Saturday, January 09, 2016

Comedy 101 is back in session

Here's a fun weekend comedy lesson for aspiring writers.  Haven't done this in six years, but what the hell?  Today I'm going to show an episode of ALMOST PERFECT (the series I co-created with David Isaacs and Robin Schiff), and tomorrow I will break down the thought process that went into breaking the story.  You'll see behind the curtain.

As a refresher course for the two, maybe three people in the world who aren't familiar with ALMOST PERFECT --  It ran on CBS for two seasons (1995, 1996) and starred Nancy Travis, Kevin Kilner, Chip Zien, David Clennon, and Matthew Letscher.  Nancy plays Kim Cooper.  She's the showrunner of a gritty cop show.   She's also in the early stages of a relationship with Mike (Kevin Kilner).  The central theme of the series is juggling Kim's professional and personal relationships.  That's explored in this episode as she leaves Gary (Chip) in charge while she tries to impress her new boyfriend.

Watch the episode (today's homework) and come back tomorrow to see how and why we told the story just this way.

5 comments :

Bill Avena said...

How about a mention of Pat Harrington's passing? "One Day At A Time" and many others, and in 1967 he played The Phone Company. "By golly, I wish you hadn't done that, Dr Schaeffer."

Anonymous said...

How about we let Ken authentically comment on the passing of those in the industry whose loss personally affects him rather than request that he says something just because? I imagine it gets emotionally draining to keep writing about the passing of people, especially when the deaths are occurring days apart and there's not much more to say than "I'm sorry to hear that ___ has passed."

--Orleanas

--Orleanas

Greg said...

Hi Ken,

Great episode - could you possibly elaborate on where it was show/how it was shot (which backlot?). I really enjoy shows about shows.

Johnny Walker said...

Great stuff. I love these types of posts.

Gary Kelley said...


My favorite line: They should start the cutoff music the minute the winner is announced.