CBS STOLE MY PROGRAM IDEA AND I'VE GOT THE PROOF

B"H


In April 2009 my representative sent CBS Sr. VP of Comedy Development, Wendi Trilling (she developed Everybody Loves Raymond, Two and a Half Men, King of Queens, et al) a program proposal for a show I called, TWITS, and pitched it as "America's first TWIT-com"; a Twitter-based sit-com that was going to change the sit-com genre.

After we sent Wendi a video teaser about TWITS (SEE ABOVE) that described the show as a Twitter-based program, Wendi agreed to read the treatment (SEE EMAIL BELOW). Shortly thereafter, Wendi passed on the project (SEE EMAIL BELOW).

From: Diane Archer
Date: April 21, 2009 12:46:09 PM EDT
To: Wendi Trilling
Subject: Follow-Up to Phone Conversation RE: CBS News/Bill Geist Piece
B"H

Wendi:

My client has developed the world's first Twit-com (http://twitcom.blogspot.com/) I'd like to send you the treatment for this groundbreaking, hilarious show.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Diane Archer
Rabinowitz, Cohen & Penelope

From: Wendi Trilling
Subject: RE: Follow-Up to Phone Conversation RE: CBS News/Bill Geist Piece
Date: April 23, 2009 2:05:32 PM EDT
To: Diane Archer

Hi Diane,
Happy to take a look at the treatment.
Best,
Wendi


>> From: Diane Archer
>> Date: May 27, 2009 4:40:26 PM EDT
>> To: "Trilling, Wendi"
>> Subject: Re: Follow-Up to Phone Conversation RE: CBS News/Bill Geist Piece
>>
>> B"H
>>
>> Wendi:

>> Per our correspondence, herewith please find a conceptual synopsis for Twits, the worlds first Twitcom. Because of this revolutionary show's unique take on the sitcom genre, its the type of show thats going to hit you on a gut level; a character-driven AND funny program for the 21st century, with a cast America's going to want invite back into their homes - and into their digital lives - week after week. I've therefore opted to have my client prepare the attached synopsis for your initial perusal rather than a full-blown treatment. Our hope is that you'll find this truly groundbreaking program as rife with potential as we do, and then we can proceed from there with the conventional pitch materials.

>> I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience about this most innovative and entertaining program.

>> Sincerely,
>> Diane Archer
>> Rabinowitz, Cohen & Penelope
>> >>
>>
Begin forwarded message:

From: Diane Archer
> Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 10:56 AM
> To: Trilling, Wendi
> Subject: Follow-Up RE: Requested Material
>
> Hi Wendi:
>
> I just wanted to follow-up for my client re: Twits. I Iook forward to hearing from you.
>
>> Sincerely,
>> Diane Archer
>> Rabinowitz, Cohen & Penelope
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
> From: "Trilling, Wendi"
> Date: June 5, 2009 2:27:44 PM EDT
> To: "Diane Archer"
> Subject: RE: Follow-Up RE: Requested Material
>

> Hi Diane,
> Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this. After taking a look at the synopsis for TWITS, unfortunately, I don’t see it as a project we would be interested in developing at this point.
> Thanks for letting us consider it.
> Best,
> Wendi
>
>
>
Subsequent to Wendi passing on TWITS, we went about attaching talent to the show to make it that much more irresistible to the networks. Hollywood's biggest talent agents and celebrities lavished accolades on TWITS calling it a "really cool concept," and "a very creative show."

Seven months later, in November 2009, CBS announced it had agreed to develop a Twitter-based sit-com tentatively titled, $#*! My Dad Says, starring William Shatner. CBS President, Nina Tassler, hailed CBS' creativity in its launch of "the first Twitter-based comedy."

WHAT A COINCIDENCE!!! I pitched a Twitter-based sit-com to CBS' VP of Comedy Development! The country's first TWIT-com. But wait a minute... she passed on it... not the type project for CBS, Wendi said. I'm pretty sure that's what she said... it's in her email to us.

So let's review:

April 2009: CBS has no Twitter-based sit-com. NO NETWORK HAS A TWITTER-BASED SIT-COM.

April 2009: We pitch CBS' head of comedy development a Twitter-based sit-com. She agrees to read our program synopsis knowing it's a Twitter-based sit-com based on our video teaser and email pitch... obviously no stack of Twit-coms piled on Wendi's desk at the time.

April 2009: Wendi passes on TWITS. Wendi says in her email to us: "After taking a look at the synopsis for TWITS, unfortunately, I don’t see it as a project we would be interested in developing at this point. Thanks for letting us consider it." (We let you consider it, Wendi, but not to use as inspiration for you to rip us off!)

November 2009: CBS announces it is developing a Twitted-based sit-com tentatively titled, $#*! My Dad Says, starring William Shatner.

