Jane Espenson says everybody's writing spec pilots these days. As soon as I'm done with my Earl spec, I think I'll give that a whirl. I've got two major ideas - one of them an hourlong scifi drama. I'm going to guess that scifi is not selling from unknown writers, right? It's too expensive to produce.
The other idea is a really good one, I'm just not sure about the genre. It's a workplace situation that lends itself to sitcom, but I'm just not a sitcom kind of writer. I'm going to try it for the first time with Earl, but I don't see it being my forte. I could try going in with a partner to write it, but I don't see myself working well in a partner situation either.
I'm thinking instead of focusing on my strengths. I do drama, so I should write a drama, even if the idea is a conventional sitcom one. After all, Boston Legal is that kind of show. So is Sex and the City. Either of those shows could have been straight comedy, but put a twist on the genre by going an hour and incorporating dramatic elements. Who knows, it might turn out so interesting that it gets some buzz. At the very worst it can suck and I'll spend a couple of months honing my skills. Maybe I could turn it into a feature if that happened.
What do you think? Any suggestions on that kind of enterprise? Anybody else tried it?
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Maybe 'The Teacher's Lounge' following in the footsteps of the office? I'd give it a shot.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea! There is so much material there...behind the scenes at a highschool. Just brilliant.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny. I wasn't actually thinking about school. They tried that with the sitcom "Teachers" this season but it was cancelled. It could have been done better.
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