Writing Television Sitcoms (revised)

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ISBN: 9780399535376 | 0399535373
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 12/1/2009

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This new edition of Writing Television Sitcoms features the essential information every would-be teleplay writer needs to know to break into the business, including:- Updated examples from contemporary shows such as 30 Rock, The Office and South Park- Shifts in how modern stories are structured- How to recognize changes in taste and censorship- The reality of reality television- How the Internet has created series development opportunities- A refined strategy for approaching agents and managers- How pitches and e-queries work - or don't- The importance of screenwriting competitions

Introduction	p. xv
Writing Premise-Driven Comedy
The Game Plan	p. 3
Career Paths	p. 4
Getting Started	p. 7
First, Some Theory	p. 9
The Mechanics of Laughter	p. 9
Characteristics of Comedy	p. 11
The importance of Tension	p. 16
Putting Theory into Practice	p. 18
Seamless Humor	p. 18
Consistency	p. 19
Comedy Output	p. 19
The Traditional Approach to Sitcom Writing	p. 20
Level One: Premise-Driven Comedy	p. 22
A Different Approach: Comedy in the Story Premise	p. 23
Predicaments	p. 25
Character Mix	p. 31
Style of Comedy	p. 36
Casting	p. 40
Level Two: Comedy in Sequences and Scenes	p. 42
Compound Story Predicaments	p. 43
Stir Up the Character Mix	p. 44
Mix and Match	p. 44
Three Things to Remember	p. 45
Level Three: Comedy in Dialogue and Actions	p. 47
Building Jokes	p. 48
Setups	p. 48
Punchlines	p. 57
Funny Actions	p. 65
Miscellaneous Comedy Tips	p. 69
About All of These Labels	p. 71
Finding Your Comedic Voice	p. 72
Writing a Professional Script
Doing Your Homework	p. 77
Which Series to Pick	p. 79
Researching the Series	p. 81
Studying the Premise	p. 82
Developing an Episode Premise	p. 87
Advice from Our Producers	p. 87
Dreaming Up Stories	p. 88
Picking Your Best Ideas	p. 90
Turning Ideas into Springboards	p. 92
High-Concept Stories	p. 94
Developing the Story	p. 96
Creating a Beat Sheet	p. 97
Story Structure: Linear vs. Thread	p. 99
Story Threads vs. Subplots vs. Ensemble Stories	p. 101
Stories Without Endings	p. 102
Serialized Stories (Story Arcs)	p. 103
Dramatic Structure vs. Broadcast Format	p. 104
Story Tips	p. 106
Comedy's Impact on Story	p. 109
How the Production Process Affects Your Script	p. 110
Nail the Story, the Rest is Easy	p. 113
Creating Funny Characters	p. 115
Remember the Mix	p. 117
Character Arcs	p. 117
Character Types	p. 118
Visiting Characters	p. 122
Writing An Outline	p. 125
Writing to Sell, Not Educate	p. 126
Building an Outline	p. 127
How it Should Look on Paper	p. 130
Stylistic Tips	p. 135
Rewriting an Outline	p. 138
Advice from Our Producers	p. 139
Writing the First Draft	p. 142
Just Do It	p. 142
Writing Scenes	p. 143
Harvesting Comedy Built into the Premise and Scene Levels	p. 147
Professional Script Format	p. 147
Writing Scene Descriptions	p. 148
Writing Dialogue	p. 151
Miscellaneous Tips	p. l55
Planting Exposition	p. 157
Advice from Our Producers	p. 159
When That First Draft is Finished	p. 162
Rewriting the Script	p. 164
When Rewriting by Yourself	p. 169
Advice from Our Producers	p. 171
Once the Script is Finished	p. 172
A Battle Plan for Launching Your Career
Step One: Developing a Strategy	p. 177
The Job Market	p. 177
How the Writer Fits In	p. 180
A Writer's Workweek	p. 182
Writing is a Business	p. 185
Ageism	p. 186
Putting Food on the Table	p. 186
Must You Live in Los Angeles?	p. 189
Step Two: Landing an Agent and/Or Manager	p. 191
Developing a Hit List	p. 194
Before Picking Up the Phone	p. 201
Prepare a Phone Spiel	p. 203
Making the Call	p. 205
Submitting Your Material	p. 208
Testing the Waters if You Don't Live in LA.	p. 209
Following Up on Submissions	p. 211
If you Fail to Land Representation	p. 212
You Get an Offer!	p. 214
Signing the Contract	p. 215
Once You've Signed with Someone	p. 217
Step Three: Getting Your Work Out There	p. 218
Scouting the Market	p. 218
Hiring Windows	p. 220
Working with Your Rep	p. 222
Which Scripts to Send	p. 223
Being Picky about Jobs	p. 223
Cold-Calling Producers	p. 224
Other Strategies for Reaching Producers	p. 225
Keep Writing	p. 228
Writing in Teams	p. 229
Rejection	p. 230
Dealing with Writer's Block	p. 230
Protecting Your Work	p. 231
Who Keeps the Copyright?	p. 234
The Writers Guild of America	p. 235
Step Four: Pitching for Assignments	p. 239
The Call Comes In!	p. 240
Preparing for the Pitch	p. 240
The Pitch	p. 243
Advice from Our Producers	p. 245
What Might Happen	p. 248
The Contract	p. 250
The Money	p. 252
Step Five: Landing a Staff Job	p. 254
Becoming a Staff Writer	p. 254
Office Politics	p. 256
Roundtable Writing	p. 257
Advice from Our Producers	p. 258
Staff Job Contracts and Compensation	p. 262
Step Six: Climbing the Ladder	p. 264
The Care and Feeding of Reps	p. 265
Taking a Development Deal	p. 268
Creating A New Series	p. 271
Creating a Series Format	p. 272
Writing a Pilot Script	p. 275
Selling a Pilot	p. 279
Going in to Pitch	p. 280
Producing a Homegrown Pilot	p. 282
The Money	p. 284
Time to Wrap Up!	p. 287
Script Format Guidelines	p. 289
Additional Resources	p. 311
Endnotes	p. 321
Index	p. 325
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Writing Television Sitcoms (revised)

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