Advanced TV Writing: The One-Hour Drama Pilot and Serialized Storytelling

How do you keep viewers on the edge of their seats with serialized storytelling? This is the question we answer in this advanced course in television writing. This course explores the process of creating a one-hour drama from idea to pilot script and pitch document. We read scripts for—and watch—successful one-hour pilots and consider a range of topics including miniseries format versus traditional series, fact-based drama series versus fictional characters, storytelling for network versus cable and streaming, and plot- versus character-driven stories. We create a virtual writers' room where we develop students' ideas into series outlines and the script for a pilot, a calling card for any job in television.