Writing for the Green Light

by Scott Kirkpatrick

  In the past, a newbie TV writer was expected to draft a sample TV spec script based on a long running and current TV series, like That 70’s Show or How I Met Your Mother when those programs were still at their peaks. There are still writers who choose this route, but they are now far in the minority. Today, it has become the norm to come up with your own original series idea and write a pilot screenplay for it—which you can use as your sample TV spec script.

  Keep in mind selling an original series idea or a TV spec script (if based off a current series) is damn near impossible… . Full-on television series (scripted and non) almost always come from within the system (either from executives, veteran writers, or well-connected showrunners). Your sample TV spec scripts are being circulated only to showcase your writing strengths within the TV space.

  What Type of Writer Are You?

  Before you go open your laptop and start hammering away at the keys, you first need to figure out what kind of TV writing your personal style best lends itself to… . You don’t need to get all deep and philosophical here (no need for a long walk in the park to contemplate), just ask yourself a very simple question: Would you rather write comedy or drama? There is no gray zone in this question; it truly is a “one or the other” answer.

  This is a huge contradiction with the world of feature-length screenwriting… . Not that dramas and comedies are polar opposites, but that they represent “the bad” and “the ugly” of the spec script world… . In the land of feature-length spec scripts, attempting to submit a drama or a comedy is a one-way ticket to the reject pile, but in television these two genres are the lifeblood of Hollywood! And if you want to prove your worth amongst Hollywood’s TV writers, you have to be willing to take on the two most challenging genres, something you should avoid if breaking in on the indie feature side.

  If you want to be a comic writer, then you will need to focus on the world of shorter form (half-hour) sitcoms; if you’re a dramatic writer, then you’ll need to focus on the longer form (hour plus) dramas. Want to really show off and blend these two together and hit Hollywood with a sitcom episode with heavy dramatic undertones or a one-hour drama with great one-liners? Don’t do it! Pick one route or the other and stick to it all the way.

  If you choose comedy, you will need to complete a minimum of two sample TV spec scripts (each from different original sitcom ideas), and if you choose drama, you will also need a minimum of two samples (also from different—and original—one-hour dramatic series).

  And, no, you shouldn’t write one half hour comedic sitcom and one hour-long drama and keep the image alive that you can “do it all”; you need to show consistency, so go comedic or dramatic only.

  Developing Your Own Series

  When crafting your own series idea (and its eventual pilot episode), it’s important not to focus on creating one giant story, but rather to design a framework capable of endless story possibilities… . A great series idea must launch dozens (or even hundreds) of episodes, each of which has a beginning, middle, and end—which work separately from (but congruent with) any serialized plotlines continuing from previous episodes.

  This is the biggest concept that newbie writers often miss when they initially develop their dream TV series… . They go for the big idea and miss that their series idea must have an engine behind it capable of “factory output.” This offers potential audiences a complete (and satisfying) story experience, while also offering them potential for an unresolved conflict that will keep them tuned in for the next episode.

  So the first question a television writer should ask themselves is not what their series about, but rather whom it follows… . Characters are the elements that drive great television. It goes without saying that a one-off feature-length film should have great characters too, but overall a feature’s plot is centered around a clear and achievable goal that drives the movie… . A television series will certainly have objectives (e.g., Walter White earning money for his family by cooking meth in Breaking Bad), but it’s really more about the smaller chapters in the lives of our main characters striving to reach that goal that fuels the series season after season.

  On the one-hour dramatic front, the overall objectives of both Homeland and 24 involve stamping out international terrorists intent on doing harm to the United States… . Although we know this objective will never be resolved, the lives of the characters we’re following keep us hooked. Both programs are giant ideas, but they are not giant singular stories.

  On the half-hour sitcom front, the storylines are often more “situational”—meaning goofy yet very well fleshed-out characters are forced into inhabiting the same claustrophobic space… . The consequential interactions are what make each episode function. Living situations often funnel these together (neighbors in apartment complexes as in Friends or The Big Bang Theory work great, but it could also be job-related, like The Office). It’s usually odd pairings that drive comedic television, again not giant far-reaching storylines.

  Television’s Gold-Mine Demographics

  On the movie side we discussed the gold-mine genre types, describing each as nice, clean filter you should use to focus your spec script to gain better traction on the other side… . TV, on the other hand, doesn’t have these preferred genres; instead it has gold-mine demographics.

  The business of television is completely dependent on the data-mined details of those watching it (and the nightly ratings of “who watched what for how long”). The primary metrics—gathered by the Nielsen Company, therefore known as the Nielsen ratings—relate to surface-level things like gender, age, and zip code. But behind the scenes, they are taking into account attributes like annual household income estimates, level of education, religious affiliation (if any), and even details like which demographics are more likely to check their emails via smartphone during a commercial break.

