One of the most important activities that needs to be done before writing a spec episode of any ongoing television series is to watch every episode of it ever made. And to read as many scripts as you can get a hold of. It is relatively easy these days to get a hold of at least one episode of any TV series you can think of online. The point – to fully immerse yourself in all the elements that make up the series - characters, locations, structure etc.
I did this once before when I wrote a spec episode of Doc Martin a couple of years back. I watched the four series of it that existed at that point plus a couple of specials one after the other in order over about a week. And then having done that I watched them all again. Finally I choose a couple of episodes that particularly intrigued me and picked them apart scene by scene until I was satisfied I understood how everything interlinked.
By the end of this process I was literally walking through ‘Portwenn’ in my sleep , I knew exactly how each character ticked and had a good idea how they would behave in any given situation. And that is exactly the point of the experience, together with ensuring you are not covering ground previously tread. The result of all this detailed effort was one of the best things I think I have ever written. Not original perhaps, but well crafted. So what could I do with it? Unfortunately in the UK nothing as no one will read scripts for existing series primarily because they fear being sued by ‘writer crazies’ for stealing their story when a similar plot comes up later. In the UK they want to see your original scripts, they want to hear your ‘voice’.
In the US the system is completely different. The main way into the television world as a writer is by writing a good spec script of an existing TV show. This is then submitted to any other production company than the one that produces the show you have chosen for the same ‘writer crazies’ reason as in the UK. The other production companies are looking for freelance writers (the entry-level job in television) to work on ongoing shows, because there are so many shows and not enough good writers and they are obliged to hire a certain number of freelancers because of an agreement with the Writers Guild of America. In the US they want to see you can capture the voice of something you didn’t create yourself because that is the reality of the job you would be doing for them.
There is also an interesting practical difference. With Doc Martin I think there were 6/8 shows a season, a common number up to now in the UK. Multiply this by 4 and add in the 2 Specials and you are still under 40 episodes that you need to examine. If you pick a US show like say The Mentalist which is currently running on Series 4 you are looking at 23/24 episodes a season giving you close to a whopping 100 episodes to watch before you can begin! On a procedural show watching nearly 100 episodes in a row is not as much fun as you might think.
But you do start to see the structure, hear the voices and understand the people in them. And again that is the point of immersion. And this is what you would be doing for a living.
