They finally set a sitcom in a research lab.
The idea is hardly original – I myself submitted a script for a lab sitcom (WHITECOATS) to the BBC and Channel 4 in 2004 only to have it a) rejected and b) ignored, respectively. A German TV producer got excited about it and pitched it to some German TV channel. I never heard from her again…
Well, if the brilliant Richard Herring gets his sitcom ideas rejected by the BBC then a total unknown writer who hasn’t even done the requisite ten years on the comedy circuit is NOT going to get taken seriously. I get that, I even agree. (And of course my script was the work of a screenwriting and comedy novice…)
I wrote WHITECOATS because I wanted to see a sitcom set in a lab. There wasn’t one, so I took a DIY attitude. Luckily for me it didn’t get taken up; I moved on to writing thrillers for children and wound up being paid what I’m guessing is more than a novice TV writer.
So LAB RATS – should have worked for me. I love Chris Addison in “The Thick of It”. He’s sweet and he’s a Manc, like me. I loved Geoffrey Perkins as Ford Prefect in the radio version of “The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy”. I watched both the clips released prior to the show’s airing and laughed out loud.
But I’m afraid I watched with dismay yesterday. I’m not going to tear it apart – too many TV reviewers are doing that. I AM going to keep watching, but from such a beginning I don’t see that it ever reach any decent height. Unless they rejig the formula radically as was done with “Men Behaving Badly”.
The best thing I can say is that it’s sort of Goodies humour, but the Goodies has dated too. And the other thing I can say is that some of their conversations, sad and geeky though they were, are not far from the stupid kinds of things I remember we did talk about when I worked in a lab. The two clips of LAB RATS that made me laugh are here.
Okay, I’ve criticised another writer. Now I’ll offer myself up for the same treatment. Here is a snifter of my pilot script for WHITECOATS – the four-scene sample I entered in the BBC New Talent contest. Obviously I didn’t get anywhere or else I would never have written The Joshua Files.
4 replies on “Lab Rats – I so wanted it to be good”
Thank goodness Whitecoats didn’t make it. Because, fun as it was, think of the legions of kids and YAs who would never have got to know Josh.
Thanks for that luvvy. I’ll always be grateful to you and the other pals I press-ganged into reading it. It made me feel that I was on the right track with the writing lark. Even if sitcom wasn’t going to be It.
Lab Rats… When I first heard it, it sounded familiar x]. Turns out there’s gonna be the same TV show in Australia… My best friend’s cousin went and auditioned for something or the other and got in… I think :].
Well hey! Aussie version – good on them.
Nice to see you posting here Becca. Though SAD to read on your blog that Joshua Files isn’t easy to find in your town. You can buy it discounted to 16 Aussie dollars at Fishpond, if that helps…
http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Childrens/Fiction/General/product_info/11731030/?cf=3&rid=15818631&i=1&keywords=joshua+files