Speaker 1: Hey, I wanted to let you know that I've launched a podcast called The Writer's Mind. This podcast is not about story theory. It's about philosophy, psychology, and worldview building so that you can become a more critical thinker and a stronger writer. Click the first link below to watch on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. When you're writing a sitcom, you have about 22 minutes to tell a story. And not only to tell a story, but you must use a multitude of characters, have a B-plot or two, and all while telling jokes throughout the plot. It's a challenge for sure. In 2014, Noah Charney wrote an article in The Atlantic called Cracking the Sitcom Code. In this article, he gave a minute-by-minute breakdown of how he believes sitcoms were structured. Links to that article in the description below. Today, I want to add to his ideas by looking at how his simple pattern fits perfectly within the story circle, showing the legitimacy of his idea as well as showing how versatile and useful the story circle is to a story of any length. Because sitcoms are so short, most of them keep a structure so tight that it can be plotted all the way to minutes of accuracy. Let's go through each stage of the sitcom and explain how it works. Charney starts off talking about the teaser. The teaser is an opening joke, usually 1-3 minutes long, that's used to bring viewers into this episode and give an idea of the tone and feel of the show. This doesn't really fit into the story circle as it is usually a stand-alone joke of some kind. In season 2 episode 8 of The Office, called Performance Review, we begin with an opening teaser where Dwight annoys Jim with his fitness orb and Jim pops it. In season 3 episode 3 of Seinfeld, called The Pen, we open how many Seinfeld episodes open, with Jerry giving us a few jokes in his stand-up routine. Both teasers close out quickly and we're off to the rest of the episode. The story really begins after the teaser. Charney calls this beginning the trouble. In this section, which takes up about 3-8 minutes, the character will face a new problem they must deal with for this episode. In the story circle, this matches perfectly with the first three points. Our characters are immediately encountering an unfamiliar situation and their want is to fix this new conflict. Because sitcom episodes are largely single episode stories, the unfamiliar situation creates the want for the characters. Their want is to fix this new episode problem. In The Office episode, Michael's boss Jan is coming to the office to do Michael's performance review, but the problem is that they recently made out after a business meeting. This is also where the sitcom will introduce some sort of B-plot. This is a story that occurs in tandem with the main conflict, but will usually get less screen time and is not the focus of the episode. The B-story for this episode is that Dwight believes it is Friday when it is actually Thursday, so Jim plans to spend the entire day confirming Dwight's false belief to make him late the next day. When Jan returns Michael's call, we see that Jan absolutely does not want to talk

Speaker 2: about what happened. In the Seinfeld episode, Jerry and Elaine visit Jerry's parents in their

Speaker 1: Florida community. One of their neighbors, Jack, gives Jerry an interesting pen. But this creates a problem. Jack loves that pen and Jerry shouldn't have taken it. Jerry doesn't think it's a big deal and decides to keep the pen. Jerry doesn't realize just how hungry the people in this community are for some drama. The B-story is the bed Elaine will sleep on. It's completely uncomfortable and will ruin her back for the entire trip. At minute 8, Charney says that the sitcom will move into what he calls the muddle. This is where another major obstacle blocks our characters. They can't simply end the conflict here or the story would be over. On the story circle, the muddle is point four. The characters are adapting to their unfamiliar situation and trying to get what they want as the story evolves in front of them. They may face another obstacle and adjust their plan to get what they want. In the Office episode, Michael digs up an old suggestion box. Since he has no ideas to present to Jan in his performance review, he wants to make some up quickly to impress her.

Speaker 2: And the B-story continues. Jim continues to prank Dwight.

Speaker 1: The stakes are raised when Jan finally comes to the office. At this point, the gossip about what has happened has spread around the whole office, but she doesn't know. In the Seinfeld episode, a neighbor comes to ask about the pen. This was Jerry's mother's worst fear. Now people are talking about the pen that Jerry shouldn't have taken from Jack. But if this isn't bad enough, someone even calls asking about Jerry's new pen.

Speaker 3: All he said was he liked it. I mean, nobody put a gun to his head. You're giving him back that pen.

Speaker 1: And the B-story continues. Elaine's back is now destroyed from sleeping in the uncomfortable bed.

Speaker 3: That bed, the bar was right in my back. I told you to let us sleep in there.

Speaker 1: Then you would be hunched over. At this point in the story, the main conflicts have heightened, and now we move into the stage where we have a strong turning point. For minutes 13 to 18, Charney says we move into the triumph slash failure. Here is where we find the final buildup and climax of the story. Charney writes, In the story circle, this is points five and six. The characters get what they want. However, it comes at a cost. Things don't go as planned. Something flies in their face after they get what they want. In the office episode, they have the suggestion box meeting, and it goes horribly. Michael has no ideas, and he tries his best to act prepared.

Speaker 2: You need to do something about your coffee breath. You need to do something about- Shut up, shut up, shut up, Dwight. Okay. I don't think you people are grasping the concept of the suggestion box.

Speaker 1: And then, Michael has his failure.

Speaker 2: Don't- Okay, that's blank. Don't just- Don't sleep with your boss.

Speaker 1: Jan realizes that everyone knows what happened. The secret is out, and she's furious at Michael. In the Seinfeld episode, Jerry gives the pen back to Jack. Jerry gets what he wants. However, this doesn't actually stop the conflict. Jerry's father gets into an argument with Jack, causing further conflict, and setting us up for the final part of the story.

Speaker 4: Isn't he supposed to be the emcee? Yeah, he's supposed to be the emcee. Well, this should be a very interesting evening.

Speaker 1: At minutes 19 through 21, Charney gives us the kicker. This is where we see how nothing has really changed in this world. The characters are dealing with their same problems, and are in their regular world. In the story circle, this is point 7, where the characters return to their familiar situation. Now, point 8 on the circle is change. However, in a sitcom, the change will be minimal, because the genre is built upon stories that take place in single episodes. In the Office episode, Jan storms out of the office, but not before telling Michael off.

Speaker 2: I just want to know, from the horse's mouth, what is the dealio? Am I too short?

Speaker 5: Michael has nothing to do with your looks, okay? It's your personality.

Speaker 1: However, Michael only really receives one piece of her rant.

Speaker 2: So my looks have nothing to do with it.

Speaker 1: And Michael is satisfied. We return to a familiar situation. Things may happen in the future with Jan and Michael, but for now, things are pretty much where we left them. And we have the final beat for the B story. Jim's prank worked. Dwight is late for the first time ever. Hey, it's 1220. Where the hell's Dwight? Um...

Speaker 3: I'm here. I'm here.

Speaker 1: In the Seinfeld episode, the family goes to the dinner for Jerry's father. Jack makes fun of Jerry's father in his speech, and they break out into a full-on brawl.

Speaker 3: You broke my dental plate. After this, Jerry and Elaine are ready to leave,

Speaker 1: which concludes the conflict for this episode and sets us up for the next one. However, we have one final joke that completes Elaine's B story. You could aggravate it. I wouldn't go anywhere for at least five days.

Speaker 4: Five days? You want me to stay here for five more days?

Speaker 3: You want me to stay here for five more days?

Speaker 1: Stories of all different shapes, sizes, mediums, and genre conventions operate within the same general framework. Noah Charney's explanation of sitcom structure fits well within our understanding of the story circle, showing that no matter the type of story you're writing, there are core elements of story momentum that you can use to keep your story on track and your audience engaged. Hey, I hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, leave a like and subscribe, and check out the podcast linked in the description. Thanks for watching.