CONCLUSION:

For the reasonable man and woman: TWITS was the inspiration for Wendi's (CBS') sudden comedic epiphany to develop the world's first Twitter-based sit-com.

For Those of You with Their Heads in a CBS Orifice: An amazing coincidence. Concept, timing, person pitched, same network... please, a mere coincidence. Or, as one of the great thinkers of our generation has said: "I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove anything!"

Ah, but dear Wendi and CBS, you did do it and now the whole world saw you do it... and we can prove EVERYTHING!

Twits is the first sitcom to offer the audience a completely interactive experience. Viewers will be able to interact in real time with each other and with cast members about storyline, characters, plot twists and turns! And Tweets by the characters themselves… thought bubbles of the 21st century.

Comedian Matt Harper is looking for few good punch lines to prevent his career from receiving a knockout punch.

With his comedic repertoire running low, Harper needs a new source of inspiration; an innovative, comedic fountain of youth to keep his routine fresh and topical. The angst-ridden 28-year-old stand-up is riding the crest of cult stardom bolstered by a fan following of new media devotees of every ilk; a faceless but vociferously opinionated crowd who live out their lives in anonymity in the fast lane of the internet highway, social networking sites and the blogosphere. Harper’s fans follow him everywhere he goes via the social networking site, Twitter. Jimmy Buffett has his Parrotheads and Matt Harper has his Twits; loyal, diehard fans who can’t get enough of the offbeat comic. But now Harper will have to turn the Twitter table on his Twits and start following THEM around in an attempt to mine comedic gold from his fans’ everyday lives.

Harper’s plan is to take the strands of his Twits’ lives and weave them into a comedic mosaic; a patchwork of brilliant observational stand-up comedy using other people’s observations as his frame of reference. For Harper, it’s the best of all worlds – a voyeuristic peephole into the private personal and business lives of his Twits while allowing for personal detachment and objective observation. But the best laid plans of mice and stand-ups give way to a new age reality: We’re all but a keystroke away from each other’s most intimate secrets, living in a world where anonymity has become an antiquated, meaningless buzzword.

Harper soon finds himself drawn into the lives of each of his Twits. It’s a completely interactional world in which the line between observer and observed is not merely blurred but erased. Harper and his eclectic group of Twits find themselves inextricably bound up in each other’s daily routines encompassing family, relationships, workplace, school and much more.

Every decade one sitcom comes along that gets people talking. Get ready for the world’s first Twitcom.

Copyright 2009 Jay Schorr
All rights reserved

U.S. Copyright and WGA registered

Contact:
Diane Archer
Rabinowitz, Cohen & Penelope
954-302-8657

EMAIL TO WENDI TRILLING TO WHICH THERE WAS NO REPLY - 8/19/10

Wendi:

Please tell me that the TWIT-com (entitled, TWITS) I pitched to you in April 2009 did not serve as your inspiration for CBS’ Twitter-based sit-com, $#*! My Dad Says. The timing is, to say the least, coincidental. You agreed to take our pitch based on a teaser we sent you with an overt reference to what we called a “TWIT-com.” You knew the show was Twitter-based. Obviously, you didn’t have a pile of TWIT-coms on your desk when we pitched you. While you passed on the project, the timeline and the Twitter-based sit-com concept seem a little too familiar.

No need to get legal involved here. A simple disavowal will suffice. No need for us to send this story out over the wires, set-up a website and really let the world know the chronology behind the aforementioned matter. We can accept rejection. We cannot accept people taking credit for innovative ideas, the inspiration for which came from another source. I think we both know the source for what Nina Tassler said is, "the first ever show based on a Twitter feed in comedy."

I hope you have the professional courtesy and moral fortitude to respond personally. No response would speak volumes.

Thanks again for your consideration of TWITS, America’s first TWIT-com.

Sincerely,

Bill Singletary

WENDI FINALLY REPLIES... WITH Cc TO CBS PRESIDENT NINA TASSLER (After consulting with CBS legal, no doubt)

From: Trilling, Wendi
Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 4:51 PM
To: 'Diane Archer'
Cc: Tassler, Nina
Subject: RE: Follow-Up to Phone Conversation RE: CBS News/Bill Geist Piece

Dear Bill –

I assure you that the project you pitched to CBS (“Twits”) was not the basis or inspiration for our series $#*! MY DAD SAYS. As I’m sure you know, our series is based solely on the well-known Twitter feed entitled “Shit My Dad Says” written by Justin Halpern. The idea to base a pilot/series project on “Shit My Dad Says” was independently conceived by Warner Bros. Television. Warner Bros.’ pitch to CBS was neither suggested nor solicited by CBS. In sum, CBS’ development of this project was entirely appropriate from a legal and an ethical standpoint. I trust this fully addresses your concerns.

