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Course Description

The sitcom is no joke. It is a specialized, highly competitive form of screenwriting that has its own sets of rules, expectations, and required skills. For those wishing to break into TV writing, the front door is the "spec" script. A spec script, a sample episode for a current popular TV series, is an indispensable tool for selling your talents in the television marketplace. This course investigates the half-hour episodic TV comedy form and gives students the fundamental tools necessary to conceive and execute a sitcom teleplay.

Learner Outcomes

  • How to research a popular half-hour comedy, learn its secrets, and develop techniques for developing premises, story generation, outlining, structuring, scene writing, and editing - all in collaboration with other student writers.
  • How to write in the voice, tone, and style of an established show completing a beat sheet, episode diagram, and draft of a complete spec script for a current half-hour comedy show and progress as far as possible towards polishing it.

Additional Information

Students get an overview of the business of the sitcom, the current comedy series marketplace, and breaking in as a writer.
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Section Title
Sitcom Writing 1
Type
Online
Dates
Aug 27, 2025 to Dec 15, 2025
Delivery Options
Course Fee(s)
CE Tuition non-credit $1,095.00
Faculty/Staff Waiver non-credit $1,095.00
Drop Request Deadline
Sep 30, 2025
Transfer Request Deadline
Aug 27, 2025
Instructors
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