The Rendezvous, television series pitch/Episode loglines

Anitque National television.

The Rendezvous Tavern with strategically designed look-out windows.

The Rendezvous Bar was wired into four other roadhouses with warning buzzers to alert them of impending police raids.

The Edgewater Thomas Inn was a high-class blind-pig in Riverside with secret passageways and hidden wine cellars.

Bertha Thomas was the eccentric roadhouse pioneer who ran the Edgewater Thomas Inn.

A logline (aka elevator pitch) is a one or two line plot summary.

Work in progress

Rather than directly adapt The Rendezvous screenplay, an unpublished feature screenplay by Jason Carswell, after many years of not looking at my script or copious notes I'm going to first outline (and maybe draft a treatment of) the story from memory to see what new gems may turn up before polishing.

At present, 12 or 13 episodes of about 10 minutes each (plus credits), would add up to 120 to 130 minutes - like a movie, but not.

Episode 1 - He's sinking! (1922)

From the blustery winter outdoors boys burst into The Rendezvous roadhouse tavern with alarming news. Venturing out onto the frozen Lake St. Clair the men and boys find a stuck old jalopy weighed down with whisky perilously in danger of plunging into the frozen depths. Despite several attempts with different ideas, the subtle and not-subtle racist men succeed in freeing the vehicle to continue its smugglers' journey thanks to the idea of Cliff, the Black man who works at The Rendezvous.

Episode 4 - Shut up! (1922, 1943, 1967)

Domestic violence

Episode 8 Roadhouse taverns (1922, 1943, 1967)

Bribes

Reference

Wikipedia links, unless otherwise noted:

1922

• Ain't Misbehavin' (song)

  "Ain't Misbehavin'" is a 1929 stride jazz/early swing song. Andy Razaf wrote the lyrics to a score by Thomas "Fats" Waller and Harry Brooks for the Broadway musical comedy play Connie's Hot Chocolates (opened June 20, 1929). As a work from 1929 with its copyright renewed, it will enter the American public domain on January 1, 2025.

• Boardwalk Empire, an HBO television series, 2010-2014

• Jewish-American organized crime
  • Joseph Zerilli
  • Racketeering
  • The Purple Gang

• Gertrude Lythgoe

• Prohibition in Canada

• Prohibition in the United States
  • Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
  • Rum-running
    • Alcohol-related crime#Rum-running
    • Jazz_Age#Rum running/bootlegging
    • Rum row
    • Rum-running in Windsor, Ontario
    • William McCoy (rum runner)
  • Teetotalism

• Riverside, Ontario#Historical and the Grand Taverns of Riverside:
  • Edgewater Thomas Inn
  • Island View Tavern (known as Abars)
  • Lauzon Stop House
  • Menard's Tavern
  • Rendezvous Tavern
  • Wolf's Hotel
  • Pub#Roadhouse

• Speakeasy, aka blind pig or blind tiger

1943

• 1943 Detroit race riot, Sunday June 20 - Tuesday June 22, 1943
  • Belle Isle Park
  • MacArthur Bridge (Detroit), 1923+, replaced an iron bridge with wooden decking that accidentally caught fire and was destroyed in 1915. The bridge, popularly known as the Belle Isle Bridge, was originally named the George Washington Bridge and renamed the Douglas MacArthur Bridge after General Douglas MacArthur in 1942.

• Detroit Diesel Series 71, 1938–1995

• Harry Houdini#Death, (1874 - Halloween 1926)

• Naval Air Station Grosse Ile

• World War II
  • American propaganda during World War II
  • Canada in World War II
  • World War II and the "Arsenal of Democracy"
  • Military history of the United States during World War II

1967

• 1967 Detroit riot, Sunday July 23, 1967 - Thursay July 27, 1967
  • Side 1, track 3: "Black Day in July" – 4:10
    • Did She Mention My Name?
    • Gordon Lightfoot
    • The Tragically Hip

• Detroit Renaissance
  • Renaissance Center, 1973-1977+

• The Supremes