A few years ago a fellow writer and I kicked around an idea for a TV sitcom about an IT department. (Sad, I know.) This was around the time of 'The Office'. We worked up a few stories, fleshed a few things out and then eventually binned it because we felt that there wasn't enough 'legs' in the situation to make a series out of.

And then last year along came 'The IT Crowd', which was so similar to our script that it was incredible!

I've had this experience on a couple of occasions - it is SO annoying!

Too right, Joe.

I recall our attempts at humour in the 6th form in the 1970's - one of which revolved around the antics of the overwrought manager of a Torquay hotel.

Imagine my irritation when, some months later, Fawlty Towers appeared on our televisions.

Bloody plagiarists!

Always submit those ideas to the powers that be.
Even if you dont think it has legs someone else might see the advantages.

If you get a knock back... all you've wasted is the stamp and envelope... the law of averages state one will get picked up eventually I'm sure.

Always submit those ideas to the powers that be.
Even if you dont think it has legs someone else might see the advantages.

If you get a knock back... all you've wasted is the stamp and envelope... the law of averages state one will get picked up eventually I'm sure.

You're right!

We had a higher degree of quality control than we needed. :)

The next one I came up with went straight to the BBC (this was prior to BBC3 - it's going to get another outing soon!) and I had a knock back but was generally held to be 'promising'. :)

On the plus side, when I heard that the BBC were doing a spin-off from Doctor Who based around the 'Torchwood Institute' I had a sinking feeling that it might wallop a project (short story / novella) I'm currently working on, I almost got VERY annoyed, but having read the outline of the first three episodes of the spin-off I'm delighted to say that there's no possible overlap. Yeay!

Mind you, still need to pull the finger out. :)

And then last year along came 'The IT Crowd', which was so similar to our script that it was incredible!



My OH's opinion was that 'The IT Crowd' was so similar to his office that it was incredible!!!! ;)

Me too I have ideas stored in my head for movie scripts rather than TV shows but I should get them down.
I need to be able to format correctly first before I can do this.

The longer I leave it the more chance someone else will have the same idea.

if anyone releases a buddy cop series about a psychic on the payroll and a no nonsense east london undercover agent called 'Track and Field' I'm gonna be gutted.

Wilf

A few years ago a fellow writer and I kicked around an idea for a TV sitcom about an IT department. (Sad, I know.) This was around the time of 'The Office'. We worked up a few stories, fleshed a few things out and then eventually binned it because we felt that there wasn't enough 'legs' in the situation to make a series out of.

And then last year along came 'The IT Crowd', which was so similar to our script that it was incredible!

I've had this experience on a couple of occasions - it is SO annoying!
JoeP, I loved the IT Crowd. I laughed my head off at it,but Ive never seen it since ,have you ? It was very "American" with its quick fire humour,and although I wouldnt class myself as a computer buff,Ithought it very funny when someone asked what they should do,as they had a fault on their computer.The answer was "Just switch it off for a bit,then switch it on again"

Yeah, I wrote this amazing book called War and Peace. Some swine nicked the disk with it on, and lo and behold, it's now a classic.

Ok its not exactly a story and its not...
Let me explain.
I did a thread about a Diced Carrot Fairy, a being who hangs around the streets of town centres at nights and sprinkles Diced Carrots into pavement pizzzas.
Aparrantly Billy Connolly had the same idea except with a pervert instead of a fairy.
Only I must have nicked it from him because I only thought of it today.

Dont know if this counts but I once won a radio competition for something I once did, and within weeks I was hearing people tell me about 'their' incident !
I was quite shocked as it was almost word for word !!

All I can think of is that I might have heared the recording of Billy Connelly and that was in the back of my mind as I typed the thread out. For the life of me I cant remember it though.

I once, a number of years ago when we were deeply skint, spent a half-hour or so typing in domain names like 'manchesterunited.co.uk' 'manu.co.uk' 'marksandspencer' and every other 'name' that you can think of and they were all (and I mean ALL, almost every one that we thought of) available.

Oh for a few hundred quid or so on that night!

Put it this way, I wouldn't be on Sheffield Forum right now. BahamasTalkEasy would be more my kinda place!