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{{quote|''A gimmick or storyline may be reused freely and safely after a few years of dormancy.''}}
[[File:sevenyearrule 3516.jpg|link=
The unwritten rule that, after a given number of years, there has been enough turnover in the fanbase that a writer can re-use the same gimmicks and storylines with impunity.
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Compare [[Recycled Script]]. Contrast [[Spiritual Successor]] where the writers don't have to pretend this isn't a rehash - because it isn't ''truly'' a rehash.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* The ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime is particularly bad about this. Easily done because most of it is [[Filler]].
** Probably the most obvious is that (starting with Hoenn) every time Ash goes to a new region, he meets a girl who will soon be his new traveling companion and accidentally destroys her bicycle,<ref>Subverted with Iris - Pikachu shocked ''her'' instead of a bicycle.</ref> mirroring the beginning of the first season. Likewise, starting with Hoenn he stupidly stops using all of his current Pokémon in favor of catching weaker, untrained ones in the new region. Except for Pikachu, of course.
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** One of the most blatant (and non-filler) examples: In Hoenn, Ash enters a PokéRinger event in which flying Pokemon compete to collect rings and place them on goal posts. Ash uses his Taillow, a bird Pokemon, which evolves during the competition and surprises its opponent by hitting the ring onto the goal with its wing, rather than carrying it in its beak. An episode that aired about five years later repeated this plot exactly; just replace Hoenn with Sinnoh. Both episodes even use the ''exact same background music'' during their respective climaxes.
** The series in general is a bit weird about this, since despite the recycled plots, there's still quite a bit of continuity, with references to episodes that aired over ''ten years'' prior being made. It gives the impression that the writers are trying to have their cake and eat it too.
* ''[[Waiting in the Summer]]'' is a [[Spiritual Successor]] of ''[[Please Teacher!]]'', almost a walking carbon copy even. Proving why this trope exists, ''far'' more people are comparing it to the more recent ''[[Ano Hana]]'', despite the only similarities between the two series being they're about a group of high-schoolers, there's romance and the same director is involved.
==
* The rule of thumb in the comics business used to be "No one has a memory over five years old." It was believed that readership would turn over in five year cycles, as older kids stopped reading comics, and younger kids started. The notion of a significant number of fans reading comics well into their late teens or adulthood was never really considered in the Golden Age or Silver Age.
** ''Reprints'' were more common in the Silver Age, though still relatively rare in superhero comics. The "five year rule" was probably a more reliable guide for, say, "teen humor" comics, where a story would probably be just as good (or not-so-good) in 1970 as it was in 1965. This was particularly common in Marvel's various ''[[Millie the Model]]'' titles. A story first printed in ''Millie the Model'' might turn up in ''Mad About Millie'' or ''Chili'' several years later.
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** Not to mention, it came out eight years after the prior entry in the series, ''Spy Kids 3D'', and ten years since the first one. The children who were in the target audience when the original films came out are all grown up while the children currently in the target audience will have probably never heard of the series before (after all, it didn't exactly stay in the public consciousness after it left theaters). As such, the franchise was essentially remarketed as though new.
* Pretty much the only differences between ''[[The Karate Kid]]'' and ''[[Sidekicks]]'' are that the second one has [[Chuck Norris]], and was made eight years later.
== Literature ==
* Used in-universe in ''[[Watership Down]]'', due to rabbits' short lifespan. The main events of the novel are the stuff of legend some five years later, and humans are portrayed as driving cars and smoking cigarettes in the mythic past.
* The production notes for episodes of ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'' employed several tropes from earlier Dozerfleet Literature stories ''specifically counting on'' the fact that almost nobody had read those earlier stories, so the [[Author Appeal]] got a free pass.
== Live Action TV ==
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** This is similar to many studios only commissioning 65 episodes for its kids', tween, early and late teen shows. It takes a monumental push by fans to get more of the same show instead of using the same 65 scripts for the next one they churn out. This was a pretty big issue in the mid 2000s where the hugely popular [[Lizzie McGuire]] ended at 65 episodes in just 2 seasons and [[Kim Possible]] needed an obscure contract from a German television station to get a 4th season. [[Hannah Montana]], [[Wizards of Waverly Place]] have over 85 and [[The Suite Life On Deck]] has over 100 when you count both series.
