History Expy / LiveACtionTV

* ''Series/{{Terrahawks}}'' had Winsdor Davies essentially reprise his role of Battery Sergeant Williams from ''Series/ItAintHalfHotMum'' as Sergeant Major Zero, the major difference between Williams was human and Zero was a spherical robot.

** Sally Pendrick can be read as one for Irene Adler Norton, the only woman to defeat Sherlock Holmes. Both women were singers, both had scandalous pasts that involved photographic evidence, and both initially defeated their sleuths (before the sleuths ultimately figured things out).

* ''Series/MurdochMysteries:
** Murdoch is one for Sherlock Holmes.

** InUniverse, Franchise/SherlockHolmes is one for [[BadassBookworm Murdoch]]. And in RealLife Murdoch is one for Sherlock Holmes.

*** The creators wanted to bring back Nicholas Locarno, a character from the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E19TheFirstDuty}} The First Duty]]". However, the character had been created by the writer of that episode and not by ''TNG'''s creators or executive producers (as was the case for recurring characters such as O'Brien or Worf, who could be reused). Because of this, the creators of ''Voyager'' thought they'd have to pay royalties to the writer of that episode every time they used the character, and that led them to create a new character similar to Locarno's named Tom Paris with a similar backstory and who would be played by the same actor. To cover the transparent change, the creators said that they decided Locarno was irredeemable due to his actions in the episode, but Tom Paris's actions (which were more like Wesley's in the original episode) were less culpable. [[note]]However, the only difference between Locarno's actions and Paris's, as heard onscreen, is that ''three'' died in the Paris version instead of ''one'' as in the Locarno version![[/note]] Interestingly, many years later a California court ruled that producers in a similar situation didn't have to pay royalties to a writer who created a character; had the producers of ''Voyager'' chosen to take the matter to court, they might have been cleared to use the character Locarno. A similar situation presumably resulted in Taris/Toreth, Macet/Dukat, and a name or two further down this list.

* SHOCKER, the NebulousEvilOrganization in ''Series/KamenRider'', appears to have been based on the Black Ghost organization from one of Creator/ShotaroIshinomori's previous works, ''Manga/Cyborg009''. Both are mysterious organizations that kidnap the protagonist and convert them into {{Cyborg}}s, only for the protagonist to escape and start opposing them. The only difference is their motives, whereas Black Ghost was an ArmsDealer who wanted to start WarForFunAndProfit, SHOCKER simply opts for TakeOverTheWorld.
** Speaking of ''Kamen Rider'', the titular character himself is one of these of the main character of another previous Ishinomori work, ''Manga/SkullMan'', essentially being a family-friendly version of the titular character from the latter work. This came full circle with [[Series/KamenRiderDouble Kamen Rider Skull]].

** Popclaw is evocative of ComicBook/X23.

** Starlight is evocative of [[ComicBook/CarolDanvers Captain Marvel]], their costumes and logos are even similar. She's also quite similar to Stargirl.
** Popclaw is evocative of {{ComicBook/Wolverine}}, specifically the Laura Kinney, X-23 version.

* ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'': To the first series of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': the superpowered teenager who can't reveal his secret (Merlin and Clark); his father figure who knows his secret (Gaius and Jonathan); his male best friend who will one day learn his secret (Pete and Arthur), his female best friend with {{UST}} (Gwen and Chloe); his future enemy pre-FaceHeelTurn (Morgana and Lex); said enemy's antagonistic father (Uther and Lionel). And later, his ally who knows his secret (Lancelot and Oliver) with a team of warriors (Knights of Camelot and the Justice League).

* ''Series/TheJoeSchmoShow'': Intentionally made its characters reality show archetypes as part of its premise. Gina "The Schemer" was based on Richard Hatch from the first season of ''Series/{{Survivor}}''. Hatch was inauspicious early on to the point of Creator/DavidLetterman turning him into a ButtMonkey, but it turned out he was CrazyPrepared psychologically and physically (although overweight at the start of the show, he'd lost a substantial amount of weight in preparation) and played the game expertly and went on to win. Ironically, Gina was voted out at the end of the first Joe Schmo episode, and guess who she quoted verbatim in her parting speech.

* SHOCKER, the NebulousEvilOrganization in''Series/KamenRider'', appears to have been based on the Black Ghost organization from one of Creator/ShotaroIshinomori's previous works, ''Manga/Cyborg009''. Both are mysterious organizations that kidnap the protagonist and convert them into {{Cyborg}}s, only for the protagonist to escape and start opposing them. The only difference is their motives, whereas Black Ghost was an ArmsDealer that desired to start WarForFunAndProfit, SHOCKER simply opts for TakeOverTheWorld.

