The Father, The Son, and the Supporting Spouse

Creator: Michael riles
Genres: Comedy, Drama
Age rating: 13 and older
Joe Nichols went from frat to corporate to hubby whore as everything went to "crap" since graduation in 1973, that is until he became what this country needed: a dad, a real dad as his world adventure led him back to the only home he knew with a son he loved more than life.
Project collaboration: Open
Full synopsis
Synopsis: Evanston Illinois native Joe Nichols found a home at Zeta Beta Tau in 1971 on the campus of Monmouth College in Southern Illinois. He becomes the chapter’s treasurer since he is of legal drinking age. Amidst the welter taking place both socially and politically in early 70’s, ZBT manages to weather the storm with their usual initiations coupled with “community service” to keep the doors to the frat open should any “violations” occur causing probation. They call that “life insurance”.

Joe graduates with a Bachelors in Business Administration in time for the worst economic downturn since the 1930’s, the 1973-74 recession brought on by the oil embargo after World War Three is averted thanks to Nixon and Kissinger ordering the then USSR to not send troops in to the Middle East to attack Israel. Joe later finds employment with foreign concerns and ends up on the receiving end of vitriol from foreign managers due to past and present American actions and, in one instance, trends. All through the 70’s and 80’s he is successful but never rightfully compensated for his success. All of the three firms he works for post him overseas. He finds himself in Canada, Japan, Italy and the Middle East where Joe, on more than one occasion, is called on to be something of an ambassador for his country given the incidents that take place. The Japanese blame him for Hiroshima. The Italians blame him for feminism and the Egyptians blame him for Zionism. His fourth job returns him to the states in time for a corporate scandal that has a Washington connection. Eventually that job will go “belly up”.


At his fifth firm in Iowa he meets and marries Beth who, because of federal affirmative action dictates in hiring, is posted in a high level management position in the Crown Colony of Hong Kong the very day Joe looses his job and she learns she is pregnant. In Hong Kong Joe performs tasks which do not pay well since it is his wife who has the work visa and not him, hence the reluctance to hire him since his wife’s transfer could end his employment in order to accompany her. After their first miscarriage their son Cole comes along as Joe and Beth sponsor her sister Jenny. She is sent over to be the nanny. Unable, or unwilling, to pull strings to get her husband a job at her firm, Beth will loose her job after the economy takes a plunge in the late 1990’s. She takes another position that keeps her traveling in Asia as the boy, now seven, asks to go home with his father, this after she asks for a divorce when she is laid off again. She admits to Joe that she had to lie about her marital and family status to get the job. Prior to that and during the separation Joe did try to blend in with fellow Cantonese in Hong Kong via various positions. But he remains the eternal “stranger in a strange land”. The split is amicable, a 50/50 settlement since they both resided in a state with no-fault divorce laws prior to their relocation. Joe becomes a lost ex-pat in Hong Kong until he befriends a Franciscan priest and becomes active in his church, an activist church that sneaks Bibles in to Communist China. He does this to deal with the loneliness and feelings of utter failure after falling back on the faith of his parents for sustenance. After his father passes away, another milestone, he receives a call on 9/11/2001. Beth tells him that she not only wants to leave Asia but that their son wants to be with him, his father, and not her.

With the hint of imminent war after the Twin Towers attack, Joe does return to Chicago with his young son to begin their lives anew without Beth. It is there fate will take him to a single mom with a son Cole’s age. She lost her husband in Iraq during the war. The story ends with the impression that Joe will have a “do over”. Life does go on in spite of everything life can throw at us, or in Joe’s case, hurl at us.

Latest Work

  • Script 1 - Michael's Original Draft
    05/05/12
    Creative Notes:
    This movie begins like Animal House and becomes a blend of Last Chance Harry and Up in the Air. It takes a meat ax to corporate and social duplicity making the tale horribly controversial since the real victim is the dutiful father, Joe, an ex-pat in Hong Kong who followed a wife who benefits from affirmative action as his son chooses his father over his mother when she asks for a divorce.
    PDF