Hi friend! This post is a continuation of a series of posts on creative writing as a team. Have you read the other posts?
I am an unabashed fan of the Simpsons. I think overall this show has been one of the consistently funny and best written shows on television. Nearly everyone seems to agree that this applies to the “classic ” years of the series. Where these years land may be debatable, but some range within the first ten years is usually considered among the best. Years 3-8 are highly lauded.
There was a great series recently on Splitsider.com. I would highly suggest you check it out, even if you’re not a big Simpsons fan, but especially if you are. As a part of the series, Simpsons writer Bill Oakley took time to explain how their writing process worked, as well as break down the whole process for one particular episode.
The Simpsons From Pitch to Screen
There are parts of the Simpsons writing process that resemble what happens when joke writing at the Onion. At the Onion there is a weekly meeting to pitch and work through hundreds of headline ideas. When this team was writing for the Simpsons, there was a yearly story retreat where all of the writers had prepared story pitches for the producers. They would explain and pitch each story in front of the group.
One difference (between this and The Onion) is how much the ideas were thought through. These were less shotgun approaches, like the Onion, and more sharpshooter planned attacks. Writers were expected to have well thought out story ideas that would not waste the time of the producers. They weren’t expected to have a draft done, but they needed to have a solid concept. The story should have a definite beginning, middle, and ending. Typically the pitches would take a least 10 minutes.
At the retreat story ideas that had promise would be reworked and refined. Once this was done, the story would go back to the writer to work up into a first draft.
Cut Cut Cut Cut the Story
Here comes the painful part of creative writing for some of us. The original draft would usually be 62 pages. A broadcast script would usually be about 42 pages. That is ten pages of story and jokes lost forever. As a writer than can be painful to see, and it can be very hard to trim the story that much and keep it together.
What happens is lots of real refining. The original story is trimmed and polished into a more clear, clean, beautiful nugget of jokes and plot. One thing the writers mentioned is that they usually wrote 3 or 4 more jokes than they needed per scene.
Would this gag be as funny surrounded by 3 or 4 more jokes?
A lot of jokes were cut, but not because they were bad jokes. They were cut because the story needed to be tightened up, and everything had to serve the best interest of the plot. This goes right along with what we discussed last week: good stuff has got to go so the great stuff can really stand out.
For Better Or Worse, Til Script Do We Part
Is the process always perfect? No, not always. There is a great article as part of the series on Splitsider that covers the process on what particular story: “Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song.” After revisiting the story, the writers felt like it actually lost quite a bit in the editing. The original script could have been an hour long episode. Much of what was cut changed the character of the plot and the spirit of many of the jokes.
This can be encouraging and also a cautionary tale. On the one hand, we can lose a lot in making cuts to a story. On the other hand, a story that doesn’t work can be dramatically improved the same way. Precision cuts and edits can totally recreate a joke or story. How this whole process works can vary a lot depending on who is running the show and who is in the room.
What Are the “Take-Aways”
There are a few creative process principles we can put to work for us here.
Planning for a pitch helps you to build a quality idea
Consensus from a talented group is usually correct
Writing too much and then cutting away can build a slick, sharp final product
Who we put “in the room” can dramatically effect the final product
As referenced above, HUGE information and research credit for this post goes to Splitsider.com and Classic Simspons Week.
Creative Process: How Classic Simpsons Episodes Were Written
Hi friend! This post is a continuation of a series of posts on creative writing as a team. Have you read the other posts?
I am an unabashed fan of the Simpsons. I think overall this show has been one of the consistently funny and best written shows on television. Nearly everyone seems to agree that this applies to the “classic ” years of the series. Where these years land may be debatable, but some range within the first ten years is usually considered among the best. Years 3-8 are highly lauded.
There was a great series recently on Splitsider.com. I would highly suggest you check it out, even if you’re not a big Simpsons fan, but especially if you are. As a part of the series, Simpsons writer Bill Oakley took time to explain how their writing process worked, as well as break down the whole process for one particular episode.
The Simpsons From Pitch to Screen
There are parts of the Simpsons writing process that resemble what happens when joke writing at the Onion. At the Onion there is a weekly meeting to pitch and work through hundreds of headline ideas. When this team was writing for the Simpsons, there was a yearly story retreat where all of the writers had prepared story pitches for the producers. They would explain and pitch each story in front of the group.
One difference (between this and The Onion) is how much the ideas were thought through. These were less shotgun approaches, like the Onion, and more sharpshooter planned attacks. Writers were expected to have well thought out story ideas that would not waste the time of the producers. They weren’t expected to have a draft done, but they needed to have a solid concept. The story should have a definite beginning, middle, and ending. Typically the pitches would take a least 10 minutes.
At the retreat story ideas that had promise would be reworked and refined. Once this was done, the story would go back to the writer to work up into a first draft.
Cut Cut Cut Cut the Story
Here comes the painful part of creative writing for some of us. The original draft would usually be 62 pages. A broadcast script would usually be about 42 pages. That is ten pages of story and jokes lost forever. As a writer than can be painful to see, and it can be very hard to trim the story that much and keep it together.
What happens is lots of real refining. The original story is trimmed and polished into a more clear, clean, beautiful nugget of jokes and plot. One thing the writers mentioned is that they usually wrote 3 or 4 more jokes than they needed per scene.
Would this gag be as funny surrounded by 3 or 4 more jokes?
A lot of jokes were cut, but not because they were bad jokes. They were cut because the story needed to be tightened up, and everything had to serve the best interest of the plot. This goes right along with what we discussed last week: good stuff has got to go so the great stuff can really stand out.
For Better Or Worse, Til Script Do We Part
Is the process always perfect? No, not always. There is a great article as part of the series on Splitsider that covers the process on what particular story: “Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song.” After revisiting the story, the writers felt like it actually lost quite a bit in the editing. The original script could have been an hour long episode. Much of what was cut changed the character of the plot and the spirit of many of the jokes.
This can be encouraging and also a cautionary tale. On the one hand, we can lose a lot in making cuts to a story. On the other hand, a story that doesn’t work can be dramatically improved the same way. Precision cuts and edits can totally recreate a joke or story. How this whole process works can vary a lot depending on who is running the show and who is in the room.
What Are the “Take-Aways”
There are a few creative process principles we can put to work for us here.
Planning for a pitch helps you to build a quality idea
Consensus from a talented group is usually correct
Writing too much and then cutting away can build a slick, sharp final product
Who we put “in the room” can dramatically effect the final product
As referenced above, HUGE information and research credit for this post goes to Splitsider.com and Classic Simspons Week.
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