You can stand there finding fault, or you can knit me some seat belts.
Recently, I had an idea for a TV series. It would be the definitive series of all series ever to exist — so, of course, I started writing it. Four episodes in, I happened to be looking at something unrelated on the Internet…
… and found out the same series had been pitched, and rejected, six years ago.
Sure, my series is salvageable, and I’m enjoying writing it, so I’ll keep at it. But it’s always odd when you find out someone else had almost the exact idea that you did. You think you invented it, but is it possible you saw it mentioned somewhere? Or heard someone talk about it, then thought you came up with the idea yourself? In this case, I’m 99.99% certain that didn’t happen — it was either a coincidence, or the main conceit for the idea wasn’t as creative as I originally thought.
How about you, folks? Did you ever come up with an idea you thought was unique, only to see it pop up somewhere else shortly after (or even before)?
47 Echo 
If its a repeat of an old series it will be EASILY picked up by Holywood (Dallas, 90210, Mel-ho-se Place, and Brady Bunch [currently being pitched], Battlestar Glactica, and probably more that I’ve not been subjected to).
Sadly if its an original idea, you’re screwed.
we all know how I feel on this one, lol. I wrote Superhero Stanley and “published” it online starting in 2006, Kickass came out in 2010 and is extremely similar in a few things….