1975
23 and me? More like "63 and me"
Lenny P. was a lot of things, one of which well educated. As a young freshman, he became a sperm donor. He liked the pocket money, and he also enjoyed the donation process. In fact, he'd been practicing diligintly since 8th grade. In the 35 years he spent at UCLA, (1973-208) Lenny kept up the habit (he is a man of routine) and sired (without his direct knowledge) over a hundred children during that time. Today, 63 of his spawn live in the greater Los Angeles area, and they're about to meet.
Lenny P. resisted,-heavily- at first but now he's sees money. This gambling con man gene is going to turn this unwanted family inside out.
BRANDON
Brandon Pleen (34), an innocent Eeyore-type with a heart of
gold, He's looking for meaning, a family, and above all else, a father. As he joins forces with other half siblings he meets along the way. Brendan is immediately the "big brother" to the group. His newfound half-sibs start looking to him for direction, a sense of being and as a father figure of his own. Brandon rejects this at first. He doesn't want any part of it. He wants to find HIS father...not to be THEIR father. However, as we move along, he starts to relish the role a little and maybe, just maybe, this is what he's needed all along.
CLARA PLEEM
INT. CLARA PLEEM’S HOME, PALOS VERDES, CA -- SAME TIME
CLARA PLEEM is sitting up in her bed, wearing readers that
hang from a chain around her neck, and is playing an original
Gameboy. She has on one of those ‘wolf howling at the moon’
airbrushed t-shirts.
Brandon's mother is a constant source of both information for him about his lineage, as well as a detractor. She can never quite get her head around why Brandon wants to dig into this and is constantly trying to dissuade him from digging any deeper. Is she hiding something? Is she simply trying to protect him? Perhaps we find out that she had an affair with the doctor who ran the clinic and we're lead down a false path of thinking that the doctor is actually the father of the siblings. Whatever the case, she's a shut-in hypochondriac with a heart of gold. Mostly.
Lily Li
in her mid-30’s. Lily, her hair up in a sloppy bun,
struggles to hold an armful of boxes and bags as she attempts
to get the trunk of her car open. A cigarette dangles
precariously from her lips and she SQUINTS as the smoke
washes up into her eyes.
Lily, who lives in the recovery house next door, is world-weary, tired from years of hard partying the way only someone who gets sober at 23 can get. She's done a lot of hard living and wants some normalcy in her life. Perhaps a rivalry develops between the recovery house and the divorced guys building that escalates over time. Lily's quest for stability, a family, mirrors Brandon's, and comes to a head after they're dating for awhile and, as the chaos around his life continues to build, she just can't take it anymore.
Allison Daly
Brandon and his ex, ALLISON DALY, emerge from an office
building onto a busy city street. Brandon is CRYING. Allison
looks resolute in her Venice Beach uniform: yoga pants, a
fancy water bottle, and a yoga mat strapped to her back.
Brendan's relationship with his ex, Allison Daly >> Allison is a writer, who, when she learns about Brandon's crazy growing family situation, begins to hound him to let her write a book about them. At first Brandon, who still has fantasies about winning her back, kind of strings her along, telling her he'll see if he can get the other siblings to agree. Jules, unexpectedly, is dead set against this. Why? we're left wondering. It turns out that Jules - who is a degenerate gambler - is on the run from some unsavory mob types, and doesn't want the attention.
Julius Napoli
which is to a person named JULIUS NAPOLI, with whom he shares
24.7% DNA.
As he puzzles over this an instant message box pops up in the
corner of the site. It’s a message from Julius. Brandon
clicks it and reads: FUCKING AWESOME! Mind calling me RIGHT
FUCKING NOW!? 310-459-1947
Jules is a degenerate gambler >> The siblings come to learn that Jules is in to some unsavory, but ridiculous mob types for a lot of money. He used to work at the track, sold them some bad information on a horse, and now they're after him. They may not want to kill him, but there's a running joke about all the things they're going to do to his dick when they get him. Perhaps, as the season progresses toward the fertility clinic heist conclusion, we learn that Jules is really involved because he wants to rob the place, and there's a moment in the last episode when he can either take the money and run or get the information about who their father is.
Also, Jules is really looking at Brandon as a big brother. He insists on "big brother outings" to all the places he never got to see as a kid. Brandon, who needs Jules for the heist, resists this at first, but finally goes along with it. We can have a whole episode with them going to a water slide together, going record shopping, bowling. Jules winds up de facto living with Brandon and starts hooking up with the only woman who lives in the divorced dads condo complex, Darla d'Antonio, a grizzled ex-flight attendant, who's stitched together a frock coat from all the restraining orders filed against her by former suitors. "I can't tell where her stretch marks end and her crooked smile begins. It scares me. Makes me hard."
Frank Geary & Les McConell
These guys are pure comic relief. They become sort of de facto siblings and all of the stuff that happens at Luau Gardens involves them. Frank's recurring gag can be that he takes extra shifts watching the kids in exchange for big ticket items from his ex-wife. Les, we come to learn, is actually happily married with a family. He just likes to hang out.