Reddit reviews The Eight Characters of Comedy: Guide to Sitcom Acting And Writing
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The Eight Characters of Comedy is the “How-To” guide for actors and writers who want to break into the world of sitcoms
not necessarily. characters commonly get paired off for stories, see IASIP.
the basic wisdom is that there are 6 to 8 archetypes of sitcom character. (this book lays out 8: https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Characters-Comedy-Sitcom-Writing/dp/0977064123)
in multi-cams all of these characters often inhabit the same main setting (Cheers, Big Bang Theory), and sometimes in single cam too (The Office, P&R, 30 Rock).
and time allotted per story is usually a hierarchy. A story might be 13 minutes, B story 5 minutes, and C story 2 minutes (with 3 beats throughout the show).
also OP, check out Ellen Sandler's TV Writer's Workbook. She's teaches you to track # of characters/scenes. if you break down your favorite shows/eps or at least shows you think are similar to your idea, you'll get a sense of your answer.
Comedy is the most difficult genre in TV Land. Especially multi-cam.
I do my character and organic work like I would with anything else except that I'll recognize that I'm usually dealing with very high stakes over very small matters which is what makes it funny. It's also written in a very specific rhythm and contains a lot of script devices like threes, reversals, lists, builds, antitheticals, and callbacks that it's very helpful to know how to identify and execute. Thus it's a lot like scansion in classical verse or reading a piece of music meaning that unlike with some drama, I absolutely will not change a word or ignore punctuation because that would throw the rhythm off.
If you want to read a good book on how it's typically written and executed, check out The Eight Characters of Comedy by Scott Sedita.
> The Eight Characters of Comedy.
That's the name of the book. It's pretty much a must-read if you ever wanted to be in sitcom/comedy ensembles of any kind.
This is the price of three starbucks coffees.
I remember it having some really good notes on the logic inherent in a dumb person's reactions to situations.
There's a book written about 20yrs ago called the eight characters of comedy that breaks this formula right down.