Just make sure the pilot isn’t all there is. Now, you may have an idea of where your TV series ends – and that may be after six or eight or ten episodes (as is trendy right now), or it may be after three or five seasons. Your pilot plants the seeds for your series When you’re trying to figure out your series’ story engine, you can try phrasing it as I did above, “New episodes are generated as…” You can also think of the engine as why your series characters have to interact (or interact with new characters) each week, because that’s how stories are born. In How I Met Your Mother – if I remember correctly – new episodes are generated as Ted searches for “the one.”.In The Dropout, new episodes are generated as ambitious young Elizabeth Holmes struggles to get her startup off the ground.

In The Rookie, new episodes are generated as LA’s finest fulfill their duty to protect and serve.In The Bear, new episodes are generated as prodigal son Carmy leads the staff at his family’s restaurant in order to keep the place alive.But all kinds of shows have story engines (they must, or there are no new episodes!) It’s easiest to see the story engine in something like House or Law & Order, where each episode brings a new case to be dealt with. The story engine is where new stories come from. That’s how we know what happens, what we’re watching from episode to episode. When you’re pitching, you’ll describe the core concept and main conflict, and you’ll make sure to convey the story engine. But in TV, we want the concept to be able to generate lots of future episodes, whether that’s escalations on one main conflict or new conflicts each week (or a combination). We want to be able to resolve the big story problem within two hours. In features we deal with closed-ended stories. Meaning, what makes this a series, and not just one cool episode? When you’re thinking about writing a pilot the question you really need to be able to answer is: What is the series? Of the bunch, the element I see writers tend to overlook or not think through all the way when they’re working on their pilot script, is what makes the series a series. The elements that make your series unique and appealing, but also the elements that make it clear that this project (your pitch) has everything it needs to really be a series that can go the distance. That’s because a good pitch showcases the elements that are vital to the series. You can see there’s a lot of overlap there. examples of future episodes are the following,.Think of each bullet point as a section of your pitch: I’ve found that sometimes a slight variation on it works better, but either of these will give you a good basic pitch outline to follow. One of the most commonly used pitch templates comes from WB. There isn’t just one way to pitch, but there are a few elements that pitches are generally expected to include. And that knowledge will help you write a stronger pilot. Knowing how to pitch your project means you understand the big picture, what people (buyers – the people you’re pitching to) are looking for in a series. They haven’t thought about the series as a whole. They might even have a smart idea and an entertaining script. But when you pitch, you pitch the series.Ī lot of writers don’t think about pitching until they’re actually faced with the prospect of doing it. Your little pilot has a lot on its shoulders. To write a pilot you have to think about how to build in the elements that will generate hours upon hours of must-see TV. If you ask me, it’s harder than writing a feature. They’re surprised to discover just how difficult it is to write a great pilot.

I’ve heard many writers say that they want to write a pilot because it’s shorter than a feature, so surely it’ll be an easier and faster project… right? It’s hard to write a great pilot, and even harder if you don’t think about the series first Because what you end up pitching are the vital elements that make up your series, and those have to be conveyed in the pilot.Ī lot of writers don’t realize that and they set about writing a pilot without doing the big-picture thinking that goes into a series. Are you thinking about writing a TV pilot to add to your portfolio? You might be surprised by what I’m going to suggest:īut wait… isn’t that putting the cart before the horse?Įven if you’re nowhere near the pitching phase, thinking about your pitch will help you develop a stronger pilot script.

Tv pilot script outline