Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

'Doctor' claims dance show rip-off

|
|
 
  
Published: June 16, 2006 at 11:47 PM

LOS ANGELES, June 16 (UPI) -- A man who bills himself as "The Dance Doctor" is suing Fox TV in Los Angeles, claiming the network ripped off his idea for "So You Think You Can Dance."

John Cassese and his partners also named producers 19 Entertainment and Dick Clark Productions, along with a management firm to which the group pitched their show in 2003, as defendants, Zap2it.com reported.

The suit claims Cassese and his partners -- former Universal exec Maria Lamagra and writers Brian Nelson and Mark Wolfe -- registered the concept with the Writers Guild of America in 2003.

"So You Think You Can Dance" debuted last summer on Fox and averages 10 million viewers per episode.

The lawsuit alleges Cassese and his partners pitched a show in which dancers would be recruited from across the country and partnered up -- eventually performing different dancing styles in front of a panel of judges. That's "pretty much" what the Fox series does, Zap2 it.com said.

The team said it pitched the idea to Martin Erlichman Associates, hoping to sell it to a talent agency, and that Erlichman never got back to them.

Neither Fox nor the show's producers commented.

Topics: Dick Clark, Mark Wolfe
© 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Protesters, police clash at NATO summit Notable deaths of 2012 2012 Billboard Music Awards
The 137th Preakness Stakes Annual Solar eclipse occurs in U.S. Chen Guangcheng arrives in the U.S.
Additional Entertainment News Stories
1 of 29
Members of the Army's Old Guard place flags at Arlington National Ceremtery
View Caption
U.S. flags are seen in the rucksack of a soldier with the Army's 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard, as he places flags at gravesites in Arlington National Cemetery as part of the Flags-In Memorial Day ceremony on May 24, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia. American flags were placed at each of the more than 220,000 grave markers in honor of those who served and Memorial Day. UPI/Kevin Dietshc
fark
You'd probably squawk, too, if some government busybody named your kids "Archie" and "Juliette"
Fugitive penguin recaptured miles from zoo after awkward stand off
SeaWorld's new Manta Rollercoaster stalled on its second day of operation; SeaWorld said not to...
For first time in 14 years, ugly assed baby meerkat born at Tulsa zoo. w/vid
Meanwhile in North Carolina... Witth bonus irony for the town name
Happy 75th birthday to the Golden Gate Bridge, the most beautiful bridge in the world