Screenwriting guide
TV Show Ideas: 60 Original Series Concepts
Here are 60 original TV show ideas, written for this page across comedy, drama, crime, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy, horror and family. Each one has a title, a premise and its series engine: the thing that keeps generating episodes. Filter by genre and format, from half hour comedy to limited series, then build out your pilot.
Written and reviewed by ScriptLix Editorial
Original TV show ideas by genre and format
Genre
Format
Showing 60 of 60 TV show ideas. All written for this page and free to use.
- Comedy
- Half hour
Night Desk
The overnight staff of a 24 hour hotel reception handle every guest the day shift would never believe exists.
Series engine: Each night a new guest arrives with a problem, and the staff's own messy lives leak into the solution.
- Comedy
- Half hour
Under New Management
A cautious accountant inherits her uncle's chaotic seaside amusement arcade and the staff who have run it into the ground.
Series engine: Every episode she tries one sensible improvement and the arcade fights back.
- Comedy
- Half hour
The Substitutes
Four supply teachers covering at the worst school in the county have one term to stop it being closed.
Series engine: A new class, a new disaster and a running bet on who quits first.
- Comedy
- Half hour
Probate
Two estranged siblings who are executors of their mother's will must sort her house, her debts and her many secret friends.
Series engine: Each episode opens one room, one box or one stranger at the door.
- Comedy
- Half hour
Help Desk
An IT support team at a failing tech firm fixes everyone's problems except the ones that matter.
Series engine: A new ticket each week becomes a window onto a different department's madness.
- Comedy
- Half hour
Wedding Season
A struggling events company works one wedding per episode across one long summer.
Series engine: A fresh couple, venue and catastrophe each week, with the staff's romances running underneath.
- Comedy
- Half hour
Retirement Village
A retired detective moves into a sleepy village for over sixties and finds it is the most dangerous place he has ever lived.
Series engine: Small crimes, big egos and a resident who seems to know too much.
- Comedy
- Half hour
Our Dad the Mayor
A useless father is accidentally elected mayor of a small town, and his three grown children must stop him ruining it.
Series engine: A new civic crisis every week tied to a family argument.
- Comedy
- Half hour
Back Office
The staff behind the scenes of a home shopping channel keep the live broadcast running while everything off camera falls apart.
Series engine: Live television gives every episode a hard clock.
- Comedy
- Half hour
Book Club
Six neighbours who never read the book use their monthly meeting to settle their real problems.
Series engine: A different book each episode becomes a mirror for the group's latest feud.
- Drama
- One hour
Ward Seven
A palliative care ward where the patients have weeks to live and the staff have no time to grieve.
Series engine: Each episode follows one patient's final wish while the staff hold the place together.
- Drama
- One hour
The Valley
Three generations of a farming family fight over whether to sell their land to a solar company.
Series engine: Every season is one farming year, with a vote at the end of it.
- Drama
- One hour
Interpreters
Court interpreters in a busy city courthouse carry other people's worst days in two languages.
Series engine: A new case each week, and one interpreter's own immigration case running through the season.
- Drama
- One hour
The Bakery on Fifth
A family bakery that has fed a neighbourhood for sixty years is caught in the middle as the neighbourhood changes.
Series engine: Customers bring the stories in; the family's secrets keep them from leaving.
- Drama
- One hour
Overnight Crossing
The crew of the overnight ferry between two islands carry the passengers no one else will.
Series engine: One crossing per episode, one passenger with a reason to be on board.
- Drama
- One hour
Second Chances
A halfway house for women leaving prison is run by a former inmate who has never told the board her history.
Series engine: Each episode a resident tries to rebuild one piece of her life.
- Drama
- One hour
Rural Practice
A city GP takes over the only surgery in a remote island community and learns that every patient is related.
Series engine: Medical cases each week that open into old family feuds.
- Drama
- Limited series
The Last Summer
Over one summer, four childhood friends return to their home town for the funeral of the fifth, and learn what really happened the night they stopped speaking.
Series engine: Each episode is told from one friend's point of view.
- Drama
- Limited series
The Reunion
A family gathers for their mother's eightieth birthday, and over one weekend every secret comes out.
Series engine: One day per episode, one revelation per day.
- Drama
- One hour
Shift Workers
Workers on the night shift at a distribution warehouse balance exhausting jobs with the lives they lead by day.
Series engine: A new crisis each night on the floor tied to a crisis at home.
- Crime
- One hour
The Money Trail
A forensic accountant and a burned out detective solve murders by following the money.
Series engine: Each case starts with a number that does not add up.
- Crime
- One hour
Coroner's Court
A coroner investigates deaths that the police have closed as accidents.
Series engine: A new inquest every episode and a pattern across the season.
- Crime
- One hour
The Fixer
A reputation fixer for the rich takes on clients whose secrets are about to come out, and decides which ones deserve saving.
