| Introduction | p. xv |
| Writing Premise-Driven Comedy | |
| The Game Plan | p. 3 |
| Career Paths | p. 4 |
| Getting Started | p. 7 |
| First, Some Theory | p. 9 |
| The Mechanics of Laughter | p. 9 |
| Characteristics of Comedy | p. 11 |
| The importance of Tension | p. 16 |
| Putting Theory into Practice | p. 18 |
| Seamless Humor | p. 18 |
| Consistency | p. 19 |
| Comedy Output | p. 19 |
| The Traditional Approach to Sitcom Writing | p. 20 |
| Level One: Premise-Driven Comedy | p. 22 |
| A Different Approach: Comedy in the Story Premise | p. 23 |
| Predicaments | p. 25 |
| Character Mix | p. 31 |
| Style of Comedy | p. 36 |
| Casting | p. 40 |
| Level Two: Comedy in Sequences and Scenes | p. 42 |
| Compound Story Predicaments | p. 43 |
| Stir Up the Character Mix | p. 44 |
| Mix and Match | p. 44 |
| Three Things to Remember | p. 45 |
| Level Three: Comedy in Dialogue and Actions | p. 47 |
| Building Jokes | p. 48 |
| Setups | p. 48 |
| Punchlines | p. 57 |
| Funny Actions | p. 65 |
| Miscellaneous Comedy Tips | p. 69 |
| About All of These Labels | p. 71 |
| Finding Your Comedic Voice | p. 72 |
| Writing a Professional Script | |
| Doing Your Homework | p. 77 |
| Which Series to Pick | p. 79 |
| Researching the Series | p. 81 |
| Studying the Premise | p. 82 |
| Developing an Episode Premise | p. 87 |
| Advice from Our Producers | p. 87 |
| Dreaming Up Stories | p. 88 |
| Picking Your Best Ideas | p. 90 |
| Turning Ideas into Springboards | p. 92 |
| High-Concept Stories | p. 94 |
| Developing the Story | p. 96 |
| Creating a Beat Sheet | p. 97 |
| Story Structure: Linear vs. Thread | p. 99 |
| Story Threads vs. Subplots vs. Ensemble Stories | p. 101 |
| Stories Without Endings | p. 102 |
| Serialized Stories (Story Arcs) | p. 103 |
| Dramatic Structure vs. Broadcast Format | p. 104 |
| Story Tips | p. 106 |
| Comedy's Impact on Story | p. 109 |
| How the Production Process Affects Your Script | p. 110 |
| Nail the Story, the Rest is Easy | p. 113 |
| Creating Funny Characters | p. 115 |
| Remember the Mix | p. 117 |
| Character Arcs | p. 117 |
| Character Types | p. 118 |
| Visiting Characters | p. 122 |
| Writing An Outline | p. 125 |
| Writing to Sell, Not Educate | p. 126 |
| Building an Outline | p. 127 |
| How it Should Look on Paper | p. 130 |
| Stylistic Tips | p. 135 |
| Rewriting an Outline | p. 138 |
| Advice from Our Producers | p. 139 |
| Writing the First Draft | p. 142 |
| Just Do It | p. 142 |
| Writing Scenes | p. 143 |
| Harvesting Comedy Built into the Premise and Scene Levels | p. 147 |
| Professional Script Format | p. 147 |
| Writing Scene Descriptions | p. 148 |
| Writing Dialogue | p. 151 |
| Miscellaneous Tips | p. l55 |
| Planting Exposition | p. 157 |
| Advice from Our Producers | p. 159 |
| When That First Draft is Finished | p. 162 |
| Rewriting the Script | p. 164 |
| When Rewriting by Yourself | p. 169 |
| Advice from Our Producers | p. 171 |
| Once the Script is Finished | p. 172 |
| A Battle Plan for Launching Your Career | |
| Step One: Developing a Strategy | p. 177 |
| The Job Market | p. 177 |
| How the Writer Fits In | p. 180 |
| A Writer's Workweek | p. 182 |
| Writing is a Business | p. 185 |
| Ageism | p. 186 |
| Putting Food on the Table | p. 186 |
| Must You Live in Los Angeles? | p. 189 |
| Step Two: Landing an Agent and/Or Manager | p. 191 |
| Developing a Hit List | p. 194 |
| Before Picking Up the Phone | p. 201 |
| Prepare a Phone Spiel | p. 203 |
| Making the Call | p. 205 |
| Submitting Your Material | p. 208 |
| Testing the Waters if You Don't Live in LA. | p. 209 |
| Following Up on Submissions | p. 211 |
| If you Fail to Land Representation | p. 212 |
| You Get an Offer! | p. 214 |
| Signing the Contract | p. 215 |
| Once You've Signed with Someone | p. 217 |
| Step Three: Getting Your Work Out There | p. 218 |
| Scouting the Market | p. 218 |
| Hiring Windows | p. 220 |
| Working with Your Rep | p. 222 |
| Which Scripts to Send | p. 223 |
| Being Picky about Jobs | p. 223 |
| Cold-Calling Producers | p. 224 |
| Other Strategies for Reaching Producers | p. 225 |
| Keep Writing | p. 228 |
| Writing in Teams | p. 229 |
| Rejection | p. 230 |
| Dealing with Writer's Block | p. 230 |
| Protecting Your Work | p. 231 |
| Who Keeps the Copyright? | p. 234 |
| The Writers Guild of America | p. 235 |
| Step Four: Pitching for Assignments | p. 239 |
| The Call Comes In! | p. 240 |
| Preparing for the Pitch | p. 240 |
| The Pitch | p. 243 |
| Advice from Our Producers | p. 245 |
| What Might Happen | p. 248 |
| The Contract | p. 250 |
| The Money | p. 252 |
| Step Five: Landing a Staff Job | p. 254 |
| Becoming a Staff Writer | p. 254 |
| Office Politics | p. 256 |
| Roundtable Writing | p. 257 |
| Advice from Our Producers | p. 258 |
| Staff Job Contracts and Compensation | p. 262 |
| Step Six: Climbing the Ladder | p. 264 |
| The Care and Feeding of Reps | p. 265 |
| Taking a Development Deal | p. 268 |
| Creating A New Series | p. 271 |
| Creating a Series Format | p. 272 |
| Writing a Pilot Script | p. 275 |
| Selling a Pilot | p. 279 |
| Going in to Pitch | p. 280 |
| Producing a Homegrown Pilot | p. 282 |
| The Money | p. 284 |
| Time to Wrap Up! | p. 287 |
| Script Format Guidelines | p. 289 |
| Additional Resources | p. 311 |
| Endnotes | p. 321 |
| Index | p. 325 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
