Can I write a sitcom all about death?

Hi guys,

I am playing around with ideas for a new sitcom. I've only ever written one sitcom before - Rules of Life. The character in that is all I know and I am struggling to come up with good, original sitcom ideas that I could write. I've got loads of ideas but I just don't think I am good enough to write them.

One idea I had, that I like and that I think I could write, is about a ~30 year old guy who gets diagnosed with cancer. He gets given a 50% chance of survival. He is due to get married in 6 months and decides that he has to protect his fiance, and not tell her this news. We then see him go through treatment, all the while trying to keep it a secret and trying to get to his big day.

That's all I have got right now. I just wondered 1. Can you write a sitcom (and it be funny) if it is about death/cancer. 2. The whole 'keep it a secret' thread - is that rubbish or is there something there do you think?

thanks,
Steve

That's a great idea, might have been done in a film.

Big C covered cancer but your ideas feels quite different.

So it was kind of done in a Seth Rogan film called 5050 but was quite different in the sense that the main character had nothing much at stake (no impending wedding etc), and nor did he attempt to keep it a secret.

Big C, I'll check it out, thanks.

It's a great idea, I could imagine an added tension his missus wants a mega wedding.

But he knows she'd be better off saving the money cos he'll be dead soon, but can't tell her so secretly sabotages it.

Love that idea!

I'm getting married in a year and it's absolute madness as to how much weddings cost! It's a good excuse for me to analyse weddings as I think it's an area that ripe for comedy but it'll be nice to analyse it through the eyes of a dying man

Steve nicely, never, ever, ever say that to your future missus.

I mean it rights it's self every episode focussing on a differing element, he persuades the band to play death metal at the audition, he hires a paedophile priest

Not the same but have you seen Breaking Bad?

I think everyone's seen Breaking Bad, or even East Enders with Den and Angie.

The character secretly dying is a classic trope. But I think the wedding gives it legs.

For me it doesn't I am afraid. Sympathy is not always important in comedy but Empathy always is. A wedding after all is a minor deadline compared to a real one. There is two outcomes in the premise here and neither gives it legs.

So sorry Steve it's a no from me I'd dig around for other ideas. Best of luck and I guess you were asking as you wanted an honest response so I hope I am not being too harsh in raining on the parade.

Not sure if Sooty's pulling your leg Steve, but the guy diagnosed with cancer keeping it from his fiancé and trying to make it to the wedding is a terrible idea.

Also, those kind of teasing plots where a secret is constantly under threat of revelation can be very irritating, in the same way that a musical note held for a long time demands release.

How you feel about death probably depends on how old and how well you are. For me it's not something I like to think about too much. I enjoyed Breaking Bad but it has to be said that if you put all the references to cancer and hospital scenes back-to-back they wouldn't have filled more than a couple of minutes over the fifty plus hours of the show.

There have been a few programmes about the administrative side of death, set in hospitals and funeral parlours but I don't think it's the best area you work in as an unknown writer.

I think the idea of a death-based comedy is fine, but I have trouble with the wedding stuff: I have trouble believeing in a relationship where you'd keep your potentially terminal disease secret for the sake of a wedding day.

now, having to keep it secret because a career-driven person doesn't want to miss a promotion, or something, that I could believe.

Thanks guys, appreciate all your opinions. I'm inclined to agree that it's not a goer. I like the idea of writing about death (strange I know!) and having the challenge of seeing if I can make that subject funny.

After Rules of Life I at least now have someone who will listen to script premises, and read my future scripts but I don't want to send rubbish ideas/scripts over to her so great to get opinions from you guys.

I'm 75 and think about dying from time to time. Sit-com on the subject must surely be comedic. It's not the actual dying, ( I've done plenty of that on BSG) It's the nitty gritty, mainly funeral costs, I don't want to leave them to my kids. So I've arranged my funeral with my local gypsy traveller, he's going to nail me between two pallets and fly tip me at a beauty spot.

From my memory bank I can recall a Yorkshire TV production (the days of ITV regional tele output)set in a funeral parlour, called In Living Memory with the great Thora Hird and her on screen nephew. Recently there has been a radio comedy about a man in a coma - name escapes me. The latter was more dark wheareas ILM was distant enough to be more light-hearted and farcical.

Hey Jerf hang on a min if you are 75, that means you went to Uni about late fifties... curry houses didn't become popular in the Uk till the early seventies onward with the wave of Bangladeshi immigrants. Not challenging you just curious as if 75 then yes some differing perspective to offer on this sitcom premise.