Comedy/Drama

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First, the assignment:

Choose one of these four:

1)  Propose a new sitcom for network or cable TV.  Provide a title, a one-liner that gives the crux of the continuing concept, and a brief summary (one paragraph) of the continuing concept of the series.  Provide a list of the main characters with their characteristics.  Provide a title, one-liner, and concise synopsis of a sample episode (composed by you, in two acts, with an A plot and a B plot, with a beginning, middle and end).   Write out one scene in standard comedy script format.

2)  Chose an existing TV sitcom. Provide a title, a one-liner that gives the crux of the continuing concept, and a brief summary (one paragraph) of the continuing concept of the series.  Provide a list of the main characters with their characteristics.  Provide a title, one-liner, and concise synopsis of a sample episode (composed by you, in two acts, with an A plot and a B plot, with a beginning, middle and end).   Write out one scene in standard comedy script format.

3)  Propose a new drama series for network, cable or online TV. Provide a title, a one-liner that gives the crux of the continuing concept, and a brief summary (one paragraph) of the continuing concept of the series.  Provide a list of the main characters with their characteristics.  Provide a title, one-liner, and concise synopsis of a sample episode (composed by you, in four acts, with an A plot and a B plot, with a beginning, middle and end).   Write out one scene in standard drama script format.

4)  Chose an existing TV drama series. Provide a title, a one-liner that gives the crux of the continuing concept, and a brief summary (one paragraph) of the continuing concept of the series.  Provide a list of the main characters with their characteristics.  Provide a title, one-liner, and concise synopsis of a sample episode (composed by you, in four acts, with an A plot and a B plot, with a beginning, middle and end).   Write out one scene in standard drama script format.

The suggested length of this assignment is 3-5 pages.  Attach your assignment in MS Word format in an email to grodman@brooklyn.cuny.edu with the file name firstname lastname comedy (1 or 2) or drama (1 or 2).

Either way, you should have the following headings:

  • Program Title:  [Make one up.  We’ll work on it.]
  • Program One-Liner:  [A single, concise, complete sentence describing the theme, motif, appeal or moral of the program.]
  • Program Continuing Concept:  [What happens episode to episode?  What’s the formula?]
  • List of Characters:  [List each regular character with the personality attributes that create conflict with other characters.  Mention backstory briefly if necessary.  If you are introducing a guest character in your episode, explain that here.  Use all the regular characters.]
  • Episode Title:  [This is the title of your original episode for this series.  For a serial drama, it should describe a new and original story arc.]
  • Episode One-Liner:  [A single, concise, complete sentence describing the theme, motif, appeal or moral of your episode.]
  • A Plot One-Liner:  [A single, concise, complete sentence describing the action of your main plot.]
  • B Plot One-Liner:  [One sentence describing what happens in your secondary plot, which deals with a different character or set of characters involved in a different situation.]
  • Brief Description of A and B plots:  [A concise description of the story dealing with your main character or set of characters, and the subplot dealing with a different character, or set of characters.]
  • Brief Description of how the plots unfold in two acts (for sitcom) or four acts (for drama).  [Each act has a beginning, middle and end.  Each act has conflict and rising action.]

Here’s a checklist for your comedy/drama assignment (download as a Word doc here):

  1. Propose a new sitcom or drama for network or cable TV, or chose an existing series. 
  2. After the title, write a one-liner for the show.  This is the basic idea of the show in one well-crafted sentence.   For example, the one-liner for Seinfeld might be “Jerry Seinfeld stars as a fictionalized version of himself as a Manhattan comic.”
  3. Write a brief summary—one or two well-crafted sentences–of the continuing concept of the show, showing the formula of what happens episode to episode.  For example, Wikipedia provides the following description of Seinfeld:  “Set predominantly in an apartment building in Manhattan‘s Upper West Side in New York City, the show features a handful of Jerry’s friends and acquaintances, including best friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander), former girlfriend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and neighbor across the hall Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). It is often described as being ‘a show about nothing,’ as many of its episodes are about the minutiae of daily life.[1]”  Write your own description in your own words, of course.  Cite sources if you quote anything.
  4. List the main characters and give their most important character traits and back story.  Tell us the personality traits that make them funny or dramatic, especially in terms of their interactions with other characters.  Each character description should be concise.  For example, Wikipedia supplies the following character description of Jerry Seinfeld:  “Jerry is a “minor celeb” stand-up comedian who is often depicted as “the voice of reason” amidst the general insanity generated by the people in his world. Jerry is a mild germaphobe and neat freak, as well as an avid Superman, New York Mets and breakfast cereal fan. Jerry’s apartment is the center of a world visited by his eccentric friends.[10]  Do not repeat yourself.  If you told us Jerry is a germaphobe in your program summary, do not tell us again in your character summary.
  5. Devise a title for your own original episode—i.e., one that you create.  It could be a working title.  If it’s not right, we’ll work on it.
  6. Create a one-liner for your original episode.  The one-liner for “The Contest” would be, “Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer have a contest to see who can last the longest without pleasuring themselves.”  (Notice I carefully chose “pleasuring themselves” instead of “masturbating” because “pleasuring themselves” is funnier.)
  7. Write out a separate one-liner for both your A Plot and B Plot—one well-crafted sentence for each.  Your A Plot deals with your main character or set of characters.  Your B plot deals with a different set of characters.  
  8. Write a brief summary for your original episode (including beginning, middle and end).  Your summary should be organized into acts—two acts for a sitcom, four acts for a drama.   Describe the major plot points, scene by scene, as briefly as possible.  It is important that your scene descriptions be concise and well thought out.  Make sure you use all the continuing characters.  (Your actors are all well paid whether you use them or not.)  Do not introduce guest characters unless that is part of the continuing formula of your show.
  9. Script one scene.  Set up the format correctly as per directions and samples.  Character names are centered in all caps, but dialog is not; dialog has a left margin and occupies the middle 3.5” of the page.  Comedy is double-spaced; drama is single-spaced.  
  10. Scene descriptions tell us concisely what and who we see in a single location, on a single set.  
  11. Do not tell your actors how to say their lines—let the lines themselves make that clear.  Craft your dialog carefully so that it is concise and sounds like real conversation, but with the boring parts deleted.  Use distinctive character speech patterns.  
  12. Make sure your sample scene has a beginning, middle and end.  End strong; in comedy, that means with a laugh line.
  13. Attach your assignment in MS Word format in an email to grodman@brooklyn.cuny.edu with the file name firstname lastname comedy (or drama) 1 (or 2) . 
  14. If MS Word messes up your format, you may also include a pdf version as well as the Word version.
  15. Post your work on Blackboard under the appropriate discussion forum.  Respond on that same forum with at least 3 reactions to your classmates’ assignments.

