The Swetky Agency -Marty the Martian Farmer

Treatment and
Future Episodes

Marty the Martian Farmer
by Neal Jamison

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May 2005 - Winner in the TV Pilot category
at the Moondance Film Festival

See Logline and
Synopsis

See Teaser

Length:

30 Minutes

Genre:

Animated Comedy Series

Comparison:

Green Acres meets Futurama

Concept and Target Audience:
Marty the Martian Farmer is a half-hour animated series in the tradition of Green Acres meets Futurama. Marty follows a seemingly simple farmer and his family and neighbors as they deal with the trials and tribulations of being little green men and women living on the most popular planet in the solar system. We watch Marty and his neighbor Jimmy as they fend off alien warlords and travel to other moons and planets. With each episode, we learn a bit about Marty’s secretive past, including his involvement with the now defunct Mars Space Agency. As it turns out, Marty is not your typical farmer.

This sci-fi sitcom will appeal to earthlings of all ages. Children will enjoy the imaginatively designed Martian setting, the humorous toy-like characters, and the hilarious gags. Tweens and teens will love the show for its mind-bending musical element, and many will identify with Clarita, Marty's cute yet rebellious teenage daughter. More mature earthlings will enjoy the humor and delight in the subtly recognizable plotlines and elements--often borrowed from the classic sci-fi movies of the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

“Marty the Martian Farmer” is a show for everyone. In fact, it’s out of this world!

Characters:

THE LEAD CAST

Marty
Marty is a middle aged farmer who happens to live on the planet Mars. Other than being a pronounced shade of green he has normal human features and dresses in typical farmer apparel. Marty is a hard worker and is known for his prize-winning vegetables. Unlike his neighbors and supporting cast, Marty is not your typical “little green man.” He doesn’t believe in stereotypes and has no intention of becoming one.

Jimmy
Jimmy is Marty’s friend and nearest neighbor. He is tall, thin, and clumsy. He collects space junk and attempts to build his own spaceship using knowledge gleaned from watching every sci-fi movie ever seen (most of which he thinks are true!). He is quite the conspiracy theorist, and he believes he has been abducted, among other things. Like most others in their small Martian farm community, Jimmy reveres Earth and yearns for anything earthling.

Savannah
Although Marty’s wife, Savannah, is perhaps the most beautiful Martian you’ll ever see, she epitomizes the traditional farm wife. She stays busy with chores: cleaning, milking cows, hanging clothes out to dry, cooking, and so on. She fully supports Marty’s strong beliefs, but is sometimes easily influenced by the others.

Clarita
Marty’s teenage daughter, like her mother, is a beautiful Martian. But that is where the similarities end. Clarita is a feisty and rebellious teenage girl who longs to live anywhere but Mars. She wishes she were an Earth girl so she would not have such ugly green skin. Plus, if she were an earthling, she would finally be able to date cute boys. While on the surface Clarita and Marty appear to be complete opposites, they actually have more in common than meets the eye.

Serinabell
Jimmy’s cow, Serinabell, is an obese dairy cow with a perceptible green tint and two short horns that resemble antennae. She is nonchalant, lacking any emotion, unless you consider her insatiable hunger an emotion.

Pilot Treatment:
A seemingly simple farmer and his neighbors deal with the trials and tribulations of being little green men and women. In this pilot episode, Marty has had it up to his hat with the rovers, probes, and other space junk that keeps landing on his farm. He’s also dealing with one very hungry and destructive cow. As if that weren’t enough, his daughter Clarita has joined a hardcore punk band. Could there be one solution to all of their problems?

Deep space. We are looking at stars, planets, and other celestial bodies when from behind us comes a large object moving at a very high rate of speed. It tears past leaving a trail of fire and we follow it until it moves out of sight.

In a bedroom, somewhere, a man and woman lay in bed, silhouetted in the dark. Out through the window we see a streak through the night sky followed by a bright flash and the sound of a large crash. The man sits up in bed with a start. “They’re back!!!” he screams. The silhouette of a woman sits up, reassures him that all is well, and coaxes him back to sleep.

Sunrise on the farm. A tractor rides by driven by an unidentified farmer as he plows his fields. Suddenly, the tractor lurches to a stop and the engine shuts off. The farmer hops off the tractor in a huff, obviously disturbed over something he has seen. It is a large crater in the middle of his field. “Darn Aliens!” The farmer walks forward, revealing a small spacecraft sitting in the middle of the crater. He stands over the craft, and watches as it whirs to life. Lights start blinking and a small antenna starts rotating, as if the craft is looking for something. Very calmly the farmer bends down and with a gloved hand knowingly opens a compartment and punches a few numbers into a keypad. With the last pressed key, the craft stops whirring and blinking. He has turned it off. The farmer then picks the craft up and turns around toward us. We notice an American Flag decal on the side of the craft, and for the first time we see the farmer’s green face. It’s Marty the Martian Farmer.

Marty throws the craft into the back of the tractor, hops on and rides off. Seconds later, Marty stops the tractor, gets off, and throws the craft over a bank. As he gets back on the tractor and rides off, we look over the bank to see a large scrap pile full of broken spaceships and other space junk. Flags from several countries, as well as a few we don’t recognize, are visible on the damaged crafts.

