Recycled Script: Difference between revisions

[[File:recycled 4981.jpg|link=Garfield|frame|Above: 2009. Below, [[Fleeting Demographic Rule|2011]].]]

 

''And they kept listening..."''

|'''[[Superdickery.com]]''' on Lois Lane #78<ref>[http://www.superdickery.com/lois-gets-powers-again-again/ Here.]</ref>}}

When two or more shows share the same pool of writers (or when a freelance scriptwriter is a particular combination of industrious and lazy), it's not unknown for tight deadlines to be handled by the expedient of taking a script already used by one show and "translating" it to another show. Characters are mapped onto their closest equivalents, and situations are revised slightly to fit the new program, but the same plot is used unchanged.

 

 

Recycled scripts are also a common side-effect of writers' strikes, particularly among Westerns made in the 1950s and 1960s. The practice actually dates back as far as the early days of radio.

A show targeted at a [[Fleeting Demographic]] or one that is a sufficiently [[Long Runners|Long Runner]] may well unabashedly recycle its own scripts [[Fleeting Demographic Rule|every few years]].

 

 

Related to, but not to be confused with [[Strictly Formula]], where each individual episode plot seems the same, with minor variations. See also [[Fleeting Demographic Rule]] and [[Recycled Premise]].

** ''[[Exterminatus Now]]'' presents [http://exterminatusnow.co.uk/2006-02-17/comic/non-storyline/out-of-continuity-comics/what-does-the-scouter-say-about-his-power-level/ The plot of Dragonball Z] - as [[Droste Image]].

* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' copied plot lines from the last Gundam show, ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED]]'': Shinn and Stellar's encounter in a cave (in ''Destiny'') being similar to Athrun and Cagalli's (in ''Seed''), while the final battles in both shows are nearly identical, with the only difference being that in ''Destiny'', the Three Ships Alliance's victory was a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] (and in the TV version, a [[Flawless Victory]]).

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* A script from a ''Winker Watson'' strip in ''[[The Dandy (comics)|The Dandy]]'' Annual 2009 was recycled for The Bash Street Kids a strip in ''[[The Beano]]'' (Issue 3610). Even though the scripts were from separate comics and for separate strips. The two comics are from the same publisher though.

* In the early sixties there were plans for a ''[[Superboy]]'' [[Live Action TV]] series. The show never made it past the pilot, but scripts were written fot the show and were later used in the ''Superboy'' comic book series.

 

== [[Fan Works]] ==

* In ''[[Half Life: Full Life Consequences]]'', John Freeman receives a call from his brother to help him kill aliens and monsters, and goes out to do so on his motorcycle, killing "[[Department of Redundancy Department|zombie goasts]]", and eventually defeating the last boss, only to see Gordon Freeman killed before his eyes. In What Has To be Done, John Freeman sets out on his faster motorcycle, kills more zombie goasts and kills the boss that killed Gordon Freeman, only for Gordon Freeman to rise as a headcrab-infected zombie goast.

 

* On the big screen, the 1960s ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' film ''[[Thunderball]]'' was recycled into 1983's ''[[Never Say Never Again]]'' with only a few minor tweaks to reflect the passing of time. The plot, names of several major characters, and even the actor playing Bond (Sean Connery) were otherwise unchanged. This was the result of a lawsuit by a writer who had contributed ideas to the original ''[[Thunderball]]'', who was trying to leverage this into permission to make his own Bond movies; the verdict was essentially that he could make as many remakes of ''[[Thunderball]]'' as he liked.

** ''[[Die Another Day]]'' didn't go as far, but copied from ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]'' the primary weapon of the villain (an orbiting satellite using smuggled diamonds that shot down nuclear missiles) and the fact that he teamed up with a foreign agent that happened to be the only girl he slept with that movie. I understand that they wanted to reference previous movies for number twenty, but that was a little much.

** It doesn't just apply to the beginning; ''Batman and Robin'' also used some key plot points from ''Forever'', namely the final act, where Batman, Robin, and Batgirl raided the observatory.

 

* [[Douglas Adams]]' novel ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'' reused several key concepts from "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S17/E06 Shada|Shada]]", a story he had written for ''[[Doctor Who]]'' but which had been unfinished due to strike action (and elements of "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S17/E02 City of Death|City of Death]]", which ''was'' broadcast). Another Adams novel, ''Life, the Universe, and Everything'', began its life as a ''[[Doctor Who]]'' screenplay called ''The Krikketmen''. It shows, as the [[Gotta Catch Em All]] plot is a very different sort of animal from its predecessors.

