Suspiciously Similar Song/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Bill Nye the Science Guy]]'' featured parodies of pop songs with scientific lyrics for its music videos, in addition to Suspiciously Similar Songs to several tunes, ege.g. La Bamba, the 007 theme, Wipe Out (the surfing song)...

* ''[[Myth BustersMythBusters]]'' has a number of songs that fit this trope, most blatantly an off-key version of Queen's "Keep Yourself Alive".

** "Ouch!" and "Get Up and Go", in particular, are pretty blatant swipes of their Beatle counterparts, "Help!" and "Get Back".

** Which has led to a severe case of [[Misattributed Song]], because due to these credits, a whole lot of people think Rutles songs are "lost" Beatle bootlegs.

*** Absolutely true — the generally shoddy mid-1970s bootleg ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20180624161148/http://www.bootlegzone.com/album.php?name=fanbeat1&section=1 Indian Rope Trick]]'' even listed "Cheese and Onions" as a lost Lennon demo. To be fair, Innes' take on Lennon's vocal style is uncanny.

* Sometimes this happens when a TV show is released on DVD and the production company didn't manage to secure the license to the original music<ref> In the U.S., one has to contract separately for the right to use a song for ''broadcast'' purposes and the right to include the song for ''distribution'' purposes. Even ten years ago, who would have thought consumers would [[It Will Never Catch On|spend good money on box sets of old TV shows]]?</ref>. For instance, the DVD release of ''[[Married... with Children]]'' uses an instrumental opening song that's very reminiscent of, but not identical to, Frank Sinatra's "Love and Marriage"... unlike the original broadcasts, which actually ''did'' use Sinatra's song.

** Also, the show used [[Queen]]'s "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions" rather frequently. The DVD used Suspiciously [[S Imilar]]Similar Songs.

** In another ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' sketch, fake soap opera [https://web.archive.org/web/20130802055051/http://www.nbc.com/assets/video/widget/widget.html?vid=1396627 The Californians] uses a poor man's version of America's "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5J54RVZjYs Ventura Highway]" during the between-scene bumpers. For those who recognize what the music is supposed to sound like, it also serves as a nice little in-joke...Since the main theme of the sketch revolves around stereotypical surfer-accented blondes making repeated references to the Los Angeles street grid/highway system.

* The pilot episode of the American game show ''[[Bullseye US(U.S. game show)|Bullseye]]'' used "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" by The Animals as the theme. When the show made it to air, a new theme with similar instrumentation was used.

* The South Korean drama "Myeongweol, the Spy" has Suspiciously Similar Songs to the ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' theme and the ''[[Mission: Impossible (TV series)|Mission Impossible]]'' theme running in the background during scenes.

* In the last episode of ''[[Just Cause (TV series)|Just Cause]]'', when Patrick runs in slow-motion down the street to deliver a document on time, a SuspciouslySuspiciously Similar Song to the theme from ''[[Chariots of Fire]]'' plays.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4f6k9lkFs8 Tsubasamaru's theme] from ''[[Ninja Sentai Kakuranger]]'' is an uptempo version of the famous ''[[Blade Runner]]'' ending titles.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZptRhRtL9A A commercial] for ''[[Kagaku Sentai Dynaman]]''{{'}}s Dynarobo uses BGM that sounds strangely like Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger".

** The beginning part of ''[[Kyoryuu Sentai Zyuranger]]'a'{{'}}s opening uses some motifs from ''[[Total Recall]]''.

* The opening theme song to ''[[Touch (TV series)|Touch]]'' sounds quite a bit like [[Radiohead]]'s "Everything In Its Right Place". This similarity is practically confirmed by the original closed captions used on the pilot episode (and still present on the Hulu stream); suffice it to say, apparently the version submitted for captioning ''did'' use the Radiohead track, before it was overdubbed for the final broadcast.

* The first theme song written for ''[[Sigmund and The Sea Monsters]]'' sounded very similar in some respects to ''I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing'' (AKA: the famous Coca-Cola "hilltop song"), so much so, that [[Sid And Marty Kroft]] were allegedly sued, leading to the creation of the show's second theme dong.

* ''[[WKRP in Cincinnati]]'' used a ton of licensed music, but those licenses eventually expired. For syndication and DVD releases, the music was replaced. The new music tends to sound nothing like the original, except when a specific song was central to a plot point or mood. One notable example was at the end of the episode "I Want To Keep My Baby," where Johnny Fever plays James Taylor's "Your Smiling Face."; Thethe syndicated version replaces this with an obvious soundalike.

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