Column Chronicles: Ripoff series expected to debut soon

Ripoff series expected to debut soon

Frank Cotolo
October 15, 2026

Popular long-running pay TV series with conspicuous simularity to already proven hits are now in production for release. The creators are showing no shame about their influences.

Fred Gumblestone wrote a gangster series about the head of a mob family in Florida. It's titled THE FALSETTOS with a focus on the boss of a Miami crime boss named Joey 'Fats' Falsetto and his wife Clara and his son Stumpy and daughter Cleopatra.

"The family within a family," Gumblestone said, "makes the business of crime a tough for all the characters involved. Joey Fats is holding in a nervous breakdown from the pressure and can only relieve the pain by having other people killed. This makes his home life filled with drama."

In the first episode, Gumblestone said, Joey Fats' son is shown as a spoiled brat who cries about not being allowed to kill people like his father. His sister Cleopatra wants to be the first surgeon and perform the world's first brain transplant. "Her father the crime boss likes the idea because he thinks he can use brain transplants as a weapon. In one scene he tells his second-in-comand Luigi Stoogeasy brain transplants are going to replace hits and render enemy crime families lame.

Joey Fats' wife knows her husband cheats on her but is afraid to catch him for fear he will take away her jewelry and fur coats and expensive car.

Other characters include Doop, a mob soldier who wears a cheap wig; Goombatz, next in line to be the boss even though he has two artificial legs; and the head of Joey Fats' enemy family, the Stu Nads.

When asked if The Falsettos is too much like the classic mob series The Sopranos, Gumblestone said he knew there was a classic mob series called The Sopranos but swears it was not an influence on The Falsettos. "My series is nothing like it and when we release The Falsettos last episode the audience will see what the XXXX happens.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.