Sincerely,

Wendi Trilling


DEAR WENDI:

"In sum," your note does not "fully" address my concerns. Would it fully address your concerns? I guess what you're saying to me is that if you say it's legal and ethical - being the lawyer and ethicist that you are - then it must be, right? What a great concept: Something's true because you say it is. No more need for the rule of law, facts, courts or any of those other 'encumbrances' on justice.

WRITER ACCUSES CBS OF USING HIS PROGRAM PITCH AS INSPIRATION FOR ITS NEW SHOW, $#*! My Dad Says

Launches $#*! CBS Says campaign next week
www.bleepcbssays.blogspot.com

FORT LAUDERDALE - As CBS readies the premier of it much heralded sit-com, $#*! My Dad Says, a South Florida writer is saying plenty about how he claims CBS ‘borrowed’ his idea for the Twitter-based show. The writer is launching an all-out $#*! CBS Says multimedia campaign next week – including Twitter - lambasting CBS and its VP of Comedy Development, Wendi Trilling, for the network’s alleged misappropriation.

“Wendi and CBS’s wrong-doing are laid out in black on white on our website, www.bleepcbssays.blogspot.com,” says writer Bill Singletary, who says his agent pitched Trilling a Twitter-based sit-com in April 2009. Trilling passed on the project that same month. In November 2009 CBS announced plans for the Twitter-based $#*! My Dad Says.

“Any reasonable man or woman can look at the evidence and timeline and see for themselves the nefarious nature of Trilling and CBS’ intent,” said Singletary. “There’s little worse in the creative community than using someone else’s idea as inspiration for your own benefit without conferring similar benefit – or credit - on the source of the inspiration.”

Asked if his campaign might inadvertently provide CBS good publicity for $#*! My Dad Says, Singletary responded, “No good can come of theft. Ultimately, CBS loses out.”

For more information on Singletary’s $#*! CBS Says campaign, contact Margaret Kessler at 954-243-1454.

-30-

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

I’d like to thank the tens of thousands of people who have offered their support of my efforts to publicize CBS’ behavior in the above-referenced matter. Every day, thousands more are voicing their support and coming to the same conclusion: When I See BS, I know it.

Stay tuned for updates on the TWITS saga; this year’s truly breakthrough TV series.

REVIEWS OF CBS' SHOW ARE DISMAL... THEY CAN'T EVEN 'STEAL' A SHOW AND GET IT RIGHT!

From reviews in the the L.A. Times to the Columbia University's Daily Spectator, as well as hundreds of other newspapers across the country, the operative review word for CBS' $#*! My Dad Says is 'shit.' When is the last time a show described itself with such accuracy?! A TV review that writes itself.

If CBS had any class... and creativity... they'd give us a call and allow us to morph their pathetic vehicle into TWITS. Now THERE'S a great idea!


Sample Reviews of $#*!" My Dad Says:

LA TIMES:

Television review: 'Outsourced' and '$#*! My Dad Says'
The former is a smart, deft sitcom; the latter is better left to Twitter.
September 23, 2010|By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times Television Critic


One thing connects the protagonists of the comedies "$#*! My Dad Says" and "Outsourced," premiering Thursday on CBS and NBC, respectively: They owe money on student loans, which limits their life choices to moving in with Dad, in the first instance, and moving to India, in the second. Otherwise, these series are as different as tomatoes and ketchup, with the distinction that both tomatoes and ketchup are good, but one of these shows is not.


William Shatner, who has most always played comedy whether or not he was playing in a comedy, has beamed down into a standard three-camera sitcom, "$#*! My Dad Says," based on a Twitter feed (!) by Justin Halpern, who also co-created the series. The opener, in which Halpern's flat-broke alter ego, Henry ( Jonathan Sadowski), comes home to San Diego, has been substantially revised from the original pilot but not improved, only made more sentimental.

Shatner's Ed is hardly the first difficult dad of television. (Redd Foxx, Jerry Stiller, we could go on.) Old folks speaking uncomfortable truths, talking dirty, riding on motorcycles — such things have long been considered comic dynamite. Oddly, at 79, Shatner comes across as too energetic and youthful even for the 72-year-old he's playing. The bigger problem is that he's given nothing to do or say worth the doing or saying. He gets better mileage from a Priceline commercial.

Though a certain no-nonsense philosophy of life might be extracted from the utterances of Halpern's actual $#*!-saying dad, as edited for television he's just a hard nut with a soft center, a cuddly misanthrope with a shotgun, like some " Andy Griffith" moonshiner. He complains that downtown "smells of motor oil and hummus" and observes that, "if it looks like manure and smells like manure, it's either Wolf Blitzer or manure." Henry, for his part, reads as self-pitying and whiny — much the worse company.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to register "$#*! My Cat Says." I think that $#*! could turn into something.

robert.lloyd@latimes.com


From Columbia University's Daily Spectator:


Twitter-inspired TV show ‘$#*! My Dad Says’ lacks the humor, ease of its predecessor

"$#*! My Dad Says" lives up to its name in the worst possible way.