  Great television writing is simply great television writing; there isn’t one type of program series for you to focus on and create (e.g., The Walking Dead and True Blood are horror(ish) themed—a genre to avoid as a novice spec script feature writer—but they’re too layered and complex to simply be categorized as horror titles, and both are great series concepts that attract a wide viewing audience).

  However, you should first get a real-world sense of what it is Americans are actually watching; hop on Nielsen’s website and look up their top ten listing by TV platform (web address: www.nielsen.com/us/en/top10s.html). The list is a bit of an eye-opener and offers the top ten programs by primetime broadcast (big free-to-air channels like ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX), by cable network (basic channels including USA, TNT, A&E, Disney, etc.), and continues to breakdown which programs are strong in syndication and even what the top ten programs are for Hispanic households as well as African American homes.

  Great television programs will speak to these giant audiences; even niche programs, like Battlestar Galactica, will take these demos into account. Aside from the fact that several non-scripted series will fill each of these top-ten lists (even worse during football season, which is also the start of the year’s television season), you’ll notice that the programs that exist in more than one category aren’t exactly the big time programs you’d expect to be there… . As of this writing, long-running NCIS far beat out its competitors (yet is hardly the water-cooler talking program that Breaking Bad or Under the Dome were, for instance). Although the trendy water-cooler series get the hype and buzz from a more social media-engaged audience, the numbers generally show a much weaker performance than the noise would otherwise suggest.

  Sturdy and stable programs tend to lead (and since Nielsen is crunching the numbers that Hollywood relies upon, studio executives and their writing staffs will focus on what the Nielsen ratings say over word-of-mouth any day). So the demos you should focus on are the ones that speak to Nielsen’s largest audiences—meaning series that skew slightly older or much younger than you’d probably be inclined to first approach.

  For instance, middle-aged American
s (classified by Nielsen as eighteen to forty-nine, but really represent an audience in their mid-thirties and upwards) are a fantastic demographic… . They have more money in their pockets (and advertisers are able to spend more cash during their commercial breaks). This demo has a small nudge toward female viewership and is the crowd that loves the slightly melodramatic programs ranging from ER in the 1990s, Lost in the 2000s, and the ongoing variety of CSI spin-offs today. They’ll also take in a wide range of comedic sitcoms, like How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men, or fantasy-based shows like Charmed. Writers able to speak to this demo are highly sought after by the big studios’ writing teams; proving you’ve got what it takes to nail this target—or even just the talent to stay afloat until you master it—will get you noticed. This is a huge demographic, so generalizing what it is they want as we did with our gold-mine genre types just doesn’t apply… . However, I can give you a great piece of insight an anonymous writer offered me for this space: Audiences in their mid-thirties, forties, and fifties have lives in motion, so your characters must reflect that. What he continued to explain was that it’s important to ensure that each of your characters has a beginning, middle, and end already in full force when we meet them; it’s the inciting incident in your pilot episode that now make their lives worth discussing—and offers the series a platform to continually generate new episodes. Breaking Bad’s Walter White found out he had cancer in episode one, but he was already established as a school-teacher and husband/father. House of Cards’s Frank Underwood is a well-established congressman who is “stepped over” for a position as Secretary of State, an inciting incident that launches his takeover of Washington. These characters have already lived full lives, but now a new element has entered to disrupt that trajectory. Even on the sitcom side, Two and a Half Men’s Charlie Harper has a successful life in full gear, until his recently divorced brother arrives with his son.

  Another strong demographic would be kids programming, especially shows aimed at tween girls. The numbers aren’t as encompassing or detailed on these demographics, since there are many rules and regulations against the data-mining of youths (as well as targeted marketing toward them). However, tween-themed programming (again, slightly skewed female) can work very well—for example, programs like Disney’s Jesse and Hanna Montana or Nickelodeon’s iCarly. And even though the laws are a bit complex around advertisements, programs in this space have the ability to take their young starlets and go on cross-country tours and offer book or merchandising opportunities, even concerts. Proving you can write for this targeted demographic showcases you’re a writer that can offer several major TV entities what they need to stay in business.

  Generally, you will need to skew your content slightly female. Women, by and large, are television’s viewing majority. That doesn’t mean everything needs to be pink-colored and soft—women are equally responsible for the success of crime series like Law & Order: SVU as well as lighter content like Grey’s Anatomy and Friends. But as a writer, you should keep their opinions and thoughts close to heart.

  Demographics to avoid would be ones targeted at older teens and those in their mid-twenties (ages fifteen to twenty-four). It’s nothing against these targeted audiences personally—and yes, they are very likely to be out spending what little cash comes into their pockets on material items—but they are generally the least engaged television audience out there, meaning writing specifically for these audiences offers the fewest “showcase” selections for your work.

