Strategies for Comedy Series Concept Development
(rev. 2/2011)

by Jim Kearney

A funny pilot script does not guarantee that the series will still be funny in subsequent weeks. Experienced buyers are understandably wary of pilots where the humor is a series of one-time-only jokes. The ideal comedy pilot has comedy-generating engines intrinsic to its design. Ask yourself this: How does the architecture of a series incorporate attitudes, relationships and situations which will continue to be funny in future episodes?

Some techniques which have been incorporated into the design of many successful series…

1. Opposites Attract

Put characters who wouldn't ordinarily choose one another together with conflicting attitudes. Alex vs. his parents on Family Ties; Diane working for (and flirting with) Sam on Cheers; Mel Coolie and Buddy Sorrel on The Dick Van Dyke show; news writer Murray Slaughter vs. insufferable anchorman Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show; roommates Rose and Blanche on The Golden Girls. Thrust opposites together in the design: Meathead marries into Archie’s family; Hawkeye is drafted into the Army; Dharma marries Greg, and they are their parents' children. Debra marries into the Barone family, and must compete with her evil mother-in-law Marie. Pairings of this sort can pay off in years of verbal jousting. Relationships or situations with built-in conflict are almost obligatory for success in series comedy.

2. Embody the Flaws of the Day

Flawed comic personas ("stock characters") used to be charlatans, jargonizers, and egomaniacs with strange names, often played by Groucho Marx or W.C. Fields. On TV viewers have laughed at self-impressed bravado in leading roles (Ralph Cramden, George Jefferson, etc.) and in supporting characters (Dan Fielding on Night Court, Ted Baxter.) This flaw, of course, leads to a weekly collapsing of the dignity of the self-impressed. A reverse approach is nagging. The older generation on Seinfeld had this common parental flaw.

As women changed, so did their comedic flaws. The scatterbrained schemes of the Lucy Ricardo clones would eventually fall to men like Kramer on Seinfeld. Avarice, vanity, and materialism appeared (Stephanie on Newhart, Nina Van Horn on Just Shoot Me, Linda on Duet. We even glimpsed a slightly too-earnest feminism briefly in Maya Gallo on Just Shoot Me.

Selfishness is certainly a flaw of our day. Larry David’s Seinfeld characters noticed every little flaw about others but only occasionally acknowledged their own major shortcomings. Larry’s own character in Curb Your Enthusiasm perfectly embodies selfishness of the most egregious sort, i.e. Hollywood selfishness.

Knuckleheads never go out of fashion. Stupidity, simplicity, ignorance, gullibility, naivete, airheadedness and mental deficiencies (Coach and Woody of Cheers, Jim Ignatowski on Taxi, Chrissy Snow of Three’s Company, Rose Niland of Golden Girls, Phoebe on Friends, etc.) Thimble-brains can be funny, but so can nimble brains. Thanks to Frasier, we also see the shortcomings of snobs with too much gray matter and not enough common sense.

Each culture and era has its favorite comedic flaws. British comedies used characters prone to embarrassment. Fat jokes were a staple on The Honeymooners in the 1950s, but were considered inappropriate for Roseanne in the 1980s. Likewise The Honeymooners made much of Norton’s humble workplace, the sewer. Today, a working class station in life is less easily mocked, perhaps because of higher blue collar salaries.

Any flaw subverting romance and sexual pursuit works particularly well. Judgementalism, for instance. Seinfeld regulars often judged and were judged on the basis of a sole impropriety, deemed indicative of a larger failing. Exaggerating relationship deal-breakers, Seinfeld gave us a dazzling array of tiny but fatal flaws: the double-dipper; the high-talker; man hands; stopping off for candy on the way to an emergency room visit; or having an opinion on abortion which couldn’t possibly go along with good looks. Despite their selectivity, Jerry and friends were themselves champions at commiting everday discourtesies, magnified comedically to the annoyance of perfectionists like The Library Cop and The Soup Nazi.

Stress is also widely recognized today, so a familiar workplace archetype, the frazzled unbalanced postal worker, gave us Seinfeld’s arch-nemesis Newman. King of the Hill has sent up both big city elitism and survivalist paranoia. Other flaws whose time seems due include shamelessness, unbridled anger, self-justification and self-delusion, incompetence (particularly in the customer service realm), bravado, arrogant posturing, discourtesy, vulgarity, and the manic haste fostered by technology and "having it all".

Supporting characters and guest characters may also be deeply flawed, e.g. the profoundly—and humorously—sociopathic Louie de Palma on Taxi. Lead characters, however, usually need a core humanity that transcends their flaws. The audience usually seeks a rapport with the attitudes and behavior of the characters, to laugh with them. Viewers eventually bonded with Jerry Seinfeld, identifying with his comedic point of view even though he was the kind of person who would snatch a loaf of marble rye from an old lady, if the situation required it. Viewers loved Sam Malone on Cheers, laughing with the bravado and vanity of a struggling athlete/playboy whose demons never turned him surly. People forgave Sammy his lust, much as they forgave Warren Beatty’s hairdresser in Shampoo.

