Additional Information
“I’ve suffered for my work… now it’s your turn!”
Seriously though, you’re not going to suffer, quite the opposite. You’re going to laugh… or at least split your sides smiling. We are going to use the absurdity of our lives (the royal “we,” not myself and my creative team) to divert our audience’s attention from their problems. That’s it. It’s that basic. I know, it’s not a revelation. People have been doing it for as long as there has been spoken word entertainment. We’re doing it with animation, which is tricky. Fuck it up and you’re canceled. South Park has been doing it well for what seems like forever, Archer did it hilariously for 15 seasons, and as for comedy clubs, well isn’t that the whole point of stand-up comedians, mock and point?
To be clear, we’re not trying to “show you the way,” make you choose between the red pill or the blue pill, change your life in any way, or get you to join our cult, although we may try to get you to drink our Kool-Aid. We’re certainly not trying to channel our inner Dr. Phil and advise and/or exploit you. We’re also not trying to make visual art, like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Blade Runner. We’re not trying to make a so-called tentpole, like Star Trek, although we wouldn’t say “no” if it happens, and we’re certainly not trying to create a ground-breaking, intellectual masterpiece like The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. Those are all great science fiction masterpieces and they have all been inspiring at one time or another, but that’s not what we’re doing here.
You see, we don’t care what you do (within reason), we’re not trying to make you think, we’re just trying to make you laugh, saints and sinners alike, although, at certain points, you may think that we’re trying to make you think. Think about that. Our show exists to amuse, distract, and to please, and not just the hard-core sci-fi fans and/or the lovers of a good joke, but everyone, and on the most basic level. Of course, we also want to earn a living at this, as well as see our characters turned into toys, endorsing breakfast cereals and whatever else pays well… beer maybe? And then there are the legitimate business concerns of our investors and the studio that winds-up giving us a deal, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Right now, I just want to spend a page or two of your time on our intellectual property (IP) and why it’s so clever. So, here are the two, run-on sentences that best sum up our pitch:
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The show is called, “The Adventures of Rocket Girl,” and it’s an animated, sci-fi, workplace comedy, set in a dystopian future, and revolving around the activities of a small department of low-level government employees who risk their lives almost daily to keep space safe from orbital debris collisions. Led by former astrogator and newly-minted, debris-hauling pilot, Duffy Delancey, aka Rocket Girl, and her alien best friend and EVA Specialist, GoGo, the whole thing takes place mostly in the orbital space surrounding Earth, but also on the low-Earth orbiting space station, Realty World IV, where the characters all live.
Pretty nice, huh? Let your imagination run with that for a minute. The comedy potential is huge and the science fiction backdrop and animation method make this worth looking at more closely.
Our show has coarse language, most of which comes from our ensemble of eight principal characters (the debris collectors), and is geared toward adults, but the 4th graders (and up) of the world will probably find a way to watch it because that’s just the way it is these days with lazy parenting, easy access to streaming services, older siblings combined with availability of tablets, and mobile phones. It’s going to happen.
So, that’s pretty big talk, right? Ideas are like assholes… everybody has one, right? Who the Hell are we, anyway? How are we even going to pull-off something like this? We’re going to do it through hard work and perseverance, obviously, and if that doesn’t work… we’ll cheat.
Our show will explore current issues and hot-button topics, wrap them in a veneer of science fiction, and top them off with comedy! The kinds of subjects our characters will experience are the very things that always seem to be in the conversation these days, and if done correctly, we will have an amusing, profitable show. If we veer off in the wrong direction, we run the risk of becoming preachy and we don’t want that. Preachy gets you canceled. We know that you know that, we just wanted to let you know that we know that as well.
