Working Title: Changing the Game
Logline:
Changing the Game is the story of how…
- Football became the most popular form of entertainment in America
- The world’s greatest sports agent, Leigh Steinberg, made it happen
- Leigh is on track to raise more than a billion dollars for the many charities he supports
Changing the Game is about the famous actors and actresses, singers, comediennes, entrepreneurs, politicians, activists, and athletes whose lives have intersected with Leigh’s. It is a redemptive story about him beating the odds against addiction. It is about him being an agent of change on and off the field.
Changing the Game is the true-life story of Leigh Steinberg.
Genre: Drama
Themes: Teamwork, Community, Helping Others/Charity/Giving Back
Target Audience:
4 Quadrant—young adult, older adults, male, female (appropriate for all ages)
Format:
- TV Series
- 10-12 episodes per season
- 1 hour per episode
Recipe for each episode:
Timeline (for Season 1)—
- Very brief opening narration by Leigh summarizing a life experience or lesson or introducing an important event. This could be elaborate or as simple as stating the title of the episode.
- 2-3 min opening teaser—near present-day—cameo celebrity appearances as themselves highlighting a charity or cause
- 15-20 min youth experiences/memories/life lessons, 1949-1967
- 15-20 min college experiences/memories/life lessons, 1967-1975
- 15-20 min agency experiences/memories/life lessons, 1975-2012
- 2-3 min tragic or down experience, 2010-2012
- A super, before closing credits, with some details about the celebrity and cause featured in the opening scene, with thanks for guest appearances
Additional content and structure—
- Each part (youth, college, agency) will end with a hook for the next episode, usually as a cliffhanger. This means multiple hooks/cliffhangers will be incorporated into each episode.
- Each episode will also feature at least one sports play which will usually be an important highlight significant to the outcome of a game and will also be used metaphorically to represent some life lesson.
- The season timeline will interconnect like a spiral staircase so that the end of the season youth section shows Leigh’s physical and psychological/spiritual growth that approximates the beginning of the season college section. The college days end of season will tie into the beginning of the agency days at the season start.
- Educational content will be woven into the narrative so that audience members of all backgrounds will gain greater knowledge of professional football in terms of game rules, strategy, positions, plays, game season, championships, agency, contracts, draft season, etc.
Role of music—
Music is often selected in the postproduction process, but sometimes it is integral to a story. We will seek intellectual property rights for musical performances in conjunction with the appearance of famous musicians that are significant to various parts of the story. For example, when including characters such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Jimmy Hendrix, or Jim Morrison, it will be vital to include their music.
TV series bible (initial ideas)—
The role of people, places, and objects will be tracked through multiple series as each, and the relationships between them, become dynamic embodiments of multiple concepts and emotions that the audience will experience. Character change is their arc, but places and objects also change. And encounters with them add layers of meaning to a story. For example, how many ways could a guitar signed by Elvis Presley be brought into the narrative? How many different emotions and memories can the audience share with one simple object? What if this or similar objects were lost, stolen, sold in desperation, destroyed in anger, or given away in a charity raffle? The same applies to the many locations, such as sports venues that are essential to the story. What happens over time to the LA River, Dodger Stadium, or the East Los Angeles Interchange? Story opportunities abound.
Here is an example of how a simple, token gift could become a charged object used throughout the story to layer its emotional and spiritual depth: In an embellished piece, Warren Moon gives Leigh a “World’s Greatest Dad” coffee mug as an expression of appreciation after signing his Houston contract. Leigh is not married and has no kids, but Warren uses a marker to ex out the Dad and writes in Agent. “World’s Greatest Agent”. Leigh displays it on a shelf where it may reappear in scenes several times combined with new, emotionally significant events, like getting married and having children. At some point, a housekeeper decides to wash the mug, but it erases Warren’s modification so that it is almost invisible. Later Leigh struggles with his father’s death who is the world’s greatest dad to Leigh. Leigh also struggles with self-doubt as a father, and this fuels his tendency to use alcohol as an escape. The concept provides a bittersweet backdrop to the final episode of the season, The World’s Greatest Agent, as Leigh deeply desires to also live up to the fatherly title.
Leigh’s eventual struggle with alcohol will be an integral part of the series story engine. He is unaware of his propensity for alcoholism, as are most of those around him for many years. The audience has the advantage of seeing into his future, and this creates a dramatic tension fueling questions by the audience that need to be answered. This tension remains unresolved throughout the first season. The audience will even be kept guessing as to whether the story ends tragically. Because sobriety in this case requires a lifelong commitment to maintain, the dramatic tension from this can carry forward into many future seasons, even if they explore the later years of Leigh’s life. It might be useful to incorporate one of the 12 steps to recovery in each of the 12 episodes of the first season.
Example of the first season:
Season 1 (Big idea: How to Change the World)
Ep.1—The Biggest Game (Concept: Viewing life as the Biggest Game.)
- Introduction—brief narration: Logline in Leigh’s words
- Youth era (Lesson: You is they.)
- Steinberg brothers at OK Corral
- Muttonhead Club Meeting
- First baseball game
- Urgent family matter (cliffhanger #1)
- College era (Lesson: Take ownership of the challenge.)
- Vietnam War protest/arrest/parent support
- Elected student body president
- Sightseeing with Jimmy Hendrix
- Debating Ronald Reagan (hook)
- Agency era (Lesson: Life/The “Biggest Game” is about negotiation.)
- Cameron Crowe learns from Leigh on the road
- 1996 Super Bowl: The Cowboys face the Steelers
- Jerry Maguire‘s success: Show me the money! (hook)
- Tragic era (Lesson: Take action. Negative example.)
- The passing of Leigh’s father
- Drinking
- Conclusion—brief narration: “It’s going to get much, much worse.” (cliffhanger #2)
Ep.2—For the Love of the Game
Ep.3—Offsides
Ep.4—Out of Time
Ep.5—Out of Bounds
Ep.6—Out of Luck
Ep.7— By the Playbook
Ep.8—Game Day
Ep.9—How the Game Was Won
Ep.10—Gamechanger
Ep.11—Champions
Ep.12—The World’s Greatest Agent
