The Shaboos
Starring “Moody Shaboo”
She’s a time traveling teen with a talking Tesla!
Now let’s meet her family!
Imagine Han Solo is a teenage girl in high school.
A time traveling teen and her talking Tesla struggle to flee present day Texas with a priceless crystal that will make her rich, but when her modern-day ancestors treat her like a queen, she discovers that family is more important than anything.
Comparables
This fish-out-of-water comedy asks the question; What would you do to save your family?
Featuring “Tik” the talking Tesla.
There’s no such thing as an ordinary day for Moody Shaboo. She’s a time-traveling teen who schemes to stay one step ahead of the evil Dr. Awful Kanawful.
Flying to the moon, finding treasure, building robots, or visiting the Eiffel Tower in another century – Moody does it all with the support of her diverse family.
Dad is from Africa.
Mom from China.
Their adopted son Zaid is from India.
Now Moody is their great granddaughter from the future who has traveled back in time to collect priceless crystals hidden inside their suburban home.
But she needs to collect even more crystals than she previously thought when the villain threatens the lives of her family if she doesn’t deliver all the crystals from all known time.
But this quest also triggers her deepest fear.
Failure.
Moody does not perform well under pressure. So how does she cope?
She makes jokes.
Lots of them.
So, it’s this fear of failure that brings rise to the comedy and her character arc. And it’s her main motivation to go on these crystal collecting journeys.
And we are rooting for her to succeed because, her happiness, and the lives of her family depend on it. And if she fails? It confirms that she’s a loser.
A typical episode has Dad driving a gas truck. Mom working as a sommelier at a fancy restaurant. And Zaid joining Moody on exotic time travel adventures to collect the crystals.
But what really sets this show apart is Moody’s character arc – her realization that when you combine diversity and love together you discover your deepest humanity.
This strikes at the very core of why this show exists. It answers the question; how do you define of a good family?
Diversity and love!
With absurdist humor and identification elements for pre-teens and teens this show distills out ingenious and irreverent wit with something funny for all ages.
MOODY SHABOO
Daughter (16). Originally born in the 22nd Century.
Sweet but tries hard not to be.
Moody uses sarcasm as a defense mechanism against anyone who ignores her. And that’s everybody.
Moody is frustrated because, she doesn’t like living up to the image of what popular girls are “supposed” to look like.
And she also lives in constant fear of academic failure.
Moody longs to escape the miserable world of the 22nd Century where wealth, power and popularity is all anybody thinks about.
Ironically, moody finds the exact same social dynamics in place when she arrives in this century.
Traits: Feisty. Do-gooder. Constantly argues with her car.
CONGO SHABOO
Dad (42). Born in Africa. Congo to be exact. He drives a gas truck that fills service station tanks.
Congo is a mild-mannered thinking man. He fled Africa when a civil war broke out and ended up in the Sino-Russian trading border between China and Russia.
This is where Congo met his wife, Kyatah. Together they escaped to the US and entered illegally with the help of the Russian mob.
Congo lives in constant fear that the US will discover their illegal status and kick him and his family out. And the mob keeps raising extortion fees and if he doesn’t pay up, they will report him.
Perpetually on a diet.
KYATAH SHABOO
Mom (44). Born in China. She’s the manager and sommelier at an upscale restaurant.
Kyatah secretly steals money from Congo and sends it back to her mother in China.
She also lives in fear of being deported but she is really paranoid about it which includes wearing disguises.
Kyatah and Congo live with a homeless boy from India. They took him in when they bought the house. He’s like the son they never had.
Likes to cut the cork off wine bottles with a Sabre for dramatic effect.
ZAID SHABOO
Adopted son (16). Born in India. Illegal immigrant. Came with the house. He works in a pet store and his shirt is emblazoned with “Pet Store Stud.”
Zaid has a magnetic appearance in that goofy “Jack Black” kind of way. He is charming. And the relationship he develops with Moody is really sweet.
Zaid is a key player in all of Moody’s schemes to steal things and time jump and otherwise misbehave.
Extremely shy.
TIK
Time traveling car (7). Built in Tennesse. Proud of its southern heritage and talking AI program. This car has the biggest electric battery of any vehicle in its class with an ego to match.
Tik’s AI is programmed to be symbiotic with whoever is driving. But that’s usually Moody. They share a unique buddies-for-life bond. Tik is the only one capable of being more mocking than her.
Adrenaline junkie.
If you’re a showrunner please ignore these episodes.
We will do things your way.
