High concept

The Chronicle printed one of those Fall Movie Preview features that are, along with the typical end-of-year looks back at the news, one of the most tedious and regrettable parts of the newspaper. But one of the descriptions caught my eye:

Oct. 10: "Good Boy!" -- Tells the tale of a 12-year-old who discovers that his new puppy can talk. Not only that: He's an alien from the Dog Star sent to investigate why canines strayed from their original mission and instead became man's best friend.

That second sentence is EXACTLY the premise of a musical I invented, for a musical theater class I took in the mid-1980s, entitled "God Dog." Intended to be a satire of "Cats," and never fully developed (it was just a class project), the show's only difference from the above summary was that we played a whole crew of astro-dogs, not just one, bent on this recovery mission. And it was a musical. We came to earth to find satified mutts, one of whom sang a show-stopper blues tune entitled "I'm a Bitch, and I Like It."

I'm not the type to sue, though. Imagine the embarrassment of claiming you had dreamed up the idea for a stupid kids' movie -- half a stupid kids' movie.