Speaker 1: You have an idea for a TV show, you can see it so clearly in your head, it's funny, emotional, and exciting. Things that do for love. That's a great start, but how do you turn this kernel of an idea into the brilliant pilot it needs to be? We'll show you how to start that process and help guide you through the steps that lead to actually writing the script. So let's take the time to answer a simple question, is my concept a story? This is Matt Rickert. Matt has worked on Arrested Development, Lady Dynamite, Futureman, and a bunch of others that people don't know. He's getting Brad Stephens' face tattooed on his back.

Speaker 2: Favorite part of the writing process? Probably when you get free lunch.

Speaker 1: Often times you'll hear executives talk about how an idea doesn't have any legs.

Speaker 2: When someone says a show has legs, that means that this show will be entertaining and interesting beyond the pilot.

Speaker 1: Not every great idea is a great story with an active, engaging plot. As the famous quote from E.M. Forster goes, The king died, and then the queen died, is a story. The king died, and then queen died of grief, is plot. Every story starts at the beginning, right? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The best pilots tend to start at the end. All of these moments are endings, but they're also dramatic new beginnings. You want to take your idea and frame it in a way that ends a normal state of life to begin a new course, and then ends again with a compelling question. This way you can build a backstory with strong conflict and drive, while teasing a larger arc that drives the show's future.

Speaker 2: Laying the groundwork for an entire series of pilot is something that every pilot tries to do, but very few actually do it, and that's why a lot of pilots don't get picked up to series. A lot of that has to do with developing the world and developing the characters as a way to very clearly indicate, like, this is who this person is, and this is what they want. You have to have a global drive for that character to go over the series, and then that way you can kind of give people a sense of like, this is probably where the show is going to go.

Speaker 1: For example, Cheers is considered by many writers to be a perfect pilot.

Speaker 2: One of the reasons why I love it is because it's so tight, and everything that happens happens for a reason, and the way that you're introduced to the people is apparent of how it's going to be for the rest of the series.

Speaker 1: The show centers on Sam and Diane's romance. It's the will-they-won't-they premise of most rom-coms. But when it started, Diane's story was with...

Speaker 3: Thunder. This is crazy. Diane, we're about to be married.

Speaker 1: She was his plucky TA, and the two were on their way to elope somewhere tropical. But when that ended...

Speaker 3: I'll go now and get the ring from Barbara.

Speaker 1: She had to begin again.

Speaker 2: Her turn going from the first act to the end of the second act, when she actually takes the job to be waitress at Cheers. She could work here. Watching that happen, and watching the way she interacts with Sam in that process, clearly sets up where the show's going to go, and what we're going to see down the road.

Speaker 3: Carla, what am I making? Two vodka gimlets. One straight up, one blended rocks. One old Bushmill Irish decaf. Hold the sugar. Ending. Beginning.

Speaker 1: Ending. We end an old life, to begin a new one. To end the pilot with a question that establishes the rest of the show. Will they, or won't they? Let's go from Boston to Kentucky, and check in with Raelynn Givens from Justified. But first, Raelynn is forced to end his nice sunny life in Miami, when this happens. Raelynn. And Raelynn dies from the millennial-illness of the remote Time Marine. So he has to bolt, and begin a new live in his hometown, making up pieces of a life he'd left behind. Raelynn. Here's an ensemble show where the town plays a critical character.

Speaker 2: The pilot started at the beginning of the first day of the football season. And so you got to see through the media and this media craze, like who was who and what they wanted and what they were trying to accomplish and you got to get this whole rundown of the characters in the world within like the first 10 minutes just because of the way that they set it up on get a lot of media and a lot of press asking all these expository questions.

Speaker 4: Tim, I don't mean to be inappropriate, but I do smell alcohol on your breath.

Speaker 2: Have you been drinking? No. So if there's kind of like a normal day in the life, that's a good place to really introduce the characters and what they do.

Speaker 1: But this moment right here. Fumble on the player, fumble, loose, get the ball. That's the end of the story of Jason Street, the star quarterback, and the beginning of a story no one expected. He steps up, he holds that football, can this kid throw the ball? He's got it. He's got it. Panthers win. Panthers win. Which ends the pilot with the cliffhanger question. Who will Jason Street be from now on? As you progress through the series, you'll see that the more groundwork you lay before you start scripting, the stronger your pilot will be. Up next, we'll show you how to develop strong characters that take these legs you've developed and run with them. Make sure you use our screenwriting software while developing your show and characters, and tell all your friends about how Cheers is the best pilot ever made. Cheers is filmed before a live studio audience. Or was it Breaking Bad? We gotta clean this up.