Recycled Premise: Difference between revisions

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A '''Recycled Premise''' is whenof a show is made that is effectively identical to another, earlier, popular show, made simply to cash in on the craze or shoot for another demographic. Note however, that not all sequels are recycled premises -- Justpremises—Just the ones that are almost identical, and have more than a couple of [[Recycled Script|recycled scripts]].

* [[Recycled: Thethe Series]]

* ''[[She -Ra: Princess of Power (Animation)|She Ra Princess of Power]]'' was an almost identical [[Distaff Counterpart]] to ''[[He -Man and Thethe Masters of Thethe Universe]]''.

** This was even [[Lampshade|lampshadedlampshade]]d by Harry, who mentioned that Kevin threw two paint cans the last time they tried to climb up a flight of stairs, and saw it coming. Unfortunately for them, the second time around, a sewer pipe followed immediately afterward.

* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' has a similar premise to ''[[Babylon Five5]]''. ''Deep Space Nine'' has a number of parallels to ''Babylon 5'' above and beyond the station premise, including but not limited to the jumpgate/wormhole, a race who rebelled against its more-advanced alien oppressors and eventually threw them off their planet, a group of [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]]s who were using religion to influence more primitive peoples, a station commander who {{spoiler|becomes a key figure in an alien religion}} [[Because Destiny Says So|in fulfillment of prophecy]], a former imperialistic power trying to regain their old territory, a bone-ridge-headed alien race who were former-enemies-turned-allies with humanity, a snarky and cynical head of security with guilt about his shameful past, an idealistic young doctor who has issues with his father, a prototype Earth-made warship that's smaller and more powerful than the huge battle cruisers that make up most of the human fleet, a human government that hid corruption behind a veil of supposed Utopianism, and a long-term plot that included a war against a powerful and previously-unknown enemy who can hide almost anywhere. No one can say for sure, but for many ''B5'' partisans, the fact that creator [[J. Michael Straczynski]] unsuccessfully pitched ''Babylon 5'' to [[Paramount]] only a few months before Paramount announced ''Deep Space Nine'' is a very large smoking gun.

** The ''Deep Space Nine'' partisans, of course, will respond by pointing out that Bajorans, Cardassians, and their relationship had already been established by ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'', that many of these elements were added to ''Deep Space Nine'' late enough in its run that it's stretching things to imply that they were all taken from the original pitch, and that many of them are a lot less suspicious than the description tries to make it sound (the humans make a [[Super Prototype]]? only Straczynski could have thought of that!).

* After [[Hanna-Barbera]] made ''[[The Flintstones]]'', a [[Sit ComSitcom]] (more specifically [[The Honeymooners]]) set in [[One Million BC|the Stone Age]], they eventually went on to make ''[[The Jetsons]]'', a [[Sit ComSitcom]] set [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]], and ''[[The Roman Holidays]]'', a [[Sit ComSitcom]] set in [[Ancient Rome]].

** And then they made ''[[Wait Till Your Father Gets Home]]'', a [[Sit ComSitcom]] set in... modern times (for 1972, anyway).

* ''[[Stargate (Filmfilm)|Stargate]]'' and [[Atlantis: theThe Lost Empire]].

* A lawsuit happened over similarities between the big-budget Michael Bay film ''[[The Island]]'' and an earlier B-movie, ''[[Parts the Clonus Horror]]''.

* The ''[[South Park]]'' [[The Movie|Movie]] was basically an expanded, musical version of the episode "Death". Both involve Terrence & Phillip, [[Take That|potshots]] at [[Moral Guardians]] and scapegoating, and Kyle's mom taking her activism [[Up to Eleven]].

** Worth noting that Rockstar began developing ''[[Manhunt (series)|Manhunt]]'' as an adaptation of the film ''[[The Warriors (Filmfilm)|The Warriors]]'', but were unable to get the rights to it. Also, unlike ''The Running Man'', ''Manhunt'' is set in the present day.

* ''[[Bioshock]]'' is a remake of ''[[System Shock]] 2,'' fueledplus byideological Objectivist propaganda[[Anvilicious|anvil]]-throwing.

* Gus Van Sant remade ''[[Psycho (Film)|Psycho]]'' and apparently, changed almost nothing.

** Not as much as [[Lizzie McguireMcGuire|how]] [[Even Stevens|many]] [[Hannah Montana|sitcoms]] [[That's So Raven|featuring]] [[Cory in The House|a]] [[Naturally, Sadie|group]] [[The Famous Jett Jackson|of]] [[Three Amigos]] in middle-school/high school. It's even spread to [[Nickelodeon]].

* ''[[Escape From LAL.A.]]'' is much more like a remake of ''[[Escape Fromfrom New York]]'' than a sequel.

* [[PGP. WodehouseG. (Creator)Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]]'s novel ''The Small Bachelor'' lifted its plot from the Broadway musical ''Oh, Lady! Lady!!'', one of the legendary "Princess" shows Wodehouse wrote in collaboration with Guy Bolton.

* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' began as a bit of a lift of the initial premise of ''[[Smallville]]'', with the twist that the Destined Hero (in this case [[King Arthur|Arthur]]) ''isn't'' the main character, and at least initially was possibly closer to being the Lex counterpart.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' often has recycled themes of its past episodes, entirely unintentionally (the writers have lost track of what's going on; no one can tell Lou from Eddie). Homer has dressed up as Santa repeatedly, Homer has twice become a Smithers, family members have switched religions and Marge used Reverend Lovejoy's help to get them back, the Simpsons have gone on vacations full of gags based on the location with a third act involving them in danger, Lisa has been upstaged by a peer twice while Homer is involved in a wacky scheme to make money off of a fatty food additive, Lisa has gone to a better school to find out she's been challenged, a Simpson kid has become Krusty's assistant, both children have won parent-constructed project contests based on the fact that their father's job on them looks so shoddy that it "obviously" was done with no help from their parents; the line "There's a New Mexico" is said once in season five, again in season twelve. Professor Frink has become a suave casa nova. Some of these ''might'' be running jokes. Who knows?

* On ''[[I CarlyiCarly]]'', the episode ''iSaved Your Life'' has one of the main characters falling in love with a major character. The [[Anti-Hero]] character then guilts one of the involved parties into believing that the love may be superficial, forcing them to break-up to satisfy [[Status Quo Is God]]. It's pretty much identical to the episode ''Josh loves Mindy'' on [[Drake and Josh]].

* ''[[Body of Proof (TV)|Body of Proof]]'' has been criticized for basically being a generic combination of ''[[Bones]]'' (female medical examiner with [[No Social Skills]]) and ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' (snarky doctor with mild disability).

* The ''[[Star Trek: theThe Animated Series]]'' episode "One Of Our Planets Is Missing" is basically a reworking of the [[Star Trek: theThe Original Series|Original Series]] episode "The Immunity Syndrome," but this time done in such a way that the science mostly makes sense.