Hook, Line, and Laughter: Sitcom Pilot Cold Open Secrets
What Do I Need To Make A Cold Open Work?
The first thing anybody is ever going to read in your pilot script is your COLD OPEN. What is a COLD OPEN, why is it important, and what makes one work?
When I started teaching Junior High School (Math), I was not good at teaching (or math). My supervisor became very aware that I was struggling to get the attention of the students so I could begin the lesson.
So he came to my room one day after school, and told me the key to starting every class expeditiously was to write the AIM of the lesson on the board before the students came in. Have the kids, first thing, copy down the AIM. Bam! You wanna grab them, engage them, make sure they know what you’re gonna be discussing.
Oh, and always write the aim in the form of a question. It always has to be in the form of a question, so the kids’ curiosity is piqued, and they wanna find out the answer.
It was an early version of a TikTok “hook.”
Then he very graciously wrote an example on the blackboard “AIM: TO LEARN TO ADD MIXED NUMBERS” so I could see what he meant.
I’m a pretty cool chill guy who tends to let a lot of mistakes slide, so I instantly said, “Reggie, that actually isn’t in the form of a question, that’s like, I don’t know, a double infinitive phrase?”
Reggie looked at me. Blinked. Blinked again. He was just trying to help.
Walked to the board. Added a question mark.
“AIM: TO LEARN TO ADD MIXED NUMBERS?”
Like, is that the aim? I’m not sure. I guess we’ll see. OK, kids?
A cold open is the very first scene in a TV sitcom (or drama), and it happens before the opening credits. You wanna grab them, engage them, make sure they know what they’re gonna be watching… and it doesn’t have to be in the form of a question.
It doesn’t have to be in the form of a question?
It’s particularly important in a pilot, because people are experiencing and being introduced to the show for the very first time (whether actually on television, or as is more likely, in the pages of your script). You have so much information to convey to them, and you can’t cover it all in the first two or three pages. So you have to make a decision about what you’re going to showcase.
Here are some things I think can help make for a good cold open, and that you can watch for when you watch pilots:
What’s the “world” of the show? What kind of life are the creators/writers exploring? Is it one that I will find interesting? How do they convey that?
Who is this show about? What are they like? Is this a person or people I want to spend time with (because the nature of episodic television, whether comedy or drama, is that we will spend a lot of time with these characters)? Why is your main character (or characters) more important and more interesting than anybody else we meet on the show?
What’s the tone of the show? Is it a broad family comedy?Is it dark and edgy? Is it silly? Realistic? Incomprehensible? (hopefully not that) A crime predural? Soap opera? Al of these have different tones, that will appeal to some folks but not others. So you wanna hook YOUR audience right away.
Are there some good hard jokes in the first couple of minutes? Assuming this is a comedy, I wanna know that the person writing and creating it is funny in a way that I find funny (remember that comedy is like food- some people like burgers, some people like pizza, some people like both, some people are vegan).
Keep all of these things in mind as you’re writing your cold open.
If you’re interested in TV pilots, whether as a writer or just as a fan, I do a podcast with my friend Andy Secunda, called “CoPilots.” Andy and I have comedied together since the late 90’s, and he’s gone on to be a writer and producer on shows like The Goldbergs and Schooled. We talk about good and bad pilots, weird pilots, why pilots work and why they don’t. And we have great guests- people like John Hodgman, Dana Schwarz, Mike Mitchell, Ronnie Adrian… you know, people like that. You can subscribe to the podcast here.
What pilots have some of your favorite cold opens? Why?