My daughter walked into the room last night while my wife and I were watching TV.  “What’s this?” my daughter asked, referring to the show that was on.  “It’s called Mad Love,” my wife told her.  “It’s new.”  “Is this that Sarah Chalke show?” my daughter asked as she rested her knee on the arm of a chair.  “Who is Jason Biggs?” I asked her.  “Is he an Apatow guy?”  “American Pie,” my daughter informed me.  “I wasn’t far off,” I thought.  The Apatow movies evolved from American Pie.  My daughter sat down and watched Mad Love with us.  “It looks like How I Met Your Mother,” was my daughter's immediate reaction.  I agreed: “When I first saw a promo for this, I thought it was How I Met Your Mother.”  “Sarah Chalke was on How I Met Your Mother,” my daughter reminded me.  “Maybe that’s where I got confused,” I said.  “Plus, this Jason Biggs from American Pie looks a lot like the guy who’s on How I Met Your Mother.”   “Josh Radnor,” my daughter said.  “And,” she added, “Alyson Hannigan, who is also on How I Met Your Mother, was in American Pie.”  We watched for another moment or two.  “So what’s the premise of this show?” my daughter asked.  “We’re not sure yet,” my wife told her.  “It has the best friend from 27 Dresses,” I said.   I was referring to Judy Greer.  My daughter said, “She’s always the best friend.”  “The bearded guy (Tyler Labine) seems to be a cross between Zach Galifianakis and Jack Black,” I said.  My daughter laughed.  “He’s even doing Jack Black’s voice,” she said.  One of the main sets for Mad Love was the observation deck of the Empire State Building, where Sarah Chalke and Jason Biggs meet by chance and fall madly in love.  “Like Sleepless in Seattle,” my daughter said. 

My wife said that the title reminded her of Mad About You, a sitcom from the 90’s that starred Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a young couple living in New York.  “It really felt like a knock-off of How I Met Your Mother,” was my daughter’s reaction.  “I mean, Sarah Chalke is playing pretty much the same character that she played on that show, and Jason Biggs is basically playing Ted.  He even looks like Ted."  My daughter continued, "It’s weird that they would make a show that is so similar to How I Met Your Mother, cast Sarah Chalke, who used to be on How I Met Your Mother, and then put the show on right after How I Met Your Mother.  Who created this show?” “Matt Tarses,” I said.  “His dad was a sitcom writer and producer in the 70’s and 80’s.”  “Matt Tarses worked on Scrubs with Sarah Chalke,” my daughter said. “Jamie Tarses, Matt’s sister, is also a producer on this show,” I said.  Jamie Tarses was a network executive at NBC, where she liked to take credit for developing Friends.  Later, she became head of the entertainment division at ABC.  A story went around years ago that she once fired her own father.  Jamie Tarses is also a producer on Mr. Sunshine with Matthew Perry, formerly of Friends.  My daughter said, “Well, Mad Love is basically Friends.  But then How I Met Your Mother is basically Friends, too.”  Friends was created (by David Crane and Marta Kauffman) to be a softer version of Seinfeld.

You may wonder how a sitcom is actually created.  Network executives like to cobble together pieces of things that have already worked.  They like to hire show runners who are coming off of other hit sitcoms.  They like to hire actors who are coming off of hit movies or hit sitcoms. They like to buy a premise that is similar to the premise of another hit show.  Network executives feel comfortable hiring producers who are former network executives. 

Most new sitcoms fail.  It’s impossible to know ahead of time what will work.  Borrowing ideas and people from other hit sitcoms feels like a safer choice than going out on a limb with something really new. 

Network executives like to make the safe choice because making the safe choice helps to protect their jobs.  No one is going to fire a network executive for putting Sarah Chalke or Jason Biggs in a sitcom, even if the series ultimately fails.  No one is going to fire an executive for hiring the former producer of a hit sitcom to create a new sitcom.  No one is going to fire an executive for approving a premise that is similar to the premise of another hit series or a hit movie.

When you write your own spec pilot, you want to write something that is different, bold, fresh, and new.  If you are clever, your very different spec pilot may draw attention to you.  Your very different spec pilot script may get you work, but it will not be turned into a series.  A new series from a first-time show runner, who will almost certainly be coming off of another hit sitcom, is almost always bits and pieces of other shows.  Friends was sort of Seinfeld.  How I Met Your Mother is sort of Friends.  Two and a Half Men is sort of The Odd Couple.  The Office is based on a hit sitcom from England.  Modern Family is basically The Office at home.  A new sitcom that actually gets on the air is almost always the safe and familiar choice, written by, produced by, and starring the safe and familiar people.