Television Studies

Hollywood's premier teacher of screenwriting shares the secrets of writing and selling successful screenplays. Anyone fortunate enough to win a seat in Professor Richard Walter's legendary class at UCLA film school can be confident their career has just taken a quantum leap forward. His students have written more than ten projects for Steven Spielberg alone, plus hundreds of other Hollywood blockbusters and prestigious indie productions, including two recent Oscar winners for best original screenplay-Milk (2008) and Sideways (2006). In this updated edition, Walter integrates his highly coveted lessons and principles from Screenwriting with material from his companion text, The Whole Picture, and includes new advice on how to turn a raw idea into a great movie or TV script-and sell it. ...

The book's journey into the future of television begins with "You Are Here," delving into "The Great Convergence" of television and Internet and the vortex of change we all inhabit now.

Screenwriting for Neurotics is a quirky and accessible handbook for beginning screenwriters. Whether you are a student in a screenwriting class or just someone who wants to try their hand at writing for film or television, this handy guidebook makes the entire process simple and unintimidating.

Learn to craft smart, original stories and scripts for a variety of television formats and genres, including comedy, drama, pilots, animation, made-for-TV movies, late night, and reality television.

As entertaining as it is enlightening, Created By presents a stellar cast of 21 show creators who candidly talk about writing and selling hit television series: J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost); Alan Ball (Six Feet Under); Yvette Lee Bowser (Living Single, Half & Half); Mark Brazill (That '70s Show); Ilene Chaiken (The L Word); Larry David (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm); Tom Fontana (Oz); Tracy Gamble (8 Simple Rules); Dave Hackel (Becker); Barbara Hall (Joan of Arcadia); Brenda Hampton (7th Heaven, Fat Actress); ... They discuss influences: writing spec scripts; first jobs in TV; getting an agent; mentors; being staffed as a writer; the pitch; writing a pilot; putting yourself in the characters you create; rewriting; producing a pilot; marketing; hiring a writing staff; making a show last; TV writing vs. film writing; drama vs. sitcom; cable vs. network TV; what show creators look for in a writer; writers block; luck and much more. ...

US television drama has gained recognition for its sophisticated narrative form, and the role of the writer has been central to this. Here television writers share their experiences and practices of writing for highly successful shows such as The Sopranos, Seinfeld, Cheers, Sex and the City, The Wire, Mad Men, The Big C and Boardwalk Empire.

In this essential guide, Abby Finer and Deborah Pearlman of the Warner Bros. Television Writers Workshop reveal insider tips and tricks aimed at paving the way to better scripts by new writers. The book focuses on all aspects of writing for television, from the definition and importance of sample material to what it takes to be a successful TV writer. ...

Derided as simple, dismissed as inferior to film, famously characterized as a vast wasteland, television nonetheless exerts an undeniable, apparently inescapable power in our culture. The secret of television's success may well lie in the remarkable narrative complexities underlying its seeming simplicity, complexities. Kristin Thompson unmasks in this engaging analysis of the narrative workings of television and film. After first looking at the narrative techniques the two media share, Thompson focuses on the specific challenges that series television presents and the tactics writers have devised to meet them--tactics that sustain interest and maintain sense across multiple plots and subplots and in spite of frequent interruptions as well as week long and seasonal breaks. Beyond adapting the techniques of film, Thompson argues, television has wrought its own changes in traditional narrative form. ...

There are many books that assist writers with their craft, structure, and formatting, all of which are important. However, there does not exist a guide for writers to understand the evolution of their genre.

This essential companion offers invaluable insights and solid, practical guidance to those keen to write for TV and radio.

Sammy Glick is a Jewish boy born in New York's Lower East Side. He decides to climb the ladder of success by any mean necessary. Through backstabbing and double-crossing, Sammy fights to become the motion picture industry's top screenwriter. A rags to riches story about the world of 1930s Hollywood.