I had a brief panic when I saw this episode of Newsradio recently:
Originally aired 9/25/96
Dave (Dave Foley) has his hands full when Matthew (Andy Dick), feeling neglected at work, becomes obsessed with the worker bee comic strip character “Dilbert” and quits his job at WNYX to work at a coffee house.
I thought that I might have lifted this idea for a silly little comic strip I sketched out way back when. That wouldn’t be so bad, except that I’ve based the beginning of my silly little novel on that comic.
A quick check though, finds that I drew the comic seven months before the episode aired. So I’m not guilty of plagiarism. I’m just guilty of recycling an old idea that wasn’t even very fresh when it was fresh.