A pilot for a half hour sitcom

“PASSING THE BAR”
Logline: A former high powered divorce lawyer gets divorced and quits the law firm to open up a coffee/cocktail bar.

Synopsis:
"Passing the Bar" is a character driven situation comedy pilot script about Carl, a high powered divorce lawyer that quits the firm after finding out first hand that divorce is not fun, when his wife leaves him because he was a workaholic. He decides to reinvent his life and open a bar called "The Legal Limit" that serves up coffee from a bar on one side of the room in the morning and cocktails from a bar at the other end in the evening. The sign for the bar is the scale of justice with a coffee mug on one side and a martini glass on the other. As the day goes by, the sign moves from the coffee mug being full and lit on the low side in the morning, to the martini glass becoming heavier, low and lit by the afternoon. Carl wanted to have a place in the big city where his customers could start relationships instead of ending them, so he opens “The Legal Limit” on the ground floor of the same big city office building where his former law firm is located. While his quirky employees/law school students serve up the beverages, Carl serves up a little free legal advice from his private office booth as a colorful cast of characters (his sister, old colleagues, old clients, and new customers) come and go. Carl meets and starts to fall for a lovely woman customer, only to have her leave before he can get her name. Later, the woman returns and Carl finds out that she is separated from her husband. Should Carl step in and split up the couple or should he step aside and let this woman try to work it out with her estranged husband.

Season one will deal with Carl’s conflict over this potential love interest.

“Passing the Bar” was one of two finalists in the International Family Film Festival script competition in 2008 and got great audience response after its staged reading in the Charlie Chaplin Theatre at Raleigh Studios.