HOME GIRL is a TV SITCOM that follows the hectic life of BERKLEY – a wife, mother and owner of an actual Online business that’s really taking off. It’s A COLORFUL DRAMEDY ABOUT A WOMAN WHO CAN.
BERKLEY is a supportive wife and very involved mother of three. She also runs a growing business out of her family’s Santa Barbara home.
Berkley’s name has always been part of the conversation. She’s first generation Korean-American, born near San Francisco in the 1970’s. On the delivery room TV, her mother watched repeated reports of protests on the Berkley University campus during her twenty-three hours of labor. When the hospital staff asked the name of her baby, she told them the only English word she could pronounce. When Berkley married, she took her husband’s last name, BEACON. But being referred to as Berkley Beacon always made her feel like a newspaper. And no woman wants to feel like a newspaper. She changed it back to her family name, CHO the moment her divorce became final. Now, happily re-married, she’s taken his name, but also hyphenates to pay homage to her family and ancestry. Sadly, husband number two’s last name is KING, making her Berkley CHO-KING. The jokes, while way past tired to her, continue to provide endless entertainment for JEN, Berkley’s bff from her days growing up in Stockton, California.
tone
At the core HOME GIRL, is all about the love. It’s a mom, two pre-teen girls, a husband, love child, immigrant parents and a home-office with two employees tryin’ to make things happen. Things get emotional: sometimes the mood is light and loving and often times, things spin out of control.
setting
Home Girl is headquartered in a four-bedroom, Spanish style home in Santa Barbara, California. Scenes take place around the house, in a spare bedroom office and in the apartment studio above the garage. There are scenes at the husband’s restaurant, which allow the opportunity to incorporate actual Santa Barbara night spots, spas, etc into the storylines. But primarily, HOME GIRL focuses on a woman’s accomplishments from home.
characters
Education was very important to Berkley’s parents, AEIN and CHANG Cho. They literally jumped off trains and crawled under barbed wire so their children could be educated in America. Berkley’s two semesters of community college isn’t quite what they escaped Korea for and remains a touchy subject at family gatherings. But as horrific as this still is for them, nothing trumps her brother MAYS marrying a Japanese woman.
Berkley is 5’6” and nicely fit. Her milky Asian skin projects an air of royalty, but her beaming smile suggests a non pretentious approachability. She’s totally Americanized, but speaks Korean with her parents and the dry cleaner. Berkley is a ‘conservative liberal’ and very environmentally conscious. As a rule, she’s strong in her own beliefs, but not preachy. She has a natural style and appreciates good food, fine art and all kinds of music. Berkley’s family has always been religious. As a young girl, she sang in the church choir. As she got older, she developed a taste for show rockers like Bowie and Queen. Berkley also loves photography. Georgia O’Keefe and Diane Arbus totally speak to her.
Berkley was always more street-savvy than book-smart. Early in her career, she had a habit of being in the right place at the right time and was rewarded with excellent mentors who nurtured her business acumen. Except at her last corporate job, where a bad experience made her seriously question her long term security.
It was about that time, she met Santa Barbara surf legend ROYCE Beacon. They looked fantastic together, but never really clicked beyond that. After the baby, he refused to allow her to work. She always resented him for that. These days, Berkley and Royce are cool, but not really. There’s always that degree of tension caused by her new found happiness and the success that has been helped along by ‘their’ old friends.
PAIGE is Royce and Berkley’s daughter. She’s beautiful: half Korean, half beach bunny. She attends a local, private middle school and is considered one of the cool girls. Like her mother, she likes art and drama and is quickly developing her own opinions about world events. Page and her mom are buds. They openly communicate about whatever.
Berkley will never forget how it felt to leave Royce for life as a single, unemployed mother. If things had been different, she’d probably have gone back to her PR job in New York, but she decided to stay in Santa Barbara, so her daughter could grow up around her dad.
LONNIE King is Berkley’s second husband and proof you can get it right the second time. Calm and supportive, he is completely opposite of Royce. Lonnie’s the owner and Head Chef at Lons, a fairly new restaurant gaining traction around town. He’s well liked in the community and his crusted sea bass was recently crowned a regional best. Lonnie is the mulatto son of a well-known Motown Producer and his brief, high-profile marriage to a French Adult film star. His mellow attitude gives off a Ben Harper-like vibe. He was also a choir kid growing up, so he and Berkley share a love for song.
SING is Berkley and Lonnie’s love child. He’s striking: a beautiful mix of Lonnie’s half black, half white background and Berkley’s Korean heritage. His presence and cuteness eases/adds to the stress of their already hectic home.
ELIANA is Lonnie’s daughter from a past relationship. She is half his black and white and half Latina like her mom. Lonnie and Eliana’s mother, ROSLYN never married. She’s Catholic and decided to have the baby when she became pregnant. Eliana lives mostly with her now re-married mom in Los Angeles, but stays with Berkley’s family often. She loves pop music and hip-hop ballet. She’s sweet, but doesn’t always have the best choice of friends. The multi-racial, Brangelina-ness of Berkley and Lonnie’s family isn’t lost on friends, who teasingly refer to them as BERKLEYONNIE (Pronounced Berkley-Yonnie).
