teleplay
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of teleplay
First recorded in 1950–55; tele(vision) + play
Explanation
The script for a TV show, including camera directions and dialog, is called a teleplay. Before the cameras can start rolling, writers need to try and come up with a great teleplay. Most television shows and TV movies have a whole team of writers, and in many cases only some of them work on the teleplay. Writing credits are often split between the story (the basic themes and plot) and the teleplay, which includes the actual lines of dialog and camera set-ups. In the earliest days of TV, teleplay meant "radio play written for television."
Vocabulary lists containing teleplay
Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: tele
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But that changed once he finally read Michael Vickerman’s teleplay, which blends transcriptions of actual courtroom testimony, dashcam footage and Murdaugh’s 911 call.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2024
He also was credited for writing the teleplay to Arthur Miller’s play “The American Clock” in 1993.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 3, 2023
His predecessor, Daniel Schorr, had been denied readmission to the country two years earlier after the Soviets took umbrage at CBS airing a “Playhouse 90” teleplay titled “The Plot to Kill Stalin.”
From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2021
His 1980 BBC teleplay, “The Imitation Game,” set in Britain during the Second World War, features a young reservist named Cathy.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 15, 2019
This year, Richard Romagnoli directs Howard Barker’s “Pity in History,” originally a teleplay, about the English Civil War.
From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2017
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
