Also known as teaser · cold open teaser
A teaser before titles — common in TV pilots and episodes — that hooks the audience before the episode’s formal act structure begins.
A cold open should pose a question, drop us into a crisis, or establish tone hard enough that the title card feels like a breath. If it only restates the series premise without a specific incident, it is usually a prologue wearing a teaser label, and readers feel the stall before Act One begins.
In TV, the cold open is often judged before anyone forgives a slower act one. Make the incident particular: a choice, a threat, a comic engine already spinning. Generic "ordinary day until..." throat-clearing wastes the only minutes you have before the audience decides whether to stay with the show.
On the script page, the cold open is simply the first scene work before ACT ONE -- not a separate marketing object. Titles and show openers are post and production concerns. Write the hook as drama with real stakes, then let act structure take over once the promise of the series is felt.
Sometimes as a prologue or teaser, but the term is native to television. Features more often open on scene one of the story without a separate teaser label on the page.
No. The title page stays first in a submission. On the script body, the cold open is simply the opening scene work before ACT ONE -- write the hook as drama.
Often a few pages, shaped to the show's format and act design. If it needs a full act's worth of setup, it may be Act One in disguise rather than a true teaser.
No. Some shows open on titles or cold into Act One by house style. Use a cold open when the tease earns curiosity; skip it when it becomes empty ritual.
