THE PILOT EPISODE

Setting: New York City at sunset. Focus into a small apartment.

Jeter Spinelli, a young man in his 30s is sitting in his home office in front of his computer screen, transfixed. A longtime member of the online message boards, www.disboards.com, he recently suffered through a 48-hour maintenance delay on the boards, only to come back to discover he is now able to add tags and make avatars move on other DIS members’ posts without even realizing he’s doing it. After a day or two, he still cannot understand, or even believe, his new found power. Purposefully, he chooses a particular avatar. He swallows, and takes a deep breath.

JETER: It’s going to work this time… (He hits the enter key, and watches in amazement as an avatar of the Golden Gate Bridge sways back and forth.)



Setting: Disneyland Paris, a large conference room, two days earlier.

Webmaster Pete, a dashing entrepreneur and Administrator of the DISboards, is just finishing up a newsgroup message to a gathering of various Disney message boards executives detailing the programming changes that are being implemented throughout the DIS.

PETE: Despite my best efforts and many upgrades and maintenance sessions--mutations, error messages, lost smilies, and a disturbing influx of spidery crickets keep occurring on the DISboards.

After finishing his message, and returning to his hotel room, Webmaster Pete receives some disturbing news: the other DIS Webmasters seem to be missing. Pete doesn’t believe this is an accident. He suspects something more sinister, based on his recent research into the programming mutations. He attempts to access the other webmasters’ computers for clues into their disappearance, and is stunned when he intercepts a cryptic message:

“Soon enough, I’ll control the entire Disney boards empire.”

It’s signed Alklutz, ratpage.com

Quickly, Pete tries to contact all of his moderators on the boards. As he types each of their names, he is astonished to find that he has inexplicably transformed each one into a talk show or reality show host. Frightened by his strange new power, he slams his laptop shut.



Setting: Las Vegas, a small apartment, 2 days later.

Viki Landers, a young 30-something single mother of an 8-year-old boy, is posting a picture of herself onto her DISBoards profile when suddenly the picture winks at her. Seeing that there is a new linked profile on her buddies list, she is amazed to find her own mirror image, bearing a different screenname—Tiffany. She scans Tiffany’s past posts, and she is horrified by the lurid language and offensive remarks. As she reads the posts, she notices that her mirror image is changing—an evil smile widening across its face. Just then two goons, dressed in strange cartoonish rat costumes burst into her apartment. Without thinking, Viki grabs her son, Pica, and wielding a nearby easy chair, knocks over the goons and races out of the house—not even noticing her sudden super-human strength.



Setting: Odessa, Texas, a teenager’s bedroom.

Odessa is not the type of place where miracles happen, but something out of the ordinary has occurred nonetheless. Sixteen- year-old Blair Bonnet, a pretty cheerleader for a new online game called WPASADI, is videotaping herself as she takes a sledgehammer to her computer. Though it is in a million pieces, she simply lays her hands on it and it instantly falls back into place and boots up perfectly. This is the 10th time she’s done this. The first time was in her frustration during the 48-hour DISboards maintenance downtime.

BLAIR: (to the camera) I have done this ten times. I can’t explain it, and I don’t know why it’s happening!



Setting: Tokyo Disneyland, a clock tower.

The clock ticks steadily, watched closely by Dyso Kanaworma, an Asian American in his 20s. As he closes his eyes and concentrates, the second hand stops and ticks backwards. Stunned, Dyso runs to his friend, who is in line at Space Mountain, to tell him what he’s done.

DYSO: I’m telling you, I can make time go forward and backward!

FRIEND: (sarcastically) Right. Next thing, you’ll be saying you can travel through space!

DYSO: (as they board the ride) Actually, I think I COULD manipulate space.

FRIEND: (laughing) Dyso, you’re such a psychopath.

Dyso concentrates as he’s whirled through the darkness. Suddenly he finds himself disembarking Space Mountain—in Anaheim.



Setting: Odessa, TX, electrical power plant.

A computer blows up in the office of the power plant near Blair’s house, sending the city into darkness. Fearing another extended period of time with no DIS, Blair grabs her camera and heads to the plant. With camera running, Blair races into the building and quickly repairs the damaged hard drive. As computer technicians race into the office, she turns and runs from the scene.



