Golden Episodes 1 - 6

BACKGROUND The scripts are positioned in the broad field of screen comedy, and explore this field through the lenses of gender and feminism. They speak to debates within comedy scholarship around the place of women; such as arguments by Linda Mizejewski that the 'lovable outsider' character, central to screen comedies is a male dominated position, because what is required "is profoundly at odds with the way women need to look and act in patriarchal culture" (2014). Moreover, as film scholars Andrew Horton and Geoff King both write of the marginalisation of comedy, it is "Rarely one of the more prestigious or award-winning forms, and often subject to critical neglect" (King 2002). These award nominated scripts address the prestige and critical gaps; aiming, through practice, to forefront a female protagonist. CONTRIBUTION As co-creator and co-writer of these scripts, I was engaged in reversing the sitcom trope of "the funny-looking husband and his requisitely lovely wife" (Mizejewksi 2014) and, in the development process, embodied arguments from screenwriting research scholarship around gendered concerns in script development. As screenwriting scholar Helen Jacey notes, "Everyone in the creative process of developing a heroine is going to be concerned about her audience appeal" (2010). I directly addressed that "the female outsider is a trickier position to negotiate" (Mizejewski 2014). The practice of writing and developing these scripts contributed to my PhD, and both ask 'how female perspectives can be written into the pages of a comedy screenplay?' SIGNIFICANCE The TV series produced from the scripts aired in prime time. One of the episodes was nominated in the comedy category of the Screen Writing Awards of New Zealand. The concept was successful in securing two rounds of development funding from NZ On Air, the New Zealand government's peak broadcast funding body. The resulting scripts were granted production funding, also from NZ On Air, of 1.3 million.