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CHAPTER 3

PICKING THERIGHT STORY

Bob Ellison had been one of the top writers for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Now he was going to run a brand new sitcom for MTM, the highly respected independent studio that had produced The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Rhoda, Phyllis, WKRP in Cincinnati and a bunch of other hits. I was nervously sitting with him in his office on the MTM lot in Studio City. He was wearing a beautiful cashmere sweater I'm in a T-shirt. Bob was at the zenith of his career; I drove over there in a broken down Volkswagen. He was looking over a spec Mary script that I wrote. “What made you pick this story?” he asked me, kind of bemused, maybe even a little disgusted. I kept thinking, “Any minute now he's going to toss me out of this very swanky office.” So I stammered and said, “I wanted to test the premise of the series.” He looked at the spec script again and then back at me: “So you gave Mary a pimple on her.” (I'd written a script in which the Mary Richards character developed a medical problem that might prevent her from having children.) I shrugged and squirmed in my seat. I was sweating a river into my shorts. Maybe it was a poor choice for a story idea. Maybe it was offensive. I was just trying to get somebody's attention so I could get a job. Mr. Ellison said that even though he NEVER would have written a script with a story like mine, and even though what I had written was entirely inappropriate for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and was even in questionable taste, he was nonetheless impressed by how skillfully I told the story. He read the whole script because he was dying to know how the story came out. He hired me to work on his new show.

STORY IS EVERYTHING

Whether you're writing a novel or a play or a comic book or a spec episode of a sitcom, the STORY is what holds the reader's attention. It isn't the jokes or the snappy banter between characters. It's the STORY! The story is what keeps them reading. If the reader is dying to know what happens next in your story, he's going to continue turning the pages. If he's bored by the story, he's going to drop your script in the nearest blue bin.

I want you to have fun writing your script! Writers create their best work when they are enjoying themselves. Forget suffering for your art! Writing sitcoms should be fun! If you can't wait to get to the computer every day, you'll feel more confident, and you'll end up with a much better spec script. A good story is ALWAYS the difference between a script that is fun to write and one that is a chore.

Too many of the writers with whom I have worked have not understood the importance of story. Too many have thought they could fake their way through a script with jokes and sight gags. This never works. Without the right story, you always end up stuck. Your scenes aren't funny. The writing process becomes laborious. You avoid working on your script or give up altogether. With the right story, your spec script is going to be easy and fun to write.

THE RIGHT STORY IS IN FRONT OF YOU!

Think about the series you've chosen to spec. You've seen it a million times. You know it inside and out. But so far, you may have only watched the series as entertainment. There was never any reason to analyze it. Now you need to start picking this series apart. Your analysis will lead you to the right story.

Your goal is to write an episode that sounds like the series you have chosen to spec.

If your spec script sounds like the actual series, this suggests to people in Hollywood that you have the skills to write for TV. Writing for TV involves taking someone else's premise and someone else's characters and reproducing that premise and those characters in the same way that the series' creator would. If you're writing Seinfeld, you have to write like Larry David. Now, no one can do this perfectly. Only Larry David can write like Larry David. But you can learn how to get really close. Close enough to start working on sitcoms!

The right story is the key ingredient to making your spec script sound like the series. If your story is consistent with the series, then the characters will be able to speak and behave as they do on the real show. Everything about your script will fall magically into place. It will. I've been doing this for thirty years, and I can tell you without fear of contradiction that the story is the linchpin of any good sitcom episode.

So with all this build up, which story should you tell?

Don't worry. The right story is there in front of you. I promise.

WRITE TO THE PREMISE

Every situation comedy has a premise, a framework within which the characters were created and the stories are told. The premise, this framework, is also known as the situation. Thus the term situation comedy. It's a comedy about a situation. Well, what's the situation? What's the premise? What's the framework? Understanding the premise will help guide you to the right story.

What was the premise of Everybody Loves Raymond?

Raymond was about a married guy who lived across the street from his meddling mother. On Everybody Loves Raymond, they wrote a lot of “meddling mother” stories. That was the premise that the series was set up to explore.

