Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Losing My Show

CBS is coming out with a new show where people try to get fired. Regardless of the fact that it looks pretty bad, I'm actually more pissed at the fact that I created a show similar to this. The problem is that I just never pitched it. Of course, this idea, much like almost every show on American television, may have been done already in Britain. They seem to come up with wacky shows that are then redone (mostly badly) over here. Anyway, back to the story.
A little over a year ago, I read an article where Donald Trump was trying to trademark the phrase, "You're fired." (Registered trademark of Trump International. Now I don't have to pay a quarter.) I figured that if he can trademark that, then I should be able to trademark, "Screw you, I quit!" From there, I came up with the idea of creating an entire show around that idea. Here's how it would work:
Twelve contestants in boring, dead-end jobs would be chosen from the millions of applicants. At their job, the network would hide hidden cameras (of course securing the legal rights to do that in order to not be sued or give out company secrets), and tape the contestants as they tried to win (this hidden camera idea is used in this new show). How do the contestants win? I'm glad you asked. They are given $1,000 dollars each to create an elaborate show at their work. They can bring in a petting zoo, or rent the circus, or whatever they can think of doing. Think about the film
Office Space. Peter pushes the envelope, and it pays off. There are, however, some rules:
1. No one can be hurt or attacked. You can't hire a hitman to kill your boss, and you can't have people beat up.
2. No property damage. If you want to hire an elephant to sit on your boss' car, that's fine, but make sure the damage is under $1,000 so that it can be paid off (less what you paid to rent the elephant).
3. The payoff. With everything you do, you have to make sure that before you can told you're fired, you have to say, "Screw you, I quit!" If you're fired before saying that, you lose. At the end of 12 episodes, America will vote for the most creative way to quit. The winner gets $1,000,000, while the other contestants are just out of a job. It's a high risk bet made by these contestants.
So what do you think? Would it work on American television? Should I call Fox and start negotiating? Do you have any ideas that would make it better? Let
me know.

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