived. People will watch if you create shows built around true stories of real people pursuing extraordinary things. We want those stories. We want to be inspired. We want to get to know people who are pursuing greatness. We want to learn from them, trust them, follow them, and grow with them.

Persistent, real storytelling can change the world and make it an infinitely better place. Below are 15 Real TV production concepts that all have the same, consistent theme - telling real stories about real people trying to achieve greatness, change the world, reach the top of their particular place in the world or compete to be the best.

These people are the salt of the earth, and forces for good. They’re changing our lives, making them better, and transforming the planet. Their stories can be entertaining and inspiring. They show us how television can take us on their journey – one where storytelling can create positive, relevant entertainment to inspire, energize and capture the hearts of millions of viewers in the heartland.

These stories can engage curiosity, spark imagination, and quench a thirst to know with powerful role models, intriguing facts and stories, and unique views of life from the inside out. It can truly be television as it was meant to be. There are dozens of talented writers, producers and showrunners who are ready to sign up because they understand these values. Each of these shows can drive the viewership of a cable network - which is what creates successful networks now – or to a streaming platform.

1. CREW CHIEFS

Inside the veiled world of NASCAR garages are the sport’s unheralded heroes— the chiefs, experts and crew who commit mind, body, soul and science to the pursuit of speed. Tracking NASCAR’s Cup series in real time is a nerve-wracking, 200 MPH quest. To get there, a NASCAR crew chief tunes the knobs of kinetic energy, down force, aerodynamics, engine settings, and more - like a master safecracker working to align the tumblers of a safe. Besieged by equipment limitations, tested by financial pressures, vexed by personalities, challenged by track conditions, and plagued by eccentricities of weather, a NASCAR crew chief throws himself into the breach between success and catastrophe.

Get it right and the rewards are rich. Get it wrong and the risks are enormous. CREW CHIEFS will eavesdrop on this most inner sanctum of NASCAR racing – and do so in real time as the NASCAR Cup series unfolds. Shot on location at NASCAR garages, tracks, infields, and pits, we’ll discover how they do what they do, what frustrates and drives them. We’ll sense the stress to get it right. We’ll experience the mounting tension as race day nears and feel the pressure to perform build—from sponsors, owners and even drivers—as the season progresses. Viewers will see, firsthand, the daily war NASCAR crews wage against the monstrous physical forces that lay waste to their machines and their plans. They’ll gain an insider’s view of NASCAR racing—a man-and machines cage match like no other, one that counts success not just by who wins, but by who finishes.

Individual races will be the chapters of our story, all set against the backdrop of the season-long race for the NASCAR Cup. Along the way, we’ll provide a glimpse into NASCAR fandom. We’ll visit the infields, the stands and the “midways” at venues to interview NASCAR’s casual fans as well as the “gearheads.” At the tracks, we’ll listen in to the chatter on the radios between drivers and chiefs. CREW CHIEFS will be told through the actual conversations and activities of NASCAR crews and their leaders. We will use their words and struggles to weave the plot’s tapestry – as the race season unfolds.

2. LIVE FROM THE BLUEBIRD CAFE

Taylor Swift and Garth Brooks were both discovered at the Bluebird, a little café in a row of shops in Nashville. The Bluebird is literally a hole in the wall – yet it is, by far, the biggest source of successful singer-songwriters in country music. Kids move to Nashville just for the chance to make “the Round” on Sunday nights, with agents and record labels in the modest chairs at the Bluebird. Turner aired “Live from the Bluebird Café” regionally more than a decade ago. That show missed the point – and the magic of the Bluebird. It featured a country star who sang a song from an album track. It told no stories.

What is extraordinary about the Bluebird Café is that dozens of previously unknown songwriters compete every week for the chance to be just one of three singer-songwriters featured in the Round on Sunday nights, in an intimate setting of fans, agents and record labels. Stars regularly make their debut there – before they’re stars. LIVE FROM THE BLUEBIRD CAFÉ deserves to be re-born – but the right way. Take a camera crew inside the lives of those three kids who survive the prelims and make it to the Round on Sunday. That’s where the magic is. Some of them will sign record deals right there. Some of them will fail. But their pursuit is what matters – and why people will invest in their stories. These aren’t contrived people. They are really there in Nashville to chase their country music dream. You just have to capture that lightning in the bottle – which appears, live, at the Round every Sunday night.

