I find myself working on some half hour comedies and hence watching them. In order to understand the half hour, I’ve tried to check in with a variety of series mid-run, rather than watching the pilots. So the next few posts will review what I’ve been watching.
What I’m up to is a quick […]
These are the structural trends emerging from the pilots I’ve read and watched:
Open long.A lot of teases are running very long. Or scripts are eschewing teases altogether and leading off with titles followed by a long act one. Once you get the viewer tuned in, why give them a commercial and let them […]
I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and am now back to tv. I have decided to wait for the final episode of Jekyll before watching ep 5. I’m looking forward to the mini-binge and dreading saying good-bye to the show.
Meanwhile, so much is building up that I may have to […]
Filed in act breaks, curtains, Steven Moffat, tension, Jekyll, Teasers, structure, tv writing, pilot script, pilot scripts, pilots
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I’m almost done with Teasers (for a while at least) but before I move on I thought I might compare Aaron Sorkin’s approach to the opening moments of three different shows: Sports Night, West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
Sports Night was a half hour series so you can’t compare it to […]
Let’s take a quick tour through the opening acts of some of the pilots that aired thus far this year.Traveler is a summer replacement series with a pilot written by David Diglio. It opened with the main titled followed by ten minutes of drama before the first commercial break. These ten minutes are […]
Will Dixon asks:Can you elaborate? Are they still teasers anymore or just Act One’s with a sexy beginning? And where is the title sequence falling in that opening chunk…pre first image? Or after 18 pages/minutes?
Can I elaborate? I was afraid to, lest you think my obsession with these details a little over the top, […]
Filed in Jekyll, Reaper, K-Ville, New Amsterdam, Babylon Fields, Life on Mars, the Sarah Connor Chronicles, Pushing Daisies, Viva Laughlin, structure, The Darlings, Dirty Sexy Money, Teasers, pilots
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I have a bunch of scripts for the pilots that got picked up by the US nets for the fall. I’m still working my way through the reading. But leafing through I’ve noticed a trend toward the beefy opening act.
Sometimes the script labels this section Teaser, sometimes Act One, but by and large […]
The airing of a pilot is your big chance to hook in an audience for your series. In the week or so before broadcast, the show has had it’s launch publicity and tonight’s the night people are going to check it out. And by the time the titles or the first commercial break […]
