In a world with 6.8 billion people, all with various levels of brain function, who spend at least short periods each day having ideas, it is not an easy job coming up with an idea that is new.
That, I imagine, is why people take ideas other people have already had, change them a little, and present them as something new.
The makers of No Ordinary Family, a new science fiction comedy drama that TV2 has got hold of for the 2011 year, would most definitely have seen Superman, and its many off-shoots.
They have probably seen The Incredibles, the 2004 computer-animated superhero comedy film about a family of superheroes.
They probably also saw Heroes, the science-fiction television drama series that told the stories of ordinary people who discovered they had superhuman abilities, and how those abilities took effect in the characters' lives.
They may or may not have seen the very good Misfits, the recent UK series that followed a gang of five young people serving community service orders who, after being caught in a freak electrical storm, found themselves saddled with strange superpowers.
What they certainly have done is wrap all those shows into a little ball, squeezed it tightly into their little hands, then picked them apart and put them together again to create No Ordinary Family.
According to the annual pre-Christmas blurb, No Ordinary Family is among the new season's international line-up, including $#*! My Dad Says, which will be a must-watch, merely because it stars William Shatner.
No Ordinary Family stars the man who was once cruelly described as the poor man's Bruce Willis - Michael Chiklis.
Chiklis was actually very good in The Shield, as badly corrupt cop Vic Mackey, and as the Thing in the Fantastic Four.
I have always liked his work.
In No Ordinary Family, he stars with Julie Benz, of Dexter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as a husband and wife who get dumped in a Brazilian river during a plane crash with their two children.
They get out alive, but when they get back to the US, find - surprise surprise - they have super powers.
Chiklis, as Jim Powell, discovers he can catch bullets and leap tall buildings.
Benz, as Stephanie Powell, can do stuff at light speed.
The best word to describe No Ordinary Family is: silly.
It is meaningless fluff, made worse by unfortunate saccharin emotional scenes that only Americans appear to be able to watch without gagging.
None of this, to be fair, explains why I watched a whole hour of the show with only brief fast forwarding through the dull bits.
Clearly it has something.
You will just have to watch and make up your own mind.
