This web site is an adjunct to the book Television Writing from the Inside Out: Your Channel to Success, available in bookstores everywhere and, of course, online. When Applause Books, my patient and ever-encouraging publisher realized that the Appendix of sample television writing scripts was going to be longer than the book itself they--ahem--"encouraged" me to put the samples on the web.
And believe me, they need to be somewhere. Because just as television writing demands that the viewer been shown whenever possible instead of merely told, so does a book about television writing demand that the reader be given concrete examples so the new TV writer can see exactly what goes on in a writer's work from step to step.
This web site presents five case studies from beginning to end: A one-hour drama/action script done on assignment, a half-hour animation script done on assignment, a half-hour sitcom script done on assignment, and a daytime serial script done on assignment. For good measure I've thrown in the Final Draft of a sitcom teleplay done on assignment, part of which is used as an example in the print pages of Television Writing from the Inside Out: Your Channel to Success.
The evolution of these scripts is presented by showing all the material the writer committed to the page, from the inception of the idea to the original writer's last draft of the teleplay (which is why you're not seeing a TV movie here--several TV movie outlines and teleplay drafts would have driven this site into server overload--but you MOW writing aspirants should be able to get the idea from what's here).
Bottom line: This site shows what we do, folks. And how we do it. Sometimes all the suggested changes are for the better, and they help the script shine. Most of the time some of them are pure gold, while others dim parts of the work that already had a good gloss. Read closely and you'll see what I mean.
Note: If what you read here helps you as an aspiring TV writer and you haven't read the book itself, why not give it a try? And whether or not you read the book, I think you'll find my main web site, TV Writer.com, worth checking out. Creativity thrives in a community setting, and at TV Writer.com you'll find the most knowledgeable and supportive writing community on the web.