* Every episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderUK'' was based on a episode of the original series--episodes that Dick Wolf considered among his favorite and/or the best, and the characters were as well:

** Young, handsome, hot-tempered Matt Devlin based on Mike Logan, as was his replacement Sam Casey, but ''his'' replacement Joe Hawkins is based more on Ed Green.

** The only two characters who aren't clearly based on original characters are Alesha Philips and Kate Barker, yet they still fall into the "pretty young woman" that became a staple of the original once Robinette left.

** Though not strictly a character, the Mage Stone in ''[[Recap/MerlinS01E12ToKillTheKing To Kill The King]]'' is clearly The Philosopher's Stone, presumably changed in order to avoid comparisons with ''Literature/HarryPotter''.

*** The creators wanted to bring back Nicholas Locarno, a character from the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E19TheFirstDuty}} The First Duty]]". However, the character had been created by the writer of that episode and not by ''TNG'''s creators or executive producers (as was the case for recurring characters such as O'Brien or Worf, which could be reused). Because of this, the creators of ''Voyager'' thought they'd have to pay royalties to the writer of that episode every time they used the character, and that led them to create a new character similar to Locarno's named Tom Paris with a similar backstory and who would be played by the same actor. To cover the transparent change, the creators said that they decided Locarno was irredeemable due to his actions in the episode, but Tom Paris's actions (which were more like Wesley's in the original episode) were less culpable. [[note]]However, the only difference between Locarno's actions and Paris's, as heard onscreen, is that ''three'' died in the Paris version instead of ''one'' as in the Locarno version![[/note]] Interestingly, many years later a California court ruled that producers in a similar situation didn't have to pay royalties to a writer who created a character; had the producers of ''Voyager'' chosen to take the matter to court, they might have been cleared to use the character Locarno. A similar case situation presumably resulted in Taris/Toreth, Macet/Dukat, and a name or two further down this list.
*** B'Elanna was supposed to be Ro Laren. Apparently they wanted her to be on ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' (later replaced with Kira) and then tried again with ''Voyager'' (later replaced with B'Elanna) but the actress Michelle Forbes kept saying no, wanting to focus on her film career. We all know how that worked out...
*** Also, ''The Next Generation's'' Taurik becomes ''Voyager'''s Vorik, and keeps same actor. The ExpandedUniverse says they're twins.

* ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': April Young has a few things with Season 1 Caroline, right down to winning Miss Mystic Falls like her.

** Given how many {{kaiju}} there are in the franchise, it's no surprise some of them are expies of each other or the giant monsters of other Japanese franchises, such as the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' series. Listing even half of them would triple the size of this page, but the main thing one should know is that many times, the Ultra Series' expies are made so as a ShoutOut, a MythologyGag, or even a WholePlotReference to previous Ultra series episodes or a famous kaiju movie.
** Expying extends to some of the human characters as well. For example, Ultra Garrison's BigGuy Furuhashi from ''Series/UltraSeven'' is a very, very, very blatant copycat of Arashi from the previous series, the original ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'' - right down to being played by the exact same actor.

