Look for inspiration in the people around you - day to day. Make people watching your new hobby; furtively listen in on strangers conversations. Tiny things that other people say can set the grey matter to work creating a character out of thin air.

I was at the gym the other week, and a special needs guy was on the exercise bike next to mine. His carer came to check on him:

Carer: You alright John?

John: Yeah... it's them others.

That's the sort of thing that inspires me to write comedy.
 

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Moomin Papa is BUFF!
 

Quote: jake28 @ May 9 2008, 8:48 PM BST

It;s for a media exam :/

View original

Oh I see, well try this....
http://www.robinkelly.btinternet.co.uk/sitcom1.htm
 

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I'm all woman so don't refer to me as a bloke...ta [juggles]
 

Welcome Jake.

If we had any good ideas we'd do them ourselves.
 

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Playwrite extraordinaire.

http://www.eols.org.uk/
 

Hi Jake. Just to echo what's been said on here earlier - it's characters that make a sitcom, not the location. One of the biggest mistakes beginner writers make is setting their comedy in a dildo-manufacturing plant on Venus or something way-out like that, because they think the location has to be funny. It doesn't.

Look at Open All Hours. Set in a corner shop. Funny? No. But the relationship between Arkwright and Granville is very funny.

Friends. Set in a flat.

Ideal. Set in a flat.

Men Behaving Badly. set in a flat.

Frasier. Set in a flat.

I just wrote a sitcom that's set in a greasy spoon cafe on an industrial estate. Hardly groundbreaking stuff but it's had a decent response.

So for me, it's character first, then the "sit". It may help you to think of a main character's personality traits and then put him in a world where those traits can be explored. So for instance you might have an aristocratic character who's extremely rich and snobby, but loses all his money so he's now forced to live on a council sink estate amongst the chavs and scum. You could call it "The Castle Estate", then you've got a nice snappy title like "King Of The Castle". A decent title always inspires me for some reason (although that one's a bit punny and old-skool BBC but you know what I mean. The point is that by doing it this way, you've got something to work on.

Good luck!
 

As ever Perry the voice of sweet reason. The dialogue, pace, and character defines a soap.

Look at My Hero, he's a superhero! But has there ever been a more pedestrian sitcom?

COntrast to The Young Ones, 4 students in a flat share.

The more prosaic the setting, often the wilder the antics you can get upto.

In Friends you've got 6 chums, who meet at a few locations, who all have different lives.

Myabe Chandler is bullied at work, or Phoebe gets asked to do something dodgy at work what ever. There's multiple sources for story lines to come in.

Where as in My Hero he's a super hero, his wife isn't. Not much mileage left.

The wilder the initial setting, the narrower the options.
 

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The ASDA of satire.
"Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you."� Which is exactly what happened to Winston Smith. His rebellion was not one that was foolish and too outspoken. He silently tried to defeat the Party for his personal happiness, and in the end it cost him everything he had fought for, and his love for Julia. He had learned to love Big Brother, which was his ultimate fear when trying to live a life of individuality. The Party had defeated him.

1984
 

'Where as in My Hero he's a super hero, his wife isn't. Not much mileage left.'

Seemed to work pretty well for Bewitched.
And I dream of Genie.


Interstingly the supernatural/domestic setting of So Haunt Me and My Hero written by P Mendelsson is the same kind of premise - and he has written the Pilot for a new version of Bewitched starring Sheridan Smith.
 

Bewitched and I Dream of Genie

Were both quite convnetional with a twist.

e.g. I dream he's in the airforce, she's a house wife.

Bewitched she's got a huge extended family.

That siad neither were particularlt great shows, when compared with Leave it to Beaver, or the vasrly underrated Green Acres.
 

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The ASDA of satire.
"Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you."� Which is exactly what happened to Winston Smith. His rebellion was not one that was foolish and too outspoken. He silently tried to defeat the Party for his personal happiness, and in the end it cost him everything he had fought for, and his love for Julia. He had learned to love Big Brother, which was his ultimate fear when trying to live a life of individuality. The Party had defeated him.

1984
 

Quote: jake28 @ May 9 2008, 8:48 PM BST

It;s for a media exam :/

View original

Head to the library, borrow a copy of Marc Blake's book, sneak it into the exam with you... top marks coming your way!

(As a side note: how cool a topic for an exam is this! I had to write something dreary about free market economics in the newspaper industry, or something like that - not one chance to mention Basil Fawlty!)
 

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Mark
BSG Editor
 

The Mark Blake book is ace, and it's available as an ebook, I'll post the link when I find it.

Sitcom is a weirdly conservative format.

Conservative, and when successful quite minimalist in structure.
 

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The ASDA of satire.
"Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you."� Which is exactly what happened to Winston Smith. His rebellion was not one that was foolish and too outspoken. He silently tried to defeat the Party for his personal happiness, and in the end it cost him everything he had fought for, and his love for Julia. He had learned to love Big Brother, which was his ultimate fear when trying to live a life of individuality. The Party had defeated him.

1984
 

I think you need a sit first - but what do I know?
 

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Playwrite extraordinaire.

http://www.eols.org.uk/