The Garbage Man
A Show Proposal
OVERVIEW
The Garbage Man is a six part limited series of one hour shows. The show centers around Tony Ferrara’s family and how he has been hiding from the mafia for years. Tony used to work for the mob, but he decided to leave and start a new life in California. After years of living outside of Los Angeles and by a chain of events and circumstances, the mob finds Tony and tries to rub him out. Tony out wits the hitman several times, but knows his luck is running out. He engages his unwilling son-in-law to help him slip away from the mob, but now his secret is out. He has to confess his association with the mob to his son-in-law. Not even Tony’s wife and daughter knew he had mob connections. Through a series of decoys, booby traps, hiding in plain sight to engaging all of the family’s abilities and imagination, a plan is hatched as how to catch the mobsters and send them all to jail.
But it’s never that easy. Even from jail, our mafia family reaches out to destroy Tony and his family. Each of our characters learn new abilities of each other that help them conquer the mobsters.
The show is a combination a buddy picture and mob drama. The characters learn and grow and find the true meaning of family and integrity.
JOSH WEISSMAN
Early 40’s – New York/East Coast – quick thinking, quick talking, honest and a little bit of a nerd. He is a film producer, producing commercials, country music videos, promos, tv specials, but fancies himself as a film maker since he also knows how to edit and can also shoot. His wife and children mean the world to him. He is always trying to re-invent himself to move up the ladder of the film business. His father had said to him when he went into the film business that he was TOO nice a guy for such a cut throat business, yet Josh has succeeded in his little knitch of the film world.
EVELYN FERRARA
Also in her late 70’s, she is Tony’s wife. Her family means everything to her. She loves to cook and always over cooks and believes left overs are the Italian way of life. She is a fierce negotiator, beware of her haggling abilities. And if she feels she has been wronged as a customer, feel sorry for the customer service agent that has to deal with the wrath of Evelyn. Even though she never went to college, Evelyn worked as a legal secretary and learned a lot about the law and can argue any point to oblivian. She also knows short hand and taught her daughter how to write and read short hand and they use it to pass indecipherable notes to each other.
TONY FERRARA
Tony is in his late 70’s. He is from the Bronx, NY and worked as a sanitation engineer, or as we know it, a "garbage man". He retired early to collect a pension and enjoy life. He is proud of his Italian background and growing up in the Bronx, but he is mostly proud of his daughter and grandchildren. He wishes his daughter had married an Italian and is unhappy that they moved to California, but decided to leave his world behind and join his daughter and grandchildren in California.
VINCENT ASCOLI
Vincent is a mob boss from the Bronx who bought a restaurant in Little Italy in Manhattan. He is also in his 70’s and grew up with Tony. He is arrogant, yet friendly…friendly while he shoots you in your back.
He lives by the line from the “God Father” that says “keep your friends close and your enemies closer. “ He can be charming, but he is jealous and suspicious of everyone. He is a small mob boss with a big ego. He has tried to get noticed by the bigger crime families, but they don’t seem to care about his business and ignore him.
LOUISE WEISSMAN
Early 40’s – New York / Bronx accent – a lot like Marissa Tome in My Cousin Vinney. She is married to Josh. Good looking with a nice figure, but always dresses down, doesn’t wear designer clothes. She’s very smart, but the New York accent makes her sound more street savvy. She used to be an accountant at a big 5 firm and when her kids were born, she decided to become a school teacher, not only getting her teaching degree, but her masters in reading comprehension. She is currently a 1st grade school teacher.
LITTLE VINNEY
Little Vinney is Vincent’s nephew on his brother’s side. He is in his mid 50’s. He is cocky, constantly angry and jealous of everyone. He never works hard, always tries to take a short cut and rushes into situations without thinking them through. He’s a bully that belittles everyone he knows and has a “Short Man’s Complex” attitude that he has to prove himself to everyone. He is a sloppy, ruthless killer that somehow has eluded getting caught by the police, but his time is running out.