Holly Williams – the granddaughter of the legendary Hank Williams – would be a perfect host. She could hold the center of a show like this that follows the stories of unknown stars in the making appearing at the Bluebird. The Bluebird was sold to a Nashville songwriters’ trade group a few years ago, who focus their efforts on protecting the royalties of their members in the new media world. They run the Bluebird Café on the side. They’d love a chance to bring a BLUEBIRD CAFÉ show back -- the right way.

3. COMPETE

Joan Mabe made the U.S. Olympic Track and Field team in 1996, in the 10,000 meters. She was one of only five moms to make the Olympic team that year. She’d trained every day for two years until her eyes literally bled at the end of workouts to make sure she made the team on pure, natural talent. As New Balance’s top professional female athlete for more than a decade, she competed for the United States in races in dozens of countries. She was a “clean” track and field athlete during a transition period when they were trying to remove drugs like EPO from the sport. One of the sport’s most inspirational national speakers, NBC Sports has used her as an expert commentator for U.S. Olympic trials broadcast coverage of the marathon. But her story isn’t unique – there are hundreds of athletes just like her chasing Olympic dreams and world titles in minor sports that never make TV.

COMPETE will get inside the passionate, niche amateur sports that feed the Olympic dream, invest in some of the kids, go with them on their journey and tell their stories in a run-up to a national competition. It would bring a little bit of their lives to each show -- enough so that people come to believe that they are living with an entire family of young, world-class athletes on a vision quest. Like this story. Alex Osborne made the eight-man U.S. national crew team in his early twenties while working part-time with a venture fund as he trained for the Olympics. Alex turned himself into a beast of a world-class athlete through relentless training – without steroids. He did all of it for just five minutes of airtime during the Summer Olympics and the chance to earn an Olympic gold medal. His story, like many others, is inspiring and almost other-worldly.

You can make people believe in these athletes and their stories. Just tell their stories, enough so that people are invested in their journeys - their lives - and really do care when they see the finals of something like the world crew championships. People will care deeply about athletes giving everything they have to chase a big dream. But you have to tell their stories. COMPETE would extend beyond the Summer and Winter Olympics. The stories of these extraordinary kids don’t disappear and then re- appear every four years. Dreams don’t die when the Olympic torch leaves the stadium.

4. AGAINST ALL ODDS

Philippe Croizon lost all of his arms and legs in 1994 when a TV aerial he was trying to mend touched an overhead power line. Croizon was immediately hit with 20,000 volts of electricity and had to have his limbs amputated. Several years ago, against all odds, the man that friends call the “Iron Man” swam 22 miles across the English Channel – a dream he began plotting from his hospital bed after the surgery.

Peter Skyllberg was found alive in a car that had been buried under snow near the Arctic Circle for nearly two months. The 45-year-old Swedish man had been trapped without food and had gone into a sort of hibernation for days on end. He’d melted snow for water. Despite temperatures that had plunged as low as -22 degrees Fahrenheit, the car and its thick layer of snow had somehow shielded him from the extreme weather. Authorities said they’d never heard of anyone surviving against such odds.

The Orensteins were a Jewish family living in Poland during World War Two. Shuttled through five different concentrations camps, Henry Orenstein finally told the story in I Shall Live about how he and his brothers played a role in the greatest hoax ever pulled on the upper echelons of the Nazi high command, including Heinrich Himmler himself. The story of the “Chemical Commando” that fooled Himmler and the Nazis – and saved their lives – is an incredible and generally unknown event in the history of the Holocaust. This, and other stories, will bring AGAINST ALL ODDS to life.

A logical host is Nick Vujicic, whose inspirational videos have been seen by millions. Nick was born without his arms and legs but learned to master the daily tasks of life. He learned to write using the two toes on his left foot, how to use a computer with his heel and toe, and how to throw tennis balls, play drum pedals, get himself a glass of water, comb his hair, brush his teeth, answer the phone and shave.

