Spec Sitcom Scripts?

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Hey all:What are your recommendations for current sitcom series to use for spec scripts?Thanks!

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Hey all: What are your recommendations for current sitcom series to use for spec scripts? Thanks![/nq]
If you're just starting to write, you can choose any sitcom you like (current or classic), and you can use the experience to hone your skills and test your ability to follow through on a writing project. Most people never write enough to be taken seriously, and even though you can't move a classic as a spec, you can get feedback from people that you know much more easily. Ratings for current shows are half of what they were a decade ago, and right now, neglecting animation, the only current shows in syndication are Two and a Half Men and According to Jim.
The story situations you come up with are more adaptable for other uses than you may think, and subplots means that there's a lot to go around, and a lot that has to go around. I've recycled with success, and if you succeed, you will need your well of ideas to draw as deep as possible to get through your share of a 24 episode season, so get used to it now.
Those two factors, feedback and experience, are pretty much the dues you pay. Read Neal Stevens' essay available on the MSWM faq.

After you've conquered that, the rules are:
1) Never send the spec script to the makers of the show you select.Legal issues are enough to make sure that script never sees the light of day.

2) Rule 1 implies an indirect approach. Send your spec script anywhereelse, and if you really want to write for a certain show, send them something else, hopefully from a similar show that they has nothing to do with what they're doing.

3) It has to be a current sitcom on network or cable.

The perfect spec script should blend in perfectly with the show's current production. The results of script competitions will tell you what the popular specs are. The best sitcoms to work with either have ratings or critical acclaim, and the best of all possible bets is a new show that seems destined for syndication. This is because older shows are more likely to introduce story arcs, which is something you don't want to concern yourself with. You want a My Name is Earl to focus on the list, not the Prison, Coma, or Witness Protection arcs that have already expired.
That said, Kath & Kim is probably going to get canceled, so that would be a bad choice, unless your Kath & Kim is so totally hilarious that you're willing to bet the bank that you can get some action on it before next fall. Funny is a trump card, you have to play it if you have it in your hand. In fact, Kath & Kim is probably great if you're thinking about Fox's upcoming version of Absolutely Fabulous.

That leads into something I'd like to get some feedback from the group from: Can International shows be spec'd? Because I think the Canadian sitcoms of Sophie and Little Mosque on the Prairie are as good as any American sitcom currently out there. Are BBC specs shopped as easily as your standard American?
Anyway, the combination of someone going into my Google profile (I made 700 posts last month?!) and Paulo giving up the group for Lent has got me into cutting back on my postings I've got some serious work to do right now, so I wanted to leave a definitive post.

Last August, I sent a 30 Rock to the Disney fellowships, and although the Jack Donaghy subplot is a dead fish (having been writing in response to not knowing how long they'd stretch out Don Geiss' coma (it should be replaced with a Liz plot anyway)), I got the proverbial phone call, not from Disney, but a feature agent. So right now, I'm frantically writing anything that can save me from this stupid economy.
Anyway, in addition to what I've already mentioned to Parselus, that list of possible specs include: The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, The New Adventures of Old Christine, The Office, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Everybody Hates Chris, Hannah Montana, That's So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and possibly Gary Unmarried and Parks and Recreation.
I got the advice on starting with a classic sitcom from an Act One workshop, and they're right. Writing is about the passion, so if you're new, you want the best yardstick you can measure yourself against. You will learn more from the brushstrokes of ******* and Seinfeld than you can from today's "masterpieces". The Mary Tyler Moore Show (available on Hulu) is great for understanding 30 Rock. Cheers is great because you never leave the bar. If producers weren't so afraid of hiring dead writers, classics would probably be the norm.

That's about everything I know about television sitcom spec writing in a nutshell, other than study the act structure of your selected show and never let a guest star upstage the main cast. You need scenes focusing on the interaction of the cast. I liked writing the spec because I could see it only as a tool (which it is), rather than the passionate love child that I have to raise from script to screen (which is everything else that I write).
With that, I wish everyone well.

Usenet · Answer

Thanks for the very extensive reply!

Spec Sitcom Scripts?

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