As an experiment, I submitted a sitcom months ago to various companies and got the usual replies/rejections.....the characters are stereotyped..... be careful of racism......the humour appears to be 70s style...........we have something similar.etc etc etc, usual excuses. What is interesting is that the script was verbatim....except I changed the names of the characters...of an episode of the award winning....Two And A half Men. Nuff said
Weren't you worried that they would notice, and then your name would be blacklisted from then on?
Interesting indeed. It is either they have to achieve their throw out quota or it shows the power of branding (for two and half men). I would be quite worried if that thing about the 'we have something similar' is true.
Quote: zooo @ July 6 2011, 10:42 PM BSTWeren't you worried that they would notice, and then your name would be blacklisted from then on?
What did you edit in my post Zooo? No I wasn't and am not worried, I am 70 and have given up and fed up, nothing to lose. I just wanted to test the system and it proved to me, a stereo type letter is sent regardless of the script which in some case was obviously not even read!
Just edited the title, nothing in the post.
The two and a half men bit seems to be missing.
Quote: Marc P @ July 6 2011, 10:59 PM BSTThe two and a half men bit seems to be missing.
@Ben...verbatim? 
I made a capital I a lowercase i!
Fascinating. I always wondered what would happen if this was done.
Some guy was in the paper a few month back because he sent a Bronte novel off to publishers with changed name etc, three wrote back and recognised the work and one asked was he aware of plaigarism, but the rest rejected 'his' manuscript of the grounds it was overwritten, amateur, purple etc.
But bushbaby, did you send the pilot off? I guess a mid-season episode would have seemed a little random, but still, good writing from America's finest Jewish army of screenwriters should've piqued some interest in sitcomland.
Just as well they rejected you eh? Would've been a shame to've been offered a meeting off the back of it 
I am 70 and have given up and fed up
Never give up.
Quote: Jack Daniels @ July 7 2011, 2:02 AM BSTFascinating. I always wondered what would happen if this was done.
Some guy was in the paper a few month back because he sent a Bronte novel off to publishers with changed name etc, three wrote back and recognised the work and one asked was he aware of plaigarism, but the rest rejected 'his' manuscript of the grounds it was overwritten, amateur, purple etc.
But bushbaby, did you send the pilot off? I guess a mid-season episode would have seemed a little random, but still, good writing from America's finest Jewish army of screenwriters should've piqued some interest in sitcomland.
Just as well they rejected you eh? Would've been a shame to've been offered a meeting off the back of it
I'd have had to have come clean and say I was only joking.
Quote: bushbaby @ July 7 2011, 6:12 AM BST
What a wheeze.
Brilliant work Bushbaby.
Massive respect. As the kids say.
I would dearly love to know which companies you sent it to. Would you tell me? Maybe by PM if you don't want to post on here.
Many thanks and well done.
Quote: bushbaby @ July 6 2011, 10:40 PM BSTthe award winning....Two And A half Men.
That show has won awards?
Brilliant scheme, Bushbaby.
I did exactly the same thing, way back in 1996, for a short lived magazine called Comedy Review. It was myself and Danny Wallace, who was a staff writer at the time, who ran the project.
The script we sent was a rewrite of the first episode of Friends, which was brand new on Channel 4 at the time and not, we thought, widely watched. Indeed our script fooled almost everyone. Only one company spotted it as a ringer, and got very snotty on the subject of plagiarism. Most rejected it with form letters. And one company invited us in for a meeting. Sadly Comedy Review got cancelled before we could go to that meeting, though we've always suspected it was a sting and that they'd already rumbled our plan.
It's a fun experiment and the finished article never actually saw print, but always worth trying.
Kev F