** Originally, this practice started as something of an insurance policy for all sides—if the show did well, great, it would be signed up for more than 65 episodes. On the other hand, if it bombed and was canceled, 65 was the minimum most stations would purchase for syndication (allowing them to run the show each weekday for 13 weeks without repeats). By ensuring that there would be at least that number of episodes, the producers hoped to guarantee they would make at least some money off the show, and this worked reasonably well. (Famously, the first seasons of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' were produced under such a deal.) But add in the idea that your shows are basically interchangeable dreck that nobody cares too closely about and you end up switching shows each time the grace period expires.
== [[Pro Wrestling]] ==
* Coined by [[Professional Wrestling]] promoter, writer, on-air personality, and general jack-of-all-trades Jim Cornette, the Seven Year Rule is the unwritten pro wrestling rule that, after seven years, there has been enough turnover in the fanbase that a writer can re-use the same gimmicks and story lines with impunity. As the theory goes, any wait shorter than seven years may result in fans noticing the rehashing, and calling the promotion on the re-use. After that, a few diehard longtime fans may notice and become upset, but almost everybody will accept the product as new.
* Certain character stereotypes occur so often in [[Pro Wrestling]] that it is not unusual to have more than one example thereof existing at the same time - albeit necessarily on different TV shows or in different promotions. Whereas [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] boasts a mentally unstable "monster" who uses the Chokeslam finisher named [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]], [[TNA]] has a mentally unstable "monster" who uses the Chokeslam (okay, "Black Hole Slam") finisher named Abyss. And in late 2004/early 2005, this mimicry was seen within WWE itself as Gene Snitsky and Jon Heidenreich each performed the role of an intense monster [[Heel]] with [[This Is Sparta]] speaking patterns on ''Raw'' and ''SmackDown'', respectively. They even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] this fact at the 2004 ''Survivor Series'' when they met for the first time.
* "The Narcissist" Lex Luger was recycled as "The Reflection of Perfection" Mark Jindrak after 11 years, complete with a hammy manager to talk him up.
** See also "The Masterpiece," Chris Masters, in 2005-07.
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*** And now the feud has led to a Buried Alive match with Undertaker losing due to outside interference, leaving Kane to ask for a bulldozer to dump soil into the grave, almost seven years since the last time this happened.
* Recently, the WWE redid the [[Montreal Screwjob]] angle, wherein the referee, the owner/manager, and a smarmy wrestler conspire to screw a fan favorite out of a title. The original screwjob was apparently a shoot (IE, not faked), while the remake is most definitely kayfabe. Anyways, the wrestler who got screwed over is [[The Undertaker]], who then proceeded to abduct Teddy Long, in a manner reminiscent of the [[Not My Driver]] portion of the maligned "[[Shocking Swerve|Higher Power]]" storyline when he abducted Stephanie in much the same way. Not only are they reusing old storylines, they're mixing them together.
** The [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] ''loves'' to reference and re-enact the [[Montreal Screwjob]]. It was repeated merely a year later at the 1998 Survivor Series, with Vince screwing over [[Mick Foley|Mankind]].
*** Other companies like to reference it, too. Less than two months after the original, [[Bret Hart]] came out after the main event of Starrcade where [[Hulk Hogan]] pinned [[
** And now they've done it again, but this time with a [[Subversion]]. At Money in the Bank 2011, controversial heel [[CM Punk]] threatened to leave the company with the belt after beating then current champ [[John Cena]]. When Cena had Punk locked in his signature submission, Vince and the head of talent came down trying to screw Punk out of the title; however, Cena knocked out Vince's crony, saying that he was going to win this his way, only to have Punk use the distraction to hit Cena with the [[Finishing Move|Go To Sleep]], [[Shocking Swerve|pin him]], and leave the company with the championship.