EPISODE BREAKDOWN
PILOT EPISODE
“Tony Ferrara - I Found Him”
Introduction to Josh Weissman – TV Producer. He’s on set organizing the shoot and making the director look good. No one seems to notice, but his input and organization keeps the shoot going smoothly and without any problems. Trying to further his career and at the same time make the director look good, Josh gets caught in a situation that causes the shoot to go into overtime. Rather than hear the wrath of his executive producer, Josh donates 4 days of his pay to put the job back on budget.
After the shoot, the key crew members go out for dinner and of course the director thanks everyone, except Josh. All disband and go their separate ways, but before Josh and the director head to the hotel, Josh invites the director to join him for a late night snack. They enter a small Italian restaurant/bakery in Little Italy so Josh just can buy some Cannoli. As they walk in, they seem to be disrupting a meeting.
A group of six mobster looking guys are sitting around a table. Josh asks for a cannoli, but the guy behind the counter tells them they are closed. The owner, Vincent Ascoli, interrupts and offers the guest some cannoli. They start up a conversation and low and behold, Vincent thinks he knows Josh’s father-in-law. They say their good nights and Josh leaves. Vincent puts a tail on Josh to find Tony, Josh’s father-in-law.
Little Vinny, Vinny Ascoli’s nephew, is a hitman that tails Josh and the director to the airport. He unfortunately loses Josh, but continues to follow his director friend. A few days later, Little Vinney follows the director to an outdoor movie set.
He not only spots Josh, but Josh has brought Tony to watch the action. Little Vinny phones his uncle back home to say Tony is alive and living in California.
EPISODE 2
“Little Vinny - New Yorker in California”
The next morning, Tony comes home from the gym to find Little Vinny sitting at his kitchen table. Tony’s wife, Evelyn let him in when he told her he was an old friend from New York. Tony sends Evelyn on an errand. Little Vinny starts talking about how Tony ran out on the family and how he’s going to take him out. Tony grabs a pot on the stove that has boiling water and tosses at Little Vinny, burning his face then bangs the pot over his head knocking him out. Tony ties Little Vinny up and tosses him in the trash the next morning. Tony then pulls out a package of evidence that he has kept against the mobsters and mails it to the FBI.
After Little Vinny is dumped at the trash heap, he breaks free and wanders into a remote gas station where he calls his Uncle in New York. Mob Boss Vincent gets a couple of guys and they head out to California to go pick up Little Vinny and finish the job themselves.
Tony gets a tip that Vincent is coming to take him out and he realizes that he’s crossed a line and needs to get his family out of town as he sets up a plan and waits for the FBI to discover the evidence that he sent them. He buys tickets for a cruise and announces that he’s sending everyone on a cruise the next morning! But explains that he won’t be joining them.
Just as the family is about to board the ship, Josh gets a call for a job opportunity that he has been waiting to hear for years and pleads with his wife not to go, she finally agrees. Meanwhile, Tony has set up several traps inside his house as he waits for Little Vinny and his team. Little Vinny and two of his “assistants” arrive at Tony’s house while Mob Boss Vincent takes a Hollywood “Star Tour” to be seen out in public. Little Vinny and his team separate and go for different entrances to Tony's house. As soon as each of them enter, “Home Alone” style booby traps go off and knock each gangster out. Tony makes his getaway and heads to Josh’s house.
Tony arrives at Josh’s house and sneaks in the back of the house. Shortly after, Josh comes home to prepare for his big meeting. Tony is shocked to see Josh and Josh is confused as to why Tony is at his home.
EPISODE 3
“Josh Weissman - The Plan”
Tony is having second thoughts as to his actions and knows that it will bring on more retaliation from Mob Boss Vincent. His anxiety is building. Josh packs up for his meeting and Tony asks to tag along in the car.
Josh goes to the meeting of his career, to pitch script ideas to a big Hollywood agent. Tony’s anxiety has reached a breaking point and decides that he needs Josh’s help to put the mobster in jail. Tony breaks into the meeting, grabs Josh and exclaims that the mob is after him and he needs his help now if he wants to save his family. They leave the office. The agent is dumbfounded at first, yet blown away at what a memorable meeting.
