How to Create Dynamic Sitcom Characters

The TWO crucial ingredients

I’ve just made the first in a series of ten YouTube videos which will essentially form a free course. I start where every sitcom should begin: with the characters.

If you’re rather read it, here’s what I say in the video:

Are you sure your sitcom has got characters in it?

Dumb question! Course it does.

But are they characters? Or job titles with dialogue? Or identities telling jokes?

Your characters are everything in your sitcom. They are the reason people keep coming back for more. Not the premise. Not even the jokes. It’s the characters or, as I’m going to call them: Personalities. That’s the first part of my new ten part sitcom creation engine. Because I’m interested in helping you build sitcoms that actually generate stories repeatedly.

So I’m going to give you two ways of thinking about the characters or PERSONALITES in your sitcom that will drive them forwards.

Because your sitcom is only as good as the characters trapped inside it. This is foundational stuff. Rush this and it’s not that your script won’t work. It can’t work – and will not stand out among the thousands of other scripts.

So, let’s just get really clear on the problem. In fact, some problems.

• Your character IS not a job or profession or role. A lawyer, a fire fighter, a politician, a vicar, a hotelier. That’s a job. Profession is not a personality.

• Your character IS not a role. A child, a newly-wed, a young mum, an empty-nester. That’s a stage of life. Not a personality.

• Your character IS not a backstory. A victim of a broken home, or someone who’s won the lottery. That’s a series of events. Not a personality.

• Your character IS not an identity – a race, a sexuality, a gender - that’s not an attribute. Not a personality.

None of this generates comedy in your sitcom.

Even if you combine them all. eg. A Female British Asian young mum who has just been elected Mayor of her Town.

Who is she? I don’t know. That’s a description of person’s situation.

Not a character. Not a personality.

The two P’s are coming. But he here’s another problem.

Your character is also not a bit this and a bit that. Sometimes they are this. And sometimes if they feel like it, they do that. They’re quirky!

Impulsive! Outrageous!

NO. Stop it!

They DO need to be larger-than-life. They need to be personalities. But this isn’t just randomly applied. They don’t HAVE traits or characters. They are DRIVEN by them.

Your character, your personality needs to be driven and want something – which will cause them problems, and conflicts with other characters and that’s where the comedy comes from.

Otherwise, your characters are just a jukebox for jokes. That’s fine for stand-up comedy. But it won’t sustain a sitcom beyond about 45 seconds.

And that’s our first P

1. Purpose

Your character needs purpose.

Ask this question of your character:

• What do they WANT?

• What are they trying to get from life, from relationships and from TODAY?

It’s not: “a promotion at work”. It’s the REASON they want that promotion. What will it bring them:

Respect. Status. Control of their time. Validation.

• So what does this character WANT?

• What are they chasing?

• What are they trying to prove?

• What do they think will finally make them happy?

In each episode, they are going after that one thing but in a different way.

Each time, Basil Fawlty is trying to run a classy hotel because wants status. He’s a snob.

Each time, Sammy in Cheers is seeking pleasure.

Each time, Ron Swanson is seeking liberty.

Each time, the Vicar of Dibley wants to be liked. Because if people like her, they will like Jesus.

And they will do whatever it takes to get that thing including, in the case of the vicar of Dibley, eat three Christmas lunches in one day.

But you can’t have plots and quests until you have PURPOSE.

Sitcom characters need hopes to pursue and dreams to be dashed.

Our young mum who is Mayor of her Town? Let’s say she’s all about control. She likes order. Everything just so. In its place.

But that’s NOT enough.

The purpose is about the want. It’s the selfish desire.

But they also have a concern for the wider world, and strong views on the kind of world they would like to live in. This is the second P: PERSPECTIVE.

2. Perspective

Question: How do they see the world?

Better Question: What do they think is wrong with the world?

Better still, incorporating Purpose: How are they trying to fix the world?

Basil Fawlty sees a world that’s gone to hell in a handcart and his classy hotel is part of the solution.

Ron Swanson sees a world of rules and government and he is trying to set people free – and take responsibility for themselves.

• What about your character?

• When they look at the world, what do they see? That’s Perspective.

• And how are they trying to fix? We’re back to Purpose.

Why did our young mum run for mayor? She wants order. She sees a world in disarray. Including her home town. And she is going to fix it. And maybe that seems like an easier job than fixing her dreamer of a son, her unreliable sister and her intransigent mother.

Sitcom characters are NOT job titles who tell jokes.

They’re definitely not people to whom funny things happen.

They’re not a bunch of adjectives. They are personalities with purpose and perspective.

But where are they? What’s going on? What’s the situation in situation comedy? That’s the precinct! And the topic of the next instalment.