British Comedy Guide

Ralf Little In Record Label Sitcom Rant Page 2

It is annoying when this happens, but I think as long as your script is genuinely funny and original in the sense that it is doing something different with the concept, then the 'rules' won't apply and your script will still get made.

Quote: catskillz @ May 15 2008, 3:47 AM BST

It's terrible when this happens. I heard that Johnny Vaughan pitched 'Top Buzzer', his sitcom about two small-time cannabis dealers sharing a flat, to BBC 3, just after they'd agreed to make 'Ideal'. It was eventually shown on Channel 5 (someone on here said it was also shown on MTV, but I'm not sure about that), and finished after one series. 'Ideal', on the other hand, is into it's fourth series.

Yeah, I said that.

I think this is a problem we all face at some point or another. I've been working on a sitcom about clones and then find the BBC has commissioned a sitcom called Clone. It's best to put it on a back burner, see how the rival show develops, then come back to the project a few years later.

Just because somethings in development or been commissioned, doesn't mean it won't die on it's arse, leaving the way open for you and your project.

Agree with Chipolata.

Long time back, we were also told to avoid flatshare and factories 'where no-one does any work' but isn't a show about people sat working at a conveyor belt called reality TV? I was also told avoid bands because "Spinal Tap covered all the bases" which isn't really true but you aren't going to convince the person who told you that.

We too have a band sitcom but handle it from a different angle to the ones I've seen so far, so I'm not too worried about clashes in style or content with similar premises.

Exactly, Griff.

For years after Red Dwarf finished, everyone was being told to avoid space themes. Then Hyperdrive came out and pissed on our space chips all over again.

I think Hyperdrive was made by the same people who were telling everyone to avoid space themes. >_< Laughing out loud

Of course, you can always tweak a script to change the situation slightly. For example, a it wouldn't take much work to transform a show about two dustmen into a show about two postmen. And if it's set on a spaceship, why not transpose it to a submarine or antartic research station? After all, it's the characters and the relationships between them that are most important.

I had the same thing a few month back I was writing a Superhereos comedy and found out that are 2-3 in production at the moment, 1 by Vic and Bob.

Quote: Rebecca Davies @ May 14 2008, 9:14 PM BST

Do you think it's too similar to bother continuing writing?

No, carry on. Your piece was never going to get commissioned, anyway. No-one in your position has ever had a sitcom commissioned.
The so-called rules apply to Production Companies pitching to Broadcasters. When Broadcasters have, formally through their Commissioning Guidelines (or informally in discussions), stated that they don't want certain scenarios, then ProdCos will not dare pitch.
Your script is 'calling card'. If ProdCos like it, they will call you in for meetings, recommend you for Sketch Show submissions, etc.

The guy who wrote Admin is/was a first timer.

You sound as if you swallowed an 'Idiots Guide to Televison' manual.

A friend of (a friend of) mine as just has his first piece commissioned as well. So it can be done. Though, yeah, Johnny you are, excluding the exceptions, of course right. Although I hate the idea that my "baby" is nothing more than that! Ahh the arrogance of the naive.

Quote: manchester's trendy chorlton @ May 16 2008, 1:35 PM BST

The guy who wrote Admin is/was a first timer.
You sound as if you swallowed an 'Idiots Guide to Televison' manual.

Hic-cup.
Well, the Admin guy first had discussions with Talkback eight years ago. It took him that long to be a first timer.
However, someone did (amusingly) give me for Christmas 'The Complet Idiot's Guide to Comedy Writing', so I'll check for missing pages.
Hic-cup.

Quote: Rebecca Davies @ May 16 2008, 1:54 PM BST

A friend of (a friend of) mine as just has his first piece commissioned as well. So it can be done. Though, yeah, Johnny you are, excluding the exceptions, of course right. Although I hate the idea that my "baby" is nothing more than that! Ahh the arrogance of the naive.

My glib assertion assumed you had no excellent inside contacts, non-writing experience in the industry, etc.
I do, of course, wish you well, Rebecca.

I think the point is that Hyperdrive was pitched maybe with some of the cast involved and by someone who already had a 'leg up' if you like.

The chances are if you had submitted the script to Writersroom or elsewere it wouldn't have got past the first read.

It sounds like we are all moaners but we just all need that initial 'leg up'.

As for the band script, I would just do it.. Flight Of The Conchords is awesome but there is enough room for another. Getting past the initial Spinal Tap etc bullshit will make it difficult, but if you think it's good enough then balls to the 'rules'.

I have seen some shoddy pieces of rubbish masquerading as comedy over the last 20 years. Sometimes you have to wonder how they came across on paper as in practice some of them are a bit lame. (Fresh Fields, French Fields..the latest abomination from Nicholas Lyndhurst, the title of which escapes me at the minute) How where these unfunny scripts greenlit? I reckon if Lyndhurst wasn't attached it wouldn't have got through.

Just a little warning, I decided to put my latest beloved, but wouldn't get made due to similar things, project in the bottom drawer (or computer equivalent) and concentrate on things that would be lucrative in the here-and-now. One of those things lead to someone asking "We like your stuff, do you have anything longer?" They're not looking for show ideas, but they do want to see if I can write sitcom. I'm now in a panic because I can either stall them and manically try and think of an ending to a half-finished script, or send them something old (I'm sure like most people, I can hardly bring myself to read old scripts and my best work is whatever I'm doing NOW)

If I'd just finished writing this 'would never get made' script, I'd have a nice calling card for myself. So it's definitely worth ploughing on with it, just to have it there.

Speaking with the 'industry' people, you have a much higher chance of getting stuff made if you have somebody well-known attached. At that point, they will at least listen to you. They still won't commission it, but at least they will listen!

So, stalk some up-and-coming comedian all around the comedy clubs and keep going to talk to them until you become best mates. Then force them to take your scripts to the big boys with their name attached.

Dan

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