Writing Themes and Values in TV (PT36)

Alex and Nick discuss the importance of themes and values in television writing, and how you can use them to your advantage in your own TV scripts. Why are themes and values important in television writing? What are some examples of both? How do you work them in scripts? How do you avoid preachiness in the writing? The Paper Team shares their motifs... SHOWNOTES Content 1 - What are themes and values? (01:20) 2 - How to write themes and values in TV (14:12) 3 - Avoiding preachiness in your writing (23:10) Takeaways and Resources (27:28) Links Survivor: Blood vs. Water Star Trek: Deep Space Nine "Far Beyond the Stars" (6x13 - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) Sons of Anarchy Everybody Loves Raymond Desperate Housewives "Earshot" (3x18 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Danny Strong Buffy Studies "Beer Bad" (4x05 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Scorpius (Farscape) The Outer Limits (1963 TV series) The Outer Limits (1995 TV series) "Chaos is a ladder" speech from Game of Thrones (Video) "BoJack Horseman Christmas Special: Sabrina's Christmas Wish" Resources "Philosophy of..." Books "The Philosophy of The Simpsons" - William Irwin, Mark T. Conard, Aeon J. Skoble Star Trek episodes with social themes Special thanks to Jason J. Cohn for helping us edit this episode. If you enjoyed this episode (and others), please consider leaving us an iTunes review at paperteam.co/itunes! :) 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]