The family lives a comfortable, but not pretentious lifestyle in a four bedroom Spanish-style home. Once a week, the family employs a housekeeper, LEXI.
business
About two years ago, Berkley began investigating various work-at-home opportunities. She did her homework before using the last of Royce’s divorce settlement money to start a business selling clip-in colored hair extensions called DIVAS HAR STREAKS.
community
Berkley is diligent with her networking and Social postings. She’s placed streaks with many of her Stylist friends in LA and sold them in salons and beauty supply stores. They once quickly sold out at Fred Segal & their popularity with cheer squads is starting to grow. She regularly offers the hair streaks for fundraising and community opportunities and has even created a generous franchise opportunity for young women looking to work and make their own money.
team
Berkley has two interns from UCSB: TAYLOR, a blond bean-pole from Florida, who attends school on a swimming scholarship and FAYE, a Jewish Art History major who also DJ’s around town as MC OY. Each is an aspiring businesswomen and together they operate the fulfillment center out of STREAK CENTRAL – a youth-inspired, colorful garage apartment that houses Divas inventory and packaging.
more
Berkley enjoys going out for cocktails with other moms and business associates. She also hosts many gatherings at Lon’s restaurant. She’d be the first to admit that sharing a bed with a Head Chef helps make every party a more memorable affair.
To get away from it all, Berkley surfs. Besides Paige, it’s the one thing she cherishes from her time with Royce. Lonnie’s not very athletic so she happily goes by herself. Berkley also takes pole dancing aerobics. She’s quite good at it and often jokes that if things don’t work out…
Every so often, the girl’s dramas, the baby’s constant need for attention, Lon’s late hours and the responsibilities of owning a business become too much and Berkley melts down. Thankfully, Lonnie’s always there to rescue his home girl.
episodes
Shows highlight the dramas and comedy Berkley faces as a wife, mother and business owner. (The Mom, the Missus and the Mogul)
“Surprise Surprise”
TAYLOR and FAYE, the two interns, are gone on Spring Break. Daughter PAIGE is with Berkley’s parents and SING is off visiting LONNIE’s father and wife number five. There’s a rare moment of silence around the house and Berkley’s excited to try out the hot tub feature on the master bedroom’s new bath. As she gathers music, candles and reading materials, she gets a call from out of the blue. It’s TINA, Editor of YM magazine. Seems a friend of Paige’s friend Amber told another friend’s mom about how cool STREAK CENTRAL was and the magazine was hoping to use it for a photo shoot with a top teen celebrity. “It should be excellent exposure for your business,” Tina says. “But it needs to happen… tomorrow.”
BERKLEY: (excited) “Let’s do it. You can stop by this evening and check out the space for yourself.” (pause) “Great… I’ll see you then.” It had been a while since Berkley had actually visited the apartment/studio out back. When she goes for a look, it’s a mess and nowhere near ready for a celebrity photo shoot. As she hastily changes into more appropriate work clothes, Lonnie calls: a fire in the kitchen has the restaurant in crisis. Chef TOM COLICCHIO, from Bravo TV’s Top Chef, is scheduled to come in with a large party and the ovens and equipment have n to be cleaned, marinades need to be started and wines must be selected. And, of course, MATISE, the Sous Chef has called in sick.
Berkley tells Lonnie her news and and they each laugh nervously, before wishing the other good luck getting their house back in order. A short time later: Lonnie shows up at Streak Central with wine and a platter of beautiful cheeses to congratulate/surprise Berkley and help her out. Much to his surprise, no one is there. At the same moment across town: Berkley shows up at Lon’s empty restaurant.
Scene cuts back and forth between the two disaster areas. Lonnie rolls up his sleeves and begins to paint Streak Central. Berkley mops and scrubs Lons. Lonnie re-arranges furniture, hangs lights and adds a few of his Lonnie-style touches–all while nibbling on cheese. Meanwhile, Berkley starts the marinades after finding Lonnie’s recipe next to the chopping board.
Unknowingly, her package of Tic-Tacs is open and all the mints fall into the marinade when she leans over to reach for some chili flakes. After he’s finished, Lonnie cuts through the house to wash up before going out the front door. At the very same time, Berkley goes around back to the apartment/studio area. She stops to water the succulents and begins to think of what she’s going to tell Tina from YM who is scheduled to arrive any minute. When TIna shows up, the two women go upstairs with Berkley profusely apologizing for what she is about to see. When the door opens, they experience a Streak Central moment that resembles when Dorothy first sees Oz. TINA: Wow… this is fantastic. Magical.
Shocked and impressed herself, Berkley nervously laughs and grabs for a Tic-Tac. The pack is empty. Lonnie returns to the restaurant just in time to serve Chef Colichio foie gras resting in a mysterious marinade. CHEF COLICHIO: Wow… this is fantastic – love the mint.