The basic idea for your comedy/drama assignment should be emailed to me and posted online for your classmates.

Ideally, you should tell us what program you’re writing an episode for, and what the A plot and B plot will be.  If you’re inventing your own program, you should also tell us a little bit about the characters.  Then tell us each character’s basic trait.  If it’s a comedy, identify your characters by traits like those described in “The Eight Characters of Sitcom”:

  1. The Logical Smart One – responsible, stable
  2. The Lovable Loser – sarcastic, optimistic, needy, impulsive
  3. The Neurotic – awkward, nervous, controlling, worried
  4. The Dumb One – friendly, naive, gullible, no ulterior motive
  5. The Bitch/Bastard – mean, insensitive, insecure, doesn’t apologize
  6. The Womanizer/Manizer (AKA “Slutty Spice”) – charming, seductive, horny, superficial
  7. The Materialistic One – judgmental, entitled, spoiled
  8. In Their Own Universe (AKA “Spacy Spice”) – odd, eccentric, uses illogical logic

If it’s a drama, tell us who the protagonist and the antagonist are (look up those terms if you’re unfamiliar with them).

For dramatic character types, you might use something like these:

  1. The good guy, a character with a positive moral compass.
  2. The bad guy-maybe a criminal.
  3. The hypocrite.
  4. The goody-goody.
  5. The anti-hero (The Shield, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad) who plays around in moral gray-space.
  6. The geeky character with a heart of gold and questionable social skills who solves problems back at headquarters.
  7. And so on.  Just make it simple.

You also might want to consider Vladamir Propp’s Character Types:

And then tell us the basic idea of the A plot, involving one character or set of characters, and the basic idea of the B plot, which involves another character or set of characters.

You can do all of this is a few carefully-worded sentences.  For example, if your story idea follows life, you might say, “I’m proposing a sitcom based on four college students trapped in their dormitory during a pandemic.  Joy is the street-smart one, the first in her immigrant family to attend college.  Mina is the naive one, who is sweet but continually falls for pranks.  Tyler is the scholar who uses only logic, never emotion.  And Raul is the impulsive one, who is always late.  In our A plot, Joy and Tyler are trying to study for the big online mid-term in Organic Chemistry.   In the B plot, Mina and Raul and looking for ways to entertain themselves.”

Let me know if you have any questions after you’ve read the readings and samples carefully.

Samples (downloadable Word docs)

Here is your reading material for this assignment:

Format:

INT   CLASSROOM   DAY

In as few words as possible, tell us who is in the scene, what they’re doing, and what it looks like.  For example:  A handsome young professor’s image shows in one square of a Zoom screen.  A dozen or so typical college students occupy the other squares.  

Character Name [Centered]

Just to be clear about the dialog format:  The character’s name is centered, but the dialog block itself has a left margin alignment and fits into the center 3.5” of the page.  You have to fool around with your margin setting to make this happen, but the settings are often around 1.2” on the left and .8” on the right, like this:

Prof. Rodman

Set up your comedy dialog block like this.  It is an industry convention that comedy dialog is double spaced, and drama dialog is single-spaced.  Thank you for your attention.

Sitcom Links (Read these even if you’re doing a drama.)

Drama links  (Read these even if you’re doing a sitcom.)

Subtext is content underneath the dialogue. Under dialogue, there can be conflict, anger, competition, pride, showing off, or other implicit ideas and emotions. Subtext is the unspoken thoughts and motives of characters—what they really think and believe.   It is implicit or becomes something understood by the observer of the work as the production unfolds. Subtext can also be used to imply controversial subjects without specifically alienating people from the fiction, often through use of metaphor. Especially in light of their inherently ambiguous and self-referential character, many authors have explicitly used subtexts (or subtexts about subtexts) in humor.