Setting: New York City, Jeter’s apartment.

Jeter cautiously signs on again to the DISboards, and sends a concerned, but cryptic, PM to Webmaster Pete about the changes on the boards, hoping to fish out an answer to his new found powers.



Setting: Orlando, Webmaster Pete’s home office.

Pete, who has returned home, reads Jeter’s message and is about to answer it when he receives another PM from someone with the screenname “Ray-Bans.” All it says is: “I know about your missing webmasters.”



Setting: Las Vegas, Viki’s apartment, the next day.

Viki, who has spent the night at her mother’s arrives back at her apartment with Pica. Her house is trashed. As she cleans up Pica finds the computer, signs on to the DIS and finds an error message. Turning her attention to her son, Viki is amazed to find him reversing the message and signing on effortlessly. When he suddenly begins recovering lost posts, fixing spelling and grammatical errors and re-instituting a lime-green toothy smilie, Viki panics.

VIKI: How did you do that?

PICA: I dunno—I just DID.

VIKI: That smilie’s been missing for days. Where did you get it?

PICA: Mom! I thought you’d be happy. It’s your favorite one!

Suddenly, the smilie becomes Viki’s strange mirror image again-grinning wildly at her. She hits the power button, grabs her son and leaves the room.



Setting: New York City, a messy artist’s loft.

Timona, a 30-something woman, arrives at her boyfriend Ike’s loft to discover him madly destroying DISboards posts he doesn’t remember posting. Ike, a 35-year-old struggling artist has been addicted to the boards for quite some time, and is often in a DIS-induced stupor late at night as he posts.

TIMONA: What are you doing?

IKE: These posts…I don’t get it. I posted them a few days ago, and everything in them has actually come true. I don’t even remember posting them. It’s like I can predict the future.

TIMONA: Ike, I don’t understand. You’re talking gibberish.

IKE: I’ve got to stop. I can’t go on like this!

Feeling that he’s coming unhinged, Ike decides to go cold turkey. He kicks Timona out, handcuffs himself to a water pipe across the room from his computer, and throws the key far from his grasp.




Setting: Odessa, the Bonnets’ living room.

Returning home from the computer blow-up, Blair confronts her adoptive mother, Mrs. Bonnet, hoping for answers to her powers.

BLAIR: Who are my real parents?

MRS. BONNET: Honey, calm down. What’s wrong?

Just then, Blair’s adoptive father, Mr. Bonnet, walks in. He is wearing Ray-Bans.

Setting: New York City, Ike’s loft

Timona has purchased copies of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, Birnbaum’s Disneyland Guide, and a Passporter Guide in hopes of placating Ike’s DIS addiction habit. She has taken Jeter (who is a friend of theirs) with her to Ike’s loft, hoping to distract Ike and wean him off his addiction. When they arrive, they find that Ike has gnawed off his handcuffs to get back to his computer for a DIS-fix. While Timona dials Dreams Unlimited Travel to book an emergency trip, Jeter notices a post Ike is posting—it’s about Jeter changing someone’s tag.

JETER: What the—How did you know about that?

IKE: (desperate) I don’t know. There’s more. Check this out.

Ike reveals another post he’s just sent describing the DISboards headquarters being invaded by a sinister-looking man. Under the post is a picture of a man who looks like Alklutz holding a sledgehammer over the main computer. A cheerleader is tied up in the background.

Ike’s tag has changed. It now says, “Save the cheerleader—save the DIS.”

FUTURE EPISODES

Can Webmaster Pete find and rally these far-flung individuals to help him save the DIS before Alklutz absorbs their powers?

Viewers will watch as Dyso travels through time, often with comic results, in his search for answers. Jeter and Timona will try valiantly to help Ike understand his "disions" as he plummets deeper into his DIS addiction and loses touch with reality. Fleeing Alklutz's goons and her sinsiter alter ego, Viki will travel across the country with her son, searching for something she can't quite understand. Blair's path intersects Viki's in her quest to find her true heritage.

As the series continues, secrets will be revealed, alliances will be formed, and sprickets will be battled in the heroic quest of the "Dis-oes" to save their beloved boards and to defeat the dark forces that threaten to annihilate them.