“Not enough Disco”
Wednesday is LEXI, the housekeeper’s, day off. And, in addition to picking up around the house and doing laundry, BERKLEY has also agreed to drive PAIGE and her friend’s around to their various after school activities. But, while folding the baby’s clothes, she gets a frantic text from ELIANA. Berkley calls her back and Eliana begins to cry almost immediately. Seems she went with some older kids in a car to the mall, but then this one girl got sick because she smoked a cigarette and… Eliana’s really really sorry and promises never to do it again. But she’s fearful that if her mom or dad finds out, they’ll never let her go to Jen’s sleep-over the next weekend. Berkley tells her to hang tight, she’ll drive from Santa Barbara down to LA and pick her up.
From the road, Berkley checks in with work and FAYE tells her that a university cheer squad has an important competition coming up and the coach called about ordering a hundred pink streaks. Unfortunately, there are only twenty two in stock.
Berkley tells Faye to tell the coach she’ll call tomorrow and then asks her to see if TAYLOR can schlep Paige around in the afternoon. There’s something out of the office she needs to take care of.
Berkley delivers Eliana home safely and gets back just an hour late for dinner. Thankfully Lonnie was late also, so no harm, no foul. Later that night, as Berkley and Lonnie spoon, Lonnie mentions that he had called Eliana earlier that day but never heard back from her.
BERKLEY: I’m sure she’s fine. She’s a teenager… Maybe she just didn’t feel like talking to daddy today. Berkley quickly changes the subject by asking Lonnie what she should do about not having enough pink streaks. Lonnie comes up with a great idea: Since the team’s colors are pink, orange and black, she should suggest they order orange and black instead. This way, they’d be ordering twice as many streaks. Then, maybe she could go out and get some inexpensive pink bows to help pink out the order. BERKLEY: My hero.
“Good for Lonnie”
A large Online retailer thinks Divas Hair Streaks are the next big thing and wants to feature them in an upcoming accessories showcase. They tell BERKLEY she should be prepared for a quick, large spike in orders. Excellent! Except the Online software that takes payments for the orders is down. FAYE is off and TAYLOR, the one usually in charge of stuff like this, came down with the same weird food-poisoning as SING. Each lays around the house incapacitated. Berkley nurses them both back to health and somehow gets the Web site up and working. Feeling very empowered, she greets Lonnie in high heels and sexy lingerie. Not entirely sure what he did to deserve such a treat, Lonnie doesn’t even bother asking.
“Mogulizing the Troops”
PAIGE and ELIANA both invite a bunch of their friends over. During the course of the day, the girls end up hanging at Streak Central and getting really into the whole vibe of the business. Berkley is inspired by their enthusiasm and comes up with an idea for how the young girls can make their own money and learn to run a business.
A bunch of the girls sign up to give it a go. At the end of the episode, Lonnie plans a dinner at the restaurant and all the little entrepreneurs arrive wearing new clothes they bought with their hair streak earnings. At the same time the episode aires, the actual Divas Web site would offer young viewers the same entrepreneurial opportunity.
“Tix Fix”
GWEN STEFANI‘s dancers plan on wearing Divas Hair Streaks in their hair during an upcoming taping for American Idol. The Producers have sent BERKLEY two tickets and all access pass for the show. And while it would be great for her to network there, PAIGE wants to go so-so bad and ELIANA loves loves-loves Gwen Stefani. She even heard TAYLOR and VICKI talking about wanting to go. LONNIE tells her she should do what she thinks is right. BERKLEY: (to Lon) Thanks, you’re a big help. In the end, Berkley gets Paige and Eliana a limo and sends them to the show together. She also uses the opportunity to show her appreciation to her interns and gets them each a new iPad and mani-pedis at their favorite salon. They couldn’t be happier. When Gwen finally takes the stage, the cameras follow the dancers before getting a nice close up shot of the girls wearing the same colored streaks in their hair. Later, the phone rings off the hook with people telling Lonnie how beautiful his daughters are. He’s very proud. But just as happy to be hangin’ with his son SING in front of the TV, chowing on a frozen burrito. Berkley, Faye and Taylor meet the girls in Hollywood and they all go out on the town together.
“Berkless”
There’s dishes in the sink, fingerprints on the doorways, three bags of recycling in the mud room and Streak Central is filled with fast food wrappers and half-filled water bottles. Feeling under-appreciated by her husband, family and employees, BERKLEY checks out for the day, leaving everything in their not-so-capable hands. She blows of some steam at pole dance aerobics before meeting up with JEN, her bff who just so happens to be in town. They shop, then spa, while the troops back home do their best to clean up. Refreshed, Berkley arrives home and is greeted by the sounds of Radiohead–her favorite–playing in the background. Everyone promises to never take her for granted again and to always pitch in. At that very moment, SING poops his diaper and is quickly passed through everyone’s arms like sand bags at a flood. Sing finally makes his way to Berkley and mommy kisses him on the forehead before gleefully leaving the room to change the dirty diaper.
“Made in China”
Divas wins a contest to be in the the pocket of every new pair of Lee Diva Doll jeans. This could be huge and BERKLEY must travel to China to finalize production issues for such a large volume run. No one is available to sit with SING, so Berkley is forced to have her 80 year-old Korean parents stay at the house and watch the kids. LONNIE is polite in their presence, but weirdly uncomfortable co-existing with them in his own home.