Guest Author - Amy Ralston Young

One of the “musts” for a sitcom is a big event. Births, deaths, natural disasters…any large gathering of the cast - principal and not. If you want to write a big event where just about anything can - and in sitcom world will - go horribly wrong, then a wedding is up your alley.

Never in the history of sitcoms has a wedding gone off as planned. Whether the groom is in jail in tomato country for sky diving into a tree (“Full House”), or he simply says the name of his past lover (“Friends”), the wedding will appear to be in ruins.

Usually, the writers go with one of two different outcomes to close the show: either things come together and the couple has a memorable wedding, or something out of the blue happens to completely derail the marriage. Either way, it makes for one unforgettable episode.

Don’t get me wrong, the mistakes aren’t just coming from the groom. Brides get cold feet, mothers try to take over, friends get in the way; even mother nature has been known to throw in a hurricane or two. The possibilities are endless.

Weddings also provide the opportunity to bring back old characters (“The King of Queens” revived Lou Ferrigno and Nicole Sullivan), introduce new faces, or even change plotlines completely.

There are many ways to write a wedding, but in sitcoms there are usually four main types of “weddings”.

Shotgun Weddings
Girl gets knocked up by her boyfriend, her dad steps in to keep her “respectable”. Boy must marry girl - his opinion in the matter doesn’t count.

In the sitcom “The Golden Girls” Dorothy and her now-ex-husband Stan were married after he got her pregnant when they were in high school. In “The Simpsons” Homer and Marge marry after Marge becomes pregnant with Bart. The wedding chapel where they marry is named Shotgun Pete's. In the sitcom “My Wife and Kids” Juniour married his girlfriend shortly after discovering that she was pregnant. In the sitcom “Married With Children” Al Bundy literally had a shotgun wedding, when he was forced to marry Peggy by her shotgun-wielding dad.

All great shows, all great episodes (although most were shown in flashbacks).

Glamour Weddings
This highly anticipated, over-planned weddings provide a lot of room fro material. You can spread it out over various episodes, including bachelor/bachelorette parties, wedding dress shopping, meeting the parents, and then finally the actual ceremony.

One of the greatest shows to capitalize on such madness was “Friends.” When Ross and Emily fly to London to get hitched, the whole gang tags along - sans Rachel and Phoebe (who was pregnant with her brother’s babies). After a stress-filled rehearsal dinner, Monica and Chandler find themselves in bed together. They spend the next episodes sneaking around and eventually marry three seasons later. A whole new story line.

In season 7 when Monica and Chandler decide to take the plunge, everything goes wrong. From the shock of meeting Chandler’s transvestite father (Kathleen Turner) to the actual ceremony where Joey can’t get off his movie set and Chandler is no where to be found.

Lets not forget Phoebe’s wedding when a giant snowstorm hits New York and no one can get to the church on time. Joey takes on a new identity, saving the day.

Needless to say you can do so much with this type of wedding - think about the last two seasons of “How I Met Your Mother.” It started as Marshall and Lily get engaged and we see the relationship climax to the wedding finale and the whole thing sinks. Season two starts with a now single and broken-hearted Marshall trying to get himself together. Finally season two ends with a wedding to remember. Nearly 50 episodes full of wedding and wedding dilemma.

Drunken Quickies
These episodes are less about the actual wedding, and more about the aftermath of it all. In the now defunct WB’s sitcom “What I Like About You,” Valerie wakes up to find herself married to Vic - who was once her boss, but left the show two years earlier. One night of drinking led to the revival of a character and a new story line, as Valerie tried to get rid of Vic, but eventually falls in love with him and they plan a big wedding to end it all.

“Friends” saw its share of drunken ceremonies too. Ross and Rachel find themselves in a drunken stupor while the gang is in Las Vegas, and tie the knot. The next few episodes show them on a roller coaster of emotions, before deciding to get a divorce.

Renewing Your Vows
These ceremonies can be spread out over a few episodes as well. You have the show where the idea is introduced, the preparation show, and then the show where it all comes together. This is great for bringing up past mistakes, secrets, and hidden emotions. Remember on “Reba” when Van and Cheyenne decided to have a real ceremony after 5 years? Cheyenne wanted something nice and simple, Van wanted to invite everyone he knew - it’s good for business, and Reba ends up in the hospital. Cheyenne’s true feelings about where their relationship is came out and almost caused the two to split.

Weddings make for excellent television. Don’t believe me? Look at the list of shows based solely on getting people married: “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette,” “Who Wants to Marry my Dad,” “Who wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire,” “My Big, Fat, Obnoxious Fiancé,” “The Real Wedding Crashers,” and the newly announced “Age of Love.” Last season ABC launched a new sitcom “Big Day” that was entirely devoted to what all can go wrong.

Big events don’t get any bigger than an exchanging of vows.