Now, because our show is a sci-fi/comedy, any messages we weave throughout the story-telling process will be in a broad-stroke kind of way and not in a freshmen college lecture, or sermon-delivering kind of way. Why? Because no one gives a shit. If you haven’t noticed, the world is fucked and will remain violated as long as TikTok keeps making millionaires out of randos just because they put a camera aimed at their backside while they are working the cash register at their local convenience store, allowing middle-aged pervs to make them rich through donations; or as long as people keep fighting over stupid shit, like which octogenarian we’re going to hand-off the “nuclear football” to. Hey, here’s a clue, both choices are bad. At some point you need to take a knee and leave things to fresher, more capable minds. I’ve gone wide with this but as long as we elect people to higher office who need an afternoon nap, then we deserve to be ridiculed and mocked. That’s where we come in and until the audience realizes that what we have is not working, we will remain in danger of having our very way of life controlled by people who own more guns than they can fire (or handle) and probably fuck their pick-up trucks. Want to let an unqualified, untrained actor, singer or Internet celebrity run the second largest economy in the world? Good luck with that. People who think like that deserve to be made fun of, which is why we’re making fun of them and by “them,” I mean everyone and everything, nothing is off limits. And if you think this is a little too negative, guess what? Our show is set in a dystopian future, full of negative, sarcastic, fit people.
So, what kinds of broad subjects will we sideswipe? Glad you asked! Things like: bureaucracy and red tape; the unintended consequences of artificial intelligence; pandemics and the consequences of not maintaining good personal hygiene (the basic concept of washing one’s own hands after using the restroom still manages to elude the masses, even in our post pandemic world); recycling and ignoring the environmental impact of super-obvious things like toxic waste disposal (where do all the batteries go?); the proliferation of SPAM and telemarketing calls, and their evil neighbors, hacking and phishing and their effects on our collective sanity; and let’s not forget the uncomfortable visits from family members who think they are better than us and want to rub their success in our faces, and that’s just what we have coming out of the gate. We will also be lampooning the pervasive attitude that everything bad is “the next guy’s problem,” and the overly competitive nature of people when there is absolutely nothing at stake, like when your favorite sports team loses, so you assault a fan rooting for the other team (pick-up truck fuckers, I’m pointing at you). The general idea here is: Keep up your inconsiderate, self-destructive, me-first behavior and you will reap what you sow… probably, who knows for certain. Just remember, we’re watching and writing about it, but we’re not telling you how to fix yourselves, we’re just showing the results.
So, without padding this out further just to fill-up pages, I welcome you to the dilapidated, un-shiny, over-governed, under-funded, dystopian future! Try not to get hit in the head by a long-ago discarded toggle bolt traveling at 60,000 miles per hour, you cheese-eating, corn syrup-loving bastards!
“Just answer the question...”
Unlike daytime television, we are not going to tell you what to do about all the crap in your life, or suggest that you even have to do something about anything. Not everything is a teachable moment. We’re not the “Good-for-You Police” and besides, you should know better by now. You’re going to do whatever you’re going to do; we’re not going to stop you or help you. We just want to turn life into an animated show and display the absurdity. We want to point out the hypocrisy and persuade as many people as possible to laugh at themselves, together. Come on, we’re all-inclusive here. That’s right, we call ourselves out as a species or race or whatever, but we do it with tongue firmly implanted in cheek, we don’t get up on a soap box and tell you how to fix it. We don’t tell you what to do at all. That’s for dramas and documentaries. The only question to which the answer actually matters is this: Do you think our show is funny? And in order to answer that, we have to make it and you have to watch it. I mean, we already wrote it and created a certain number of digital assets to make episodes, so might as well finish the pilot. Other important questions adjacent to this include: Would I watch this show? Did I laugh out loud? Are the characters compelling? Do I care what happens to them? Did I get up in the middle of watching it to use the can? What does something like this cost? Are any of the characters voiced by Morgan Freeman or Michael Caine? The answer, by the way, is no. Are there boobs in it, perhaps even three boobs, like in Total Recall? It’s questions like these that we get asked a lot at comic conventions. The answer to some of these questions are the valid concerns of our growing fan base, but sweaty nerds and teenage boys aside, what matters most is the answer to the question: “Is this show funny,” and I say, “Yes!” and if you say “no,” you’re probably a bible-thumper or a communist.
So, what’s our deal? Just what exactly are The Adventures of Rocket Girl?