* ''Series/TheDarkCrystalAgeOfResistance'': Of all main Gelflings, Deet is clearly modeled the most after ''[[Film/TheDarkCrystal Kira]]''. They both have long platinum hair, are a Friend to All Living Things and Speaks Fluent Animal, and are in a Ship Tease with a brown-haired Gelfling lad who functions as The Hero.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
** Decker and Ilia from the aborted series Star Trek: Phase II (and then incorporated into ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'') were exported to ''TNG'' and became Riker and Troi, while the Vulcan Lt. Xon became the Android Lt. Cmdr. Data.
** Subcommander Taris of [[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E11Contagion}} Contagion]]" has become Commander Toreth by the time of the much later episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E13FaceOfTheEnemy}} Face of the Enemy]]".
** The official ''Next Generation'' interactive VCR board game had Robert O'Reilly playing a Klingon terrorist named ''Kavok'', an Expy of his usual character ''Gowron''.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Gul Macet from ''TNG'''s "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E12TheWounded}} The Wounded]]" gets a shave and becomes Gul Dukat. The ExpandedUniverse makes ''them'' cousins.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
** The creators wanted to bring back Nicholas Locarno, a character from the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E19TheFirstDuty}} The First Duty]]". However, the character had been created by the writer of that episode and not by ''TNG'''s creators or executive producers (as was the case for recurring characters such as O'Brien or Worf, which could be reused). Because of this, the creators of ''Voyager'' thought they'd have to pay royalties to the writer of that episode every time they used the character, and that led them to create a new character similar to Locarno's named Tom Paris with a similar backstory and who would be played by the same actor. To cover the transparent change, the creators said that they decided Locarno was irredeemable due to his actions in the episode, but Tom Paris's actions (which were more like Wesley's in the original episode) were less culpable. [[note]]However, the only difference between Locarno's actions and Paris's, as heard onscreen, is that ''three'' died in the Paris version instead of ''one'' as in the Locarno version![[/note]] Interestingly, many years later a California court ruled that producers in a similar situation didn't have to pay royalties to a writer who created a character; had the producers of ''Voyager'' chosen to take the matter to court, they might have been cleared to use the character Locarno. A similar case situation presumably resulted in Taris/Toreth, Macet/Dukat, and a name or two further down this list - it's a recurring habit for the franchise.
** B'Elanna was supposed to be Ro Laren. Apparently they wanted her to be on ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'' (later replaced with Kira) and then tried again with ''Voyager'' (later replaced with B'Elanna) but the actress Michelle Forbes kept saying no, wanting to focus on her film career. We all know how that worked out..
** Also, ''The Next Generation's'' Taurik becomes ''Voyager'''s Vorik, and keeps same actor. The ExpandedUniverse says they're twins.
* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'':
** Cristóbal Rios is basically [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo]] transplanted to the Franchise/TrekVerse, who once served in Starfleet. He even refers to the wide-eyed, sword-wielding young man who's a passenger on his ship as a kid. He seems to have gone over better than ''TNG'''s last attempt at this, Thadiun Okona.
** If you had transported Legolas from [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Middle-earth]] to the Franchise/TrekVerse and turned him into a [[SpaceElves Space Elf]], then you'd get Elnor. Even his name is Sindarin ("Star-Run"); it was showrunner Creator/MichaelChabon's idea to call the character (what is essentially) "Star-Trek" [[https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RVtel9WIGdg/XmRXuLeO1xI/AAAAAAABATY/o5VCEYrreoc9VsK14j4DWY8KgRV4pTehQCKgBGAsYHg/s1600/Michael%2BChabon%2BStar%2BTrek%2BPicard%2BElnor%2Bname.jpg in Elvish.]]

** Cristóbal Rios is basically [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo]] transplanted to the Franchise/TrekVerse, who once served in Starfleet. He even refers to the wide-eyed young man who's a passenger on his ship a kid. He seems to have gone over better than ''TNG'''s last attempt at this, Thadiun Okona.

** Cristóbal Rios is basically [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo]] transplanted to the Franchise/TrekVerse, who once served in Starfleet. He even calls the wide-eyed young man who's a passenger on his ship a kid. He seems to have gone over better than TNG's last attempt at this, Thadiun Okona.
** If you had transported Legolas from [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Middle-earth]] to the Franchise/TrekVerse and turned him into a [[SpaceElves Space Elf]], then you'd get Elnor. Even his name is Sindarin ("Star-Run").

** The creators wanted to bring back Nicholas Locarno, a character from the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E19TheFirstDuty}} The First Duty]]". However, the character had been created by the writer of that episode and not by ''TNG'''s creators or executive producers (as was the case for recurring characters such as O'Brien or Worf, which could be reused). Because of this, the creators of ''Voyager'' thought they'd have to pay royalties to the writer of that episode every time they used the character, and that led them to create a new character similar to Locarno's named Tom Paris with a similar backstory and who would be played by the same actor. To cover the transparent change, the creators said that they decided Locarno was irredeemable due to his actions in the episode, but Tom Paris's actions (which were more like Wesley's in the original episode) were less culpable. [[note]]However, the only difference between Locarno's actions and Paris's, as heard onscreen, is that ''three'' died in the Paris version instead of ''one'' as in the Locarno version![[/note]] Interestingly, many years later a California court ruled that producers in a similar situation didn't have to pay royalties to a writer who created a character; had the producers of ''Voyager'' chosen to take the matter to court, they might have been cleared to use the character Locarno. And it's far from the Franchise/TrekVerse's only instance of doing this:

** Cristóbal Rios is basically [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo]] transplanted to the Franchise/TrekVerse, who once served in Starfleet. He even calls the wide-eyed young man who's a passenger on his ship a kid.