Savannah has prepared a feast and is placing the last few items on the breakfast table when Marty walks in. “You’re just in time Sweetie, ‘The Price is Right’ is just about to come on,” says Savannah. “I’m really not in the mood for that Earth trash this morning!” Marty snaps. “Well good morning to you too Sweetie,” Savannah says as she sits. Clarita joins them dressed in all black with her hair spiked purple and tall. “Good news Daddy!” Martin looks at her, reacts, but does not have time to speak. “I’ve joined a punk band. We’re called the Red Pukes and if we win the battle of the bands tonight we’re gonna get tattoos!” “What about your physics test tomorrow?” asks Marty. “Who needs physics?” Clarita retorts. Before Marty can answer, she has grabbed a donut and is out the door. Then from the TV: “We interrupt regularly scheduled programming for late breaking news. The Earth Space Agency appears to have suffered yet another setback today as their 50 billion dollar Mars rover failed to communicate upon entering Mars’ atmosphere early this morning. However, officials say that even if this mission fails, they will press on with the next launch.” Marty, having all he can stand, grabs a piece of toast, drains his coffee cup, and storms out of the kitchen. “Don’t forget your hat dear,” calls Savannah as she changes the channel to a popular earthling soap opera.

Marty is on his tractor tending to the fields when he notices something troubling. He gets off the tractor, walks to the edge of the field, and discovers that his patch of prized watermelons has been destroyed. Half eaten fruit, torn vines, and animal tracks in the dirt are all that is left. With a start, he notices that the adjoining field of carrots has also been similarly destroyed. Confused and disturbed by these events, he looks around only to find that another nearby field has been destroyed. He runs over into this field. “Not my Brussels sprouts!!” Marty drops to his knees, scoops up a pile of the remains and allows the sprouts to fall from his hands. From above we see him look to the heavens and clutch the destroyed plants to his chest. “NOOOOOOOO!!!”

We look over to an adjacent cornfield and see movement that tells us that something is in there. Marty sees it too, and angered and determined, he clenches his fists, and heads into the thicket of corn. From above we see the movement in the middle of the field. We also see Marty’s movement, as he approaches the perpetrator. A few seconds later they converge and a struggle ensues. “Now I’ve got you!” exclaims Marty as the mêlée ceases. We hear a steady bell ringing and seconds later Marty emerges from the dense field. Trailing a few feet behind him is a very large Martian dairy cow with a bell around her neck. Marty is furious. The cow is eating.

Marty is on his tractor. The cow follows closely behind, roped to the tractor. Her bell rings rhythmically as she walks. She is still chewing.

Marty stands outside of Jimmy’s house, and rings the cow’s bell loudly. The door to the house opens and Jimmy emerges screaming: “It’s got me!!!! ARGH!!!” He has an Alienesque “face hugger” on his face. “Jimmy, take that darn thing off your face,” says Marty calmly. Jimmy takes off the mask, sees Serinabell and excitedly runs over to the cow. “Thank Mars! I thought you’d been abducted!” shouts Jimmy. Marty is visibly frustrated by Jimmy’s overactive imagination. “If only she had. She ate everything but my tomatoes!” exclaims Marty. “Yeah, she hates tomatoes,” answers Jimmy. Jimmy takes the cow, ties her to the fence, and Marty leaves to go back to work.

Marty is busily fencing off his recently trampled fields of watermelons, carrots, Brussels sprouts and corn.

Back at the house, the cow has chewed through her rope and is gone.

Marty is back on the tractor, working as usual, when he sees something, stops and angrily jumps off the tractor. This time we find Serinabell standing in the middle of his tomato garden (which he didn’t bother to fence), eating a very large tomato. Marty angrily grabs her by the half eaten rope and stomps away. The cow’s bell rings as it follows.

Next we see Marty on the tractor. The cow follows, still ringing and still chewing.

Marty confronts Jimmy for the second time. This time they chain Serinabell to the fence using a heavy chain.

Marty fences in the tomatoes, then gets back on the tractor and rides off.

Marty parks the tractor by the barn and goes in to put away some tools. He comes back out to see the cow, with a chewed through chain around her neck, eating on the tractor! Marty is furious. “JIMMY!” shouts Marty. “I’m going to slaughter this cow!” Then in the distance we hear Clarita shriek: “That stupid cow ate my guitar!!” Marty pauses, cocks his head in thought, and smiles. He has an idea.

Marty is again on the tractor with Serinabell in tow.

Marty leads the cow over a bank and down to the scrap pile where he threw the spacecraft that morning. She looks confused. He picks up a piece of spacecraft and holds it up to her mouth. Confused, she sniffs at the metal, and then takes a bite in her mouth. She obviously likes it as she happily chews, swallows, and goes for another. With a very pleased look on his face, Marty pats the cow on the head, walks away, gets back on the tractor, and rides into the sunset, leaving Serinabell to her dinner.

