Successful Sitcom Writing: How to Write and Sell for TV's Hottest Format

by Jürgen Wolff and L.P. Ferrante

Book Overview

Sitcoms have never been hotter in Hollywood, and the demand for writers has never been greater. With fees starting at $16,000 for a half-hour script, sitcoms can be a lucrative option for freelancers.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312144261
• ISBN13: 9780312144265
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

If you're ready to write, this book will help you focus

Boy, did I love this book... Mr. Wolff engagingly shares his experience as a veteran of the sit-com world with his audience of hopefuls, and makes it not only understandable but enjoyable. I was especially motivated by his step-by-step exercises designed to free the muse. And even though he was very direct about the chances of an unknown actually selling a show, he made me feel I can -- and will-- succeed. If he's this good on paper, I can only imagine how inspiring he would be in a classroom!

Recommended. A focused and concise book on sitcom writing.

This book gathers the basic information on sitcom writing an a refreshingly straightforward manner. Because of the focus on successful network shows, the examples are necessarily lame. This book focuses on the structural requirements of teleplays as well as applicable business constraints. This will not teach one how to be funny. No book can. But, as the book states: jokes are easy. Story is hard. This book will help you craft a better sitcom story in a professional manner.

This tired and insipid book.................................

This book is sorporific. It's humour-free and is as dessicated as the gobi dessert. Wolff and Ferrante are to comedy writing what Ronald Reagan is to rememberance. This tired and insipid book is the broker of an unalloyed satanism. It purports to transform sketchy scrips into something monolithically funny. But their techniques are utterly without value and character. My mother, bless her, has more depth and writing ability than these two charlatans, and she has never picked up a pen or read a book.