A premise in animation production is the fleshing out of the Springboard. It usually consists of the basic threads of the story; in other words… a beginning, a middle and an end. It also sometimes points out the character arc of one of the main characters in the story.

Here’s an example of some premises for other Flavio cartoons.

1.    Flavio is in the back kitchen putting the finishing touches on his latest invention the Lollipop Nails when they explode leaving candy goo all over the kitchen. Bossman is furious and forces Flavio to pay for the damages. Moping around at the front register, Flavio sees a construction foreman comes into the restaurant and sells him on his new notion of Lollipop Nails on the tagline “You canna eat ‘em anna you cann bang ‘em inn the walls!”  The foreman is hooked but says he needs them by tomorrow. One problem, Flavio hasn’t figured out yet why they explode. Up all night he finally perfects them at the crack of dawn and sets out in the icy winter morning with a wagon train of Lollipop Nails to give to the foreman. Unfortunately it’s so cold that upon delivery the nails all burst into dust and Flavio is left with 10 tons of candy coating. Of course he ends up saving the day when he invents Cady Coated Pizza and makes back all the money needed for the Bossman’s new kitchen!

2.    Flavio comes up with the idea of the century, an ice cream cone stander just as Don Luigi, the local nogoodnik comes hobbling into the restaurant with a broken foot. On a whim Flavio asks to borrow money… It turns out that Don Luigi is having trouble with his car and after Flavio fixes it quickly with some gum and a tooth pick, a grateful Luigi gives him 50 thousand dollars ‘seed money’. Flavio is on cloud nine and quits his job to be a full time inventor! Trouble is later when the car breaks down again… Luigi angrily comes to claim his cash. Unfortunately Flavio spent it and now he’s got no job to pay it back!
After dodging the Don for a few days, Flavio ultimately creates a brand new way of locomotion for the Don in the form of Pogo Crutches which are so much fun for the Don he uses them even after his leg has healed. The Don forgives the loan and Flavio is off the hook.

3.    When Flavio keeps seeing infomercials hawking inventions he just created he suspects Milano Marketing of spying on him. Once he uncovers the cameras in his apartment he devises a way to spy back on owner Milano Miguel; a wolf wearing a wool suit, by bringing a gift (Italians never come without a gift) of a calzone with recordable cheese and getting Milano to admit he stole. The last line: Wait… before I go, I wanna show you one last invention, I know you never seen. He head butts Milano Miguel. That one invention I not invent but Ho, is it a good one!

4.    When Bossman leaves early for the day, Flavio invents a remote control set of tongs that he thinks will help get the pasta out of the pot quicker so he and Mr. Frank can laze off but once it’s set in motion it doesn’t seem to want to stop and it pinches everything in sight including one body-building patron who mistakes him for the owner. The body builder challenges him to an arm wrestling competition the next day with the restaurant as the prize. Flavio due to his over confidence accepts and decides that he needs to bulk up a bit first. He uses a rare combo of pasta and ginseng and it bulks him up so quickly he can’t control his extremities.  Can he control them enough to win the competition and the restaurant?

5.    Flavio decides that he needs to step up his inventions in order to get noticed so he takes a crash course in chemistry. In typical Flavio form he cockily rushes through the teachings and concocts what he thinks is a superior root beer he secretly puts it in the soda fountain at work. Bossman samples it that night and in the morning turns into a Were Tree, literally turning to an actual moving tree during the day and harrassing townsfolk by scratching them and tossing acorns at their heads. Now Flavio needs to find an antidote before Winter makes the Bossman set down roots forever!

6.    A bigger Pizza Place opens up across the street and Flavio needing his job to fund his inventions, sets out to make his bosses’ Pizza place better than the new hipper place. He secretly whips tiny sponges into the pizza dough in the hopes of making fluffier pizzas but when Mr. Frank shoves it in the oven it comes alive and escapes, growing bigger each time it absorbs water! Now Flavio must not only stop his place from closing but also prevent his Dough Monster from soaking up his entire city!

7.    During an afternoon rush, Mr. Frank slips and bangs his head when a daydreaming Flavio lets the water in the sink overflow. In an effort to get rid of Mr. Frank’s headache he devises a brain massager made out of the Floor Polisher but when he tests it on himself, it rubs his temple so hard he thinks he’s a bratty little girl named Flavia! Mr. Frank and Bossman try to coax bits of Flavio’s personality out to figure how to get him back but Flavia soon has the two taking her all over town to pacify her!

8.    Mr. Frank calls in sick and Flavio persuades Bossman to let him cook, figuring the more money he can make today, the more he can fund his latest invention, The Pillow Shooting Gun- for bad guys who aren’t so bad.  Even with Flavio’s cockiness and determination he finds it’s not so easy to do what Mr. Frank does and once a broken down bus full of the famous band Forward Foot arrive all havoc breaks loose! When he reworks his Pillow gun prototype to shoot ravioli’s he seems to be able to satisfy all the irate patrons… until he hits the lead guitarist in the eye who forces him into a dueling guitar match! Ultimately Flavio wins by playing his ukulele and makes the guitarist cry so he feels bad and as an act of good faith shows the band how they can eat while playing with his new invention The Food Stand (a mike stand with food clipped on it and they are so thankful they ask him to come to a concert!

9.    Mayor Fredenethyl overhears Flavio nonchalantly mentioning to Mr. Frank how he would solve the light problem in the city by putting treadmills inside the streetlights and training little bugs to run up and down them thereby saving electrical power for the city. When it backfires and a humbled Mayor begs Flavio to help him solve the new problem, Flavio devises a new form of electricity that runs on the rising of yeast. It’s secret ingredient? Pizza!