Bringing a well-established foriegn television program to America

In My Humble Opinion
1

Story time, for illustrative purposes

Hubert is a little American boy who enjoys watching a television comedy program from Japan, which has established itself as a consistently popular program with prolific writers and an all-star cast. Hubert begins to wish for a similar program to be broadcast in America. However, he then recalls how every Japanese program in existence shrivels up into an unfunny globule of Marmite once the program or an equivalent program is butchered for an American audience.

“These American producers can’t emulate Japanese humor,” says Hubert. “It’s impossible!”

But then Hubert feels that he should do something about this. He and a friend, he feels, are gifted with a strikingly similar sense of humor to the Japanese program they both enjoy. With a strong sense of determination, he and his friend collaborate to produce a television program concept that they would be able to pitch to any network stupid enough to hear what they have to say.

What I’m getting at is a two-pronged question:

How would I go about preparing a pitch to a television network? I have many many ideas and no money, if that helps.

And more importantly:

How would I go about pitching an idea that has ALREADY BEEN DONE, just never in this country? I imagine there would be the issue of asking for permission to use the idea.

I’m already well aware of the slim chances of any network being remotely interested in two idiots with a copied idea (however good it may be), so spare me the snark. I’m going to try anyway.

2

A friend of mine tried pitching to a Network recently, though admittedly this was here in Australia, and the stumbling block for him was that he wasn’t a part of a Production Company, so the Network wouldn’t have accepted it. What they wanted was the whole package prepped and ready to go upon approval of idea and budget, as it wasn’t their job to find the Production Company staff and facilities to get it made.

So first pitch it to a Production Company, who will then in turn pitch it to a Network.

3

No snark intended, but what part do you see yourself playing in this if someone actually liked the idea? Are you a writer? Because ideas are a dime a dozen, and producers/network execs are getting pitched at left and right all day long. If you write a great script, at least you have something to sell (not that it won’t still be incredibly hard). All the better if you can produce a short segment or concept video to get the idea across in a more visual way. But you need to have some skill that makes you a valuable part of the show once production gets underway - otherwise they can just take your idea and toss you aside. It wouldn’t even be illegal - mere ideas are not copyrightable. At least, not if they haven’t been fixed in some tangible form.