Marty walks into his kitchen as Savannah is setting the table. The TV set is playing everyone’s favorite game show, “Wheel of Fortune.” “How’s Clarita?” asks Marty. “I heard about her guitar.” Savannah sits. “She’s fine. She’s at the library now studying for her physics test.” Marty smiles. Savannah reaches to turn off the TV just as we hear another news flash. Marty stops her. “We interrupt regularly scheduled programming for breaking news. The American Space Agency announced late today that they are declaring their 50 billion dollar rover a loss. And contrary to an earlier statement, they would be forced to reevaluate their search for life on Mars. In other news…” Marty smiles and nods at Savannah, and she turns off the TV.

That night, Marty and his wife are back in bed, silhouetted in the dark. Suddenly, just as before, we see a flash in the distance, followed by the sound of a large object crashing from space. Marty sits up in bed with a start but this time doesn’t say anything. He waits silently. Then we hear the far-off ringing of the cow bell as she walks toward her recently arrived dinner. With a distant “Moo!” Marty smiles a big smile and lies back down to sleep.

Future Episodes:
First Men on the Moon: Jimmy has collected enough space junk to build a rocket in his barn. His plan is to fly to Mars’ closest moon, Phobos. Marty doubts that Jimmy will ever get off the ground, so he agrees to go along for the ride. The rocket does get off the ground, and Jimmy is so surprised that he faints, hits his head and is knocked out cold. Marty is able to take over the controls and safely get the rocket to the moon. Once there, they leave the ship and discover that there is a special type of cheese growing beneath the surface.

The Angry Orange Planet (Aliens Part 1): Jimmy improves on his rocket and plans a mission to Jupiter. Marty agrees to go, mostly because he knows that Jimmy will never survive alone. Once there, they encounter an angry force of goo that threatens to eat them alive. Jimmy gets some goo on his face and they retreat to the rocket where they invent a way to get it off. They flee the planet, unknowingly carrying a small bit of goo with them.

Aliens (Part 2): After watching too many Earth sci-fi movies, Jimmy complains that there is an alien growing inside his body. Marty chalks it up to Jimmy’s overactive imagination until Jimmy’s stomach erupts and an angry alien emerges. We learn that maybe there is more to Marty from his eyes comes a powerful ray that zaps the alien to smithereens. Jimmy is stunned, and asks Marty how he did that. After making Jimmy promise to stop building spaceships, Marty begins to tell Jimmy about his past as they walk off into the dusty sunset.

Mars Needs Women: After watching an all-night Barbarella marathon, Jimmy longs for the loving that only an Earth girl can provide. He quickly builds an abduction machine and plans to abduct Barbarella. Marty convinces him that there is no such person, so Jimmy contemplates whom to get. After deciding that Agent Scully is too sophisticated for him, he settles for a sexy Earth pop star. Once he has her in his arms he discovers that Earth girls are not that easy after all. But unfortunately the abduction machine was only designed for one-way travel. Clarita befriends the pop star while Jimmy and Marty rewire the machine in an attempt to get the young star home.

Mars vs. the Flying Saucers: A large alien warship hovers over the Martian landscape and a voice booms down explaining their intention to destroy the Martian race and mine the planet of its vegetables. Jimmy quickly puts the finishing touches on his new rickety warship, and takes off to fight the aggressors. We learn yet another aspect of Marty’s fascinating past as he reveals his own powerful warship. He kisses Savannah goodbye and takes off on a mission to save Jimmy and fend off the alien warlords.

About Marty's World:
Mars. The angry red planet. At least that’s what many earthlings think, and that’s just fine with Marty the Martian Farmer. In fact, he considers it his duty to keep them thinking just that. Sure, Mars is a red, dry planet—most of it, that is. Remember those canals that astronomers discovered a hundred years ago? They are there for a reason. They carry tiny droplets of precious water from all over the planet to one remote area hidden deep within a large crater. All of the canals converge at a small patch of farmland that would make even an Idaho potato farmer stand in the employment line at the American Space Agency. This is Marty’s home: present day Mars, where he and his family and friends struggle to work their farms while faced with the challenges posed by living on the most popular planet in our solar system.

This is also where a good part of each episode of Marty the Martian Farmer takes place. On the farm, in and around the fields of wheat, tomatoes, melons, corn, and Brussels sprouts. But there’s more. Marty and his neighbors are constantly bombarded by probes, landers, and other space junk from all over the solar system. It seems people everywhere are going to great lengths to invade Mars, and Marty must go to great lengths to keep them away.

Marty doesn’t agree with everyone else. Most Martians, all but Marty that is, welcome an invasion by earthlings. They just can’t seem to get enough of that place. The adults all occupy their evenings watching earthling TV. The kids listen to earthling pop music. They love Britney, Arnold, Frazier, and JLo just as much (or even more) than we do. Marty, however, feels differently. He has a little insight and knows that even Earth has a dark side. And he’ll do whatever he can to keep it from coming to Mars.

When Marty is not working on his farm, there’s a good chance he’ll be found in one of these places:

Marty’s Barn
Marty’s Home (kitchen and bedroom)
Jimmy’s Home (TV room)
Jimmy’s Barn
Jimmy’s Rocket
Marty’s Spaceship

Registration:
WGA# 971030