The Merciless Sitcom Form

Have finally finished a satisfactory draft first episode of a new sitcom.

Does anyone else find the 30 minute sitcom format, although ultimately rewarding, quite cruel at the same time? In half-an-hour you've got to set you premise, characters, self-contained plot and make it consistently funny. Makes me sometimes envious of these 50-90 minute comedy/drama writers.

As I tend to deliberately over-write scenes, then re-write and trim them to the bare essentials, I sometimes find it a horrible experience to have to cut some decent jokes or some of the moments which don't push the plot. It is ultimately necessary I know (and some of the material could be used in further episodes), but I find it a little sad to review the submission script knowing what I've had to dump out.

I know I'm whining like a little girl, but surely I can't be the only one to sometimes feel this way?

You've lost me, pal. Did you watch the football?

Sitcoms are the lions of comedy, you must slay them with your bare hands.

In one of my pilots I wanted to cry as I cut my favourite joke I'd ever written out, but then the pilot did weigh in at 110 pages so that wasn't the only thing to get cut.

I tend to make the characters' introductions in the pilot THE plot. To mean people arriving somewhere, getting a new job etc.

My pilots always end up being 15 pages + too long, but I always kind of hope I'll be forgiven so to cover myself I'll say 'It's a showcase of me as a writer' or some such guff.

I don't worry about being slightly over-long in the page count. To me it's what would be the starting point for a 'shooting script'. Plus, although I trim, I always have scenes I can 'top and tail' and usually one that be dropped without hurting the story too badly.

I dont even know, how many pages make up a 30 minute sitcom.
I can't count either.

I go with compromise your vision, to show you can play the game. Cut stuff, till it hurts to hit the 30 page limit. You can crush the peons later when you are all powerful.

What page count are we working too here?

I always thought it was 50, but at 55 pages I've been told it's 15 too long - giving us 40.

I do like editing, it's quite satisfying just taking out anything that isn't funny, character or plot. That's quite enjoyable.

30 is 30 minutes if double spaced. Thus sayeth the Mighty Mark Blake.

Quote: sootyj @ February 24, 2008, 9:42 PM

30 is 30 minutes if double spaced. Thus sayeth the Mighty Mark Blake.

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The 2 Pints script up on the BBC's website is 50.

30 is too short.

I think 40-50 is the correct length - I think anyway.

I don't spend much time introducing characters at all in the pilot, I just leap right in and let the characters speak for themselves really with how they deal with the conflict of the plot.

Like the Seinfeld pilot for example, it doesn't really do any introduction it just gets going straight away and you get to know the characters from how they interact with each other and how they deal with the situations. Yeah you need to mention the basics like names and maybe what job they do, but that's it I think.

That maybe for a full shooting script, I know I did one for a script reading and 30=30. I suppose it also depends how much you adjust the page

Quote: Martin Holmes @ February 24, 2008, 9:58 PM

I don't spend much time introducing characters at all in the pilot, I just leap right in and let the characters speak for themselves really with how they deal with the conflict of the plot.

Like the Seinfeld pilot for example, it doesn't really do any introduction it just gets going straight away and you get to know the characters from how they interact with each other and how they deal with the situations. Yeah you need to mention the basics like names and maybe what job they do, but that's it I think.

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Well, yeah - I don't mean I have characters come out with 'Hi, I'm Toby, I'm 35 and I'm a milkman. I like new pave and punk, but not electro'.

But I try to put in some basic traits - not OTT - but there for everyone to see, just so the characters set the their stalls early on.

I go by a page a minute.

And if the joke is THAT good surely you can use it somewhere else.

Quote: David Chapman @ February 24, 2008, 10:50 PM

I go by a page a minute.

And if the joke is THAT good surely you can use it somewhere else.

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Oh yeah, episode 2.