How To Be A Sitcom Writer by Marc Blake

Author:Marc Blake
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: writing, writer, friends, fools, horses, comedy, funny, creative, author, comedy, on the buses, frasier, cheers, seinfeld
ISBN: 9781849893091
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2011
Published: 2011-02-03T00:00:00+00:00

Part 5

Situation and relationships

Situation

The ‘sit’ part of sitcom is not merely where it’s located but the emotional arena in which it takes place. Before we go any further into this, let’s take a moment to look at some likely places where this might happen. As mentioned, the domestic or home setting is the most common location – after all, isn’t that where we play out most of our life games, from fighting with parents to living with flatmates, seducing a partner, marriage, dealing with children and then coping with elderly parents?

Where is the heart of your home? The kitchen, living room or bedroom? All these are good for a sitcom setting, but remember that we need to get traffic (people) through these places and the bedroom might be a tad too intimate, unless we’re writing Bless this Ho.

The workplace is another setting: often the new writer tries to find somewhere exciting without thinking of its limitations. It’s got to be a room that can be built as a set in a studio. An airport lounge may seem ideal, but it’s a vast hangar of a set, as is a supermarket or DIY store. Where workplace sitcom succeeds is where there is enough access for the cast but everything else is stripped away. Barney Miller (US) and The Thin Blue Line (UK) were set in police stations, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (US) and Drop the Dead Donkey (UK) in TV newsrooms, but all four sets were built to accommodate intimacy.

One trick the Americans always use when there are four or five people in one location is to shunt two aside for a private chat. This happens all the time in the Friends apartment and in Central Perk.

Remember that this prime location must be a place in which people want to stop to talk, argue or resolve issues. At a checkout or on a factory line there is no respite. A café will work as a set because you can isolate booths or adapt the setting to many needs – plus, of course, you allow for those oh-so-convenient entrances and exits.

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