See how logical this all is?
We're already narrowing down the possible story areas for your spec episode. You're going to create a story that exploits the premise of the series and centers on the Main Character. You're going to use an interesting aspect of your Main Character's personality as a springboard for your story.
WRITE THE FORMULA
The next step in developing your story is to think about the episodes you've watched on the series you have chosen to spec and identify the FORMULA.
All sitcoms have a formula. The episodes are about basically the same issues every week. This isn't because the writers are lazy or unimaginative. It's because after you produce a few episodes of a new series, you discover what works and what doesn't. You go with what works.
On Gilligan's Island the formula was the castaways' repeated failed attempts at getting rescued. One only has to watch one or two episodes of Gilligan's Island to understand that simple formula. Each week, the castaways have some chance of getting rescued. They work hard to achieve their goal. Then Gilligan's bumbling thwarts all their efforts.
Many episodes of Frasier revolved around Frasier's snobbery and social climbing. Frasier was always trying to improve his status by chasing after some elusive goal. The producers of Frasier also loved to do farce. They would often build to a climax that found the characters frantically running in and out of doors.
When I was producing Coach, we realized fairly quickly that our series worked best when we followed the formula of classic series like The Honeymooners and All in the Family. Hayden Fox was an Active Main Character similar in personality to Ralph Cramden of The Honeymooners and to Archie Bunker of All in the Family. Hayden was a schemer like Ralph, who frequently concocted elaborate plots to achieve a particular goal. Hayden also got himself into trouble because of his pride and prejudice, much like Archie Bunker.
Barry Kemp's premise for Coach initially revolved around the ethical compromises that a football coach makes in order to win.
Our Main Character, Hayden Fox, was an ambitious, competitive man trying to succeed at an undistinguished school. Hayden suffered from moral lapses all the time in his attempts to achieve success.
The formula for Coach evolved from the way in which the premise of the series combined with the personality of the Main Character to produce stories. Hayden was often chasing after some goal to improve his football program. He'd try to recruit a star player or curry favor with the college administration.
Title card from hit series, Coach.
Here's an example of an episode of Coach that followed the formula: Hayden Fox learns in the first scene that Minnesota State's biggest booster, Earl Rizendough, has just died. Hayden exhibits some genuine grief for a few seconds, then reminds his assistant coaches, Luther and Dauber, that Earl promised to leave millions of dollars to the athletic program when he died. With that money, the school can now build a state-of-the-art sports center which will improve the football program. Hayden can hardly wait to collect the money.
In the next scene, Hayden brings in drawings of the new sports center, counting his chickens before they hatch. He then learns that the rich booster's widow wants to give the money to medical research. Instead of graciously respecting the widow's wishes, Hayden feels cheated. He's furious. He's a competitive guy who wants to win, but he coaches at an obscure school. A new sports center will help him recruit better players. Giving in to his ego, pride, and ambition, Hayden decides he'll go see the rich widow and “recruit” her into giving him the money he was promised.
The widow turns out to be a tough nut. She doesn't like Hayden. She doesn't like football. His clumsy attempts at sympathy for her situation fail to hide his greed. He suggests that her grief is clouding her thinking. Hayden's insensitive presumption alienates the widow even further. She tells Hayden that he has no idea how it feels to lose a loved one. Hayden, desperate by now for the money that he feels is rightfully his, lies and tells the widow that his wife died. He lies more and claims that he has been raising his daughter all alone for many years. (Hayden is actually divorced and was an absent father for most of his daughter's childhood. The audience knows this. They're in on the joke.) The widow softens when she believes that Hayden is a selfless widower. It looks like Hayden will get his money. The widow invites Hayden to come for dinner and bring his daughter. She'll give him the money then.
In Act Two, Hayden has to talk to his daughter, Kelly. He doesn't want to lose Kelly's respect and look like a jerk, but he has to ask her to lie for him. She is furious with him when she hears the fib that he told. “You killed Mom?!” But he pleads with her. He admits that he's done a questionable thing. But coaching is so hard. He needs this money to build the sports center. He was supposed to have it. It isn't fair. Can't she just help him out? Out of sympathy for her father, Kelly agrees to go through with the charade.
As father and daughter are about to leave for the dinner, Hayden suddenly has a change of heart. He can't ask his daughter to go through with the lie.
Hayden shows up for the dinner alone and confesses his lie. The widow is appalled. He tries to get her to understand, but she can't. He loses the money and the sports center. But at least he did the right thing and kept the respect of his daughter.
Everything that Coach was about as a series was contained in that one episode. The story sprang from Barry Kemp's original premise about the ethical compromises that a coach must make, and from the personality of the Active Main Character. The premise and the personality of the Main Character combined to produce the series formula.
Carefully watch the series you have chosen for your spec script. Identify the formula for the stories. The formula is the particular way in which stories evolve from the premise of the series and from the personality of the Main Character. You'll want to use that same formula to develop your story. This isn't cheating. It isn't you being lazy or unoriginal. It isn't you prostituting yourself to a bunch of hackneyed clichés. Everybody Loves Raymond had a formula. So did Cheers and Seinfeld and Friends and Sex and the City.
THE PAINTS ARE ALREADY IN THE TRAY
In using the premise, the personality of the Main Character, and the formula as guidelines for constructing your story, you are using the paints that are already in the tray. You are demonstrating that you understand this series, and therefore are capable of understanding other series.
Remember, you want to write an episode that sounds like the series you have chosen to spec. The best way to do that is to figure out what the writers of that series are already up to, and play by their rules.
You now have the most important guidelines that I can give you for constructing the right story for your spec sitcom episode. It's all logical:
Define the premise of the series you have chosen to spec.
Define the personality of the Main Character. Is he or she an Active or Reactive Main Character?
What aspect of the Main Character's personality would you like to explore in a story?
How can the personality of the Main Character and the premise of the series combine to produce a story idea?
While you're thinking about all of that, let me give you a few more tips on developing the right story for your spec sitcom episode. These tips are based on my experience writing a number of spec sitcom scripts and from reading literally hundreds of them over the course of my career.
DON'T REINVENT
As the producer of a TV series, you get all kinds of crazy spec scripts in which Jerry Seinfeld goes to medical school or Ross becomes a woman. Stories like that change the series into another series. Don't