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Other Episodic Series

Squat!

by Bo Bennett, PhD · 220 pages

Logline

A desperate out-of-work marketing director takes a job at a dysfunctional Boston fitness center, navigating an absurd cast of trainers, a clueless owner, and growing feelings for his coworker while trying to save the gym.

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Synopsis

With the help of a freakishly wise janitor, a newly-hired membership director struggles to keep a fitness center afloat while being given ridiculous tasks from an ethically-questionable owner. Take an opinionated and all-around diverse group of fitness trainers, add a sketchy owner, a genius janitor, and throw in an endearing but largely incompetent general manager, and you have the perfect recipe for riotous, chaotic hilarity. You have Squat! Set in a large fitness center in the Boston suburbs, the sitcom follows Scott Carter, a former big-shot marketing executive who takes a job at Squat Spot Fitness out of desperation. Carter quickly discovers that the place is run by an ethically-questionable owner willing to exploit staff and clients alike, and a general manager who’s in way over his head. With the help of a bright fitness director and a freakishly wise janitor, Carter manages to keep the gym open... for at least a bit longer. Squat! features an interesting cast of characters who embody many of the social and political issues of the day. Rather than address these issues directly, they remain lightly veiled within seemingly petty arguments and conflicts. Each episode offers viewers the anticipation and fun of discovering the parallel “real world” political and social issues highlighted. Without taking sides, Squat! invites viewers to laugh at the absurdity of humanity while deepening understanding of those with differing beliefs. The series presents an additional running theme of owner Jack Pemberton’s dubious assignment to Scott Carter. Carter struggles to satisfy his boss without compromising his values. Squat! offers humor—of the smart, subtle, and laugh-out-loud varieties—along with lovable, fallible characters, and even an insight or two about creativity, understanding, and ethics. The first season comprises ten fully-scripted episodes, rewritten as a comedic novel. Season One innocuously and hilariously provides a nod to such topics as COVID / mask-wearing, claims of election fraud, QAnon conspiracy theories, pronouns, “Karens,” defunding the police, multi-level marketing scams, cults, and even truth itself. If Seinfeld had a threesome with Dodgeball and The Office, and miraculously conceived a lovechild, Squat! would be it.
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Logline

Laid-off marketing exec Scott Carter takes a membership-director job at a failing Boston-suburb gym, where he must carry out his shady owner's ethically dubious schemes without losing his integrity, or the gym, while falling for his smartest coworker.

Short synopsis

Scott Carter was a big-shot marketing executive. Now he's the new membership director at Squat Spot Fitness, a sprawling, barely solvent gym in the Boston suburbs, and he took the job out of pure desperation. His boss, owner Jack Pemberton, will exploit staff and members alike to squeeze out a profit and keeps handing Scott assignments that test how much of his conscience he's willing to sell. The general manager is sweet and hopelessly in over his head. The trainers are a loud, opinionated crew who fight over petty things that happen to mirror real-world culture-war flashpoints. Scott's allies are a sharp fitness director, with whom the sparks are building, and a janitor who is wiser than everyone on the payroll combined.

