TV Tuesday: TV Pilot Script How To’s!

Time for TV TUESDAY!

Welcome to TV Tuesday! Today, I wanted to blog about a fantastic book I read recently. I found out about it via Twitter and from several TV writer friends (including some EUREKA colleagues) who all raved about this book. It’s called WRITING THE PILOT, and it’s an eBook by William Rabkin, a veteran movie & TV screenwriter who also teaches creative writing at UC Riverside-Palm Desert’s low-residency MFA program.

It’s one of the best books I’ve read on how TV pilots/series are created, and why some TV series work and others fail. I can’t recommend this book enough, especially for TV writers who are interested in working on their own spec pilot script.

(Keep reading after the break for more info…)

Writing the Pilot by William Rabkin (moon & sun & whiskey inc. 2011)

I’ve learned a lot about writing for television since I attended the Warner Bros. TV Drama Writing Workshop in 2002 and from my jobs as a TV writer on everything from The West Wing to Eureka. (For more info on the workshop, go here: http://writersworkshop.warnerbros.com/web/index.jsp)

But this new eBook by Rabkin really explained to me, in clear terms and thorough analysis, about the science behind writing a successful television pilot script. He analyzes current shows, from Life on Mars to Fringe to LOST, analyzing why one show worked and why the other didn’t. He helped me realize the difference between a TV and movie script, and how storytelling for a TV series works. You think I’d already know this from my own TV writing experience, huh? 🙂 Actually, I did know a lot of this before I read his book, but there’s something so enlightening and “fresh” about how Rabkin encapsulates what works and what doesn’t work for a successful TV pilot.

I highly recommend this book for aspiring and even veteran TV writers. If you don’t have an eBook reader (I still am old fashioned and buy books at actual stores, LOL!), you can download a free Kindle app for your iPhone or computer via Amazon (which is what I had to do to read the book).

For more info on Rabkin, here is his bio from his website:

“William Rabkin is the author of the novel Psych: A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Read and the forthcoming Psych: Mind Over Magic, and will soon be the author of Psych: I Have No Idea What My Third Book is Going To Be But It Will Be Published January, 2010. To warm up for the Psych novels, he wrote and/or produced something like 300 hours of dramatic television. The first short film he directed, Voices Carry starring Melora Hardin, played at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival. William is an assistant professor  of creative writing in UC Riverside-Palm Desert’s low-residency MFA program.”

Some helpful links below:

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-the-Pilot-ebook/dp/B004UWPQOE

http://williamrabkin.com/

http://writingthepilot.com/

In addition, Rabkin wrote a book called SUCCESSFUL TELEVISION WRITING (Wiley 2003) with Lee Goldberg, who also has a great blog to follow as well. More links for that:

http://www.amazon.com/Successful-Television-Writing-Lee-Goldberg/dp/0471431680

http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/

http://leegoldberg.typepad.com/a_writers_life/2011/07/i-hate-william-rabkin.html

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Hope you enjoyed today’s TV Tuesday blog. Check out the Rabkin book and let me know what you think! What are your favorite TV pilots? What shows have worked for you (or haven’t), and why and why not?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s WRITER WEDNESDAY. And a reminder – for the month of September’s “FOOIE FRIDAY” blogs, we are celebrating the release of my friend Robin Mather‘s latest book,“The Feast Nearby: How I lost my job, buried a marriage, and found my way by keeping chickens, foraging, preserving, bartering, and eating locally (all on $40 a week)” (Ten Speed Press 2011). We have a two-part Q&A with her (to be posted Friday 9/9 and Friday 9/16, plus a special recipe from Robin on 9/23 and the winner announcement on Friday 9/30). We are going to give away a signed copy of her book at a random drawing to be held on Friday September 30th. So please read these Foodie Friday blogs all month and if you want to be included in the contest drawing, please post a comment on a Foodie Friday blog or email me with your contact info. (For more info on Robin Mather, go here: http://thefeastnearby.com/)

Until the next blog, Happy Writing! WRITE LIKE YOU MEAN IT! 🙂