If I made a series, and based one part of it one something else...

[MJN SEIFER]

If I was to make a series of something and followed my own storyline for the majority of it. If I was to do one part of it (I'll say episode, I can't think what else to call it) that was based on something made by another person, should I say that?

Say if I actually had the means to actually make my series an actual series on TV (farfectched, I know) and one episode was directly based on a movie or a book or something that I didn't write, but I felt like paying homage to for one episode, what do I do - do I credit myself for writing the episode like normal, and then say it's "based on a story by (whoever wrote the book or movie)"?

Just curious. Move to whatever forum.

[Jiro]

Beware of copyright. That'll try and destroy you in the least satisfying way possible.

[G13]

I believe television shows usually have a message in the opening credits saying something like "Based upon the writings of..." or "Based upon the book [...] by...". I'm not sure about movies.

[Tigmafuzz]

Or go with the old "this episode inspired by/loosely based on" thing.

[Sephex]

Look up fair use laws in your region very carefully too.

[Madame Adequate]

If it's an homage or whatever then I'm pretty sure you don't explicitly say anything formally about it. Just say in an interview "Oh yeah episode S04E11 took a lot of inspiration from To Kill A Mockingbird" and that's that. But if you're making anything like a TV show you'll have oversight and access to a legal team so run it by them first.

[Old Manus]

Don't let grandiose hopes about your amateur screenplay making it to the big screen stop you from writing what you think is good.

[Parker]

Here's a pretty good hint tho from someone who like TV!!:

include lots of tits!!

thxn