Sophomores: The Complete Second Season on DVD OCTOBER 11th; Script Book Out OCT. 4th

Season 2 DVD TRAILER: http://youtu.be/T4e9pQB1058?hd=1

College is a battlefield for these six returning SOPHOMORES, who return to Bardell University for a second semester of new mysteries, new faces, and new drama.
When former sorority president Jessi Ann Hodes goes missing over break, the entire campus is under investigation and everyone is a suspect.
Everyone, that is, including bright-eyed Margeaux Peters, who juggles her new job at the school paper with her new T.A. boyfriend, Clive Jenkins, now convinced that his life calling is in the arts, Lizabeth Martin, who ruffles feathers with a vicious campaign for Pi Rho Gamma presidency, Luke Jameson, who dives in too deep with his Alaskan girlfriend, and the born-again Jackie Copeman.
Between the rivalries, rumors, and revelations, the sophomores class is pushed to the brink… And not everyone will make it out alive.

Executive Producers: Yonas Michael & Sharon Ezra
Associate Producers: Jesse Brooks, Evin Fowler, Jennifer Mardis, Anjelis Singh, Katie Adkins

Sophomores Vault: Episode 2.04 “Empty Fish Tanks” (Writer’s Blog)

Howdy, everyone! It’s Yonas AND Sharon here this week, coming to you with an all-new Sophomores Writer’s Blog! We co-wrote Episode 4 “Empty Fish Tanks” together and it’s definitely one of the more upbeat, fun episodes of the season. So, let’s get into it!

This week, it was all about Clive, his art, and his crazy girlfriend. And the imminent breakup.
Y: I thought it was a really fun story between Clive and Renee because everyone kind of saw it coming, with their relationship the way it’s been since “Murphy’s Law.” And I thought it played out in an entertaining way but it’s sad the way it had to end.
S: Yeah, it was a light-hearted episode that took a very dark turn towards the end. Clive is a fan favorite and seeing him finally vulnerable actually makes you more attached to him. You actually feel bad for him. For the first time, you’re not rooting for him and Renee. [They’ve] always been the couple you’re rooting for, but not anymore after what Renee does to him. You just don’t want to see him get hurt like that.
Y: I completely agree with you, Sharon. I was completely all for Clive and Renee in Season 1 and I think, after getting a really good idea of how selfish Renee can be, it felt like the natural direction to take their relationship in. I guess now everyone’s going to want to know if and when they’ll get back together…
S: …Which is something that will play out through the season. Even though they broke up, they still are essentially “the” couple people are following on the show. While Luke and Sniki are more of a comedic couple, people get more invested in Clive and Renee and, through their ups and downs, you’ll just have to see what happens.

This week, it was also about undercover celebrities. Specifically, Calista Clearwater.
Y: Oh, Lizabeth. This storyline was so much fun for me because it showed, like last week’s, a more light-hearted, comedic side of Lizabeth’s character. What did you think?
S: I loved it because, for the first time, Lizabeth is not the queen bee and somebody else is making her feel like they’re better than her. So, you’re seeing a whole new side of Lizabeth where she’s looking for acceptance, especially after you seeing her gunning for authority…
Y: Especially since she’s not even trying to be #1, she’s trying to be Calista’s #2, like a glorified assistant basically.
S: Yeah, that’s what I love about it. And Calista looks so much like GaGa!
Y: Eh, I’m good without Lady GaGa on our show. I think Kyla calling her “Lady BlaBla” is enough homage. So, did you know how much confusion the Calista Clearwater thing caused amongst the cast and crew?
S: What do you mean?
Y: People were asking me if she was supposed to actually be somebody. Some of the crew thought she was supposed to be Jessi Ann because of the shawl she wore last season…
S: Yeah, that’s right. People were trying to make it more than it was, which is funny because she was really just a comedic device for Lizabeth’s storyline. But we kept our mystery so secretive this year and cast and crew didn’t know until the very end, so any little detail was blown out to be a part of the mystery.
Y: It was like an ongoing Sophomores conspiracy theory.
Luke had a pretty bad week. Lizabeth killed his fish and then Sniki killed his ego.
S: I’m Team Freddie!
Y: Don’t even get me on Freddie. There was so much backstage drama with me and that damn fish, I can’t even get into all the legal issues…. But, yeah, the whole fish thing was kind of nice and showed a bit more of a sensitive to Luke. And comedic, at the same time, which is ironic.
S: Yeah. And his single is one hell of a song. Joseph (Luke) made it after the end of our first season and we had to work it in, and it’s so catchy!
Y: Don’t say it’s sooo………
S: Wa-ho!
Y: Yeah, I think the scene where he performs it for the class is actually one of my favorite scenes. I can’t tell you why, but it’s kind of reminiscent of that sardonic, screwball comedy, especially when you’re seeing the expressions on people’s faces. It’s just priceless. And I loved that we tied it back to Luke’s undying love for Margeaux.
S: (in Sniki voice) Who’s MAR-go?

