# TV shows ripped off from movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218 "2004-12-10T22:15:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/21 "2004-12-11T02:43:00Z")
Shortly after the _Look Who’s Talking_ series premiered there came a series called [Baby Talk](http://imdb.com/title/tt0101041/), a sitcom with the premise of a single mom and her baby whose inner dialogue is voiced by a celebrity. (Julia Duffy was the original star but was replaced after a few episodes by Mary Page “Kiss of Death” Keller, the woman brought in to assassinate quite a few bad series in the 80s and 90s.) _Bewitched_, the story of a Manhattanite mortal who falls in love sophisticated she-witch with a wacky family, had many parallels with _Bell Book & Candle_ (a movie prime for a remake, imo), though I don’t know how directly connected they were. (In the movie the witches weren’t omnipotent as they were in the movie). A shortlived Fox series called [Werewolf](http://imdb.com/title/tt0094311/) had many parallels (and I believe the same fx crew) as _American Werewolf in London_. _Battlestar Galactica_ (i.e. STAR WARS + MORMONISM = Obi Ben Cartwright) was sued by Lucasfilm who was in turn sued by ABC’s parent company who owned the rights to _Soylent Green_ and claimed R2D2 and C3PO were copied from them. I’m not sure how all these lawsuits turned out. The playwright of _Stalag 17_ actually won a lot of money from Bing Crosby Productions over copyright infringement by _Hogan’s Heroes_, ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/22 "2004-12-11T02:49:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Bewitched, the story of a Manhattanite mortal who falls in love sophisticated she-witch with a wacky family, had many parallels with Bell Book & Candle (a movie prime for a remake, imo), though I don’t know how directly connected they were. (In the movie the witches weren’t omnipotent as they were in the movie). Don’t forget the earlie movie **I Married a Witch**. By the way, are they omnipotent in the _movie_, or in the _movie_? I’d also nominate the TV series **It Takes a Thief** , which ripped off its premise and its title from the Cary Grant movie **To Catch a THief**. (Or do I have that backwards?) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/23 "2004-12-11T02:52:35Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Don’t forget the earlie movie **I Married a Witch**. > > By the way, are they omnipotent in the _movie_, or in the _movie_? :smack: Omnipotent in the “TV series”. (In the movie the witches were basically Human Beings 1.0A- still basically human but with a few more developed powers. In the TV show Endora, Samantha, et al, were essentially godlike.) ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/24 "2004-12-11T03:05:02Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > … > > _Battlestar Galactica_ (i.e. STAR WARS + MORMONISM = Obi Ben Cartwright) was sued by Lucasfilm who was in turn sued by ABC’s parent company who owned the rights to _Soylent Green_ and claimed R2D2 and C3PO were copied from them. I’m not sure how all these lawsuits turned out. > …, I think the other movie involved in this was _Silent Running_, not _Soylent Green_. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/25 "2004-12-11T03:12:06Z")
There was a pilot episode for a show called[_Callahan_](http://imdb.com/title/tt0083396/) which was an _Airplane_-style spoof on the _Raiders of the Lost Ark_. Never made it as a series though. ---
**Author:** ![Murcielago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Murcielago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Murcielago)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/26 "2004-12-11T03:18:55Z")
Though I never watched the program, it was rather obvious that the TV cop show _Hunter_ featured a lead actor doing his best impersonation of Clint Eastwood as “Dirty Harry.” ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/27 "2004-12-11T03:28:54Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > This bet would be an example of “Heads, I lose, tails you win,” I believe. Hey, I got that backward. No wonder I keep losing those bets! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/28 "2004-12-11T03:32:51Z")
Star Trek \>\> Forbidden Planet ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/29 "2004-12-11T03:58:21Z")
_Mutant X_ \>\>_X-Men_ ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/30 "2004-12-11T04:37:14Z")