​Consider this: What would it be like if the Earth itself experienced another worldwide pandemic in the
semi-distant future, and what if it happened after we became a legit space faring society? What if these pandemics weren’t an isolated incident but routine? How would the personal interactions play out between co-workers who are literally trapped in a confined location (orbiting space station) and practically on top of each other, day in and day out? What if it wasn’t just pandemics but also other major catastrophes (earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, excessive rainfall in one area and drought in another), occurring more regularly than today? And, finally, how would space travel work if we continue to ignore the growing problem of orbital space debris and how it affects us all in everyday life? This includes having satellites destroyed by orbiting space garbage, some of it traveling more than 60,000 miles per hour, colliding with communications satellites and, possibly (because it’s the future) manned, passenger space craft. What would happen if mobile phone communications were wiped out because a bolt pierced the skin of a communications satellite? What would all the cheese-eating, soda-guzzling, overweight, undereducated Americans do if the Domino’s Pizza Tracker satellite went down because a wrench traveling faster than a speeding bullet obliterated it? What if chaos and mayhem become the new norm? What would our future be like? What would our lives be like? What if we, the creators of The Adventures of Rocket Girl, pointed a finger at all of it and showed you a perspective that made you laugh? That’s what The Adventures of Rocket Girl is all about! We have done so many comic-cons and pop-culture trade shows since the pandemic to be certain that there are enough consumers out there who will share our affection for Rocket Girl and her co-workers as they struggle through their comical misadventures in orbital space.
This is a story about the future and about a team of 8 brave and refreshingly competent debris removal specialists that patrol the orbital space surrounding Earth, living and operating from an enormous, yet still somehow cramped, space station. Their job: Keep Space Safe!
“What was that about the Domino’s Pizza Tracker?”
“If you lived here, you’d probably hate it by now!”
The Adventures of Rocket Girl is set approximately 120 years from now in a possible, dystopian future
and taking place, for the most part, on an enormous, orbiting space station during a government-
mandated lockdown. This one after the discovery of yet another world-wide pandemic. Sounds fun,
right? Our take is a little different than your typical dystopian future theme (mostly because this is a
comedy, not a drama), and our main characters are not in the military, in fact our show has lots of action without being saturated with militaristic themes. Most of our weapons aren’t even real. Try finding a show like that on your Roku box.
Here are ten highlights from the future:
(1) War - More wars have happened (shocker), borders have been redrawn, communities have been
wiped out with new ones popping-up all the time and what remains of humanity experiences less freedom and more scrutiny. The world of tomorrow is more like The Road Warrior and much less like
The Matrix. (2) Food – Food is almost entirely plant based and can be made to look and taste like almost anything. (3) Money – Not just on Earth but throughout the solar system, paper money has gone away and everything is on a centralized digital currency system controlled by the government. (4) Tracking - At birth, everyone is given a transfusion of smart blood, which is essentially a tracking system, it’s never caused a health issue but you do have to register yourself on your birthday like a motor vehicle. (5) Taxes – As a culture, we are are so heavily taxed that the entire solar system is a welfare state where half the population lives to support the other half and almost everything from food to medical and transportation to clothing is a government benefit. The upside is that there is no poverty and the downside is almost everyone is just getting by with just a handful of elites. (6) Freedom – Unlike most police states people are free to travel wherever they like. There are very few restrictions because anyone can be tracked. Also, the government isn’t entirely inept. They realize that the more you tighten your grip, the more that slips through your fingers. (7) Longevity – With advances in medicine and the healthcare system being available to all, people live a lot longer. About 20-30 years longer depending on genetics. (8) Transportation - Flying Cars? Yup, we finally got ‘em! They are almost entirely autonomous and only the elite can afford them. Most travel is by trains. Maglev (magnet levitation) trains, to be precise. (9) Corruption – It’s everywhere. When you are part of a race that routinely fucks over its fellow citizens for a percentage, then corruption is woven into the fabric of your very existence. (10) Government – There are so many government divisions and departments that over half the population actually works for the government, which accounts for the high tax rate. After all, that’s a lot of government employees and a lot of government pensions.