Look at the title: Everybody Loves Raymond. Was that a joke or did they mean it? As I watched this series over the years, I decided that everyone did love Raymond. Ray was a nice guy. Ray lived across the street from his parents because they loved him, and he loved them. Ray's wife, Debra, loved him. Even Ray's brother, Robert, loved him.

So where did the comedy come from? Ray's mother, Marie, meddled in his marriage, which angered Ray's wife, Debra. Ray got caught in the middle of conflict between his mother and his wife. That was part of the premise, too. Ray was also a bit of a mama's boy. His mother, Marie, doted on Ray, and Ray liked it. But Marie's doting made Ray's brother, Robert, jealous. Ray often ended up in the middle of conflict between his mother and Robert. Ray's father was cantankerous and his parents bickered. Ray often ended up in the middle of conflict between his mother and father.

So the premise of Everybody Loves Raymond might be more thoroughly stated as: “The not always successful efforts of a somewhat immature but well-intentioned man to live in peace with his formidable wife, his doting but meddling mother, his jealous and insecure brother, and his cantankerous father.”

If I was writing a spec episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, and I wanted to demonstrate with my script that I understood the series and the characters, then I would write to the premise. I would write to the heart of the series. I'd come up with a story for my spec episode that involved a family conflict — a problem — which exploited all of the well-known traits of the regular characters. I'd make sure that Marie meddled somehow in Raymond's life. I'd make sure that Debra got upset over Marie's meddling. I'd make sure that Robert got jealous of Ray. I'd make sure that Frank was cantankerous. And I'd stick Raymond in the middle of all of it.

What's the premise of the series you have chosen to spec?

Think about it for a while and then jot down the premise as I did for Raymond. Try to be as specific as you can in describing what the series is really about. This will lead you to the right story for your spec script.

Was Seinfeld really a “show about nothing”? Of course not. Seinfeld was about a very likeable but immature, anal, selfish, single, stand-up comedian named Jerry and his three equally likeable, immature, selfish, single friends. Seinfeld was about adult children (Jerry and Elaine were slightly more functional than George or Kramer) avoiding the emotional toll of a mature life — real relationships, real careers, real responsibilities — through childish goals, petty disagreements, adolescent competitions and obsessing about minutiae.

When you really lay out the premise of Seinfeld it's obviously a show about something, and that something is pretty easy to see. To write to the premise of Seinfeld, you'd want to explore the immaturity, selfishness and dysfunction of the characters through some minor and commonplace issue like chipping in for a wedding gift or waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant.

Once you completely understand the premise of the series that you have chosen to spec, start thinking about a story area that exploits the premise.

WRITE THE MAIN CHARACTER

A spec script for a situation comedy should always be about the Main Character of the series.

Why?

Because writing about the Main Character is the best way for you to demonstrate that you understand the entire series.

Most of the stories on any sitcom evolve from the premise of the series and from the personality of the Main Character.

If I were writing a spec episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, I would write a story about Ray's meddling mother, his formidable wife, his jealous brother and his cantankerous father, but I would make the focus of the story about Ray. Ray has to solve some personal problem or family conflict that involves all or most of the other characters. Ray solves the problem in a way that is consistent with his established personality on the series.

It's rare to find a series that does not have a Main Character. The only one I can think of recently was Friends. But Friends is over now, so you won't be specing that series anyway. Even if the series you have chosen is an ensemble like Scrubs, you should create a story that is centered on the Main Character, J.D.

Writing a story about the Main Character on a sitcom reassures someone who is reading your spec script that you understand the series you have chosen. If you demonstrate a clear understanding of the series you have chosen, it suggests that you will likely understand another series just as well.

I caution you against creating a story about a supporting character on the series you have chosen. The best spec script is one that demonstrates your strong grasp of the entire series. You'll best demonstrate your grasp of the entire series by writing a story about the Main Character. Let the supporting characters play a supporting role in your story.

Since your story is going to be about your Main Character, take a minute to think about what kind of person your Main Character is. This will give you another important clue about what story to tell.

The right story will spring from an aspect of the Main Character's personality.

