| The Peter
Leroy Television Series Pilot
Chapter 18, Flying Saucers, the Untold Story, in which Peter builds a flying-saucer detector |
by Eric
Kraft
|
In Babbington, the series will run exclusively on
WCLM-TV.
|
INT. THE LEROY LIVING ROOM. LATE 1950s.
Peter is watching television; the picture is grainy, black and white.
Title, with ominous music: “Flying Saucers: The Untold Story.”
Flying saucer sightings date from the earliest times . . .ANNOUNCER(serious, scary) CUT TO:
TV PICTURE: Cheesy 1950s attempt to show prehistoric
cave-family (man, woman, boy, girl), roasting meat in front of cave, sighting
a flying saucer, which resembles a hub cap.
TV PICTURE: “Typical” 1950s American family (husband, wife, boy, girl) on the patio of a tract house, dad serving burgers from the grill, startled by the appearance of a saucer overhead; this one resembles a flying Jell-O mold.. . . and they continue to the present.ANNOUNCER (CONT’D., V.O.) TV PICTURE: The family huddling together, the father raising his spatula as if to defend them.But what are these mysterious objects?ANNOUNCER (CONT’D., V.O.) TV PICTURE: A saucer wreaking destruction on innocent citizens. A clip from a bad 1950s sci-fi movie would be perfect.Are they ships from other worlds?ANNOUNCER (CONT’D., V.O.) TV PICTURE: Pedestrians on city sidewalk, 1950s, looking upward, pointing, startled, observing a child’s balloon drifting away, but looking as if they’re seeing a flying saucer.Are they optical illusions?ANNOUNCER (CONT’D., V.O.) TV PICTURE: Two kids on a roof flinging a hub cap in Frisbee style, startling onlookers below.Or are they hoaxes?ANNOUNCER (CONT’D., V.O.) I followed the reports of saucer sightings and tried to make myself believe that they were intergalactic space ships, even though I had to admit that a lot of them looked like fakes.PETER (V.O.) CUT TO:
INT. THE LEROY FAMILY CELLAR. YOUNG PETER AT HIS WORKBENCH.
Open beside him are plans for a flying-saucer detector in Cellar Scientist
magazine. The detector is a simple device: just a few pieces of wire,
a compass needle, a battery, and a bulb.
I even built a flying-saucer detector.PETER (CONT’D., V.O.) CUT TO:
Young Peter smashing a compass to get the needle.
Just as an experiment.PETER (CONT’D., V.O.) CUT TO:
Young Peter screwing a socket to a piece of scrap
wood.
I didn’t really think there were any saucers to detect. And even if there were, I wasn’t convinced that the detector could detect them.PETER (CONT’D., V.O.) CUT TO:
Young Peter carrying his detector up the cellar stairs.
CUT TO:
INT. THE LEROY LIVING ROOM. LATE 1950s. Young Peter
enters, carrying the detector. DUDLEY BEAKER (tweedy, educated, 40ish)
is visiting. ELLA is attracted to him. BERT dislikes him.
He opens the magazine to the article.Hey, look what I made . . .YOUNG PETER(with boyish pride)Manners, Peter, manners.ELLAHi, Mr. Beaker.YOUNG PETER(grudgingly)Hello, Peter, my boy. What is that . . . device . . . you have there?DUDLEY BEAKERIt’s a flying-saucer detector. . . . See, if a flying saucer is in the vicinity, it will disturb the earth’s magnetic field . . .YOUNG PETERReally?ELLA(impressed)Well . . .DUDLEY BEAKER(with a snort)It’s what Cellar Scientist says.YOUNG PETER He gives Peter a patronizing pat on the head, and Peter cringes at his touch.Oh, Peter! Yours looks just like the one in the picture.ELLA(even more impressed)And that was built by professionals.YOUNG PETER(impressed with himself)What foolish creatures people are. They won’t accept logic and evidence . . . but they do believe in luck, and astrology, and . . . flying saucers.DUDLEY BEAKER(examining the magazine as if it were a dead fish)Saucer sightings have been traced back to prehistoric times.YOUNG PETERWow. How’d you find that out?BERT(his turn to be impressed)It was on TV.YOUNG PETERReally?ELLAYep. Every time something important happened, like killing a mammoth or seeing a flying saucer they’d run into a cave and paint a picture of it.YOUNG PETERWhy caves? Why paint in caves?ELLAWell, they lived in caves . . . they were cavemen . . . and they wouldn’t be interrupted by saber-toothed tigers . . . and other people wouldn’t be criticizing them all the time.YOUNG PETER(guessing)And there are flying saucers in cave paintings?BERTThere were on TV.YOUNG PETER(with a shrug)Flying saucers are ships from another world . . . the world of the imagination.DUDLEY BEAKER(chuckles) CUT TO:
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||
 Here
are a couple of swell ideas from Eric Kraft's vivacious publicist, Candi
Lee Manning.
You'll find more swell ideas from Candi Lee here. |
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Copyright © 2002 by Eric
Kraft
The scripts for The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy Television Series are works of fiction. The characters, incidents, dialogues, settings, and businesses portrayed in it are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this teleplay may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. The illustration at the top of the page is an adaptation of an illustration by Stewart Rouse that first appeared on the cover of the August 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions. The boy at the controls of the aerocycle doesn’t particularly resemble Peter Leroy—except, perhaps, for the smile. |
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