Steal from the Best

[UPDATED]--All is well, problem resolved. Details below.

On those rare occasions when I might be up late enough to see some of the TV talk shows, I've been enjoying Craig Ferguson. His monologues have enough of a mix of prepared material and off-the-cuff riffing to keep them among the freshest thing in late night. So I was more than a little bit let down to discover that a recent bit had been cribbed wholesale from stellar cartoonist Kyle Baker. Last week, after the networks had announced their fall new show lineups, Ferguson feigned disappointment that the pilot he'd executive-produced, Ghost Chimp, M.D., had been passed over. My own disappointment was not feigned when I came across Baker talking about it on his blog. He gives background, explaining how he came up with the concept himself fifteen years ago, and expresses his dismay to see the idea somewhere else:

Last week, I was informed that some desperate hack TV writers STOLE my deliberately hacky character. WOW! How hacky can you be?
Here it is.
I kind of like the idea of someone stealing THE WORST IDEA EVER.

Apparently, the Ferguson people are planning to make it a running gag, because they've put up a MySpace page (linked in the quote), and it was the subject of a sketch tonight. I don't know whether or not they'll ever own up to the origins of the idea, but I at least hope they let it wander off into the sunset.

By the way, if you click over to Baker's blog, do yourself a favor and visit his Website, too. He's one of the most creative guys out there, and there's plenty of fun stuff to look at.

UPDATE--Last night, Craig Ferguson gave Kyle Baker the credit for Ghost Chimp, M.D., and Baker's acknowledged that on his blog and moved on to other issues, so everybody seems to be happy. Unfortunately, he also removed his original post on the subject, in which he reproduced the entertaining Vibe article from ten years ago in which he described pitching the idea to Warner Brothers in the first place, but I guess we can't have everything.

I, however, seem to be responsible for punishing Ferguson and his producers for their good deed. I saw the original item in Baker's blog yesterday, and a couple of other comics blogs had picked it up, so I figured it had been covered, and I hadn't planned to mention it myself. But when I got home late last night, though, and came into the Ferguson show in the middle of the sketch in which they brought the idea back, I changed my mind and talked about it. Unfortunately, as I was coming in the door and settling in, taking my shoes off (as you do when you get home), and getting comfortable, I wasn't giving all my attention to the TV. So I didn't notice that the focus of the sketch was to give the proper credit in the first place (in fact, looking back at the YouTube video of the sketch [embedded in Baker's blog], I believe that at the moment they mentioned Kyle Baker, I was talking over the TV, telling Mrs. Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk about the very funny cartoonist who'd had the idea first). I apologize for calling them out when they were making good on Baker's credit. I realize that it's presumptuous to believe that you know anything about people just because you've seen them on TV, but regardless, Craig Ferguson comes across on his show as a decent and honorable man, and good on him for doing the right thing.