PILOT
A rebellious girl from the future travels back to the 21st Century to steal priceless time crystals to barter with an evil government official for the release of her wrongfully imprisoned family, but when she needs more crystals then expected, she rallies her present-day ancestors to help her continue collecting them.
EPISODE 2
Moody learns the physics department at The University of Texas in Austin, is doing research into time crystals. But she must enroll as a student to gain access to the lab where the crystals are being stored.
Tik has enough energy to make short time jumps. So, Moody makes several educational “field trips” to learn about physics that make her qualified to pass the entrance exam and enroll in the science department even though she’s only sixteen.
Zaid drives for Uber. But he wants to use Tik because, the attention-getting nature of a futuristic, time traveling, talking car would make him more successful.
Congo embarks on a crazy weight loss scheme. It’s a weird cabbage soup diet that keeps him trapped in the bathroom for prolonged periods of time. He’s losing weight but how long can he keep this up?
Kyatah studies for her bartending exam with her signature move being the opening of champagne bottles with a Sabre. She passes the exam and sets her sights set on becoming a sommelier.
EPISODE 3
Moody uses Tik for her commute to and from college. It would normally be 3-hour drive but it only takes a few seconds if she time jumps. Moody steals the crystals at school. She thinks this will give her enough power to get back to the future.
Wrong.
She needs more juice. A lot more. How could her calculations be that far off. With the combined energy of the current crystals, and the stolen ones, there should be plenty of energy to travel back to the future. Turns out —
Zaid is secretly using Tik for Uber. He time jumps high paying customers who want a futuristic roller-coaster-ride-like rush through mysterious space time.
Congo is losing weight on his soup diet. But he feels weak. So, Congo turns the basement into a gym. Friends and acquaintances pay him to work out there. But it gets him in trouble with the city for operating an illegal home-based business.
Kyatah applies for her sommelier training. But the State of Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission needs her proof of residency. She’s an illegal immigrant and her dreams are dashed.
EPISODE 4
Moody discovers the crystals she stole were part of a secret government study to learn more about time travel, and how it could benefit the military. So, the FBI is closing in on Moody with an investigation of her and everyone else in the family.
But all of them are in the US illegally.
Zaid is not helping, either. Time jumping Tik is drawing even more attention to the family.
And Congo wants to keep his home-based gym in business. But if he challenges the courts, he will be exposed as an illegal immigrant. So, he makes a deal with the Russian mob. They will keep the FBI away from his family and keep his business open “if” he gives them Tik.
But Tik is a sentient being. He’s tired of being a “plaything” for people. Si he refuses to cooperate.
Kyatah files a phony application with the State of Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission stating she’s a resident so she can pursue her dream of being a wine sommelier.
EPISODE 5
Moody discovers the house is about to be raided by the FBI to recover the crystals, arrest the entire family, and take Tik. So Tik agrees to sacrifice himself and surrender to the FBI so they can experiment on him if they agree to leave the family alone.
But the Russian mob kidnaps Tik first.
Congo gets his business shut down.
Kyatah has her sommelier application cancelled.
Moody gets kicked out of college when they discover she was the one stole the crystals (yes it took the college this long to figure it out).
And the entire family is on their way to jail.
But Tik saves the day.
Tik offers the FBI time travel demonstrations before he gets disassembled. They’re curious how time travel works so they agree to go on little trips. But Tik is eliminating the agents one-by-one by dropping them off at some unknown point in the future, never to be heard from again.
This is when the villain’s origin story gets revealed.
One of the FBI agents that Tik drops off in the future is the exact same person Moody is battling in the future. He’s the government agent from the pilot who put Moody’s family in prison. He’s holding them hostage until Moody delivers the time crystals.
To him, Moody (and Tik) are criminals who stole government property, kidnapped him, and left him to die in some remote part of the world in an unknown future.
The FBI agent still wants to do his job and seek justice. This means getting the time crystals out of Moody’s hands and into his.
Can Moody and the FBI villain make a deal to peacefully co-exist?
EPISODE 6
Yes. Moody agrees to help him recover the crystals and plead guilty to whatever crimes he comes up and he will set her family free.
Twist!
Moody becomes a double agent.
Moody is secretly working for the Russian Mob. They also want the time crystals and Tik. But when they find out Moody can give them secret government information because, she’s working for the feds, the Russians and Moody struck up their own deal.
The Russians agree to help Moody and her current family make all their dreams come true. In return, she will give them secret intelligence reports on US Government activity related to their mob activity.
Bam.
Kyatah becomes a sommelier. She was so gung-ho on this because, she plans on returning to China one day to run her mother’s fancy restaurant. It’s located on the Sino-Russian trading border. A sommelier from the US with credentials US makes her rich and powerful there.