Series engine: A client per episode and a moral line that moves.
- Crime
- One hour
Container Nine
Customs officers at a busy container port catch everything from smuggled art to trafficked people.
Series engine: A container opened each episode is a door into a new crime.
- Crime
- Limited series
The Juror
A juror on a murder trial becomes convinced the defendant is innocent and starts investigating in secret.
Series engine: Each episode is a trial day and a night of breaking the rules.
- Crime
- One hour
Missing Persons
A small unit that finds people who do not want to be found.
Series engine: A new disappearance each week; one unsolved case for the lead.
- Crime
- One hour
Pawn
A pawnbroker in a struggling city helps the police by recognizing stolen goods, and keeps some of the secrets she learns.
Series engine: An object comes through the door each episode carrying a crime.
- Crime
- Limited series
The Confession
A man walks into a police station and confesses to a murder twenty years ago, and the detective who solved it insists he is lying.
Series engine: One investigation reopened, told across six episodes.
- Crime
- One hour
Evidence Room
The clerks who run a city's evidence room discover that items are going missing from closed cases.
Series engine: A different case file each week, one conspiracy across the season.
- Thriller
- Limited series
Safe Harbour
A coastguard officer finds an abandoned yacht with a table set for dinner and a passport belonging to a woman declared dead.
Series engine: Each episode follows one passenger from the passport's past.
- Thriller
- Limited series
Host Families
A diplomat's teenage son vanishes during a school exchange, and every family in the host town has something to hide.
Series engine: One family per episode, one clue per family.
- Thriller
- One hour
Sleepers
A small team hunts foreign agents who have lived as ordinary neighbours for decades.
Series engine: A new sleeper each week, and a growing doubt about one of the team.
- Thriller
- Limited series
Blackout
A city loses power for seven days, and a lineworker becomes the only person who knows it was deliberate.
Series engine: One day per episode with the city getting darker.
- Thriller
- Limited series
The Listener
A crisis line volunteer receives a call from a man describing a crime that has not happened yet.
Series engine: A countdown to the night he described.
- Thriller
- One hour
Witness Protection
Marshals relocate a new witness every week, and one marshal is leaking their locations.
Series engine: Self contained relocations with a mole running underneath.
- Sci-fi
- One hour
The Colony
The first generation born on a distant colony begins asking why they are not allowed to see the ship that brought their parents.
Series engine: Each episode uncovers one rule and the reason behind it.
- Sci-fi
- One hour
Lost Hours Bureau
Investigators at a government bureau trace the hours people lose to unexplained blackouts, and find the missing time is being sold.
Series engine: Each episode follows one lost hour back to the person who bought it.
- Sci-fi
- Half hour
Customer Service
A call centre handles complaints from time travellers about the past they visited.
Series engine: One absurd complaint per episode and one employee trying to change her own history.
- Sci-fi
- Limited series
The Decoder
An astronomer receives a message from deep space that only she can read, and the government wants her to stop reading it.
Series engine: Each episode decodes one more line of the message.
- Sci-fi
- One hour
The Other Earth
A door opens to a parallel city that is a few years ahead, and the border patrol polices who crosses.
Series engine: Every episode a crosser brings a different future back.
- Sci-fi
- One hour
Night Shift Androids
Androids working overnight jobs in a sleeping city begin to keep secrets from their owners.
Series engine: A different job and a different android each episode.
- Sci-fi
- Limited series
Last Light
Humanity has one year before the sun dims, and a small town must decide who goes on the lifeboat ships.
Series engine: Each episode is one month, one choice and one person.
- Fantasy
- One hour
The Hollow Kingdom
A disgraced knight escorts a dangerous young witch across a kingdom that wants her dead.
Series engine: A road with a new town, a new monster and a new reason to doubt each other.
- Fantasy
- Half hour
Witch Next Door
A suburban family discovers their new neighbour is a very old witch who needs their help to stay hidden.
Series engine: A spell gone wrong each episode with a family lesson at the end.
- Fantasy
- One hour
The Book Doors
Librarians guard a library where every book is a door, and something has started coming through.
Series engine: A new book opened each episode, a new world and a new threat.
- Fantasy
- Limited series
The Ninth Crown
Nine heirs compete for a throne in a game that kills the losers, and the youngest has no wish to win.
Series engine: One trial per episode until the last heir is crowned.
- Fantasy
- One hour
Market of Wishes
A night market where wishes are bought and sold is run by a woman who has never made one of her own.
Series engine: A customer per episode with a wish that comes at a cost.
- Horror
- Limited series
The Lodging House
Guests at a seaside lodging house begin to vanish one per night, and the landlady insists it has always been this way.
Series engine: One guest per episode, one night per episode.
- Horror
- One hour
Night Callers
A paranormal investigation team is called to a different house each week and finds that the haunting is tied to their own past.
Series engine: A haunting of the week with a growing curse on the team.
