i wrote a spec of The Office back in feb. it was written and set early in season 5 before michael quit and started his own paper company with pam and ryan, and before erin the new receptionist started. it also was before the season finale where we found out pam was pregnant.
in my script, i had a joke where kevin says he thinks pam is pregnant because he noticed her boobs were getting bigger. if you saw the season premiere for season 6 last thursday, they had the same joke!
the bad thing is now when people read my script, they might not know i wrote it before the episode aired. the good thing, i guess, is maybe that means my sensibilities are close to the writers of the show.
luckily it’s just that one joke that’s the same. i am worried whenever i see a new episode, though, that they might do a story similar to my spec. if they did, i’m assuming it would make my spec useless, but i’ll have to double check that.
You’re worried about one joke?
I wrote a spec script for The Office that continued from when Michael started his own paper company. I thought it was the end of the season, but two weeks later they aired an episode that was extremely similar to mine (in my script, Michael works out of his garage, Kevin is manning the phones (poorly), tension with Charles Minor, etc)
The script just won at the Tenth Annual Moondance Film Festival (TV EPISODIC 1/2-HOUR): http://www.moondancefilmfestival.com/02_festival.winners.html
I think the moral of the story is – judges understand that writers often come up with similar material.
Kiyong, was this the spec you submitted for the Nick Fellowship?
it was. i’m working on a 30 rock spec now to apply again in jan.