The document that sells your show and keeps a writers' room telling the same story. Here is what goes in a series bible, in the order a reader expects to find it, with a template outline you can fill in.
Updated June 2026
Short answer: A TV series bible is the reference document that defines your show. It opens with a logline and premise, then sets out the world and tone, a character bible, the engine and season arc, and an episode breakdown. It both sells the show and keeps a room consistent across seasons.
A series bible, sometimes called a show bible, is the document that stands behind a television project. A feature lives or dies on a single script. A series has to convince someone it can run for years, so the bible carries the weight the pilot alone cannot: who these people are, what generates a story every week, and where the seasons go. It is the thing a buyer reads to decide whether to make the show, and the thing a writers' room returns to so that six writers stay loyal to one vision.
That double job is the reason a series bible matters. On the sales side, it answers the only question an executive really has, which is whether the idea has enough fuel to last. On the production side, it keeps continuity intact: a character's want established in the pilot should still hold in episode nine, and a rule of the world introduced early should not quietly reverse halfway through the season. The steps below give you a show bible template you can write straight through, from logline to episode grid.
Start with the smallest unit that contains the whole show: the logline. One sentence that names the protagonist, the engine that drives the series, and the central tension. If you cannot say the show in a sentence, the reader will not be able to repeat it to the person who has to approve it.
Follow the logline with a one-paragraph premise. This is where you widen the lens: who the show is for, what makes it feel distinct, and the reason it sustains beyond a single season. Keep it to a paragraph. The premise is a promise, not a synopsis, and its job is to make the reader want the next page.
Before a reader meets your characters, they need to know the air they breathe. Describe the setting and the rules that govern it: the institution, the town, the era, the system the characters are caught inside. Then name the tone directly. Is this a cold procedural, a warm ensemble comedy, a slow-burn thriller. Tone is the single thing most likely to get lost between writers, so state it in plain language and, if it helps, name a comparable title or two so a reader can place the show on a shelf.
The character bible is the heart of the document. Give each principal character a short, exact entry rather than a biography. For each one, cover four things:
Lead with the protagonist, then introduce the characters who push hardest against them. Resist the urge to write everything you know. A reader does not need a childhood; they need to understand what each person wants and what stands in the way. A tight character bible is also what keeps a room consistent later, when a guest writer has to know in one glance who a character is.
Now show the machine. The engine of the show is whatever generates a fresh story each episode: a new case, a new patient, a new threat, a relationship under recurring pressure. Name it plainly, because it is the difference between a premise and a series. A reader needs to believe stories will keep arriving without you forcing them.
Then chart the season arc. Where does the season open, what is the turn at its middle, and where does it land. You do not need every beat here, but you do need the shape: the question the season asks and the answer it reaches. This is the section that proves the show has somewhere to go, and it is often the part a buyer reads most carefully.
Episode breakdowns turn the promise into a plan. Write the pilot in detail first, as a one to two page beat outline: the opening image, the inciting incident, the act turns, and the closing beat that makes a reader want episode two. The pilot is where you prove the engine actually runs. If you want a deeper method for building those beats, our guide on how to outline a screenplay applies directly to a pilot.
For the rest of the season, switch to a grid. One row per episode, each with a logline and a single line on how the season arc moves in that hour. The grid does not need full outlines; it needs to show that the season holds together and that each episode earns its place. A reader who sees a clean pilot and a coherent grid believes the show works.
A bible is not a document you write once and file. The moment scripts start arriving, the bible and the pages begin to drift apart. A character's want shifts in a rewrite, a rule of the world bends to fit a scene, an episode promised in the grid turns into something else. Across a season and a room, those small slips are how a show loses its center.
This is the part a tool can carry for you. In Slima, a show is organized the way television actually works: series, then season, then episode, then scene, with a scene board for the shape of each hour and a character bible that lives beside the scripts rather than in a separate file. Because the AI coach has read the whole show, you can ask it what a character established in the pilot wants by episode nine, or whether a detail in a late draft contradicts something set up early, and get an answer grounded in your own pages. Version control keeps every draft, and you can export to Final Draft (FDX) or Fountain when it is time to hand pages off. See how it fits together in Script Studio.
Slima holds your series, seasons, episodes, and scenes in one place, with a character bible beside the scripts and a coach that has read the whole show. It is the structure that keeps a bible and its pages from drifting apart. See the Script Studio overview.
Write the bible in this order and you end up with a document that does both jobs at once. It reads like a pitch from the first page, and it works like a reference from the day a room opens. The logline sells, the character bible aligns, the season arc reassures, and the episode breakdown proves the thing can actually be made.
A TV series bible, or show bible, is the reference document that defines a series: its logline and premise, the world and tone, the character bible, the season arc, and a breakdown of the episodes. It does two jobs at once. It sells the show to buyers, and it keeps every writer in the room telling the same story across seasons.
A pitch bible is usually short, often five to fifteen pages, because its job is to make a buyer want the show. A production or writers' room bible can run much longer, since it is a working reference rather than a sales document. Write to the purpose: lean and persuasive to pitch, thorough and exact to keep a room consistent.
A show bible template covers, in order: a logline and one-paragraph premise; the world and tone; a character bible with wants, flaws, relationships, and arcs; the engine of the show and the season arc; and an episode breakdown with the pilot in detail and a season grid. Longer production bibles add backstory, rules of the world, and future-season notes.
For a half-hour or hour drama you almost always do. Executives buy the show, not just the pilot, so they need to see the engine, the characters, and where the season goes. Even when a room asks only for a pilot script, having a bible behind it keeps your answers consistent when they ask what happens next.
Series, seasons, episodes, and scenes, with a character bible and a coach that has read the whole show.