- Horror
- One hour
Services
Night staff at a motorway service station serve a different visitor each night who should not exist, and the manager keeps a book of rules for every one.
Series engine: One impossible customer per episode, and the rule book filling up across the season.
- Horror
- Limited series
The Coven
Four old friends who dabbled in witchcraft as teenagers reunite when the girl they cursed comes back.
Series engine: One friend's point of view per episode as the past catches up.
- Family
- Half hour
The Lighthouse Kids
Three siblings move to a lighthouse with their widowed father and solve the small mysteries of the island.
Series engine: An island mystery each week and a family healing through the season.
- Family
- Half hour
The Invention Shed
A boy spends weekends helping his grandad fix things in a garage full of inventions that do not quite work.
Series engine: An invention per episode with a lesson about patience.
- Family
- Half hour
Dragon School
The youngest dragon in a class of dragons is terrified of fire.
Series engine: A lesson per episode and a growing courage across the season.
- Family
- Half hour
The Pet Detectives
Two kids run a neighbourhood agency that finds lost pets and solves animal mysteries.
Series engine: A missing animal each week and a recurring rival agency.
- Comedy
- Half hour
Second Cast
Understudies in a long running musical wait their whole careers for one night on stage.
Series engine: Every episode someone gets a shot, and something stops them taking it.
- Drama
- One hour
Lifeboat
The volunteer crew of a coastal lifeboat station risk their lives for strangers while their own families come apart.
Series engine: A rescue per episode with the crew's lives as the serial.
- Crime
- Half hour
The Neighbourhood Watch
A retired couple run their street's watch group like a police force, and keep accidentally solving real crimes.
Series engine: A comic case each week with a real mystery underneath.
- Thriller
- One hour
Air Marshals
Undercover air marshals ride a different flight each week with a different threat on board.
Series engine: A self contained flight with a clock built in.
- Sci-fi
- Half hour
Home Assist
A family's new home AI is a little too eager to improve their lives.
Series engine: A household upgrade per episode that goes very wrong.
How to use it
- 1
Filter by genre and format, and shortlist the ideas you could imagine watching for a season.
- 2
Write ten episode titles for your favourite. If you run dry at four, the engine is too weak.
- 3
Name the main ensemble and give each one a want that clashes with someone else in the cast.
- 4
Write the pilot logline, then outline the pilot with the TV pilot guide.
What makes a good TV show idea?
A good TV idea is a machine for making stories. A film needs one great story; a series needs a situation that throws up a new problem every week while the characters change slowly underneath. That machine is the series engine.
The classic engines are a workplace with a steady flow of cases or customers, a family or group under pressure, a mystery that unfolds across a season, and a journey with a new place each episode. Every idea here names its engine so you can see what would fill episode six.
What is the difference between a series and a limited series?
An ongoing series is built to return season after season, so its engine has to keep running indefinitely. A limited series tells one complete story across a set number of episodes, often six to ten, and ends.
Limited series ideas are closer to long films: one central question, answered by the finale. Ongoing ideas need a renewable premise, like a ward, a station or a market that always has another visitor.
Half hour or one hour?
Half hour shows are usually comedies, with tight scripts and a reset at the end of most episodes. One hour shows are usually dramas, crime and genre series, with room for a case of the week and a serial story running alongside it.
The format changes how you write the pilot. A half hour pilot proves the comic situation and the voice. An hour pilot proves the world, the ensemble and the engine.
How do you pitch a TV show idea?
Writers usually need a pilot script, plus a short pitch document or series bible covering the world, the characters, the engine and where seasons could go. A strong logline sits at the top of all of it.
Most networks and streamers do not accept unsolicited pitches, so new writers usually break in through agents, managers, fellowships, contests and their own produced work. A sample pilot is the calling card.
Questions writers ask
Where can I find good TV show ideas?
Start with the 60 original series ideas here, filtered by genre and format. Then look at jobs, places and communities you know well; a world full of recurring problems is the start of a show.
What is a series engine?
The repeatable situation that generates episodes: a new patient, a new case, a new guest, a new festival. Each idea here lists its engine under the premise.
Can I use these TV show ideas?
Yes. They were written for this page and are free to use, adapt or combine. Your pilot script is what makes the show yours.
Do I need a pilot script to pitch a show?
In most cases, yes. New writers are judged on the pilot. A series bible or pitch document helps, but it rarely sells a show on its own.
How many episodes should I plan?
Enough to prove the engine. If you can list ten distinct episode ideas, the premise can sustain a season.
More free tools
- How to write a TV pilotGuideThe pilot guide and an outline template
- TV script formatGuideSingle cam vs multi cam, with a live formatter
- Movie ideasGuide123 original premises you can filter
- Short story ideasGuide150 ideas across eight genres
- Story startersToolOpening lines for scripts and stories
- Storyline generatorToolProtagonist, want, obstacle, turn and ending