Back in the late 1950s-early 1960s, Warner Brothers churned out a bunch of detective shows which featured the same format - a handsome, sophisticated older private investigator, a handsome, eager young detective, and an even younger, hip supporting character to appeal to the “youth market.” The only distinguishing feature were the shows’ settings, Los Angeles/Hollywood, Miami, New Orleans, Hawaii, and (for some reason) the 1920s. They recycled both scripts and guest stars into a homogenous blur until the fad finally burned out.
There’s a B&W episode of Combat! with Lt Hanley, in which the Americans and Germans call a truce so they can rescue a French woman’s child who’s fallen into a well.
Two or three years later, there was a virtually identical episode of The Rat Patrol in living color, though the woman was North African instead of French. (It was also only half as long.)
That episode is probably best remembered for the squib and blood pack under Hitchcock’s shirt being clearly visible just before he’s shot in the shoulder.
Can you tell us which shows you were thinking of?
Of course there’s a trope for that.
The writers on Bewitched ran out of original ideas long before Dick York left the series. Eventually, every situation was resolved by Samantha saying it was all part of an advertising campaign.
By the fifth year they were reusing old stories with almost exactly the same scripts:
DARRIN: Sam, I told you NO WITCHCRAFT!
SAMANTHA: I didn’t. I used my imagination. I have some too, you know.
DARRIN: You expect me to BELIEVE that?!?
SAMANTHA: Are you calling me a liar?
DARRIN: IF THE SHOE FITS!
Darrin really was a dick, wasn’t he? I don’t know what Samantha ever saw in him.
This was beautifully parodied in the movie Network. Barbara Schlesinger (Conchata Ferrell) is pitching TV show ideas to Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway):
Lou Grant!
In order, 77 Sunset Strip, Surfside 6, Bourbon Street Beat, Hawaiian Eye and The Roaring 20s.
Thanks! I’m going to find those shows (hopefully get to watch the first episode of each).
I find that intriguing!
.
Oh, for anyone who needs to be reminded what “that” is:
Kookie! And his comb!
Somebody who is familiar with the work of Quinn Martin should review Cannon, Barnaby Jones, The Streets of San Franciso and The FBI (in color) because I’m sure there was a plethora of recycleds in there.
Does Star Trek TOS “The Naked Time” and TNG “The Naked Now” count? The second episode of the new series and they’re already ripping off the original. I remember thinking at the time “Wow, they’re out of ideas already?” (Luckily Riker grew a beard and the series got way better.)
It was an easy/sneaky way to introduce the new cast of characters and all their little quirks.
The Naked Now doesn’t really count because the references to finding the clues in the original Enterprise make it clear the episode is more of a sequel. That’s a lot less of duplicate ripoff than Bewitched having Esmerelda reenact Aunt Clara’s incompetent witchcraft.
The Brady Bunch borrowed several plots from My Three Sons
- One of the kids is allergic to the family dog
- The youngest son is desperate to win a trophy because everyone else in the family has one.
- One of the kids discovers he has a double at school
I’ve seen this plot before – at least once – and I never watched either of those two shows.
It’s a very hoary trope.
Kookie, lend me your comb.
Rats! Ninja’d.
77 Sunset Strip was just a door. We used to drive by looking for it.
Some of these shows were so formulaic that they really didn’t need to borrow plots.
Barnaby Jones, for example. There’s always a death at the beginning. Often murder, but there was manslaughter and cases where the perpetrator probably wouldn’t even have been charged, just an inconvenient death in their presence, but for some reason they needed to cover it up. Either a relative would hire Barnaby to investigate, or he got hired by an insurance company (usually “California Meridian”) and would just show up.
Regardless of why the first death happened, there was ALWAYS another mid show murder. The climax would come, the perpetrator would be fleeing Barnaby, shoot once, miss, then Barnaby would shoot the perp in the arm, always the arm, and capture them. The exception was if the perp was a woman. Some of the women had men to do their dirty work, then that man would be the one to get shot. But even for the women that were actually murderers, even if they pulled a gun on Barnaby at the end, he would always just talk them out of it or get the gun away somehow without having to shoot them.
There was one early episode where Barnaby shot David Wayne twice and likely killed him. That was one where Wayne was killing relatives of his wife so she could be first in line for an inheritance. That was one of the better episodes. And once they added the JR character they did start breaking up the formula a bit more. There were several backdoor pilots, those didn’t use the formula either.
Cannon, every episode was different. No formula at all. One of the better detective shows.
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?
Oh, and that first one. Neither kid was really allergic. Jan was allergic to Tiger’s new flea powder, which everyone had been dousing him with. I think the kid on M3S was allergic to the flowers in the yard, which the dog was probably rolling in.
And another thing was recycled: the scene of Alice bathing Tiger was reused in the episode with the trading stamps and the house of cards.
The New Twilight Zone riffed on this trope (as you’d expect from TZ) in it’s The Shadow Man episode,