Lucy was an eccentric character, wasn't she? She was bigger than life. Lucy created problems for herself and for the people around her. She was a schemer and a plotter. If you were writing a spec episode of I Love Lucy, you'd have Lucy plotting and scheming to get something she wants, wouldn't you? Your story would likely spring from that powerful aspect of Lucy's character.

I remember seeing an ad for an episode of The King of Queens. The blurb read: “Doug discovers that Carrie is buying his clothes from the Big and Tall Shop.” Embarrassed about his weight, Doug goes on a diet.

Here's an actual story from a hit series that springs directly from an aspect of the Main Character's personality. Doug was an overweight guy. His wife was trying to buy him clothes that would fit and be comfortable, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings by telling him that the clothes came from the Big and Tall Shop. This struck me as an organic story for The King of Queens and an excellent example of how to use aspects of the Main Character's personality as a source of stories.

For your spec sitcom episode, think about who your Main Character is. You've been watching the series for a while. You know it very well. Try to think of a story that exploits the series premise and springs from some interesting aspect of the Main Character's personality.

If you have an ACTIVE Main Character like Lucy, you'd think about a goal for Lucy. You'd think of something that Lucy would want based on her personality. Then you'd create an obstacle keeping Lucy from obtaining her goal. If Lucy wanted a new hat, you'd give her a good reason for feeling that she needed a new hat. Maybe Lucy's rival, Caroline Appleby, just got a new hat, and was flaunting it in front of Lucy, making Lucy jealous. Now Lucy feels that she must have a new hat to keep up with Caroline Appleby. The obstacle to getting a new hat might be money. Lucy spent her allowance, and Ricky won't give her any more money. Because of her scheming personality, Lucy concocts a plot to get the money for the hat. The plot somehow backfires, getting Lucy into even more trouble.

An Active Main Character usually wants something that improves his or her status: a new car or a better job or a starring role in the community play. Active Main Characters will then move heaven and earth to achieve their goal, inevitably getting themselves into even more trouble.

Examples of Active Main Characters are Christine on The New Adventures of Old Christine, Michael Scott on The Office, and Earl Hickey on My Name Is Earl.

If you have a REACTIVE Main Character like Ray Barone, you'll want to put your Main Character in a troublesome dilemma or an embarrassing situation.

If Lucy was the quintessential Active Main Character, Bob Newhart may have been the classic Reactive Main Character. The persona that Bob Newhart created for himself as a comedian was that of an ordinary, self- conscious man stuck in an eccentric world. Most Reactive Main Characters, like Ray Barone, have similar personalities. Reactive Main Characters are often the voice of reason as chaos swirls around them.

Katherine Greene wrote a wonderful episode of Newhart in which Bob's character, Dick Loudon, discovers that there is a body buried in the basement of his Vermont inn. It was an embarrassing situation for Dick, who had to figure out what to do about the corpse before his guests found out. The problem wasn't Dick's fault, but he had to solve it in order to stay in business.

This story sprang organically from the personality of the Main Character. Dick was a responsible guy. What can we do to make the eccentric outside world intrude on Dick's orderly existence and embarrass him?

We'll put a body in his basement.

A Reactive Main Character is a problem solver. Reactive Main Characters usually have to fix a problem or resolve a conflict. Reactive Main Characters are well-meaning, but their attempts at making things better usually make things even worse.

Examples of Reactive Main Characters are Ted on How I Met Your Mother, Charlie Harper on Two and a Half Men, and Chris on Everybody Hates Chris.

Decide whether the Main Character on the series you have chosen to spec is an Active or a Reactive Main Character. Write down as many aspects of the Main Character's personality as you can think of. In your mind, go through as many episodes as you can. Write down a synopsis of each story. Use the series' website to help you remember. Think about how aspects of the Main Character's personality have already combined with the premise of the series to create stories for actual episodes, like the “Big and Tall” episode of The King of Queens. Think about which aspect of your Main Character's personality you might like to explore in a story.

See how logical this all is?

We're already narrowing down the possible story areas for your spec episode. You're going to create a story that exploits the premise of the series and centers on the Main Character. You're going to use an interesting aspect of your Main Character's personality as a springboard for your story.

