Unproduced Scripts for TV Series

I see that TV Tropes includes entries for unproduced movie and comic book scripts, which is great, but I have a question.

I have one unproduced script for The Outer Limits (1963) and two for The Wild Wild West, and I'd like to write them up someday. I'm just wondering where they would be indexed: the Unproduced Scripts page, the Recap page for each series, or both?

I'm assuming you don't have any actual connections to anyone on the writing or production teams of either of those shows, so...

I'm sorry if I'm just not seeing something, but the way you're describing these scripts of yours doesn't make them sound any different from just unpublished fanfiction (as in Unpublished Works) that happens to be in screenplay format.

But looking at the Unproduced Scripts index, the index appears to be attracting misuse, as only a couple of the works listed there appear to actually be scripts created and submitted with the intention of becoming a visual work whose text wound up on the internet. The rest appear to literally be fanfiction, or simply amateur script-format original fiction.

Could a mod and/or someone with more experience weigh in here?

I'm pretty sure that we've never approved troping things that don't exist other than as Unpublished Works. However much fun it may be to make up your own script for something and then pretend it's a real work, that is not something that we support.

Fundamentally, TV Tropes articles must be verifiable. That is, people should be able to independently observe the work in question to confirm that the tropes documented are indeed present. A work that was never released or a script that was never turned into an actual work fails this test. Other situations...

• An alternative script for a film that was written by the actual creators but ended up not being produced would count as What Could Have Been. If it is actually leaked or released, then it passes the verifiability test, but it's still not a published work. We have a policy that this sort of content counts as Trivia.
• Fan-made alternative scripts are fan works, and should not be troped as part of the original work. This is long-standing policy. Creating a "Script" subpage for a work makes it look as if it's part of the original, and this is not permitted. Fan scripts should be placed in the Fan Fic namespace as with all other fan works, or in Unpublished Works if they were never released to the public.
• Independently written original scripts that do not get produced would go in Unpublished Works.

edited 20th Jun '18 5:57:34 AM by Fighteer

Okay, let me clarify something. The scripts I'm referring to are not fanfics or fan works.They were written by professional writers who worked for the actual shows. They came close to being produced, but were passed over for whatever reason—just like Godzilla (1994), Number Two, Our Show for Ringo Starr, The Twilight of the Superheroes, or the Sam Hamm version of Watchmen.. In particular, the script for The Outer Limits (1963), "Little Mother of All the World", is a teleplay by Richard Newman (presumably this Richard Newman), dated August 16, 1963, from a story by Joseph Stefano, the series' producer, and Lou Morheim, its story editor. It even received a plot synopsis in the 1998 version of David J. Schow's The Outer Limits Companion.

On a related note, it's become clear to me that the Unproduced Scripts page needs an overhaul. Do we want to eliminate any of the entries from the index? If not, I propose we separate the index into professional scripts and fan works.

I covered your first paragraph with my first bullet point. Yes, at a bare minimum we need to split fan scripts from professional ones.

edited 20th Jun '18 6:52:16 AM by Fighteer

Which I have done. (Thanks for giving me the impetus to do it—the page really needed it!) Now on to my main question. If I do an entry for, say, "Little Mother of All the World", I'd like to index it at both Unproduced Scripts and Recap.The Outer Limits 1963. Same for the unfilmed Wild Wild West scripts when I get around to them. I just want to make sure this is okay under TV Tropes rules.

Primary work articles and their subpages, other than Trivia, should only describe content that is actually in the released work. It doesn't matter whether it's a professional script that ended up not being used or a fan-made reimagining.

We do not sanction using the Script namespace to describe unreleased works.

edited 20th Jun '18 11:36:48 AM by Fighteer

So if I want to write entries for these scripts, where do they go on the wiki, what namespace do I put them under, and where should they be indexed?

The only place I can think of that makes sense is Unpublished Works.

