The Pursuit of Happiness Just Seems a Bore

1. INT. OFFICE. MORNING

A small yet industrious office is bustling. People are arriving and sitting down to their work. Others are chatting in the tea room. We pass by the cubicles, noting interesting items on desks. On one desk sits a plaque that reads: 'One of these days I gotta get myself organizized'
We stop at an occupied desk. There sits a girl in her early 20s, very well-dressed - and we're talking high street brands all the way here, appears to be on the phone. A flooded in-tray threatens to flood her desk, which would take out a framed photograph sitting on her computer's monitor.

We close in on the girl in order to catch her conversation.

REBECCA

Hello, you've reached Rebecca Gibbons, Marketing Officer for -

She looks up at her computer, and sees an appointment on her work calendar.

REBECCA
- oh, for fuck's sakes. This sucks.

We hear a beep on the phone, followed by an automated voice.

VOICEMAIL MESSAGE

Greeting saved.

Rebecca hears this and her eyes widen. She quickly tries to re-record the greeting.

***

This is something I had in mind for an episode that I'm tentatively calling The Dare. I've blogged about this idea in an earlier post; about the housemates acting like children for a week. I've also been thinking a lot about Rebecca and some of the themes she represents. I think that she can be quite a reserved person and something extreme would have to occur for her to let loose in this way.

I was at a staff retreat last week and I think that I would like to recreate (and exaggerate) moments from it. Not least because it totally reminded me of the training day episode of The Office. Sadly no one quit. Perhaps luckily, no one asked any of us out on a date, mistakenly thinking we'd split with our partner. This is just a rough draft and I wrote it several minutes before this. And I'm writing it under the influence of many cold and flu tablets, an annoying phlegmy cough and a crap runny nose, so it's possibly a big pile of crap, but hey - that's where you come in, dear readers (ok, Jessica)!

A couple of notes: I wanted to give Rebecca a name that referenced a famous character who has lived through office politics for comic effect. I felt Canterbury would be too obvious and looked toward Office Space. The protagonist of that absolute gem of a film is named Peter Gibbons.

The plaque that reads 'one of these days I gotta get myself organizized' is a reference to Taxi Driver. Do I need to elaborate on that?

Also, as always, the script formatting in this post is no reflection of my ignorance of, well, script formatting. It's the best I can do after copying and pasting from CeltX. K? Alright.

Not sure where to go next. I would like to do an episode more or less centred on Rebecca. I do like the idea of using one particular character to introduce a theme that will affect everyone. I think The Dare will be Rebecca's introduction of a theme, just as I see Francis doing the same in The Great Goldstein and both Dan and Sam in our pilot. But this is merely a jumping off point to start negotiations, if I may quote Cher Horowitz. And I may.

Watch this and marvel at how at just 15, Dakota Fanning wins at life more than you.

- S