Extended synopsis
Scott Carter used to run campaigns. Now he's selling gym memberships at Squat Spot Fitness, a large, shabby fitness center in the Boston suburbs, because nothing else came through. He figures the job is temporary and beneath him, until he sees how the place actually runs. The owner, Jack Pemberton, treats both employees and clients as revenue sources. The general manager is an endearing, largely incompetent presence who has no idea how deep the hole is. The engine of the series is the Pemberton assignment. Each week Jack hands Scott a task that is part marketing challenge and part ethical trap, and Scott has to find a way to satisfy his boss without compromising his values. His former-executive skills keep the doors open, and his conscience keeps getting in the way. That tension gives the show a clean A-story for every episode. Around him is a deliberately mismatched ensemble: opinionated, diverse trainers who argue constantly over seemingly trivial things. The book's conceit is that these petty fights are veiled stand-ins for real social and political flashpoints. Season One's ten episodes nod to mask-wearing, claims of election fraud, conspiracy theories, pronouns, 'Karens,' defunding the police, multi-level marketing scams, cults, and the nature of truth itself. The show never picks a side. It plays the arguments for absurdity and invites the audience to understand the people on the other side of them. Scott's guides through the chaos are the bright fitness director, with whom his feelings are slowly growing, and a freakishly wise janitor who dispenses insight on creativity, understanding, and ethics from behind a mop. The season builds toward one question: can Scott keep the gym alive, and keep himself intact, long enough for either to be worth it? Note for buyers: this novel is a prose rewrite of ten fully scripted episodes, so the series structure is already built in. The pilot and season arc can be developed directly from the source.
Why it adapts
The setting is the asset. A big suburban gym is a built-in visual playground: the floor, the group-class studio, the front desk, the locker room, the juice bar, the sales office. It offers constant background gags, a sound design built on clanging plates and chirpy instructor voices, and an instantly legible poster of an ensemble in athletic wear around a squat rack. It's a contained, low-cost, repeatable location, which is exactly what a half-hour comedy wants. The ensemble is built for casting and for breakout characters: the desperate fallen executive, the ethically flexible owner, the well-meaning, out-of-depth general manager, the sharp fitness director, and the janitor who is wiser than all of them. The Pemberton assignment gives every episode a clear engine, with a boss who asks and a hero who has to find a clever, principled way out, and that is a proven structure for episodic comedy. To be direct about the risks: the Season One topics (COVID masking, election-fraud claims, QAnon) are tied to a specific cultural moment, and a developer would need to reframe them around evergreen versions of the same fights (distrust, tribal identity, scams, who gets to define truth). The 'veiled issue' conceit also depends on tone discipline so it reads as character comedy rather than a sketch show with a lesson. Handled well, the no-sides satirical angle is a marketable hook in a divided landscape. The ten existing scripts give a writer a real head start on the pilot and the first-season arc.
Format recommendation
Episodic Series

This is a half-hour workplace ensemble comedy. The material was written as ten scripted episodes, with a weekly engine (Pemberton's assignment plus a veiled culture-war conflict) and a slow-burn romance that all need room to repeat and escalate. A feature would flatten the ensemble and lose the repeatable structure that makes the premise work.

Comp titles
Superstore
A single big-box workplace, a mismatched ensemble, an incompetent management layer, and a slow-burn office romance, all used to land social satire inside petty daily conflicts.
Abbott Elementary
A scrappy underfunded institution, a lovable ensemble, and a sincere core that makes the comedy land. It shows the audience appetite for warm workplace comedies with a point of view.
Party Down
A dysfunctional crew of overqualified people stuck in a low-status job, with a fall-from-grace lead, dry banter, and a will-they-won't-they romance.
Ted Lasso
An earnest, decent protagonist trapped in a dysfunctional organization with an unscrupulous owner, a wise-beyond-their-title supporting cast, and a comedy of kindness over cynicism.
Audience

Adults 25-54 who like broad-but-smart workplace comedy and want satire that doesn't pick a team. This audience watches Abbott Elementary, Superstore, Ted Lasso, Parks and Recreation, and The Office reruns, and the show also fits the comfort-comedy viewer streaming on Peacock, Hulu, and Netflix. Fitness and gym-culture audiences are a natural secondary hook.

Tone
irreverent ensemble-driven workplace satire warm-hearted absurdist even-handed
Adaptation Readiness Score

72 / 100

Visual storytelling 74
Dialogue strength 73
Character distinctiveness 76
Hook strength 68
Format fit 84
Market timing 62
Strengths
  • Built as a sitcom from the ground up: ten fully scripted season-one episodes, so the book already reads like a writers' room deliverable with a clear episodic engine (gym, staff, owner's dubious assignments).
  • A castable ensemble with strong comic archetypes: desperate marketing exec, sketchy owner, incompetent GM, 'freakishly wise' janitor, opinionated trainers. Each offers a clear actor-friendly lane and recurring-character potential.
  • A contained, visual, repeatable workplace setting plus a clean running tension (Scott serving an ethically questionable boss without compromising his values) that gives every episode a built-in dilemma.
Adaptation friction
  • The 'Seinfeld meets Dodgeball meets The Office' positioning leans on familiar workplace-comedy territory. The hook needs a sharper, more unique angle to stand out in a crowded half-hour field.
  • Season One's satire is tied to specific 2020-21 flashpoints (COVID masks, election fraud claims, QAnon, pronouns, defund the police). That risks feeling dated, and the 'without taking sides' stance may read as noncommittal to buyers who want a distinct comic point of view.
  • The wise-janitor mentor and the coworker romance are well-worn sitcom devices, and a novelization of scripts may carry dialogue-heavy, setup-punchline rhythms that need re-visualizing for the screen.
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Listed on 2026-04-29
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