Edit: I can see the argument that a script is a kind of creative work in and of itself, but it's incomplete. Would we create a work article for song lyrics that never get recorded, for the design document to a game that never gets made?

edited 20th Jun '18 1:26:25 PM by Fighteer

I see your logic, but I have two responses.

1. I understand why you describe these scripts as "incomplete", but to me the point is debatable. True, they were never filmed, but they're complete as scripts; they were/are ready to go in front of the cameras. Also, they're complete as stories; they have characters, plots, story arcs, dialogue, etc. Yes, they were intended to have a visual dimension that never materialized, but their lack of that dimension makes them no less tropable than any work of literature.

2. As this thread has made clear, TV Tropes already has entries for several unfilmed but professionally written scripts. What's the difference between those pages and the ones I'd like to create? (Is it that the existing pages are all for What Could Have Been parts of popular franchises?) I think that if this wiki can have entries for Our Show for Ringo Starr, Revenge of the Old Queen or The Twilight of the Superheroes, it can have pages for unfilmed TV scripts.

edited 20th Jun '18 6:14:55 PM by MarkLungo

Well, the Script namespace seems to have become informally used for this purpose, and I'm not going to demand that it be shut down without more consensus. That said, it should only be for "professional" scripts — that is, scripts written for an original work that ended up not being used. Fan-made scripts for IP that they don't own are Fan Fiction and should be treated as such.

I should note that original scripts that are not associated with a published work (e.g., Bob has this awesome script for a movie that he wrote and dreams of getting produced some day) should not be troped as published works. I don't care if they're available to read somewhere; troping them grants them an undeserved form of legitimacy. They should be considered Unpublished Works.

edited 21st Jun '18 5:38:37 AM by Fighteer

There's also a couple of original scripts in there where I genuinely couldn't tell if they were for "Bob's pipe dream movie", or if they were basically just original Script Fics. Like how some amateur fanfic is written in script format without any illusions or intentions of becoming visual media just because the format is perceived to be easier to work with than narrative writing, except instead of being fanfic, they're original fiction.

edited 21st Jun '18 9:28:33 AM by CrystalGlacia

Fanfic scripts should go in Fan Fic, like I said. Original scripts... that are published as if they were works? I've never heard of this being a thing, but I'm curious where they exist and how they're being hosted. Would one put it on fanfiction.net, on one's personal blog, or what? What's the actual medium? I'd say Literature as a fallback, since they are written.

The Star Wars as if by Shakespeare books probably fall under this umbrella, as they're threatre scripts that are published but never really expected to be performed.

That's a book, hence Literature. Books of poems don't go under Poetry, they go under Literature. Same deal.

Fighteer, I totally agree with the first paragraph of post 11, and I'm aware that we need to decide what to do about the misuse of the Script/ namespace. However, I believe that further debate should be spun off into a separate topic.

Anyway, to return to my intended subject: I would really like to create an entry for "Little Mother of All the World". (I'll leave the unfilmed Wild Wild West scripts for another time.) As I discussed in posts 4 and 6, this is a professionally written script that came close to production, and is therefore appropriate for the Script/ namespace. I'd just like to clarify this question: Once I've written the entry, where do I index it? Recap.The Outer Limits 1963? Unproduced Scripts? Both pages? Somewhere else?

edited 22nd Jun '18 9:22:28 AM by MarkLungo

Well, you can index it under Unproduced Scripts, to be sure. As for the other thing, maybe a reference on the Trivia article for that series?

Sounds fair. Thanks, Fighteer! I'll have to start the entry soon, although there are a couple of other works I'd like to trope first. However, now I'm wondering: what would this page be titled? I'm leaning toward Script.The Outer Limits 1963 Little Mother Of All The World, which I think would be a good template for any similar articles going forward. Speaking of which...

One more note on the misuse of the Script/ namepsace. Sometimes, TV scripts for established series go unfilmed for various reasons, then circulate among the public. I'm all for these scripts getting TV Tropes entries—as long as we can verify that they were professionally written, and not just some random fan's Script Fic.