Forts and Tree Houses
A Television Series Concept By Michael Regan
Copyright 2011 by Michael Regan
What kid hasn’t made a fort? Forts, and their more elite kid-hangout sibling, tree houses, have forever been a part of growing up. Creating your own domain, using things from nature and household scraps, with nothing more than resourcefulness and youthful imagination has always been, and still is, good, clean, hard-working fun!
It seems logical that a program with kids making such forts and tree houses would be well received. Using different geographical locations, we can build many different kinds of structures using many different building techniques. Each episode will feature a “Build Crew” of kids ages 10–14 who will be coached and helped along the way by the host and the occasional adult guest.
The opening of each episode will reveal the Build Crew of the week getting together and designing their project. The host arrives, gets them fired up and together they find the perfect location for the build. Materials and tools are located and construction begins. Playing to each child’s personality and unique talents, the camera will follow the action from the POV of the kid-builders as much as possible. Most of the action and dialogue will be unscripted; for storyline purposes some scripted lines will be used.
The challenges, trials, and victories of construction will be followed until the build is completed and the final product is named. The big reveal takes place when the children from the neighborhood and the builders’ families present the final product. Sponsors can offer a prize each week of some kinds of recreational products. It is also may be interesting to have two teams compete in the builds.
Even as a child, I lived mostly without adult supervision. As an eternal kid, I’ve made more than my share of forts, tree houses and magical play spaces. A few years ago, I was a featured designer/builder on Discovery Channel’s “Monster House” where I stayed on after my shooting (the first episode) for the remainder of the season as construction foreman for the art department. I’ve built lighted snow castles with colored icicles, tree houses with porches and swings, forts in swamps, woods, at the beach and in the mountains. I would be the host of this show because I relate to kids in a very real and practical way and they understand me. I keep them laughing and share the learning with them instead of simply reciting instructions. I genuinely enjoy teaching them that they can do it themselves. Kid humor, practical jokes, understanding, patience, magic and illusion, adventure, motivation and empowerment – these are my ideals.
I have outlined here a 14 episodes that could be produced at relatively low cost and result in both marketable and repeatable programming that offers valuable lessons in teamwork, physics, engineering, imagination and resourcefulness.
And it will be a lot of fun.
Pilot: We buy an old sailboat (think cheap – a sinking one) and hoist it up into a tree and make a tree house out of it using the hull and the other boat’s components! This episode will teach recycling, block and fall pulley systems and sailboat terminology.
Show Two: A traditional tree house constructed in an oak tree in the backyard of a woodland house. We will teach safety, basic woodworking skills, and acoustics when we build a tin can telephone.
Show Three: A fort made of sod, grass, mud and stones will be created in a farm area. A cornfield or straw farm will work well for this as we learn primitive building techniques, brick-making and natural waterproofing.
Show Five: A fort made in the branches of a giant fallen tree, deep in the woods. We bike in with everything we need and build this fort on our camping adventure. We learn survival skills, knot tying, lashing and some basic first aid.
Show Six: An ingenious tree house, a la Robinson Crusoe, with pulleys, block & falls, rope ladders & swings, an escape pole and sleeping hammocks. We build a safe solar oven and cook a meal in it.
Show Seven: A snow fort extravaganza, with a celebrity competition sponsored to raise money for charities. Kids will team up with the adults using snow, ice, colored water in spray bottles and other natural materials to make the best snow forts ever. Kids will learn that people in the world need their help, too.
Show Eight: Winter icehouse. On a safely frozen pond, we build a fort on top of the ice, bore a hole and catch a fish. This is done with the supervision of a park ranger who teaches us cold weather survival and winter play safety.
Show Nine: A Native-American sweat lodge built of branches and old blankets will be built with the help of real Native-American Indians who will also share Native American stories with us. History, tradition, and respect for the earth will be taught.
Show Ten: We explore in the back-country and find a cave, which we turn into a functional cave fort. Hiking and camping skills will be taught by “Jingles,” an Old West cowpoke.
Show Eleven: We play around the house on a rainy day and discover the many kinds of forts that can be created at home using tables & chairs, blankets basements, attics and spare rooms.
Show Twelve: A boys vs. girls competition to build the most baffling fort-maze out of cardboard boxes. The location will be on a pumpkin farm at the height of the season. The boys will go through the girls’ maze and vice versa: the best time wins.
Show Thirteen: A treehouse made of wood and branches – in intricate fashion – like the home of Tinkerbell. Intricate woven twigs, thousands of tiny lights, a velvet rope ladder and hammock, glo-stick lamps, fairy-lace. This will be a Harry Potter-esque magical space.
Season Finale: A Swiss Family Robinson-type build of the most amazing, believable and practical tree-dwelling fort. It will sport a kitchen, play room, garden, living room, waterfall, chicken-coop, rope ladders, slides and chutes, and ornate solar and wind-powered lighting and amenities.
If you like this idea, I am looking to produce an episode somewhere in New England between now and September. If you have a yard with a big tree, kids between the ages of 10 and 15, and or both, please get in touch with me at 310-819-6674. Thank You – Mike Regan. Everything herein contained is registered with the Writers Guild of America – 2010.
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