WRITE THE FORMULA

The next step in developing your story is to think about the episodes you've watched on the series you have chosen to spec and identify the FORMULA.

All sitcoms have a formula. The episodes are about basically the same issues every week. This isn't because the writers are lazy or unimaginative. It's because after you produce a few episodes of a new series, you discover what works and what doesn't. You go with what works.

On Gilligan's Island the formula was the castaways' repeated failed attempts at getting rescued. One only has to watch one or two episodes of Gilligan's Island to understand that simple formula. Each week, the castaways have some chance of getting rescued. They work hard to achieve their goal. Then Gilligan's bumbling thwarts all their efforts.

Many episodes of Frasier revolved around Frasier's snobbery and social climbing. Frasier was always trying to improve his status by chasing after some elusive goal. The producers of Frasier also loved to do farce. They would often build to a climax that found the characters frantically running in and out of doors.

When I was producing Coach, we realized fairly quickly that our series worked best when we followed the formula of classic series like The Honeymooners and All in the Family. Hayden Fox was an Active Main Character similar in personality to Ralph Cramden of The Honeymooners and to Archie Bunker of All in the Family. Hayden was a schemer like Ralph, who frequently concocted elaborate plots to achieve a particular goal. Hayden also got himself into trouble because of his pride and prejudice, much like Archie Bunker.

Barry Kemp's premise for Coach initially revolved around the ethical compromises that a football coach makes in order to win.

Our Main Character, Hayden Fox, was an ambitious, competitive man trying to succeed at an undistinguished school. Hayden suffered from moral lapses all the time in his attempts to achieve success.

The formula for Coach evolved from the way in which the premise of the series combined with the personality of the Main Character to produce stories. Hayden was often chasing after some goal to improve his football program. He'd try to recruit a star player or curry favor with the college administration.

Title card from hit series, Coach.

Here's an example of an episode of Coach that followed the formula: Hayden Fox learns in the first scene that Minnesota State's biggest booster, Earl Rizendough, has just died. Hayden exhibits some genuine grief for a few seconds, then reminds his assistant coaches, Luther and Dauber, that Earl promised to leave millions of dollars to the athletic program when he died. With that money, the school can now build a state-of-the-art sports center which will improve the football program. Hayden can hardly wait to collect the money.

In the next scene, Hayden brings in drawings of the new sports center, counting his chickens before they hatch. He then learns that the rich booster's widow wants to give the money to medical research. Instead of graciously respecting the widow's wishes, Hayden feels cheated. He's furious. He's a competitive guy who wants to win, but he coaches at an obscure school. A new sports center will help him recruit better players. Giving in to his ego, pride, and ambition, Hayden decides he'll go see the rich widow and “recruit” her into giving him the money he was promised.

The widow turns out to be a tough nut. She doesn't like Hayden. She doesn't like football. His clumsy attempts at sympathy for her situation fail to hide his greed. He suggests that her grief is clouding her thinking. Hayden's insensitive presumption alienates the widow even further. She tells Hayden that he has no idea how it feels to lose a loved one. Hayden, desperate by now for the money that he feels is rightfully his, lies and tells the widow that his wife died. He lies more and claims that he has been raising his daughter all alone for many years. (Hayden is actually divorced and was an absent father for most of his daughter's childhood. The audience knows this. They're in on the joke.) The widow softens when she believes that Hayden is a selfless widower. It looks like Hayden will get his money. The widow invites Hayden to come for dinner and bring his daughter. She'll give him the money then.

In Act Two, Hayden has to talk to his daughter, Kelly. He doesn't want to lose Kelly's respect and look like a jerk, but he has to ask her to lie for him. She is furious with him when she hears the fib that he told. “You killed Mom?!” But he pleads with her. He admits that he's done a questionable thing. But coaching is so hard. He needs this money to build the sports center. He was supposed to have it. It isn't fair. Can't she just help him out? Out of sympathy for her father, Kelly agrees to go through with the charade.

As father and daughter are about to leave for the dinner, Hayden suddenly has a change of heart. He can't ask his daughter to go through with the lie.

