Does Your Sitcom Script Fizzle Out?

In fact, does it even fizzle in?

Before I begin, I’ve just seen that BBC Writersroom have opened a window. They will receive thousands of scripts. Will one of them be yours?

They’re not looking for out-and-out studio sitcoms. But they will be interested in half-hour comedies and comedy-dramas. Do you want to give your script some pre-flight checks before you send it in? It might make all the difference.

You might be interested in a resource I’ve made for scripts, which is like getting me to read your script, but at a very low price:

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Does Your Sitcom Script Fizzle Out?

I just started Leave it to Psmith, a classic novel by PG Wodehouse. One could argue that Wodehouse is one of the original creators of sitcoms. Familiar characters collude and collide in various ways, and very little changes in over eighty novels and short stories. All’s well that ends well.

It is tempting to think that Wodehouse, writing in an age where comedies were read over days rather than consumed in minutes, had the luxury of taking time to set up his characters and his stories. Certainly, Wodehouse savours explaining the assorted miscreants in his tales. But his characters are always in the middle of something. They are troubled, in debt, in love or somehow dissatisfied, so that they are driven to action. Within a few pages of Leave it Psmith, multiple characters are established and motivated. Plots are hatched and hares set running.

We could all learn from Wodehouse. He puts his characters in all kinds of impossible and desperate situations and allows us to enjoy the story as it barrels along.

Fizzling Out and Fizzling In?

This is my reflection on my conversation with my former Sitcom Geeks Podcast co-host, Dave Cohen. We start out by talking about sitcom scripts, and Dave reckons that there are still too many spec sitcom pilot scripts in which the characters don’t go on enough of a journey.

Does your sitcom script fizzle out? In fact, does it even fizzle in?

I had this drummed into me working on both Miranda and Citizen Khan. Both Miranda Hart and Adil Ray were adamant that their character should not only cause chaos but suffer dire and humiliating consequences. This is how we ended up with Miranda falling into a grave having had to give a eulogy for someone she did not know. And how we ended up with Mr Khan running naked across a packed Edgbaston cricket pitch during an England international.

The same was the case on Bluestone 42, where the stakes could hardly have been higher. Watch the first episode (which you can still do on iPlayer in the UK) and you will see a comedy name that you recognise being shot in the head. We’re trying to show that this is an active war zone, not a safe army base you might find in an episode of the Phil Silvers show. As I say in this conversation with Dave, the premise of Bluestone 42 was so hot, it could take off both of your legs if you touch it.

We also float the possibility of the Sitcom Seekers Allowance before talking about Dave’s new book Funny Up Your Fiction: How to Add Light, Shade and Laughs to Your Novel. It’s an interesting conversation about writing comedy – and you know what? There aren’t all that many of those on YouTube. Seriously. Leave a comment below if you know of others.

Enjoy!

Other Notes and Links from the Interview:

Dave and I refer to our conversation with Danny Peak, writer of the highly successful Not Going Out – and the trauma of writing a show that everyone decided to hate called Big Top.

Also, I refer to this: