Teleplay

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Teleplay

A teleplay is a play written or adapted for television. The term surfaced during the 1950s with wide usage to distinguish a TV script from stage plays for the theater and screenplays written for films.

On the hour-long TV drama shows of the Golden Age of Television

Golden Age of Television

The Golden Age of Television is the period in the United States between the late 1940s and mid 1960s, a time when many hour-long anthology drama series received critical acclaim.....
, such as The United States Steel Hour
The United States Steel Hour

The United States Steel Hour is an anthology series which brought hour-long dramas to television from 1953 to 1963. The television series and the radio program that preceded it were both sponsored by the U.S....
, The Philco Television Playhouse
The Philco Television Playhouse

The Philco Television Playhouse was a live television anthology series sponsored by Philco and telecast from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the NBC series was seen on Sundays from 9:00pm to 10:00pm....
and Studio One, productions often were telecast

Telecast

Telecast may refer to:*television Broadcasting*Telecast , a Christian band from the United StatesSee also*Telecaster, guitar...
from studios with limited scenery and other constraints similar to theatrical presentations.

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Golden Age of Television

Telecast

Paddy Chayefsky

Sidney Aaron Chayefski known as Paddy Chayefsky was an acclaimed dramatist and novelist who made a transition from the Golden Age of Television in the 1950s to a successful career as a playwright and screenwriter....
, JP Miller

JP Miller

James Pinckney Miller , who wrote under the name JP Miller, was a leading playwright during the Golden Age of Television, receiving three Emmy nominations....
and Tad Mosel

Tad Mosel

Tad Mosel was an American playwright and one of the leading dramatists of hour-long teleplay genre for live television during the 1950s. He received the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play All the Way Home ....
, turned such limitations to their advantage by writing teleplays with intimate situations and family conflicts characterized by naturalistic, slice of life

Slice of life

Slice of life is a theatrical term that refers to a Naturalism representation of real life, sometimes used as an adjective, as in, "a play with 'slice of life' dialogue." The term originated in 1890?95 as a translation from the French phrase tranche de vie, credited to the French playwright Jean Jullien ....
dialogue. Such teleplays, if live, had a real-time quality not found in films (shot out of sequence), and they employed tight close-ups, low-key acting and other elements not found in stage productions.

Notable examples:

The Comedian
The Comedian (1957 TV drama)

The Comedian is a 1957 live television drama written by Rod Serling from a novella by Ernest Lehman, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Mickey Rooney....
(1957)
Days of Wine and Roses
Days of Wine and Roses (1958 TV drama)

Days of Wine and Roses was an acclaimed 1958 in television teleplay by JP Miller which dramatized the problems of alcoholism. John Frankenheimer directed the cast headed by Cliff Robertson, Piper Laurie and Charles Bickford....
(1958)
Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90

Playhouse 90 is a 90-minute dramatic television anthology series, telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1961 for a total of 133 episodes. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s were hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual, a weekly series of hour-and-a-half dramas rather than 60-minut...
(1956-1961)
Jim Henson
Jim Henson

'James Maury "Jim" Henson' , was one of the most widely known puppeteers in American television history. He was the creator of The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, and the leading force behind their long run in the television series Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and films such as The Muppet Movie and The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth...
's The Cube
The Cube

The Cube was an hour long teleplay that aired on NBC's weekly anthology television show NBC Experiment in Television on February 23, 1969. The production was produced and directed by puppeteer Jim Henson, and was one of several experiments with the live-action film medium which he conducted in the 1960s, before focusing entirely on the M...
(1969)
Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh, Order of the British Empire is an England writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and did his early acting with the Royal Shakespeare Company ....
's Abigail's Party
Abigail's Party

Abigail's Party is a Play for stage and television written in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a suburban situation comedy comedy of manners, and a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in United Kingdom in the 1970s....
(1977)
David Simon
David Simon

David Simon is an United States author, journalist, and Screenwriter/Executive Producer of TV series. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years....
's The Wire
The Wire (TV series)

The Wire is an United States television drama series set in Baltimore, Maryland, Maryland, where it was also produced. Created, Executive producer#Television, and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium television cable television HBO in the United States....
(2002)

In modern usage, a "teleplay" generally refers to a script written for a television series. Formats vary depending on the type of show.

The format for the average one-hour drama, however, at first glance looks virtually identical to a screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing works....
(and, in fact, is often a variation on the screenplay format standard for the studio producing the series, assuming the studio does feature work). The main difference between a screenplay and a teleplay, aside from length, is that a teleplay is split into acts. This allows the writer to control when commercial breaks will occur; commercials are placed between the acts.