Hayden shows up for the dinner alone and confesses his lie. The widow is appalled. He tries to get her to understand, but she can't. He loses the money and the sports center. But at least he did the right thing and kept the respect of his daughter.

Everything that Coach was about as a series was contained in that one episode. The story sprang from Barry Kemp's original premise about the ethical compromises that a coach must make, and from the personality of the Active Main Character. The premise and the personality of the Main Character combined to produce the series formula.

Carefully watch the series you have chosen for your spec script. Identify the formula for the stories. The formula is the particular way in which stories evolve from the premise of the series and from the personality of the Main Character. You'll want to use that same formula to develop your story. This isn't cheating. It isn't you being lazy or unoriginal. It isn't you prostituting yourself to a bunch of hackneyed clichés. Everybody Loves Raymond had a formula. So did Cheers and Seinfeld and Friends and Sex and the City.

THE PAINTS ARE ALREADY IN THE TRAY

In using the premise, the personality of the Main Character, and the formula as guidelines for constructing your story, you are using the paints that are already in the tray. You are demonstrating that you understand this series, and therefore are capable of understanding other series.

Remember, you want to write an episode that sounds like the series you have chosen to spec. The best way to do that is to figure out what the writers of that series are already up to, and play by their rules.

You now have the most important guidelines that I can give you for constructing the right story for your spec sitcom episode. It's all logical:

Define the premise of the series you have chosen to spec.

Define the personality of the Main Character. Is he or she an Active or Reactive Main Character?

What aspect of the Main Character's personality would you like to explore in a story?

How can the personality of the Main Character and the premise of the series combine to produce a story idea?

While you're thinking about all of that, let me give you a few more tips on developing the right story for your spec sitcom episode. These tips are based on my experience writing a number of spec sitcom scripts and from reading literally hundreds of them over the course of my career.

DON'T REINVENT

As the producer of a TV series, you get all kinds of crazy spec scripts in which Jerry Seinfeld goes to medical school or Ross becomes a woman. Stories like that change the series into another series. Don't write stuff like that. Spec scripts that are that loopy probably won't get past the gate keepers anyway, but if a script like that does somehow make it to the production offices of a sitcom, do you know what happens? Someone, probably a writers' assistant, eventually reads it. The script then gets circulated around the office as a joke. It is laughed at by everyone, and then the pages are tossed in the recycle bin.

Say you were writing a spec Friends. You wouldn't write an episode in which Chandler flies on the Space Shuttle. Why not? Because Chandler wasn't an astronaut! If you make Chandler into an astronaut, even for one episode, you are reinventing the series. You may not be sure what Chandler's job actually was, but we all know that he didn't work for NASA.

You might say at this point, “But I want my spec script to be special and memorable. I want Chandler to fly in the Space Shuttle. I have it all planned out where Chandler accidentally substitutes for his friend who is an astronaut, and he's floating inside the Space Shuttle, and Phoebe is talking to him on the radio from Houston, and it's really, really, really funny. I think the producers of Friends would much rather read a script that shows some originality!”

Originality is great! But altering the reality of the series is not being original. It's just ignoring the premise, the personality of the Main Character, and the formula. You want your spec script to demonstrate how well you understand the series as it is, not how far you carry it away from its roots.

DON'T BREAK NEW GROUND

Don't marry J.D. to Elliot in a spec script. Don't have Alan Harper move out of Charlie's Malibu beach house, even if it's just temporary. Don't take the characters to places they have never been or where the series would never go in an effort to be unusual. If the series is going to break new ground, the producers will handle it. They don't want gigantic new ideas coming in from outside.

NO NEW CHARACTERS

Don't add important new characters that have never been in the series before.

If you were writing a spec Two and a Half Men, you wouldn't add Charlie and Alan's mystery sister who has been in the Army but was never mentioned until now. You could certainly give Charlie and Alan a new neighbor or even a temporary girlfriend, but not some new family member. Adding a major new character like that changes the whole balance of the series. The producers would think long and hard before they took a step that large. It's not your place to do that. Your job is to prove how well you can write the characters that already exist.

