Writing a TV script in a week
Oh, hi friends!
We started rewatching Frasier late last year. I remembered the broad strokes of the show: Niles and Daphne’s love story, Frasier’s moral dilemmas, Eddie the dog’s spunky personality.
But by watching it in order, I saw how each 22-minute episode sparkled. The characters were sharp, the patterns in place: “Sherry, Niles?” You could try to predict a punch line, but they were always one step ahead.
The show was familiar and comforting, but rarely dated. The Crane brothers’ cultural references were already 500 years old back in the late ’90s — watching them now didn’t change much.
I started to think: What would the show sound like today?
So in January, I sketched out a new Frasier episode set in 2020 and wrote it in a week. That’s what TV staff writers do, so the idea was that’s what I’d do, too. (By the way, if you ever want to read TV scripts for fun, there are thousands of PDFs floating around the internet.)
During the week I would stop myself: What’s the point? Why am I spending time on this?
But it was more fun to do it than to not do it, so I kept chipping away.
And when I finished the script, I felt good.
Then a second thought: Couldn’t I take another step?
I texted a handful of talented actor friends and a few Frasier superfans to come over for a reading at my apartment in February. We read the script and laughed and drank wine and I got new ideas. That felt good, too.
And perhaps that was the point of this project all along: Feeling good about making something.
Sometimes a project has a clearly defined goal, usually tied to achievement. Gotta get an agent, win this award, be published in that fancy magazine.
Other projects are fuzzy. You might follow your instincts or write for the sake of writing.
Or maybe the idea is in your head, it amuses you, and you think that one day you might share it with people you like.
Simple as that, you know?
And so here’s my episode of Frasier — this is where I think the gang might be during a possible 2020 reboot.
It feels good to share, and I hope it might encourage you to keep working on your own fuzzy project, too.
“When I think how I am not following orders to do what people think I should do, I am scared, but then I think that it is my own work, if anything, that will be remembered. I can’t work for other people. I don’t do good work with their ideas. So I’ll go on with my own.”
Just a little glimpse into John Steinbeck’s diary while The Grapes of Wrath.
Your Life-Affirming Link of the Day
Watching these meerkats watch this red river hog (named Sir Francis Bacon) is the best way to end this week!!!
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara