“Story is everything,” was Larry Brody’s motto way back when this TVWriter™ minion took his online workshop, and while I wasn’t surprised to hear this particular bit of wisdom I was taken aback a bit by how he applied it: “Story rules, even in comedy,” LB said. “Not only does your dialog have to be funny, it also has to illuminate character and advance the damn plot.”
Which brings us to this particular realization that appeared recently in none other than The New York Times:
by Jason Zinoman
“Big Time in Hollywood, FL,” a hyperactive new series about deluded brothers with moviemaking dreams, is packed with startling twists — sudden murders, unlikely romance and even a Cuba Gooding Jr. performance that reminds you why he won an Academy Award. But the biggest surprise may be that it’s a comedy in which every episode ends not with a joke but a cliffhanger.