# Duplicate episodes in different series **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [August 1, 2022, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900 "2022-08-01T01:44:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/61 "2022-08-06T06:41:00Z")
Oh, and “meets his own double at school.” That wasn’t just those two shows; split-screen seems to have been a thing in '60s/early '70s sitcoms. First, the whole premise of The Patty Duke Show, then on Gilligan’s Island, three of the castaways have doppelgängers who show up on the island. In none of those cases was it a coincidence, though. Mr. Howell’s and Gilligan’s look-alikes were impersonating them, and Ginger’s was made over to look like her. And not quite the same thing, but on All in the Family, the butcher, who has hearts for Edith and was rejected in an earlier episode, shows up with his new fiancee, who looks an awful lot like Edith would if she got her hair done at a salon and her clothes at Saks. And now I’m wondering: did I Dream of Jeannie or Bewitched ever do anything with split-screen? (I didn’t make that umlaut; it just showed up!) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/62 "2022-08-06T07:12:12Z")
I believe both Jeannie and Samantha had mischievous identical cousins, Serena in the latter case. I saw the “Robby has an evil doppelganger” episode of _ **MTS** _ a couple of weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/63 "2022-08-06T14:36:46Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Also “But I wanna be part of the family orchestra!” In Bobby’s case, glee club. Mike and Carol suggested he learn an instrument, so he brought home a drum kit and deafened everyone in the house. But I can’t remember – is that how the M3S episode played out? Wait, I think I remember. Correct me if I’m wrong, but he took up the violin\*? And the family was subjected to hours of atonal screeching. Then he wanted to give a party to showcase himself playing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and nobody wanted to go. And the Bradys recycled that too! Peter wanted to give a party to celebrate himself as The Hero (at the toy store; pulled a younger girl out of the way of a falling shelving unit), and nobody wanted to go to that. And the Bradys recycled themselves. Each Brady kid had their own episode wherein they got what Mike called a “swelled head” and required intervention from one or both parents. From the top down, Greg when he started high school, Marcia when she was Juliet in the school play, Peter when he was The Hero, Jan when she was voted Most Popular Girl, Bobby when he was the safety monitor, and Cindy when she was chosen to be on a quiz show. Except that no one ever admitted that when someone is one of six kids, it’s hard not to grab with both hands a chance to distinguish oneself. ---
**Author:** ![Skunkdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c2a13f/32.png) [@Skunkdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skunkdog)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/64 "2022-08-06T14:54:40Z")
I recall years ago there was a ‘Columbo’ and a ’ Murder She Wrote ’ episode that were startlingly similar. I don’t remember the particulars, but they were both locked room mysteries with the same solution. I only noticed it because I had seen both episodes in syndication during the same week. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/65 "2022-08-06T15:39:25Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I believe both Jeannie and Samantha had mischievous identical cousins, Serena in the latter case. **Jeannie II** in the former. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/66 "2022-08-06T18:58:27Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Oh, and “meets his own double at school.” That wasn’t just those two shows; split-screen seems to have been a thing in '60s/early '70s sitcoms. First, the whole premise of The Patty Duke Show, then on Gilligan’s Island, three of the castaways have doppelgängers who show up on the island. In none of those cases was it a coincidence, though. Mr. Howell’s and Gilligan’s look-alikes were impersonating them, and Ginger’s was made over to look like her. And not quite the same thing, but on All in the Family, the butcher, who has hearts for Edith and was rejected in an earlier episode, shows up with his new fiancee, who looks an awful lot like Edith would if she got her hair done at a salon and her clothes at Saks. And now I’m wondering: did I Dream of Jeannie or Bewitched ever do anything with split-screen? > > (I didn’t make that umlaut; it just showed up!) The doppleganger causes comedic confusion shows up in Shakespeare and surely before that. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/67 "2022-08-06T19:01:49Z")
Shakespeare ripped it off from Plautus. > **[Menaechmi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menaechmi)** > > Menaechmi, a Latin-language play, is often considered Plautus' greatest play. The title is sometimes translated as The Brothers Menaechmus or The Two Menaechmuses. > The Menaechmi is a comedy about mistaken identity, involving a set of twins, Menaechmus of Epidamnus and Menaechmus of Syracuse. It incorporates various Roman stock characters including the parasite, the comic courtesan, the comic servant, the domineering wife, the doddering father-in-law and the quack doctor. As with most of Plautus'... ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/68 "2022-08-06T20:37:00Z")
And, of course, there are the two movies of _The Parent Trap_ in 1961 and 1998, in which identical twin sisters who together, on each learning of the existence of the other one, decide to trick their parents into getting back together. Twins in stories is a common trope. Look at this TV Tropes page: > **[Twin Tropes - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwinTropes)** > > Tropes that surround twins (and other multiple births — triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, ad infinitum). Associated tropes: Alleged Lookalikes: Two characters look awfully alike to the cast, but the audience doesn't believe they're any … ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/69 "2022-08-06T20:39:05Z")
