TV Show/Cartoon Writing

[Colmforest]

I have an idea for a cartoon TV/Web show which I am going to start writing on soon. At the moment I'm just doing my own background notes, establishing characters and all that jazz.

So my question is, are there any many differences between writing a cartoon TV show rather than writing a movie?

I've toyed with the idea of making it a series with events that carry over into the next episode, but I suspect there's a reason very few cartoons have actually followed up with that idea. I can't really make it a sitcom because it's not about humans, so I'm assuming that judging by the generally successful cartoons of the past twenty years (Simpsons, Family Guy, Southpark etc.) that I need to come up with 12 mini-ideas for a series or something.

Does anyone have any experience with writing cartoons, and if so do they have any tips for someone who is starting afresh? Should I only bother with a pilot, or if I intend on trying to push it to someone should I have more completed episodes in the back pocket? And when it comes to the format of the script, is it a completely different ball-game or the same general principles?

A lot in this query, my apologies!

 

[Joker B]

cartoons get syndicated and watched in all orders.

in Japan, there are plenty of series with a deliberate start, middle, end. But not here.

American production companies don't like that, they would prefer to be in an annuity business. If the overarching plot ends, they can't make and sell more shows.

Cartoons are visual. When I worked w/story @ Pixar we never really had a script. Only drawings, and they were cut into an edit long before even one featured-actor voice was recorded (then a script would be produced -- when the story was already worked-out and in production -- so that the actors could read off of it).

TV cartoons of the Flintstones/Family Guy variety can be churned out with generic "limited animation" styling. Face it, these shows are radio talkers with an occasionally-important drawing (talking pterodactyl, Stewie in S&M gear).

A lot of American TV cartoons directed at kid demographics are written by people who wish they could be in live-action. They fill the cartoons with references to old TV shows that their audience doesn't know. Heck, shows *I* barely know. They don't work in live action because their work sucks. One long string of uninspired same-ol' gags.

Not all. But a terrifyingly large proportion.