3. Irony, Observer/Reactors, Incongruity, Conflict, Fear

Create characters who give voice to irony, and consider incorporating an incongruous juxtaposition into the core design of a series.

An ironic, skeptical, or mocking attitude is sometimes embodied in an observer character. David Spade’s Dennis Finch character on Just Shoot Me represented his generation’s irony will have a sardonic edge.

Frasier Crane’s original psychiatrist franchise on Cheers held a mirror up to all the characters and their behavior (including his own). As he came into his own on Frasier (and as he was given an exaggeration of himself as foil in Niles) his critiques exploded into bursts of eloquent skepticism and wry commentary (alternatively declamatory and self-deprecating).

Jerry Seinfeld’s skepticism was outwardly directed, while George Costanza’s self-deprecation evolved into a fatalism of mythic proportions. It was then brilliantly reversed when he gained the knowledge that he simply needed to act in direct opposition to all his instincts, a sort of ultimate irony of character design. Later Larry David displayed the soul of George Costanza in even sharper relief in the darkly brilliant Curb Your Enthusiasm.

The Outsider or fish out of water can imbed the humor of incongruity into the conceptual design of a series. Linguistic confusion is a frequent humorous outcome (The Beverly Hillbillies, Balki in Perfect Strangers). An alien viewpoint can also reveal the absurdity of our own mores (Mork & Mindy, Third Rock, Latka on Taxi).

Much TV humor is built around reactions. Creating the ongoing conflict or the source of recurring exasperation, outrage, astonishment etc. is the writer’s task. Family humor is a frequent source of exasperation. Carroll O’Connor was a terrific reactor to the younger generation in All in the Family; Ray and Robert on Everybody Loves Raymond have ample cause for exasperation.

In the workplace, Bob Newhart was in a perfect franchise to react as psychologist Bob Hartley. Charlotte was the funniest character on Sex and the City, reacting with shock or embarrassment to the vulgar Samantha, and the general tone of debauchery. Carl Reiner was a marvelous reactor in the occasional but memorable role of Alan Brady in the Dick Van Dyke show; Ed Asner was the perfect reactor when interviewing prospective employee Mary Richards in the pilot of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and his frustrated reactions (often to Ted Baxter) served him well throughout the series.

Incongruity was embedded into the pilot of The Golden Girls with a simple line explaining that the part of Sophia Petrillo's brain responsible for censoring the expression of inappropriate remarks has been rendered inoperative in a stroke. Sophia gave uninhibited expression to thoughts ordinarily repressed, permitting comments so caustic and asides so outrageous that their verbal expression is incongruous, almost surreal, coming out of an old lady.

Seinfeld didn’t need an excuse to loosen its characters inhibitions. Kramer was designed to be incongruous, and many of the stories were designed around thwarting convention, expectation, and propriety.

The animated world of The Simpsons is populated with even more unusual, eccentric characters than Seinfeld. Ordinary family life turns surreal and incongruous there. Animation itself is an invitation to incongruity. Subversive mischief and dark stories seem cheerful and optimistic.

Characters’ motivations should be grounded in reality, but writ large. Comic characters are often motivated by fear: fear of failure; fear of losing something or someone; fear of the unknown, fear of that their own flaws will be their undoing.

If characters have conflicting goals, wants, desires, and needs, conflict will come naturally to the story. Often time what works best is putting one character in the middle between two others. In All in the Family, the women were stuck between Archie and Meathead, two characters with opposite desires. Archie had extreme fear that his world, his values, and his daughter were under siege by the times, in the person of his son-in-law. Edith was stuck in the middle of it all.

In Modern Family, Jay Pritchett fears he is too old for Gloria; overprotective Gloria fears for her son Manny’s well-being; Phil Dunphy fears that his kids will think him uncool; Claire fears that Haley will be as wild as she was; Alex fears boys won’t like her; and all are concerned about Luke. Meanwhile Mitchell still fears that his dad never accepted his orientation, and this makes him an uptight worrier in general. Cameron, free with his emotions and the most uninhibited of all the characters, is one more big worry for Mitchell.

4. Sexual Tension

Taboos are at the root of much sexual humor because they involve the audience as co-conspirator, subverting the status quo. Sexual double entendres often seem funnier than other plays on words. A generation ago the audience gleefully awaited Mrs. Roper's remarks about husband Stanley's lack of sexual desire in Three’s Company. Blanche's randy reputation on Golden Girls, and Roz’ on Frasier were reliable for laughs because promiscuity was still regarded as an embarrasment.

