Burning Question: Homage or rip off?

I haven't done one of these in a while, so there may be a little bit of rust.

As I've said numerous times this year, I have been working on developing a television pilot. At this point, I am just about to take a lot of my copious notes and start putting pen to paper, but I was confronted the horrible thought that my clever references and such could be considered theft.

I am trying to figure out where the line is between paying homage to something and ripping that source material off, and I am all about the former and really wary about the latter.

So my question is: Where do you consider the line between paying homage and ripping something off?

Tags: homage, pilot, television, ripoff, plagiarism