Congo opens a gym in a proper business setting.
Zaid gets a fleet of Tik look alike cars.
But what about Moody’s imprisoned family in the future?
That’s still an unknown.
Then —
The Russians learn, Moody is not giving them legitimate US secrets. She’s just making things up to get her way.
Now she’s on the run from the Russian mob.
SEASON FINALE EPISODES 7 AND 8
Moody pulls off the heist of the century when she steals all the time crystals on earth, and with their combined energy, the car is finally ready for major time travel.
Moody and Zaid take off for the future to save her family. The good news is – they arrive at their destination.
They bad news?
They land right in the middle of a fierce battle where the evil FBI agent and his henchmen are (falsely) arresting her family. Moody has time traveled to the start of the main plot.
But she is not equipped for a shootout.
Moody sees her family dragged away to prison.
Moody and Zaid plan to time travel again and come back a day before the attack happens when she can explain things more clearly.
But the FBI villain secretly programs Tik to travel one year into the future. He’s condemning Moody to the same fate he suffered at the start of the mess.
Moody and Zaid time jump and return.
It’s a 100 years later.
Her family is gone.
Moody attempts another time jump. But the crystals are too low on juice.
She is stuck in 2304 and now needs to span several centuries to free 2 families from jail.
Moody and Zaid live a “Groundhog Day” scenario (more on that in a sec).
IRL we get feedback from Discord and Twitter groups as to how Moody would navigate this world. We incorporate social media like they are focus groups to construct Moody’s actions and arcs (in absentia of media outreach, I would design a future world along the line of “Meet the Robinsons”).
Moody would get clues as to the time and location of her family and jump to those places. These locales would be primarily in the past and consistent with Moody’s love of history.
She encounters obstacles and plot points like stealing the Crown Jewels from Henry VIII, avoiding assassination attempts on her life, and dueling with brutal Knights.
In the season finale, Moody is awarded knighthood by King Henry for acts of heroism during a war. And, for taking Prince Edward to the future where he will be cured and live a long life well past the age of 15.
But the finale is also bitter-sweet.
Zaid stays behind to make room for Prince Edward in the drone ship (weight limit). And he also breaks up with Moody. He’s in in love with the next Queen of England. Can you say —
King Zaid?
Isabella rockets back to the 22nd Century.
Moody arrives at her home and rescues her 22nd Century family. And she also finds —
Zaid?
He teamed up with Galileo and together they built a time machine. Zaid divorced his wife and wanted out of the Medieval Era.
Prince Edward receives medical treatment and is healing up nicely. But he doesn’t want to return to the 15th Century. He loves modern living, and he loves Moody. And Zaid still loves her, too.
So, Moody is caught in a love triangle.
And Moody accidentally changed world history. She gave Henry VIII better weapons. So, he not only conquered Europe, but his ancestors went on to conquer the world. Which means —
Prince Edward is actually the heir to the throne and the rightful ruler of earth. And his DNA will prove it.
And through it all, Moody is still battling her original fear of failure.
But she saved her family. And the king of the world loves her. What more does she want? In a word?
Confidence.
You gain confidence by promising yourself that you’re going to do something. Then you do it.
Rinse.
Repeat.
Moody’s time spent in the Medieval Era was short, but she loved sword fights.
Moody sets a goal to become an Olympic fencer. She starts off slowly but eventually wins against the best opponents in every era.
Now she’s in the Olympics battling for the gold medal.
Twist.
Her opponent is Moody #2 that has traveled here from another timeline that overlaps with ours. Moody #2 shares much of the same information and knowledge of the Moody we’ve been following.
The current Moody #1 we know wins.
Moody #2 removes her helmet. Our fem-hero has literally defeated herself.
And won.
This is a visual metaphor for overcoming your deepest fears which come from within yourself. And by defeating your own fears you gain confidence.
Moody #2 stays to joins Prince Edward and they rule the world as King and Queen. They appoint Zaid as the “Earl of Earth.”
Moody #1 – the one we know and love from this series – reunites with Zaid.
Confused? Time travel stuff can get messy. So, here’s where we end up.
The original Moody we followed during the show is back with Zaid.
Their first mission is to imprison the evil government agent that started this entire mess.
They fail.
Now that same villain is on the loose determined to harvest time crystals from the past thus disrupting Moody’s life and family.
Moody and Zaid squad up and time travel to save the human race from itself by fixing problems (like global warming) before they start all while they battle the villain who still wants the crystals.
The Shaboos 