Fable with Plot Summary

Fable

Talk Radio Shock Jock Barry Champlain is on the air for another night of controversy, opinion, etc. on Cleveland, Ohio radio station WTLK. Barry’s program follows a program hosted by Sid Greenberg that answers callers’ questions about taxes and finance. Barry comes into the station with his loyal production crew that includes Spike (his engineer), Stu (his operator), Linda (Associate Producer), and Dan (Executive Producer). Linda sets up Champlain’s desk which includes a cup of hot coffee. There is a marked hostility between Linda and Barry as she asks him where he was the night before. He gives a flippant answer and she remarks that she doesn’t appreciate being stood up again. All of this exchange takes place as everyone is preparing to go on air. Linda gives Barry the shocking news headlines for the night and he chooses what topics to open with.

The show is ready to air as the last commercial finishes playing and Barry is on giving the headlines including one about a NAMBLA chapter that is opening in the area and with that the lines are open. The callers are over-the-top and bring up a huge range of topics. One caller is a closeted transvestite who is saving money for an operation and is unceremoniously hung up on. Another caller, is concerned about Perry Nuclear Power Plant and begins to read some sort of group treatise against nuclear power. A lonely, social misfit calls in to talk about how much he loves his cat and how his cat eats dinner with him. Barry suggests some sort of sexual impropriety with the cat and the caller is cut off. An Anti-Semite calls in calling Barry a “dirty, Jew-boy” and Barry debates with him telling a story about having visited Dachau and while there finding a gold Star of David on the ground which he currently has in his hand (actually a glass of brandy or bourbon). The caller, again, is cut off. Another man calls in to defend Jews, who he calls a noble race. He identifies himself as being black to which Barry says he likes blacks and “everyone should own one.” Dialogue ensues until this caller is cut off. A young woman calls in who is a germaphobe and talks about how she is afraid of the germs in the garbage disposal and of postage stamps which might have been licked by someone with AIDS. A sixteen year-old girl calls in and tells Barry about her boyfriend , Stan, who is older and has a truck with the vanity license plate, STAN3. It seems she hasn’t seen him in a while and she has just found out that she is pregnant and doesn’t know what to do. Barry shows no sympathy for her asking her if she is sorry for what she did to Stan. During a commercial break, Dan Woodruff, Executive Producer, comes down to tell Berry that Metroscan wants to syndicate his program and make it a national feature. He tells Berry not to screw up because all the Metroscan executives are listening. The Anti-Semite caller calls back in asking Barry if he received the package yet and implies that it is a bomb. Woodruff in the booth freaks out and wants to call the police. Barry tells Woodruff not to call and then defies orders by unwrapping the package anyway. It’s not a bomb but the package does contain a Nazi flag and dead rat.

A caller, Kent, calls in and says his parents are in Fiji and he’s been “partying” with his girlfriend for several days. The problem is that he can’t wake her up. Barry thinks he is lying, but tells him to hang on the line so that Stu can get his information and have paramedics check the girlfriend out. Kent refuses and a debate ensues amongst Barry and other members of the station as to how the situation should be handled. Executive Producer, Dan Woodruff, tells Barry the Metroscan people are concerned by the call and want it to be resolved differently. An argument ensues about how it should be handled because Barry still believes Kent is lying. Barry, in his typical shocking manner, goes on the air and gets Kent back on the line. Barry bullies Kent into admitting that the whole story was false. When Kent is asked why he did that, he reveals that he really just wants to meet Barry. In an unprecedented move, Barry invites him to the studio. The rest of the station staff are uncertain if this is the safe since they don’t know Kent at all. When Kent arrives, Barry insists that he be admitted and even allows him to talk on air. A bit later, Kent, is fishing around in his pocket and pulls something out. Are all the fears of the station staff to be realized? Stay tuned to see what happens…

Plot Summary

The drama is set in the studio of Cleveland's WTLK Radio over the course of Barry Champlain's two-hour broadcast, being scrutinized that night by producers with an interest in taking the show national, and fueled as always by coffee, cocaine, and Jack Daniel's. Barry's jousts with his unseen callers-ranging from a white supremacist to a woman obsessed with her garbage disposal-are peppered with insights into his character from his ex-deejay pal and his sometime girlfriend/producer, and punctuated with a transformative visit from an embodied voice.

"Your fear, your own lives, have become your entertainment."-Talk Radio
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