“This Feels Like A Feature”

How to make your TV show actually feel like a TV show

When I was a freshman in college, I joined a weekly writer’s group, where we would table read each other’s scripts and give feedback (something I recommend all writers do). This was right around the time I started really getting into writing animated television. I brought a new pilot that I had just written and was eager to get everyone’s thoughts. I was prepared for them to like it, and I was also prepared for harsh critique. However, what I was not prepared for is the main note I got: “this feels like a feature”.

‘What do you mean, “this feels like a feature?” It literally says ‘pilot’ on the title page. Are you stupid?’ I raised this point in such terms, however, my friends were not moved. The script still felt like a feature, and no amount of verbal abuse was gonna change that. The structure was wrong, the pacing was off, and the characters didn’t feel like a sitcom ensemble. That was nearly 5 years ago, and I think about it with every TV script I write. “How do I make sure this feels like a TV show?”

Repeatable Series Engine

When I’m toying around with a new television show idea, the very first thing I do, before I even start outlining, is make sure it has a clear and repeatable series engine. In case you’re not familiar, a series engine is quite simply ‘what happens in each episode?’ In a sitcom, like Seinfeld or Workaholics, every episode the main characters find themselves in a wacky predicament, and dig themselves deeper trying to solve it. In a police procedural, like Psych or Lucifer, each episode follows the main characters solving a murder. The engine is basically the formula for the show. If you watch any of your favorite TV shows (especially if they’re episodic), you will know the series engine by the end of the first episode.

I’ll give you an example: my writing partner Gage and I wrote an animated TV show that follows the captain and crew of a pirate ship. Every episode, the ship docks at a different island and the crew goes on comical adventure before departing again at the end of the episode. Just off that one sentence, you know what to expect in an episode of Kaltera. Establishing a series engine is the quickest way to make your script feel like a show, rather than a movie.

Long Term Character Motivations

Every character in any piece of media wants something. Love, fame, world domination, whatever. The key with writing television is making sure that want can’t be satisfied in one adventure. Let’s go all the way back to I Love Lucy. Lucy’s entire character motivation is that she wants to be a star. That dictates pretty much every decision she makes throughout the series. If your character doesn’t have a long term desire, the audience doesn’t have a reason to keep watching. Often times, this desire is justtttt out of reach. They get close, but never quite get what they’re looking for, which is why we keep tuning in. Sure, in any given episode they can deviate from their goal, but something always has to bring them back to the center.

On the flip side, movies tend to have a very tangible, singular goal. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy wants to get home. In Finding Nemo, the little orange guy and Ellen DeGeneres want to find Nemo. In Goodfellas, they want to do some bullshit mafia stuff, I think. I haven’t actually seen that one. The point is, at the end of the movie, they either do or do not accomplish their goal, and that’s the end of the story. TV shows need to be able to run for longer than that, and so do their goals.

Pacing

I know what you’re thinking: “Will, I did all that stuff, and my show still feels like a feature! Who is responsible for this? Is it the Government?” Well, dear reader, odds are your story is moving too slow. TV shows are almost always much quicker paced than movies, because they have to fit into a specific time slot. If you’re writing a network sitcom, you have to cram your entire story into 22 minutes.

On the flip side, movies don’t really have a set length (It used to be 90 minutes, and then Christopher Nolan discovered that you idiots will sit there as long as he wants you to, so now we have 3 and a half hour biopics). If your show still feels like a feature after changing the engine and the motivations, see what happens if you speed it up. More likely than not, it’ll make your script feel much more like a TV show.

Thanks for reading! If you wanna see all of this put into practice, check out Gage and my TV show Squiggleville. And if you thought this was an interesting read, subscribe to my Substack for more writing tips and articles!