Screenwriting : TV scripts vs film by Lisa Clemens

One hour dramas can have anywhere from 4-6 acts. Teaser/cold open and tag come into play as well. 30 minute sitcoms are 2 or 3 acts. Teaser and tag used here as well.

In the commercial television world, your primary job as the writer is to deliver the audience to the commercial and hold 'em until the next commercial. When I write for TV, I envision my audience as a bored-pot-belly sot in his lounger after a long day down-to-the-plant. He's got a beer in one hand and the channel clicker in the other; I can be voted off any second. I write mostly half hour sit-coms in which I try to fill a 25 minuet hole with a teaser/set-up, three acts and a tag. To some, it's a three act format but I think of it more as a five act format. If you open with a teaser, you've got an ad break at about 2 min in. This leaves room for three approximately 7 min acts with a credit crawl 2 min tag. Remember that the ad space is more important to the studio than your story. Your 25 min run time will be trimmed, squeezed and fitted into whatever time is available between ads.

I just wrote a one hour drama with a teaser and 4 acts. Teaser was 6 pages, acts ranged from 9-14 pages. Ended at 59 pages sharp.

Interesting and good to low if I ever switch to TV. Thanks!

Jody, just FYI, I have a full production copy of a Murder She Wrote script (Programmed for Murder by Tom Sawyer) before me right now – I don't recall if we did a teaser/tag (I don't think so). The entire script is 53 pages long; Act II starts on pg 17, Act III on pg 31 and Act IV on pg 40. Individual act page counts varied from 8 to 16 but still it was configured to fit a 1 hour time slot after six revisions. Don't know if that's a help or not.

Thanks Doug, to my understanding they can range from 45-60ish pages, that seems to be the standard anyway. Is this something you wrote that was produced for the show? The pilot I wrote is geared toward HBO or showtime, which is why it is a bit longer, but still within the accepted page count.

Jody, that “Programmed for Murder” episode was written by Tom Sawyer (who was also the show runner). I don't know the HBO specifics but I suspect they are similar. I've written mostly in the sit-com genre where we have an advantage in that we can shrink or extend that ugly laugh line by a few seconds or so in post to fit the RT time allocated. As just a rough guide for a 1 hour show, I'd aim toward the 45 page limit. (A lot depends on the genre and story speed; McMillan and Wife and Colombo scripts ran a bit more but that was back in the 70's) But I'm outdated.

I took a few classes with two managers from The Gotham Group. Steve Iwanyk told the writers to write the maximum 60 pages for a TV pilot. Use as many pages as you can to tell the story. Revisions and cuts could always be made after when either doing rewrites or receiving notes from your representation.

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@Doug HBO and showtime don't have commercial interruptions, hence the 59 pages. if I were writing for a channel that did have commercials, I would have made it shorter.

A pilot for an hour long dramedy I wrote came in at 74 pages. The producer who optioned it made me cut it down to below 70, and try and get as close to 60 as possible. I cut it to 64. It was explained that it's a psychology thing. If you are trying to get talent attached (as we are) they want to see how much they need to read. The page count really doesn't have much to do with time, per se, but rather, it is used to see if the read will be a daunting task.

@David I was advised by Regina here on stage 32 to shoot for 59 pages. I think it's kind of like the $9.99 price tag. People only see that first number, lol. I know I was a landlord for years and it always cracked me up, I could advertise a rental for $1000 and get no calls, but as soon as I dropped it to $995 the phone rang off the hook! Funny how that works.

Jody: I know exactly what you mean. I've had some great conversations with Regina. I was a marketing professional and know the history of the $0.99 cent price change from $1, you can thank Macy's for that one. It does have a psychological effect on some just from that one slight change. I haven;t heard anyone tell me that the 60 was a page too long! LOL> But, it helps to know when it comes to revising, see if there is certain fluff at 60 to bring it down. EVen if it's 59.4 pages!

Jody, I think being able to write without the commercial breaks must be liberating! I suspect that something under 60 pages would work. When shooting in the commercial laden world, one trick is to rerun a scene or two after the commercial break to bring the channel surfers back to speed (audience short term memory has gone to hell) and that allows a shorter script to be elongated. As an aside; short scripts are cheaper to buy and cheaper to produce.

I wrote this on an earlier thread, but it seems to apply here: "I am assuming this is a pilot you are writing. If so, there isn't a set rule for page breakdown. Some comedies read fast and because of that, they are long. Take a look at the length of the VEEP pilot script. It is 45 pages for a 30 minute script. ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT was around 60, as I recall. Also, figure out who you are writing for? If you are looking at premium cable or Netflix/Amazon, etc, you do not need to write in act breaks. They don't cut to commercial. Basic cable and network do, so you will need to account for them. If the latter is the route you are choosing, then watch some TV and see how often a comedy cuts to commercial. Each commercial break is an act break. Also, a teaser isn't a requirement. It's a choice. Many shows do not have teasers. It is up to you. Does it need a teaser? Would that make the story better? below is a link to the VEEP pilot. http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ina22/splaylib/Screenplay-Veep-Pilot.pdf "