Pilot submissions must consist of a "presentation" or "prospectus" containing the following

elements:

 A summary of the basic idea behind the show, including the setting, theme,
profession, etc.
 A summary of the main continuing characters, their background, appearance,
personalities, and their interaction.
 A statement of the kinds of situation in which the characters will be placed, including
what the basic structure of those situations will be, what effect these situations will
have on the characters, and what effect the characters will have on them.
 A short list of possible episodes with enough different stories to show that the series
will be viable week to week.
 A pilot script of the first episode of the show.

EXAMPLE:

"Memphis"

An Original Series Treatment

by
Eugene H. Davis
All Rights Reserved C 2001

WGA-W Reg. No. 566849

"Memphis"
by
Eugene H. Davis

Series Log Line: The young attractive daughter (fictional) of Howard Carter,
famed discoverer of Tut's tomb, penetrates supernatural worlds while recovering ancient
treasures.

Concept

This is the story of archaeologist MEMPHIS CARTER, a 26-year-old Boston beauty, and her
picaresque quest for lost treasure, as she encounters and out-smarts a host of swindlers, thieves
and montebanks met along the way.

It is also the account of one woman's personal journey, from the cloistered comfort of life under
her scholarly father's roof, to the perilous world of grave robbers, amid ancient sites rife with
contemporary intrigue as well as the supernatural.

Set in the rollicking 1930's, Memphis' initiation takes place at time when anything could (and did)
happen, a brief window between the "Great Depression" and "The War of the Worlds." Perhaps
the last romantic period of the 20th Century.

Droll "Nick and Nora's," dressed like advertisements for "Banana Republic," went on big game
safari and made love in the ruins of Pompei, or in the hidden chambers of the Great Pyramid.
Just for kicks.

It was also a time of unchecked opportunism: of nourish villains and rambling mavericks,
"bounders" out to make it rich overnight. Of "Black Widows," huntresses of men, and flappers
marathon-dancing 'til dawn for a piece of that
elusive pie.

Back then a watershed of superstition paved the way for a host of charlatans and con-artists
using the supernatural as means to less than spiritual ends. Ouija boards, séances, table-
rapping's, parapsychology, ghostly visitations, their stock in trade.

In the midst of all this unbridling, discover a reserved young woman from a sheltered
background. Her rite of passage -- from naiveté to savvy, from skeptic to psychic adept -- details
the emerging woman of the times: a pragmatic lady treasure-hunter with a foot in the occult.

Born on the banks of Egypt's Nile River at a place called Memphis, her namesake, is she not
destined for a life of adventure?

SERIES THROUGH-LINE

When Memphis engages a handsome young mountebank named SAM VERTI as "protection"
against a band of grave robbers, the scene is set for romance and fun, as they form a reluctant
partnership of necessity and guarded attraction.

This pairing develops into a new line of business for Memphis, Sam's idea, as she employs
various psychic powers, the result of a childhood accident at Tut's unveiling, to explore bizarre
mysteries interfaced with contemporary bad guys.

But Sam will never be more than her dapper bodyguard, always ready to betray and pounce after
the big score. Or will he? Ironically, it is she who invariably winds up protecting and saving him --
from himself, as well as the villains.

Their unlikely partnering will bring them a steady stream of exotic adventures, far and wide. From
primeval jungles to desert sands, from pre-historic caves to Mayan temples rivaling the wonders
of ancient Rome, from western plains to the frigid Chuckchi north.

Using her developing powers, Memphis stumbles upon the answer to enigmatic crimes and long-
forgotten mysteries. Sam supplies charm and criminal expertise.

On the home front, venerable DR. CARTER screens new offers in their absence, providing them
with wise counsel upon their return, and occasionally accompany-ing them out into the field.

MARTHA, Memphis' Irish wet nurse and the only mother she's known (hers died in childbirth),
stayed on these many years as the maid. As comic relief as well as surrogate mother, she
serves up a humorous stew of ethnic conviviality's, along with a dose of old world pragmatism.

DANTON, curator of the Boston Museum of Antiquities, 30's, and Memphis' perennial if unlikely
suitor, jealously brings her new clients and intrigue.

Every episode brings mysteries both occult and real (but never ordinary), as Memphis and Sam
recover stolen treasures, in the process unmasking a rogues gallery of clever cons and their
conniving twists (girlfriends). Against this back-drop, a cast of re-occurring and novel characters
emerge.

Of course, they always return the treasure to its rightful owner. Right? Not if Sam can help it.

FUTURE EPISODES
1. "Revenge of the Titanic" On the way back from England on a ship called the Titan, Memphis
& Sam foil a high jacking attempt and save the ship from colliding with an iceberg, when they
release the second mate from possession by a relative who died on the Titanic 20 years earlier.

2. "The Well Of Sacrifice" Temple of the Warriors, seat of the ancient Mayan civilization. When
Memphis and Sam organize a diving party to explore a subterranean well, or cenote, where
virgins were sacrificed, the jealous ghosts of the dead girls traps them in an underwater cave.
Memphis saves them by mollifying the spirits.

3. "The Resurrection of the Mary Rose" Isle of Wight, off the coast of England. An assignment
to raise the Mary Rose, a British brigadoon that went down with all hands in1565 in a battle with
the French armada, places Memphis and Sam under attack by a ghost ship. Memphis unmasks
the financier of the expedition as the perpetrator of a hoax to keep secret a rich oil deposit
beneath the Mary Rose.

4. "The Sorcerer's Tale" The Lascaux Caves, Dordogne Region, France. Site of primitive cave
drawings, 17,000 years old. While exploring the caves in search of other drawings, Memphis
discovers recent skeleton remains. The bones are identified as those of a local farmer who
disappeared mysteriously five years earlier. The most famous of the cave drawings, of a pre-
historic sorcerer with the body of an ibex, helps uncover the murderer.

5. "The Burning Ark" Mt. Ararat, Armenia. An expedition to locate Noah's ark in the wind-swept
peaks of Ararat attracts the interest of the Armenian authorities, who accuse Memphis of being a
Turkish spy. Using "psychic archaeology," trance visioning, Memphis locates what appears to be
the remains of the lost ark, only to have the find of the millennium destroyed in a crossfire
between Armenian and Turkish forces.

6. "Stonehenge Eclipsed" Salisbury Plain, England. While decoding the

famed Bronze Age astronomical observatory of Stonehenge, Memphis is stricken ill by disturbing
visions of a killing field, circa 1601, on the plains below. Traveling back in time, she finds herself
trapped in the body of a Scottish soldier battling British forces opposed to James I's accession to
the Elizabethan throne. Using Stonehenge to predict a solar eclipse, she thwarts the bloody
battle.