5. FORD MODEL HOUSE

Ford Models is perhaps the world’s most successful modeling and fashion agency. It has represented some of the best-known models and celebrities in history. The Ford “Supermodel of the World Contest” attracted more than 60,000 hopefuls each year.

But when Eileen and Jerry Ford started the agency in the 1940s, they were the first to give their models salary advances from jobs and photo shoots they’d finished but for which they’d not yet been paid. The Fords allowed teenage models who came from far away to stay at their home while they worked in New York’s fashion industry. That tradition still exists somewhat today. It’s known as the Ford model house.

Young women who’ve joined the Ford agency are able to live at a group home in New York while they try to catch their big break in the fashion industry. The stakes are high. The models go through incredible highs and lows as they try to manage the possibility of celebrity and fame alongside their personal lives. And all of it plays out at the group home known as a “Ford model house.”

You can go inside the house with cameras to catch the real-life drama. You can spend an entire season tracing the steps on the road to supermodel superstardom that awaits one or more of the young fashion stars who live at the group house. Your guide is the “model mommy” – an equally attractive young woman who manages the house for the agency and does her best to help keep the personal lives of the fashion models on track as they pursue their dreams. It’s a journey you won’t soon forget.

6. GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN

Terry Housholder says he died, went to heaven, and came back. It’s the most advanced “life after death” experience ever recorded. “I saw relatives and friends in the waiting pavilion,” Terry says of the life- altering experience. “I observed dozens of Archangels walking towards me...they had the most beautiful faces and voices imaginable.” They also revealed heaven’s secrets – like the truth behind our own individual “big test” on earth. “Our temptations on earth are similar to those that Jesus experienced in the desert,” he says. And he met Jesus, who patiently answered all of his questions about the meaning of life, death and heaven. “I felt like I was home for the very first time,” he says.

In GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN, you can tell stories from Terry and others about their own experiences of life after death. You’ll get the chance to hear Terry’s story about his experience firsthand, along with many others who says that they, too, have seen heaven during a near-death experience.

When Mimi Doe’s daughter, Whitney, was four years old, she told her mom an unusual story. “Mama, Sophine came to my room last night.” Surprised, Mimi asked her young daughter - who wasn’t prone to fantasy or make-believe, and who always reported, in full detail, the truth of any situation - to explain. “Sophine is the angel who comes to my room each night,” Whitney answered.

You can decide for yourself whether to believe those who say they’ve seen heaven. It is a subject that is wildly popular, fascinates millions and has led to an explosion of best-selling books on the subject like 90 Minutes in Heaven and Heaven is Real. There are now more than a dozen successful authors of books on the subject who can help bring these stories to life. We won’t judge. The stories will speak for themselves.

7. ICONS

They’re searing images, forever burned into our memories. Millions of us remember their pictures. In some instances, the picture itself changed the world. But who are the people behind these images? Who are these icons who forever made their mark on history through the lens of a camera?

Taken as part of National Geographic’s “Green Eyes” project, a picture made Sharbat Gula famous. Gula had never been photographed before. But the portrait turned out to be one of those images that sears the heart. Her eyes are sea green. They are haunted and haunting, and in them you can read the tragedy of a land drained by war. She became known as the "Afghan girl," and for 17 years no one knew her name – until a National Geographic team found her again in the mountains near Tora Bora. Gula is Pashtun, the most warlike of Afghan tribes. It is said of the Pashtun that they are only at peace when they are at war, and her eyes—then and now—burn with ferocity. She is in her thirties now. No one, not even she, knows for sure. Stories shift like sand in a place where no records exist.

It’s an image we haven’t seen in a generation, but the world still remembers Buzz Aldrin walking across the barren landscape of the Moon. This image was captured in 1969, the day that the Eagle lunar lander made the first touchdown on the moon, by Neil Armstrong of fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin. But Aldrin’s trip to the moon may have been easier than his personal life, though. Ridiculed for his belief that there were structures on Mars, and his war with leading scientists over man-made climate change – he is one of America’s most controversial icons in a generation.

