A motley crew of police dispatchers, the unsung heroes of law enforcement, juggle their families, ambitions, and love lives with a nerve-racking occupation.

SYNOPSIS:

Behind the Blue is an hour-long, fast paced, FX-style TV pilot. It’s Law and Order meets The Night Shift.

Pilot Episode: Welcome to Comm

We are listening to a 9-1-1 call from a man requesting police response at his home. While this conversation plays out (as a voice over), we meet our swing shift dispatchers.

Bobby Ferris (27, tall, lanky, a health nut) hikes a strenuous, rocky mountain trail.

Eilene Stewart (35, single, tattoos), in her loft apartment with 5-year-old daughter, paints.

Laura Kinitsky (32, sweet, motherly) races around after her three little kids before handing the baton to

husband Frank, a mechanic, so she can work the swing shift - tag team parenting.

Katie Young (25, athletic, gorgeous) runs through the streets of the city, pushing herself at a strong pace. Katie wants to be a cop, but her father - the Chief of Police - forbids it.

David Lopez – ‘Lope’ (40, funny, and a sober alcoholic for three years) drives his three teenage daughters to school after seeing his wife off to work. He is always one drink away from losing everything.

Neeka Nash (50, a timeless and youthful hippy) is putting together a care package for her son, off at war.

George Ellis (53, long grey hair, he is rock-n-roll), the swing shift supervisor, playing his electric guitar in his garage.

The 9-1-1 call continues in voice over; the caller wants police to respond and clean up the mess his impending suicide is about to make, before his wife and kids get home. The dispatcher reasons with him, but the caller is calm and determined. As the call continues, Bobby slips on a rock and falls 20 feet, losing his backpack and breaking his leg.

Once the suicidal caller is assured that the police are en route, George’s garage guitar solo reaches an electrified crescendo at the same time the caller puts his gun in his mouth and shoots. The shocked dispatcher quietly whispers, “Oh my God.”

Swing shift begins and Bobby is a no-show. He is dragging himself to his backpack to get to his cell phone. Amidst a myriad of phone calls (medical calls, car accidents, an armed robbery of a check-cashing business), Neeka takes a call from a woman who is whispering that her husband is getting his guns out of the safe, furious at society, and she is terrified. George quickly researches the address and the husband, a Gary Forgeus. He’s a ticking time bomb with history. The SWAT team is called out.

Meanwhile, Bobby has finally gotten to his cell phone and calls work. When George realizes the severity of Bobby’s situation, he puts Katie in charge of handling it (he’s dealing with Gary Forgeus, the SWAT team, an armed robbery and a high-speed chase on Eilene’s frequency). They start Search and Rescue.

Marni Kenyon (late 20’s, beautiful, married to a cop named Oliver – but she just wants to quit this job and stay home with their baby) is off today but she’s on-call for SWAT. By the time she arrives at the police station to board the SWAT RV, a reporter is already in the parking lot snooping for details. George tells them to make something up. They’re the media!

We meet Lieutenant Margery Kelso (38, super fit, high heels, a gun in her holster). George takes a minute to welcome her to her new job but she is not happy. After years of proving herself and making her way up the chain of command, she finally earned the Lieutenant badge, and they put her in charge of Communications - the red headed stepchild of the police department.

Gary Forgeus’ house is now surrounded by cops, and he’s got a gun pointed at his wife’s head. Neeka looks through his history while talking to him and sees that he is an Army veteran, diagnosed with PTSD.

Search and Rescue arrives at the trailhead and make their way up the mountain trail to look for Bobby. Katie stays on the phone with him, keeping him calm. While Marni’s at work in the SWAT RV, Oliver is nervously going into Internal Affairs. He’s in big trouble and doesn’t want Marni to know.

Neeka talks to Gary about her son, Ben. He came home after his first tour of duty in Iraq. He seemed fine but then they went to a ball game. After the last inning, they started shooting off fireworks and Ben lost it. He scrambled out of his seat and ran for his life, dodging imaginary bullets and bombs. Neeka followed and tried to stop him. Ben, in a confused state, grabbed his mother’s hand and ran out of the ball park, and they just kept running. They ran for blocks until the fireworks finally stopped and then they sat down at a bus stop to catch their breath and cry. But they never did talk about it. She’s hit a nerve. Gary opens up (just as one of the SWAT guys has a clear shot of him). He tells Neeka about the trials of coming home and tells her what set him off today: remembering the friend he lost in the war. Neeka convinces him to put his gun down and go outside - but not before she thanks him for his service.

Search and Rescue units reach Bobby and haul him back down the trail in a litter.

Neeka takes a break after the call and goes up to the roof to decompress. George meets her up there – her secret place was not so secret after all. He tells her to take the rest of the night off. Arriving home early, Neeka finds her husband Andy in their bedroom with another woman. She very calmly goes to the closet, takes their handgun out of a box and forces them out of the house.

Katie races to the hospital after work to see Bobby. George goes home to a dead marriage; his blanket and pillow are on the couch. He opens a beer and plays a mellow tune on his acoustic guitar. David stops at a drug store and peruses the alcohol aisle but distracts himself with his three-year sobriety pin. Laura is in bed with Frank – three kids are between them but they hold hands over them. Eilene sneaks into Amanda’s bed to sleep with her, and Neeka cries as George finishes his tune on the guitar.

SEASON ONE HIGHLIGHTS include: the horror of hearing ‘Officer Down’ on the radio and the aftermath of losing one of their finest. Chemistry continues to build between Katie and Bobby (with a will they-won’t they intensity). Marni continues her crusade to quit her job while Oliver hides his IA charges of sexual harassment. Neeka and George find themselves becoming closer in their loneliness. A school shooting shakes up the dispatchers. Oliver is eventually suspended from duty without pay so Marni is now the sole bread winner. David breaks his three-year sobriety. In the finale, three criminals want revenge against Police Chief Young. They break into Communications and hold the dispatchers hostage. No one is answering 9-1-1 lines from all over the city and the dispatchers fear for their lives. But Katie sees an opportunity to prove to her father that she truly is ‘cop material’ by saving the day.

I spent more than ten years in the adrenaline-producing world of a 9-1-1 communications center. I took 9-1-1 calls, followed officers on the police radio through every turn of a high-speed chase, handled a major, historic mass casualty shooting, went out on calls with the SWAT team as their dispatcher, and supervised the 9-1-1 center.