What do commissioners want?

Commissioners. They are the essential gatekeepers of the industry: if you want to write a sitcom, then, at some stage, you need it to be commissioned. For this reason, they provoke feelings of fear and awe, and sometimes even resentment, particularly in new writers.

The first thing to remember, as a writer or performer, is that the commissioning process is essentially out of your hands.

You cannot control what is commissioned, just as you cannot control a commissioner's taste.

You might have a strong intellectual case behind your show, but if the commissioner doesn't like it, it probably won't get...