LIFE IS WILD {UNAIRED PILOT} (TV)
Summary
The unaired pilot in this drama series about a teenager whose life is dramatically altered when her veterinarian father moves their blended family from New York City to South Africa. In this episode, sixteen-year-old Katie Clarke's happy Manhattan life abruptly changes when her troubled stepbrother Jesse is arrested and kicked out of school for beating up her beloved boyfriend, Tim. Her father, Danny, who married Jesse's mother Jo several years after the death of Katie's mother, takes the incident as a sign that the family needs a new start and announces that they will move to Africa for a year. Katie, Jesse, and younger siblings Chase and Mia are all shocked by the change, but they jet off all the same and join their eccentric grandfather Art at the Blue Antelope Lodge. Katie is immediately distressed to learn that the phones do not work, and they are soon cautioned that a lioness, injured after being shot by a poacher, is roaming nearby. Katie talks to Art, who refuses to explain why he and his daughter fell out of touch, and Danny attempts to fix up his veterinary office and encourages Katie to be honest about her feelings about the move and the death of her mother.
Chase and Mia are excited to find a lone lion cub, wondering if it was abandoned by its mother, and when they head into town for supplies, Katie strikes up a conversation with the handsome young Tumelo, who is interested in becoming a vet as well and offers to introduce her to his sister. Jesse, meanwhile, teams up with fellow troublemaker Oliver, while back at the lodge Jo suggests to Art that she could aid him in getting the place running again. Danny treats some sick cows, and later encounters a drunk and angry Jesse, who chastises him for ruining the family with the move. Danny, however, informs him that they are all still family and will have to learn to adjust. The next day, Art introduces the family to his rival lodge-owners, the Banks family, whose hotel is far more successful and crowded, and Jesse again encounters Oliver and his sister Emily. Oliver flirts with Katie, though Katie is more interested in again attempting to phone Tim. Frustrated, she blames Jesse for their relocation, saying that he attacked Tim out of jealousy. They then discover that the injured lioness has wrecked their clinic while searching for food, and Chase and Mia fret that the cub is sick and needs to be returned to its mother. Katie is then excited to meet Tumelo's "sister," a semi-tame cheetah.
Jo has the phones repaired and tells Art that they can now start bringing in guests, though when Katie finally gets through to Tim, she is heartbroken to realize that he is cheating on her with her best friend. Everyone panics when Chase ventures out alone to reunite the cub and its mother, and when Jesse awkwardly attempts to comfort Katie, she realizes that he beat up Tim when he witnessed the affair. Chase returns home safely, and Katie and Jesse are nearly attacked by the lioness, but Art shoots her with a tranquilizer and Danny quickly attempts to patch her up. Jesse is forced to help with the surgery, and Tumelo arrives to check on Katie, though says that he cannot enter the lodge for "complicated" reasons. The lioness recovers and is finally reunited with her cub, and Katie finally admits that she misses her own mother. Everyone sits down for their first official family meal in South Africa, and Katie later heads off to her first day at her new school and vows to take "a break from boys," though this is challenged somewhat when she finds herself seated between Oliver and Tumelo. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CW, The
- DATE: November 30, 2006
- RUNNING TIME: 0:38:54
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:91240
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama; Families; Africa
- SERIES RUN: The CW - TV series, 2007
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Michael Rauch … Created by
- Brett Cullen … Cast, Danny Clarke
- Judith Hoag … Cast, Jo Weller-Clarke
- Leah Pipes … Cast, Katie Clarke
- Andrew St. John … Cast, Jesse Weller
- David Butler … Cast, Art
- Mary Mouser … Cast, Mia Weller
- K'Sun Ray … Cast, Chase Clarke
- Atandwa Kani … Cast, Tumelo
- Calvin Goldspink … Cast, Oliver Banks
- Tiffany Mulheron … Cast, Emily Banks