Isn't It Sad.......... Page 2

Quote: Skibbington von Skubber @ October 3, 2007, 3:27 PM

"Dolly Dagger, her love's so heavy gonna make you stagger"
---James Marshall Hendrix

It is true. The best sitcoms are usually written for or based on a starring actor. This is why I have stopped creating sitcoms until I'm higher up the tv foodchain. Unsolicited sitcom scripts & ideas rarely get produced. Rarely. So rarely that it's a waste of time to put in the hard work of creating one if you don't know anyone in the business.

Better to write sketches and build up a reputation and network of contacts.

A TV sitcom is a big gamble involving lots of money and people. So if you're a producer you're gonna think smart and build sitcoms around available stars rather than take a good idea out of the slush pile and then go looking for a lead actor.

Get the star; sell him on an idea; get the writers to cook up a pilot script and a story arc, and hope the star is still interested.

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Hi Skibbs was very interested in this comment 'Better to write sketches and build up a reputation and network of contacts.' I'm spending a good while trying to write a sitcom at the mo. but if there really isn't a point then I have better ways of spending my time. Do you mind me asking how writing sketches can get you a reputation? Who do you send them to most websites I've visited seem to want sitcom ideas but I've not seen any asking for scripts. I find writing scripts a damn site easier and more enjoyable that writing a sitcom.

Quote: Dale Griffiths @ October 3, 2007, 10:41 PM

Hi Skibbs was very interested in this comment 'Better to write sketches and build up a reputation and network of contacts.' I'm spending a good while trying to write a sitcom at the mo. but if there really isn't a point then I have better ways of spending my time. Do you mind me asking how writing sketches can get you a reputation? Who do you send them to most websites I've visited seem to want sitcom ideas but I've not seen any asking for scripts. I find writing scripts a damn site easier and more enjoyable that writing a sitcom.

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I was perhaps being ultra cynical but that really is my point of view.

I imagine getting sketches produced on television and your name in the credits makes it that much easier to make contact with television producers.

The tv producers who can actually make things happen are behind the castle walls and busy as beavers. They are not sitting around awaiting new sitcom ideas to come to them via the slush pile. Things are already in motion. Projects are already on the burners at various stages of development with known associates.

I think it takes time to hustle your way into the castle and sell your ideas to the kings. I think it takes a whole lot more than sitting in your underwear and cranking out a sitcom and sending it off to a prod company.

But crank out the sketches at the rate Winterlight does and get your name in as many shows as you can and maybe you'll get invites to parties and such and start some serious networking.

It is going to take some hustling and use of people skills to sell a sitcom. It is going to involve travel at your expense and waiting in waiting rooms and waiting for phone calls that don't come when promised. And then when it is time to pitch your show you get the pleasure of talking to complete morons who would do better selling fags at a petrol station than producing hit sitcoms.

But f**k it! Have fun with it. The scenario does not have to be as I described it. Write your heart out and crank out your outline, story arc, and pilot, and send them off to every tv prod company in the listings. And send them again to the same companies six months later if necessary.

Think positive---especially when you feel doubtful. Believe you can get what you want and you will. But you must believe it in spite of the doubts and "reasons" why you can't or "probably won't". Not an easy thing to do when you're young. Much easier to do when you are older and more desperate.

Quote: zooo @ October 3, 2007, 9:55 PM

And that's ruined it for me.

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Quote: Skibbington von Skubber @ October 3, 2007, 3:27 PM

"Dolly Dagger, her love's so heavy gonna make you stagger"
---James Marshall Hendrix

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Congratulations! You've won a coconut. And don't worry if you don't like coconut. See those three dots on the end? Imagine they're two eyes and a mouth and voila! You have your own pet guinea pig!