It's on my DVR and will get back to you. It has been much hyped though so I hope it lives up.

oooooh keeping me in suspense. how bout this - off the top of your head B4 you watch that curb, what do you recall being awesome single comedy eps?

1. No.
2. Not sure what you mean. Can you be more specific? There are lots of different kinds of pitches and different ways to do it.

Sry, got a little busy and forgot about this. Tough question but off the top of my head some of my favorites are Seinfeld - The Contest, Curb - Corpse Sniffing Dog, The Doll, Simpsons - Hank Scorpio, 30 Rock - Rosemary's Baby, Community - Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design, pretty much any episode from season 1 of Eastbound and Down, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace - The Creeping Moss from the Shores of Shuggoth.

Anyone who hasn't seen Garth Marenghi's Darkplace should watch it immediately. Six episodes total. They are probably on youtube.

just watched this last week, loved everything about it.

For pitching...some of the ways I've of are ambushing someone at a restaurant, a film festival or some other public place. I've also heard of setting up formal pitch meetings. Lastly, I've heard of simply mailing a script to someone.

Of the shows/movies that you know of, how did the script ultimately get from the writer (freelancer or otherwise) to the descision maker?

Starting a thread in OOT is the best way to do it afaik.

gimmie a scenario and ill write a line of description and a line of dialogue... or don't, whatever.

Setting up a formal meeting works if you have an agent to do that for you. Hard to do that without some sort of inroad. I would not recommend ambushing anyone regardless of whether it's at a restaurant, a film festival or a public place. You definitely don't want to do it at a restaurant that's open to the public in a city that's hosting a film festival.

If you don't have any way of formally getting in a room with someone, you should just focus on writing whatever your idea is, as opposed to trying to pitch it. It's much easier to get something done with a script that can be read as opposed to just pitching an idea.

My best advice is to move to LA and start meeting people so you have people to give the script to once you've written it.

That sounds like a good show or movie in itself.

Are you a lawyer?

One of my childhood friends wrote a spec script for The West Wing and got hired by Sorkin to work on the show.

Exactly how unlikely is something like that? [He went to Harvard and was a sharp, funny guy, somewhat obviously.]

No and if anyone says I am it is a lie from the pit of hell.

Getting hired on a show simply bc you wrote a great spec of that show is highly unlikely and generally not an advisable tactic. It's better to write a spec of a different show bc the showrunners will be far too judgmental of a spec of their own show.

Getting hired on a show bc you went to Harvard and are smart and funny is pretty likely though.

Do you know Jill Soloway?

I always thought that 'Courtney Cox's *******' essay she wrote was funny as hell.

what's the difference in pay for mid-to-senior level writers on shows that are on major networks and shows that are on cable. Like how much more (or less?) are the people on 30 Rock getting paid than the writers on Always Sunny?

I don't know her but have worked with people who worked with her and have heard them say very nice things about her.

Hadn't read that essay but just looked it up and read it. I laughed very hard at the sexual fantasy index cards, especially the slave owner one, but not so much after that.

Well, those shows aren't good examples bc the Sunny guys are syndicated and just got picked up for two more seasons and are a huge hit for that network so they are making a lot.

But if you took a first year network show compared to a first year cable show, the network writers are making much more, probably at least 2-3x as much.

This is a cool thread...missed it first time around and am now like halfway through.

Certainly a job that I think is cool. I spent 30 minutes today coming up with puns to tweet involving Scott Caan...for no money.

OP my gift to you, treasure trove of funny-sounding disease names (WARNING GROSS): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ous_conditions

How about some Mongolian Spot, Norwegian Scabies, Creeping Eruption?

I lol'd at Creeping Eruption.

Plz make sure to let me know when you work one of these into a show.

Bump. You working with Howard Kremer? What's he like?

"I wipe my ass with Bounce. Snuggle if I've had chili."

Great thread BTW. I've always thought of TV writing as a dream job, but starting at the bottom as a PA and trying to get people to read my concept while doing all that grunt work seemed terrifying... because I knew talented people who toiled at that level for ages, and it didn't seem like they were ever gonna make it.

Since leaving LA I went the semi-easier route of broadcast advertising. I get to write some fun stuff but it's kind of a constant battle.

I still think helping write and develop a show (or getting on board with a good one early on) would be a dream come true. I suppose I should stop ****ing around and write one.