2010-11 sf/f TV development

[RobertScorpio]

Though, if such blatant copying is allowed, maybe I should pitch my idea about a renegade FBI agent who investigates supernatural cases along with his skeptical partner.

Might work...but retooled for the CW crowd...

An FBI team that investigates supernatural cases, and one of the FBI dudes is secretly a wolfman who has to take off his shirt so we can see his muscles as he solves crime...oye...I would be a tv producer!!!

Rob

 

[Hermiod]

Randall and what?

I am very out of touch with the UK and unapologetically so.

Anyway, the premise itself sounds painfully generic. It's entirely possible it's similar to this British show entirely by accident.

Sure, but unless I'm very much mistaken, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) did it first. As I said, I don't expect American audiences to be entirely familiar with a late 60's British television show, but if some Russian author wrote a book about a young boy named Harry who goes to a school for wizards I wouldn't blame him for being upset at JK Rowling even if she hadn't seen it.

Might work...but retooled for the CW crowd...

An FBI team that investigates supernatural cases, and one of the FBI dudes is secretly a wolfman who has to take off his shirt so we can see his muscles as he solves crime...oye...I would be a tv producer!!!

Needs a bit more work to appeal to the key demo. What if he loses his wolf powers whenever the criminal of the week is female and instead spends most of the episode chained up with no shirt on ? Got to make the key demo feel empowered, after all.

 

[Christopher]

Though, if such blatant copying is allowed, maybe I should pitch my idea about a renegade FBI agent who investigates supernatural cases along with his skeptical partner.

Too late -- we've already got Fringe and Warehouse 13. And The X-Files owed a lot to Kolchak the Night Stalker.

One or two common elements don't constitute "blatant copying." They're just parts of a larger tapestry. Just about every new show is going to have some similarities to some previous show. But they're generally going to be outweighed by the differences. It's completely unfair to assume that a single sentence tells you everything you need to judge whether a show is original or not.

 

[Greg Cox]

Exactly. It's entirely possible for different artists to come up with the same idea independently, especially when you're dealing with stock elements like cops, ghosts, vampires, UFOs, weird mysteries, etc.

Here's an example: vampire mermaids. I just made that up. But do I really think that I'm the only person who ever had the idea to smoosh vampires and mermaids together? Chances are, it's been done before and will be done again. In fact, I'm willing to bet that somewhere out there in the Midwest or Europe some future screenwriter is sketching a vampire mermaid in his notebook even as I type this . . . .

So when the CW announces SPLASH BITES next season, I'm not going to call my lawyer and insist that they must have read this post. Vampires. Mermaids. It's all fair game.

What really matters is the execution.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I really doubt many people in the anticipated audience has heard of that show you mentioned, much less seen it. They will more likely think of Medium or Ghost Whisperer as the precedents, but why quibble about another crime-oriented ghost show when so many people seem to like them? There's a reason TV shows are the same crap over and over again. Apparently there are some things people just can't get enough of and other things, like actual SPACE OPERA!!! that everyone hates and runs away screaming from.
What we need is a space ship where the crew are crime-fighting ghosts. And sexy vampires. Maybe that would work!?!

Well, while it's entirely possible that Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) wasn't all that popular in the US, given that it was a late 60's British production, it was extremely popular in the UK to the point where it's still shown in one of the many channels buried somewhere in the Sky TV guide. It was also remade in the early 2000's.

Don't be coy. You know American networks make shows with Americans in mind. I doubt the people at the networks have heard of that show either. I wouldn't count on them knowing most American shows from the 60s, much less foreign ones.

if some Russian author wrote a book about a young boy named Harry who goes to a school for wizards I wouldn't blame him for being upset at JK Rowling even if she hadn't seen it.

Funny, I have heard about authors who have written Potteresque stories that predate Rowling, and if they were upset, it didn't count for spit because they aren't making a billion dollars in sales.

Though, if such blatant copying is allowed, maybe I should pitch my idea about a renegade FBI agent who investigates supernatural cases along with his skeptical partner.

You could call it...Fringe! (Damn, beaten to the punch in my own thread!)

What if he loses his wolf powers whenever the criminal of the week is female and instead spends most of the episode chained up with no shirt on ?

If he's played by Joe Flanigan, it'll be a ratings bonanza!

It's completely unfair to assume that a single sentence tells you everything you need to judge whether a show is original or not.

Bingo. Based on the original description, Lost sounds like a ripoff of Gilligan's Island.

 

[sidious618]

No, you couldn't. What sets Fringe apart from The X-Files (actually a lot of things set them apart) is that there is no skepticism among the people involved. They're all in the know.

 

[Hermiod]

Don't be coy. You know American networks make shows with Americans in mind. I doubt the people at the networks have heard of that show either. I wouldn't count on them knowing most American shows from the 60s, much less foreign ones.

The problem comes when the late Dennis Spooner's (the creator of R&H(D)) family get involved.

If he's played by Joe Flanigan, it'll be a ratings bonanza!

Didn't work for Atlantis. Wrong network. Plus Flanigan's not really the teen idol type.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Don't be coy. You know American networks make shows with Americans in mind. I doubt the people at the networks have heard of that show either. I wouldn't count on them knowing most American shows from the 60s, much less foreign ones.

