-Come Up with a Sitcom Idea (You know you’ve been waiting to get that idea out of your brain and onto paper! Now is your chance!). Write out:
Logline
Lead Character’s Goal
Main Obstacle
Engine of the show (Where does the humor come from?)
For example, “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” is about s street-smart teen from Philadelphia who moves in with his relatives in Bel Air with the hope it makes him more responsible and mature.
Will’s goal is to bring the street to the upper crust. His uncle is his main foil, putting his foot door more often than not. The fish-out-of-water aspect drives the story.
The development of your idea will take a while, but it all starts with a seed.
1 2014-12-27 23:15:30
Topic: Assignment #4: (0 replies, posted in How to Write a TV Sitcom)
2 2014-12-27 23:03:01
Topic: Assignment #3: (0 replies, posted in How to Write a TV Sitcom)
-Fit five (5) people you know into a sitcom characterizations (i.e. your mom is the neurotic character similar to Beverly Goldberg, your sister is a Hilary Banks-type, etc.). Give a few specific attributes about them that contribute to your claim. You can give them fictional names if you’d like.
-Listen to dialogue in your life. Come up with five (5) jokes from that dialogue. Sometimes you’ll hear a line and think of a funny reply to it, but hold it back because it might be inappropriate. (Now is your chance to use it.) Other times, the entire set up and punch might materialize right in front of you. The jokes can fit either multi-camera or single-camera. (This is a good way to see what style you are more adept at writing.)
3 2014-12-27 22:50:16
Topic: Assignment #2: (0 replies, posted in How to Write a TV Sitcom)
Assignment #2:
Map out an episode of a favorite sitcom of yours. Take note of the main character’s GOAL. (In this case, the main character is the one who drives the episode. In our example, this is Barry’s episode. It’s his mother who provides the obstacle. In other episodes, his mother is the main character and his father provides her foil or Barry duels with his father, etc.)
Highlight the FIRST ACTION, the OBSTACLE, the time you say “Uh oh,” and the time after the SECOND ACTION and OBSTACLE when you say, “Oh, hell no! He’s done for!”
Then find the RESOLUTION and the TWIST, regardless of how subtle it may be.
Write a structure for your day, but make it dramatically compelling. Remember, the "but" or "therefore" rule. (You can fictionalize the events.)
Write a list of 5 scene conflicts. Make up your own characters or use existing ones from tv shows. Remember to give one character a goal and the other provides an obstacle to that goal.
4 2014-12-27 22:40:39
Topic: Assignment #1: (0 replies, posted in How to Write a TV Sitcom)
Assignment #1 - POP QUIZ:
Now that you know the difference between sitcom styles, take a look at some shows on tv and decide if they are shot single-cam or multi-cam.
Big Bang Theory
The Office
Cheers
How I Met Your Mother
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Hot in Cleveland
Modern Family
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
Seinfeld
Cougartown
How’d you do? There are a couple of hybrids in there. Look for the lighting and tone of the jokes, along with the performances of the actors to determine which is which.
