The original “Big Three” Networks, CBS, NBC and ABC, seemed to always remain cool and corporate. You know, professional. Well, maybe that was your dad’s idea of being professional. Today, in the age of social media, a big corporation can throw a tantrum just like anyone else. That is exactly what CBS did today regarding its lawsuit with ABC over the similarities of ABC’s new “Glass House” to CBS’s old “Big Brother. Not being able to yank the show off the air, CBS created a fake ad for an upcoming CBS show, “Dancing on the Stars,” which it advertised to the world on Twitter.
There is definitely a case to be made that ABC’s “Glass House” is an outright rip-off of CBS’s “Big Brother.” But it’s not the first time that one movie or TV show has spawned a nearly identical version from a competitor. The big deal here is that the ABC series is being produced by former “Big Brother” producers in violation of their nondisclosure agreements. That’s the big point. But a judge doesn’t see that as a big enough point to shatter “Glass House” off the air. For now, we get to enjoy some suit at CBS attempting to be funny. The following is a fake ad for an upcoming CBS show that seems to be doing the same thing CBS is accusing ABC of doing. It’s actually alright but a bit uptight and it starts to drag as it gets lost in its premise of dancing in graveyards. It is supposed to appeal to that coveted 18 – 35 year-old demographic which it may or may not. Read it over at CBS or enjoy it below:
CBS ANNOUNCES DEVELOPMENT OF “DANCING ON THE STARS,” AN EXCITING AND COMPLETELY ORIGINAL REALITY PROGRAM THAT OWES ITS CONCEPT AND EXECUTION TO NOBODY AT ALL
Los Angeles, June 21, 2012 – Subsequent to recent developments in the creative and legal community, CBS Television today felt it was appropriate to reveal the upcoming launch of an exciting, ground-breaking and completely original new reality program for the CBS Television Network.
The dazzling new show, DANCING ON THE STARS, will be broadcast live from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and will feature moderately famous and sort of well-known people you almost recognize competing for big prizes by dancing on the graves of some of Hollywood’s most iconic and well-beloved stars of stage and screen.
The cemetery, the first in Hollywood, was founded in 1899 and now houses the remains of Andrew “Fatty” Arbuckle, producer Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Paul Muni, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, George Harrison of the Beatles and Dee Dee Ramone of the Ramones, among many other great stars of stage, screen and the music business. The company noted that permission to broadcast from the location is pending, and that if efforts in that regard are unsuccessful, approaches will be made to Westwood Village Memorial Park, where equally scintillating luminaries are interred.
“This very creative enterprise will bring a new sense of energy and fun that’s totally unlike anything anywhere else, honest,” said a CBS spokesperson, who also revealed that the Company has been working with a secret team for several months on the creation of the series, which was completely developed by the people at CBS independent of any other programming on the air. “Given the current creative and legal environment in the reality programming business, we’re sure nobody will have any problem with this title or our upcoming half-hour comedy for primetime, POSTMODERN FAMILY.”
“After all,” the spokesperson added, “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
