If you were to send a script to an American prod co what would be the chance of a reply?
J26
Go west young man
About 3.
3 to 1 odds? 3 out of 10? 3%? 3 prodcos? 
Seriously, it's an interesting point - has anyone here tried selling their stuff stateside?
You would need to know how the American sitcom market works as it differs to the approach taken in the UK. You could do worse than read this book as it explains the US market quite well:
Def.
I've read that. It's very good and will give an nice insight to the American sitcom production set up.
From what I remember, the first two-thirds of it probably applies to all sitcoms everywhere, and only the last bit concerns itself with how (American) shows work on a production level.
Here's the link, so BCG gets some cash 
Dan
Dan,
What did you make of the 'Premise Driven' method that this book is known for? I read various reviews about the book and everything mentioned this method and how good it was. When I started reading the book I thought the fanfare of angels was going to greet me when I got to the 'premise driven' section.
Then something odd happened - it either wasn't there or I skipped past it without knowing. So I went back on the chapters concerned and it seemed to say that the premise method is to have a premise and to let that premise drive your comedy (obviously this was written over a few pages). But to be honest I felt cheated on this section. I was led to believe that the author was going to map out a system for putting your sitcom together. Reviewers were saying things like "his premise driven method helped me no end to get my episode right". I'm now left wondering if the relevant pages are missing from my copy!
What are your thoughts on this point?
(To the OP - This book is still good for explaining the American sitcom market.)
<slips away to go read book again, as can't remember that bit at all now>
Dan
Cheers, all I'll give it a read
J26
Def
Re: premise-driven stuff. That's how I write everything! (Certainly the two scripts you've read!). Start with a three-line episode idea (that is funny). Expand to ten or so lines. Make each a scene (that is funny). Work on each of those scenes to death (and then some) making sure that they're funny. Finally overlay the dialogue and rewrite until the cows come home.
Thinking back, I can't say whether I wrote like that anyway, and the book just slammed it home a bit more or I started doing that after reading the book. There was certainly a time I realised I had to plan everything as 'just writing' doesn't work at all for me. Whether the book had anything to do with that, I honestly can't remember either way.
(This does hark back to my theory (in other threads) about the high-low concept thing, sort of; idea-driven seems to come out high-concept, story that comes entirely out of character low-concept. Not that it matters, as long as it's all funny, but just occurred to me that it seems to work that way)
BTW the vast majority of the book seems to be about premise-driven comedy! Starts at p.23 and goes right up to p. 71, according to the index.
Dan
Dan
I'm going to have to read it again as my memory of it was that I felt let down by the content. This may be because, like you, I was already doing what the author said anyway and therefore his method seemed just normal and obvious as opposed to anything new or groundbreaking. Or, I let the hype of the reviews get to me so that I expected to find Pandora's box when I began reading. Perhaps it's actualy a mix of the two.
Yep, I'm going to give it another read through.
Def.