It seems like Mick Jagger has been with us forever. His fame transcends several generations of fans. A Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and occasional actor, Jagger is best known as lead vocalist of The Rolling Stones. But one iconic image launched his career and defines him even today.

These are the real stories of our famous ICONS.

8. MEGACHURCH

They attract hundreds of thousands of worshipers each and every Sunday morning. They have legions of followers online, and across the world. They straddle American Christendom as a symbol, to many, of both what is best and worst about the church in America. Every hiccup, gaffe, embarrassment or resignation inside America’s megachurches generates dozens of news headlines and millions of online comments.

MEGACHURCH will get attention. The pastors of these churches practically built them for television audiences. You can take a camera crew inside each week. You can spend time with the head pastor and the team. You can talk to them about how they got started, how they grew, what drives their passion and what they’re doing in the community. You can find the back story that leads up to the next Sunday sermon in front of tens of thousands. We won’t filter, slant or judge. We’re just there to show the story as it unfolds.

With the largest megachurch in the United States, Joel Osteen reaches more than 10 million TV viewers with his "Christian light" message. Osteen, who preaches about the positives in life, has made millions from his inspirational books. Osteen deflects notions that a pastor should be poor, says more riches means greater influence for ministry. He and his wife, Victoria, are Lakewood Church’s largest donors.

Pastor Edwin Young started the Second Baptist Church congregation 30 years ago with 300 people. Today he has five campuses. Young says he continues to grow by focusing on youth. "Only churches reaching kids are really growing," he says. "All the rest of it is really fluff."

Known as a nondenominational "church for the unchurched," there are three campuses of North Point Community Church in the Atlanta area. Pastor Andy Stanley preaches practical applications of the Bible.

Started in the Chicago area in 1975, Pastor Bill Hybels’ Willow Creek opened four more campuses in 2002. Weekly attendance tops 20,000. "Don't let our size overwhelm you," the church says.

9. ON THE ROAD

Bono long ago transcended music. He’s inspired thousands of people in a brand-new category that is transforming our planet. They’re called social entrepreneurs, or social innovators. Josh Nesbit – the youngest CEO ever to the Forbes Impact 30 list of the best social entrepreneurs in the world, and the youngest recipient of the Skoll Foundation’s million-dollar social entrepreneur prize - is a great example. ABC News featured his Hope Phones campaign as part of their “Be the Change” series, and his efforts to coordinate the worldwide effort to handle 100,000 emergency text messages after a devastating earthquake in Haiti years ago.

Social entrepreneurs think globally, create networks to solve big problems, and tackle challenges that are almost unimaginable. Technology is no mystery to this generation – it’s the path forward. Celebrities who take up their social innovation causes in developing countries are inspirations to millions. They’re often accused of visiting refugee camps for elaborate photo ops. But something has changed in recent years. Stars like Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon and Jim Carrey are staying with these compelling social change issues and interacting closely with social innovators who are changing the face of the planet.

ON THE ROAD can take you on a journey with celebrities as they travel to developing nations and interact with social innovators on the ground. It will be riveting television, and create a unique, hopeful window to a world where kids in their 20s and 30s are changing everything from health care delivery in Africa to clean energy in India. Nothing, and no one, stops the Millennial generation. Challenges are there to be met, and problems there to be solved. This generation is highly networked through social media. They rarely show up on the traditional national media grid. Tens of thousands from this generation are making decisions to pursue social change. It is only a matter of time before those efforts change the rest of us.

10. SEARCH

There is a very real and palpable struggle between science and religion in this country. It is inescapable. We see it constantly. We read about it in newspapers every day, hear about it in every church. We recognize it in many forms and functions. But what if science and religion are looking for the same thing? Science is about the exploration itself. The discovery is almost incidental, overlooked in the joy of the scientific method itself. Religion, to some, is about declaring that the search is over and that the answers are found. In a groundbreaking new series that looks at the biggest questions facing both science and religion, SEARCH can go inside some of the world’s greatest research and scientific laboratories trying to unlock timeless mysteries.

