News / TV

New York Television Festival selects comedy scripts up for development deal prizes in 2018

The New York Television Festival has selected 13 half-hour comedy scripts for its third annual NYTVF Scripts Competition, with industry executives poring over them and perhaps granting one or more of them with development deals after the fest this July in Manhattan.

Among the more intriguing selections, a script by FOX News/FOX Business Network’s Melissa Francis poking fun at her own employer (Fake News), and a sitcom pilot written by New York Magazine Vulture writers Jesse David Fox and Halle Kiefer (The Curse).

2018 NYTVF Scripts Official Selections

COMEDY (half-hour)

Age Appropriate [Live-Action] Written by Stephanie Bencin – New York, NY

  • After getting knocked up during their freshman year of college, empty-nesters Jess and Eric McConnell look to make up for lost time when their own 18-year-old daughter leaves for school. Representation: Epicenter

Bad Business [Live-Action/Animated] Written by Ele Woods and Jessica Haymond – Los Angeles, CA

  • Sharon is a corporate work horse. Elaine killed a horse once. There’s no reason the two women should be friends. But when their sexist boss forces them to work together, they realize they have a lot more in common than a shared desire to get to the top of the corporate ladder. Unrepresented

Beauty Be With You [Live-Action] Written by Natasha Vaynblat – New York, NY

  • After Tory, a small-time con artist, is denied employment at Kelly Rose Cosmetics, she resolves to wage war against the ‘feminist’ makeup company with sinister intentions. Representation: Innovative Artists and Brillstein Entertainment Partners

Big Times [Live-Action] Written by Chris Mast and Logan Leikam – Los Angeles, CA

  • A thirty-year old, overachieving ghostwriter from San Francisco and an awkward fourth-grader from Oakland pair up through a mentorship program. Unrepresented

Bury the Lede [Live-Action] Written by Michela M. Smith – New York, NY

  • As Nellie Cruz and her ragtag student newspaper staff struggle to investigate a murder in their small town, they fight fake news and propaganda to expose the ‘truth.’ Unrepresented

The Curse [Live-Action] Written by Jesse David Fox and Halle Kiefer – New York, NY

  • Alex has the perfect life on paper: a cool new job in New York, awesome friends, and, most importantly, a mature long-term relationship. In other words, it’s just about the worst time to find out that her family is under a century-old sex curse. Unrepresented

Fake News [Live-Action] Written by Melissa Francis – New York, NY

  • The President may call it Fake News, but beneath the pancake makeup, the insecurity is real. Anchors battle and bloviate, hobbling the show teams forced to support them, and thwarting executives suddenly stripped of their most familiar tools in the #metoo era. It’s a wonder this batch of boobs is behind the Most Watched Channel in Cable News. This is the only comedy written from inside Fox News Channel, the most hated, highest-rated stop on the dial. Unrepresented

Granted [Live-Action/Animated] Written by Alison Barton and Bonnie Dennison – New York, NY

  • Annie, an insecure astronaut, mistakenly summons a genie (named Jinnie) whom she can’t stand. The two are bound to each other until Annie can find true fulfillment or Jinnie can find true love. Two nearly impossible tasks… even with unlimited wishes. Representation: Artists First (fka Principato Young)

Iso Ball [Live-Action] Written by Mark Kramer – Astoria, NY

  • An antisocial college basketball recruit with a penchant for trash talk on the court earns unwanted attention as the university’s first Asian-American star – much to the disappointment of his immigrant parents. Unrepresented

Oak Ridge Patrol [Live-Action/Animated] Written by Nnamdi Ngwe and Amechi Ngwe – Los Angeles, CA

  • Exploring a fresh and unexpected side of African-American relationships, Oak Ridge Patrol follows two best friends and stay-at-home dads taking the law into their own hands as they create their very own neighborhood watch. Unrepresented

Space Family [Animated] Written by Brian Cross and Ethan Reed – Los Angeles, CA

  • When a loving-but-bumbling family discovers that they are the last surviving humans in the universe, they begin a hapless journey through space to restart civilization. Unrepresented

Welcome to the Conspiracy [Animated] Written by Zack Phillips – New York, NY

  • In this ‘reverse X-Files,’ two agents – a millennial couple with the gift of gab – are tasked with finding conspiracy theorists and convincing them they’re wrong…even though they’re not. Representation: Brillstein Entertainment Partners

Wildflowers [Live-Action] Written by Marie Cheng – Los Angeles, CA

  • This heartfelt family comedy follows an insecure teen and her Asian-American, immigrant mother struggling to challenge societal norms, as flashbacks to the mother’s life in the 1970’s intertwine with her daughter’s life in the present. Unrepresented

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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