A TIME-SENSITIVE WESTERN ADVENTURE
Five high school kids from the rancho district of LOS ANGELES discover a portal that can take them back to the old west.
REFERENCES
〰️
REFERENCES 〰️
A show for young people into escapism,
horse girls, rural nostalgia,
cowboy kids, & heartland fantasy.
The Pirates of the Caribbean
audience of today, but for
classic Americana lore.
CAUGHT BETWEEN
TWO WORLDS
THIS IS A PORTAL FANTASY: A YOUNG ADULT modern & period western series.
HORSE COUNTRY, LOS ANGELES
The rancho district just north of Burbank in Los Angeles encompasses a few different neighborhoods—Sylmar, Sunland, Sun Valley, Shadow Hills and Lakeview Terrace—all surrounding Hansen dam. It is affectionately referred to as “horse country” because it is K-Zoned, for residential horse and livestock ownership. That means that on any street, it is commonplace to see a person, or a whole family, walking down the street on horseback. The mountains behind these neighborhoods have hundreds of miles of horse trails. If you live in this area, you don’t live in the LA everyone else does.
Many teenagers in these areas lead a fairly normal life; public school, friends with cars, house parties, etc. Except a lot of them also take care of horses at home, know how to rope cattle, compete in barrel racing on the weekends at local rodeos, and hang out in the parking lots not in cars, but with their horses tied up. It’s a fascinating cross section of urban and country life. Their parents are often folks from the midwest or south, or Mexico, who have rich ranch-life history. This generation is losing interest, because the horse is losing relevance to America. Still, a lot of the kids have all of the skills of their parents, the way the son or daughter of a carpenter may know a bit about drywall, however begrudgingly. But what if the skills and knowledge they take for granted, suddenly could unlock the key to their destiny?
WHERE WE BEGIN
Summer school is starting in the Rancho district of Sylmar, at the northernmost point of Los Angeles.
OUR HEROES
Samantha “Sissy” Keaton
Sissy should be graduating, but she screwed around too much senior year and now has to finish over the summer. She’s waitressing at her parent’s restaurant to save up and move out, but that dream is way off. Sam is always lost in a daydream, wishing she was born in some other time period. She worries her life is heading towards waiting tables forever, and knows how easy it would be to just accept that. But she’s hoping something else will call to her, and soon.
GIO KEATON
Gio is Sissy’s baby brother. He is always in trouble, and just bombed sophomore year; He’s stuck at school this summer too. He’s not a bad kid, he just can’t sit still and he loves attention. The only thing that gets him to chill out is riding their dads horses, so Sissy takes him to the stables every day to take care of and ride them. Gio takes life a day at a time, and is always looking for an angle to make a dollar out of 15 cents.
DIEGO LEON
Diego also has to do senior year summer school. Not because he’s a screw up, he has perfect grades. But his parents pulled him out of Spring semester for work, so he has to make it up now. He’s a wiz kid, but the family has no money for a fancy college. He works for his dad at their big Leon Family horse boarding ranch, mucking horse stalls. He’s always had a crush on Sissy, and her being in summer school is the one upside. Diego wants to get away from the Rancho, but has no means to.
DANIELA “ELLA” LEON
Ella aka “Ella Nutella” is Diego’s younger sister. She just finished Junior year and is volunteering as a wrestling coach all summer for the school. She’s a habitual overachiever and highly competitive. It’s not out of confidence, she is stressed out about the future and adulthood, and wants to be ready for anything. But if she could have it her way, she would just break wild horses and ride the trails every sunset. Instead, she works the register at the family ranch’s tack shop.
PATRICK DE LA VEGA
Then there’s Patrick. Gio’s “yes and” sidekick and best friend. Patrick is a tag-a-long who hasn’t found himself yet, and he makes every single situation more difficult. He always says the wrong thing, presses the buttons he shouldn’t press, and spills the secret he promised to keep. Privately, Patrick is a deeply curious person, a sweetheart and an information enthusiast with all the potential in the world. This kid knows an insane amount about mythology and history, one of his many odd obsessions. Unfortunately, he is terrified of horses, which is not great quality to have in a ranch neighborhood.
THE PILOT
We see Samantha, Diego, Gio, and Ella in their different worlds - summer school, dead end jobs, etc. We get to know each one of them and where they are in their lives. Family, routine, angst, unrequited crushes, dreams deferred, and wanderlusts unrealized.
An impromptu hang at the local Leon ranch after a day of summer school leads to an impromptu horseback ride under the full moon to blow off some steam. As Diego and Ella head out, Sissy and Gio decide they’re gonna tag along. Patrick fifth-wheels at the last minute.
When at the top of one of the nearby mountains, they stumble upon a cave they’ve never seen before. It’s an old mine. They walk in, find a cart, head down a shaft (goonies style) and when they come out the other end, it’s the OLD WEST.
When they emerge, it’s daytime, and they’ve stumbled upon a scene: some sort of robbery is happening. A deal gone wrong, a shake-down and a kidnapping of a young woman. They go looking for help—They have to tell someone.
They arrive in a town (This is our Neverland.) Because they are young, savvy people familiar with time travel/parallel universes/etc from a lifetime of TV and Movies, they quickly sort out what has happened to them. They agree to not touch anything; butterfly effect and all. They buy clothes to fit in and try to find a way to give word about the missing girl, then get back to the cave.
