Educated: A Single Camera Comedy

Educated is a single camera comedy developed as an adaptation of my and my friend Mazhar’s actual friendship through college into a 30 minute single-camera comedy show that attempts to portray a representative college experience in a way that has not been done before on television. I created a multi-faceted survey about the state of current content set on a college campus as well as elements of what respondents define as representative of a true college experience. My survey featured sections assessing demographic information, collegiate involvement, ability to recall films and TV shows set on a college campus, evaluation of the reality level of existing college films and TV shows, and viewership preferences. Those that took the survey believed that college as currently presented in film and TV is inaccurate and focuses on aspects like party culture over the true complexity of life at a university. In addition, respondents could recall significantly fewer college TV shows than films, and consistently rated that they did not feel represented by the university-set content that they had dealt with. Based upon this information and my own experiences throughout my four years at a university, I developed the concept for my show and wrote concept paragraphs for three 10-episode seasons of the show, with each season representing one academic year at the university. The show focuses equally on the lives of Mazhar and Eli, two high school best friends going to their state university and capturing their experiences with a diverse cast of friends, romantic interests, and professors.