Anyone had an idea that has popped up on TV?

Just wondering if anyone has ever had an idea or been working on one that has suddenly popped up on TV or you discover something similar is in production?

A couple of times, but purely by co-inkydink. I wrote a similar story to Shaun of the Dead (registered with the tag 'a romzomcom' even) and another that pretty much ended up being The Incredibles.

Yes.

I wrote "Monsters, Inc" in a slightly different form a couple of years before Pixar released the film. Also, the new American vampire series "True Blood" contains several ideas that were in the first feature script I ever wrote, in 1999. And I once found that a cartoon I thought was very original had been pitched years earlier by John Kricfalusi.

There's a lesson in this. I've always tended to get an idea, think "That's f**king brilliant!" and start working on it - without considering that if I've had that idea then several hundred (thousand?) other people have probably had it too.

I'm starting to learn that one should be wary of the first "YES!" and try to twist the idea into an unlikely new shape before putting any serious work into it.

I was writing a Heroes-meets-Pulling.

Isn't Rebekah Staton good in No Heroics?

A friend and I once came up with an idea for a computer game where a character or bunch of characters was wandering roun the screen towards, pits, fires etc and you had to stop them from comitting suicide but neither of us could program a computer. A few years later, Lemmings was released.

Also I wrote a sketch which was a spoof of the Shipping Forecast called the Shooting Forecast. It was duly broadcast and I seem to hear shipping forecast pisstakes all over the place now.

not sure if either of those count?

I can point to four examples where I've had an idea but have been too slow off the mark.

First was a sitcom pilot which was basically thrown out...

"Unfortunately you've picked a very over-populated area for your sitcom. In the past six months, I've had eight similar proposals, which is quite zeitgeisty, but not much help when two of them have been from name writers. We're definitely pursuing one, so I'm afraid it would make more sense for you to have another idea. Sorry."

I could also have had an impact in the pop world. Don't laugh!

A few years ago I found myself humming the keyboard riff to a long-forgotten number one ‘Are friends electric?' by Gary Numan on the album Replicas by the Tubeway Army. I felt this was a really catchy tune and with sampling of older songs such as the Police's Every Breath You Take and Spandau Ballet's True in contemporary dance tracks in the early 90's, I felt AFE? could be another. As I didn't feel inclined to come up with new lyrics the idea remained just that…an idea in my head.

However, some years later the Sugababes had a single out under the title of 'Freak Like Me' which effectively did exactly as I imagined and low and behold it went to number one.

More recently I had the idea of sampling the keyboard part of Bronski Beat's 'Small Town Boy' with a dance rhythm track and it has since been a hit by a group called Supermode. Hmmm, so I could've had two hit records - it's quite fun to think that.

Years back I did a poster in my graphic design exam using pastels as an advert for Heinz. The advertising message I put down the side of the can and about 18 months later Heinz ran an identical campaign right down to using pastel drawings of the cans. That was very spooky.

Quote: Afinkawan @ October 14 2008, 4:38 PM BST

Also I wrote a sketch which was a spoof of the Shipping Forecast called the Shooting Forecast. It was duly broadcast and I seem to hear shipping forecast pisstakes all over the place now.

not sure if either of those count?

View original

When did you write yours?

Well I had the idea of broadcasting recorded and live "programs of televisual and radiophonic signals," through the air waves. These could then be viewed or heard by appreciators with the right equipment at home.

This service would be paid for by advertisers, or a license fee for a state run service.

I turn on my TV and some wankers beaten me to it.

Never mind I'm now going to sell pre recorded material on Digital Versatile Discs.

Not on TV, but years ago I sent a written piece to Smut magazine (which was a Viz copy comic stip mag from the 90s). Anyway I heard nothing from them, then months later they had an article in an issue that was VERY VERY similar to the one I'd sent in, same subject matter, same style jokes.

I was a bit angry on seeing this. I'm not saying they copied or stole the idea, but it was just a coincidence that it appeared after I'd sent something that was VERY VERY VERY similar.

Def.

I don't think it helps to feed the paranoia of us writers constantly sure that someone is going to rip our best idea out of our hands and run off with it sniggering, casting long, spiky shadows down the street.

So no, not one of my astonishingly original ideas have popped up on TV. They are either so original they are brilliant, or they are crap.

Actually, when we were touting around our sketches, we showed them to what felt like millions of people, who said it wasn't what they wanted because the sketch show had no theme (best not get me started on that), and I'm kind of waiting for a particularly ingenious, hilarious idea from that to turn up in some form or other some day on our telly screens.

Paranoid? You betchya!

Just because you're not funny doesn't mean they won't steal your gags!

My one and only idea for a sitcom has not been done by anybody else to my knowledge. But as it's heavily character based, the situation could be changed quite easily when I think about it.

I know what's happening.

All the TV, film and computer game companies have invented this machine to try and invecularize all the ideas from the brains of writer's across the globe to steal these ideas and make these programs and games before these writer's get a chance to write them.

"F**k giving screen credit we'll just build this big machine"

The first thing I ever wrote was a sci-fi series based on a game my brother and I used to play with lego - in effect I'd been developing this series since I was eight. I never showed the scripts to anyone except my brother and went on to do other things, always with the intention of coming back to this one idea ...

Then 'Firefly' came out and it's identical, right down to a couple of the character names. Concept, feel, plots and characters - all the same.

And all a major coincidence of course, there's no way it could be copied unless Joss Whedon can read minds across the Atlantic.

Bollocks!

I don't know why I typed that or indeed in this thread - it's certainly not a response to FrankieR but I felt compelled to express myself with an expletive.

Maybe we should start a primal scream thread to release the stress...