That was just ten from a long list of things that have made the people of Earth even more suspicious, litigious, bitter, belligerent, sarcastic, and cynical than they were before (if that’s even possible). It has gotten to the point where these traits are now the defining characteristics in human nature. Sympathy and empathy are all but a rumor.
But these negative personality traits aren’t the only things that define humans as a race and these traits didn’t manifest overnight. The defining characteristic that informs others about us, seems to be the chaos we create and the response that follows, most notably as it pertains to the pandemics. Almost obsessive concerns over profit and loss, run a close second. Let’s talk pandemics. We have them all the time. Some are worse than others making the really egregious ones more memorable. It’s so bad that the government is using Roman Numerals to identify them. If only human beings would just wash their hands after picking their noses, playing with themselves, or wiping their asses, our world and the solar system would be a safer, cleaner, happier place.
On the flip side, mankind has become a spacefaring species with colonies on moons and asteroids
throughout the solar system and in the near reaches of the galaxy. There are more jobs, less poverty, better and more wide-spread healthcare, and an abundance of elements from the periodic table that make life in the future simpler and certainly much easier. So, six of one, half-dozen of the other.
“Did you know …”
Here’s a fun fact about the future: In our version, just about everyone is physically fit, with only a few
medical and/or hereditary exceptions. So, yes there are a few husky or thick people out there, which
contrast sharply with the human race’s unfortunate collection of not-sold-separately personality traits. The trade-off is that many diseases, including Diabetes, Gout, Crohn’s Disease, STDs, Hemophilia and most (but not all) forms of cancer have been eradicated. There’s even a solution for most cosmetic ailments, like male pattern baldness, acne, warts, eczema, even bad breath! Pretty nice, right? I mean the disease eradication part, not the everybody being a self-absorbed, dick-bag part. At any rate, if you do get sick or your hair falls out, 99 out of 100 times, it’s easy to fix and recovery is quick and cheap. After all, your government needs you to get back to work and looking your best!
Speaking of government, let’s turn our attention to the defining characteristic of government: the Bureaucracy… Yup, in the future, we don’t run on Dunkin’, we run on red tape. There are so many layers and so many government intelligence organizations and so many procedures and rules and paper (yup, it’s the future but sometimes we kill a tree to make a point) and even more red tape because of the paper, that it’s hard to get anything done quickly. This makes it more difficult to keep a secret, but super-easy to cock things up. Oh, and did I mention the red tape?
There is life on other planets and against all odds, we have made friends. Then came the Interplanetary Culture & Labor Exchange Act, which was created to foster peaceful relations, promote interstellar commerce and invite an exchange of cultures in order to make the galaxy a better and more diverse place. The reality of the situation is that the exchange has mostly opened new pathways and methods of smuggling and other activities that well-meaning governments frown upon.
By the way, Earth has a ring around it now, just like Saturn, but it’s not rocks and ice and it did not form naturally. It’s made of garbage. That’s right, garbage, as in space garbage… refuse… discarded space debris consisting of accidentally (and sometimes purposely) jettisoned cargo, broken bathroom fixtures, lost tools and equipment, promotional items once sent into space as advertising gimmicks, and disused artificial satellites, even nuts, bolts, screws and the kitchen sink… and it’s finally become a big problem.
This is where our heroes come in…
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Here’s a list of some things you should know:
1. Leatherjack is the only “super-villain” with an animus toward Rocket Girl & GoGo
2. Dystopian means: “… a society where there is great suffering and/or injustice.” It is the opposite of ‘Utopian,’ and it doesn’t pertain to just the future or to science fiction or drama. It can be a comedy too.
3. The great villain escape from the off-world holding facility on Selk (in the pilot) is a coincidence. Basically, Leatherjack and her buddy, Barfly escape and leave all the doors unlocked so everyone else escapes. No one has any connection or relationship beyond that.
4. Unlike almost all animations in history, the laws of physics apply.