This Is What Happens to Me

Easily the worst thing about being a small fish writer is writing things for free and then finding out that a giant studio is already doing the exact same idea. This happens all the time.

So now I live my life like the fugitive Dr. Richard Kimble - constantly looking over my shoulder, completely paranoid that this is the day the One Armed Man comes up with my "Identical Twins" pitch.

I wrote a script that some people "loved". This got me some meetings. Everywhere I went, they told me how much they loved what I wrote, but that particular show wasn't for them.

I had a great meeting at the USA network. They told me exactly what they do, how they do it, and what they were looking for. You can't ask for more than that.

I took this information and went home and came up with an idea. I fleshed it out, then fleshed it out some more. I came up with characters, stories, the whole thing. I sent it to my agent, he loved it, said it was perfect.

Excitement was high.

And then, I went to deadline.com and there was a post about some green lit pilots:


"Written by Annie Brunner and to be directed by Dean Parisot, Against the Wall is a family drama set in Chicago following policewoman Abby Kowalski (Carpani), who causes a rift with her three cop brothers when she decides to join the department’s Internal Affairs division. Universal Cable Prods. is producing."


That's my show.

And that's when I say "I didn't kill my wife!" and Hollywood goes "I don't care".