We are entering a new era of scientific discovery – unlike anything the world has ever known. From the discovery of sub-atomic particles and mathematics proofs that quantify more than four dimensions, to quantum physics driving virtual computing and the answer to the question of whether life exists on nearby planets. In short, science seeks the meaning of life and the universe around it. It is almost immaterial to scientists whether they find discoveries. They understand the inherent risk of scientific exploration. Many fail. A few succeed. But they all share a common cause – the search that leads to discovery.

Grigori Perelman proved one of the greatest unsolved mathematical puzzles of all time – the famous Poincaré conjecture. He was awarded the Fields Medal, the highest honor a mathematician can receive. But Perelman didn’t show up to receive his Fields Medal and declined the $1 million award. Why? No one knows. He’s quit mathematics, is now jobless and lives with his mother in St. Petersburg, Russia. But the math world is talking for him – and it believes the Perelman solution may hold the key to our understanding of what the universe looks like beyond four dimensions. SEARCH will find Grigori Perelman.

11. SOCCER NATION

People aren’t passionate about soccer – on television - in the U.S. But the sport itself is wildly popular with families and communities. There are millions of casual fans of the game. They just don’t watch the game regularly on television. Americans will tune in for high-profile events like the World Cup. What they’ve never watched, in any significant way, is Major League Soccer or women’s professional soccer leagues. A soccer magazine show that goes inside the soccer communities that flourish all across the U.S. might have a chance, though, of building an audience. And if you add user-generated video to the TV experience, combined with a rich website and viral social media experience, SOCCER NATION could become even more attractive to a title sponsor like Nike.

So, instead of covering a D.C. United match, you tell a story from the perspective of a fan sitting with the Barra Brava at one end of the half-empty stadium. Instead of covering the NCAA Final Four in soccer, you incorporate video cams from players from those college teams that are making their way to that Final Four. And instead of just showing up like a news team to cover one of the hundreds of semi-pro Hispanic soccer teams, you capture leagues like Azteca Soccer League in Las Vegas from the inside one weekend. You also let kids themselves cover a national Olympic Development soccer event, or a national youth soccer tournament at Disney, and capture those stories with their iPhone.

Craig Waibel – MLS’ six-time Humanitarian of the year, four-time MLS Cup champion and one of the sport’s most inspirational speakers – could host. He could also be joined by two other inspirational soccer stars and inspirational speakers: former U.S. men’s national team assistant coach and MLS head coach Curt Onalfo, and U.S. Women’s National U-20 team assistant coach and former pro star Sarah Kate Noftsinger. With the right viral marketing help, SOCCER NATION could gain an audience quickly among the millions of families connected to soccer in one way or another.

12. STAGE

Justin Flom is a magician. His viral YouTube sensation – Soldiers Deck of Cards – was viewed 3 million times in just two months when it launched and continues to be seen by 250,000 people a week. “I got tears and goosebumps and a warmed heart after seeing your video,” a viewer wrote. “You've renewed my faith in the future of this country when I didn't think it was possible.” He’s toured in 24 countries. With break-dancing animals, intimate miracles and hilarious recreations of hit songs, his performances are inspirational. But Justin (www.justinflom.com) isn’t alone. There are hundreds of sensations just like him, appearing on stage to thousands of adoring fans. STAGE can bring you their stories.

Kathy Westfield has her own style of comedy. She’s been featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the Apollo Comedy Tour, and an ABC World News Tonight special segment featuring some of the country’s rising, young stars. Kathy (www.kathywestfield.com) takes difficult life experiences and turns them around in a positive way – all while making people laugh. Her stand-up is totally therapeutic, and one of the reasons why she was the Grand Prize Winner on America’s Funniest People.

“So an amoeba walks into a bar...” Brian Malow is Earth’s Premier Science Comedian, and you can watch him at Time magazine online and on-stage from San Francisco to New York, or listen to him occasionally on Neil deGrasse Tyson’s nationally syndicated radio show. Brian (www.sciencecomedian.com) has also appeared on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson on CBS and on the Discovery Channel, and A&E. He’s been profiled in Nature, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. But what Brian loves best is to take photos of bugs (www.insectpaparazzi.com) in his spare time.

