According to current Writers Guild of America guidelines, a television script consists of two distinct parts: "story" and "teleplay".
The story comprises "basic narrative, idea, theme or outline indicating character development and action", while the teleplay consists of "individual scenes and full dialogue or monologue (including narration in connection therewith), and camera set-ups, if required".
[2] Simply put, the script distinguishes the contribution of ideas toward the story from the actual writing of the dialogue and stage directions present on the page in the finished product.
[2] The format is structured like a traditional screenplay, but it varies with what type of television show the script is written for.
However, television dramatists, such as Paddy Chayefsky, JP Miller and Tad Mosel, turned such limitations to their advantage by writing television plays with intimate situations and family conflicts characterized by naturalistic, slice of life dialogue.