Alex and Nick discuss the importance of teasers in television writing and key elements that make cold opens effective.

What is the point of opening scenes? What makes a good teaser? How do you reveal character, story and theme in those first few pages? Are there teaser differences between comedy and drama?

Plus, we talk 2017 Emmy winners and the revamped Fox Writers Lab.

The Paper Team opens up...

SHOWNOTES

Content

Paper Scraps: Emmys 2017 & Fox Writers Lab (00:28)

1 - Why are teasers and opening scenes important? (11:00)

2 - What makes a good opener: tone, character, expectations, story, and world (14:55)

3 - Specificities of teasers: comedy vs. drama, length, pilot vs. normal episode (32:01)

Takeaways and Next Week On (38:19)

Links

69th Primetime Emmy Awards (2017)

The Handmaid's Tale (TV Show)

Lena Waithe

Donald Glover

Sterling K. Brown

Frank Pembleton

Fox Writers Lab

"Six Feet Under" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)

"Riverdale" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)

Glee

Election

"Scandal" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)

Firefly

Psycho

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)

In medias res

"Rick and Morty" Lighthouse Scene (Video)

"Breaking Bad" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)

"Lost" Pilot Opening Sequence (Video)

"Breaking Bad" Crawling Scene (Video)

Stargate SG-1

Goa'uld

Futurama

Cheers

"Lost" Season 2 Opening Sequence (Video)

"Lost" Season 3 Opening Sequence (Video)

Special thanks to Alex Switzky for helping us edit this episode.

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You can find Paper Team on Twitter:

Alex - @TVCalling

Nick - @_njwatson

If you have any questions, comments or feedback, you can e-mail us: [email protected]