# Two TV shows with the same premise **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 29, 2007, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011 "2007-01-29T21:05:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/21 "2007-01-30T01:54:44Z")
**The Munsters** and **Addams Family** **The Smurfs** and **The Snorks** **Living Single** and **Friends** ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/22 "2007-01-30T01:57:22Z")
“Bewitched” and “I Dream of Genie” ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/23 "2007-01-30T03:23:40Z")
**9021OC** ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/24 "2007-01-30T03:25:50Z")
[QUOTE=amarinth] This year’s **Kidnapped** and **Vanished** looked incredibly alike on paper. They’re both gone. [/QUOTE] Well, yeah, they would be. ---
**Author:** ![Achren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@Achren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achren)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/25 "2007-01-30T03:32:46Z")
Joan of Arcadia, Wonderfalls ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/26 "2007-01-30T03:43:01Z")
[QUOTE=h.sapiens] “30 Rock” and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”. Behind the scenes at a late-night live TV sketch comedy show. [/QUOTE] How about _30 Rock_ and _The Mary Tyler Moore Show_? ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/27 "2007-01-30T04:34:11Z")
Young doctors have misadventures in their careers and love lives. Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy. ---
**Author:** ![KJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b2d939/32.png) [@KJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KJ)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/28 "2007-01-30T04:37:44Z")
**Bill Nye the Science Guy** and **Beakman’s World**. (There was at least one other science show that predated both of them, but it was before my time and I forgot what it was called.) ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/29 "2007-01-30T05:03:38Z")
[QUOTE=KJ] **Bill Nye the Science Guy** and **Beakman’s World**. (There was at least one other science show that predated both of them, but it was before my time and I forgot what it was called.) [/QUOTE] Mr. Wizard? Kid’s science show is pretty much a venerable, if small, genre in itself. ---
**Author:** ![Sofaspud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8491ac/32.png) [@Sofaspud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofaspud)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/30 "2007-01-30T06:05:57Z")
[QUOTE=kurilla] A couple of totally forgotten shows about a Super-Helicopter: **Airwolf** and the TV adaptation of **Blue Thunder** (which at least had Dick Butkus and Bubba Smith for comic relief) [/QUOTE] Mmm… Airwolf… I still have two VHS tapes full of Airwolf episodes (with, inexplicably, a Knight Rider ep in the middle just to be confusing). Hm. I may need to do some surgery this weekend and get the VCR working again… ---
**Author:** ![Sofaspud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8491ac/32.png) [@Sofaspud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofaspud)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/31 "2007-01-30T06:11:14Z")
[QUOTE=pinkfreud] A few years back, my husband and I were fond of a silly (but watchable) show called [Special Unit 2](http://imdb.com/title/tt0268094/). It was a rather light-hearted fantasy series in which a top secret police team battles monsters and mythological creatures. -snip- [/QUOTE] Remove the light-heartedness and it sounds like you’re describing [Supernatural](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural_(TV_series)) . Silly, though, it’s got in spades. Watchable? Yup. Rather predictable, tho. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/32 "2007-01-30T06:16:29Z")
**Trading Spouses** and **Wife Swap** Two very different families trade Moms, with disastrous and hilarious results. **Supernanny** and **Nanny 911** Nanny comes into chaotic home to try and teach parents how to be parents. And every other reality show, really. I don’t think a single one’s been done that hasn’t been copied by three other networks. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/33 "2007-01-30T13:37:10Z")
My Favorite Martin, Mork & Mindy, Third Rock From The Sun and even Perfect Strangers ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/34 "2007-01-30T13:53:18Z")
_The Twilight Zone_, _The Outer Limits_, and _Amazing Stories_ were all pretty much the same thing, IIRC. _Lost In Space_ wasn’t really all that different from _Gilligan’s Island_, and even _The Jetsons_ wasn’t much more than _The Flintstones_ set in the future… ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/35 "2007-01-30T13:54:59Z")
[QUOTE=pinkfreud] A few years back, my husband and I were fond of a silly (but watchable) show called [Special Unit 2](http://imdb.com/title/tt0268094/). … After a bit of questioning, I determined that what my friends had, in fact, seen was [The Chronicle](http://imdb.com/title/tt0242733/) [/QUOTE] Both of those shows were great - though I preferred The Chronicle and only ended up watching SU2 because as I passed it I thought it was The Chronicle. The both of them are also in the same general ballpark as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Then, of course, their more serious cousins - I’m sure I’ve seen examples other than Kolchak the Night Stalker and Supernatural, but I can’t remember them. On a related note MiB and GvsE are essentially the same show, save that MiB is aliens and GvsE was demons. (And MiB lacked the great cheesy 70s vibe.) Secret group of agents, who give up their old lives, to protect the world from paranormal threats that they can never know about. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/36 "2007-01-30T14:29:28Z")
After their plane crashes, the survivors must band together to survive when they are marooned with no hope or rescue 1969 The New People ABC 1999 Peter Benchley’s Amazon, syndicated 2004 Lost ABC 2005 Flight 29 Down Discovery Kids And there was The Lost FLight. a TV movie with LLoyd Bridges that was a pilot not picked up. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/37 "2007-01-30T15:31:11Z")
**Flip That House!** and **Property Ladder** , currently ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/38 "2007-01-30T15:49:54Z")
[QUOTE=malkavia] **Married with Children** and \*\*Unhappily Ever After \*\* always struck me as eerily similar. [/QUOTE] They were very different. On Married with Children the daughter was dumb, on Unhappily Ever After, the son was dumb. 😉 According to Wikipedia, " Both shows were co-created by writer Ron Leavitt, and several writers worked on both shows." I liked them both, both were very low-brow but in many ways more realistic than the average sitcom crap. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/39 "2007-01-30T16:06:32Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield…_Lost In Space_ wasn’t really all that different from _Gilligan’s Island_,…[/QUOTE] Actually same premise, same star: **Gilligan’s Island** and **Dusty’s Trail**. and wasn’t the science-fiction/fantasy western **The Adventures of Briscoe County Jr.** uncannily simular to **The Wild Wild West**? ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2007, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011/40 "2007-01-30T16:15:42Z")
[QUOTE=monstro] **Living Single** and **Friends** [/QUOTE] No. these shows weren’t the same at all. On _Friends_ there were 3 men and 3 women, and one man and one woman were brother and sister. On _Living Single_ there were 4 women and 2 men, and 2 of the women were cousins. See, completely different. 😃 No, I don’t watch too much TV, why do you ask? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-tv-shows-with-the-same-premise/390011.md?page=3)