Samantha on Sex and the City pushed the promiscuous female character beyond the boundaries of comedy. She had no guilt, and no one is willing the judge her. Have recent shows strip-mining the comedic lode, leaving us a society with too few taboos left? Comedy writers need to eschew the cheap, easy sex joke and show some restraint. They need to be masters of their domain.

5. Misunderstandings

Regardless of whether a show is anchored in a caring family (Frasier) or around cynics who would never dream of hugging or imparting life lessons (Seinfeld), some of the most revered episodes will be farces.

False inference, words misheard or misinterpreted, characters mistaken for someone else, mistaken objects, the unintentional consumption of stimulants, etc. are comedic devices that have lasted through centuries.

From As You Like It through Seinfeld’s “The Outing” episode, misunderstanding and reversed expectations (often in sexual situations) have delighted audiences.

Three’s Company built misunderstandings into its permanent premise, then snowballed by adding other misunderstandings within individual episodes. A good farce triggers a cascade of laughs as characters react and complications escalate. A well orchestrated farce should also generate kinetic energy, with doors opening and closing, and characters headed in all directions; John Ritter's gift for physical humor was a perfect match for the premise of the series.

Frasier has employed misunderstanding in several of its better episodes: Frasier accidentally dating his gay boss; Frasier looking up an old girlfriend and mistaking her mother for her; Daphne becoming convinced that Frasier was intentionally invading the privacy of her room; a ski lodge farce where everyone misread everyone else’s sexual desires and orientations; Out With Dad, wherein it was Frasier's dad Martin pretending to be gay; and The Doctor is Out, with Frasier in denial about the sexual subtext when he becomes friend with an opera director.

Seinfeld’s more elegantly designed episodes include The Marine Biologist, The Opposite, The Puffy Shirt, and The Gymnast. Reversed expectations and multiple threads which tie together will surprise your audience. As much as networks will encourage you to deliver a pilot episode which ends with a lesson and a hug, i.e. what sitcom writers call “a moment of shit”, audiences will appreciate it if you take the time to design something a little more challenging.

7. Distinctive Dialogue

From Granny Clampett's colorful country metaphors, through Archie Bunker's malapropisms, and on to the excessive rhetorical exuberance of Frasier and Niles, the best comedies have always featured characters designed with distinctive verbal styles and gambits.

Expectation played a part on Cheers, as we anticipated a glib or pithy remark from Norm, exaggeration from Cliff, a literal interpretation from Woody, robotic inflection from Lilith, and sarcasm or ridicule from Carla.

As a comedy pilot script establishes the voices of the regular characters, look for rhetorical devices which will endure, and occur naturally within the program's design.

Some other forms of verbal comedy: repartee and one-upsmanship (Pierce and Winchester; Frasier and Niles); regional voices from Hank Hill’s Arlen argot on King of the Hill to Daphne’s Britishisms on Frasier; Marie Barone’s innocent sounding digs on Raymond;  and the jolting shock of short-tempered Frank Costanza suddenly losing it on Seinfeld.

8. Break A "Rule", Defy Convention

As in drama, if one knows the conventional wisdom it’s probably time to break just a rule or two.

Rules are what comedy breaks, not what create comedy.

These principles -- conventional wisdom to fans of classic comedy -- may help you avoid some of the pitfalls of unsuccessful television by incorporating reliable comedic devices in the design of a program.

Just remember that being unconventional is often what makes for the best comedy.

Appendix

Character-based comedy -- “Embody the flaws of the day”

Characters whose flaws are comedic signatures:

Kramer (Seinfeld), Lucy (I Love Lucy) – farcical schemers

Ted Baxter (Mary Tyler Moore Show) – egomania, narcissism

Nina  (Just Shoot Me) – vanity, substance abuse

Woody (Cheers), Rose (Golden Girls) – gullibility

Archie Bunker (All in the Family) – narrowmindedness

Marie Barone (Everybody Loves Raymond)– manipulativeness

Sam (Cheers), Dan (Night Court), Roz (Cheers) -  sexual overdrive

Samantha (Sex & the City) – lewd and lusty

Niles (Frasier) – infatuation

Phil Dunphy (Modern Family) – mistakenly thinks he’s cool

Louis de Palma (Taxi) – sociopathic personality

Marie Barone, Jerry Seinfeld - hypercriticalness

Frank Costanza (Seinfeld) – short fuse

Phoebe (Friends), Dharma (Dharma & Greg) – airheadedness

Jim (Taxi), Coach (Cheers) – lack of mental acuity

Diane (Cheers), Frasier (Cheers, Frasier), Niles (Frasier) – snobbery

Jerry, George, and Elaine (Seinfeld) – selfishness