Monday
by By Sarah McLaughlin
Today is our first day of production. At 11:30am, the cast, writing staff and producers file into the conference room at our production offices in Hollywood for what's called the table read. The cast sits at a table in front of the staff, who are perched on folding chairs, to read through the script. Everyone's looking at me expectantly, because I wrote it. It's nerve-wracking! What happens if the script bombs and I have to move back into my parents' basement and work part time at the Olive Garden?
To make matters worse, Topher Grace (Eric) and Ashton Kutcher (Kelso) are out of town, so the producers have two staff members/actors reading their lines. (This is Hollywood, where everyone's an actor, so it's easy to find a fill-in!) It's just not the same, though ‑- they don't deliver the lines like Eric and Kelso would. But we get through it, and afterward the writers regroup to punch up the jokes.
In that session, the 13 of us sit around our writers' room and everyone pitches jokes to make each other laugh. The jokes that get the biggest laughs make it into the script. For example, in this episode Kelso is pursuing Hyde's sister, Angie, who wants nothing to do with him after hearing about his reputation with the ladies. Since this is the first time the ladies' man gets rejected, we realize we need to give Kelso a joke about never having been in that situation.
So when Angie tells Kelso he's not her type, we start pitching Kelso's response. After about 10 minutes, one writer blurts out: "What are you talking about? I'm everyone's type. I'm like ketchup ‑- I'm good on everything." The room erupts in laughter. It's in!
NEXT : Tuesday 
