Buchanan Begins!
The good people of PA elect prominent lawyer James Buchanan to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives as a member of the Federalist Party!
Buchanan, the Good Comrade!
President Jackson rewards Buchanan for his faithful service with the lofty role of United States Ambassador to Russia!
Kingly moves!
William Rufus King moves in with Buchanan, and they remain roommates for the next 13 years—not that there's anything wrong with that!
The first shall be last!
James Buchanan gets elected by popular vote—his adopted niece will serve as first lady/White House hostess—as he's the first (and only) bachelor president!
Swearing in!
The most honorable James Buchanan is sworn in as the 15th president of the (hardly) United States of America—carries the flame that will soon light the fuse . . .!
About Buchanan: An American Sequel!
The Logline!
America’s first lady to the 15th president, Harriet Lane, begins a dream journal after practicing “the black’s magic” and receiving surreal premonitions of the 21st century. As she chronicles visions of her uncle’s often heroic (star of a Bollywood dance-off) and sometimes horrifying (star of a movie about a slave uprising by one Quintin Tarantino) adventures, mid-19th century reality tells a much different story.
The Form!
This web series follows the meteoric descent of America’s 15th president—one of the founding fathers of the civil war—James Buchanan, as he enters the Whitehouse, fans political fires, juggles old flames, and tries to put his best foot forward without stepping into a trap.
Told through various accounts found in Buchanan’s dream diary, the visions of his possibly possessed niece, and two choirs caught in a rap battle—one choir reading from Buchanan’s memoirs and the other reading from eyewitness accounts—Buchanan features bare naked dripping wet truths often found in the shadow of mincing words and tapdancing excuses swaddled in visionary time-traveling cutaways. Joined by his first lady/niece Harriet, who is often caught practicing “the black’s magic,” and his former “roommate” of some 10 years, the recently deceased William R. King, Buchanan attempts to make the most of a sticky situation and leave it to history to (eventually) recognize his greatness.
Concepts?!
Highlighting America’s cultural hangnails that marked the man and his presidency—including issues of race, gender, sexuality, violence, and foreign diplomacy—Buchanan turns a surreal eye on how the past is prologue in unusual ways.
Comparisons!
Part Veep, part Family Guy, part Monty Python—all hail Buchanan: An American Sequel! (BaAS) You may have heard that BaAS thinks of itself as an unofficial, unauthorized sequel to the Broadway smash hit Hamilton: An American Musical. Oh, but it’s so much more—watch it and see!
Who’s it about?
James Buchanan
15th President of the United States of America
Minister to Russia
Minister to the United Kingdom
Member of the Pennsylvania militia serving in the war of 1812 (the revolution part II)
Started his political career as a Federalist
Had loose ties with Alexander Hamilton II
America’s only bachelor president
Harriet Lane (nicknamed Hal)
Buchanan’s niece
Served as the first lady
Was wildly popular—a 19th-century influencer
Inspired the song “Listen to the Mockingbird”
Considered the standard bearer of style
As much as her uncle was reviled, she was admired
William R. King
U.S. Senator from Alabama
Vice President to Franklin Pierce
Died in office after serving just over a month
Lived with Buchanan in a DC boarding house for over a decade
Loyal Freemason
Was ridiculed for being effeminate
Where are we?
Launching off from the massively successful White House inaugural ball thrown by Hal, those in attendance—slave owners beside free black maids and butlers—set the stage for a trip that will crisscross place and time. Hal rolls over into a fever dream, pulsating in and out of visions, seeing her uncle and Mr. King playing various roles. As the absurdity swirls, she chronicles her visions and tells the story of a world to come that features future people who implore her to get woke.
What are their problems?
Without reservation, Buchanan pushes for the ultimate decision in the Dred Scott Supreme Court case, which states that the rights of anyone of African descent (even if free) are not legal citizens covered by the U.S. Constitution and therefore have no rights. After the ruling, Buchanan thinks the battle over slavery resolved, shewf, crisis averted. However, beyond the ruling, Chief Justice Roger Taney’s wording in the majority opinion neatly stacked the odds in favor of war, stating that the “negro” was considered “beings of an inferior order … and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.” Taney’s edict explodes minds and war is considered a necessity, if not a certainty.