Instead, the town Sheriff ropes them into finding the missing girl. They quickly find themselves preparing to leave with the search posse.
They head off into the unknown to hunt for the bandits and missing girl, a la TRUE GRIT. Riding on borrowed horses from a local cowboy (a handsome fella, according to Sissy.) Sissy and Diego aren’t sure about this adventure, but Gio, Ella and even Patrick feel called to duty. They argue about how long they can be gone, and how differently time may work in this place. The grumpy Sheriff warms up to these new strangers along the trail.
Classic western adventure ensues: They chase the gang, rescue the girl and save the day. The villain gets away and now has a vendetta against these kids forever (who are the age of adults here. For example, Jesse James was 19 when his lore was already spreading throughout the West.)
They crawl back through the mine after two days of adventure, only to return to the rancho and discover that it’s only been two hours. They go to their respective homes, get in their beds, and stare at their ceilings. Nothing will ever be the same again. And they all have a secret together.
…But someone saw them come out of the cave, and heard them talking about another time.
Big themes for this PILOT episode: Sissy meets a hot cowboy. Diego is jealous. Gio wants to be an outlaw. Ella saves the day. Patrick almost gets them all killed, but some of them warm up to him a bit more. They all are struggling with the reality of what has happened to them, and what it means for their lives.
EXAMPLE STORYLINES & THEMES
• They start leading double lives. Ones in the present, and ones in the wild west. Nothing they do in the past seems to affect the present, so they get bolder and bolder. They start to build their lives there. They are respected adults there, and just kids back home.
• Sissy starts to fall in love with her Cowboy. Diego is becoming a respected lawman. Ella is breaking horses and krackin’ skulls with Diego. Gio and Patrick are becoming businessmen and outlaws.
• They start to realize that this old west is filled with all the folk heroes from their research. Wyatt Earp. Billy The Kid. Red cloud. Bass Reeves. Calamity Jane. Annie Oakley. Bill Picket. Why?
• They all start studying about the old west together from a history teacher. The more they learn, the more they suspect that the mine is more than it seems. Parallel universe?
• They hear about Paul Bunyan. And Night Walkers. Headless horsemen (El Muerto.) Chupacabra (shape shifter.) The Thunderbird. Are these real here too? Mythical creatures? Or just legends?
• Their enemy gang leader finds his way to 2025 / A kid follows them back to the west and gets lost / A parent goes looking for them and finds the Mine.
• The gang leader they thwarted has a vendetta against them. He wants to find out where they disappear to, where they really came from. They start to follow them. Eventually they discover the mine…
• Diego and Sissy finally get together in the real world. But what about her love in the west?
• A scientist starts to study the energy anomaly of the Mine.
• One day researching, Ella sees a picture of herself as an old west hero. How?
• They get Jumanji’d: One of them gets stuck in the past, or they all do, and come back two weeks later and a year older.
CREATED BY
RAFAEL CASAL
Rafael Casal is a critically acclaimed, award-nominated writer, director, actor, producer, poet, and musician whose work blurs the lines between the poetic and the cinematic. A Bay Area native, Casal is the creator and showrunner of the hit Starz/Lionsgate series “Blindspotting,” a boldly original adaptation of his Sundance-lauded feature film of the same name.
Casal recently wrapped Season 1 of “The Boroughs,” the highly anticipated new Netflix series from the Duffer Brothers, and currently recurs on Sterlin Harjo’s FX series “The Lowdown.” He also stars in Marvel’s “Loki” (Season 2) on Disney+, and plays opposite Maya Hawke in Ethan Hawke’s TIFF-premiering feature “Wildcat.”
When “Blindspotting” first hit screens, The Hollywood Reporter named Casal one of the “Five Showrunners to Watch.” The series has gone on to earn Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award nominations, a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, and a place on numerous “Best of 2021” lists. For the acclaimed second season, Casal directed half the episodes—including a boundary-pushing Western installment that showcased his signature blend of lyrical storytelling and visual daring.
The Blindspotting feature, co-written with longtime collaborator Daveed Diggs, marked Casal’s film debut as both writer and actor, playing ‘Miles.’ The film premiered at Sundance to critical acclaim, sparking a studio bidding war ultimately won by Lionsgate. Casal is currently developing new series and feature projects for Starz and Lionsgate.
His acting work also includes HBO’s Emmy-winning “Bad Education” opposite Hugh Jackman, and Showtime’s “The Good Lord Bird” with Ethan Hawke.
As a musician, Casal has written original songs for Apple TV+’s “Central Park” and for Blindspotting, alongside releasing three independent albums of his own. His music and poetry have been featured on MTV, Showtime, SXSW, and Sundance, and he first gained national attention through his groundbreaking appearances on HBO’s Def Poetry.
Casal is also the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Bars Workshop at New York City’s legendary Public Theater, a training ground for artists blending verse and performance. Before that, he co-founded and led the First Wave Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, served as Curator for its Line Breaks Festival, and helped shape the youth arts movement at San Francisco’s Youth Speaks, where he began his career.
A lifelong boundary-breaker, Rafael Casal continues to expand what American storytelling can sound and look like—bridging the worlds of film, television, theater, and music with fearless heart and craft.