* In late 1999, [[Triple H]], the top heel, married [[Stephanie McMahon]] and used her power in the company to rule the roster with an iron fist as the McMahon-Helmsley Regime, allowing him to keep a strangle hold on the Championship. Cut to 2008 and the same thing is repackaged with [[Edge]] and Vickie Guerrero. Ironically, back in 2000, Edge and his tag team partner [[Christian]] voiced confusion on whether the group was a regime or a faction (both terms were used throughout the stable's history) and settled on "Fac-gime."
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* Rock & Wrestling Era: a mega-heel called the One Man Gang (a big white guy from Chicago) is transformed into the "African Dream" Akeem after "discovering his African roots". WWE, Inc. Era (a return to the cartoonish-ness of the Rock & Wrestling Era): A-Train (a huge white guy; before that, he was known as Albert) returns after 8 years as Lord Tensai, having "found himself" in Japan.
** This one actually has some basis in reality, since Matt "A-Train" Bloom did spent several years wrestling in Japan as Giant Bernard.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' and other ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' products have new revisions brought out every four or five years, that being the length of time most players stick with the hobby, according to Games Workshop.
* Played with in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' with functional reprints. Also, Standard never uses cards that have not been printed in the past two years.
== Toys ==
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** ''[[Transformers]]'', in particular, makes absolutely no attempt to hide this. In fact, in the franchise's first year, several sets of characters who were just each other in different colors came out ''all at once'', with the toys sold on shelves right next to each other and the cartoon and comic book making no effort to disguise their identicalness. In fact, [[The Transformers (animation)|the cartoon]] took it [[Up to Eleven]], using variously-colored [[The Starscream|Starscreams]] as generic [[Mooks]].
▲== Webcomics ==
* [http://www.shortpacked.com/2008/comic/book-7/09-rock-band-week/airbrushed/ This strip] from ''[[Shortpacked]]'' shows a toy fan [[Genre Savvy|realizing]] the frustrations inherent when companies take advantage of this trope because [[Viewers are Morons|the fans]] [[Truth in Television|let them]].
* Expect [[Multiplex]] to inform you when this trope is in play with a current movie. Jason being a movie snob requires him to point them out.
* The [[Ciem Webcomic Series]] was plagued with problems, and gave way to an [[Ultimate Universe]] in the form of Comprehensive Gerosha. Which is deliberately taking advantage of its time in [[Development Hell]] to make fans of the original less sensitive to the idea of a [[Continuity Reboot]].
== Web Original ==
* ''[[Loading Ready Run]]'' parodied this by pretending to be remaking a sketch that had been released just a few weeks earlier. As it turned out one of their members was manipulating them into position so he could use them for his own sketch, which the others had shot down.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* ''[[Family Guy]]'' had an episode in 2001 where Lois begins fighting using "Tae Jitsu" because Peter runs all over her and doesn't respect her. Fast forward 9 years, and there's another episode where Lois becomes a boxer because Peter runs all over her and doesn't respect her.
* During [[The Golden Age of Animation]], this trope was employed partly due to the fact that movie theaters wouldn't rerun older cartoons anyway, particularly if they were from the black and white era once Technicolor became the standard. So plots could be re-used after enough years had gone by. The ''[[Popeye (comic strip)|Popeye]]'' series was particularly guilty of this, once [[Famous Studios]] took over.
== Real Life ==
* [[Photographic Memory|Eidetic memory]] is the exact opposite of this. But cases of it are extremely rare. Yet, even if it were more common, most have a built-in [[Weirdness Censor]] that prevents [[It's Been Done]] warnings from being taken seriously.
* To an extent and modified for regional issues, ''all'' politicians love to abuse this trope, worldwide, making promises to attract votes that they more likely than not won't keep, even if they actually intended to do so when making them.
* Anything aimed at a university or college audience on-campus inherently has an audience with a collective memory of four years - if that's the length of the undergrad programme. Those who remember graduate and leave, a fresh class of students replaces them, everything is new again. Back when the Internet was primarily an academic research network, Usenet was infamous for an influx of new, inexperienced users every September; the 1993 entry of commercial providers (such as AOL) who could flood the net with inexperienced new users year-round was nicknamed the "
* Scammers also love to abuse this trope, hoping that their potential victims won't recall reports of every other time the scam they want to attempt has harmed others.
* The
** Most economic
{{reflist}}
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