There was a documentary about three identical triplets who discover only as adults the existence of the other two: > **[Three Identical Strangers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Identical_Strangers)** > > Three Identical Strangers is a 2018 documentary film directed by Tim Wardle, about the lives of Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran, a set of identical triplet brothers adopted as infants by separate families. Combining archival footage, re-enacted scenes, and present-day interviews, it recounts how the triplet brothers discovered one another by chance in New York in 1980 at age 19, their public and private lives in the years that followed, and their eventual discovery that their ad... ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2022, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/70 "2022-08-06T21:10:10Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > It’s a very hoary trope. Monk borrowed the core of the idea, but added a murder. (Mr Monk and the Billionaire Mugger.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/71 "2022-08-07T00:14:26Z")
A few years back, I was watching an episode of _ **The Americans** _ in which Matthew Rhys murders a guy by hanging him and then leaves a suicide note on his computer. Two hours later, I was watching an episode of _ **Columbo** _ in which Matthew Rhys murders a guy by hanging him and then leaves a suicide note on his computer. I had an incredible feeling of _deja vu_. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/72 "2022-08-07T01:25:34Z")
I vaguely recall an episode of _Chico and the Man_ where Chico (Freddie Prinze) met a beautiful woman, but she didn’t want to date him because he reminded her strongly of her ex-boyfriend. Chico somehow or other met him, and the guy looked almost exactly like him … mainly because he was played by Tony Orlando, who looked a lot like Prinze. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2022, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/73 "2022-08-07T14:48:05Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > There was a [Brady Bunch episode](https://bradybunch.fandom.com/wiki/Mail_Order_Hero) wherein Bobby had to meet Joe Namath (to make good on his BS that he knew Namath on a comes-to-dinner basis). Cindy wrote to Namath and told him her brother was dying and his last wish was to meet him, and Namath made a personal visit. A few years later, there was a [Diff’rent Strokes episode](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0560065/) wherein Arnold missed a chance to meet Muhammad Ali. Willis and Kimberly told Ali their brother was dying and his last wish was to meet him, and Ali made a personal visit. Also from the 1970s, there was an episode of _Sanford and Son_ in which Fred gets Lena Horne to visit their house by telling her that Lamont is a sickly child who wants to meet her. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/74 "2022-08-08T01:06:15Z")
Except for period pieces and limited series, every medical drama that’s been on over the past 6 years has had an episode where hackers have gotten into the hospital system and are holding the patient details for ransom. I’m seriously not kidding. 1. Grey’s Anatomy “Out of No Where” 2. The Night Shift “R3b0ot” 3. Chicago Med “CTRL ALT” 4. New Amsterdam “Paid in Full” 5. The Resident “00:42:30” 6. The Good Doctor “Decrypt” ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/75 "2022-08-08T01:16:14Z")
I noticed that in the medical dramas I watch but it’s not a matter of duplicate episodes but instead just all of them doing the same storyline (and one that affected some real hospitals). Similarly, they all did COVID storylines. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2022, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/76 "2022-08-08T01:50:04Z")
_ **St Elsewhere** _ had a hacker break into its computer system back in the early '80s. The hacker was a kid playing a prank, and a patient died from being given the wrong medication. This may have been the first time such a scenario was shown on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/77 "2022-08-10T12:01:06Z")
There was a Hill Street Blues episode where the father of a rape victim snuck into the holding cell wing where the suspect was being held and shot him—only he shot the wrong guy. A couple weeks later, some other cop show—with more of a red meat focus than HSB—had the same plot, but the father shot the right guy. Can’t remember what the other show was (Hunter, maybe?), but it was a one- or two-season affair. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/78 "2022-08-10T16:36:30Z")
Not an entire episode, but too identicial to be a coincidence. In the Friends episode _The One Where Heckles Dies_, Chandler, afraid that he’ll never find a woman who loves him, desperately calls Janice. When Janice shows up, she’s obviously pregnant, and Chandler says, “You couldn’t have told me that on the phone?” Janis replies, “And miss the expression on your face?” Exactly the same thing happened in the Dick Van Dyke Show episode, _That’s My Boy_ when Rob is convinced Richie was switched at the hospital. He calls Mr. Peters to come over. The Peters are Black (resulting in the longest laugh in the show’s history). Rob says, “Why didn’t you tell me on the phone?” and Mr. Peters replies, “And miss the expression on your face?” ---
**Author:** ![Jay\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/79 "2022-08-11T15:31:16Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > A few years back, I was watching an episode of _ **The Americans** _ in which Matthew Rhys murders a guy by hanging him and then leaves a suicide note on his computer. > > Two hours later, I was watching an episode of _ **Columbo** _ in which Matthew Rhys murders a guy by hanging him and then leaves a suicide note on his computer. > > I had an incredible feeling of _deja vu_. Orson Welles is shot and falls into water at the end of both Touch Of Evil and Start The Revolution Without Me. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900/80 "2022-08-11T20:58:59Z")
Babylon 5 and Star Trek (in all it’s forms) were shows that often trod the same ground. This resulted in many similar episodes. The one that occurs to me off the top of my head was B5’s “Intersections in Real Time” and ST: TNG’s “Chain of Command”. (Both interrogation episodes of the main character.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/duplicate-episodes-in-different-series/968900.md?page=5)