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9-20-2015 ON THE DAY I CAME UP WITH THIS IDEA
As a writer that wants to work in TV, I get very excited when a franchise or creator I love has a new thing going. After fantasizing about being a part of the Muppet writers room for a few moments, I came up with the silly idea of just hammering a script out for it as quickly as possible. This Tuesday I'll get home from work at 9PM, watch the new Muppet show, outline from 9:30 to 10:00 and then write from 10 PM to 4 AM. I aim to complete 5 pages an hour and have the script posted up here by 4:30 AM on September 23rd. I don't hope it will be good, I just hope it will be finished!
9-21-2015 - THE DAY BEFORE
To clarify: this scheme is in no way motivated by an illusion that this gimmick will get me in writers room for the muppets or be produced for the show. This will likely never even be a sample I use to send out to contests and fellowships.
This is for fun, a personal exercise in speed writing and endurance. Further, it is goofy content for my website and social media that I hope to entertain friends with.
I plan to publish whatever comes out of my 6 hour dash and will likely never revise it.
Today to prepare, I will likely read a few Office or Parks and Rec scripts. I know enough about the new show to understand that it is stylistically in this faux documentary vein. I have never written in that format, and am happy to work that muscle/
9-21-2015 - 9 PM
I must say I feel like I cheated a bit, having done a lot more research today then intended. I read and studied PARKS and REC and OFFICE scripts to get a style feel. From there I ended up nerding out on Muppets stuff. I read a few articles, twitter feeds and reviews of the new show. I even watched a comic con panel including ten minute presentation video they used to sell the show. I now know a lot more about the show then I had imagined I would or intended prior to taking this endeavor on.
Did I feel guilty while I was doing this? Sure. I can't help but have ideas float into my skull, but I still won't write a word until tomorrow. And I'm sure actually seeing the first episode at 9PM tomorrow will probably erase any hack ideas I have buzzing around now.
The below video represents the bulk of what little research I did today:
9-22-2015
9:30 AM - Today is the day! I am headed to work and will be back at 9PM. I will immediately begin the process, watch the muppets, outline and then write!
9-23-2015 at 4:44 AM
I HAVE "FINISHED" . I am completely exhausted. The process had its ups and downs. Posted below is a link to download the script.
I will update with blogs tomorrow about what the experience was like tonight. I haven't proofread or check the script so I'm not even sure how I feel about it.
DOWNLOAD THE SCRIPT FOR THE FIRST EVER MUPPET SPEC SCRIPT
9-23-2015 - 11:11 AM
OH MAN - After a few hours of sleep I awoke to review the previous evening and its frenzy of writing. I scanned the script I wrote, struck with mixed feelings of pride and shame. I completed what I said I would and the results came out much better than they could have., but I will be embarrassed if this is the only writing sample anyone ever reads of mine. I quickly perused it and immediately found tense errors, grammar errors, spelling errors, formatting errors... ETCETERA. On Page 29 I even used the phrase "that's right..." about 100 times!
One of my obstacles was that around 4 AM, right when I was on page 30 and about to finish, Final Draft crashed! I had already gone over my self imposed deadline. My last save left me up through page 25, so I found myself with 3-4 pages I had to re-write. I slammed through these last pages and I feel really bad about that. Because I was about half an hour over my desired finished time, I left out my last "tag act".
That tag act was a scene I felt great about, with Miss Piggy interviewing Idris Elba. They fight about the authenticity of each others accents and then it would have closed with a clip from a TV show they did together : PIGS IN SPACE: THE NEXT GENERATION. I was going to have Idris Elba as his character from SPACE PRECINCT (look it up on youtube).
Having hoped to have time to proof and edit, I was dismayed about the crash and running over time. In the end I had to release the script as is with no time to proof read. So as promised, it exists now "felt warts and all". As I said on twitter: "Lots of error in #themuppets spec I wrote in just 6 hours. Marathon runners have to shit themselves to get to the finish line first."
If you have something NEGATIVE to say about the script I will share it to this page in the style of Statler and Waldorf!
9-24-2015
It is painful to see my own errors and to have vowed not to correct them!