Writing for Television

Television has come into its own in the past decade. Thanks to smart, creative shows like The Sopranos, Lost,andMad Men,to name only a few, TV is no longer the poor stepchild of feature filmmaking. TV series can have a depth and breadth that is impossible to achieve in a feature-length film. They have room to explore many characters and to develop multiple storylines to create the “arc” of a season so that there is a story that occurs within each episode, and then a greater story that occurs over the season, and then, with longer running shows, a narrative that occurs over the entire run of the series. Scripted teleplays in the United States fall into two basic categories: hour-long and half-hour. It used to be that hour-long television shows were always dramas and half-hour shows were always sitcoms, but today those strict delimitations are increasingly blurred. Nurse Jackieis a half-hour show that contains as much drama as comedy, while True Blood is an hour-long show that offers much comedy in addition to its gothic thriller elements. Formats for TV shows can vary a lot, even within the same genre. The following short list is a good place to start, but if you are writing for a show that already exists, you should do some research and make sure that you are using the right format. nHour-long dramasusually have four acts, not including teases, the montages of clips from the previous or upcoming episode(s) that usually open and close a TV show. Assuming a minute per page, the script should be about 40 pages long. nHalf-hour comediesusually have three acts, not including teases, and are about 20 pages long. Other than varying lengths, teleplays use formatting and rules similar to movie screenplays.
Hour-long dramasusually have four acts, not including teases, the montages of clips from the previous or upcoming episode(s) that usually open and close a TV show. Assuming a minute per page, the script should be about 40 pages long.
Half-hour comediesusually have three acts, not including teases, and are about 20 pages long. Other than varying lengths, teleplays use formatting and rules similar to movie screenplays.