Sitcom ideas

Hi all, I am looking for some help in writing my first sitcom, I have a bunch of funny characters, bound together by work. they are a team of security guards working on a holiday camp ala Pontins. I have an idea about writing my pilot episode about my main character, a Fabio Capello lokkalike, named Emlyn, who is working the gate on the day a bunch of Irish Loyalists, turn up for the upcoming march/parade. thing is emlyn has an anxiety issue after he was caught up in belfast during the troubles as an english squaddie.

quick character bio
Emlyn "Fabio" Roberts
perspective: chauvonist, middle aged divorcee, whose son is doing time in prison. he attempts to stay young by listening to mcfly, and using a tanning salon, he loves bingo and live music!
flaws: he is very single minded, however he suffers from self doubt.
Humanity: emlyn is willing to do anything for his co-workers
Exag: Emlyn will not share his coffee and marks his jar at the end of shifts, and drives a gold ford capri

Security guards and holiday camps don't seem the most obvious mix for a sitcom. If you already have the characters in mind then why not think about different places to set it. Security guards for a bank, an office building, a shopping mall, a hotel, an apartment building, a department store.

My main problem when reading your post was the holiday camp setting.

By the sound of it you're aiming to be tad edgier than Hi-Di_Hi, thus deflecting any comparisons there, so I can't see any reason why you can't keep your camp setting.

I spent some time at a Pontins camp in the 70's ( waiter not Bluecoat ) and it was a real eye opener. Staff who had worked at the larger Butlins camps had stories of a regime that sounded like something out of a Gulag, with security guards waking people up in the morning with a baseball bat on the door. There was also the high barbed-wire topped fences to keep out non-guests, and showing of passes to get in and out.

I think there's a lot of scope here to work with.

Would you believe I worked at Pontins during the naughties and one of my security staff colleagues had a slogan of his very own, "It aint f**kin' Hi Di Hi, out there" each time there was trouble, or my personal fave, "C'mon lads or we'll be on the front of the news of the world again!"

you can check out the beginnings of my script a couple of pages back on this very forum, I am looking for help really on creating stories, funny characters and dialogue come quite easily to me, but driving a plot forward is were I really struggle, I guess what I am saying is that I am short of stories.

Didn't anything funny happen while you worked there?

of course it did, it's just I am struggling to turn them into something, plenty of individual happenings, but turning them into a three act payoff is not so easy. please read all ages and stripes and comment!

Story ideas
How about one story around a stag party booking in, getting out of hand and a manic search for the groom the day after.
Another could be a special famous x factor reject arriving to perform and there being various difficulties and tensions with his or her security team which eventually leads to the celeb being kidnapped killed and or bummed.

Quote: James @ February 28 2011, 9:11 PM GMT

Story ideas
How about one story around a stag party booking in, getting out of hand and a manic search for the groom the day after.
Another could be a special famous x factor reject arriving to perform and there being various difficulties and tensions with his or her security team which eventually leads to the celeb being kidnapped killed and or bummed.

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That's brill James but what about the next six episodes?

The best thing you can do is take all your character ideas and comic incidents and move them as far away as you can from a holiday camp setting. Nobody is going to touch that with Miss Cathcart's knickers.

How about a security guard at a Job Centre? Got to be some potential there.

Surely location doesn't count, like stand -up comics, it's not where the 'gig is,(gig, I'm over 70, are you impressed?) but the comic's material.
I suggest that you write the material then insert it into any location you feel it deserves, the list is endless, (including where the sun don't shine).Nobody on this site can help you,99 percent of us are dreamers Unless you sit down and start writing,
(4hrs a day at least) You too will join our sad ranks.

I really do not see what the issue around the holiday camp is. I am not trying to recreate hi di hi, not by a long shot, think perhaps more phoenix nights crossed with the royle family, or early doors, they are my main inspiration.

I don't see a problem with the holiday camp as the stories centre around the security guards. Sounds good to me

Why are people so squeamish about the holiday camp setting? I really like the sound of it. I'm sort of imagining a cross between Reno 911 and Trailer Park Boys but with budget entertainment packages. Plus holiday camps are bringing in a lot of money now due to more people having UK holidays. Surely it's the perfect time to write it?

Hi de Hi casts a long shadow?

And there was that recent Scottish one.

But I reckon it could work.

How about Centre Parks take over Butlins or vice versa?

That almost sounds good enough to write..