So, between Renee ruining Clive’s dreams of being an artist and Sniki crushing Luke’s music aspirations, as well as Sandra objectifying Taylor Dam, the two of us realized this episode is a little sexist….
S: Not sexist! Sexual.
Y: But also sexist!
S: How so?
Y: Well, every female character in a relationship puts down and/ or ruins her boyfriend’s life…
S: …As they should….
Y: …And the guys are kind of depicted as the victims in every storyline.
S: I’m not sure if I’d go as far as call them victims. I feel like guy’s put themselves in those kinds of situations.
Y: So, you’re saying our storylines are female empowering?
S: They are in this episode. And, for a change, girls deserve it.
Y: But I just feel like we paint girls as evil and manipulative, you know?
S: I wouldn’t say that. I think it’s only in this episode… As the relationships unfold and change, the dynamics change. It’s not the woman holding the power necessarily. It goes back and forth.
Y: Of course, of course, I mean, we depict men in the wrong countless times. Luke is playing Sniki and Clive neglects his girlfriend, et cetera. It just seems like, the way it lines up in this episode happens to share the common denominator of girls being in the wrong.
S: In this episode. It was all a coincidence. This was probably the only point in the season where the storylines are in such similar places. They all spiral out of control in their own places.
We also saw Sandra getting the hots for Taylor Dam, which made Margeaux’s life a little more complicated…
Y: I thought this story was such a change of pace for us, with the advisor-TA-student love triangle to the all-faculty lunch scene.
S: It was so nice to work with the “adults” for a change, because we do so much with the students. And it was nice to see that miscommunication between faculty. It’s like we see a whole different side of Bardell, which you didn’t see any of in the first season.
Y: I thought it was neat how, even though they’re all adults, they still interact and relate to each other the way the students do. I feel like the audience wouldn’t have expected themselves to connect so much to the faculty.
S: Or to the TA.
Y: It’s also funny to me, between the staff room scene and the Margeaux-Tina scene, how sexual Sophomores jokes became all of a sudden.
S: I don’t know how it happened – I know why it happened – but it definitely added a new energy and more excitement to the mix. Our cast, whether they admit it or not, are very sexual in their jokes off-screen, which came into play at our table read in a funny way.
Y: I agree and I don’t think it necessarily progresses in this way through the season, but it’s fun to play with for the episode as a standalone.

Finally, it was light on the Jessi Ann case, but a pregnant Joy Hampton changed it all in the last thirty seconds….
Y: I LOVE JOY HAMPTON!
S: I like that she’s not in every episode, just because when you do see her it’s more special. She’s a really interesting character who we have more fun with. We use her to bring in jokes towards Lizabeth and Pi Rho and she’s very light-hearted…
Y: Which is why I find this return so interesting, because it’s involved in something so dark and mysterious as the Jessi Ann case.
S: And she’s pregnant!
Y: So, Jessi Ann was a Pi Rho Gamma girl. And, if you all remember, Alexa even told Jessi Ann in the Greek Games in Season 1…
S: “You know what this is really for.”
Y: See? We do plan ahead!

It was such a fun, entertaining, light hearted episode. But be prepared for twists and turns because the next batch of episodes will have you on the edge of your seat. In next week’s episode, “Weapon of Class Disruption”, one of our personal favorites, you’ll see a lockdown, a breakup, a demonic ritual, a gun, and the most twist on Sophomores EVER! Stay tuned, guys!

Sophomores Vault: Episode 2.07 “The Girl Who Cried Bluff” (Writer’s Blog)

April 13th, 2011

Hey  guys!  My name’s Jesse Brooks, and aside from associate-producing the show (and making a cameo appearance as southern-as-collard-greens Timothy Banks in episode 5), I wrote episode 7, “Darkumentary Vol. 2: The Girl Who Cried Bluff.”  It was a really interesting episode from a writer’s point of view: there’s a lot of backstory, a lot of swearing, and one shocker of an ending to Kyla’s sequel to last season’s “Darkumentary.”

“It’s going to be… dark.”

Yes, Kyla has made another cynical, bitter, in-your-face documentary.  But it’s a new semester, and this time around Kyla’s working with a different plot: Jessi Ann Hodes’ disappearance.  When Yonas approached me to write the episode, he had an outline of characters for Kyla to interview and points to make—and, of course, the ending.  But more on that later.

Yonas came to me somewhere around late September and enlisted  me to write a Darkumentary episode.  A big fan of Kyla’s first Darkumentary, I jumped at the chance.  Yonas and I quickly discovered that writing an episode like this is a completely different process from a standard “Sophomores” episode for one simple reason: the other episodes exist in the “Sophomores” universe, and Darkumentary exists in Kyla’s universe.  Essentially, the difference boils down to: Kyla’s universe has a whole lot more f-bombs.  Aside from the swearing, things work a little differently in these episodes to stick to a documentary style; dialog has to be more natural, and characters have to feel a bit more real.

