Hi we're new to the board, you all saw the intro. We have quite a bit of experience with the Comedy Unit. We first sent a script to them in early 2004, that we both knew probably wasn't that great, but was the best we could make at that point. They sent us a letter that summer basially saying that they're weren't going to pursue it further, but Niall Clarke did invite us to the office for 'a general chat about comedy writing' and we used the time before the meeting to rewrite the pilot, thinking that based on the letter's feedback that we could improve it. It did get their interest and if you get past that initial stage with the Unit, your stuff gets submitted to these things they call 'comedy editorials' - basically focus groups where they get opinions from different 'demographics'. To cut a very long story short we got to this stage with two successive pilots, spending a total of three years re-writing them to try and fit with what they were telling us we needed - only to eventually get nowhere.
This is certainly not intended to put anyone off sending stuff to them. They invited us to meet with them based on a fairly shite original script and we learned a lot through all the rewrites we had to do. They also gave us our first paid writing work and some useful advice on subjects to avoid (ie scripts about rock bands). It's just to warn people that they can have you spending a lot of time rewriting scripts only to see nothing come of it in the end. Other people may have similar stories about other companies, but it was certainly an education for us in terms of not trusting everything producers tell you. It helped us to understand the nature of the industry a bit better.
Balfour and Robertson.