* [[Agatha Christie]] did this several times. The Poirot short story ''Yellow Iris'' became the Colonel Race novel ''Sparkling Cyanide''; the Poirot novellas ''Murder in the Mews'' and ''Dead Man's Mirror'' (which were published together) were based on the Poirot short stories "The Market Basing Mystery" and "The Second Gong", respectively; the Poirot novel ''The Blue Train'' uses the same device as the Poirot short story "The Plymouth Express"; and two Poirot stories, "Problem at Pollensa Bay" and "The Regatta Mystery", were later rewritten to be about Mr Parker Pyne. Note that Poirot, Race and Pyne all exist in [[Canon Welding|the same universe]].

* Donald Sobol's ''Two-Minute Mysteries'' includes a story of a man who tries to impress his date with a fake medal his great-grandfather supposedly received, marked as a medal of valor from the first battle of Bull Run. The challenge is to figure out why the medal is obviously fake. Either it's obvious because {{spoiler|it wasn't called the ''first'' battle of Bull Run until after there was a ''second'' battle of Bull Run}} ... or it's obvious because Sobol used the same mystery in his ''[[Encyclopedia Brown]]'' series.

** The majority of the ''Two-Minute Mysteries'' are just ''Encyclopedia Brown'' stories condensed to one page and with the crime in question upgraded from petty theft to first-degree murder.

* The [[Roald Dahl]] adult short story "The Champion of the World" is about two men who come up with the idea of poaching pheasants by dosing raisins with sleeping pills and scattering them though the wood. [[Danny, the Champion of the World|There's something familiar about both title and plot...]]

* The conclusion to the ''[[Humanx Commonwealth|Pip and Flinx]]'' tales, in which some last-minute brilliance by Flinx allows him to track down a [[Lost Technology]] universe-warping superweapon and thus, save the galaxy from being devoured by the Great Evil, is basically a Recycled Script of ''The End Of The Matter'', in which he did the exact same thing to save two solar systems from a black hole: the threat's just been scaled up by several orders of magnitude.

* Dan Brown's ''[[Digital Fortress]]'' mentions a subplot explaining the etymology of the word "Sincere" as derived from "sine cera" which literally means "without wax" in Latin. In ''Digital Fortress'' he credits this to Spanish instead. It's explained that ancient sculptors would cover flaws in their work with wax, therefor a piece finished "without wax" would be considered honest and without flaw. Interestingly enough, Dan Brown revisits this exact same subplot when he explains "without wax" in his other book ''[[The Lost Symbol]]'', this time crediting the etymology to Latin. (Both times, [[Dan Browned|the etymology is false]]; the word comes from the Latin prefix sin- (one) and word crescere (to grow), drawing an analogy to a field that is not growing mixed crops.)

 

* This trope was the basis for the early [[Too Good to Last|short lived]] 2000s NBC show called ''[[The Rerun Show]]'' in which a group of actors took actual scripts of old shows such as ''[[Bewitched]]'' and ''[[Married... with Children]]'', and used the same exact dialog, while spoofing the show with props and actions.

* ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'' and ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'' shared a fair number of scripts. The most obvious of these was a plot involving a crash on a remote island, stranding the bionic individual with a lot of extras plus a coworker from OSI (Oscar for Steve, Rudy for Jaime). The coworker is seriously injured, but there is a doctor among the survivors who can save him despite the primitive conditions; to help him do so, though, Steve/Jaime must cut open a finger on their bionic hand and bare two wires so that the doctor can cauterize a blood vessel.

* ''[[El Chavo del Ocho]]'' suffered badly from this. Several episodes were remade until four times, sometime even repeating cast and roles. Granted, the show having done several [[Channel Hop]]s (even if it within the many [[Televisa]] channels) and severals changes of cast and format<ref>''El Chavo'' began as a sketch in an [[Sketch Comedy]] show, before becoming its own half hour sitcom until it ended being part of a sketch show again.</ref> could explain it, but it's still quite jarring when all of those episodes end together in syndication.