Tony confesses everything to Josh, tells him of his association with the mob and asks for his help. They go back to Josh’s home and work on a plan. A montage follows showing Josh working on his plan through the night.
Morning comes and Josh is on the move. Josh puts his plan in motion. He and Tony go to a meeting with an art director and stunt coordinator. Next, to set himself up as bait for the mob to follow him. They take the bait and follow Josh, who leads them to Tony.
The Plan: Josh has set up a fake film shoot in which Tony will appear to be killed as they arrive in the middle of a bank robbery and police have cornered the crooks. Tony follows the made up script and drives into the middle of a fake police shoot out as the mobsters watch. Tony and his car seem to get blown up in the gun battle.
The mob confirms a burnt out body that appears to be Tony and travels back to New York. By this time, Tony’s evidence finally arrives at the FBI, who in turn arrest the mobsters back in New York.
The FBI questions Josh as to Tony’s whereabouts, but Josh truly does not know. CUT TO –
Tony and Evelyn on a cruise ship. The episode ends with Vincent, the mob boss, in jail, calling his niece, asking her to spy on Tony’s daughter.
EPISODE 4
“ Louise Ferrara”
The prison visiting room is dingy and filled with visitors and prisoners. Mob boss Vincent is sitting at a booth. His niece, Donna, who works at Vincent’s restaurant comes in and sits down across from Vincent. Vincent remembers that Donna went to school with Tony’s daughter and has asked her to go to California and find her, spy on her to find Tony’s whereabouts. He thinks Tony is alive and wants to make him suffer. Donna hesitates, remembers Louise as her childhood friend. She is not caught up in the business and doesn’t want a part of it. He convinces her that it would be a paid vacation and she is only gathering information, not doing anything illegal. She finally agrees.
Tony’s daughter, Louise Ferrara Weissman, is a very busy mother of two boys. She is a first grade teacher. She dismisses her class and packs up a bunch of work and heads out. She picks up her sons and gets them home from their school and tells them to get their uniforms on. “Let’s go or we will be late” she yells down the hallway. The older boy comes out in a baseball uniform and the younger boy comes out in a Karate Gi. Louise has changed into sweat pants and a loose tee shirt. They hop in her car and away they go. Louise drops the older son off at baseball practice, sees another mom and asks if she can drop him off at the karate studio after practice and the mom agrees. Then off to karate.
Louise and her younger son get to karate class in the nick of time. Her son goes to the mat and starts to practice. Louise pulls papers out of her bag and starts to correct them. Other moms are nearby talking, gossiping, bragging. They are wearing fancy exercise outfits. Their hair, make up and nails are perfect, as if they are going to a photo shoot. One of the moms talks about her son having a problem at school. Louise, with her thick New York accent, interrupts and gives her a teacher’s prospective. The other moms giver her attitude and talk down to her, which infuriates Louise. The mom with the problem is quiet.
Karate class is over and it’s time for the adults to do Cardio Kick Boxing. Louise’s son sits down and she has him work on his homework. Louise goes out onto the mat along with the other moms. Music comes on and you can see Louise is furious. She does fierce karate moves, kicks and spins. The other moms look like amateurs, more worried about their nails and messing up their hair and catching the instructor’s eye, than actually exercising. In time with the music, Louise does a running, spinning round kick to a karate dummy and knocks it to the ground and finishes with another “air” kick, all in time with the music. She had gotten the instructors attention and he praises her work. The other moms try to get the instructor’s attention, but he ignores them. They are not here to work out, just to show off. As class ends, Louise’s other son enters. They gather up their things and head to the car. As they get into the car and pull out, we see Donna in her car watching them leave.