** Cristóbal Rios is basically [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo]] transplanted to the Franchise/TrekVerse, who once served in Starfleet.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': The creators wanted to bring back Nicholas Locarno, a character from the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Next Generation]]'' episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E19TheFirstDuty}} The First Duty]]". However, the character had been created by the writer of that episode and not by ''TNG'''s creators or executive producers (as was the case for recurring characters such as O'Brien or Worf, which could be reused). Because of this, the creators of ''Voyager'' thought they'd have to pay royalties to the writer of that episode every time they used the character, and that led them to create a new character similar to Locarno's named Tom Paris with a similar backstory and who would be played by the same actor. To cover the transparent change, the creators said that they decided Locarno was irredeemable due to his actions in the episode, but Tom Paris's actions (which were more like Wesley's in the original episode) were less culpable. [[note]]However, the only difference between Locarno's actions and Paris's, as heard onscreen, is that ''three'' died in the Paris version instead of ''one'' as in the Locarno version![[/note]] Interestingly, many years later a California court ruled that producers in a similar situation didn't have to pay royalties to a writer who created a character; had the producers of ''Voyager'' chosen to take the matter to court, they might have been cleared to use the character Locarno. And it's far from the TrekVerse's only instance of doing this:

** Also, ''The Next Generation's'' Taurik becomes ''Voyager's Vorik,'' and keeps same actor. The ExpandedUniverse says they're twins.
** Gul Macet from TNG's "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E12TheWounded}} The Wounded]]" gets a shave and becomes Gul Dukat from [=DS=]9. The ExpandedUniverse makes ''them'' cousins.
** Subcommander Taris of TNG's [[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E11Contagion}} Contagion]]" has become Commander Toreth by the time of the much later episode "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E13FaceOfTheEnemy}} Face of the Enemy]]".
** The official ''Next Generation'' interactive VCR board game had Robert O'Reilly playing a Klingon terrorist named ''Kavok'', an Expy of his usual character ''Gowron''.
** Decker and Ilia from the aborted series Star Trek: Phase II (and then incorporated into ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'') were exported to ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and became Riker and Troi, while the Vulcan Lt. Xon became the Android Lt. Cmdr. Data.
** The "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E26AssignmentEarth}} Assignment: Earth]]" episode of [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the Original Series]] featured Gary Seven. Let's see... enigmatic time traveller, [[FanService hot]] [[TheWatson assistant chick]], [[MagicTool pen-shaped do-anything multitool]], interest in keeping Earth's history on the right track... [[IncrediblyLamePun Who]] [[Series/DoctorWho does that sound like?]]
*** Probably coincidental given that the Doctor hadn't properly developed many of those characteristics at the time that "Assignment Earth" was broadcast, and ''Doctor Who'' didn't have much of a US profile at the time anyway. There's rather more justification for the allegations you'll frequently hear from ''Doctor Who'' fans that the Borg are Cyberman [[{{Expy}} Expies]] if not full-blown [[CaptainErsatz Captains Ersatz]].
*** Interestingly, you also hear it ''the other way around.'' Cybermen came first, but the revived series has them much more Borg-like in behavior than the old-school ones. One episode even casts all pretense aside and has a Cyberman say "YouWillBeAssimilated" instead of the usual "You will be[=/=]prepare to be upgraded." By "Nightmare in Silver," the Cybermen's latest upgrade has them able to share newly developed countermeasures across the whole "cyberiad," resulting in "shoot the Borg with a new weapon or phaser frequency; it works twice but the third is able to NoSell it" scenes being replicated with the Cybermen.

* ''Series/UltramanX'': Whenever Ultraman X uses MonsArmor functions, he resembles that of ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' species. As shown, Gomora Armor is WarGreymon, Eleking Armor is Omnimon (or MetalGarurumon X), Bemstar Armor is Crusadermon, Zero Armor is MagnaAngemon and Zetton Armor is Kabuterimon.

** Starlight is evocative of ComicBook/CaptainMarvel, their costumes and logos are even similar. She's also quite similar to Stargirl.

** In the Creator/PatrickTroughton story "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]]", Professor Watkins and his daughter Isobel are SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitutes written in when the actors of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E2TheAbominableSnowmen Professor Travers]] and ''his'' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear daughter Anne]] turned out to be unavailable for filming. Professor Travers and Anne are [[PutOnABus said to have moved to America]], and Professor Watkins and Isobel fill their shoes ''extremely'' well. This is quite possibly [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by the fact that the Doctor and companions mention repeatedly that they were hoping to meet Travers and Anne before finding out that the pair are gone, even though they are otherwise unimportant to the story.
** Colonel (later Brigadier, later still [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Sir]]) Lethbridge-Stewart resembles Colonel Breen from ''Series/QuatermassAndThePit''. So much so, that originally Creator/JulianGlover from the then-recent [[Film/QuatermassAndThePit movie adaptation]] would have played him had the original actor not dropped out.

** Graham O'Brien is a soft-spoken working class man in late middle age who has his perspective expanded by traveling with the Doctor. These traits are all shared with Rory's father Brian, also created by Creator/ChrisChibnall.