Today I’m going to talk about The Lookout, my idea for a podcast set in the Paw Patrol world.
Cassidy loves Paw Patrol, I guess because of the dogs and bright colours. So I’ve found myself watching a lot more of it than I might like, and being a cynical adult I ended up with a lot of questions about the world of the show. As a joke, I tweeted this in August:
I was pleased with my tweet and life moved on. Except…I couldn’t quite shake the idea. I kept thinking of segments I might do, or questions I’d ask, or how I could keep a count of the number of times I’d called for the Mayor’s impeachment. Also, I just really enjoy doing podcasts? Sunday Night in Canada is essentially done, and I’ve had a ton of fun guesting on Whatevertown. I’ve been thinking “Podcast” as a new creative outlet for a long time, but haven’t found an idea to seriously jam on.
What held me back from this one was feeling that the internet doesn’t really need a guy of my demographic snarking about a children’s show. So I felt like I didn’t have a good angle. Until a few weeks ago, while chatting with my friend Mike, who misinterpreted my description of the show and gave me the angle I needed:
The show is from the perspective of a citizen of Adventure Bay!
This allows me to ask the questions I want to ask in earnest rather than sarcasm, and also (if done well, which I wouldn’t guarantee) would allow for some good satire of small-town life. As Mike and I discussed, my character (the host) would be convinced that life in Adventure Bay is not normal and his mission would be to bring on guests in an attempt to gather facts and convince others. After all, don’t other towns have, you know, a police force? Fire department? Coast guard? And more importantly, aren’t those staffed by humans, rather than six dogs and a young boy of indeterminate education level?
The issues we discuss in each episode would be based on the events of a particular episode, so it retains a bit of the original “recap” idea. Guests, aka my friends and family, could be other citizens of Adventure Bay or experts in fields related to whatever just happened, and I’d interview them. The smalltown satire part is of course that nobody else thinks anything is out of the ordinary, and my character would get a benign side-eye for even questioning the status quo.
The tone would not go to edgy or mature places. Episodes would be short. Essentially people could sit at a mic, we improv Q&A for a bit, then I edit an interview and record a short beginning and capper.
So, off and on I’m working on writing the first episode. Please look forward to it!
Thing I Saw Yesterday: Six dogs in an hour at the Winnipeg James Richardson airport. I pet one of them, a rambunctious Havanese puppy.
Thing I Learned Yesterday: George Michael performed every part of “Last Christmas” himself.
I’m Grateful For: Things winding down for the holidays, and I’ve actually been feeling really good today.