Sitcom: CONFLICTby CCoB `85

This ethnically, politically, and socially valuable “Now” statement deals with a woman of the eighties trying desperately to cope with the “situation” of “today” while simultaneously trying to raise, but not “hassle,” three minority teenagers who want to “do their own thing” and “find out who they are,” but still have time for sexual intercourse.

The opening camera shot is of a war ravaged slum somewhere in New Jersey. Woman of the Eighties walks out of her room and finds the bourgeois chauvinist Nazi landlord stepping over the rubble to collect the rent.

WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: And what can I do for you Mr. Angloe?
MR. ANGLOE (sneering): I’ve come for your rent. I realize that I’m a month early but since you’re a woman and you have three minority children I’ve decided to collect your rent a month earlier than the normal middle class families upstairs.
WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES (rolling up sleeves): Hey, now listen for just one…
MR. ANGLOE: C’mon, c’mon, cough up the cash and then you can get back to your knitting, or whatever it is you members of the weaker sex do.
WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: Well, you chauvinist nazi you, you’ve got another thing coming because I may be a woman of the eighties trying to make it in the eighties, but I am going to make it… DAMMIT!

(Audience: oooooh, tell him, alright, yeah)

MR. ANGLOE: No matter what you say, as long as you’re a divorced woman with three teenage kids, the rent comes to me early!! (Angloe exits laughing)

(Secure and very beautiful now generation enters room. Applause and shouts of encouragement. )

RAUL: Hey, Mom of the eighties, what’s going on?
ETHNICA: Yeah, mom, is it a frustrating social conflict?
LO-QUIA: She looks as depressed as the economy!

(A roar of laughter and violent applause)

WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: No kids, it’s nothing, just a small hassle. But hey, I mean, I can handle it.
ETHNICA: Er, uh, speaking of hassles mom, my boyfriend has been ragging on me because I won’t “do it.” I feel so guilty.
WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: Do you feel you have to “do it”?
ETHNICA: Well, like, everyone else is “doing it.”
WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: Do you want to be like everyone else who’s “doing it,” or do you want to be you?
ETHNICA: I feel so much pressure, and you don’t understand where I’m at!! I hate you, I hate you because you’re almost forty!!

(Ethnica runs outside crying, Woman of the Eighties collapses on bean bag couch and tries to “work it out”)

WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: She’s, she’s right. I’m forty years old today and I can’t bridge the “gap” anymore. I’m failing in the eighties!
RAUL: Hey mom, hang in there.
LO-QUIA: Yeah, have some drugs.
WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: Oh no, drugs!! What do you kids think you’re doing….. DAMMIT!

(Audience- oh wow, drugs!)

RAUL: Hey Mom, don’t worry, everybody’s doing it!
WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES (overacting): I can’t believe you kids, where are your values>/i>? (Enter Mr. Angloe)
MR. ANGLOE: O.K., pay up or you and those freaky kids get out!
LO-QUIA: Hey Angloe, you and your generation can--
MR. ANGLOE: Oh go take some drugs and die!
LO-QUIA, RAUL: (self-realization) We understand now Mom. (to Angloe) Through your ignorance you have shown us the way.
MR. ANGLOE: Creeps, Potheads……… Commies!
WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: Just who the Hell do you think you are, Mister?!

(Audience erupts in applause. Everyone jeers Angloe, College students overturn a VW outside the studio)

WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: I mean it’s one thing to “come down” on a woman who’s trying to “find herself”, but I won’t allow you or your society to attack three teenagers who “know where they’re at.” I don’t need your lousy apartment, I’ve got my respect!

(Audience destroys seats and begin futile revolution)

MR. ANGLOE: but…… but…… (Enter Ethnica)
ETHNICA: Mom, I’ve just been to see my boyfriend and I’ve never felt so fulfilled in all my life.
WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: Oh no, you mean……
ETHNICA: Yes, I turned him down. I’m not ready for that kind of commitment yet. Thanks for having so much faith in me as an individual.
WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: Whew!!, er, uh, yes, I will always have faith in you, and your generation. But for now, let’s get out of here and go where the air is fresh!
MR. ANGLOE: You can’t do this, I’ll, I’ll……
WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: Goodbye Mr. Angloe, and I hope you realize someday just “who you are”, because you really deserve to know yourself in relation to the society you represent!

(Audience rushes stage and lynches Angloe, then races into the street to molest traffic cops)

An outside Camera pans to V shot of the Woman of the Eighties and her family in front of their apartment.

WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: Well, we lost an apartment but we saved our relationship with each other. C’mon kids, we can go live with my divorced husband and say goodbye to conflicts forever!

(A man in a business suit walks up to Woman of the Eighties and hands her a telephone. “For you,” he says.)

WOMAN OF THE EIGHTIES: Yes, hello? What, my husband was killed by a car (pause) a white man’s car!?!

(The camera freezes on her anguished face and the credits roll by slowly.)

TO BE CONTINUED