The problem comes when the late Dennis Spooner's (the creator of R&H(D)) family get involved.

Okay when that show goes on the air and they get sued and anyone gives a flying frak about it, you come back here and post about it, mkay?

If he's played by Joe Flanigan, it'll be a ratings bonanza!

Didn't work for Atlantis. Wrong network. Plus Flanigan's not really the teen idol type.

Yeah sadly he's getting a bit long in the tooth now, isn't he? Okay, let's have Lee Pace or Zach Levi (Chuck's only got another season in it) instead.

 

[Mistral]

Can you sue over three fourths of a plot being ripped off? If so, the "Dark City" creators may want to look int othis.

Dark City is not the first or the only work of fiction to use the premise of time freezing at night and things happening in the "missing" time. Its creators have no claim of ownership to the idea. (There was an episode of one of the Twilight Zone remakes in the '80s, either the CBS version or the syndicated one, that used the idea, and I believe it was an adaptation of a prose story, possibly something by Philip K. Dick.)

And it's not a plot, just a premise. A plot is a series of events and character actions.

Phillip Jose Farmer, I think. Could be wrong.

 

[Hermiod]

Yeah sadly he's getting a bit long in the tooth now, isn't he? Okay, let's have Lee Pace or Zach Levi (Chuck's only got another season in it) instead.

You're really not in touch with the CW audience. You don't hire anyone people have actually heard of. They cost too much. You hire some pretty boy who just arrived on the bus. Doesn't matter if he can act at all.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Being "in touch" with the CW audience is not one of my priorities in life.

 

[Greg Cox]

Though, if such blatant copying is allowed, maybe I should pitch my idea about a renegade FBI agent who investigates supernatural cases along with his skeptical partner.

And, of course, THE X-FILES was inspired by KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, as Chris Carter has often mentioned.

Never mind that supernatural investigators date back to at least Seabury Quinn's "Jules de Grandin" series back in the 1930's. De Grandin even had his own version of Scully, a skeptical partner who refused to believe in the supernatural no matter how many ghosts and zombies they encountered.

And then there was "Carnacki the Ghost-Finder" back in 1912.

This is very well-trodden ground . . . .

 

[Temis the Vorta]

What about Poe? Didn't he originate the murder mystery? And his stories often had a supernatural tinge.

Poe reminds me of something I've wanted to see for a while - a series based on HP Lovecraft's writings.

 

[Greg Cox]

You can argue that there's a line between "Murders in Rue Morgue" and THE X-FILES, but it's a bit of a tenuous one. Poe mostly kept his detective stories and his supernatural stories separate.

 

[Hermiod]

Being "in touch" with the CW audience is not one of my priorities in life.

Admit it, you are Dawn Ostroff, aren't you?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Being "in touch" with the CW audience is not one of my priorities in life.

Admit it, you are Dawn Ostroff, aren't you?

No, I'm Ben Silverman! Bwahaha! Excuse me now, I need to go come up with some more godawful shows to destroy NBC with...

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

I suppose the idea is that the worship of fertility is what's caused overpopulation to run amok, as in "The Mark of Gideon."

Still, most prized seems a trifle absurd. Even assuming it became a highly prized attribute, given the context of that contemporary world (it's using 'is' after all, not 'was') the idea fertility is highly prized seems sort of ridiculous.

Well, maybe the series if produced will explain it better - or not.

The World Inside is an adaptation of the Robert Silverberg novel of the same name. You can read about the novel and its plot description here.

 

[Kegg]

The World Inside is an adaptation of the Robert Silverberg novel of the same name. You can read about the novel and its plot description here.

Is it any good?

Anyway, from your link:

The Urbmons are a world of total sexual freedom

Given the extremes of life in the Urban Monads, law enforcement and the concept of justice employ a zero tolerance policy.

These parts remind me of TNG's "Justice", I wonder if that's where the inspiration came from.

It doesn't sound too bad, anyway, though it also sounds rather rooted in the 1970s. I wonder what HBO's take will be on the concept.

 

[Christopher]

No, you couldn't. What sets Fringe apart from The X-Files (actually a lot of things set them apart) is that there is no skepticism among the people involved. They're all in the know.

Yes, of course there are differences, but that's exactly the point. Two shows may have a couple of key things in common but still be very different in other respects. Which is why it's foolish to assume that one show is a copy of another when all you have to go on is one sentence.


And Greg? I Googled "vampire mermaids" (exact phrase) and got 2500 hits, many referencing an (amateur?) film called Vampire Mermaids from Mars.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I suppose the idea is that the worship of fertility is what's caused overpopulation to run amok, as in "The Mark of Gideon."

Still, most prized seems a trifle absurd. Even assuming it became a highly prized attribute, given the context of that contemporary world (it's using 'is' after all, not 'was') the idea fertility is highly prized seems sort of ridiculous.

Well, maybe the series if produced will explain it better - or not.

The World Inside is an adaptation of the Robert Silverberg novel of the same name. You can read about the novel and its plot description here.

Wow that sounds frakkin' depressing. Good luck HBO making anything watchable out of that. I mean, sure, I like that they're trying, but they might end up with something that makes BSG look like the Telletubies.