A Brooklyn family is forced to readjust to rural life due to chronic fatigue syndrome.

SYNOPSIS:

SYNOPSIS FOR BANISHED FROM BROOKLYN

Banished From Brooklyn is a family dramedy geared for an LMN-type audience.

A Brooklyn family is forced to readjust to rural life due to chronic fatigue syndrome.

John Fatone suffers from vivid nightmares about being abducted by aliens. His family doctor has diagnosed him with chronic fatigue syndrome but he’s convinced that his nightmares are real. He can’t stop talking about it and it’s affecting the pizza parlor that he and his brother Jimmy own on 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn. The once-thriving business has lost all its regular customers who don’t want to constantly hear about his delusions.

Helen Fatone, his wife who waitresses at the pizza parlor, realizes that something has to be done. John insists that there is an alien implant in his arm but the X-rays show nothing. Their doctor claims the pain in his arm is overuse from constantly throwing pizzas and says that the mere stress of living in Brooklyn could be the cause.

Carmella Colombo, Helen’s sister suggests they move to rural Windham, New Hampshire where she works as a doctor's receptionist. Desperate to save her family, Helen proposes to sell John’s share of Fatone’s Pizza to his brother and use the money to open a new restaurant near her sister. She calls for a family intervention of their Italian relatives and their Catholic priest to convince John that this is God’s will.

Rudy Fatone, their 12-year-old son, has suffered from the mockery of his father’s alien abduction reputation. Only a 6th grader, he’s bullied in Junior High School, fitted with an alien mask, and stuffed into a locker. Frankie Fatone, his 15-year-old brother, rescues him from his fellow ninth-grade football teammates but he too suffers ridicule. Frankie has a fight with his band for disrespecting his father who allows them to rehearse in their detached garage on 79th Street around the corner from Fatone’s Pizza.

When Helen and John break the news of the move to the kids, Rudy breaks into tears over leaving his girlfriend and Frankie doesn’t want to leave his band behind. Frankie complains that this is like being banished from all that he knows. He asks his Uncle Jimmy if he can stay behind but gets convinced to give it a try for his father’s sake. Helen masterminds everything and her aging widowed Aunt Rosa rents their duplex next door to Jimmy so he can look in after her. She’s designed things so they can buy back John’s share of Fatone’s Pizza to return if things don’t work out. In June everyone they know sees them off, and John regrets leaving the friends he plays Pinochle with.

In New Hampshire, they renovate an old tavern with an apartment over it. Over the summer they invest in pizza ovens and the boys help clear the front property for a paved parking lot. Their apartment is much larger with room for a baby grand piano for Frankie. By August they hold a big outdoor opening celebration giving away free pizza for their new community. Dr. Houghton, Aunt Carmella’s employer, offers to help John join the Chamber of Commerce and spread the word about their new restaurant. He also prescribes new medication for John’s nightmares. The restaurant is an immediate hit with Helen’s Italian recipes in a bistro setting and John out of sight in the kitchen.

At Windham High, Frankie is perceived as a mobster from Brooklyn until Herse, Dr. Houghton’s son, befriends him. He convinces Frankie to join the band and the choir so his talent can help him gain acceptance. Meanwhile, in Junior High, Rudy’s Brooklyn demeanor challenges the local bullies and he stands up for the wimps in school who all befriend him. Rudy finds new love in a girl with Karate skills, enrolls in a local dojo with her, and convinces all the wimps to join too.

Donna Houghton, the doctor’s wife, convinces Helen and John to join the local bridge club, as Pinochle is a very similar game. John is reluctant at first to play cards with mixed couples but adjusts as they become formattable competitors in the competition. The new restaurant and its acceptance in the community expands the family’s income and they hire more employees. By Christmas, they visit their relatives in Brooklyn in a brand-new SUV bearing many gifts.

All seems well until a newly proposed Walmart and Olive Garden threatens to change things for the worse. Frankie’s old Brooklyn bandmates show up at a school concert and embarrass him. The bullies in Junior High join a rival dojo and Rudy and his wimp friends are pitted against them in a local competition. Helen takes a wager that she and her flabbergasted husband will beat another bridge club couple who own the property for the newly proposed Olive Garden. The town board’s approval of the proposal is split and the deciding vote hinges on who will win the big Bridge Club tournament. To make matters worse Aunt Carmella reveals that she’s become pregnant by Mr. Rossi, Frankie's school band director!

It's Helen to the rescue as she beats the other couple by recognizing their ‘tell’ and wins the tournament. The deciding vote is bound by the bet and the Olive Garden proposal is defeated by the board. She organizes a big ten wedding in the back of their restaurant for her sister and all the family in Brooklyn to attend. Rudy and his friends win trophies at the Karate Competition defeating the bullies in the rival dojo. Frankie organizes the band members to play at his aunt and Mr. Rossi’s wedding just as the school year ends.

At the wedding Frankie’s uncle asks him if he still wants to move back to Brooklyn, but now that he’s made all these new friends, he’s not sure anymore. As Helen gets Carmella ready, she cautions her that marriage isn’t always ‘happily ever after’ and uses her marriage as an example of that. Carmella objects saying that Helen’s marriage is everything she hopes for and that Helen is the glue that holds the whole family together. Almost every character is there at the ceremony where the story arcs climax.

Frankie and Hersh both pass their driving tests, and Frankie is handed his own set of keys to the family SUV and becomes the restaurant's pizza delivery boy. Now with his own set of wheels, he realizes that he can visit Brooklyn anytime. Instead of resenting his father and feeling banished from Brooklyn, he recognizes that the move has bettered his entire life. He tells his father that maybe he’ll start a specialty restaurant in the future called ‘Fatone’s Calzones’ and shape them like a UFO!

The story's closing scene mimics the opening scene with John waking up from a nightmare. The family panics that John’s nightmares of being abducted by slimy aliens have returned. Then John tells them that his nightmare was about being slimed as the new Hell’s Kitchen Chef of the year and the family gets into a big pillow fight over giving them a scare. While John may still suffer from an occasional nightmare his CFS is gone.

BANISHED FROM BROOKLYN