Use the paints that are already in the tray. Demonstrate your creativity, your writing skill and your knowledge of the series by utilizing the familiar elements of that series in a new and interesting way.

USE THE REGULAR SETS

Don't send the cast of How I Met Your Mother to Las Vegas. Not in a spec script. The producers of that series may someday decide to write a Las Vegas episode, or one that takes place in Hawaii, but those episodes are special. They are usually “sweeps” episodes designed for extra promotional value at certain times of the season. Again, your job with a spec script is to show how well you understand the series as it is. Your job is to tell a story within the parameters of the series, and that includes the regular sets.

TEST THE PREMISE

I wrote a spec M*A*S*H episode that got me a freelance assignment to write an actual M*A*S*H episode. To make my spec episode special, I decided to “test the premise.”

I wanted to make my spec M*A*S*H stand out, so I asked myself, “What is M*A*S*H really about every week?” I was defining the premise for my spec script as I've asked you to do for your spec script. I decided that the premise of M*A*S*H had at least something to do with the irony of saving lives in the middle of a war. All the regular characters were doctors and nurses. They were in a war trying to sew together soldiers who had been maimed in that war. That was the premise from which the series worked. Then I asked myself about the personality of the Main Character. Hawkeye Pierce was an Active Main Character. He could be a plotter and a schemer. He was rebellious. He didn't want to be there. He was a great surgeon, and he saved a lot of lives. Hawkeye was so skilled and dedicated that his commanding officer put up with a lot of insubordination. Hawkeye was appalled by the war. He was a healer and a life-saver, not a soldier or a killer.

How could I combine the premise of the series with the personality of the Main Character and come up with an original story that M*A*S*H had never told? I thought about it for a while, and then I asked myself, What if I “test the premise”? I wasn't going to reinvent the series. I was going to use the paints that were already in the tray, but I was going to push the envelope.

To test the premise, I established in the opening scenes that Hawkeye had just pulled a horrendous shift, twenty-four hours in the O.R. without a break, one wounded soldier after another. When he finally is relieved, Hawkeye is exhausted. He staggers from the O.R., trying to get to his cot across the compound. It's the middle of the night. No one is around. Suddenly, a gun shot rings out. Hawkeye dives for cover. He's exhausted and scared to death, as anyone would be. More shots are heard. Hawkeye is joined by Col. Flagg. Flagg was a gung-ho CIA guy who hated Hawkeye. Flagg was the opposite of Hawkeye. Flagg loved the war. Flagg tells Hawkeye there's a sniper in the compound, probably some rogue North Korean soldier. Flagg shoves a pistol into Hawkeye's hand. Hawkeye refuses, but Flagg won't take the gun back. Flagg tells Hawkeye to keep low. Flagg runs off to try to catch the sniper. Hawkeye wants no part of this gun, but suddenly bullets are striking all around him. It's as if the sniper has seen Hawkeye and made him the target. The sniper is closing in. Hawkeye tries to escape, but the sniper has found him. Now Hawkeye is joined by a nurse. She is scared to death, too. The shots are raining down on Hawkeye and the nurse. Hawkeye and the nurse are going to die! It's up to Hawkeye to save them. In a moment of exhaustion, survival instinct and pure panic, Hawkeye points the gun blindly into the dark and fires. The shot miraculously finds its mark. Hawkeye hits the sniper. In later scenes, Hawkeye insists on operating on the sniper that he shot. He tries to save the sniper's life, but he can't. The sniper dies. Hawkeye is devastated.

Funny, huh?

This was an unusually dramatic episode, but the story tested the premise of M*A*S*H. Hawkeye, the healer, takes a life in order to save his own and that of a nurse. He defends himself in an attack, thus abandoning, for a moment, his pacifist beliefs. He gets a taste of what soldiers go through, and maybe now he'll be a little less judgmental and self-righteous.

The producers of M*A*S*H didn't buy my spec script. That almost never happens. Don't think for a moment that you will ever sell your spec Two and a Half Men to the producers of that show. You won't. But by testing the premise with my spec M*A*S*H about the sniper, I got the attention of the producers of M*A*S*H.

