Film School: The Secrets of Sitcom Writing

Lessons about how comedy series are written, some common elements, and guides you can follow when working on your own.

Storytelling Structure

What do I Love Lucy, Seinfeld, Arrested Development and Rick & Morty have in common? Amazingly, a lot. Slate looks at the storytelling structures these, and many other sitcoms, rely on to deliver the laughs:

Obstacles are deployed to allow the protagonist to “display their signature character trait – the thing that’s funny to watch them do over and over, and makes them who they are”:

Introduce the main goal
Introduce the main obstacle
Plan to overcome the obstacle
Hit main roadblock, attempt plan b
The final shot (or attempt to overcome the snowballing obstacles)
Success or failure?
Long-term effects (or everything returning to normal)

Dan Harmon’s Story Circle

Of the four case studies, Dan Harmon breaks down the storytelling formula he devised for himself, which he utilised on his series Community and Rick & Morty, and which has been adopted as a template by many writers since. He explains how it works (via Adult Swim):

A character is in a zone of comfort or familiarity.
They desire something.
They enter an unfamiliar situation.
They adapt to that situation.
They get that which they wanted.
They pay a heavy price for it.
They return to their familiar situation.
They have changed as a result of the journey.

Here’s an example of how the story circle might be used to plot The Dark Knight (via StudioBinder):

Writing The Show About Nothing

While many other stories have used the story circle since Dan Harmon popularised it, argues Nerdstalgic, “In a way, at the most superficial level, so too does an episode of Seinfeld – just 25 years earlier.”