Dusty and the Big Bad World

By: Cusi Cram

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Synopsis: Comedy / Characters: 1m, 3f, 1 girl Dusty and his animated friends hold a competition to find a model family based on letters written by children. The winning family will receive a visit from Dusty and will be filmed for an upcoming episode. Out of the 15,000 letters received, the producers pick Lizzie Goldberg-Jones and her family to be featured on the most popular animated PBS show in America. Her parents are exemplary role models - and they are two men. When word of that selection and the resulting episode reaches Marianne, Secretary of Education, she exercises her authority, deciding that the program should not be aired on public television because of its possible influence on children. Her decision, calling the episode "special interest TV", is a blow to Jessica and Nathan, the producers/writers of the show and to Karen, Marianne's secretary. Karen admires her boss' tenacity in overcoming a self-destructive past, but feels her decision to cancel the episode is definitely wrong. She secretly reveals that self-destructive past to Nathan and almost brings Marianne down, but not quite. Based on an actual incident that happened in 2005, Dusty and the Big Bad World is a very funny, no-holds-barred yet even-handed look at PBS, government bias, gay marriage, the right to privacy, children's allergies and the ability to survive in a small-minded world.