Question about non & original sitcom ideas...

I have a new idea which I started working on yesterday. It isn't the most original idea, a sitcom in the 1970s was set in this setting. I have other ideas that are more original, but I seem drawn to my not so original idea as I keep getting these great ideas for it. Characters are totally different to the 1970s sitcom, but it's just the same setting.

Are producers just as likely to bin stuff which has been done before? I'm guessing that if the characters are good and original then they would be interested.

It's just I don't want to be wasting my time working on something that's been done before. The other more original ideas I have would be best suited to write with a writing partner as they contain many more characters. I would feel more comfortable writing those ideas with somebody.

Thoughts?

Thanks

As long as it's not set in a Torquay hotel, that employs a clumsy Spanish waiter, I'm sure you'd be fine.

You should be confident enough in your own writing to take an already used setup and give it your own touch, stamp Lord Meldrum all over it. Over something like that anyway?

I'm incredibly, incredibly drunk

Thats what I thought. I mean its very hard to do something 100% original these days. Lets face it most shows are a rip off of other things I'm thinking The Office = Spinal Tap etc.

I don't think The Office was a rip-off of Spinal Tap, more heavily influenced by it. I also don't think TV has infinite possibilities, so direction and writing can only go so far, plus you surely have to keep within the realms of humanity. Unless you have a funny sitcom idea involving dogs or the life's and loves of a toilet plunger?

What's going tomake your sitcom original is YOUR writing, hopefully. No one has your brain, ideas and sense of humour or at least an identical copy (or maybe they do? ) So you have this edge (actually we all have it) but you are using it to write comedy.

God, I really am, incredibly, incredibly drunk.

Quote: Leevil @ February 4 2009, 12:36 PM GMT

I don't think The Office was a rip-off of Spinal Tap, more heavily influenced by it.

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I guessthat's what I was meant to say.

Thanks for that, good post.

Basically my idea is set in a shop (Open All Hours was the setting I was thinking of).

I have other ideas that I think are good (and more original), but I continue to get great ideas for the shop one.

I just thought I should perhaps proceed with the idea that I kept thinking of things for.....

Quote: Griff @ February 4 2009, 12:40 PM GMT

Hi Lord Meldrum. I think you'd have to be more specific with your setting for us to advise.

Let me briefly tell you what happened with one of my sitcoms.

I wrote a sitcom based in a guest house (much like 'Rising Damp') except that the tenants were all housed under various Government schemes - care in the community, mental health patients, ex convicts, substance abusers, asylum seekers, and so forth.

Then after I'd written it and submitted it to The Sitcom Trials, I read about Simon Nye's "In Our Country" which has been commissioned for BBC2 and deals with immigrants from various countries trapped in a guest house because of Government paperwork issues. Then I read that "In My Country" is mired in controversy because there is a suggestion the idea was stolen from another writer who submitted it to the BBC (I won't list the details here, you can Google them, but the aggrieved writer has a very strong case.)

So it turned out that my idea (hilarity in nasty public-sector accommodation) was similar to at least one and possibly two other projects being considered.

Was it because we all remembered the brilliance of Rising Damp and consciously or subconsciously wanted to write a modern twist on that idea? Who knows.

I've reworked my project now - and it's on at the Trials next month - but it's still probably too close to "In My Country" to be of any interest to anyone now. So I would say, the more original the idea you have come up with, the more worthwhile it is to write up.

Also, there isn't much similarity between The Office and Spinal Tap except they are both mock-docs. If somebody came up with a mock-doc about a rock band (a mock-rock-doc?) then perhaps they should be worried about "it's been done before".

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Griff, there's also Heartburn Hotel with Tim Healy from a few years back that was about Asylum seekers housed in a guest house.

As an aside I had the idea for a sitcom which would use classic scenes from 70s and 80s sitcoms but would focus on the backroom staff on those shows. The viewer would see the star actors (lookalikes) blurred in the background of shots featuring the new sitcom actors.

Imagine the lighting and sound guys talking at the side of the stage and between them you can see Basil and Manuel and the BBC audience watching the actual show recording. I think it's a very interesting concept which draws people in by the interest in the original shows but has the added twist of being a show within a show.

I've not written anything in terms of scrip but I've sent the concept to a couple of people to see what the impression is.

Only Fools and Horses is a more-or-less straight rewrite of Steptoe and Son, with the father switched for the brother. Rodney wants to get away from his vulgar and exploitative brother, Harold wants to get away from his vulgar and exploitative dad. Both struggle with feelings of family loyalty, both want to move away from their class and better themselves, both even earn a living selling second hand goods. It's the same show. All they did was swap the father for the brother and the horse for a Reliant Robin.

I've never seen this mentioned anywhere, so I'd say you can get away with murder if you're scripts are funny.

Seethat's the point - I don't want to start writing this shop idea and be constantly plagued by thoughts of 'this is not original' and 'someone else is probably doing something similar'.

I might have a look through a list of other ideas I have and see what springs out. Shame as I was looking forward to writing the shop idea, but their is nothing amazingly original about it.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ February 4 2009, 1:34 PM GMT

Only Fools and Horses is a more-or-less straight rewrite of Steptoe and Son, with the father switched for the brother. Rodney wants to get away from his vulgar and exploitative brother, Harold wants to get away from his vulgar and exploitative dad. Both struggle with feelings of family loyalty, both want to move away from their class and better themselves, both even earn a living selling second hand goods. It's the same show. All they did was swap the father for the brother and the horse for a Reliant Robin.

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Indeed and something that Galton & Simpson alluded to when I met them a while back.

Quote: Lord Meldrum @ February 4 2009, 1:37 PM GMT

Seethat's the point - I don't want to start writing this shop idea and be constantly plagued by thoughts of 'this is not original' and 'someone else is probably doing something similar'.

I might have a look through a list of other ideas I have and see what springs out. Shame as I was looking forward to writing the shop idea, but their is nothing amazingly original about it.

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Shouldn't you focus on the characters in the shop and let the shop itself naturally develop into it's own character.

Think of how many varieties of shops there are. The film 40 Year Old Virgin had a eBay shop, where you didn't buy or sell anything, it just acted as a middle man. I can't think of many, truly original sitcoms.

Quote: Tuumble @ February 4 2009, 1:40 PM GMT

Indeed and something that Galton & Simpson alluded to when I met them a while back.

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It's different enough though, 99 out of a hundred people would never make that connection. I imagine John Sullivan probably never made that connection!

Quote: Matthew Stott @ February 4 2009, 1:43 PM GMT

It's different enough though, 99 out of a hundred people would never make that connection. I imagine John Sullivan probably never made that connection!

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I'd saythat's fair point.

Quote: Leevil @ February 4 2009, 1:41 PM GMT

Shouldn't you focus on the characters in the shop and let the shop itself naturally develop into it's own character.

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Exactly, focus on character/relationships/tone/stories. If that's all working then, to me, the shop is incidental. If your saying, 'a sitcom set in a shop', I'm bored, it tells me nothing. Think about characters, relationships and tone.