I didn't reinvent the series. I used the premise, the personality of the Main Character and the formula. I didn't introduce any important new characters. I used the regular sets. I used the paints that were already in the tray. I didn't go exploring outside the boundaries of the series, but I did push the envelope.

That spec script got me a job writing an actual episode of M*A*S*H.

WRITE IT REAL

A story works best when it's believable, even on a sitcom, especially on a sitcom! You know why? You're trying to be funny. Comedy works best when it's grounded in reality. Characters are funniest and most compelling when they behave as real human beings.

Once you feel the inkling of a story for your spec sitcom script, I think it's worth a minute of your time to stop and give this question some thought: IS IT REAL?

Am I telling a story that sounds plausible, not only for this particular sitcom, but plausible in terms of human behavior?

Does Chandler going up in the Space Shuttle really sound very convincing? Whether Friends would have done an episode like this or not (and they wouldn't), is it believable that anybody who isn't an astronaut would end up on the Space Shuttle? I don't think so. You buy yourself a lot of problems later on when you stray too far from what is believable just for the sake of some jokes. Jokes will never sustain you when reality has been tossed out the window.

Sitcoms can be pretty silly. How many times have you watched an episode of a sitcom and thought, “Man, this is pretty dumb,” or “No one I know would ever act like that”?

I don't know about you, but the comedy series that I admired most were the ones that seemed the most real. I respected The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, Barney Miller and Cheers. I aspired to write as well as those series were written.

I also loved The Munsters. Here was a domestic comedy in which all of the regular characters except one were monsters. Main Character Herman Munster was Frankenstein. His wife, Lily, was Vampira. His father-in-law, Grandpa, was Count Dracula and his son, Eddie, was a mini wolf man. I think The Munsters was one of the funniest series ever. I think that within the boundaries of the universe in which The Munsters operated, the series was real. You can be outlandish, even silly, even broad and slapstick, and still be real.

What is “real”?

I remember an episode of The Munsters in which Herman's old army unit was getting together for a reunion. Herman tried on his uniform, and it no longer fit. Sounds pretty believable, doesn't it? Sounds like that episode of The King of Queens. Herman wanted to drop a few pounds before the reunion. Thousands of people have found themselves in the same predicament. You've got a wedding coming up or a high school or college reunion, and suddenly you're calling Jenny Craig. Herman went on a diet. There was just one complication, one obstacle standing in the way of Herman achieving his goal. The reunion was scheduled for right after Thanksgiving. That meant no Thanksgiving feast for Herman. Herman first tried to use will power, but he couldn't control his appetite. Sounds like a very real and believable story, doesn't it? Taking this very normal-sounding story into the universe of The Munsters, Grandpa strapped Herman down on a table in the dungeon while the family went out to a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. Herman, crazed with hunger, broke out of his restraints and staggered through the neighborhood, just like Frankenstein's monster, looking for a meal. It was silly, it was broad, it was slapstick, but it was real!

Chandler going up on the Space Shuttle isn't real, because something like that would never happen within the universe of Friends. Herman Munster breaking his chains and roaming crazed through the neighborhood looking for turkey was well within the universe of The Munsters. A story about a man dieting because of vanity is grounded in reality. A story about a yuppie Manhattanite ending up on the Space Shuttle isn't. See what I mean?

When characters stop acting like real people, you take the audience right out of your story. Even when you're writing a sitcom, your audience has to care. They have to feel that what is happening is believable. They must be concerned that things are going to turn out right for the Main Character. This is called ROOTING INTEREST, and you must keep it alive in every scene. It's just like in baseball. The crowd has to be rooting for the home team or no one is going to stick around for the ninth inning. Whether your Main Character is Jerry Seinfeld or Frasier Crane or Herman Munster, if the audience stops caring about what happens to him, you've lost them. Audiences stop caring when they stop believing. Audiences stop believing when the action isn't real.

Herman Munster on a diet is believable. Chandler on the Space Shuttle isn't believable.

After you've decided on an area for your story, stop and ask yourself, “Is this real?” If you aren't sure, ask someone else. Ask your roommate or your girlfriend or boyfriend or your writing teacher. If you pitch them your story and they scrunch up their face, you may need to rethink your idea.

