It's no secret that Charlie got his "start" writing for sitcoms and other comedic TV series' in the 90s, and it's even less of a secret that most sitcoms from the 80s and 90s were pretty bloody awful, but what was it like writing for those shows?
Jay Abramowitz wrote for Full House, The Hogan Family and Mr. Belvedere, and today he stopped by Reddit for a fun and informative AMA.
Q: In all seriousness, was there a "level" you were told or expected to write to? Like traditionally newspaper stories are written to 7th grade average.
A: 5th grade would be generous. But it’s not like we were “told” to write to a certain level — we just knew. When the big punchline is DUH! as spoken by a 5-year-old, the mission is clear.
When I was writing FULL HOUSE my daughter was 3. I WROTE FOR HER. And she figured out that when the treacly music started it meant the show was almost over. That music signalled what we called the “heart scene,” when one of the brats would get lectured by an adult about how to live their TV lives and the edisode would get tied up in a simplistically near knot. (Source)
