I recently finished a spec for The Big Bang Theory.
I know that writing specs for currently-airing shows is considered a bit passé these days but I a) needed a spec of a particular US comedy to put into the Nickelodeon Writing Program, and this was my favourite of the ones on offer and b) I hadn’t actually written a spec for ages and needed to get back on the horse. I like writing for other people’s characters, especially ones I love. It’s fun.
Naturally the one that went to the Nickelodeon Writing Program was the one with the typos and missing character names. Sigh. Never mind.
After a little bit of tidying up it’s been out to readers and had a table read before a quick rewrite and punch-up, and the general conclusion seems to be that it’s reasonably funny. Which is what you want from a comedy, really.
As I say, though, no-one in the UK reads specs for airing shows, and very few people in the US do these days either.
Should you fancy going against the flow and checking one out, you can read the first ten pages of my Big Bang Theory spec here, or drop me an email and I’ll send you the whole thing.
And to answer an FAQ: There are no scenes F, G, or I; that’s the same way it is in scripts for the show.
One response to “The Simulation Interrogation”
Hi Piers,
Don’t know how I just ended up on your spec script, but I did, and I love it. I think saying that it is moderately funny is a vast understatement. As a fan of the show I heard it with the right voices and inflections, and I was laughing hard at a couple of the jokes… There is however one thing I would change… Sheldon would never claim that you can not travel faster than Warp Factor 10, since even in Original Series warp 11 was already invented, and across the various series there have been numerous times where ships have traveled beyond warp 10. Sorry to completely geek out at you here ;p