I think what I enjoyed most about the episode was writing the dialog.  Coming up with lines for our more comedic characters like Shannon and Joy gave me a little room to be ridiculous, resulting in Joy’s crusade to adopt Kyla and Shannon’s borderline stalker-like loyalty to Jessi Ann (“I recognized her from school… so I followed her to her car.”).  I also had fun toying with the Kyla/Kay relationship.  To me, Kay is sort of the devoted follower that Kyla never had (or wanted).  Thus we have the verbal abuse (“Kay?  Is it—quit f***ing around and get the f***ing camera right!”) and feelings of hatred.  In fact there’s a lot of anger in general in this episode, whether it’s directed at Jessi Ann or Kyla herself.  Not even Jessi  Ann’s own mother has anything positive to say about her “own flesh and blood,” and she’s not the only one.  As it turns out, the students of Bardell don’t really like each other.  Who knew?

Of course, this is Kyla’s movie, and she’s got some words of her own.  What I found while writing was that Kyla’s monologues reveal just as much about Kyla as they do Jessi Ann.  The Kyla Cane we have by the end of the episode is a darker, more aggressive creature than her season one counterpart.  There’s also the hint of empathy when Kyla begins to relate to Jessi Ann’s lack of a good home life.  However, just like last semester’s film, there is no sweet, sappy ending; Kyla concludes her film with a scathing rant, blaming Jessi Ann for her own fate and berating her for taking for granted her “fake friends and mindless groupies.” (Yonas refused to let Julianna replace this line with “group squad.”  I don’t know what a group squad is, but apparently Jessi Ann had one.  ”Wow, no leeway with this Darkumentary at all,” Julianna replied.)

Then there’s the revelatory ending.  After Professor Hoult instructs Kyla to shoot more for her final cut (as a side note, I think it’s just hilarious that Charles Hoult teaches both economics AND documentary film.  What’s this guy’s degree in?!), a chance meeting in the city park finds  JESSI ANN HODES slouched over on a park bench.  Yonas and I were both really excited about this scene, and envisioned it a number of ways (one including Jessi Ann completely made over: different clothes, different colored hair, etc.), but that one last line never changed: yep, Jessi Ann Hodes is still alive, and still bitchy.  Although I can’t say what the future holds for Jessi Ann, I will say this: yes, we now know the missing girl is alive and well (maybe not so well, but alive in any case).  What we don’t know is how she got to where she was.  If you thought this twist was big, just wait.  Our upcoming final three episodes are jam-packed with plot twists and surprises.

Here’s a little bonus: a scene written, but not shot for the episode shows playboy (and, apparently, strip-club preferred customer) Dorian Lang sitting in Kyla’s documentary class, watching the film.  When Professor Hoult asks for comments, Dorian raises his hand.  His comment?

DORIAN

(shouting incredulously)

I’d like to say, for the record, that I have NEVER been to a strip club and that tip was SUPPOSED to be anonymous!

OK folks, that’s it for me.  Keep your eye out for the next episode, “Let Them Eat Cake,” featuring protests, face-offs with the dean, and a… musical sequence?  Stay tuned!

Sophomores Vault: Episode 1.01 “Pilot” (Writer’s Blog)

Mar 19th, 2010

WOW, I cannot believe I’m here writing a blog about the premiere of Sophomores already… wow. I cannot begin to describe how exuberant and accomplished I’d felt today when I saw the pilot on television for the first time – on People TV, our second home now. I felt everything finally paying off and taking off, and I feel as if it’s the only beginning of many good things for us with the show. What was it like writing the pilot? Hmm… It was unlike writing every episode since, I can say that. Where as with every episode after the first, I knew my actors attached to each character, I saw where all the stories were going, and – of course – I knew what I was writing was actually going to be produced, I didn’t know any of this when I first penned the pilot. All I had was a basic idea: Talking about college life in an honest, sarcastic, and even self-depreciating way.

I started writing this episode back in September of 2009 when I first began working at GSTV and had an idea for a satire on college with these outrageous stereotypes as the lead characters. It’s hard to remember now, but I think the Margeaux/ Tina opening scene in the courtyard was the first thing I came up with. That kind of awkward-moment humor was really my basis for the series – it was why I wanted to do it in the first place. It’s funny because this show essentially came out of my disastrous year at UGA and how much during those twelve months I HATED college. But once I was out of the situation, I was able to laugh at it and reminisce on how utterly ridiculous many of those people were – the unnervingly happy roommates with their “bonding nights” you were never invited to, the gratuitously angry people who seemed to go out of their way to make you feel bad for being lost, the frustrating professors who insisted on giving group assignments, and the high-maintenance girls who acted entitled to everything down to the floor they walked on. Granted, I think the pilot was both its own self-contained parody of college life and a vehicle for these introduced characters to develop stories (and character, if you will). I think the show definitely goes the route of story-developing and becomes less about making fun of college, especially by the third and fourth episodes. While the first episode was somewhat an experiment to write, by the time I got to writing Episode 2 in early December, I had to develop the stories and know my characters more, so to speak. But, aside from its shortcomings (like it’s lack of a plot for the sake of comedic introductions), I am proud of the pilot and how it turned out. I am even prouder of where we have come since then and am excited to see where things have yet to go! Much love to everyone who has supported us and stay tuned!

-YONAS MICHAEL