Situation: Comedy, Episode 1 – Calling All Writers!

Welcome to Situation: Comedy. This show will follow the trials and tribulations of several young writers attempting to create their own sitcom pilot.

First off, let’s meet the hosts. The big-name draw is Sean Hayes, who plays Jack, on the situation comedy, Will & Grace. Sean has been nominated for an Emmy in that role every year since 2000 and actually won one in 2000. His co-host on this reality show is Todd Milliner, who is Hayes’ long-time friend and co-owner of a production company. He has many roles to his credit.

The two of them hope to restore the sitcom to the mighty place on the television pedestal that it once held in the golden heyday of sitcoms, the ‘70s. Ironically, one reason that sitcoms are failing is that the television wasteland is being taken over by reality shows. Now we have a reality show that is hoping to reverse the trend.

Over the last year or so, they have gone on numerous talk shows and invited the viewing public to send them ideas and scripts for a new sitcom.

They received over 10,000 scripts and now they are hoping to whittle down the entries to just two. Then, those two writers will have their scripts turned into sitcom pilots. Those pilots will be shown to the viewers at home and we will vote on which is better. The winner will receive $250,000 and will have his or her sitcom pitched to TV executives.

Todd begins by telling us about some of the weird scripts they got. One was about a lamp which was also a butler, and another was about a talking lasagna. Those didn’t make the cut.

We then get a video montage of a bunch of other “video scripts” that didn’t make the cut either. They included a naked screen writer, men riding tricycles, and a woman with an eye patch. It’s all pretty odd.

We then meet Stan Zimmerman. He will be the executive producer of one of the sitcoms. He has produced episodes of Golden Girls, Gilmore Girls, and Roseanne. We also meet Maxine Lapiduss, who will produce the other sitcom. She has produced episodes of Roseanne, Ellen, and Home Improvement.

We also meet NBC execute Renate Radford. She will be helping the writers get their visions down on paper and onto videotape.

The five executives we’ve met so far sit down and discuss what makes a good sitcom. Sean says that a good sitcom comes from good characters that the viewers want to see. Stan disagrees and thinks that Sean is looking at things from an actor’s point of view. He says that a producers needs to look at the big picture and ask why the show needs to be created. Max adds that the premise of the show is hugely important, as well as the characters. She does concede that the best sitcoms have some kind of “X” factor that can’t really be explained, but that draws the viewer to want more.

They plow through the thousands of scripts, tossing away most of them without a second thought. But, with a little effort, they narrow the choices down to about ten or so candidates. Let’s meet some of them, shall we?

First is Sean. He has written a comedy about two friends who work in a clothing store. Next up are Eddie and Dane, who have written a script about a sinner and a saint who win a diner in Maine and must put aside their differences long enough to run the place. Matt has written a story about a young man living with unconventional roommates. I am starting to sense a pattern here.

Next up are Andrew and David. They’ve written a sitcom about an overly ambitious eleven-year-old boy. Jim has written a story about a dentist who suffers a mental breakdown and must rebuild his practice. Jennifer wrote a script about a white minister mistakenly transferred to an all black church.

Byron has written a sitcom about a cellist in the San Francisco symphony. Mark and “Shoe” have written a script where a teenage daughter seeks out her biological father. Brian wrote his sitcom about a city girl who inherits a lodge in Alaska.

The nine teams all jump on planes and head to Hollywood. They are all very nervous and have no idea what to expect. But they are all brought together at a morning reception and anxiously await further news.

After a while, Sean and the other producers enter the room and welcome everyone. He congratulates them on writing such fine scripts. Unfortunately, they can only take five of the nine scripts to the TV executives. Those TV executives will then green-light two of the scripts.

Each team of writers much pitch their show to the producers in the room. Four teams will go home right now. You can see the butterflies in their stomachs.

The teams start out and basically all tell the short summaries that we’ve already heard. The producers have varying reactions. Fortunately, we don’t get to see the full pitches a second time.

The funny thing is that most of these writers don’t seem to have much experience speaking in front of other people. One speaks in monotones and another keeps saying that the script is better than he can describe it. They all try to compare their sitcom to existing sitcoms. Several use the phrase “a fish out of water.” Frankly, I don’t see any ideas here that are really ground breaking.