Alternate

“So what about Communists? Can we film Communists?” Ted asked as he tapped the pen against the side of the clipboard. He looked up at his boss, who stood next to the whiteboard.

“Communists? Yes!” Greg squiggled the word ‘communist’ on the board with his black marker and turned back around. “Anyone else?”

Suzanne raised her hand and adjusted her glasses as she spoke up, “What about the Civil War? The south will want to see what happens. We could make a Confederacy week or something.”

Ted rolled his eyes at the idea as Greg wrote it down on the board with visible excitement. “Okay, people,” Greg said. “We could only get six of these on the budget, so we have to make them count. So far we have suggestions of everything from nuclear apocalypse to Nazi occupation. Good, good.”

He capped the marker and spun to face them with a broad smile on his face. Turning to Ted, he motioned, “Ted, what do our viewers want currently?”

“Well, the fall season of Alternate Reality kicks off with a special on the pioneers themselves. All we have to do is skip our crew over to the reality they’re changing and have them film it. The whole season should be done before the first episode airs.”

Before Ted could get proud, Suzanne spoke up, pushing back her red hair in a cocky manner as she addressed the group. “Hm. Well, the polls say that recent events would do much better in the ratings. Oil-less society, no minorities, catastrophic events…these are the things our viewers actually want to see. I say we start with these simple ones in a sort of… live debut?”

“Brilliant, Suzanne!” Greg said as he marked something on his palm computer and cleared his throat. “Suzanne, you’ll take head of the project for the introductory episodes. Make sure we pick out some supreme actors. Citizens. Whatever. We need to make sure the audience is captivated.”

Ted grumbled something as he glared at Suzanne and began to gather his stuff. Greg left the room, late for a meeting with the big wigs, and left the two producers together. Ted rolled his eyes as he slipped the laptop in the bag. “Nice going, ass-kisser,” he said with a cold glare.

The red-haired executive just shrugged. “Honestly, do you think people care about the process? They just want to see what happens when Nazis win World War 2. Please, Ted. No one gives a fuck about the techies.”

The scorned producer flipped her off before leaving to prepare for the next season.