The TV show Friends was a phenomenal success but not original. Watch Seinfeld and you soon see Friends’ inspiration. For example, Seinfeld has:
- Manhattan, New York.
- The Manhattan apartment(s).
- A group of friends who are close for no obvious reason.
- The clown (Kramer / Joey), the neurotic (Costanza / Ross), the wit (Seinfeld / Chandler) and the woman (Elaine / Monica) tying it altogether.
- Complex interpersonal relationships.
- Many scenes from the couch.
- And many from the coffee shop/diner.
- And Seinfeld’s script, like Friends’, is a procession of small scenes ending in a one-liner.
Did they plagiarise Seinfeld or just improve an existing, great formula? And where did the inspiration for Seinfeld come from?
The artistic freedom of “research” is how the world works best, leading to better and better outputs and outcomes.
And new improved version soon illuminates the source giving it a new lease of life, and so it goes on.
So why jealously guard or protect what you have created? It is nowhere near as original as you think. Let others build on it and improve it as you have done to what came before.
We all stand on the shoulders of giants and should welcome others standing on ours.
To not do so is to all our detriments.