 

* One arc of ''[[Modesty Blaise (comic strip)|Modesty Blaise]]'' had her being captured and placed in the bottom of a large hole with a bucket stuck on her head, as entertainment for two elderly murderers. The same plot was reused in an arc of ''Agent Corrigan''.

* The Comics Curmudgeon has noticed recycling in comic strips, most blatantly in ''[http://joshreads.com/?p=1646 Blondie]'' and ''[http://joshreads.com/?p=2372 Family Circus]'', which exactly duplicated the layouts of the original strips.

** A strip from 2000 has Paige channel-surfing very slowly, to the point that Peter grabs the remote and start channel-surfing very quickly, saying "''This'' is how to do it." This same gag was used in a 2005 strip, except with Jason in place of Paige.

 

* [[Professional Wrestling]] manager/promoter Jim Cornette, out of character, has put out a "rule" that angles or gimmicks can be recycled after about [[Fleeting Demographic Rule|seven years]], due to the shifting fanbase.

 

* Not even [[Shakespeare]] was immune to this: ''[[Macbeth]]'' is a virtual rehash of ''[[Julius Caesar]]''. Both tell the story of a general (Brutus/Macbeth) who, at the urging of a close companion (Cassius/Lady Macbeth), murders a ruler (Julius Caesar/King Duncan) and seizes power. After being haunted by their respective victims' ghosts, they are defeated by a former ally (Marc Antony/Macduff) in the name of the rightful heir (Octavius/Malcolm).

** Almost all of Shakespeare's plays were recylings of others' plays to begin with - which was common at the time. Also, both ''Julius Caesar'' and ''Macbeth'' were based on historic records/legends which happened to have some similar plot points.

* [[Cirque Du Soleil]] has done this at least twice with clown acts, recycling material from long-since-closed tours. ''Quidam'''s current clown segments ([[Audience Participation]] involving a date and a film shoot) are from the 1990-93 tour ''Nouvelle Experience''. ''ZAIA'' revives the comic symphony conductor act that appeared in their [[The Eighties|Eighties]] tours. As well, back in [[The Nineties]] -- when the company was much smaller -- acrobatic acts developed for one show were sometimes moved with their performers to another and given a different song and costuming/staging to fit the new "home" (aerial cube moved from ''[[Alegria]]'' to ''[[Mystere]]'' after the latter's manipulation act was moved to ''[[Quidam]]''); this still happens occasionally. Finally, the 1992 Japan-only tour ''Fascination'' mostly consisted of acts from the ''Le Cirque Reinvente'' and ''Nouvelle Experience'' tours (which hadn't visited Japan), and in visuals and theme duplicated those of ''Reinvente''.

 

 

* BioWare RPGs ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'', ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', and ''[[Jade Empire]]'' all feature sidequests where you end up arguing your position before a panel of five judges against an insulting opponent. The connection is more explicit between NWN and KotOR: both sidequests feature a murder trial, the player character as the defense lawyer, and a defendant who did actually commit the crime (although in one case, the defendant was not responsible for his actions).

** [[Mass Effect|Mass Effect 2]] also has this, though there are only four Quarian admirals (one only presiding, without a vote) on the panel that judges Tali'Zorah.

* ''[[Tron 2.0]]'' came out in 2003, was given virtually no publicity by [[Disney]], and quickly vanished into [[Canon Discontinuity]] once ''[[Tron: Legacy]]'' came out. However, there are enough plot elements (protagonist is the son of the human protagonists, gets zapped to cyberspace when searching for his dad, gets drafted to the games and rescued by a mystery woman, goes to a bar to get what looks like the way out only to fall into an ambush...) matching up to make one wonder if the writers had the thing on multiplayer.

 

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-kahahjwic ''SMG4's Mario School Club''] is similar to the previous episode, ''Mario Preschool''. However, the cast of characters is somewhat different, as new characters had been introduced after that episode.

 

* The episode "Dementia 5" was used, with very few changes, by two animated series made by the same studio. The series were ''[[Spider-Man]]'' and ''[[Rocket Robin Hood]]''.

** Another episode of [[Spider-Man]], involving a scientist taking over a power plant to raise the city into the air, was re-used later. Essentially they changed a few words in the script, changed the scientist's skin color and added pointy ears, and suddenly it was involving an Atlantean using his submarine to ''lower'' the city into the ocean.