I'm writing a Sitcom - what do you enjoy about them?

DailyGeek

DailyGeek

DailyGeek

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As title. I've just entered the scripting stage of my sitcom project. I have a decent idea based around personal experience and feel I can develop strong characters etc.

Just wondered what you guys feel about sitcoms? What are your favourites? What do you like about them, what do you look for? Do you have any characters or traits you find particularly funny?

Thanks in advance!

Sean

PS. Has anyone else here attempted to write a sitcom before? I've written sketches in the past but it would be good to hear from another writer :)
 
I've co-written some shorter stuff (one-offs etc), but my friend/co-author has had 3 series of a sitcom but it was on Radio 4 rather than telly :)

Email in trust if you want to ask any specifics, I'll help if I can :)

K_C
 
cleanbluesky said:
Homosexuality is amusing - look at Will and Grace
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:p You know, i've thought long and hard (oo-er!) about it. I don't think I need the gay element in it for the purpose of humour. In fact more and more recently, without sounding like a homophobe hopefully, the overly camp characters on TV are becoming more irritating to me. Its as if the easy option is to chuck in a bit of smut and innuendo sometimes.
 
DailyGeek said:
:p You know, i've thought long and hard (oo-er!) about it. I don't think I need the gay element in it for the purpose of humour. In fact more and more recently, without sounding like a homophobe hopefully, the overly camp characters on TV are becoming more irritating to me. Its as if the easy option is to chuck in a bit of smut and innuendo sometimes.
Click to expand...
Homophobe.

Try the race card a la "Love thy Neighbour"

I like sit coms to make me laugh </bleeding obvious>
 
Watching Will & Grace is like being *touched* by Rich_L.

Disturbing, yet satisfying.

The rule of sitcoms - You have one thing that separates you from every other sitcom, and that's it.

Your stories will be exactly the same rehashed drivel, painted a different colour and couched in different language.

Make fart jokes, and you have a winner.
 
It depends what kind you are writing, from silly stuff like Joey, physical comedy stuff to one liners (every sitcom should have them, its not a sitcom without some good one liners). Then there are the real sitcoms, where it put the Sit in Situation Comedy like Seinfeld and Frasier (don't knock it, there's a reason why it won so many Emmys'). Where a character does something tiny and apparently insignificant at the beginning of the episode to have some funny but drastic consequences at the end of the episode. The situation should tie in a few of the main characters as well, where each is unaware what the other is doing and its affect it has on the other person.

Perfect example, Season 7 of Seinfeld - Soup Nazi Episode.
 
DO NOT under circumstances make it "wacky".

But by the same token, do not make it pedestrain.

You need to be surreal, but by the same token, have strong grounding in reality.

Clever set ups, you need to disguise the pay off for as long as you can.
 
Well - I already have a reoccuring fart gag which will end up mostly visual. Hard to explain really but I'm chuckling to myself thinking about it :p

I'd to explain a little more but I'm very concious about putting out my ideas at the moment, having had sketches stolen in the past (Dom Joly!)

The setting is something *almost* all people will have had experience of in some way or another, and has been used successfully, albeit in a different way, recently.
 
fatiain said:
\o/ Yay \o/ for recurring fart jokes. :D
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images_fart1.gif
 
settings wise...you have

Cafe (Friends, Frasier), dinner (Seinfeld), bookshop (Ellen), A Flat/Living room (all Sitcom), Hospital (Although Scrubs has the exception of having quite a big set and with frequent external shots), a bar (Cheers - Thou Cheers have a bigger Cast than most Sitcoms).

One things...do you have one stupid character? as in Joey, Kramer, Todd (in scrubs)..he'll do all the fart jokes. There's always a character who's good with women, think Couplings (you have Patrick, Friends you have Joey). Then the balance of the sex is also important, need at least 1 female to 3 guys max.
 
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