  The Risk of Too Many Ideas

  The most important aspect to keep in check when writing your sample TV spec script is that it must accurately reflect the better interests of your newly created series (and not just provide a showcase of your “best of” writing moments). In other words, keep your pilot script genuine, as if it were a real series you’d been assigned to write; don’t fill it with too many ideas from the season. The goal is to give us a taste of all the amazing things to come based upon the interesting pull from your characters (without giving too much away). Hook us!

  The true art of television writing is a much higher-level skill than that of a one-off feature film. Your objective is not to force your talents down the throats of those readers who pick up your sample TV spec script, it’s instead to prove that if your talents were commissioned, you would be fully capable of not only producing a well-written episode of a TV series, but that your talents would truly aid the overall progression of that series forward—which would make you seem capable of fitting in with an actual writing team.

  While on this note, there is absolutely no need to write out a full-on series bible. All readers want to see is that you’re capable of writing a really solid pilot episode that showcases your ability to tell a complete story within a framework that offers potential for more episodes. The most you would ever be asked to present in addition to a sample pilot script would be a generic list of “next episodes,” where you’d simply craft the next few installments of your invented series. I’ve personally never heard of any executives asking for an extra episodes list, but a few professional writer friends of mine have in the past.

  Format and Structure

  Regardless of whether you’re pursuing comedy or drama, get your hands on actual TV scripts so that you can see how television programs are written. For instance, sitcoms are generally written for a three-camera “in-studio” approach, which uses a very unique formatting style, whereas one-hour dramas follow the more mainstream structure yet often place “act breaks” directly into the script, indicating where commercial breaks will take place.

  Fortunately, in today’s world, accessing legit TV scripts is now easier than ever—you can probably get yourself some PDF versions after only a few simple Google searches. But don’t settle on just one or two episodes from a series, try to get several—preferably from more recent seasons—so that you can ensure your writing is up-to-date as possible. If there is a major discrepancy between one half-hour sitcom and another, choose the one that is most similar to the unique series idea you’re crafting.

  Even though your sample TV spec scripts will not be getting read with any real possibility of being put into production (because series are always developed within studio walls), your ability to write for real-world teams is still vitally important. Proof that you understand their way of writing is a telling sign you’re a writer worthy of consideration.

  Animated Series

  When it comes to animation writing, it is better to write for a pre-existing series rather than inventing your own concept.

  Since animated series exist in worlds unique to themselves (where the laws of the physical universe are different), they are simply much harder for readers to visualize than an animated series that’s had years of life already fleshed out and is easily recognizable. For example, a sample TV spec script of Family Guy is very digestible for a reader… . We can “hear” Stewie’s voice with that mischievous British accent and Peter’s obnoxious laugh—a spec script for a newly created show, on the other hand, would not accurately reflect these nuances (no matter how blatantly they were detailed in the script).

  A Final Note on Your Writing

  The blessing (and curse) of writing a sample TV spec script based off your own invented series is that your work will primarily be judged by other writers… . Of course, in order to get there, your work will have to go through the hands of readers and/or other representatives (or filters), but ultimately those that will move you forward professionally will be actual working television writers.

  The curse of this is that a fellow writer will always be more critical of your work. They will see the clichés coming much earlier than a normal reader, they can sniff out weak structure long in advance, and can spot every newbie mistake (and trick) in the book… . However, the blessing of having a writer judging your work is that they will give your work that extra bit of attention if they feel you have a natural talent at writing. They want to find new talents and bring them into their circle
s of staff writing teams, and they will be more receptive to a unique or fresh voice rebelling against the status quo.

  Therefore, a fellow writer will respond to your writing similar to a film director working with an actor; both would rather see your work as “too big” or “too grand,” which allows them the simpler task of reeling in and focusing your talents, rather than pushing (and hoping) they can build your skillsets to the level they need to be.

  This means that, for you, unlike the feature-length spec script work, which follows a very rigid formulaic structure, the television world is slightly more open to expansive ideas and risk taking. (I say “slightly” because you must still produce a pilot episode that fits within the norms of television’s limitations, but your pilot is also your true showpiece to express what talents you can bring to the table if given the chance.)

  When starting out on the film side, your writing is much more about showcasing that you know how to play by the rules and can deliver what the industry needs; on the TV side, it’s about showcasing you as a talented writing machine, capable of churning out one great concept after the other… . Keep the targeted demographics in mind—and work only with the same genre to show consistency—but don’t be afraid to fully pursue a really grand idea to the fullest. Allow yourself to completely run with it!

  Rewrites and Feedback

  For your sample TV spec script, going out for a peer review is not the kind of thing you can just request of anyone because you need someone not just with general (or industry) writing experience, but actual TV-based script experience (with a legit emphasis on comedy or drama).