Mark Treitel (LA '91) had a good reason to watch reality television this summer: he was on it.
Trietel was one of the stars of Bravo's "Situation: Comedy," where dueling teams of comedy writers developed their sitcom scripts into sitcom pilots.
Competition to make it onto "Situation: Comedy" - which the Hollywood Reporter called "an appealing TV comedy take on 'Project Greenlight' that's heavy on the method and light on the madness" - was fierce, but Treitel and his writing partner Shoe Shuster beat out more than 10,000 entrants with their script "The Sperm Donor."
The duo was confident about the quality of their script, but skeptical that it would actually make it on the show. "It's ridiculous, you submit something in a contest," Treitel said. "But we always thought the script was really good."
The taping of the show lasted six weeks and the final product, the pilot, was 15 minutes long. "There's so much work that goes into doing a sitcom," Treitel said.
Treitel appreciated the creative freedom a television series can offer a writer: he believes weekly series, as opposed to movies, allow many variations on certain themes during the many episodes.
"You can do so much more and be a lot more creative," Treitel said.
Treitel was pleased with the cast and atmosphere on set. "We were so happy with the cast," he said. "They were all so happy being around each other. You could tell it would have been a really good place to work."
The cast for the pilot of "The Sperm Donor" included David DeLuise (formerly of "Third Rock From the Sun") and Maggie Wheeler, best known for her portrayal of the shrill Janice on "Friends."
The show's eight one-hour episodes aired over the summer, but were taped in November and December 2004. Treitel and Schuster had to wait for the audience to decide the fate of their pilot.
The other writing team's pilot garnered more votes, but the writing duo walked away with a good learning experience and greater exposure. Treitel said he now has "more Google hits than Sean Hayes," the "Will & Grace" star who was one of the executive producers of "Situation: Comedy."
Treitel has a couple projects in development. He's working with Zucker-Netter Productions - the company behind comedic classics "Airplane" and "Naked Gun" - on a feature film, and Mike Epps - of the recent remake of "The Honeymooners" - on another feature.
Tretiel studied biology as an undergraduate, but even then he was interested in writing. "Back even from Tufts, I always knew I wanted to write," Treitel said. "It was always my goal back in college."
Treitel wrote for humor magazine The Zamboni in its initial year of publication, as well as for the Observer. He took a creative writing class with English Professor Jonathan Strong.
After graduating, Treitel earned his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He now splits his time between law and writing with Schuster, whom he met at a UCLA sitcom-writing class.
Dividing time between writing and legal practice is a challenge, Treitel said. "You always have to make time for it. Anything you want, you have to work at."
The industry itself presents its own challenges to prospective writers. "Even with goals and chutzpah, it takes a lot to make it," Treitel said. "It's so difficult to get noticed in television."
"The reality is, unless you have sold something, no one is going to buy your pilot," Treitel said.
