# Examples of plots/plot elements that show up in multiple tv shows; let's call them Plotwins **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [April 8, 2022, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534 "2022-04-08T17:01:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/1 "2022-04-08T17:01:31Z")
I don’t mean the typical “there’s a misunderstanding and hilarity ensues” type of thing but more specific gags. Two that I’ve seen recently and which prompted me to start this: Someone gives a (hideous) portrait to someone and the recipient has to deal with it without hurting the giver’s feelings. Both **King of Queens** and **The Big Bang Theory** have both done that one. There’s also the playing with a baby and accidentally smacking its head on something. **Friends** and **Modern Family** have featured bonked baby heads. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/2 "2022-04-08T17:29:26Z")
At the mention of old people having sex, the rest of the cast has to make vomit-suppression faces. Not really a plot element, just something that shows up regularly, and is never funny. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/3 "2022-04-08T17:34:48Z")
“Happy Days” and the original WKRP both featured Christmas episodes in which someone’s friends all brought trees, thinking that the someone – the Cunningham family and Jennifer, respectively – would have no tree. I once tried submitting this to TV Tropes but nobody could think of other examples. ---
**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:** [April 8, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/4 "2022-04-08T17:59:35Z")
There was an episode of both Magnum PI and Airwolf where the main character had to go rescue a woman that was being held in a foreign country. Turned out the person “holding” her didn’t want her because she was a violent nutjob psycho hose beast. As soon as the rescued woman got back, she started fixating on Magnum/String to the point she was going to kill their current gfs. In this case it’s more lazy producing, because both shows were produced by Donald Bellisario, who also wrote the episode(s). More to the point of the OP, it seemed that every show needed to do their own version of It’s A Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol. There was a time also where shows did episodes where the cast played a baseball game, and important insights or character growth came from the game. They were using baseball as a metaphor for life. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/5 "2022-04-08T20:03:01Z")
The Dukes of Hazzard and CHiPs both had episodes inspired by the movie E.T. > **[The Dukes of Hazzard & CHiPs – Science Fiction Double Feature](https://franticplanet.wordpress.com/2020/11/02/the-dukes-of-hazzard-chips/)** > > \[Previously in this series: Heartbeat’s Alien Abduction — The Waltons Poltergeist — Baywatch Monsters & Mermaids\] Is it Halloween already? Like your most annoying Facebook fri… ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/6 "2022-04-08T20:24:17Z")
Why reinvent the wheel? Call them tropes. > [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](#): > > Someone gives a (hideous) portrait to someone and the recipient has to deal with it without hurting the giver’s feelings. Both **King of Queens** and **The Big Bang Theory** have both done that one. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/tSqIhpH6axs/maxresdefault.jpg "Everybody Loves Raymond: The Sculpture") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSqIhpH6axs) > **[Terrible Artist - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TerribleArtist)** > > A subtrope of Stylistic Suck. Whenever a character not already informed or displayed to have any talent with art creates something, it will almost always be a crudely drawn thing that would make a grade school art teacher weep. Expect … ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/7 "2022-04-08T21:08:04Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > In this case it’s more lazy producing, because both shows were produced by Donald Bellisario, who also wrote the episode(s). Didn’t Bellisario milk the same basic setup on all his shows for 40 years? ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/8 "2022-04-08T21:33:15Z")
This trope might be too generic for what the OP is looking for, but how about the ‘comedy smash cut’? It goes something like this made-up example: Wife: my brother got a unicorn costume for little Jenny’s birthday party tomorrow, and he wants you to be the back end. Husband: be the back end behind your brother, ‘farty’ Arty? No way, not in a million years! (Smash cut to the birthday party, where husband is glumly getting into the unicorn costume back end) ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/9 "2022-04-08T21:43:14Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](#): > > Someone gives a (hideous) portrait to someone and the recipient has to deal with it without hurting the giver’s feelings. UK tv comedy _Not going out_ has just done that ! ---
**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:** [April 8, 2022, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/10 "2022-04-08T21:56:15Z")
In the early days of TV, in a show called [I Married Joan](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816012/), Joan opened a package addressed to her husband, only to have an inflatable raft fill her living room. Carl Reiner liked the idea so much, he used it in The Dick Van Dyke Show, and gave the original IMJ writer a scriptwriter’s credit for it. Since an idea that’s good enough to use is good enough to use again and again, the raft came back in an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. ![](https://media.tenor.com/rCd5Fy9Gdh4AAAAM/laura-petrie-the-dick-van-dyke-show.gif "Laura Petrie The Dick Van Dyke Show GIF - Laura Petrie The Dick Van Dyke Show...") [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Y71fMun-Gns/hqdefault.jpg "WKRP Raft Inflating Scene in Carlson's office") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y71fMun-Gns) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/11 "2022-04-08T22:49:14Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > There was a time also where shows did episodes where the cast played a baseball game, and important insights or character growth came from the game. They were using baseball as a metaphor for life. ^Most recent example I can think of was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”. Warner Brothers was fond of recycling gags in different cartoons. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1rXcm2mbKI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1rXcm2mbKI) was done no fewer than four times (five if you count this variant/homage: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JRUQMS1suk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JRUQMS1suk) ) There was also shoving heaps of explosive down Bug’s rabbit hole and stomping on the last bundle to reveal all the dynamite under the floorboards. That was done two or three times. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2022, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/12 "2022-04-08T23:21:34Z")
[King of Queens did the raft also](https://youtu.be/DwIWTstd7xk?t=226). I’m sure there are more. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2022, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/13 "2022-04-09T01:14:42Z")
> [@solost](#): > > comedy smash cut > **[Gilligan Cut - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GilliganCut)** > > The Gilligan Cut is a staple of classic comedy. Simply put, if the character says "I'm not doing this", no matter how many times they say it, chances are the character will do this for the sake of comedic effect, sometimes even while stating "I … ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2022, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/14 "2022-04-09T02:25:35Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > In the early days of TV, in a show called [I Married Joan](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816012/), Joan opened a package addressed to her husband, only to have an inflatable raft fill her living room. Carl Reiner liked the idea so much, he used it in The Dick Van Dyke Show, and gave the original IMJ writer a scriptwriter’s credit for it. Since an idea that’s good enough to use is good enough to use again and again, the raft came back in an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. > [@TriPolar](#): > > [King of Queens did the raft also](https://youtu.be/DwIWTstd7xk?t=226). I’m sure there are more. “M \* A \* S \* H” had a raft on Potter’s desk, triggered by Klinger. The “Mr. Ed” rip-off _Hot to Trot_ had a maid get surprised by a horse. [![](https://lacklustervideo.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/blowupa.gif) ](https://lacklustervideo.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/blowupa.gif) ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2022, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/15 "2022-04-09T02:47:27Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Most recent example I can think of was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine “Take Me Out to the Holosuite”. That brings to mind a common one in Star Trek: being trapped in the Holodeck. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2022, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/16 "2022-04-09T04:57:21Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > In the early days of TV, in a show called [I Married Joan](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816012/), Joan opened a package addressed to her husband, only to have an inflatable raft fill her living room. Carl Reiner liked the idea so much, he used it in The Dick Van Dyke Show, and gave the original IMJ writer a scriptwriter’s credit for it. Since an idea that’s good enough to use is good enough to use again and again, the raft came back in an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. That plot even predates TV! It happened in a 1947 episode of the radio show “Fibber McGee & Molly”. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/QIu8eszCwj0/hqdefault.jpg "Fibber McGee & Molly radio show 11/11/47 Inflatable Raft from Army Surplus Store") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIu8eszCwj0) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2022, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/17 "2022-04-09T05:38:23Z")
Without even trying hard I can name three shows with a “baby born in an elevator” episode. There was _Night Court_, _All in the Family_, and _Benson_. There must be more. ---
**Author:** ![Happytree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happytree/32/3555_2.png) [@Happytree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happytree)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/18 "2022-04-09T16:42:25Z")
Petsitting a parrot, and the parrot repeats something terrible (out of context) that the sitter says. I think i remember this from an Andy Griffith episode. I remember a parrot saying " I hate Andy", and Barney being stressed about it. I’ve seen this many times, but the Andy Griffith is the only one i can recall offhand. Many of these very specific tropes i have seen repeated in kids shows; the plots are often “borrowed” from older sitcoms. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2022, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/19 "2022-04-09T16:57:12Z")
> [@Happytree](#): > > I think i remember this from an Andy Griffith episode. I remember a parrot saying " I hate Andy", and Barney being stressed about it. There is no Andy Griffith episode even similar to that. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2022, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534/20 "2022-04-09T17:02:14Z")
There’s probably a name for the trope where the servant pretends to be the rich owner of a mansion while the real owners pretend to work for him because the servant has told his family he was the owner, now they are coming to visit, and the nice owners don’t want him to look bad in front of his family. They did this on the Addams Family with Lurch and I know I’ve seen others. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-plots-plot-elements-that-show-up-in-multiple-tv-shows-lets-call-them-plotwins/962534.md?page=2)