BY STEPHEN H. COWLES/CONTRIBUTING WRITER
stephen.cowles@tidewaternews.com

BOYKINS—Imagine if the town’s women left for a week. How would the men and children cope?

That’s the premise of a television show tentatively titled “The Week the Women Went,” which is being produced by BBC Worldwide Productions in Los Angeles. Producers will be at the Boykins Fire House from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday to cast for the show, which focuses on towns with fewer than 900 residents.

“Our research team scoured the country and came across Boykins in a Main Street video,” said casting producer Sherry Calhoun.

The latest Census was also used in research, said Maria Calleia, a fellow casting producer. The “docu-series” has been done in Canada “and we want to do it in America. We want a modern day quintessential American town,” Calleia said.

From research and talking with people in the town, Calhoun said she got the impression that Boykins has “diversity, a feel-good community spirit, a ‘Friday Night Lights’ (referring to the TV show) feel. It impressed on me that you might be a really good town to start with.”

Out of hundreds of towns picked, Boykins is now among the few choices.

“We’ll come in and let the folks know we’re interested in casting,” Calhoun said. “We want to meet potential individuals who are not camera shy. We want their perspective on their town.”

While selected women are taken away to a spa retreat, for example, “the men will come together to do a secret project for the week, and reveal it to the women on their return,” she said.

“We’re looking for people with interesting stories — and I would say most women do — and can come forward and be part of it,” Calhoun added.

For more information, contact Calhoun at 310-284-5736, ext. 208, or tvtowns@gmail.com or sherrycancastit@gmail.com.