Writing the Pilot: Creating the Series

by William Rabkin

Again, theme is your pilot’s and your series’ organizing principle; it tells you what fits into your show and what doesn’t. Let’s say you’re working on The Walking Dead, and you’ve come up with an idea for a story – I don’t know, it’s Rick’s birthday, and some of the other survivors decide to throw him a surprise party, but when he overhears their whispered planning discussions, he thinks they’re plotting to kill him. How do you know if this story works for the series or not? In this case, you probably have a pretty good idea when the showrunner throws you out of the writers’ room and tells you never to come back … but as a general principle, you check it against the show’s theme. In this case, the theme constantly asks if survival or civilization defines humanity. Is it enough to do whatever it takes to stay alive, or are we required to help others and build a community? So now we understand – the birthday cake idea doesn’t work. We can move on to something better. Hey, what if Rick has an evil double … When you have your theme, when you know what your series is about, you’re halfway to knowing what an episode looks like.