New York, June 13, 2006 – Someone had this great idea for a sitcom: a gay male couple, living in L.A., goes to China to adopt a child. At the orphanage, they fall for a little girl, who, it turns out, has four sisters that she can’t bear to leave behind. (You see where this is going.) They return to the U.S. with five Chinese daughters, and the “Dad, I need a bra”-type hilarity ensues.

No one would touch it, but after the success of Brokeback Mountain, why not make the guys cowboys and set it on a ranch; sort of a gay Bonanza with daughters instead of sons.

Couldn’t move that, so set it in the old west, say 1897, turn it into a drama, change the two lovers to uncle/nephew horse wranglers who reluctantly yet valiantly protect five abandoned Chinese girls from predators - but leave "Broke" in the title. Voila! Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church in the mini series Broken Trail.