MovieChat Forums > Selfie (2014) Discussion > Character names are a rip-off from My Fa...

Character names are a rip-off from My Fair Lady

posted 10 years ago by jp7570
43 replies | jump to latest

Really? The main characters are Eliza Dooley and Henry? Almost a verbatim rip-off from the classic stage and film musical My Fair Lady, where the leading lady was Eliza Doolittle and the male lead was Henry Higgins.

Based on the George Bernard Shaw play, it involved a bet that Professor Higgins can transform "blue-collar"-type flower girl Eliza into a respectable member of high society London. Sounds like the template for an updated version involving social media, just like this. I like Karen Gillan and John Cho, but this? Sounds like a short run.

TV creativity really has reached the bottom of the barrel.

[–] davidemartin 10 years ago

When a TV series is inspired by a play, it is perfectly acceptable, even dare I say expected that the character retain their names ?
This is the same as if one complained that SMALLVILLE was a ripoff of Superman comics and couldn't they at least have come up with some original names ?

Sigh.... why am I wasting time responding to a complaint made long before the complainer ever actually SAW an episode ?
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[–] Scott-101 10 years ago

It's a highly inventive retelling of My Fair Lady. Also My Fair Lady was taken from Pygmalion, so the thing you're referencing isn't even original. It's called a homage and it's one of the more meaningful shows out there in my opinion.

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[–] Rina9999 10 years ago

I've enjoyed everything about this thread. Thank you, contributors, for some good laughs.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] suj 8 years ago

Dude. That's the WHOLE POINT OF THE SHOW. It is meant to be a modern-day retelling of Pygmalion/My Fair Lady/Pretty Woman/that one episode of Magnum P.I./and every other freaking retelling of this same dang story.

Oh, and news flash: Clueless is a modern day retelling of Jane Austen's Emma!