At home, Louise is making dinner (still in her sweat pants) as Josh walks in. He talks about his latest commercial and how bad the traffic was as he sets the table for dinner. We find out that Tony and Evelyn have been living on cruise ships, going from one cruise to another. Louise and Josh talk about joining them on their next cruise and need to book travel. After dinner, Josh cleans up and then pulls out his computer and books the cruise and a flight for the four of them. He hits print then checks on the kids. Louise had gone inside to read the kids a book and he finds the boys in bed asleep with Louise also sleeping in the younger son’s bed. Josh helps her up and guides her exhausted body to their bedroom and tucks her into bed.
Next afternoon, same routine, except Louise has a Marinara sauce on the stove. They all leave abruptly doing the same routine, late as always. Moments later, we see Donna slip into the back yard and climb through a window.
While Louise’s younger son does his Karate, the mom from the day before asks Louise questions about getting reading help for her son. The three others roll their eyes as if to say Louise is below their status. Time for cardio kick boxing. Louise lets out all of her aggressions and her new friend follows and they laugh.
After snooping around the house a bit (and finding Louise’s old High School Year book and reminiscing and seeing her own class photo), tasting Louise’s sauce and approving, she finally finds a note about Tony and Evelyn’s cruise, then finds the flight itinerary in the printer along with the cruise information. She takes photos when suddenly, she hears Josh walk in. Donna gets scared. She hears him working in the kitchen and sneaks out the back door, almost getting caught.
Donna reports back to Vincent and he tells her to head to Miami and get on that cruise ship. She tells him she did what he asked and now she is done. Vincent tells her otherwise and that she will meet a "crew" and she needs to point the family out to them so they can set up an “accident” and then you are done.
EPISODE 5
“The Cruise – Part 1”
As usual, Josh and Louise are running late. They just get to the airport and check their luggage, go through security with the kids and finally get on the plane. Josh has used his mileage to bump them all up to business class and the kids are amazed. Josh and Louise snuggle together and fall asleep. Once they arrive in Miami they find out that Louise’s luggage is lost. All of her clothes, dinner dresses, make up, everything was in that bag. The airline says they will deliver it to her tomorrow to her hotel. She informs them that she will be on a cruise! Louise starts to cry. All she has is the silly Tee Shirt and Sweat Pants that’s she is wearing. They don’t have time to go shopping, they need to head to the ship and get on before it leaves. The family waits in line to get onto the ship. The line is long and winds around. Louise notices Donna, does a second look and can’t believe it’s her old friend. She can’t see her in sweat pants. She starts to cry again. The line does a switch back and as they move forward, Louise comes face to face with Donna. They greet each other and Donna says they’ll have to have a drink on board the ship later. Josh calms Louise down by saying they can buy something on the ship or tomorrow in the first port. Josh, Tony and the boys get a private tour of the ship including the Audio Visual room at Josh’s request (using the excuse that he’s a TV Producer scouting future locations). In the A.V. room, they are shown how they make announcements to the ship, control music and videos all from one computer. Later at dinner, Donna comes by the table and says hi to everyone and Louise reminds Tony and Evelyn who Donna is. Tony remembers who she is related to and jots a note and hands it to Evelyn then excuses himself to go to the restroom. Tony never comes back after he leaves. Evelyn reads the note and covers for him, says his stomach wasn’t feeling well. Later that night, Josh and one of their sons is kidnapped trying to flush out Tony. Evelyn finds a ransom note in her room to meet at the casino with Tony. Louise and Evelyn team together to figure out that the mob is still after Tony. Louise goes to the on-ship store and buys the sexiest outfit they have. Evelyn goes to get the authorities.
There are 3 hitmen looking for Tony. They tie Josh and his eldest in a the A.V. room. Josh realizes where he is and figures out how to start recording everything the mobsters are planning. He records their confessions on camera. They are going to meet his wife in the casino and exchange Tony for Josh and their son. The hitmen leave and lock the door behind them.
EPISODE 6
“The Cruise – Part 2”
Louise walks into the casino and everyone’s head turns. Josh watches Louise on the security cameras. She is dressed to the 9’s as she enters the casino.
