Hi BCG,
Forgive the shameless marketer strutting into your forum like this. I'm from a sitcom podcast, handling their press and PR. Our lead writer wrote an article on the lessons he learned in the process and I'm spreading it about:
I hope you find it interesting! If you have any thoughts, I'd love to read them and pass them on. (Unless they're very rude. Then I probably won't pass them on.)
What have you learned specifically through writing?
Here's what I've learned.
Although you start off writing a sitcom alone in your garret, once it's taken up it's a joint project, and will be changed and modified by producer, director, broadcaster, the actors themselves and yourself in a series of feedbacks. It's a long and tiring process. Entire scenes and even characters will have to be cut. You have to accept and even welcome this.
To work well, humour has to be undercut with sadness or pathos.
Jokes are two a penny. Getting the structure of a sitcom right is by far the most
important thing.