Script-of-the-Week: Married...With Children “The Stepford Bundy”

by Michael J. Prescott (48 pages)

Awards: None that I could find.

Points of Interest:

• Pacing: Quick in the beginning but slows down near the end.

• Screen Visibility: Minimal as is normal for TV scripts.

• Formatting: Quite standard with generous double spacing for characters and dialogue and single space ALL CAPS for action. Specific screen direction in parentheses.

• Dialogue: Euphemistic dirty jokes in the first couple of lines that continue throughout.

• Action: Action lines contain only the minimal amount of information required for the scene.

• Act Structure: Act One, Scene One. Act Two(typo), Scene Two. Act One, Scene Three. Act One, Scene Four. Act Two, Scene One. Act Two, Scene Two. Act Two, Scene Three.

Script-of-the-Week: Arrested Development “Pilot”

by Mitchell Hurwitz (34 pages)

Awards: 2004 won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series

Points of Interest:

• Pacing: Very Quick. Lots of short scenes.

• Screen Visibility: Minimal.

• Formatting: Traditional formatting. Subtitle or “Chyron” is used to indicate flashbacks.

• Dialogue: Extremely well crafted and well timed.

• Action: Description of character movement in accordance with the timing of many jokes.

• Act Structure: Act One, Act Two, Tag. 52 Scenes.

Note: Only a two act episode with a follow up Tag comprised of short “false prelude” to a potential future episode which never happened (or was never aired as part of the series).

Script-of-the-Week: Simpsons “Dacin’ Homer”

by Kevin Levine & David Isaacs(53 pages)

Awards: None that I could find.

Points of Interest:

• Pacing: Good. Episode starts with arriving at a baseball game, preliminaries of standard games and then the game itself. Act One ends with Homer being offered the job as team mascot.

• Screen Visibility: Minimal description of surroundings except when specifically linked to jokes.

• Formatting: A fair amount of description is used to direct the camera.

• Dialogue: Original and funny. There is a fair amount of Ad Lib dialogue peppered in the action category.

• Action: Extended montage sequence from A - Q.

• Act Structure: Act One, Act Two, Act Three. Approximately 60 scenes.

Note: The episode that aired had quite a few differences from the written script. It seems most of the changes were made for brevity.

Script-of-the-Week: Simpsons “Bart Vs. Thanksgiving”

by George Meyer (54 pages)

Awards: None that I could find.

Points of Interest:

• Pacing: Tight, with Bart ruining Thanksgiving by the end of Act One.

• Screen Visibility: Actual look of the cartoon is not evident but there is a lot of additional description pertaining to the characters actions.

• Formatting: Spacing between the end of a scene and a slug line is quite tight.

• Dialogue: Marge’s distinctive grumble, is described as an “annoyed murmur”. Some lines are just written as Ad Lib, in the action.

• Action: Use of Camera direction. Occasional ad Lib dialogue for some characters. Montage sequence laid out alphabetically.

• Act Structure: Act One, Act Two, Act Three. Approximately 70 scenes.

Note: Nothing additional to note.