By Caitlyn McGinn

Published September 22, 2010

“$#*! My Dad Says” is shit. There is probably a more clever way to say that, but if you read no more than the first sentence of this article, be satisfied in knowing that this pathetic excuse for a CBS sitcom is pure crap.

If you don’t already know the back-story for this Frankenstein’s baby of Twitter and commercialism, here you go: Back in August 2009, 29-year-old Justin Halpern, a struggling writer, moved back in with his mom and dad and was encouraged by a friend to start posting his aging father’s quotes on Twitter. His readership went from a couple friends to thousands thanks to a tweet from comedian Rob Corddry. In less than a year, Halpern had over a million followers, a book deal, and novel rights that were sold to CBS.

The show, which premieres Thursday at 8:30 p.m., follows Henry, a recently laid-off magazine writer, who moves back in with his prickly father (William Shatner), whom he hasn’t seen in two years. This could have been an innocuous odd-couple sitcom about generational differences in family dynamics, work ethic, and worldview, but it seems the writers got confused by the integration of new-media material in such an old format as the multi-camera, laugh track-heavy sitcom.

One particularly unfunny amalgamation in the pilot is a quick interchange in which Shatner asks why Henry is moving out: “Where?” “L.A.” “When?” “Now.” “Why?” “Because.” “I See…” The quickness of Henry’s responses could have been a small, funny expression of his generation’s emphasis on efficiency and disregard for the elderly if properly left alone. But the writers, obsessed with making the show a by-the-book sitcom, took it and clunkily transformed it into an over-the-top laugh track moment.

The most egregious strike against “$#*!” is the fact that Shatner is completely inept at sitcom humor. He radiates charisma and natural comedic timing in interviews, but on “$#*!” his jokes fall flat, his delivery is all over the place, and he rarely ever looks his fellow actors in the eyes. He looks like the kid in third grade whose teacher told him to pick a place on the wall and stare at it while giving a speech.

Although, viewers can’t blame Shatner for not looking at Jonathan Sadowski, who plays his son Henry and looks so painfully awkward on camera that they will probably just want to slap him. Sadowski speeds through every line—be it joke, filler, or heartfelt vulnerability—as if he can’t wait to get off the set.

Only two actors—Will Sasso and Nicole Sullivan, who play Henry’s half brother via Shatner and his wife, respectively—have any on-screen comedic talent. And they’re relegated to painfully long jokes about dietary fiber.

If you are still curious as to whether or not an amusing Twitter account automatically translates to a hit TV show, you’re stupid. There are plenty of other options to check out Thursdays at 8 p.m., like CW’s “Vampire Diaries,” FOX’s “Bones,” or NBC’s “30 Rock,” which touts actual comedy. Just go on and follow @ShitMyDadSays on Twitter and forget this little contributing factor to primetime’s demise ever happened.

*

WENDI AND CBS ADD INSULT TO INJURY: ADD TWO MORE TWITTER-BASED SHOWS

Go Wendi and CBS. You just can't steal enough of a good thing.

The black eye network just announced it will add two more Twitter-based shows:

Ashton Kutcher's Shh ... Don't Tell Steve and Dear Girls Above Me.

Wendi, you're quite the creative dynamo. As you wrote in your email to us last year (see above), "I don’t see it [Twitter-based sit-com] as a project we would be interested in developing at this point. Thanks for letting us consider it." No problem, Wendi. We're glad we could provide you with a network franchise... for no remuneration.

And Leslie Moonves, where are you on this matter? A company man... a team player. The heck with what's right... with getting all of the relevant facts. Support your team no matter what... That's real class, Les.

N.Y. POST'S LINDA STASI YET TO COVER STORY

Linda Stasi, a TV writer for the New York Post apparently doesn't 'get it.' When approached about the CBS story, Stasi replied, "The show debuted a month ago," as if that fact somehow affected the story's relevancy and merit. When informed that she was sent a press release "last month" Stasi had no answer.

Perhaps Post owner Rupert Murdoch will have an answer for a TV writer who misses what's shaping up to be the biggest TV story of the year.

On Nov 11, 2010, at 5:07 PM, Stasi, Linda wrote:

I reviewed the show when it premiered


Reply to Lisa:

The story's not about the show. It's about what inspired CBS' foray into the world of Twitter-based sit-coms... an inspiration provided by a writer who has gone uncompensated and unrecognized by the very network now reaping the financial rewards of the writer's labor. I'm sorry - and perplexed - that you don't understand that. The press release, blogspot and meticulously documented facts contained therein are clear as to the tack of the aforementioned story.

If you're a TV writer, this is your bailiwick. Nevertheless, we'll let Rupert sort it out.