Okay, I take it back; some of these are rip-offs, and blatant rip-offs at that. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/31 "2004-12-11T05:20:26Z")
A while back, I saw Garry Marshall talking about the first episode of “Happy Days.” Yes, it first appeared as a segment of “Love American Style,” but that’s NOT what Marshall was hoping for. According to Marshall, “Happy Days” was supposed to be a sitcom all along, and he’d shot a pilot with Ron Howard in the lead role (but with a different actor, not Tom Bosley, as Richie’s Dad). But after Marshall shot it and shopped it around to the networks, he couldn’t find any takers. In Garry Marshall’s words, “In the Seventies, ‘Love American Style’ was where failed pilots went to die.” Whenever anyone made a sitcom pilot that he couldn’t sell to a network, he could usually sell it to Aaron Spelling for a minimal fee. Spelling’s people would clip out 10 minutes of the funnier stuff and use it as a segment on “Love American Style.” It just so happened that a few months after that segment aired on “Love American Style,” George Lucas’ movie “American Graffiti” and the Broadway musical “Grease” became big hits. Fifties nostalgia became very hot- so, ABC execs remembered the pilot Garry Marshall had shown them earlier, and decided they wanted a sitcom about the Fifties after all. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/32 "2004-12-11T15:56:17Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > According to Marshall, “Happy Days” was supposed to be a sitcom all along, and he’d shot a pilot with Ron Howard in the lead role (but with a different actor, not Tom Bosley, as Richie’s Dad). It was [Harold Gould](http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/graphics/gould_harold3.gif) (ubiquitous character actor best known as Rhoda’s dad or as Rose’s boyfriend on _Golden Girls_. Gould is one of the few actors I know of who has a Ph.D. (and was one of the 7,001 Jewish actors to play a Nazi on _Hogan’s Heroes_). ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/33 "2004-12-11T16:23:24Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > It was [Harold Gould](http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/graphics/gould_harold3.gif) (ubiquitous character actor best known as Rhoda’s dad or as Rose’s boyfriend on _Golden Girls_. Gould is one of the few actors I know of who has a Ph.D. (and was one of the 7,001 Jewish actors to play a Nazi on _Hogan’s Heroes_). I like him as an actor but he seems too ethnic to be believable as Ron Howard’s dad (IMHO). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2004, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/34 "2004-12-11T16:29:27Z")
> [@Laughing Lagomorph](#): > > I like him as an actor but he seems too ethnic to be believable as Ron Howard’s dad (IMHO). I agree, which is ironic because both of Tom Bosley’s grandfathers were orthodox rabbis. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/35 "2004-12-12T01:47:06Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > _Mutant X_ \>\>_X-Men_ An authorized rip-off–_Mutant X_ is produced by Marvel. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/36 "2004-12-12T03:36:18Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#): > > An authorized rip-off–_Mutant X_ is produced by Marvel. (Side note: this show is cheesy, melodramatic soap-opera fare… and I love it! :smack: :rolleyes: :D) Not sure if this belongs, but _24_ belongs in the same genre / is very similar to a lot of James Bond / Jason Bourne-esque movies. ---
**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:** [December 12, 2004, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/37 "2004-12-12T04:42:51Z")
> [@Murcielago](#): > > Though I never watched the program, it was rather obvious that the TV cop show _Hunter_ featured a lead actor doing his best impersonation of Clint Eastwood as “Dirty Harry.” And _Sledge Hammer_, a parody of both. Also I may be imagining it, but wasn’t there at least one “chop suey western” predating _Kung Fu_? ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/38 "2004-12-12T07:52:07Z")
The Dukes of Hazzard \>\> Moonrunners ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2004, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/39 "2004-12-12T19:51:17Z")
Et \>\>\> Alf ---
**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:** [December 13, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218/40 "2004-12-13T00:57:15Z")
Queen of Swords \>\> Mark of Zorro [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-shows-ripped-off-from-movies/279218.md?page=3)