#COMEDY PILOT STRUCTURE SERIES#
#COMEDY PILOT STRUCTURE TV#

The Wight Walkers are back, and they’re going to kill all the humans.Īnd if you think about the crazy winding roads the many seasons of the show have taken us down, that Wight Walker thing is still the big bad looming.

#COMEDY PILOT STRUCTURE SERIES#

So what could they get across prior to the credits?īasically, the Game of Thrones cold open sets up the series problem. The pilot carried an exposition burden heavier than Ned Stark's broadsword, introducing us to about 2 billion characters and an entire world we had never seen before. When Game of Thrones debuted, the show had a lot to set up. If you want to stand out, I suggest you learn from one of these other drama examples. For starters, anyone reading your version would assume it’s a knockoff, and so many people are writing like this now that it could get lost in the shuffle. It got the series made!īut as good as this one is, I’d wouldn’t recommend trying to copy it. It serves to directly engage the audience and raise a lot of questions to get them reading. This opening is a scene taken directly from the end of the pilot. Let’s look at a few examples to inspire your own writing.įirst, we need to talk about the most referenced one of all time: Breaking Bad. Sure, each medium relies on powerful opening scenes, but television is where you really need to prove yourself right away

#COMEDY PILOT STRUCTURE TV#

They’re a storied and vital part of TV writing that sets it apart from writing movies. The reason all television shows have one is to make sure you don’t change the channel (or the website). They’re the best chance you have to impress someone early on.Īnd that’s not just about the reading for your script. They put us in exactly the right place to want to read/watch more. The reason these starters stand out is that they are short, exciting, and often funny gut-punches. These questions should help you outline the scene at hand, and then also help you figure out how your opening attaches to the rest of the episode. Once you chose which kind you’re going to write, you need to answer three questions. The good old 'you're probably wondering how I got here.' Just when the joke has reached its pinnacle, they break that fourth wall, and let you know you're watching the standby live sketch show. It always uses the line 'Live from New York it's Saturday Night.' as the punchline. In many instances the SNL opening sketch is the one people talk about the most.

You're probably most familiar with the idea as you've experience it in Saturday Night Live. These TV leadoff hitters occur in both drama and comedy pilots. It can set up a problem, or theme for the episode. Sometimes a cold open is also called a “teaser.” Why is it 'cold'? Because there is nothing setting you up. It’s a scene that teases what is to come or is emblematic of the tone of the show to follow. The strict definition is the first few pages of a pilot script. Today we’re going to answer all your questions, and look at some examples, to help you get your pilot started. So it's not easy.īut today we're going to dig deep into this concept to get at what works and why. It's a lot to accomplish in a really short amount of time. Pulling it off is a surefire way to get a viewer hooked from the start, and to communicate a lot of the tone/story without too much legwork. How can you hook the reader and set up the world all at once?

Comedy pilot structure