Josh can’t figure out what she is doing. Louise sits down at the blackjack table next to the lead mobster that she was supposed to meet. Before he could talk, she tells him that the authorities are on their way and he’s in big trouble. He shows her that they have also captured Evelyn and now she’s tied up with Josh. She looks around and see’s the other hitmen closing in on her. He tells her to join him, but she splashes her glass in his face and makes a big scene and gets him thrown out of the casino. As he is being escorted out, he signals to his hitmen to follow Louise.
Louise exits the casino and is followed by two hitmen. Josh, Evelyn and the older son watch on the video screens. They feel they have to do something. Josh calls out to SIRI to call the police, but Siri says there is no service, they are out to sea.
The two hitman grab Louise, but her youngest son comes out of nowhere and defends her. He does a spinning round house kick and lands it on the back of one of the hitmen’s knee. He drops like a house of cards. The kid then grabs the hitman’s hand and finds a pressure point. The large man is off balance and rolls down a flight of stairs. Louise using the distraction to her aide, stomps her high heel into the other hitman's foot and then kicks him down the stairs too. Louise grabs her son and the start to run away when three more hitmen corner them. Josh watching the entire thing screams : NO! Suddenly, Tony steps out of the shadows and turns himself in. Josh comes up with an idea. He has his son grab his cell phone out of his pocket and plugs it into the ships sound system. He then asks SIRI to play Kickstart My Heart. He knows the song will unleash Louise’s fighter inside and it does.
A large, choreographed fight ensues with Louise and her son taking out all of the bad guys including a chase with a zip line. Tony aids a hand to knock out the last one.
The sun is rising and everyone comes out to see what the commotion was. The ship has docked in a new port as three FBI agents rush to the scene and arrest all of the mobsters. Josh tells them about the recorded confessions too. Donna finds Louise and apologizes. Said she had to do it or her uncle would have a judge take her kids away. They hug. Donna confesses that she broke into Louise's house to find the information, but tried her sauce, which was excellent. Louise tells Donna that L.A. needs a good Italian restaurant with New York style pizza. They decide to open a New York style restaurant together in Los Angeles.
About the Creator
Mark Kalbfeld
Mark Kalbfeld is an award winning producer, director, editor and writer for over 25 years. Mark has produced TV specials, commercials, documentaries and hundreds of network promos and music videos, plus EPKs, Still Shoots and long form videos including multi camera music concerts. He knows production, truly from concept to shoot and the entire post production process and therefore can speak to all departments with knowledge and in their terms.
Mark is an extremely optimistic person and his team spirit truly inspires everyone on the set, so much so, that he consider’s himself the Ted Lasso of production.
The Garbage Man is a personal project for Mark. The character of Josh Weissman, the producer, is based on Mark’s personal career and relationship with his New York, Italian father-in-law. The Tony Ferrara character is based on his actual Father-In-Law (not the part about him helping the mob though). When first dating his one and only daughter, Tony had some trepidation of a non-Italitan man dating his daughter. After getting married and moving to California didn’t help the relationship. But just as in the story, Tony and Evelyn moved out west to be close to their daughter and grand children. Over time, Mark and Tony’s relationship grew and Tony grew to respect Mark for is career and his love of his daughter and their children.
Louise Ferrara Weissman’s character is based on a combination of Mark’s actual New York based wife, Marissa Tomei’s character, Mona Lisa Vito and Marvel’s The Black Widow. She is a strong character who can be tough yet loving.
As for the production stories, these are based on true life experiences that happened to Mark over his decades of his career, from dealing with incompetent camera personnel, to the meals in Little Italy after a New York shoot, to walking into a restaurant to get a cannoli and being face to face to what seemed to be a mob meeting. Productions are filled with strange stories, characters and sometimes ridiculous situations that the producer needs to solve.
To view some of Mark’s work click here: www.markkalbfeldproducer.com
Contact Information
Frames Per Second Productions, Inc
Executive Producer - Mark Kalbfeld
310-497-1645
