When your 'sit' is everyone's 'sit'

I'm halfway through writing a pilot episode of a potential sitcom to send out - the annoying thing is, in the time I've been writing I've seen adverts for at least three shows with very similar concepts (We're not talking 'a man marooned 3 million years into the future' high concept, the idea has been in the air for the last couple of years, I was just hoping to be one of the first (and best, obviously) to do a script with the theme while it's hot.)

My question is, should I keep on writing it anyway, knowing it probably couldn't get made? You hear 'don't worry if it's a similar idea, if you've got an original take' but realistically, do people read scripts beyond the first scene heading if the concept is too familar? Am I wasting my time? My other options are, transfering the characters to another setting, which might be hard, or sticking in a drawer for a year so it can be judged on it's own merits. Or SULKING.

Can we ask what your sit is?

I think we need something more to go on.

Well it's not this, but let's say you were writing a script about footballers wives, and then Footballers Wives, a sitcom called WAGS and a weekly lighthearted talking heads show about how great it is to go out with a footballer all started on telly. Would you assume by the time you'd finished your script people wouldn't even look at a Footballers Wives concept show?

If it really is that close, I'd call it a day. I'm sure there are plenty of jokes and characters you can transfer to your next project though. It doesn't have to be a total waste.

If, as you say, it's not an especially high concept show, then you should be able to transfer the characters into a new situation without all that much trouble. give it a go with a few different 'sits', see what works.

I would start again. i find some of my ideas are similar to Shameless and why would anyone want a poor copy of that?
In Micheal Jacob's blog he mentions looking for something different. they say there's nothing new under the sun and I'm beginning to wonder
if that is so true with sitcoms and maybe you could just get away with it...or not

Rip it up and start again

Quote: Marc P @ April 18 2008, 6:30 PM BST

Rip it up and start again

View original

But keep it all saved somewhere so you can nick your own ideas for other "sits".

Personally I'd carry on if I had enough faith in it.

Or just transplant the com to another sit?

If your at the start of your career then you're probably writing more to forge relationships with producers than in expectation of the thing being produced. So if you think its a good script you should probably finish it send it in anyway.

Thanks all - I apologise for my use of the word 'sit', it was used in the most ironic sense. I also have an annoying habit of saying 'obs com' for observational comedy, which is obviously the sort of thing a twat would say, but I find hilarious in it's twattiness.

Anyway,I think the characters are strong enough to survive a transplant, we'll see.

I wrote a sitcom once and actually had it in development with a company. It was called Vertigo and was set in a grim block of flats I used to live in. Then the producer emailed me with details of Sean Lock's new sitcom, 15 Storeys High. So that project died.

Thing is - it wasn't about the block of flats - it was about the characters in it. So I kept some of the characters and used them in a different project which is in development now.

So what I'm saying is - yes it's bloody annoying when you get gazumped like that, but treat the script like a roast chicken and pick all the nice meaty bits off, then bin the manky carcass.

(To use a strange Sunday dinner analogy)

But also if the other shows that are similar to yours are having success, then it may be wise to send your script to a channel which doesn't have one of these shows.

Say for example if we stick with the Footballers Wives stuff, if ITV and Channel 4 had these shows and they were doing well, then the BBC may be interested in a similar show but with an original spin on it. So it could be beneficial sending it elsewhere and promoting it's strong points that set it apart from its rival shows.

I wouldn't worry too much about the premise of your show. I've had the luck to speak to a few comedy bigwigs this year and what they universally say is that what really puts them off is not familiar situations, but over-familiar character types. One producer complained of 'biscuit-cutter replicas of David Brent, Basil Fawlty and Edmund Blackadder', in almost every script he'd read (and binned).

In my case, I have a breathtakingly unoriginal concept for my show, but deliberately tried to avoid the standard comedy archetypes - the cynical funny one, the simpleton, the sensible one (who is almost invariably a woman). Instead all the characters were based on people I know. Who now hate me. However, the feedback from producers is that it is the characters that sell them on the script.

So from what little experience I have, I'd say it is far more important to focus on the authenticity of the characters and the believability of the way they relate to each other. And not worry too much about coming up with the wacky situation (a hilarious submarine! a zany gulag! an amusing orphanage!)

I hope that helps but please bear in mind I am frequently 100% wrong.