The Incredible Life of Joey Coletta

Short synopsis: When nine-year-old Joey is picked for the TV show "Small World," he leaves a life of bullying and struggling at school behind. His father, Charles, is happy to encourage Joey’s new life, but his mother Betty is concerned about the effects it will have on her son. This is not helped when an article describes Betty as being missing from Joey’s life, something which provokes her into securing a job on the set. As Joey struggles to learn his lines, he discovers that the tension between his parents encourages him to become a better actor, much to the pleasure of his co-star and friend Toby, and the no-nonsense director, Hepburn. Longer Synopsis: In 1957, 9-year-old Joey Coletta lives with his father, Charles, in Parkview, California. Joey’s mother, Betty, is separated from Charles over the issue of the presence of Hollywood in their lives, but still wants to have influence over how Joey is raised. Returning to school after summer, Joey is jolted into cruel reality: bullied by older boy Frankie and misunderstood by his teachers. He longs to excel at something big. Charles, who works at Everyman Studios, gets Joey an audition for Small World, a new family situation comedy. Joey's honest and realistic performance lands him the lead role, to Charles’ surprise. As the filming of the pilot episode commences, Joey struggles with the discipline of learning lines instead of adlibbing and getting along with the show's demanding and morally flawed director, Mr. Hepburn. Hepburn outlines his vision for Small World, which will give a slice-of-life view of family relationships, and demands a high standard from all the actors while his abrasive behavior causes tensions on the set. Toby, the teenage actor who plays his older brother, befriends Joey and shepherds him through the fast-paced world of Hollywood. His script coach/on-set teacher Grace also provides guidance, and Joey finds the individual attention a welcome contrast to the mass education at Taft Elementary. Joey finds his ideal world of the imagination threatened from the outside. A sufferer of depression and mood swings, Betty strongly disapproves of Hollywood and will do anything to keep Joey from acting in the series. Joey's success as an actor is driving an even bigger wedge between his parents, making divorce a distinct possibility. Joey prays for guidance and, leaving Holy Family Church, seems to have found new strength and confidence. When Joey is interviewed by a magazine to publicize Small World, his father attempts to conceal the fact that his mother is absent from his life. However, Joey, now filled with the thespian spirit, cheekily gives the magazine interviewers a “fake news” story about his mother's absence. When Betty goes to the studio to complain, she unwittingly lands a job as wardrobe consultant on Small World. Like Joey, Betty finds her personal aspirations fulfilled in a way she never imagined, while at the same time promoting positive change by improving working conditions on the set and standing up to the overbearing Hepburn. But despite Betty's new Hollywood job, the spark Joey hoped for between his parents does not happen. In fact, as Joey soon learns, both his parents are seeing other people. Joey intervenes again to sabotage these relationships but, in doing so, runs afoul of the show’s sponsors. Unwilling to represent a child star who is less than a role model, they threaten to pull their sponsorship, thus putting the show’s future in danger. Joey has learned the price of letting his success go to his head by manipulating people and events and, in a climactic scene, must convince the sponsors to continue their patronage by delivering a heartfelt monologue in the season finale, filmed before a live audience. Charles, for his part, has come to terms with his own failures as a parent and the unattainable nature of the ideal family, while Hepburn has mellowed. Yet the experience in Hollywood (both good and bad) has transformed Betty just as it has Joey, Charles, and Hepburn. Seeing the affection of on-set teacher Grace and her (non-Hollywood) fiancé after the cast party sparks an epiphany in her. At a garden party that spring, Joey learns that Betty is ready to come home with him and Charles. Not only that, but the Small World sponsors have come back on board, and Joey himself has made a brand-new friend: a girl. The ideal and the real have come together in perfect harmony, and as Small World rolls on to a new season, the fun—both in Joey's life and behind the camera—continues.