SEE HOW EASY THAT WAS?

You now have some logical guidelines to help you pick the right story for your spec episode. If you look back over the chapter, you have really narrowed it down. You don't have to pluck a story from thin air. You will have to come up with the actual idea that you are going to develop for your spec sitcom episode on your own, but you have your knowledge of the premise of the series to help you. You have your knowledge of the personality of the Main Character. You have your knowledge of the series formula. Your combined knowledge of all these important elements gives you a solid foundation for developing the right story for your spec script.

CHAPTER RECAP — THE ELEPHANT REMEMBERS

The right story for your spec sitcom script is in front of you!

A simple roadmap already exists to lead you to the right story. Define for yourself as completely as possible the premise of the series you have chosen to spec. What's it really about every week? What common themes seem to recur in every episode? Is your series about how proud, chauvinistic Dad needs to learn a lesson in cooperation every week, as on The Bernie Mac Show? Or is your series about an immature and neurotic divorced woman trying desperately to prove that she can manage her own life, as on The New Adventures of Old Christine? The more clearly you can define the premise of your series, the easier it will be for you to write to the premise in your spec sitcom script.

You'll want to do some serious thinking about the Main Character. Who is this guy or gal really? Does your series have an Active or a Reactive Main Character? What are the aspects of the Main Character's personality that makes him or her fun to watch? Why do you like this person? What makes you root for the Main Character to succeed?

You'll want to do some work figuring out the formula of the series you have chosen. Review episodes of the series and notice how the personality of the Main Character combines with the premise of the series to create stories. Is your Main Character an eccentric nut who constantly gets himself or herself into jams pursuing some elusive goal? The New Adventures of Old Christine.

Or is your Main Character a pretty stable person who seems to get stuck solving problems for his or her eccentric family and friends? Everybody Loves Raymond.

In developing your story, use the paints that are already in the tray. Leave the series the way it is and work with what you've already got.

Try testing the premise. See if you can come up with a story that really goes to the heart of what the series is about.

You already know and love the series you have chosen to spec. What story would you most like to tell using these characters and this premise? I'll bet you have a special insight into your favorite series. Can you share that insight in a story?

YOUR “TO DO” LIST

1) Clearly and completely define the premise of the series you have chosen. The premise of any series is the central problem that the characters are trying to work out. The Friends pursued careers and love in an attempt to find their place in the adult world. On The Brady Bunch, Carol Ann and Michael Brady were trying to successfully blend their two families. On The Office, the characters endure the stifling boredom and petty rivalries of the work place. On My Name Is Earl, a former loser is trying to right all the wrongs he has committed in his life. (This is one of the simplest and clearest premises ever for a sitcom, and therefore runs the risk of becoming tiresome.) What is the central problem that the characters on your series are trying to work out? Your spec story should involve the characters in addressing that central problem.

2) Clearly and completely define your Main Character. Is it hard to tell if your Main Character is Active or Reactive? Sometimes it is. The best way I've found to answer that question is to rephrase it: Is your Main Character creating the hubbub in this week's episode or trying to fix it? Try to list as many aspects of your Main Character's personality as you can remember. These are the springboards to your story. What aspects of your Main Character's personality get him or her into trouble every week? Is he or she jealous, competitive, selfish, immature, controlling, lazy, neurotic, naïve, outspoken, dumb, horny? In which situations have you most enjoyed watching your Main Character? When he or she is in a jam? When he or she is pulling off a scam? When he or she is knocked down a peg? When he or she is an underdog?

3) Clearly and completely define the formula of the series you have chosen. How does the premise of the series combine with the personality of the Main Character to generate stories? Ray Barone's easy-going nature came into constant conflict with his meddling mother and his formidable wife. Bernie Mac's “I'm the king of my castle” attitude was regularly challenged and derailed by the needs and demands of his wife and children. Michael Scott's immaturity, selfishness and irresponsibility create endless new problems for everyone at The Office. The right story for your spec episode will evolve from the unique way in which you combine the premise of the series with the personality of your Main Character.

4) As you zero in on the story you want to tell, ask yourself, “Is it real?”