These are the stories on center stages all across America, in venues great and small. There are others waiting off in the wings. All of them are compelling stories – if someone finds them and tells them.

13. STILL, SMALL VOICE

We see them flash across the television screen – icons like Tim Tebow, Jeremy Lin, Bono, or Oprah who talk about their faith in small, hurried sound bites. “I want to thank my Lord and savior,” they say quickly before being hurried along by the interviewer. People, writers and critics make assumptions about their faith, and what motivates and inspires these well-known celebrities. But television rarely gives them more than 30 seconds to sum up what drives them to greatness, or to make a difference in lives. STILL, SMALL VOICE can step off that 30-second treadmill. It can give these well-known icons – and viewers – an opportunity to take a breath, reflect and go beyond just the headlines about their faith.

You can follow along with a camera as each reflects on how they’ve built meaning into their home and personal lives. You can watch as they interact with their fans and followers. And then spend time with them as they talk, personally, about how they live professional lives of faith in what can be a searing public arena. Each episode can open with a camera in tow as they go through their daily lives, followed by their interaction with fans and colleagues in their professional lives, and then conclude with an intimate, one-on-one interview. Celebrities often talk about how their faith compelled them to change the world in their own areas of influence. But it’s rare to see them go beyond just a brief mention. Bono, for instance has rarely spoken publicly about his faith, other than a brief snippet once during an interview years ago:

“Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven.” - Bono

Ranging from the mainstream - Denzel Washington, Patricia Heaton, Joe Gibbs or Jackie Joyner-Kersee - to the controversial - Bono, Mel Gibson or Anne Rice - STILL, SMALL VOICE can take the time to explore the meaning of their life’s work. People yearn to hear the “still, small voice” and act on it. Doing so on national and international stages is hard, but not impossible – as the celebrities in this program can show.

14. ADVENTURES OF A KID MAGICIAN

Everyone loves magic tricks. They make people smile and laugh. Magicians draw crowds of onlookers when they perform in public. And, at the end of even the simplest trick, everyone always asks the universal question? How did you do that? ADVENTURES OF A KID MAGICIAN can answer that question.

If a show about magic tricks is hosted by a professional magician, you could sponsor a year-round, international competition for kids who’d like to surprise us. It would instantly generate promising viral video examples of their amazing, cool, new magic tricks they’re trying out all around the world for their friends, family, school mates and stunned onlookers. You can bring the finalists to New York for a Grand Finale magic competition, judged by some of the finest professional magicians in the business.

For the show, you could also show off a bit, and see how people react to even the simplest magic – like a simple wind-up ring that allows you to shower harmless sparks on observers in the unlikeliest settings.

Along the way, you can also go inside some of the simplest magic tricks that you can try yourself – safely! - with items from around the house or simple, off-the-shelf magic novelties. Fellow professional magicians will walk through the step-by-step instructions for magic tricks that can bring a smile to even diehard cynics and grumpy colleagues.

15. THE KITCHEN TABLE

"All great change in America begins at the dinner table,” Ronald Reagan once said. “So, tomorrow night in the kitchen, I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do."

THE KITCHEN TABLE can bring that lost art back to television – a civilized argument over some of our most difficult subjects in an increasingly uncivil society. Each week, two hosts like Gretchen Carlson and Van Jones can bring you two well-known proponents of their own views on issues like persistent racism in American society, abortion wars, politics in the pulpit, big solutions to climate change or evolution in the classroom. But this won’t be your typical shout fest on talk radio or cable news. No, the rules of THE KITCHEN TABLE are simple. Argue if you must. But be civil about.

You can set up each argument at the kitchen table with an extended video segment that lays out the arguments for viewers. You can also use two regular hosts who will make sure that both sides hold true to the aim of the program – that democracy flourishes best when well-reasoned, but civil, arguments are given a full airing in the light of day.

At a time when television is beginning to settle for loud opinions about the issues of the day, THE KITCHEN TABLE will do its very best to bring parents and kids alike back to the table for an informed, spirited debate about issues that we all care about – but rarely argue about in polite company.

Real Stories for Television