The return of the John Maxwell Blog

Now, if you've noticed, I haven't posted a thing here since June.  That's because of all the attention I've given my new web series, but I am making a return.  However, I should warn you that this return will be short lived for I am about to move back to my home state of Michigan and part of that move is moving stuff into storage for later pick-up.  Rest assured, I will be resuming regular updates on the blog.

For this first return, I will telling you about a recent storm my brain had.  You see, one of my favorite movies is the 1976 classic television movie Sybil, in which the lovely Sally Field plays the title character, who has 16 other personalities floating in her head.  Now, I love the movie and I love Sally but my mind turned on the old thinking cap and turned out a thought.

That thought was what I would do if I had been a producer/director/actor in the 1970s and had been presented with the book that the movie came from.  Now, I'm a television type of guy to start with but my favorite form of televison is the sitcom.  So, my mind said, if I had been in the seventies, a movie would not had been my train of thought.

Instead, I would have turned Sybil into a sitcom, but not your traditional three-camera sitcom.  You see, my favorite sitcom of all time is MASH and in the 1970s, CBS, the network that aired it, was a ratings powerhouse.  It had all the top shows and it couldn't be stopped.  So, what I would have done was gone to ABC or NBC and presented Sybil as a sitcom in the style of MASH, half comedy and half drama.  The winner would be ABC, since they needed a hit then and I love the underdog in anything.

Now, with the network in place, I would have continued onward.  Now, my mind still puts Sally Field in the title role, based on her comedy roles.  The character of the doctor would have been harder but I would have gone with Joanne Woodward if she asked for the role (and also, it would mean a chance to meet Paul Newman, American Hero).  At this stage, I would added a role for myself: the journeyman head shrink Dr. John Orville (Get it?  Orville and Wilbur?  That's how my mind runs)

At this point, a nice 13-episode first season would be given to me and I would proceed with production of the series.  I would write up my share of those first 13 shows.  My output would be typical sitcom set-ups.  Dr. Orville would be at the center as his background as middle-class makes it hard to be taken seriously by those he went to school with, upper-class slobs, so, Dr. Orville goes about padding his life, with inviting Sybil and her various selves to help him in his sitcom schemes.

Among these schemes would be:

- Dr. Orville getting invited to attend a party being held by a wealthy classmate.  Worrying that his occupation would not impress the other partyguests, he enlists the services of Sybil alter Vicki, whose psedo-French leanings impresses the party-goers and Dr. Orville finds himself invited to more parties.  However, Dr. Wilbur disapproves of it because Vicki's whole presence is due to an event that has causes Sybil to disassociate into her.

- Dr. Orville is asked by an old friend to organize a piano concert featuring a world-class pianist.  However, the pianist takes ill and is unable to attend.  Rather than cancel the event, Dr. Orville hires alter Vanessa to play.  Her beautiful playing impresses those at the concert, including a booking agent for Carnegie Hall, who hires Vanessa for a show.  Dr. Wilbur again disapproves because she thinks that the stress of the show will cause Vanessa to disassociate.

- Dr. Orville decides to write a paper on child pyschology for a major magazine.  However, his writing is slowed by a lack of a test subject to write about... that is, until Sybil disassociates into Peggy.  Dr. Orville then spends his time tending to her, while writing about what she does for his paper.  When Dr. Orville feels that his paper might give him some fame, Dr. Wilbur warns him about profitting off Sybil's pain, which comes true after Sybil returns... and leaving Dr. Orville without an ending for his paper.

- And just so you think I'm all about Dr. Orville, I have thought up a Dr. Wilbur episode, in which she, like many women, worry about old age.  Help soon comes when Sybil disassociates into the elderly Mary, whose own dour behavior on the high side of old age helps Dr. Wilbur overcome her feelings on the subject.  Dr. Orville gets involved as his youthful feelings also help Dr. Wilbur, as John feels that old doesn't exist and that one is always young.

I'm sure that a few more writers will fill in the missing pieces.  I also think that the 13-episode season I get will be the only one, as ABC put me up against MASH and MASH would sink me faster than the Titanic.  I know the power of MASH and nothing could ever put it down.  I would then take it to NBC, where I would get a few more seasons on Thursdays and quietly end after a full five years, with Sybil in one piece and Dr. Orville taking over for Dr. Wilbur in her practice.

So, in conclusion, I feel that the train of thought I had recently is a good one, and it shows that I could have made something out of someone's work and made my own additions.  Now, as said before, I have nothing against what was made out of the book about Sybil but I think of this as a different direction.  Who knows?  Maybe I can take this to a modern network and sell it.  After all, Life in Hyperion will end up on a television screen one day, so how about Sybil the TV show?

Yours truly, John Maxwell.