Five Ways to Open a Sitcom Pilot

A pilot has one job: make the audience want to stay in the room. The cold open is where that is decided.

The small injustice

Something minor is unfair – a cancelled coffee budget, a disputed parking space – and everyone reacts out of proportion. It introduces the whole cast in ninety seconds.

The rule nobody follows

Show a posted policy and immediately show three people breaking it. The gap between the rule and the behaviour is the show’s engine.

The mistaken identity

One character is treated as someone they are not, and decides not to correct it. Cheap to stage, rich in consequences.

The group decision

A committee forms around nothing. By the end of the open there is a flag, a chair and a minister of staplers.

The quiet threat

End the open on a line that sounds polite but changes everything. Then go to titles. Our pilot and season teleplays include cold opens, act breaks and tags written to broadcast length.